# Młody łotewski chłop uczy się do sesji egzaminacyjnej.



## SaintRite

Młody łotewski chłop uczy się do sesji egzaminacyjnej. Musi opisać smak ziemnioka.Ale zna ino tylko smak kamieni i łez. Z pomocą przychodzi Politbiuro. Proponuje chłopu ziemnioka w zamian za 10 lat gułagu. Ucieszon chłop myśli, że wygrał życie.
Ale ziemnioka nie ma. Sesji też nie ma.
Jest tylko mróz i halucynacje z niedożywienia. I Politbiuro. Takie życie.

Can you give me the bottom line of this joke? I saw it on facebook.


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## ChipMacShmon

I don't think that it is a joke. Nothing funny for me...

I'd translate the bottom line as follows:
_There is only frost and hallucinations from undernourishment. And Politburo. Life is like that._


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## SaintRite

It IS a joke. It's just black humour. There are plenty of such jokes about Latvian villagers swarming the Polish internet, particularly on facebook. Thanks.


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## rdimd

I found a Facebook page called Dowcipy o Łotewskich Chłopach. 
(...deleted...)


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## Ben Jamin

This text is written in a mixture of standard Polish, and a dialect (possibly from Lesser Poland). The words _ziemniok (ziemniak)_, _ino (ale) _and _ucieszon (ucieszony) _are not standard Polish. It looks strange.


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## rdimd

It is not unusual for people to find some place - Gabrov in Bulgaria or Chukotka in Russia or Latvia for Poland and put there 'rednecks' or 'different' or 'not very smart' people who talk 'strange'. However, usually it is about jokes and humour.

I think it would be better if Polish people would explain me what exactly mean these Dowcipy o Łotewskich Chłopach for them. Because these gulag and communist past topics are very sensitive, so jokes about them could be so 'black' that could be considered as blasphemy. Or to 'deep' to understand for outsiders.


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## BezierCurve

They are, sort of. This trend (jokes on Latvian peasants) involves including in each "joke" some repetitive motifs ("śmierć z niedożywienia", "Politbiuro", "zimnioki" / "ziemnioki" etc.). The general rule of these "jokes" is to get the hopelessness, poverty and starvation to the extreme using those motifs.


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## BezierCurve

> I think it would be better if Polish people would explain me what exactly mean these Dowcipy o Łotewskich Chłopach for them. Because these gulag and communist past topics are very sensitive, so jokes about them could be so 'black' that could be considered as blasphemy. Or to 'deep' to understand for outsiders.



You'd probably have to ask each person considering themselves to be Polish what it means for them, but from what I've seen so far it's not something widely known or very popular; I'd come across that FB page a few days earlier just because I saw a comment from an FB friend there and my impression was that it was a way to project part of our own historical burden onto someone else, so we can - if not laugh at it, because it's hard to laugh at - deal with it better. That's only my impression though.


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## Thomas1

Frankly speaking, it's the first time I've come across it. It goes down like a lead balloon, if you ask me.


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## Ben Jamin

rdimd said:


> It is not unusual for people to find some place - Gabrov in Bulgaria or Chukotka in Russia or Latvia for Poland and put there 'rednecks' or 'different' or 'not very smart' people who talk 'strange'. However, usually it is about jokes and humour.
> 
> I think it would be better if Polish people would explain me what exactly mean these Dowcipy o Łotewskich Chłopach for them. Because these gulag and communist past topics are very sensitive, so jokes about them could be so 'black' that could be considered as blasphemy. Or to 'deep' to understand for outsiders.


I think there is no reason to feel offended. There is not much of "redneckishness" about the heroes of the jokes. The location has been chosen haphazardly too. Latvians are a nation that Poles have actually no relation to whatsoever.

But the "jokes" are not funny for me, and I find them being primitive and of quite bad taste.


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## Thomas1

SaintRite said:


> Młody łotewski chłop uczy się do sesji egzaminacyjnej. Musi opisać smak ziemnioka.Ale zna ino tylko smak kamieni i łez. Z pomocą przychodzi Politbiuro. Proponuje chłopu ziemnioka w zamian za 10 lat gułagu. Ucieszon chłop myśli, że wygrał życie.
> Ale ziemnioka nie ma. Sesji też nie ma.
> Jest tylko mróz i halucynacje z niedożywienia. I Politbiuro. Takie życie.
> 
> Can you give me the bottom line of this joke? I saw it on facebook.


