Bulă

{{Short description|Fictional stock character of Romanian humor}}

Bulă ({{IPA|ro|ˈbulə}}) is a fictional stock character of Romanian humor.

Bulă, a buffoon and coward, was "born" during the Nicolae Ceaușescu regime of Communist Romania.{{cite news|url=https://www.evz.ro/viata-si-destinul-lui-bula-845224.html|title=Viața și destinul lui Bulă|trans-title=The life and destiny of Bulă|language=ro|newspaper=Evenimentul Zilei|first=Adam|last=Popescu|date=March 29, 2009|access-date=July 4, 2024}} The name, among other interpretations, is a one-letter deformation of "pulă", a Romanian vulgar slang for "penis".Volkan, V. D. (1995). "[https://www.karabakh.co.uk/international/totem-and-taboo-in-romania-a-psychopolitical-diagnosis/ Totem and taboo in Romania: A psychopolitical diagnosis.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191128002212/https://www.karabakh.co.uk/international/totem-and-taboo-in-romania-a-psychopolitical-diagnosis/ |date=2019-11-28 }}" Mind and Human Interaction, 2: 66-83. 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 and {{ill|Tândală|ro}}, friend of {{ill|Ițic and Ștrul|ro|Ițic și Ștrul}}, less educated, but with an equally sharp tongue.

In 2006, TVR 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 and in New York 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."{{cite web|url=http://www.atransylvanian.com/play.htm|title=A Transylvanian in Silicon Valley|website=www.atransylvanian.com}}