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So, today I'd like to describe the memetic side of how Poles see themselves. This will be mostly my own impression, but I intend to add harder info when I have some more time to browse for sources.
An entry on Piekielni.pl dated to 25th of November 2011, the site being a Polish version of NotAlwaysRight.com, contains a story of a narrator having to pretend to be a Norwegian to his British employer because of the latter's previous bad experience with Polish immigrant workers. The story consists mostly of the nested story of these workers, as allegedly discovered in time by the narrator. He called them by the pluralised name "Marian", which is rather more common in the previous generations than among Millenials. The narrator apparently assumes that the name itself, together with rather laconic description as coming from the countryside, will provide clear enough image in the mind of a reader.
I'm bringing it up because I see it as a leftover of a time before the name "Janusz" became a commonplace term for a compilation of everything that's uncool and reprehensible in Polish males of the parents' and grandparents' generation.
For the record, the female equivalent is known as a "Grażyna". Nowadays both are usually written in small caps, having become common nouns. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The next stage of the evolution of the concept of janusz came to be at the expense of a certain policeman. One day, he noticed that people he had been dealing with on duty, seem atypically amused by his sight, spout nonsensical quotes and so on. It turned out that somebody on the internet placed his round, mustachioed face on the Polish flag, posted it online, and everyone began to repost it to make fun of perceived Polish flaws, with captions ranging from perfectly mundane but contextually funny descriptions of Polish life, to crude language attributed to the imagined owner of the face on the image. Ultimately, once a respected beat cop, he had to enter earlier retirement because somebody found his face funny.
As far as I remember, at this point the name "Janusz" already began to be associated with the concept, with the greatest developments occuring as the picture itself was nearing the end of its memetic life.
A later development - again, I'm counting on my own memory here - were the concepts of "brajanek", "seba", "karyna": essentially the same as "janusz" and "grażyna" but focusing on Millenials and the newest generation. While a janusz may be a generalized negative image of the poster's boorish uncle, a seba is a generalized negative image of his hoodie-wearing, ACAB-scribbling schoolmates. The concepts got mixed with each other and around 2016-2017 I have even seen whole family trees explaining the imaginary relations between januszes, karynas, grażynas and sebas.
Then, a new life to the concept was given by a certain patostreamer.
Digression: a "patostream" - a portmanteau of "[social] pathology" and "stream"/"streaming" - is a live recording transmitted online ("stream") by some lowlife ("pathology"), likely a wannabe rapper or wannabe bodybuilder or some other lout, in which he just rants, speaks his mind, shows his similarly lowlife and pathological family, and so on. There are at least several of them, all very popular in certain parts of Polish internet.
One day, the man posted an experience on watching a nature documentary. Upon seeing a proboscis monkey, he began to laugh how much the animal looks like a typical Pole. From there, the typical Pole got a new face - no doubt helped by the colourful expressions the monkey has on many of the stock photos circling the internet - and terms derived from the name of the species became shorthands for Polish national faults.
Perhaps of note is the fact that - again, according to my memory - while the "policeman" janusz was clueless but relatively benign, the "proboscis" janusz did not hesitate before engaging in petty theft or small-scale scamming.
So much for now, but I believe I'll be continuing the entry.
^ It might be more than proto-4chan. You remember from the entry on cenzopapa there are Polish chans out there.
There is an analysis of the phenomenon I've been intending to write, but didn't yet get around to it. Gimme some time, I'll do it either in a new post or edit this one.
----
So, there is a common element to all that stereotype memeing that you might have noticed. At least two common elements, in fact; I'll try to cover both.
The typical janusz tends to be, either, at most lower middle class, or technically-upper-middle-but-mentally-still-the-same in the case of businessjanusz. The typical seba and karyna are lower middle or worse. (Grażyna is usually a wife of janusz and rarely perceived independently.) And who is the typical (memeing) netizen? Presumably younger than thirty and educated. End result, there is a classist element to it.
Several months ago I read a longish article in a newspaper. Long story short, the author criticised hipsters and related groups for classist hate on the januszes, which only served to fuel their resentment towards the liberal urbanites. End result, the dual victory of right-wing populists in presidential and parliamentary elections a few years back. He called upon the libs and lefties to look for positive qualities in them instead. His example was how Russia managed to turn the stereotypes of Russia into something to be proud of: sure, you may think of them as stupid and drunk, but you also silently accept that nobody else could run a logging operation in the taiga with nothing but bare hands and vodka. Why not, then, spin the janusz into a story of a man who scrapes by on his almost-animalistic cunning bred into his bones by generations of having to survive external invasions and internal exploitation?