The bottom line is that, in the place where the peasant in question lives, there is nothing but poverty, hunger, freeze and the Politbiuro. There's no alternative for those who live under the Politbiuro regime, an authoritarian and ruthless entitiy mistreating people. The alledged 'exam session' is, I think, to exemplify the primitive and moronic methods used by the Politbiuro. 



Ben Jamin said:


> This text is written in a mixture of standard  Polish, and a dialect (possibly from Lesser Poland). The words _ziemniok (ziemniak)_, _ino (ale) _and _ucieszon (ucieszony) _are not standard Polish. It looks strange.


I'd say that 'ino' means 'tylko' in this context. I can't quite understand why both are beside each other in the text, though.


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## dreamlike

I thought, mistakenly it would seem, that we're on a language forum. The 'joke' (the internet will never cease to amaze me, how come such a crap is popular with netizens?) translates as follows:

Young latvian peasant is learning for his final exams. His task is to describe the taste of a potato. But he only knows how stones and tears taaste. Politbiuro comes to the rescue. They offer him a potato in exchange for 10 years in Gulag. The peasant thinks he's just made a deal of his life. But there is no potato. And there aren't final exams. There are punishing cold and hallucinations induced by femine. And politbiuro. Life at its worst.

By the way, these jokes originated in English, you can readily find them on the internet. What we're doing now is translating them back into English.


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## Ben Jamin

Thomas1 said:


> The bottom line is that, in the place where the peasant in question lives, there is nothing but poverty, hunger, freeze and the Politbiuro. There's no alternative for those who live under the Politbiuro regime, an authoritarian and ruthless entitiy mistreating people. The alledged 'exam session' is, I think, to exemplify the primitive and moronic methods used by the Politbiuro.
> 
> 
> I'd say that 'ino' means 'tylko' in this context. I can't quite understand why both are beside each other in the text, though.


i agree with you. My mistake. The whole wording of the joke is poor.


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## Ben Jamin

dreamlike said:


> Young latvian peasant is learning for his final exams. His task is to describe the taste of a potato. But he only knows how stones and tears t*a*ste. *Politburo* comes to the rescue. They offer him a potato in exchange for 10 years in Gulag. The peasant thinks he's just made a deal of his life. But there is no potato. And there *are no** final exams. There *is* punishing cold and hallucinations induced by f*a*mine. And *Politburo*. Life at its worst.


* or "these are not final exams"
By the way "Politburo comes to the rescue" reveals the poor knowledge of the communist system. Politburo was a central organ of the Communist Party. They gave only orders from the top, concerning the country as a whole.


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## rdimd

I think, it is not coincidence that these jokes are about Latvia. We (or our politicians) care very much about history and difficult times before and after WW2. For example, here, in Latvia we have 3 days of Mourning and Commemorations related to victims of Soviet deportations and others.

It is fully understandable that for 'outsiders' this all seems 'too much' or even funny and some young kids start playing with all this stuff not understanding all details or just having fun.


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## Ben Jamin

rdimd said:


> I think, it is not coincidence that these jokes are about Latvia. We (or our politicians) care very much about history and difficult times before and after WW2. For example, here, in Latvia we have 3 days of Mourning and Commemorations related to victims of Soviet deportations and others.
> 
> It is fully understandable that for 'outsiders' this all seems 'too much' or even funny and some young kids start playing with all this stuff not understanding all details or just having fun.


I think that those who chose Latvians for the heroes of their jokes didn't have anything particular in mind. It was just a country of the former USSR for them, completely on random. Good enough that they new that Latvia was once in USSR. Somebody could include Finland, Albania, or any other country.


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## dreamlike

Ben Jamin said:


> i agree with you. My mistake. The whole wording of the joke is poor.


That's what it's supposed to be. In case you haven't noticed, the joke has been stylized, and the author(s) wanted it to be just that, poor.

* or "these are not final exams"


Ben Jamin said:


> By the way "Politburo comes to the rescue" reveals the poor knowledge of the communist system. Politburo was a central organ of the Communist Party. They gave only orders from the top, concerning the country as a whole.



'Z pomocą przychodzi politburo' translates into English as exactly that, 'Politburo comes to the rescue', blame the authors for their ignorance -- I don't even think we're dealing with one here, it's a joke, not a historical chronicle.  'Sesja egzaminacyjna' could very well be 'final exams'. There's 'any' missing between 'There aren't' and 'final exams'. As to the rest, these are mere typos. I should have read my post before submitting it, but I was in a hurry.


