Let’s be blunt. The people who are protesting this play are imbeciles. Cretins. They are incurious, ignorant, lacking in a sense of irony or humor, and in desperate need of a job or hobby.
A handful of Buffalonian Polish-Americans protested a play that is being put on by the Kaleidoscope Theater Company, which had shown its plays at a theater at Canisius, but that school has ingloriously pulled the plug due to the idiotic brouhaha.
The name of the play is “Polish Joke”, and if you didn’t bother to get past the title, and you were Polish, you’d probably be upset. But if your ears worked, and your brain worked, and you listened to the synopsis of the play, maybe you’d go see it:
…about a man deeply conflicted over his Polish roots. Throughout the play, the man learns to confront the stereotypes he’s grown up with, eventually coming to the realization that he should not be ashamed of his rich heritage.
“The message is to be proud of yourself no matter who you are. Whatever your heritage is, you should stand up and be proud of it,” said Alison Louis, a former intern for KTP, who performs its shows at the Marie Maday Theatre at Canisius College.
The protesters, naturally, didn’t see the play, and refused to consider seeing it:
“It implies that we are imbeciles, idiots, and therefore the connotation of the title itself is offensive, no matter the content of the play,” one protester proclaimed. Many people also carried signs showing anger over the show’s logo and program’s cover art. Louis said throughout the protest members of the theater company – many of whom are Polish themselves – tried to work with the protesters, offering them free or reduced price tickets, so that the protesters could actually see the show they were protesting against. No one accepted the offer, however, even though many have not seen or even read the play.
You are imbeciles and idiots. Not because you’re Polish, but because you’re ignorant imbecilic idiots who judge a book by its cover. Polonia should be ashamed of the people who protested this play.
Please consider buying a crapload of tickets and going to see this play every single day it’s showing through the 27th.
The Buffalo Record 
Res ipsa loquitur……………..
Speaking as a person of Polish descent, I find their protest offensive. It actually promotes the stereotype they are protesting.
Speaking as a proud polack who knows nothing of the play and has told many a polish joke in his day, i say who cares? That said, i think your rhetoric is just a tad over the top to the point of being silly. Calling elderly Polish people, proud of their heritage, idiots, imbeciles and cretins, i mean, come on already. So they judge the play without seeing it – ya know what? So will everyone else who sees the title without seeing the play. And they’ll probably think the same thing i thought when i first saw the title – “Gee, a play making fun of Polish people”. So the content of the actual play is only part of the story, especially when far more people will see the title of it, than will see the play or read the synopsis of it.
The play may be honorable, with a positive overall message – but it probably doesn’t have the best title. Imagine a play – a comedy no less – written to show the difficulties faced by families with a mentally ill child, and it was titled “Life With a Retard”. What do you think the reaction would be?
Frankie… you actually saw the play’s title before coming to BP’s web site? I find that hard to believe. Then you commented on the piece before reading it?
It would be a Kaufmanesk if these protesters are actually part of the play…. any publicity is good publicity
After the David Letterman protesters …. people are going to picket like there is no tomorrow.
I agree with Paul on this one, but didnt they invent the screen door on the submarine?
Imbeciles? Cretins? Incurious? Ignorant? Desperate need of a job? Would you be this “blunt” if this was a group of African Americans protesting what they felt was an injustice to their heritage? Or a group of gays protesting for their right to marry or for some other injustice they feel was dealt upon them by society? The last time I checked this ws still America and the right to protest extends to all groups regardless of their race, creed, color or ethnicity and not just to those that embrace the same liberal philosophy as you do….
Thank you Alan for this post – as a local theatre student at UB this has been something I’ve been hearing about for a few weeks now, and I’m glad to see you covering it too.
I think you’re fair to use the language that you did – in any case where you’re protesting without the full story (and these folks are blatantly admitting “we didn’t see the production” – whaa?) I think it’s completely fair to call their protests baseless, unfounded, idiotic, and the people behind them ignorant, imbecilic, etc. At least see the show before you protest – you can continue to yell at it all you want for whatever petty reason, but at least you saw it and are judging it with a full view of it.
I don’t begrudge them for being proud of their heritage – it’s awesome to be so in touch with that part of your history – rather for the fact that they are completely missing the boat here. This small subset of protesters is causing a lot of problems for a great local theatre company, in a case where I think most reasonable people see that there is no issue with the content. Certainly anyone who bothers to read a synopsis or see the show can understand that.
