Line #39 Literature/OurDumbWorld


1	''Our Dumb World'' is a mock world atlas written by ''Website/TheOnion'', published in 2007. It contains a section on every country on Earth, plus some places that aren't countries. It's a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Literature/OurDumbCentury''.
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5	!!This book provides examples of:
6	* FourOneNineScam: The first page of Nigeria.
7	* AllGermansAreNazis: Germany is portrayed as a nation struggling with an addiction to mass-murdering Jews, though it doesn't remember anything that happened between the years 1939 and 1946 for some suspicious reason.
8	* ArgentinaIsNaziLand: Argentina's entry describes it as this.
9	* BaitAndSwitchComparison: The entry for Idaho seems like it's going to talk about the state's potatoes, but instead it talks about the "famous Idaho iron ore":
10	--> When it's suppertime and Americans sit down to enjoy a hearty meal, all look to the state of Idaho for one key ingredient: the steel girders and metal studs that help to hold together their dining room table and chairs.
11	* BlackComedy: The entire book.
12	* BrandX: Central African Republic is presented as a generic store brand version of an African country, with pictures of people wearing black-and-white African garb and selling generically-labeled products.
13	* CrapsackWorld: Essentially how every country is presented, especially in the sections for Africa and the Middle East.
14	* DamnedByFaintPraise:
15	** The Republic of the Congo constantly remarks that at least it's doing much better than the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with only half as much civil war and a slightly less rampant AIDS problem.
16	** Tunisia supposedly treats women more fairly than in other Muslim countries... which means they are abused and tortured ''slightly'' less often.
17	* EgyptIsStillAncient: Parodied. Instead of a country that people live in, Egypt is described as a bunch of exhibits scattered in museums throughout the world.
18	* EverytownAmerica: The entire state of Ohio is described as this.
19	-->The blonde-haired, blue-eyed, baseball cap-wearing patriots of Ohio live in America's most all-American state.
20	* FarSideIsland: The Pacific island nation of Kiribati is said to be one of these.
21	* FlyoverCountry: The American Midwest is described this way.
22	* GirlfriendInCanada: On the map of Canada, there's a spot marked as "Location of supposed girlfriend from camp".
23	* HollywoodAtlas: Exploiting (or making up) national stereotypes for humor is the whole point of the book.
24	* HollywoodTeenager: The rebellious 15-year-old country of Eritrea.
25	* HypocriticalHumor: The section on Italy claims the country rudely stereotypes other cultures by loose generalizations, then derides all Italians as "greasy, filthy womanizers".
26	* JadedWashout: Greece is depicted as a nation-scale version of this--after having been a center of culture and philosophy, it now spends most of its time raising its kids, worrying about how to pay the bills, and grumbling about how it doesn't have time to do that kind of stuff anymore.
27	* {{Joisey}}: Portrayed as as a place full of rude people telling others to mind their own business.
28	--> "Demanding people shove it up their asses since 1832" Located in you know where the fuck we are, and bordered by a bunch of places that can suck it—especially you, Pennsylvania—New Jersey is one of the nation's oldest and most historic states. So fuck you.
29	* LightBulbJoke: Poland's section has many of these, among other jokes bashing Polish people.
30	* MailOrderBride: This is portrayed as Ukraine's sole export and a booming industry.
31	* NonIndicativeName: The section on North Macedonia focuses largely on the fact that the nation doesn't actually have much in common with the Macedonia Alexander the Great ruled (most of that land is now owned by Greece), and consequently spends most of the section treating it as the ShoddyKnockoffProduct version of Greece.
32	* PornNames: Hungary, portrayed as solely devoted to making porn, goes by "Gary Hung" in the business.
33	* RetroactiveLegacy: The cover of the book lists it as its 73rd edition.
34	* RunningGag: Many Countries in Africa have a person named Mtumbe Ngoube.
35	* SecondPlaceIsForLosers: South Korea's section, titled "#1 at Being #2", describes the country as tragically not being the best at anything, beaten in every aspect by a different Asian country.
36	* SkewedPriorities: India cares far more about helping Americans set up computers over the phone than fixing their own problems like pollution and malaria.
37	* TakeThat: The part on Minnesota is titled "Land of 10,000 Retards" and consists of over-the-top bashing of the state. Additionally, unlike the rest of the Midwest, Minnesota is classified under "The Bullshit States" along with Alaska and Hawaii. It should be noted that ''The Onion'' was founded in Madison, Wisconsin.
38	* TakeThatAudience: The introduction contains "A Note to ''Barnes & Noble'' Browsers" bashing people who read the book in the store without buying it.
39	* TheTeamWannabe: Categorized under the Middle East, Turkey's page is titled "Totally Out Of This Atlas Section As Soon As The EU Accepts Them". The country denies its Muslim majority and genocidal history solely because it wants to be considered part of Europe.
40	* TragicAIDSStory: The page on Botswana makes note of its sky-high rate of HIV infection, and describes it as a country that, after finding out it had AIDS, got its house in order and became a legitimate Third World success story. (Swaziland, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky.)
41	* {{Uberwald}}: Romania is portrayed this way, with the page's subtitle reading ''[[Film/BramStokersDracula Bram Stoker's Romania]]''.
42	* WretchedHive: South Africa is noted primarily for its extremely high crime rate. The description begins by pointing out that the claimed rate of one crime happening to South Africans every 17 seconds is "nearly impossible to verify, as everyone in the country has his or her watch stolen every 12 seconds."

Context Literature / OurDumbWorld