About

The Main Difference Between Europe and the USA is an image macro series that depicts the stereotypical cultural differences between Europeans and Americans. The series later evolved to juxtapose cultural stereotypes from a variety of different countries.

Origin

In 2004, Norwegian humor website Prikk.com^[1] shared a photo titled "The main difference between Europe and USA," showing two seated women photographed from behind. Both women are shown wearing low-rise pants with thong underwear. The woman representing Europe is slender with good posture while the woman representing America is overweight and hunched over. In the bottom corner of each image, stereotypical food is presented, to show where the differences come from. Europe is represented by a basket full of wine while America is represented with a McDonald's burger, fries and soft drink.

Spread

Between 2004 and 2005, this image was seen on many forums including Steroid.com^[3], car enthusiast forum Roadfly^[4] and Team Xbox.^[5] An instance of The Main Difference Between Europe and USA^[6] was created on YTMND in 2005, followed by another was created in 2007.^[7] In May 2007, an exploitable template (below right) of the image made its way to 4chan^[2] where users began making their own versions of the original photo. Additional templates were also created juxtaposing American against other countries including Japan (below left).

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References