This is another way in which we see a manifestation of a problem Poland has (though, admittedly, that's not the only country with a part of its citizens cringing at the rest of them - USA may be the cheapest example): the liberals and left have a self-hating tendency to denigrate Poland and Poles. (That's not to say the right side has no problems of their own, but that's beyond the scope of this story.) Much ink has been spilled on the topic and it shows in weirdest places, like The Witcher 3 (yep really, according to a paper I've read). Essentially, Poles long to be accepted as part of the Western world yet continually feel they can't reach the threshold; or, they superficially reached it but live in constant fear somebody discovers they didn't. Long story and probably rooted in history several centuries back. Januszes - even though folks like them really exist everywhere - appear to the memesters as a glaring counterexample to the Western affiliation of Poland. The folks who eat schnitzel with potatoes instead of pizza; who hang a picture of John Paul II on the wall instead of posting cenzopapas on the interwebs; who spend their free time watching TV instead of clubbing or browsing the net. And ultimately, this all accumulated into the proboscis monkey as a symbol of all faults stereotypically attributed to the common, unrefined Pole.
But now, onto lighter topics.
Yeah, that's a wall of text over there. Perhaps I'm right, but I might be misreading what actually came from much simpler roots. Sure, that hipster filth probably had a hand in the growth of popularity of this meme, but memes are not started by the hipsters, they are started by kiddies with too much time for themselves, and the kiddies have different things on their minds. In short, it's not so much the classist element as the age-ist element. At first, the meme likely made fun of their parents' generation and their own conditions of life. Momma's dinners. Dad's beer-stained home clothes. Tracksuit-wearing thugs on the block. And so on.
And now we get back to the heavier stuff.
Poles are a nation that as late as before the Second World War had noticeable differences between the countryside and the cities, and between the peasant class and the post-nobility and intelligentsia. But then, in the commie years, massive industrialisation and migration to the cities (as a sidenote: I'm not saying it wouldn't have happened if not for them, and arguably, the commies destroyed the peasantry as a class and folk traditions in the process) led to the awkward outcome that an average Pole has his share of countryside ancestry with the related habits, while also subscribing to the "high" cultural tradition of the lords with all the entitlement it brings. Nation of peasants pretending to be noblemen, I like to put it. (Ironically, the end result of commie days' changes.) Therefore, the cultural common ground of memeing kiddies just happened to reflect the class issues of the society.
So like normal YouTube but with no filters.
I would totally read a novel set around liberal elites who are just waiting for someone to discover they aren't, but that would probably hit too close to home for 90% of all the people who read that sort of literature and so will never happen.
Basically, the theme is misfits.
In recent discussions with Naas, I've kind of come to the realization that being counter-culture and anti-things is no longer a thing by default due to the advent of social media and everybody being on it. Can you really be counter-culture when you're running an instagram page?
On the inverse, the people who have realized this and are actually running their counter-culture stuff are therefore even more marginalized than before. But, mostly, we just don't know they exist since they don't have social media.
To continue with the social media theme. By a strange series of associations, being on it means probably toning whatever down to acceptable levels or being adorably self-deprecating about it (see this video). Under this model, where we link our IRL identities with our online ones, nerd culture is watered down because like maybe your grandma will see you talk about Rule 34, google it and find out some very uncomfortable things.
Then this extends itself to IRL, unless you're a master compartmentalizer.
The Trinity together.
Also, I've been thinking about one or another meme to describe, but they're not as big as these. The Ryver Snek, or Dad the Angling Fanatic, perhaps.
The story should begin in 2006, in part because I can't be bothered to give you a full bio, but mostly since that's when he became widely known. That year, he (?) published a video presenting himself to the wider world as a candidate in the election for the mayor of the city of Białystok, which is somewhat of a capital of a relatively backwards region in the eastern Poland and has since then garnered a bit of a reputation of a crazy place of rabid nationalist thugs and general weirdness. Nicknamed "Konon", Kononowicz instantly became a household name due to his simplistic, if not simpleton's (frankly, he came off as a bit mentally deficient) image and speech. Picture a village idiot hillbilly uncle of your buddy from the Appallachia. Quotes such as "there will be no banditry, no nothing" or "what had happened had" (that was a bit hard to translate) instantly became memetic.
It appeared that he was pushed into this by another man, a member of some local nationalist organisation, which was absurd enough in itself. Altogether the whole affair made the impression of a young dude having fun at the expense of an older one, who didn't realize he's the butt of a joke. But as the masses cared mostly for the meme, the interest in him quickly died down to less than Poland-wide levels, in spite of his further attempts at political activity.
