Rob Reacts to... Neo Nówka - HEAVEN 😆 

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Yalta is a city in Crimea, where there was a conference between Great Britain, the USA and the USSR in February 1945. Basically, the allies agreed to "give" Poland to Stalin in order to shape postwar peace

The biggest issue of the translation is that St. Peter/Lucifer guy is overusing slang words and phrases, which sounds much funnier for us than basic meanings of these words :D

Some of Lucjan quotes are lirycs of polish songs and when you recongize it it is even funnier

There is a polish song "będę brał cię... w aucie" - tah means "I will take you... in the car" and "w aucie" sounds very similar to "w Jałcie". There was very important conference in Jałta (or Yalta) when Poland became a "gift" for Stalin.

20:44 The guy that played st. Peter also played Lucipher And people were clapping for him

"wal do sznura" (punch the rope/ go for the rope) is such a good quote and it's improvised

I’m from Poland and believe me xD its much much much more funny when u actually understand who are “twins” Lech and Jarek 😂 (pis). Great video

What makes this skit very unique is that one member of the team totally went improvising and disarmed the rest of the team which bursted out laughing unexpectedly, when he came back on the stage he got long applause for the achievement. They are very well trained actors not to laugh of their own words, he just smashed them :D

After few years in some interview the guy who played God said he actually applied for a loan in Francs at that time, and he didn't get it or something like that. It was after everyone realize it wasn't a smart decision. So... guys on the stage are laughing because of different reason than crowd in front of scene. And that's why is so more powerful for those who watching it on YT or TV :D

19:51 "I'm Hornbeam, do you copy" is a reference to most popular polish show from soviet times "Czterej pancerni i pies"(four tankers and dog) which is about Polish tank crew fighting with nazi. Good show

"We will call you" was an old, famous gag of a guy, who came for job interview. After the meeting they told him (known as refusing to hire gim) "we will call you..". And guy told "but i don't have a phone". And lady answered ",yes yes, we will call you". 😀

4:20 The point about 3 millions of flats is that it was very popular election promise byt the time of that sketch> 6:20 Funny part about translation here - in original they say "układ" (pact) and the St. Peter calls it "okresowy" which together means "periodic table". Hard to translate this joke directly to english. 6:50 The joke about Boston, Massachusetts is connected with very controversial polish journalist (back then) Mariusz Max Kolonko who was doing relations from the USA and was often ending his casts with a phrase "Mariusz Max Kolonko, Boston, Massachusetts" Recurring joke throughout the sketch: Poles are called "Polacy" byt the God, without any conjugation - often in places when normally one would say "Polaków" or "Polakami" 12:10 Yalta, as said in many comments before, was a place of conference awter WW2, where Poles definitely ended up in a russian sphere of influence. The sentence "w Jałcie" sounds similar to the word "w aucie" which was origianally used uin the very popular song back in the time of this sketch. The original song continued in very similar fashion with questions "where? In a car" and even with the ending of the chorus (Aha). Original is called: 'W aucie' produced by Sokół 15:35 the funny part here is that Kurski was announced head of the state TV years after this sketch and was dismissed only recently (in 2022). During the filming of the sketch Kurski wasn't so prominent yet, though he was responsible for very dirty political campaign before elections, coonnecting Donald Tusk's grandfather to Wehrmacht and making Tusk seem as german collaborator. 16:28 loans in francs is a big political and financial issue which appeared in 2009 and was not fully resolved till today. 19:00 Anothe polish song 'Co z nami bedzie' by Sylwia Grzeszczak 21:47 "Two twins" was of course reffered to the Kaczyńscy brothers (one of whom died in 2010 in Smoleńsk) The sketch had many political nuances which are very actual up to this date. In fact, most of the jokes are still valid, after around 15 years.

5:10 According to the legend, Dratewka was a shoemaker :)

I'm polish and this is a quite old show. And it's still so true xD Yalta is about meeting of WW2 Winners, whey our "allies" give us to Stalin and Soviet Union.

