Animaniacs Wiki
Advertisement
Animaniacs Wiki

"Yakko's World" is a song from the eponymous segment of episode 2 of the original Animaniacs series, and probably the most iconic Animaniacs song. In the song, Yakko names all (actually most) of the nations of the world as of 1993 (with many inaccuracies). A clip of the sing-along version of this song has been viewed more than fifteen million times on the official WB Kids YouTube. To this day, Rob Paulsen, the voice of Yakko, never misses an opportunity to perform this song live, rarely with error. The segment was animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha Co., Ltd.

The song was written by Animaniacs song-writer Randy Rogel, and is his first song for the show. When he saw his son studying geography, he saw that "United States, Canada" rhymed with "Mexico, Panama." Rogel proceeded to write and rhymed the other lines, got to work on the lyrics, and sent the song to the Animaniacs crew. The music is that of the "Jarabe Tapatío," better known as the "Mexican Hat Dance" tune, a traditional Mexican song. Rogel later wrote a new updated verse that included many countries that were skipped or which did not exist when the original song was written. Rob Paulsen has included this new verse in performances of the song in Animaniacs Live! and at conventions, and notably recorded it in a 2017 Nerdist video.

The song was released on multiple soundtrack album (including Animaniacs, Yakko's World and The Animaniacs' Wacky Universe) and was adapted into a coloring book.

Description

The song begins with an announcer introducing the song and Yakko, who happily leaps in donning a graduation cap and a pointer. Throughout the song, Yakko runs and jumps around to different sections of the map to highlight each territory (which also glow with different colors). At the end of the song, Yakko poses as the map rolls-up to a black screen.

Lyrics

Announcer:
And now, the nations of the world, brought to you by Yakko Warner!
*Music*
Yakko:
United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama,
Haiti, Jamaica, Peru,
Republic Dominican, Cuba, Caribbean,
Greenland, El Salvador, too.
Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela,
Honduras, Guyana, and still,
Guatemala, Bolivia, then Argentina,
And Ecuador, Chile, Brazil.
Costa Rica, Belize, Nicaragua, Bermuda,
Bahamas, Tobago, San Juan,
Paraguay, Uruguay, Suriname,
And French Guiana, Barbados, and Guam.
*Faster music*
Norway, and Sweden, and Iceland, and Finland,
And Germany, now in one piece,
Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia,
Italy, Turkey, and Greece.
Poland, Romania, Scotland, Albania,
Ireland, Russia, Oman,
Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia, Hungary,
Cyprus, Iraq, and Iran.
There's Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan,
Both Yemens, Kuwait, and Bahrain,
The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Portugal,
France, England, Denmark, and Spain.
*Even faster music*
India, Pakistan, Burma, Afghanistan,
Thailand, Nepal, and Bhutan,
Kampuchea, Malaysia, then Bangladesh, Asia,
And China, Korea, Japan.
Mongolia, Laos, and Tibet, Indonesia,
The Philippine Islands, Taiwan,
Sri Lanka, New Guinea, Sumatra, New Zealand,
Then Borneo, and Vietnam.
Tunisia, Morocco, Uganda, Angola,
Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Botswana,
Mozambique, Zambia, Swaziland, Gambia,
Guinea, Algeria, Ghana.
*Much faster music*
Burundi, Lesotho, and Malawi, Togo,
The Spanish Sahara is gone,
Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and Liberia,
Egypt, Benin, and Gabon.
Tanzania, Somalia, Kenya, and Mali,
Sierra Leone, and Algiers,
Dahomey, Namibia, Senegal, Libya,
Cameroon, Congo, Zaire.
Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar,
Rwanda, Mahore and Cayman,
Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Yugoslavia...
Crete, Mauritania, then Transylvania,
Monaco, Liechtenstein, Malta, and Palestine,
Fiji, Australia, Sudan!