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## Ben Jamin

dreamlike said:


> That's what it's supposed to be. In case you haven't noticed, the joke has been stylized, and the author(s) wanted it to be just that, poor.
> 
> * or "these are not final exams"
> 
> 'Z pomocą przychodzi politburo' translates into English as exactly that, 'Politburo comes to the rescue', blame the authors for their ignorance -- I don't even think we're dealing with one here, it's a joke, not a historical chronicle.  'Sesja egzaminacyjna' could very well be 'final exams'. There's 'any' missing between 'There aren't' and 'final exams'. As to the rest, these are mere typos. I should have read my post before submitting it, but [/COLOR]I was in a hurry.


The note on Politburo was a comment on the original text, not the translation, which was accurate.


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## SaintRite

Thanks for all your help. Here you can read more about 'Why Latvia?'. 

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130313194451AAFvqaZ

And here you can find some jokes in English, as you can see, they're using bad grammar, just like the 'Polish' joke which I couldn't undestand despite studying in Poland and knowing a bit about the language. 

http://www.chrisconnollyonline.com/2009/02/72-is-partial-compendium-latvian-humor.html


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## dreamlike

rdimd said:


> I think it would be better if Polish people would explain me what exactly mean these Dowcipy o Łotewskich Chłopach for them. Because these gulag and communist past topics are very sensitive, so jokes about them could be so 'black' that could be considered as blasphemy. Or to 'deep' to understand for outsiders.


Please note that, as I've already said, and as evidenced by links provided by SaintRite, these jokes originated *in English.* 

I don't know what people who first came up with them were motivated by (things that happen in the internet are sometimes hard to understand), but Polish people didn't invent those, they merely translated them into our language. Personally, like many people in this thread, I find these jokes to be lame and daft, but I know of people who find them funny.

That all being said, I can see how you might be angry.


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## głupi

I'd never come across this particular type of "joke" before, but according to one of the pages linked to above, they were invented by two American guys, one of whom apparently spent three years living in Latvia, where he experienced firsthand the "Latvian trademark black humor", supposedly on which the jokes are based. To quote this guy:
_
"Latvia" came to be a stand-in term for Obscure Former Soviet Nation Western People Don't Know Shit About._

As mentioned in a previous post, the jokes are purposefully written "using bad grammar" and with a particular style to give the impression they are narrated by someone from "an obscure former Soviet nation..." (they do actually succeed in this at least).

I can see how they would lose any trace of humour when translated (especially if done badly) into a language such as Polish.

EDIT: I've been reading through a few more of these jokes on that page, and some of them are actually not that bad .


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## dreamlike

głupi said:


> As mentioned in a previous post, the jokes are purposefully written "using bad grammar" and with a particular style to give the impression they are narrated by someone from "an obscure former Soviet nation..." (they do actually succeed in this at least).
> 
> I can see how they would lose any trace of humour when translated (especially if done badly) into a language such as Polish.
> 
> EDIT: I've been reading through a few more of these jokes on that page, and some of them are actually not that bad .


I wouldn't go so far as to say that they would 'lose any trace of humour' when translated into Polish, because Polish jokes use non-standard language as well, for example words that are typical for rural people, so the style is retained in Polish. Some even argue that, in terms of style and language, Polish jokes are superior to English, that is to say they are funnier. I guess you just need to have a right sense of humour to appreciate those.


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## głupi

dreamlike said:


> I wouldn't go so far as to say that they would 'lose any trace of humour' when translated into Polish, because Polish jokes use non-standard language as well, for example words that are typical for rural people, so the style is retained in Polish. Some even argue that, in terms of style and language, Polish jokes are superior to English, that is to say they are funnier. I guess you just need to have a right sense of humour to appreciate those.


Polish jokes use non-standard language as well? Blimey, I never would have imagined such advanced humour techniques were possible in other languages. It's a well known fact that jokes conjured up in the English-speaking world are, in terms of style, language and everything else, far superior to anything produced anywhere else on Earth, if not the entire universe and beyond. I guess Johnny-foreigner types are simply incapable of appreciating the exquisite mirthful delights to be found in those uproarious Latvian gags. Shame, but as a Latvian himself might say: "Stereotype easy laugh, good for internet. But dog taste better."


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## dreamlike

głupi said:


> Polish jokes use non-standard language as well? Blimey, I never would have imagined such advanced humour techniques were possible in other languages. It's a well known fact that jokes conjured up in the English-speaking world are, in terms of style, language and everything else, far superior to anything produced anywhere else on Earth, if not the entire universe and beyond.


What makes you think so?  I wouldn't be so sure about that. Polish lends itself readily to using 'advanced humour techniques', possibly even more readily than English. 



głupi said:


> I guess Johnny-foreigner types are simply incapable of appreciating the exquisite mirthful delights to be found in those uproarious Latvian gags.