Sean, i’m not sure what your point is. I saw the article in Sunday’s paper (or whatever day it was) so yeah, i saw the title before coming here. Though again, i’m not sure what difference that makes. As far as commenting before reading, um, huh? Because i said i don’t know anything about the play? When my overall point was that the content of the play has only limited relevance?
Chris, would you consider mothers of mentally ill children ignorant imbeciles if they protested a play – billed as a comedy – titled “Life With a Retard”? Irrespective of the content of the play? And keep in mind, in spite of his overall opinion, BP overtly conceded that the title Polish Joke could be seen as legitimately offensive to Polish people. Again, more people will see the title than will see the play.
Is this issue protest worthy? I would suggest not. But calling the protesters ignorant, idiots, imbeciles and cretins says more about you and BP than it does about the protesters.
“Chris, would you consider mothers of mentally ill children ignorant imbeciles if they protested a play – billed as a comedy – titled “Life With a Retard”? Irrespective of the content of the play?”
Irrespective of the content of the play is an incredibly stupid clause to add on – my point is that the content of the play is the most important part, not the title!
If a play titled “Life With a Retard” turned out to be a spiteful play mocking the plight that parents dealing with mentally handicapped children go through, I’d be protesting in spirit alongside them. If however, it was in fact a play that uses comedy to tell the ups-and-downs of what it’s like living with and caring for mentally handicapped children, then we’d be in the same position as we are here.
Protest the play all you want, I have no qualms with that – but don’t protest based on title alone. It’s petty and stupid.
@Mike. You have a better idea to keep the bugs out?
How many people do you think would have known about this play before the protests?
How many will now go simply to see why people protested it?
The only reason I don’t believe this is a clever PR stunt is because it happened in Buffalo and ‘clever’ isn’t what Buffalo does.
Yea that should say “I don’t believe this ISN’T a clever PR stunt ”
Sorry.
I’m Polish.
We aren’t that smart.
@shim – I never said the protesters didn’t have a right to protest. Their right to protest is as inviolable as my right to call them whatever I want and criticize their dumb protest.
@Frankie – If a play was called “Life with a Retard”, and followed the travails of someone who lived with a mentally disabled person, and explained how to deal with stereotypes and insults and so on, that’d be fine with me. Art is meant to be provocative. As was this post.
@Frankie & al.:
If you’d bothered to follow Pundit’s first link (Buffalo Rising) you would have seen the following quote:
“”It implies that we are imbeciles, idiots, and therefore the connotation of the title itself is offensive, no matter the content of the play,” one protester proclaimed.”
Those offensive epithets originated with the protesters, not with Alan. I haven’t seen the play, so I can’t offer any personal opinions.
Chris, to a yes or no question, your response was:
“If however, it was in fact a play that uses comedy to tell the ups-and-downs of what it’s like living with and caring for mentally handicapped children, then we’d be in the same position as we are here.”
Talk about a non answer. And BP’s response wasn’t any better. It’d be fine with me too, BP, but that’s not the question. If a play with a positive message were titled Life With A Retard, would you call mothers of mentally handicapped children idiots and imbeciles if they were offended in some way? Yes or no.
And your intention was solely to be provocative? Please.
And tata, if you wanna correlate someone saying “it implies we’re imbeciles” with actually calling someone an imbecile, well, ok, whatever.
Oh, and one more thing…
Chris also said:
“Irrespective of the content of the play is an incredibly stupid clause to add on – my point is that the content of the play is the most important part, not the title!”
———–
No, “irrespective of the content of the play” is not an incredibly stupid clause to add on. My point is that the content of the play, whether the most important part or not, is not the only part.
Again, i’m not suggesting the protests are justified. I am suggesting, however, that anyone who calls the protesters imbeciles, idiots or cretins sounds more like a 16 year old as opposed to an adult, well read, intelligent political blogger.
“ART” these days has lost its meaning.
I’m Polish–very proud of it. Our heritage both in the old country and over here is rich. Our traditional celebrations are a lot of fun. The food is outstanding. There are several Polish Blogs out there, and you’ll find the old country charming, and the women are not what you would expect.
Polish History has its highs and lows like any other country. It has endured through the centuries and through occupations by several different countries, due to the strength and determination of its people. A vibrant Jewish community of over 3 million nationwide in 1939 was reduced to about 200,000 by the end of the 2nd World War, most of whom died at the hands of the Germans, and then the Russians.
Frieda—-Fact check that just to make sure.
I don’t mind Polish jokes at all. I tell them myself.
I’m a bit surpised mossback mike tried to make a Polish funny. I heard round the campfire that he called a friend to go fishing, and the guy said he couldn’t go, he had a case of diarrhea—mike said ‘Bring along, we drink in boat”.