New Updated Verse

Montenegro and Bosnia Herzegovina,
The Soviet Union is gone,
South Africa, Georgia, Moldovia, Latvia,
Belarus, Azerbaijan.
Uzbekistan, HEY! Kazakhstan, HEY!
Then there's Tajikistan too, HEY!
Turkmenistan, HEY! Kyrgyzstan,
Armenia, Tonga, Palau.
Lithuania, Serbia, Kosovo,
US Samoa, the Balkans, Brunei,
Macau and Crimea, then Eritrea...
Ukraine, and Estonia, here's Macedonia,
New Caledonia, Then Eastern Slavonia,
Ivory Coast, and Cape Verde, Andorra,
The Solomon Islands, Dubai!
Goodbye!

Call-Backs in Animaniacs-Related Media

As one of their first and most famous songs, the series has referred back to and joked about it numerous times:

Animaniacs (Original Series)

Pinky and the Brain

  • In "The Third Mouse," Trudy forcefully asks Pinky "What do you know?!" to which Pinky replies, "The lyrics to 'Yakko's World'." Pinky and Yakko are both voiced by Rob Paulsen.

Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain

  • In the episode "Squeeze Play," Brain talks about his latest plan when Pinky bursts into this song until Brain stops him.

Animaniacs (Reboot)

  • Yakko dons the cap and pointing stick at the end of the Animaniacs theme song for the following variable lines:
  • In "Gold Meddlers", when Yakko says that the horse races and the human takes all the credit, Wakko sarcastically remarks to Yakko "You know a lot about taking all the credit, Mr. Countries-of-the-World song". (A reference to "Yakko's World" being more well-known than "Wakko's America".) As Wakko says this, the background music plays a bit of "Yakko's World."
  • Yakko dons the cap while attempting to sing a song about 16th-century Italian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo in the episode "Bun Control."
  • In "The Warners' Press Conference", the news ticker, at some point, reads the first line of the song, skipping Panama, Haiti, and Jamaica.
  • In "My Super Sour Sixteen", Yakko starts to nervously sing the first line of the song when the partygoers discover that he and his siblings aren't the real Boystorm.
  • In "Yakko Amakko", Yakko, after being tormented by the animator, tries to win her over by singing a jazzy rendition of this song, before the animator changes his voice to Ralph.
    • The song is briefly referenced again later in the same episode, during the "Magna Cartoon" segment. As Yakko sings "To every corner of the Earth..." in "The Magna Carta Song," he dances in front of a medieval-style world map the same way he dances in front of the modern world map between the verses of "Yakko's World."
  • In "Wakkiver Twist Part Two", Yakko sings a similar song listing the countries of the early 19th Century.
  • In "Christopher Columbusted", Wakko says that the island of Hispaniola contains modern day Haiti and "the Republic Dominican," Dot warns him not to call it that or "you-know-who will start singing you-know-what." Yakko promptly appears with mortarboard and pointer, asking "What was that?"
  • In "Santamaniacs," the song is referenced twice during the "We Could Try to Do It, Santa" musical number. First, Yakko dons the cap and points at a map when singing about Puerto Rico and Madrid. Then, he points out Laos as Wakko sings the song.

Other

Trivia

References in other media

See also List of references to Animaniacs in popular culture

The song has also been referenced and parodied in other media, often listing things other than countries:

  • The song was referenced in a rather infamous Robot Chicken episode "Cheese Puff Mountain." Rob Paulsen had reportedly declined to reprise his role of Yakko for the segment, most likely due to the overly-inappropriate jokes regarding Yakko and Dot.[1]
  • In 2007, seatarsprayzan made a parody of the song that mentions every Transformers G1
  • This song became an internet meme in 2018 and was later parodied by many users in replacement remixes. Especially the lines "Guam", "Botswana", and "the Spanish Sahara is gone" have became popular among others.