These gags strike me as being pretty... nerdy. Maybe it takes being a nerd to truly appreciate them, I don't know.


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## głupi

dreamlike said:


> What makes you think so?  I wouldn't be so sure about that. Polish lends itself readily to using 'advanced humour techniques', possibly even more readily than English.


I was being a tad sarcastic in that last post, I have to admit .


dreamlike said:


> These gags strike me as being pretty... nerdy. Maybe it takes being a nerd to truly appreciate them, I don't know.


For me they are just very... 'internety', which I'd sum up as: a cheap laugh at any cost.


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## rdimd

głupi said:


> I was being a tad sarcastic in that last post, I have to admit .
> 
> For me they are just very... 'internety', which I'd sum up as: a cheap laugh at any cost.


Not exactly. What bolsheviks did in 1940, deeply traumatized Latvians and Nazis used that in 1941. That is why some Latvians did the same what Germans did to Bolsheviks and whoever they thought were Bolsheviks.

So, this trauma can cause us do big things both good and bad. But if we laugh at this we (maybe) can heal this trauma and this trauma cannot cause us to do big things both GOOD and bad anymore.


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## dreamlike

Rdimd, to laugh at the atrocities of war is a terrible idea, whatever the way it is done in and whatever the motive may be. Had the same jokes been made about Poland, there sure would've been a huge outcry. That is all to say, I perfectly understand your anger. The argument about 'relieving the trauma' doesn't quite convince me. There are certain things that should be subject to jokes, this is one of them.


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## NotNow

dreamlike said:


> There are certain things that should be subject to jokes, this is one of them.



I hope you forgot the word _not_.


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## dreamlike

NotNow said:


> I hope you forgot the word _not_.


Clearly, I did. That's very observant of you.


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## BezierCurve

> Rdimd, to laugh at the atrocities of war is a terrible idea, whatever the way it is done in and whatever the motive may be. Had the same jokes been made about Poland, there sure would've been a huge outcry. That is all to say, I perfectly understand your anger. The argument about 'relieving the trauma' doesn't quite convince me. There are certain things that should be subject to jokes, this is one of them.



Very radical. Each person has their own way to deal with issues that seem to be very hard to deal with. Judging it as intrinsically wrong may seem morally right, but certainly is lacking the psychological aspect. As long as you don't get anyone offended it is your own business (like exchanging messages with your friend). I agree that taking it out on a website where it can hurt other people's feelings lacks understanding as well.


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## fledgeling

I registered on this forum, just to post it here, the amount of nonsense written here is beyond belief...

The joke above  is an example of "latvian jokes", which originated in  English and  according to some sources (actually the only source is the  guy himself?)  were created by Chris Connelly. The jokes are simply a  form of black  humor, that uses a setup that some people consider funny:  the action  takes place in Latvia (_Obscure Former Soviet Nation Western People Don't Know Shit About_  -  this does not only refer to people from USA, Latvia is generally not   very known in Poland either, due to the fact that it is simply a small  country; the jokes could as well be about, or Bolivia for that  matter... Latvia simply fits the theme); it is very cold in Latvia, also  very dark, people are starving and _struggling_, there is barely any food - a single potato is the synonym of full belly and survival, while at the same time the bad _Politbiuro_  oppresses the people. Some people find this setup and the jokes funny;  some people find them unacceptable. The jokes, however, are not an  example of "racism" (as the "experts" above wrote), but rather black  humor and could in fact be written about Martians as well. The general  idea of the jokes is also their high level of absurdity ("I will salt  the potato using your tear" - wtf).

I am the original translator of the jokes from English to Polish and Ive  selected the ones that I considered the most funny for and the _most random_  as the kids/trolls nowadays say, and translated posted them on website wykop.pl which is polish equivalent of reddit/digg (google search for "zbiór dowcipów o łotewskich chłopach wykop - I cannot post a link because "new members cannot post links on this board" ). During the translation process I've added something of my own, as  they are not direct translations.
Apparently a lot of people seemed to enjoy them, because _shit hit the fan_  and you could find them all across the internet... they became a sort  of a meme for like 2 or 3 weeks; even the press wrote about them (what  made me proud  ). As the proud author, Ive decided to see where did  the jokes actually go.. and found your forum via google.