I wouldn’t be too upset at Alan’s descriptors of these protestors, Liberals think protesting is good only when it’s something THEY care about. Besides, if the protestors read what you wrote about them, they would think BP’s a fucking cretin too. So it’s even all around.
Pundit..nice response…but you didn’t answer my question….
“No, “irrespective of the content of the play” is not an incredibly stupid clause to add on. My point is that the content of the play, whether the most important part or not, is not the only part.”
I’ll cede some ground here – I think completely ignoring the content of the play is stupid, but I will admit that a theatrical work must be taken wholly, not simply as a title or the content within. It was wrong of me to place so much emphasis on the content. That said, I think it illustrates even more fully why I think these protesters are in the wrong here – they aren’t analyzing the work completely and fully.
You can’t protest something purely based on assumption, which is clearly what these protesters are doing. They literally have heard two words from this play – “Polish” and “Joke” (the title). That’s hardly enough to come to any sort of fair understanding of a literary material, and certainly not a basis on which to protest it.
And to address your point regarding the usage of the terms imbecillic, idiotic, etc. – well, they started it! 😀
Chris, i think the protesters are wrong too. I think they’re being overly sensitive and protesting like they are is a gross over-reaction. But from the picture, it appears the protesters are mostly elderly, and being overly sensitive and over-reacting is what elderly people do. Doesn’t make them idiots, imbeciles or cretins however.
Pundit…it appears you’ve chosen to ignore my question. While you gave a comment on their right to protest that’s not what I asked…
I never questioned your right to mock protests..or your right to call people names for that matter. But quite honestly I don’t think my question was pointless or irrelevant. You claim in your answer that “those people would be dumb too” but I have to admit I find it hard to believe that you would be as “blunt” and use terms like “cretins”, “ignorant” and “in desperate need of a job” to describe African Americans, gays, or any other group protesting on behalf of one of your pet liberal causes.
“people who can’t be bothered to learn about the thing they’re protesting.”
———-
People who are about as annoying as other people who continually insist on making the same point over and over, while at the same time totally dodging a question that gives them an opportunity to back up their argument. Or not.
“I used the words “imbeciles” and “idiots” because that’s what the protester used.”
———–
Oh puhleeze. Did they use the word “cretin” too?
I quote: “Let’s be blunt. The people who are protesting this play are imbeciles. Cretins. They are incurious, ignorant, lacking in a sense of irony or humor, and in desperate need of a job or hobby. ”
Did they call themselves incurious and ignorant too? Your explanation sounds like something Bill O’Reilly would try. It’s embarrassing.
I love how Liberals like Pundit name-call people who exercise their right to free speach…makes me proud to be Conservative.
Pundit, to avoid your future wrath or any confusion, can you clarify which of the following words or phrases are appropriate and which are not?
Mayor Goldie Wilson
Gay
Polack
Union Leader
Buffalonian Democrat
Bolivian Marching Powder
Cleveland Steamer
Thanks
Keller
See Pundit—your problem is you lable everyone by the actions of others. I love the irony that you needed to go OT to get your point across. Also your point of ‘war’ is no longer valid.
Operation Iraqi Freedom has opened the gates of Democracy to the Middle East. Iran is next and you can thank George Bush. Well, to be fair Iran and Iraq will be free until the Freedom Sucking-Fun Police Liberals get into power—that and their Unions—enjoy it while it lasts. (see Buffalo, NY for example)
Oh, war I no longer valid. And Iran is protesting because of Bush. I see.
Also, you misuse “irony” and went OT to make your nonexistent point, first. Thanks so much for playing.
1) The question you’re dodging is whether you’d call mothers of mentally handicapped kids imbeciles and cretins if they were upset over a postively themed play that went by the title “Life with a Retard”. And just for the record, i’d put forth the argument that an idiot, or imbecile, or cretin if you will, is someone who reads a question twice, doesn’t answer it, and says “What question am i not answering”. Duh.
2)Your defense of the use of the term cretin is as pathetic as your defense of using the terms imbecile and idiot. First, your argument is you called them (all of them) imbeciles because 1 of them actually used the term in a sentence. Nice defense. Then you defend using the term cretin, in spite of the fact that none of them used it in a sentence, because it’s a synonym of imbecile. What are you, 6?
3)Finally, i’m not defending them so much as i’m commenting on you. 2 or 3 times i mentioned i didn’t feel the protests were justified. You, on the other hand, sound more and more like a trollish commenter on Redstate rather than someone whose blog is worth reading.
