264
Simple as
(lemmy.zip)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 06 May 2026
264 points (100.0% liked)
European Memes
289 readers
3 users here now
Welcome to European Memes A community dedicated to sharing, creating, and enjoying memes that celebrate, satirize, and explore the unique cultures, histories, and quirks of Europe. Whether you’re from the EU, the UK, the Balkans, Scandinavia, or anywhere in between—this is your place to laugh, relate, and connect through the universal language of memes.
What Should Be Posted Here?
Cultural Memes: Memes about European traditions, stereotypes, and inside jokes (e.g., “Germans and their rules,” “British tea obsession,” “Italian hand gestures”). Political & Historical Memes: Lighthearted takes on European politics, history, and current events (e.g., Brexit, EU bureaucracy, medieval drama). Geographical Humor: Memes about European geography, borders, and rivalries (e.g., “Why does Europe have so many small countries?”). Language & Translation Fails: Funny mistranslations, language quirks, and multilingual memes. Travel & Tourism Memes: Relatable content about traveling in Europe, tourist traps, and local experiences. Food & Cuisine Memes: Jokes about European food, regional dishes, and culinary rivalries (e.g., “Pineapple on pizza is a war crime”). Note: Keep it fun, inclusive, and respectful. Memes should be accessible to a broad European audience.
Subreddit Rules
Keep It European
Memes should be relevant to Europe, Europeans, or European culture. Off-topic memes will be removed.
No Hate Speech or Bigotry
Racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and other forms of hate speech are strictly prohibited. Satire is welcome, but not at the expense of marginalized groups.
No Spam or Self-Promotion
Don’t flood the sub with your own content or links. Participate genuinely.
English Preferred, but Multilingual Welcome
While English is the main language, memes in other European languages are allowed if the humor is clear or a translation is provided.
Be Kind and Constructive
Disagreements happen, but keep discussions civil. Personal attacks, trolling, or harassment will result in bans.
Ready to post? Share your best European memes, upvote the funniest content, and join the conversation! Let’s make this the go-to place for European humor
founded 3 months ago
MODERATORS
I don't get why everyone hates France.
Its mostly for fun and not seriouse.
Germany and france had the Erbfeindschaft (french-german enmity), a rivalery whoms origin you can trace back all the way to the splitting of the franconian empire or even way back to roman empire times. Because romans vs germanic tribes, and the bor
England and france have something similair due to the hundred years war shenanigans.
Spain and Austria and france due to the Habsburgs and French Kingdom having always been at each others throats for dominance over europe
Russia and France due to Napoleon
The dutch and the french due to the Kingdom of Burgundy and Napoleon
Italy and france could be traced back to romans vs gauls but defenetly also has to do with the italian wars, papal shenanigans like the whole avignion popes and constantly interfearing in papal state situations
I do not know of any more actually proper rivaleries with the france. Today its all jokes and giggles, italy and france only culturally are in a friendly rivalery, germany and france have one of the tightes friendships and is now the franco german friendship :) (im just saying ARTE) I am german and we germans can learn a lot from france, especially cultural wise lots of things i admire about the french people. <3
Continuons à œuvrer pour une Europe unie et pacifique!
Some jokes and giggles are very long standing, a pretty large part of the Rhinelandic carnival tradition traces back to mocking the (napoleonic) French, for example...
Which once? None of them that i know come from the occupation but like the rest to mock clergy, nobility, the upper crust in general and ofc some good old germanic paganism
Especially the carnival sessions (with the council of 11, and fanfares after someone speaks, which is a mockery of the official proceedings the French occupation introduced), and the significance of the number 11 as such, as a mockery of the French revolutionary slogan "Egalité, Liberteé, Fraternité", which was frequently abbreviated as ELF, meaning eleven in German, and used in all sorts of documents and inscriptions of the occupation authorities.
The more you know :)
I’m English and I was driving through Europe and ended up in France. I was at a petrol station and when a new cashier opened up and everybody behind me in the queue just walked past me to the new. I was sort of stood there in shock waiting for someone to let me go in front of them before I suddenly remembered and I was like “Oh yeah, I’m in France”.
As a fellow Brit, that sort of behavior is unthinkable. I hope you tutted loudly.
Go and visit a German supermarket. When a new queue opens you will see grandma's running at speeds that would qualify them for an Olympic sprint race if they could keep it up for more than the distance to the next cashier. I am always amazed that nobody is tripping and hurting themselves in their panic to get to new cashier as quickly as possible.