Then something happened, around 2015. In 2016 he published a new video, where he set fire to an ISIS flag, declaring he "will be killing" and generally deal with them. As absurd as it was the first time, it also raised questions as to where - or from whom - Konon got the flag. About since those years, together with some other persons that I don't know due to generally not watching patostreams, Konon became a popular patostreamer. He continues to be so to this day. As a final note, recently a similar thing happened to him as did to Stonoga - his utterances were set to music, as the lyrics to a series of black metal songs published on Youtube under the bandname Knurzum (a portmanteau of "Burzum", a well-known band, and "knur", Polish for hog, swine, or male pig, which seems to come from one of the streams).
It seems you can get far in the Internet world if you have a buddy who's neither much of an intellectual nor afraid of the camera.
Sometimes real life is way too perfectly choreographed. I don't mean this guy's machinations, but I mean like, the exact perfect storybook existence of his machinations in the first place.
Not to take this too seriously but was it a real ISIS flag or was he secretly good at DIY flagcraft.
I had in mind the language of places like Cracked, you know, that kind of Internet ironic edginess where people say "niggas" in place of "people" and refer to each other as "fags". Felt it's... less abrasive within the convention, so to say. But I acknowledge that since you're bringing it up it didn't work as intended, so I'll replace it with something.
Heh, I am pretty sure it did not come from the Middle East, I don't know where you can buy one, and I doubt any of the people possibly involved had a talent for needlework.
Also that looks large enough that someone could have just gotten black cloth and white cloth, cut out the designs, and done a few quick stitches to connect the two.
Not that I can really tell anything for sure; it's not exactly super-HD.
(And frankly speaking, that's probably what Daesh itself probably does anyway too lol)
As I wrote that I realized that I don't know where stencil-ers tend to get their templates from.
Just to be clear, I wouldn't want you to change how you are around here. It's something I do really appreciate. It was just that one thing.
Plus, do I understand what you meant.
On Sunday, we've had parliamentary elections in here. A few days before Sunday, Stonoga was released from prison.
A few days after Sunday, he published a video-rant where he called the minister of justice a paedophile, a whore (or a fuck; it's an all-purpose swear-word), and several other names, that he'll deal in some unspecified way with the minister's mother, whom he called a whore that shitted the man into the world, and that it's open war now.
Also, I have to make an entry on the patostreaming or the Schopenhauer memes one day.
So sayeth Wikipedia.
Generally the media, experts, and the Commissioner for Human Rights of Poland (who even set up a "Round Table") all agree that watching patostreams may lead to acceptance of socially unacceptable behaviour, demoralisation, behaviour changes (for the worse) and so on. In particular, as they are being watched predominantly by young folks and schoolkids. Means to combat the phenomenon are expected to include deplatforming the patostreamers and depriving them of means to monetize their antics, setting standards for ethical internet use, developing strategies for getting the kids off the streams and the like.
Yet regardless of all this, the streams are popular enough that there's even a statistics website for you to check which are the hottest streams at the moment. (Here's the link if you are curious.)
But what it is? Like I said, I don't know much since I don't follow this crap, but fortunately, I've recently read an interview that explains much, even calling by name several most prominent characters in the whole "scene". With advance apologies for the quality of the translation, I'm gonna put it in English for you:
It's spelled "lajw", which is Polonized spelling for the word, which serves to mean a livestream.
"Mess" and "phat actions" are my crude approximations of the slang term. Couldn't find better at the moment. My apologies.
I should probably translate it as something else, but it's the closest I could.
"Shots" is another case of Polonized spelling. Apparently patostreamer vocabulary is forming on the spot.
Did I mention Tibia already? It's quite a web phenomenon, a rather simple client-based MMORPG that became popular since it had next to no technical requirements and you could play it on the average Polish computer with the average internet connection.
Also, the description of Boxdel launching Rafatus brings to mind a debauched recording company and its portfolio of even more debauched rock bands. Really, my translation fails to bring it to light, but it's how it sounds in the interview.
The last part is a legal term, but I don't know the English lawyer lingo, so here you have the colloquial.
Another Polonized spelling. Consider it to mean "internet fame of stupid by stupid for stupid things".
Cut a few sentences amounting to the same. I'm gonna start doing that now.
I have to say I've got mixed info on that - another activist, in an interview that I can't access now due to paywall but I've once read, claims that it's uniquely Polish. AFAIR she called upon some unspecified internet safety activist from abroad (edit: I just saw I mentioned in an earlier post that it was a Google employee) as the source of that information.