You’ve just given the most meandering response to a yes or no question i think i’ve ever read – so it’s not really worth addressing except to point out that it totally belies your original post – where you said: “The name of the play is “Polish Joke”, and if you didn’t bother to get past the title, and you were Polish, you’d probably be upset.” Though you do agree with yourself a bit when you answered by saying “Polish Joke may subjectively be offensive to some people”.
You can’t seem to make up your mind on whether the title “Polish Joke” alone is something worth getting upset over. Which flies in the face of being so headstrong about using the rhetoric you chose. Speaking of which, you also can’t seem to make up your mind on why it’s ok to use that rhetoric. One minute you’re claiming it’s entirely justified based on your views, and the next you’re defending yourself by blaming the protesters for your use of it – claiming you wouldn’t have used it at all if they didn’t use it first.
As to your last comment and link, clever. Pretty mature, too. What’s next? Gonna threaten to come over and beat me up?
I have to say that I wouldn’t mind that blond in the photo serving me up a plate of pieorgi along with a pitcher of Genny Cream…..
Pundit…since you’ve done your usual excellent job of twisting and turning this story and taking it down a path not originally intended..Let me be blunt and ask (for the third time) my original questions in a very simple form that requires only a yes or no answer. If it were a group of African Americans protesting a play that they felt (whether they saw it or not) was an injustice to their heritage, or a group of gays protesting their right to marry or some other injustice the perceive they have been dealt by society would you use terms like “cretins”, “ignorant”, or “in desperate need of a job” to describe them?
“Life with a Retard”…..that about sums up the comment thread here with the oh-so-relevant contributions of Frankie, Shim, et. al.
Just a tip – whining on and on about not getting a response to your asinine comparison between this protest and blacks protesting ACTUAL racism or the LGBT community protesting for their civil rights makes you look like even more of an ass than bringing it up in the first place.
Just so we’re clear—“Polish Joke”–denigrating an entire race of people with a joke—OK for Polite Society.
Colored Joke—Racist
LGBT—whose behavior is NOT considered OK for polite society—emphasis on POLITE— If a play came out mocking them—-you’re an ass.
OK—Got it.
I’d tell Humanist to suck my prick—but I don’t want him drooling in the middle of the day.
Nice to see Humanist weighing in with his usual mean spirited ,angry, name calling rhetoric. Thanks for clearing things up….Absolutely ok to denigrate one group of people with name calling for protesting what they perceive as an injustice to their heritage..but not ok to do it to others…simply amazing!
@Hank- Did you really just use the term colored joke?
Colored?
Really?
Are you as old as the protesters in the picture?
If you think calling people who protest a play they haven’t seen or read stupid is the same as making a ‘colored’ joke then I don’t even know where to begin with you.
@Shim- Shouldn’t you conservatives be pissed off at them for clinging on to their heritage like you are with the Mexicans for speaking Spanish after they move here? How is that not hypocritical? It’s all right for a bunch of old white people, generations removed from living in Poland to get pissy over a play they don’t understand but the Mexican dude who moved here 6 months ago has to disavow his entire native language? Let’s not cast stones here pal because your side is a hell of a lot more hypocritical than the other when it comes to supporting people clinging to their herritage.
@hank- Also, what exactly about homosexual activity is not considered okay by this fictional polite society you’ve come up with?
Because unless I’ve been grossly misinformed here, it’s not any more ‘polite’ for my girlfriend to blow me in a room full of strangers than it is for some dudes to do it.
‘Polite society’ should have nothing to do with what people do in the comfort of their own homes.
Jon/Humanist…nice to see BP’s front men out taking the heat. Jon..that’s my point exactly! Can you imagine the outrage If myself or another republican used terms like “ignorant”, “cretin”, or “in desperate need of a job” when referring to certain racial or ethnic groups whether they were protesting or not? Hell…your calling me out and I didn’t even say anything! Another case of the typical liberal double standard….
First of all, let me just go on record as saying if a black group came out protesting against something ridiculous, I’d absolutely call them out on it. I don’t have time to search for old comments I’ve made, but when Don Imus got canned for his nappy headed hoes comment, I most definitely thought it was blown out of proportion and the whole controversy was bullshit. So please, don’t tell me about this double standard I have just because I don’t lack the a soul like conservatives.