The "Disulfiram" or "Wszywka" Action is a reference to a procedure for alcoholics. The embedd a pill within the body to prevent them from drinking. Its mainly called "Esperal" here but the active ingridient is "Disulfiram" which basically affects alcohol metabolism

I think it's difficult to watch for non-polish people because there's a lot of references to history, politics, culture, songs etc. so it is challenging. But improvised part is gold

Blue line joke explanation: blue color and heaven in Polish are based on the same word (niebieski/niebo), so it was a wordplay. Blue line is- niebieska linia, while heaven's line will be- niebiańska linia. I think it is hard to understand some jokes without speaking Polish or knowing stereotypes or jokes about our mentality :)

12:10 once in Poland there was a popular song "I'll take you in the car" "w aucie" sounds similar to "Jałcie - Yalta" that's it, there's no greater philosophy in it :D

Lucien mentions a loan in francs because the actor playing God had previously (in fact) applied for such a loan and was refused. There was indeed a lot of improvisation there and the actors were themselves surprised.

The fact that St. Pete/Lucien guy is former History teacher makes whole Yalta joke funnier xD And well, they knew that guy playing God is really prone to corpsing - I saw their live show year or two before this version of "Heaven" was recorded for TV and they were trying to provoke him to do the same thing in some other skit.

Polish Humor is this kind of context Humor and jokes mostly are situational or with context background. 😊 cheers rob!

"when we meet on a turn" refers to the lyrics of a song by a Polish singer

There is actually one more fun thing in the God-Lucipher call. God calls Lucipher Lucian, while Lucipher calls God Bohu or Bohdan/Bogdan, which are regular male names. They talk and call themselves like good, old friends.

This is my dad's favourite comedy sketch!

So I'm a Pole and I can say those guys are the best! They roast the polish goverment like nobody else, I just love 'em

"Blue line" it was the revolutionary hotline of our monopoly telecommunications company (they had almost all landlines, over half the internet and 40% mobile in those days). They combined many numbers that you called for various matters and it was hard to get through to one that nobody seems to have ever been able to call (there are rumors that someone from Rzeszów once did, but he didn't arrange anything anyway because he was so shocked that he got through immediately hung up in panic. But these are just untrue rumors).

2:12 In Polish "peephole" we call "Judasz" ;)

I'm Polish but I've never seen this skit before so thanks for the laughs 👏👏

Ten skecz jest tak stary ale nadal tak samo bawi! 😂😂😂

"I will take you in Yalta" is a pun based on a song about having sex in a car. Don't worry about not understanding this one. It's a lot of context.

12:52 Is came from polish song "Sokół & Franek Kimono - W aucie", "W aucie" (in car) is a rhyme to "W jałcie" (in Yalta)

You should see NEO-NÓWKA NAMIOT. So funny 🤣

Our current prime minister (from Law and Justice party) promised milions of flats... that's the reference. And he still promise us bunch of dreams that will never come true.

That's a legendary one in Poland!❤

One of the best sketches ever made by Polish cabaret comedians, I suppose. :D You've also had a pleasure to see its premiere, so some parts are clearly improvised from scratch, best parts maybe when those guys compete in provoking each other to keep their poker faces when it's so damn hard. :D (later you've mentioned corpsing in your video -- confirmed, it was improvised in so many parts that when Neo-Nówka included this sketch in their programme after the premiere it wasn't so funny anymore for most of the viewers) 2:00 -- the reason they called it Blue Line is as you've stated, it's an emergency hotline related to mental health or abuse. The joke here is based on Polish word 'niebo' which means 'heaven' (and 'sky' as well) while 'niebieski', derived form the word 'niebo', means both the colour 'blue' and 'heaven-related' :) 12:25 -- Yalta Conference, also known as the Crimea Conference, held in 1945, was when Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt met to establish new order in Europe after WWII ; Poland had lost then a vast area of land (traditionally belonging to Poland over centuries before) to the USSR (Russia). The song itself is a parody of a popular hit song by the colab of Polish rapers and satirics, titled "W Aucie" ('In My Car') and the refrain of this song is almost identical phonetically, telling "Będę brał Cię -- w aucie" which means "I will HAVE you ('take you' in subs is a translational false-friend here) -- in my car" ; 'aucie' ('car') and 'Jałcie' ('Yalta') is very similar phonetically and this is what makes a point for that joke. ;) 'Where?' and 'Aha." are also taken straight from the refrain of that song. 18:53 -- also taken from some popular Polish song, while that required a lot of creativity and cultural knowledge to twist the text in a way as the comedian playing Lucien (and St Peter) has done it. This guy is awesome. ;)