Errors, Inaccuracies, and Other Geographical Trivia

  • The following nations are not included or mentioned in the original song: Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Central African Republic, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Georgia, Grenada, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Micronesia, Moldova, Montenegro, Nauru, Palau, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, and Vatican City. In italics are countries which came into existence after 1993 when the song was released, and in bolds are countries which would be later mentioned by Rob Paulsen in a 2017 Nerdist video.
  • A few countries are listed by names that are only partially correct:
    • Trinidad and Tobago is mentioned incorrectly as "Tobago." Not only is Tobago not an independent country, but it is by far the smaller of the two islands, having roughly 1/20th the population and 1/16th as the area of Trinidad.
    • Papua New Guinea is incorrectly called "New Guinea," which is actually the name of the entire island. Only half of New Guinea belongs to Papua New Guinea, while the other half belongs to Indonesia. Only the half belonging to Papua New Guinea lights up at this point in the song.
    • "Congo" is more properly the Republic of the Congo. This was not strictly inaccurate at the time of the song, but the full name became necessary to differentiate it form the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo after the latter changed its name from Zaire in 1997.
    • The Philippines is called "The Philippine Islands" which refers to the islands in the country, not the country itself.
  • Several countries have changed their names since the song was written:
    • While "Kampuchea" remains the country's name in its native Khmer, its official international name was changed back to "Cambodia" in 1989, which may still have been within the song's production time. This change was made to in an effort to change global opinion after the overthrow of Pol Pot's Communist regime, which had first adopted the international name of "Kampuchea."
    • "Burma" was similarly renamed "Myanmar" in 1989. However, some governments (most notably US government) refuse to acknowledge the name change because they consider the military junta that declared the change to have maintained power illegally, and so still officially refer to the country as "Burma."
    • "Zaire" changed its name to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 1997 (not to be confused with the neighboring Republic of the Congo).
    • In April 2018, King Mswati III announced that Swaziland was officially renamed "Eswatini" commemorating the 50th anniversary of Swazi independence from the United Kingdom, to remove any references to colonial rule.
    • While not strictly a name change, in early 2022 the government of Turkey requested the use of its native Turkish name, Türkiye in all English-language international dealings.
  • The song includes many territories that do not constitute independent nations. This leads to some countries technically being mentioned more than once.
    • Both Algeria and its capital city of Algiers are mentioned. The full country of Algeria lights up for both of them.
    • The Romanian territory of Transylvania is mentioned in addition to the full country of Romania.
    • Crete, the largest of the Greek Islands, is listed in addition to Greece itself.
    • Benin is mentioned both by its correct name and by its pre-1975 name of Dahomey.
    • Greenland is a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark, which is also mentioned.
    • Tibet was annexed by China in 1950 and is now an autonomous region of that country.[2] However, at the time the song was written, the Free Tibet movement was wildly popular so it could have been added to the song as a shown of support. On the map Tibet is shown as part of China and it lights up when both it and China are mentioned.
    • Indonesia is mentioned three times with the mention of its largest island, Sumatra, and Borneo.
      • The island of Borneo also contains portions of Malaysia, which is also mentioned in the original song, along with the entirety of Brunei, which is not mentioned.
    • France is mentioned three times: as "France," but also by two of its overseas departments and regions.
      • Mahore is an alternative name for the French overseas department and region of Mayotte, which is disputed with Comoros. At the time this song aired, it was an overseas collectivity of France.
      • French Guiana is also an overseas department and region of France. The "Guianas" is the colonial name of the region covered by Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, parts of Brazil and parts of Venezuela. During the European colonization of South America, the territory got divided between British Guiana (now the independent country of Guyana), Dutch Guiana (now the independent country of Suriname) and French Guiana. There were also Portuguese and Spanish Guianas, which are now parts of Brazil and Venezuela respectively.
    • The United States gets mentioned four times: as "United States," but also by its unincorporated territories of Guam and Puerto Rico, and by Puerto Rico's capital city of San Juan.
      • This means that the inclusion of "San Juan" is doubly inaccurate as a city within a dependent territory of another country.
    • The United Kingdom technically gets mentioned five times in the song:
