I love the way it says Björk for Iceland.

Hey, what's this?! Santa Claus and sauna are part of Finnish heritage, not Swedish or Norwegian. Wikipedia knows it:

Santa Claus

The American version of Santa Claus lives at the North Pole, while Father Christmas is said to reside in Finland.

Sauna

A sauna (pronounced /ˈsɔːnə/, or as Finnish [ˈsɑunɑ]) is a small room or house designed as a place to experience dry or wet heat sessions, or an establishment with one or more of these and auxiliary facilities. These facilities derive from the Finnish sauna. The word sauna is also used metaphorically to describe an unusually hot or humid environment.

Good, but I think lutefisk is Norway only. The swedes have their own scary fishdish: surstrømming.

Yeah wtf, Sauna is 100% Finnish!

But the debate of whose babes are hotter is still on going... I still think norway.

Porn? Vodka? Naked saunas? Sounds like Sweden FTW. And you still get death metal. I can totally live with Abba in exchange for all that.

How could they forget Norwegian lefse?

Putting saunas in sweden is just plain insulting to Finn's. It's such a predominate part of Finnish culture--there being about 2 saunas for every 5 finns--especially since Sweden destroyed so much of Finnish culture when they conqured it. It was the Finns who in World War II would have a Sauna back at base camp. When they pushed the front forward they would leave someone behind to tend the stove, incase they had to fall back. The first thing they did when they succedded in moving forward and had to build a new base camp was to build a new sauna.

@steve rimjobs: we eat lutefisk in Sweden too, especially around christmas.

@Rauz,

Not as much lutefisk and us Minnesotan Swedish descendants do.

*twitch* *shudder*

Give me lefse anyday. It doesn't tarnish spoons, and I've never seen a cat throw it right back up after eating it. (which I have seen w. lutefisk)

Lefse is also actually tasty, whereas lutefisk is practically the polar opposite of tasty.

Yigg.

*twitches some more at memories of lutefisk, painful memories*

-abs

This is brilliant.
"Hates Sweden" is spot on when it comes to many Norwegians. Why do they hate them. As a Norwegian even I can't give you a straight answer. Only theory I got is envy.

Lingonberries = Cranberries for MEN!

The Nobel prize is Swedish too.

ALMOSTLUCID: The Nobel **Peace** Prize is in Norway.

Can't forget about a-ha in the Norwegian circle. Also, trolls have to be on the map somewhere.

@10# Could be because the swedes ruled us for a couple of hundred years and robbed all that they could. Yeah, it could be that.
Also, you will be hard pressed to find a sane Norwegian that hates Sweden today. Its more a joke now really.

there are sane Norwegians?

Anyone know why "Australia" is mentioned in a Venn diagram about Northern European geography?

The Venn diagram at the right is a reference to the Australian indie-pop band "Architecture in Helsinki". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2bqsWU1R3k

I think the point is that the saunas in Sweden are Naked...or is that the sauna users?

They left out my favorite Swedish export - crustcore. Sweden, Japan, and Minneapolis are numbers 1, 2, and 3 for greatest crust. To be fair, though, Norwegian metalheads fucking burn down churches. So that's pretty badass.

I think a Norway vs. Kenya diagram is necessary.

"Lutfisk" (Swedish), "Lipeäkala" (finnish) is eaten in both sweden and finland too. "Lut" means lye, otherwise not used much in cooking, I'd presume.

Saunas in finland are more naked than in sweden. Also, finns slap themselves and eachothers with branches of birch (with the leaves on, it's very nice). Unrelatedly, Björk means birch.

The Nobel Peace prize winner is chosen by norwegians, the rest of the nobels are chosen by swedes.

They forgot Techno Viking and Swedish meatballs.

And about sauna. Yes, that is very much more finnish than swedish. In Finland many apartment blocks are built with a sauna in *each* flat. You're not likely to find a sauna in an apartment in sweden unless it was put there by a finn living in Sweden.

Man! I thought Sweden and Norway were just other names for Denmark. Well I'll be ...

The capitol of Norway is pronounced OOOO-Schloo, BTW.

Elements required:

Whaling habits in Norge
Another Venn bubble for Denmark
Iron ore for Sweden
At centerpoint: pan-Scandiavian cooking (and what an uncomfortable alliance that is too)

Also, Sweden is missing Skwisgaar Skwigelf, and Norway is missing Toki Wartooth.

Hey! No PirateBay?!?!? What's up with that?

And yes, I'm wearing my yellow shirt today! ^_^

Notice the superfluous quotation marks for Europe.

(I would love to live in Björk someday.)

#17: The joke is that Americans' knowledge of world geography leaves something to be desired. It's called dry wit.

What about Swedish meatballs and/or Smörgåsbord? or that Conan O'Brien thinks Sweden Sucks? or the Swedish chef muppet?

I'm happy with TPB and lingonberries though.

Can someone please do one for Germany and Austria now? because i'm not 100% sure what the differences are either. i bet i know one name that'd be in the center section, though...

Hah! This is so cute.

Personally I think we need a Washington vs. Washington D.C. one in order to aid me in telling various Europeans where I come from... Here's a hint, their American geography knowledge is *not* better than our European geography...

Oh yeah. While you obviously know the 15 german states by name or the 100 french departements?! Europeans at least don't confuse Austria with Australia.

Plus: What is it with naked saunas? Are you not supposed to be naked in any sauna? Isn't that part of the whole concept?

Dudes and dudettes! The joke is about COUNTRY names. I.E. WORLD awareness. Not prefectures or departments or states. Kinda like the notion of New Zealand being joined to Australia with a bridge. I couldn't believe it when I met the SECOND American who wanted to drive from NZ to Aussie! But hey, who's poifikt anyways? Not me!

@#33 minamisan

I think you'd find it would be Adolf AND Arnold...

Americans are so funny, I was on vacation in New England last year and several people told me:
You are Swedish, oh, you have such good cheese and chocolate over there don't you?
to which I just nodded. I don't really feel like explaining European geography and how Sweden and Switzerland are two different countries.

US Americans should be given things, such as, maps, and South Africa :)

Hey! Why is Thor only on the Norwegian side? Thor, Odin and all the Norse gods belong to Scandinavia in general, not one country.

#38)

Most Americans are just being nice, which is often taken as ignorance, they're just trying to say something friendly since everyone assumes we're raised on Hollywood and redneck philosophy.

Plus....our crappy chocolate tastes like wax and stale sugar, Europeans as a whole take for granted their candy is better.=P

and...We *have* maps. We just don't use them until vacation times....