Blue in Poland is Niebieski, sky in poland is Niebo, heaven is in the sky so blue line is more like heavenly line. I hope i explain it right.

This show is a masterpiece!

The US wiza was like a heaven 30 or 40 years ago. The many polish People went to the US. They where earn a lot of money couse the . Value of money was really good.

Peter was the one who do the Lucien voice and the crowd know about it, so they cheer him when he came back :)

There are several versions of this skit; including a special what if they played the skit (many years from now) in retirement.

Z wikipedii about Jałta: "The Yalta Conference, also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4-11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union to discuss the postwar reorganization of Germany and Europe." Poland lost some territories. Advise watch second part "Hell" - kabaret neo nówka "piekło i niebo@ :)

Blue Line used to be the customer service telephone line of the Polish Telecom before it was purchased by the French Telecom and changed its brand to Orange.

BTW, Dratewka was a shoemaker. He killed dragon with a sheep corpse, filled with sulfur, acid and lot of toxic substations. Dragon ate it, got issues, like hangover. He drank a lot of water from the river Wisła and he cracked, and died.

Kto więc teraz przygotuje napisy do Ani Mru Mru - Maciej i Król? Albo do "zupka chińska ale produkowana w Radomiu" 😂

Yalta is a city on Crimea where in 1944 there was a conference between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. On this conference Poland got under influence of Stalin and comunism. That was basically until 1989 when we got independence.

The "Hornbeam" reference (which you missed) at 19:52 is from an insanely popular Polish series "Czterej Pancerni i Pies " (The Four Tankers and a Dog), where the call sign of the titular tank (during any radio communication) was "Hornbeam 1." (Grab Jeden). Here is a fragment with that call sign (at 0:12s) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--bAc2pie3UU.html

Dziękuje za ciepłe słowa o Polsce również ciepło wypowiadamy o bracie Angielskim:) dużo pozytywnej energii:) myślę ze Anglię Polskę I USA łączą szczególne wartości i ta sama mentalność.

you watched the new version of this sketch so people knew what was going to happen and they laughed faster. In a few moments, the lyrics of popular songs were used, so you might not understand

Regarding this text about Yalta, here is a quote from Wikipedia: The term Yalta Betrayal was used by émigré, independence and then right-wing circles to refer to the concessions of the Western Allies to the USSR at the expense of Poland made without the knowledge of the Poles at the Tehran (change of the eastern border - Curzon Line), Yalta (Soviet sphere of influence) and Potsdam (compensation for the change of borders) conferences. The findings of the Tehran Conference were concealed from the London Government. The issue came out after the Yalta Conference and took its name from it. The concept is extended to similar Allied actions, e.g. the Allies' passivity in 1939 (the strange war) or the surrender of Czechoslovakia in 1938 (the Munich Agreement)

"Będę brał Cię w aucie" (I will take You in a car) was a part of an old Polish song. They switched "w aucie" to "w Jałcie" which means "I will take You in Yalta". It's reference to conference in Yalta, 4-11 Ferbruary 1945. Poland has been moved into political influence of Sovet Union there.

But remember that this sketch is from 2008 so many things changed ;) This was recorded in a legendary club ROTUNDA in Cracow. And it was called a Sketch of a Century? sth like that ; ) This part about Yalta was a reference to the song "BĘDĘ BRAŁ CIĘ, W AUCIE" ;)

Amazing knowledge of polish history!!!

21:27 "Wszywka" (Disulfiram?) refers to medical procedure of stitching under skin some kind of a drug that prevents people from drinking alcohol.