As for the rural vocabulary - it was simply used, because I find such  language funny. So "zimniok" instead of "ziemniak" - nothing to do with  Lesser Poland, as written above by someone, an eloquent Polish reader  can emulate hilly billy talk, just like an English speaker can speak  like "_ze Germans in de __alcoves_" in the movie _In Bruges_;  you dont need to over-think this. Apparently some people enjoyed my  translations, because some phrases seem to become popular and staple  part of those jokes - maybe they will even enter the mainstream?  Probably not... We will see in few years e.g. _trud skończony_ (struggle is over), _halucynacja z niedożywienia i  śmierć _(hallucination* and death from malnutrition; lack of plural was actually intended), _takie jest życie_ (such is life), _Politbiuro_  - used as synonym of oppressor (actually most people know history and  understand what Politbiuro was, but the guy above who wrote that the  jokes are "not historically correct" obviously has problems in  understanding what is a joke...); in fact I hid a joke inside the joke there with _śmiałem się wiele-raz_ (lost in translation, something like: I laughed many times at this - once)
The original punchlines of some jokes seem to become sort of popular too: _twoja łza posoli zimnioka _(your tear will salt the potato), due their general blackishness/absurdity. Some people enjoyed shortening _trud skończon_y to _trud skończon_ - personally I dont like it much. 
I am not the person who should judge own work, some enjoy such language  play, some dont; some wrote that the Polish translations were better,  some wrote that English ones are better; some wrote that all the jokes  suck 

Anyway, to play joke explainer - since you seem to be genuinely interested in the joke posted in the first post of this thread.
Let's start with stating the obvious fact that the joke is simply not very funny. It is "1 Karol Strassburger" funny = not funny at all**
What it is exactly? It's a combination of two memes; one is the "Latvian  jokes" meme which I described above; second part is the fact that the  joke is about "final exams", known as _sesja_ in Polish. Sesja is  the key word used by most people who studied in Poland (and by studying  I mean only university level education, the word is used strictly for  university examinations). Basically, in many polish universities,  students have most if not all exams at the same time, during a "week of  death". Everyone and their dog knows that such a concept of multiple  exams during one or two weeks is retarded... but that's how it is, to  some degree at most universities*. So in general, the students_ struggle_  a lot during their finals. There are a lot of jokes and sayings about  "final week" (e.g. _best parties are always during the finals_) and I dont  think you have an equivalent of this type of humor - at least not in  USA. Also, the fact that people joke about the finals does not mean that  they do not take them seriously - I think in USA/Western Europe the  exams are simply more spread out in time.. which makes sense... but if  you cant change something - you laugh at it, right? Maybe now you can  understand the context.

So, to sum up, someone decided to combine _latvian jokes _with the _struggle during final exams_  meme and created a not very funny joke about some poor student  struggling during his finals. Actually if you would have 10 exams during  5 days, it could also be funny for you 

btw. I actually was in Latvia and know quite a lot about it, so do not  write  me that "Latvia isnt a poor country", because those are simply  jokes.  And no one cares that they are not historically, nor  grammatically  correct. Also, they arent some sort of a "mirror image of  Poland". They  are simply black humor.

btw2. If you do a google search for "Melbourne International Film Festival "Polish" Cinema" you can find a video on youtube, that shows the kind of setup from the jokes ("new members cannot post links in this section").


*It's not that EVERY university has this (there are also exams during  the semester). It also does not mean that finals are THAT bad, but  obviously no one in this thread studied in Poland, so I just wanted to  provide you with some context.

**a joke that would have to be explained again... polish speakers will understand this ;-)


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## fledgeling

Also, if we are pointing things out I think "głupek" would be better than "głupi" as a nickname, because the first one is a noun, while other is an adjective.

Since my general hobby is writing, I would be grateful if anyone could point out any spelling/grammatical errors in the post above.


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## NotNow

fledgeling said:


> Since my general hobby is writing, I would be grateful if anyone could point out any spelling/grammatical errors in the post above.



A definite article should be used with the USA.


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## dreamlike

fledgeling said:


> I registered on this forum, just to post it here, the amount of nonsense written here is beyond belief...


What are you specifically referring to? If you use words such as 'nonsense', be so kind as to justify your opinion. Thanks for your detailed post anyway, even if a bit chaotic and illegible. And oh, welcome to the forum!


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## głupi

fledgeling said:


> Apparently some people enjoyed my  translations, because some phrases seem to become popular and staple  part of those jokes - maybe they will even enter the mainstream?



Let's not get carried away. None of the Poles in this forum at least seemed to find your translations remotely amusing (just saying ). Obviously you have a different audience on Generation Y message boards where absurd/random/memey humour is the norm. Latvian joke translator work hard for feed family. Every laugh win one potato. Family die, only Politbiuro have smile.

PS. Oh and thanks, I'll try to remember not to use an adjective as my username next time...


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