A quick glance at Wikipedia's list of Polish people demonstrates the stereotype as false. Poland has produced notable minds in such diverse areas of knowledge as Astronomy (Nicolaus Copernicus), Chemistry (Marie Curie), Music (Frédéric Chopin and Henryk Górecki), Literature (Stanisław Lem), Religion (Karol Józef Wojtyla AKA Pope John Paul II), and Politics (Lech Wałęsa). A deeper look into that list reveals a number of highly intelligent Polish people who are less well known.
Yet, there are an innumerable jokes and unfair stereotypes regarding Polish people being of inferior intelligence in American culture. Polish is pretty much a US thing, in the UK it's the Irish, in France the Belgians.
Last but not least, Polish language is extremely difficult for a foreigner. Learning it requires much more time and dedication than for example Italian or Spanish. That's a barrier that very few people are ready to overcome, so Polish culture and literature is little known. This leaves space to assume that it is somehow inferior.
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