Neo-nówka is the best. If you are able to find their sketch subbed "Talk with the president": Obama talking with a Polish president (it's partially in English, the whole thing relies on the miscomunication) I highly recommend watching.

This one of the best stand ups ever in Poland 😅

To this day it's probably one of the best shows that came out of our comedy scene

Apart from me wanting to say I really enjoy this reaction content, seeing how you take our... odd Polish humour, I'd like to suggest you watching Kabaret Hrabi, in particular, some part of their "savoir-vivre" program. I think you might enjoy their rather abstract humour. They are very expressive so, given how you noticed mymic etc. in the KMN video, it would also be a good fit, I think :P I'm not sure if there are proper subtitles for it, but if you'd be interested, I'll gladly make some (obviously also trying to explain some more problematic linguistical things) ;) Also, as for some other suggestions - Limo, Smile and Ani Mru Mru were in my opinion among the best groups in the best period of these :)

There is a whole plethora of references, practically every sentence is a different reference to something well known in Poland. To explain everything you would need to make a video at least 2 times as long as this one. Also "Polacy mi kocioł rozkręcają." Is not about destroying a cauldron but disassembling, taking it apart. "Polak wszystko potrafi." - "Polack/Pole can do anything." Actually"rozkręcać kocioł " can also mean "starting a chaotic party", but it was more of a regional saying.

It was first performance of actor that played god, and thats why there were a lot of improvisations from actor that played st. Peter and Lucipher

Rob, you have to know Polish history and culture really good to get some of these jokes...

If you liked this sketch, you definitely need to see "Neo-Nówka - "NIEBO 2060"" same sketch a few summers later. Greetings from Poland :)

Dear Rob, I've seen this video so many times, but seen it on your channel with your commentary, it's so uplifting! Thank you Rob. :) I live in the UK almost 19 years, never know English before coming over to England, and your videos are really educational for me! Thanks again mate! Good luck!! Lots of love mate :)-

He sings Polish hits , slightly adapted to the sketch , Yalta is about the Yalta Conference , and " I'm hornbeam" is part of the war series "Czterej pancerni i pies"

Well, this is one of the best examples, how much Poles are self-aware and love to laugh at themself. :)

The song is called "Będę brał cię w aucie" Yalta was the city in Soviet Union where they had a post war conference where they decided the fate of Poland and Soviet Union "took" Poland in Yalta conference

The blue line here in Poland means that we are calling to heaven, it's a metaphor

That was the hardest to be watched abroad. There are so many context that it couldn't be even proper explained, you just need to live here in 90s xD

Co a nami bedzie gdy spotkamy się na zakręcie - another Polish song that was popular back then

Please check Polish movies: chłopaki nie płaczą 2000, Dzień świra 2002, or short movies: Legendy polskie Allegro

"blue line/ błękitna linia" is a memic phrase (in the sense used here) referring to the technical service line of the monopolistic, mass-market national telecommunications operator (TPSA) of the old days ('90s-). The line was widely known for its overload, unlimited waiting times and the utter futility of waiting to be listened to and advice along the lines of 'please switch off and on and call again if it doesn't help'. Nowadays this phrase is still used due to its developed popularity for many serious applications usually indicating that one will be patiently listened to.

So the most funny part of this bit is actually unintentional. There were some problems at the stage. Somebody was late and they were told to stall as long as possible. The guys on the stage did not know what is going on that is why this whole situation is so chaotic and also very funny. Most of this is total improv.

You definately have to watch Kabaret Nowaki with a character Krystyna She is the best! You can watch literally any one of them. They are all hilarious!