Also, that another activist also brought up the issue of kids wanting to be youtubers or exposing themselves to sexual content too early. In her case, it came off a bit hypocritically since it was an article in a very lefty, very feminist journal which would otherwise be very understanding to kids not acting like a conservative stay-at-home-mom's idea of a kid, but that's beside the point.
Adam Małysz is Poland's most prominent ski jumper. During his career he gathered enough prizes to become the second most successful ever ski jumper in the world and is credited with single-handedly raising ski jumping from a silly-ass Olympic discipline nobody cares about to the level of nationwide popularity and the national winter sport. Hence the shock.
But...
At this point the dude claims that he and his crew went to the media and that he's partially responsible for all that public response. I cut that short since it was not much informative about the phenomenon itself, but let's just say he deserves a fedora tip for the work.
So yeah.
Still, wut
Isn't this at least like, illegal.
MESS?
This is... a weird phenomenon. Usually (non-video-game) streamers, especially paid ones act as a surrogate friend or like... light erotica. I mean, I understand the phenomenon on a base level, but this really is it's own thing in every way.
American crime procedurals clearly haven't heard of this because if they had there'd be like 40 episodes a year about this sort of thing.
14w.exe has become unable to even, please reboot
Well, this is depressing.
"Kids these days want to be youtubers. Nobody says he wants to be an astronaut, a cop."
Not entirely related, but I'm surprised at a bunch of kid's anime lately where the whole point is indeed to get famous on YouTube. Kiratto Pri☆Chan is the most egregious. There's an episode where instead of trying to do anything on merit, the protagonist just leverages her mother's cupcakes so people subscribe to her channel.
It's supposed to be heartwarming (it was not a comedic scene), but it bothered me. I was surprised at how quickly this concept grated on me, compared to normal idol shows.
Anyways, thanks for the translation. It's all very... fascinating.
Essentially, it's a post-meme, or the meme that is not funny at all unless you know the original meme it spoofs. And even if, the feeling monkey is not really funny. It's crushingly sad.
A note on language: "the proboscis monkey" is not what the Polish name for the animal - nosacz sundajski - literally means. That would be, in my own translation, something along the lines of "the Sundanese bignose". The submeme is called nosacz feeldajski. But, since "the Feel-danese bignose" is not really a good name, I'll refer to it as "feeling monkey" or "post-nosacz".
(According to one of my sources, it went along a similar path to the Doge, but Doge is relevant to this thread only if sad Doge is specific to Poland, which I have no proof of.)
The default nosacz is a stingy, jealous of others' success, uncouth and unhip lower-class individual of the post-war baby boom generation. He has no job, attributes too much importance to it, or is an unscrupulous businessman. He might wonder where did his neighbour get the money for a new car (implicitly assuming he must have stolen it), steal something under the premise that it's for the taking if it's not guarded, or merely fondly reminisce how it used to be better.
The post-nosacz, meanwhile...
"I know I'm repeating myself with this used-to-be-better... must've picked it up some time after her death."
"Middle-aged monkey facing death", his own or that of his loved ones, is a relatively common motif. One presumes it's because it fits the uncool boomer theme of the default meme while being good at wringing out tears.
"Hello, son... yes, yes, I understand, you can't talk right now... Call your parents sometime, please."
Likewise for his relationships. As the meme family includes characters for various age groups, sometimes it's reversed and it's the young one who wishes for a better relation with his father.
"All my life I've been told to work hard, but for all these twelve-hour shifts I still can't afford a trip."
In other versions, the monkey works so hard explicitly to make life better for his children, who don't notice or are actively ungrateful. Sometimes, when he is an employer himself, he discovers a layer of human feelings not common in the default meme:
"Eh, I'm gonna give Sasha that raise... I used to work abroad, so I know how it feels for him, all the way to here from Ukraine..."
And possibly my favourite, if this term applies at all:
"If I didn't try to save money by not buying new tires, these kids would still have their parents..."
Yeah.
There was an analysis, in one of the linked articles, that skirts what I've described in one of the earlier post: that the typical nosacz meme is kinda classist. While I won't say the post-nosacz was born of anything but standard meme evolution, the ones that pack the biggest punch definitely do this by playing with the classist expectations: presenting the hero of the nosacz memes as a person rather than a source of cheap laugh.
My sources:
https://tech.wp.pl/oto-co-tak-naprawde-kryje-sie-pod-maska-malpy-z-ktorej-smieje-sie-pol-polski-6385485344962177a
https://alternatywa.net.pl/post-nosacze-polskosc-i-memy/
Oops.
Kinda rare to see these.
Y'know, a few hundred years from now, this is gonna be part of the history of our civilization, that other people will look at. (And probably misinterpret in various ways.)