I will give them this, England is great at geography. Can’t colonize if you can’t get there.
It’s all still on the curriculum from when everything was part of the Glorious Empire
That doesn’t excuse the Americans though
USmilitarybasesaroundtheworld.jpeg
Edit: this one might be better
Military bases != Colonization.
One is an outpost. The other is making the people there subservient to you. I get the point you’re making, but it’s not the same and it trivializes actual colonization(which yes, the US does do). India wasn’t just a military base for the British. They ruled over them and collected taxes and imposed laws. Same with Ireland. It’s be offensive to compare their plights to placing a military base.
k but != ≠ ≠
Actually != = ≠
!===≠But…
!====≠?
Phew. THANK YOU!!
Programming Vs science
I don’t think they need the soldiers to know where the fuck they are, just that “you’re protecting ~corporate interests~ freedom!”
YEP!
Look at all that China aggression!
The taste of fine English cuisine, and the beauty of English women made the English men the best sailors in the world.
How could I not upvote Robin.
Having grown up in both countries, the joke here is about colonialism more than American stupidity.
The British know everywhere spices, sugar and coffee come from innately
The joke is that America Bad, and you’re ruining it by bringing England Bad into it. What are you, some kind of shill for America? How much is Big America paying you, bro?
Big America pays everyone(except our employees)!
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It’s absolutely not.
What’s Nicaragua got to do with British colonialism? It’s about Americans being ignorant of other countries.
What’s Nicaragua got to do with British colonialism?
Well, they did colonize Nicaragua for over 200 years.
*Edit: added link
Right. So you think people know that and that’s what the joke is about?
I never said that. That’s an argument you are having with other people. All I did was answer your question.
The point of the question is to show how limited that information actually is. Just look at how small the Wikipedia article is.
No one is denying English people have set foot on Nicaragua. But to claim that’s what the joke is about is stupid.
No one is going to hear that joke and think “hahaha that’s a about a settlement in 1633! What an absolute reference! Classic”
If you asked about British/English colonialism it would take forever for the members of the public to reference Nicaragua.
Can we agree on a bit of both?
No? If the joke was “we know, we’re British” then maybe. It says schooled in Britain - which implies “we know we learned it in geography”. Not everything needs to have colonialism, capitalism etc in it, it’s just a joke.
Yes, that’s the original joke - having been taught in British schools, they learned about Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
Why this is in the school curriculum, however, is another matter, and this thread is pointing out the coincidence that the British empire colonised Nicaragua for like two centuries.
It’s in the curriculum because it’s geography, wtf do you mean. We learned all the countries in the world, all seas, major lakes, mountains, highlands and lowlands across Europe etc. And no, I’m not British. There doesn’t need to be a deeper meaning when there is none - people simply learn that shit over here.
We learnt about each and every country in the world at school. We had to be able to point it out on a blind map, remember the capital city, name the neighbouring countries, know the main mountains, rivers, economy, those sorts of stuff.
Nothing specifically, but they had a hot interest in the “Americas” for a whiiiile, as did all European countries
Edit, do a quick search lol
That’s the biggest stretch in the world.
The joke is about education systems. If it was about British interest overseas he would have said something like “Yes, we are English. We take a lot of interest in far away lands”.
I’m not saying he wouldn’t make that joke, it’s a normal enough joke for Brit to make. But he is certainly joking about quality in education in this case as he mentions it. You are just imagining the world as you want it to be, not seeing it for how it is.
Let’s wait for the Brits to wake up and see what their view is.
Ok, none of this matters.
You’re totally freaking out about a joke they got MILDLY turned around and it’s a super cool look.
“Just wait until my friends get here”
To be clear:
most of America has shit geography because most Americans never go anywhere. (It’s a big country, where most citizens don’t need to leave to find work or make lives)
Most of Europe (including the UK) have a much better understanding of “the colonies” because it was a huge part of their history for longer than America was a country.
I lived in Surrey from age 5-18 so I think I have a passing, but shallow view of the situation.
Edit if you actually think Britain and Nicaragua have no colonial relationship, maybe learn your geography lol
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_settlement_in_Nicaragua
There are quite a few countries in Europe that never had colonies. They have high standard of geography at school anyway. It’s not related to colonialism, it’s more about the education system.
Of course none of this matters.
If you were making a joke then it was poorly constructed and I missed it. Pyrflie made the same joke but better and I laughed when I read that. Yours comes across as factually incorrect “acktually”.
We seem to have a disagreement about what the joke is about and I’m willing to be proven wrong by Brits. That’s all I’m saying. Short of Noel himself showing up other British people are going to know the meaning of the joke best. Until then I think you are misleading people.
Christ alive. Look jokes works because of peoples understanding of it. If you think English involvement in Nicaragua is common knowledge enough for a joke on colonialism then fucking hell you must think more of the education of the general public than me. As fair as I know American involvement in Nicaragua is way more common knowledge than English involvement there which breaks the joke.
But it is all meaningless anyway because the joke isn’t about that.
This website is weird at times. Joke about American’s education gets turned into a history of colonialism and the breakdown of a what makes a joke, a joke. I’m going to the pub.
The whole premise of the joke is the relative “common knowledge” of Nicaragua, or any other central/south American country. Be it to Americans or Europeans
Im not competing with any other commenter, or anyone else. It’s just a fuckin life experience.
Don’t make jokes if you can’t take jokes
Edit further if living in the UK for a decade across the “formative” years where geography is taught doesn’t count, then I’m not sure where the lesson about countries lands.
Just because that’s what you got out of it, doesn’t mean that it was the intended joke.