About the "blue line", the word used was "Błękitna" wich means light blue, as in the sky (heaven)

best check "młodych panów" the best cabaret in poland, especially the restaurant sketches 😊

The Yalta conference, which started on February 4, 1945, even now is considered in Poland as a betrayal by Western allies. The summit, attended by the leaders and ministers of the Soviet Union, the US, and the United Kingdom, divided Europe into two spheres of influence and left Poland, as well as the other Eastern European countries, subjected to Soviet rule for many decades. During the talks led by Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, which lasted over a week, a number of arrangements were made regarding strategic cooperation in the final phase of WWII and the future of the world after the war. However, Poland was the most thorny issue. As Winston Churchill wrote: "Poland was, in fact, the most urgent reason for convening the Yalta conference and it became the first of the major reasons that led to the breakup of the Great Coalition." As a result of the talks, it was decided that the Provisional Government operating in Poland under the patronage of Stalin would be the legitimate, recognised by the UK and the US, government of Poland. After its formation, the new government was obliged to carry out "free and unrestricted elections as soon as possible". In the statement from the Yalta Conference, there was no mention of the Polish Government In Exile in London, which was, by that time, still recognised by the US and the United Kingdom as Poland’s legitimate government. Disregarding the pleas of Roosevelt and Churchill, Stalin refused to leave Lviv in Poland. Poland lost nearly half of its territory - the Eastern Borderlands, in return receiving eastern German lands, Gdańsk, Pomerania, and Masuria. On February 13, 1945, the Polish Government-in-Exile stated that "the decisions on the Polish case cannot be recognized by the Polish Government and can not apply to the Polish Nation. The newly drawn Polish-Soviet border will be considered as another partition of Poland, this time carried out by Poland's allies." As a result of the decisions made at the Yalta conference, Poland was left in the Soviet sphere of influence for several decades. The balance of power agreed in Yalta changed only in 1999, when Poland joined NATO, as one of the first Eastern European countries.

They would call it Blue Line, because in Polish "blue" and "heavenly" are homonyms

Two twin brothers refers to two politicians who were successive presidents of a political party Law and Justice. 20:28 This applause is for St. Peter, because he voiced Lucifer. And he has a totally poker face. ;]

Yeah!! I was waiting for this!!

I love this sketch

Blue Line because heaven is Blue

Unfortunately, it is not possible to translate the text literally into English. One must also be familiar with Polish context to understand the nuances of this sketch. The best part is that the comedian playing Saint Peter and Lucifer forgot the lines while portraying Lucifer and had to improvise. That's why the comedians couldn't hold back their laughter :)

Dratewka wasn`t shepherd,he was a shoemaker.

"See! I know these things!" 😅

Gościu traktuje kabaret jak film dokumentalny xdd

Also I'd love to translate any polish comedy video that your polish audience may suggest for you to watch.

Blue line is (was) the advertised name of customer support number of the biggest polish telecom. There were many commercials referring to that name in late 90's/early 2000's.

Jeden z lepszych występów Neo-Nówki :D

That was the most popular comedy show in my country for a long time. I've watched it over 50 times and laughed same hard😊

2:00 błękitny means light blue. He basically says "call heaven line"

Dratewka is a boy who tricked the Wawel Dragon (Polish legend) by sewing sulfur into a sheep and the dragon was defeated by eating the sheep. That's why they refer to the fact that Dratewka freed Mieszko and "liquidated" the ugly Dobrawa

When I was watching it for the first time years ago, I literally was crying from laughing, It was so funny, it is still very funny

Regarding the ending.. We had president Lech Kaczyński who had twin brother Jarosław who was a Prime Minister, and many Poles disliked them. That's why it made them so hopeless at the end, that we can't escape them, no matter where history is moved: to USA or Ancient Rome or anywhere else. And it made it even funnier when in roman legend about She-wolf taking care of two orphaned human brothers ( Romulus and Remulus) were swapped for Lech and Jarek.

Ohh You know Dratewka's story Nice

Hahah, so you gave it a shot. Nice!

oh yeah, that's a classic one 😂❤

jeden z najlepszych kabaretów i najlepszy skecz

Legendary Dratewka was not a sheppard. He was a shoemaker. "Dratwa" means "twine".

19:50 "I'm Hornbeam". IIRC that is reference to polish tv series "Four Tank-men and a Dog" (Czterej Pancerni i Pies).

there is a second version, you need to watch it too!!!