I’m sure that many of you have heard of western European countries like France, Spain, and Germany. Some of you may have even had the pleasure of visiting them. But I’ll bet that not one of you has ever heard of Listenbourg .
Don’t feel too ashamed, there’s actually a good reason why you haven’t — because it doesn’t exist . Still, that didn’t stop a collection of American Twitter users from claiming to know all about it. Now, they’re paying the price as the whole world laughs .
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Americans are known for a great many things around the world.
The United States has long been considered the land of opportunity. It’s the country that introduced the world to Walt Disney, American Football, and of course — the hot dog.
While America has plenty to be proud of, it isn’t without its shortcomings.
One thing that America isn’t particularly celebrated for is its breadth of knowledge in the field of geography. But when you’re country happens to contain the 50 greatest states the world has ever known, the prospect of learning any others seems redundant.
Canadians have been well aware of America’s knowledge gap for decades — thanks largely to the political satirist, Rick Mercer.
Rick Mercer used to have a segment on This Hour Has 22 Minutes called “Talking To Americans,” during which he’d interview American citizens about “pressing” Canadian issues in order to gain their insight.
These “pressing” issues included things like talking to Harvard students about the Candian seal slaughter taking place in Saskatchewan.
If you don’t happen to hail from the Great White North, Saskatchewan is a landlocked prairie province. It borders Alberta to the west, Manitoba to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and South Dakota/Montana to the south.
Recently, the land of the free and home of the brave was once again the butt of a geographical joke.
Only this time, it was France and other parts of Europe who decided to poke fun at the USA’s lack of know-how.
It all began with a harmless tweet from @gaspardooo.
For those that don’t speak French, the translation reads, “I’m sure Americans don’t even know the name of this country .” A fellow Twitter user saw the post and instantly replied, ” Who does not know Listenbourg ?”
I shouldn’t have to say this, but in case you don’t get the joke — there’s no such country as Listounberg.
Also, the giant green slab of land that’s been added to the borders of Spain and Portugal doesn’t exist, either.
However, that didn’t stop some users from taking their trolling of the US to new heights.
Somebody actually went to the trouble of creating a fake Twitter account for the Ministry of the Interior of Listenbourg — complete with a passport photo.
Then, a video appeared on YouTube that claimed to be the national anthem of Listenbourg.
The video quickly racked up more than 37,000 plays in only a few days. The comments are awash with people claiming to be from Listenbourg, as well as those who expel upon its many tourist attractions .
Funny as this may be, the question on many people’s minds is why would France and the rest of Europe troll the US in this manner?
In short, to give them a taste of their own medicine. Back in 2005, the American news network CNN put up a graphic that showed Toulouse and Strasbourg were actually in Switzerland and Germany .
CNN also made the mistake of putting the Ukraine region of Donbas in Pakistan — an entire continent away.
While it might seem like a cruel joke to some, it does stand to reason that if you proclaim your country to be the best in the world — you should at least know where the other ones are.