If the British are so educated, why don’t they teach their kids about all the pillaging, raping and looting the British Empire has done throughout the world, including Latin America?
Edit: lots of colonialists in his thread. You guys love living in a throne of blood
Or how their campaign to end slavery globally massively bankrupted the nation
I mean it can’t be all England bad all the time, you’ve got to squeeze your times tables and periodic tables in somewhere. We covered the Raj and our role in the causes of WW1 and WW2, as well as the Boer War. There might ve been more ive forgotten.
I love Noel Fielding
Man I wish they still made The Mighty Boosh. So brilliantly surreal.
Have you heard the radio version that came first? If you thought the TV version was surreal…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OZN1zyS7gY
(Yes, I know it’s weird to link to a radio series on a video streaming site. Welcome to the future.)
Just remember the very first music video on MTV, IIRC the band’s name was Biggles
I’d kill for a spin-off that’s centered around the daily business of the shamans.
I loved it so much at the time, but bits of it have aged very poorly (and probably should’ve been criticised back then too, like the full on blackface…)
Noel has no chill
Me too man.
While I do like him as a comedian, there are some stories about his time spent with barely of age girls and his time with Russell Brand that make him less likeable.
Damn it.
Same I saw him for the first time in Taskmaster
This has little to do with American vs British schooling and a lot more to do with the specific people involved. The UK has lots of comedians dumber than Noel and the US has plenty smarter than Chelsea
Aye, but… we all know they are different.
Perhaps it’s hard to see if you’re American, but sometimes it’s downright incredible — in the very sense of the word — how badly educated some Americans are.
I’m Finnish, and I genuinely have a hard time imagining someone not being able to name like 10 countries on a map. Even people I know who literally discovered an inner monologue at the age of 25 while in a stimulant psychosis, and who had been huffing gas and paint since they were 12, and never were too sharp to begin with, those people could name a couple of dozen countries and at least all the continents. (Edit, now that I consider it, I think it’s also to do with Europeans “needing” to know Europe whereas Americans don’t. Just need to know Canada, Mexico, but then all the different states. Although European countries have similar divisions as well, I’d argue the local entities are less crucial than in the States. Hell, I probably don’t remember our one’s 100% correctly)
No offense, America has a lot of smart people. And Noel Fielding isn’t an example of a highly educated person. He was in the Croydon School for Art and then got a degree for graphic design. Meanwhile in the US, common core maths is a thing.
So like, let’s not pretend there’s not a pretty significant difference in the education systems. Not recognising that would mean accepting the one the US has, and I for one think education is rather important and that the US could improve even if they were the best in the world. Which they’re not. Granted, now was the first time I checked the 2024 rankings, and the difference between UK and US is much smaller than I expected. UK being #14 and US #18.
Wow, Richmond looks so joyful there.
He went from goth to boss
As someone totally ignorant about a lot of pop culture, who is that lady?
Chelsea Handler
She’s a football manager?
Who?
Yes
Thank you. I still didn’t know who she was, but I looked her up. She’s clearly ignorant, but it seems like her heart is in the right place.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Handler#Political_views
I consider myself ignorant of only about 2/3rds of pop culture and I still have no idea who any of these people are.
The two at the bottom are British comedians Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt, most famous for a very weird, partially-improvised show called The Mighty Boosh, which has quite a cult following. But I have no idea who the lady is.
Isn’t the left one the goth guy from IT Crowd?
Yes. He also is one of the current hosts of The Great British Bake-Off.
Best part of the show imo. His stints on 8/10 cats are also top tier
There’s nothing I don’t like about bake-off. I hate reality shows because everyone is mean to each other… except bake-off, where everyone’s friendly and nice and encouraging. It’s so refreshing to see.
He was. He’s a boss now.
Is she a right wing personality? Not remembering much about Nicaragua is a serious career booster in those quarters. They should have had Oliver North on the show. No one doesn’t remember more about Nicaragua than him.
…no one is going to get this one.
Oh I got it, but then, I wasn’t schooled in America
Most of us aren’t 60 years old or are going to remember every detail of every major GOP scandal. The short version, Ollie North took the fall for Reagan’s Iran-Contra weapons sales, is sufficient without knowing that the Contras were Nicaraguan.
Ollie North took the fall
I’d hardly call that a fall.
Lots of ancient elderlies on lemmy! We get you!
Sorry, best I can remember is Peter North.
As an American, I get surprised by US states. Like, wtf, you telling me Arkansas is a state? You mean there’s a NEW Mexico? Rhode Island?
Fun fact. New Mexico is older than Mexico. New Mexico was much bigger back then, and named by the Spanish. The US got into a war, and claimed the New Mexico territory, leaving the name the same, and then several years later, the Mexican People declare independence and finally named their country Mexico.
As a European, I’m not surprised by US states, we literally learned them at school.
As a fellow European, you turning an obvious joke into some weird flex on Americans is cringe af.
K
europeans dominating when they get into a naming countries competition with the not educated in the field of naming countries competition competition that they have.
Unfair advantage, England is the worlds leading cause of independence days.
Does the English system teach them about all the rape and pillaging their empire did?
Yes. It does. We have a national curriculum that includes the negative aspects of the British Empire. National curriculums are awesome, you should try it one day.
Considering the US is actively trying to reframe their atrocities as positives or flat out trying to write them out of history, probably not the best take
Why is it a bad take? Nobody here is defending America over England. They’re both monsters, they’re both of the same cloth.
Assuming a us viewpoint, it’s akin to a serial killer telling a petty thief how despicable they are for stealing.
Not a perfect metaphor with England’s past but considering they’re actively trying to educate on and make up for the atrocities they’ve committed, it serves to illustrate the point.
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