#41 - Heading over the edge

Do you sometimes get the feeling that the gloomy prognostications are correct, and that civilization is headed for a severe breakdown.

#40 - So meta

          Man: Our house reminds me of an unsuccessful comic strip.

          Woman: What do you mean?

          Man: Each window is a sequential panel.

          Woman: I see what you mean....but why unsuccessful?

          Man: Because it's not funny.

#39 - The shame of it

                  Son: Dad, you work in such an important office...so why are we 

                               so  poor? Why don't I have a laptop and cool clothes?

                  Father: Because I don't take bribes.

                  Son: But my friends make fun of me!

                  Father: Mine too.

#38 - Speak truth to power

              God: Andy, tell me, do you believe in me?

              Andy: I believe in you.

              God: Then why don't you go to church? Why don't you pray to me?

              Andy: Because I don't like you.

Andy's dress and background terrain identify him as a góral, a Polish highlander. I don't know what that has to do with the joke as I'm not familiar with góral culture. Perhaps they are reputed to be extremely frank, even to the point that they'll tell God exactly what they think of him.

This cartoon makes me laugh every time.

UPDATE: A góralka friend has informed me that highlanders in Poland are said to be feisty, belligerent, impudent, and so forth. They are also perceived to be extremely religous folk.

#37 - What's a country to do

1:

First woman: Poland is a woman.

Second woman: But all the countries nearby are chicks too.

2:

Second woman: Russia, Sweden, Slovakia...

First woman: Ukraine, Lithuania, France, Netherlands...

3:

First woman: Or they're unknowns like Germany, Czech, Hungary...

Second woman: Italy...

4.

First woman: There's a lack of men. Ones like Mexico or Egypt...

5:

First woman: Nearby there's only Liechtenstein, Luxembourg...

Second woman: And the Vatican.

6:

First woman: They're so small.

I find this joke pretty funny, even though it's entirely dependent on the grammatical gender of the names of countries in Polish. "Poland" is feminine - you can tell by the "-a" ending of "Polska" - and so are the other "-a" countries mentioned in the second panel. Note that the Netherlands are the singular feminine "Holandia" in Polish. Plurals are usually of indeterminate gender in Polish and the countries mentioned in  the third panel are all plurals. Their names probably derive from names of tribes or peoples. The name for Germany is especially interesting as it comes ultimately from a word meaning "mute, unable to speak", so in Polish Germany is "The Mutes". Mexico and Egypt are masculine, but far away; the only men nearby are "small" - a dick joke is always a guaranteed laugh. 

Poland has poor dating prospects!

#36 - The harmless kind

       Father: So! You're downloading pornography?!        

       Son: It's only child porn, dad.

This will probably send my incoming searches into the red zone but the joke is funny.

                                               

#35 - Can't think of a funny title

"We caught him reading between the lines!!!"

#34 - Priest or beast

                                         1. Priest: Boys! Stop fighting immediately!

                                         2. Priest: Apologise and shake hands.

                                         3. First boy: I'm sorry.

                                              Second boy: I'm sorry.

                                         4. Priest: Now hug and kiss.

I find this dig at the Church over their child abuse scandals pretty hilarious.

#33 - Temperatures

                              How is it outside?                                 Hot?

                              Guess.                                                        Cold.

                              Warm?                                                      Cool?

                              Also cold.                                                 Warmer.

                              Cold?                                                         Very cold!

                              Hot.                                                             Yes.

As well as writing sharp cultural and political satire, Raczkowski also likes to play with language. Not all of his linguistic jokes survive translation, but this one happily does, as the "warmer...colder" system of hints for guessing games is used in both English and Polish.

#32 - Logos

                                       Man: In the beginning was the word.

                                       First child: What word?

                                      Second child: BOOM

UPDATE 19 March 2015: Replaced image with larger version and changed translation at suggestion of Krzysztof Kozłowski.

#31 - The blame game

   Who is better?                                            Who is worse? 

 Who is stupid?                                           Who is wise?

    Who is right?                                              Who is wrong?

Who wants to reach agreement?              Who's guilty of causing conflict?

#30 - The killing joke

Man: Life is an April Fool's joke in which everything turns out to be true.

Some classic Raczkowski pessimism coming through. I'm not really happy with my translation. It hinges on the word informacje, which doesn't quite mean the same thing as English information, especially not in this context. Suggestions?

Update: A commenter informs us that informacje means both news and content of a joke, so it's a subtle overlap that can't really be reproduced in English.