Laughter Is Legal

What ever happened to the Pole who didn't like a Polish joke told over national television and appealed to the Supreme Court for equal time? The court turned him down. And that's no joke. The Polish-American Congress and a Chicago attorney, Thaddeus L. Kowalski, had lost earlier suits before the FCC and the Court of Appeals when they asked for the right to reply to four Polish jokes recited on The Dick Cavett Show in 1972.* Last week the high court refused to hear their case.

The Polish-American Congress and Kowalski argued that the FCC's "fairness doctrine" should entitle them to reply on behalf of all Polish Americans. The court let stand a lower court ruling that there was insufficient "public controversy" to trigger the doctrine.

So there may be more Polish jokes on TV--also more Italian and Jewish jokes, Wasp and black jokes, and jokes encompassing just about everybody from Athapascans to Zunis. Could it be that Americans have grown altogether too nervous about ethnic humor? If so, the Supreme Court has struck a blow for laughter by refusing to make a federal case out of the issue.

* A sample of the humor: Why does it take 100 Poles to paint a house? One to hold the brush and 99 to turn the house.

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