In stark contrast to that, when the fire alarm goes off in the supermarket, they will calmly continue shopping as if nothing happened in the happy ignorance of the roof they are shopping under being of the same structural integrity as the frozen pizza sold underneath it: 12 Minutes at 220 degrees and it's done.
As a European I'm confused.
Did the cashier you were queued for stop accepting customers? If not, what exactly is the queue etiquette supposed to be here? Nobody moves to the new queue until the person in front of them confirms they don't desire to switch?
What I'm used to from grocery shops/supermarkets is that, as soon as a new cashier opens, everyone in the queue evaluates for themselves whether their place in the new queue would be faster and moves accordingly. If practical (new queue is close to the old one and can be reached by simply walking over) the order from the old queue is generally preserved. If instead the natural way to move would invert the order (tight isles, obstacles between the queues) that is simply what happens. In either case, this usually splits the queue into roughly equal parts in a quick and efficient manner and does so organically, without the need for verbal communication.
I'm curious how this is normally done in the UK/US.
Something I've always hated myself, but the Germans are even worse with this ;)
I'm American and experienced the same thing in Germany. Not everyone has the enlightened tradition of the queue we got from you guys!
Or maybe everybody just instantly clocked you as an Ami who needs to go home. :P
Not unless they heard me speak. And I was home, as I was living in Germany at the time. You're sounding very American yourself!
A joke, following the general vibe in this thread, of friendly international ribbing. Followed by a cheeky smiley.
I suppose the fact that this was a different time (80s and 90s) makes a big impact. Americans weren't as reviled back then as they are now. I'd probably tell people I'm Canadian if I went back there now.
Should of given them an old chelsea smile.
Turns out rampaging through the Netherlands, the Rhineland principalities, northern Italy, the Balkans, Austria, Prussia, Poland, Russia, Egypt, Spain, and Portugal in the span of 20 years earns you some longstanding animosity.
Hold on, when was that? Was it after literally all the royal families in Europe banded together trying to punish the one country that dared murder their king, because they feared it would spread to their own country? When England kept sitting across the sea while funding multiple European coalitions to keep attacking over and over?
to the general population the reasons really do not matter. didn't then, and not even now.
the question wasn't wether or not the animosity is justified, but where it comes from.
It's okay, we don't hold a grudge against them for trying to enforce absolute monarchy by crushing a people that tried to break free from their tyranny. We just think they're pussies.
I am french so super biased, but I think the joke is that nobody really hates the French so we're eligible to be joke-hated.
I love how the French are largely ungovernable, but y’all are definitely snooty. I remember having a French exchange student who refused to eat corn because it was for cows. And who refused to eat cheese in the us, even when it was properly fancy cheese. But he loved epoisse.
Only string cheese deluxe for our delightful French guests
Them being ungovernable probably has a large roll for why media portrays them in a bad light.
I wouldn't think governments and corporations around the world would want their populations being more like the French
in Canada, we pretend hate anything about Toronto... but it's just a running joke, except the Leafs, they do suck for real
Napoleon. Also punching up is acceptable mostly.
Obviously because of the attitude of the French people displayed here in the comments.
Cliché about French people being pretentious exists => everyone hates the French => the French try to get in on the joke and pretend to be pretentious in the comments => cliché about French people is reinforced => etc.
Can you point to those comments? Because I think I read one comment from a French guy and he is not sour or anything...
The English have tainted the English-speaking world's views on mainland Europe. Plus, the French lack of immediate support after 9/11 also started a wave of French hate. The infamous "freedom fries" stuff. Then, it's rare for the average American to meet real French people and disabuse Americans of stereotypes. Which, to be fair, aren't exactly wrong...in Paris. Once you get out in the country the French are generally pretty chill. New Yorkers aren't exactly universally friendly either, so it's sorry of a double standard IMO.
It's an old joke I guess. I'm French and I don't know why though. It give me an excuse to pretend I'm better than everyone else, everyone laughs, it's the point of the meme I guess, no need to think about it further.
In my experiences as a German visiting France a few times they are more pretentious about speaking french.
I feel like in other countries people care less about me not speaking their native language, most often we both just speak english and everything is fine.
And even if neither of us speaks any language of the other I feel people are more willing to communicate with hands and feet. In France they just look at you annoyed and hope you go away.
I always thought it was the French don't take any shit from their government(or less than any other country I can think of) making governments and media push Anti-French smear campaigns hard.
If you want to control a population you don't want them getting to friendly or respecting the population that will riot whenever their government attempts to strip rights away.
Just an opinion though