Bulă () is a fictional

stock character A stock character, also known as a character archetype, is a type of character in a narrative (e.g. a novel, play, television show, or film) whom audiences recognize across many narratives or as part of a storytelling tradition or convention. Th ...

Romanian humor Romanian humour, like many other Romanian cultural aspects, has many affinities with four other groups: the Latins (namely the French and Italians), the Balkan people (Greeks, the Slavs, and Turks), the Germans and the Hungarians. Characters ...

. Bulă, a buffoon and coward, was "born" during the

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( ; ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician who was the second and last Communism, communist leader of Socialist Romania, Romania, serving as the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 u ...

regime of

Communist Romania The Socialist Republic of Romania (, RSR) was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist One-party state, one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989 (see Revolutions of 1989). From 1947 to 1965, the state was ...

. The name, among other interpretations, is a one-letter deformation of "pulă", a Romanian vulgar slang for "

penis A penis (; : penises or penes) is a sex organ through which male and hermaphrodite animals expel semen during copulation (zoology), copulation, and through which male placental mammals and marsupials also Urination, urinate. The term ''pen ...

". Bulă is young, he is funny, he has an attitude, and he has an answer for everything. He can be a hero with modesty and, equally, he can fail with dignity; no one can firmly say whether he is stupid or just a trickster. Bulă is the descendant of

Păcală Păcală (Romanian language, Romanian, from ''a păcăli'', "to dupe";Victor Crăciun, "Pe urmele unui personaj. Păcală", in ''Ateneu'', Vol. IV, Issue 5, May 1967, p. 8 Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: Пъкалъ; sometimes rende ...

and , friend of , less educated, but with an equally sharp tongue. In 2006,

TVR TVR Electric Vehicles Limited is a British manufacturer of sports cars. The company manufactures lightweight sports cars with powerful engines and was, at one time, the third-largest specialised sports car manufacturer in the world, offering ...

conducted a vote to determine whom the general public considers the 100 greatest Romanians of all time. Bulă was voted to be the 59th greatest Romanian. Silvian Centiu, commenting on his show, ''A Transylvanian in Silicon Valley'', wrote: "When in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

I mentioned Bula, the omnipresent character in Romanian jokes, I was delighted to hear audience members laugh before I finished the joke – I knew they were Romanians."

Sample Bulă jokes

At school: "Children, who can tell what is the main goal of

Socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

?" Bulă raises his hand. The teacher groans, "Oh no, Bulă, none of your nonsense." – "But I do know the answer! The main goal of socialism is the well-being and happiness of the man... And I even know who this man is." Bulă's

April Fool's Day April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day (rarely called All Fools' Day) is an annual custom on the 1st of April consisting of practical jokes, hoaxes, and pranks. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fool " at the recipient. Mas ...

joke: "Mommy, mommy! Dad hung himself in the garage!" – The mother rushes to the garage, finds nothing, and Bulă is laughing. – "Ha-ha fooled you! He hung himself in the attic." Bulă was walking down the street one day and a man asked him: "Bulă, where are you going?" – "Huh, how do you know I'm not coming?"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bula Fictional Romanian people Romanian humour Stock characters in jokes Humor and wit characters

Sample Bulă jokes

See also

References