Learn Hardcore Polish: Ten serial jest tak śmieszny jak tamten film.

To is the neuter form (used with neuter nouns like to dziecko – this child). You can’t use to directly before a masculine noun like serial.

However, you can say:

To jest serial. – This is a series.

Here to is not agreeing with serial; it’s a general pronoun “this/that/it” introducing a new thing. That’s a different structure from ten serial (this series).

What is the difference between ten and tamten?

Both are demonstratives, but they express different distance (often physical, sometimes mental or contextual):

ten serial – this series (close to the speaker, or just introduced / focused on)
tamten film – that film (over there) or that film (the other one)

So the sentence contrasts two things:

ten serial – the series we’re talking about now / nearer
tamten film – the other film, less “psychologically close,” or previously mentioned / further away

Roughly:

ten ≈ this
tamten ≈ that (over there / the other one)

What does serial mean in Polish? Is it like English “serial”?

Polish serial almost always means a TV series or streaming series (or sometimes a radio series). It does not mean cereal or anything related to grains.

Examples:

polski serial kryminalny – Polish crime series
oglądam ten serial na Netflixie – I’m watching this series on Netflix

So ten serial = this TV series / this show.

How does tak … jak work here?

tak … jak is a standard way to say “as … as” in Polish.

tak śmieszny jak tamten film
= as funny as that film

Structure:

tak
- adjective + jak
  - thing you compare with

More examples:

On jest tak wysoki jak ja. – He is as tall as me.
Ona jest tak zajęta jak jej mąż. – She is as busy as her husband.

So the whole sentence literally follows the English pattern:
Ten serial jest tak śmieszny jak tamten film.
→ This series is as funny as that film.

Why is it tak śmieszny, not taki śmieszny?

Polish distinguishes:

tak – an adverb, used in comparisons (tak … jak) → as / so
taki – an adjective, meaning “such” or “so … (a)”

In a comparison like as funny as, you must use tak:

tak śmieszny jak – as funny as

taki śmieszny alone would mean “so funny / such a funny …” without comparison:

Ten serial jest taki śmieszny! – This series is so funny!

You could say:

Ten serial jest taki śmieszny jak tamten film.

This is possible, but it sounds more like “such a funny series as that film” and is less neutral than the regular tak śmieszny jak pattern. For a plain “as funny as”, tak śmieszny jak is the default.

Why does śmieszny end in -y? Could it be śmieszne or śmieszna?

The ending of śmieszny shows agreement with the noun serial:

serial is masculine singular, nominative
adjectives with such nouns usually end in -y or -i

So:

śmieszny serial – a funny series (masculine)
śmieszna książka – a funny book (feminine)
śmieszne dziecko – a funny child (neuter)
śmieszne seriale – funny series (plural, non‑masculine‑personal)

In the sentence:

Ten serial jest tak śmieszny…
śmieszny agrees in gender, number and case (masculine singular nominative) with serial.

Why is it tamten film, not tamtym filmem or something with a different case?

In Polish comparisons with tak … jak, the noun after jak is usually in the nominative case, as if it were a separate subject:

On jest tak wysoki jak jego brat. (brat – nominative)
Ten dom jest tak duży jak tamten dom. (dom – nominative)

So:

tamten film is nominative (masculine singular) and works as the “standard” of comparison.

You would use other cases only if the grammar demands them for another reason, e.g.:

On pracuje jak niewolnik. – He works like a slave. (here jak = like, and niewolnik is also nominative)

For a simple as … as comparison, nominative is the norm.

Could I leave out jest and just say Ten serial tak śmieszny jak tamten film?

For a full, neutral sentence, you should keep jest:

Ten serial jest tak śmieszny jak tamten film.

Without jest, it sounds incomplete or very colloquial / poetic, and most of the time it would be wrong in everyday standard Polish.

You can drop jest in some other patterns:

Ten serial taki śmieszny! – This series is so funny! (exclamative)

But with a balanced tak … jak comparison, jest is normally required.

Can I change the word order, like Ten serial jest tak śmieszny jak film tamten?

You have some flexibility in Polish word order, but not all permutations sound natural.

Natural/acceptable variants (with different emphasis):

Ten serial jest tak śmieszny jak tamten film. – neutral
Ten serial jest tak śmieszny jak tamten film właśnie. – with added focus on that film in particular
Tak śmieszny jak tamten film jest ten serial. – marked emphasis on the degree of funniness

But:

…jak film tamten – is grammatically possible but sounds unnatural in normal speech. You almost always put the demonstrative before its noun:
- ten film, tamten film, ten serial

How would I say “This series is funnier than that film” instead of “as funny as”?

You’d use the comparative of śmieszny (śmieszniejszy) and niż (than):

Ten serial jest śmieszniejszy niż tamten film.
– This series is funnier than that film.

Pattern:

[subject] + jest + [comparative adjective] + niż + [thing compared]

More examples:

Ona jest wyższa niż on. – She is taller than him.
Ten odcinek jest ciekawszy niż poprzedni. – This episode is more interesting than the previous one.

Does śmieszny only mean “funny”, or can it also be “ridiculous”?

śmieszny most often means “funny, making you laugh”, but depending on context and tone it can also mean “ridiculous / laughable”:

Ten serial jest śmieszny. – usually This series is funny.
To jest śmieszne! (said angrily) – This is ridiculous!

If you want to be unambiguously positive, another common word is zabawny:

Ten serial jest bardzo zabawny. – This series is very amusing.

But śmieszny is the default everyday word for funny.

How do I pronounce śmieszny and serial?

Approximate pronunciations:

śmieszny
- ś – soft “sh”, like “sh” in she but palatalized
- śmie – roughly shmye
- -szny – like sh-nih (with a short, reduced vowel)
  Together: something like [sh-MYESH-nih].
serial
- se – like seh
- ri – like ree
- al – like ahl
  Together: roughly [SEH-ryahl], not like the English word serial [ˈsɪəriəl].

Listening to native audio for words with ś (środa, świeży, śmieszny) will help lock in the sound.