Secondly, blacks and gays…yea, they kind of have a legit beef with how they get treated by society. How many polish people get dragged to death behind a redneck’s pick up truck? I know being a conservative makes it impossible for you to understand that shades of grey exist in the world but jokes about submarines with screen doors on them are not nearly the same social slight as being enslaved or being denied spousal rights because you enjoy sleeping with dudes more than chicks.
Beyond that, the PLAY DOESN’T EVEN MAKE FUN OF POLISH PEOPLE.
AT ALL.
IT MAKES FUN OF HOW DUMB POLISH JOKES ARE.
The fact a bunch of polish people are out protesting it only reinforces the stereotype they think they’re fighting. That is, to borrow a word that apparently makes me forfeit my liberal beliefs, RETARDED.
Lastly, if you made such statements, no one would care because your blog reads like the rantings of an angsty 17 year old who knows just enough about politics to spout back the FOX News ticker and no one reads it anyway.
Seriously.
Just give up already because this entire thread makes you look incredibly dumb…not that your blog wasn’t already doing an awesome job of that.
Jon your comment was interesting until you implied that I don’t understand that shades of gray exist in the world and then went totally down hill from there. While I believe that you (and the Pundit for that matter) would definately call out blacks or gays for a protest that you felt ridiculous I don’t think you would use terms like “cretins” “ignorant” or “in desperate need of a job”. That’s all I’m saying. For the record I think this protest was pretty lame. However I was just trying to illustrate how whenever liberals disagree with something they begin the angry name calling and mean spiritedness that they claim exists only in Conservatives. Throughout this entire thread comments like yours, Humanists and Pundits only served to prove my point. Oh and just wondering….Do angsty 17 year olds really watch the FOX News ticker? Thanks for reading!
For the record, I never claimed that “angry name-calling” and “mean-spiritedness” was only found in Conservatives. It’s the racism, arrogant bigotry, xenophobia, homophobia, faux patriotism and outright ignorance of history and philosophy that have found a welcome home in the conservative base.
Now, where’s Hank to tell me I need to give my (non-existent) boyfriend a handjob?
I’m glad these Polish Americans protested.
My god, to call them “imbeciles” and “cretins” I think is over the top. That’s just mean spirited. It should be pointed out that although they may not have seen this ridiculous play “Polish joke” many of them read the transcripts of it and spoke to others who did see it and read the transcripts of this “play”.
I have read the transcripts and find it appalling that these so called “Polish jokes” are not condemned in this foolish play. Basically the Polish character lives a life feeling ridiculed (and being ridiculed) because he’s Polish and then at the end of this “play” he realizes “its not so bad” being Polish. This is so weak. I would only think this play would be fair to Polish people if these so called Polish “jokes” were somewhere condemned in the play as being hate-through-humor against Poles which is what they are.
I’m glad they protested too. I’m also glad that they themselves used the words “imbeciles” and “idiots”.
People have every right to protest whatever they want. Just like I have every right to criticize people who want to shut down the production of a play because it allegedly hurts their feelings, even though they never bothered to go see it. The only victims here are the defamed playright and the put-upon acting company.
Can somebody tell me where in this play it “Celebrates Polish Ancestry”? Is it the part where the relatives of the main character say that “All Polish jokes are true”? Is the notion of the main character where he is in the “state of being “Polish” which is to fail at everything”? Is it the bombardment of all these degrading Polish “jokes”on the main character and Poles? Is it the portrayal of the Polish characters as dimwitted low-class bafoons? Is it the portrayal of this main Polish character as a weak pathetic Pole questioning his Polish ancestry because he’s obviously ashamed of it? Where is the satire and jokes going AGAINST all those bigots out there who have degraded Poles with this assinine untrue unfair hateful stereotype that Poles have inferior intelligence?
Since the whole focus of this play is the “Polish joke” where is there information/dialog on the origin of this racist stereotype/Polish joke that it came from Nazi propaganda because the Nazis felt the Poles had inferior/subhuman intelligence since they’re Slavic? I’m sorry I didn’t notice any dialog like this in the transcript of the play. Oh I see…… that weak positive portrayal of Poles at the end is suppose to be the “celebration of Polish ancestry”…….after the whole show portayed Poles as the object of degrading ridiculing jokes. Give me a break.
The fact there is even a play or show or whatever called “Polish-joke” is an insult to Polish people. “Polish-jokes” are SLURS againts Polish people PERIOD.
If this play is supposed to be “against Polish jokes” as some defenders of this play are saying, then where is the strong dialog in the play criticizing these so called Polish jokes? Why doesn’t the name of this “play” be changed to “Polish jokes are bigotry” or “Polish jokes are stupid” and have sharp dialog in the play to that affect?