      • Scotland and England are two of the four constituent countries that make up the United Kingdom with the other two being Northern Ireland and Wales. Despite this, neither Wales or Northern Ireland are mentioned in the song, nor is the UK itself.
      • Hong Kong was a British territory at the time of the song's release. It was returned to China as a special administrative region in 1997.
      • Bermuda and Cayman are British territories as well, where "Cayman" refers to the Cayman Islands, a territory consisting of the islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman.
    • The Caribbean is a sea, presumably mentioned to cover several small island countries such as St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Grenada, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, and so on.
    • Asia is listed in the lyrics despite it being part of the seven continents rather than a country. This inaccuracy is fixed in the Czech dub (see below).
      • Since Asia is not lit up when it is mentioned, it is highly possible this is intended to be part of the phrase "Bangladesh, Asia" (as in "Bangladesh, which is in Asia") rather than its own separate entry.
    • Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates and the largest of the seven emirates. The UAE is not otherwise mentioned in the song.
    • Palestine was not fully recognized as a nation in 1993. Its status is somewhat more certain now, as the State of Palestine was accepted by the UN as a non-member observer state in 2012 and is recognized as a sovereign nation by 138 of the 193 UN members (notably not including the United States and most of western Europe).
    • Taiwan's case is particularly complicated. The state known as the Republic of China (ROC) ruled both Taiwan and mainland China until losing the Chinese Civil War to the Communist Party of China in 1949. The ROC relocated to the island of Taiwan, which they maintained control of, while the Communist Party took control of mainland China and established the new state of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The ROC still claims to be the legitimate government of mainland China, while the PRC claims sovereignty over Taiwan. The ROC lost its UN seat to the PRC in 1971, and only maintains official relations with 14 UN members and Vatican City, but operates as a de facto independent country and has informal relations with nearly all UN members.
  • Several nations mentioned in the song have since been dissolved or had portions of their territory successfully declare independence:
    • The USSR (also known as the Soviet Union) in 1991 — almost 2 years before the song aired — but, due to the time required for the Warner Bros. production, it was still not divided when the song was written and is all covered by "Russia." This would include 14 independent countries besides Russia itself (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan) which all of them would be later mentioned in the 2017 new verse.
    • Yugoslavia was broken up in 1991-1992 into multiple countries, ultimately becoming the modern countries of Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo (though the last of these is not fully recognized by the UN as an independent country as of 2024.)
    • Czechoslovakia had divided into two separate countries, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, a few months before the song aired.
      • As of 2016, the Czech Republic is also known by the official short-form name "Czechia."
    • Timor-Leste became independent from Indonesia in 2002.
    • Most recently, South Sudan separated from Sudan in 2011.
  • Korea is mentioned as one nation despite being it clearly being shown as two. Like Germany, Korea had been divided into two different states through the Cold War. Korea was then and is still now divided between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea, colored in yellow on Yakko's map) and the Republic of Korea (RoK, or South Korea, colored in green).
  • On the other hand, the countries of North and South Yemen had both been reunified into Yemen in 1990 (3 years before the song's release), and yet it is still mentioned as "both Yemens." Much like with the USSR, this is likely to have been missed due to the long lead time required by the animation production process.
  • There are several pronunciation errors, many of which are common among English speakers:
    • French Guiana and Guyana are pronounced the same way in the video. French Guiana is correct, but the first syllable of Guyana is pronounced like the word "guy".
    • Paraguay and Uruguay are pronounced with the "guay" as "gwai."
    • Suriname is pronounced "sur-uh-namm" than "sur-uh-nam."
    • Iraq and Iran is pronounced with the "I" as "ee," and "raq" in Iraq is like the word "rock."
    • Yakko seems to pronounce Bhutan as either "boo-TANG" or "boo-TAN", but the correct pronunciation is "boo-TAAN."[3]
    • Lesotho is pronounced "leh-SOO-too".[4]
    • Sri Lanka is pronounced "sree-LANE-ka."
    • Malawi is pronounced "ma-LAH-wi", with the stress and accent on the second, and not the first.
  • There are also some visual errors or inconsistencies:
    • The projection used on the world map leads to some places being much further away than they should be:
      • Greenland and Europe appear to be separated by a few thousand miles. This leads to Iceland actually being on the map twice, and in two different colors: once in green near Greenland, and once in yellow near Europe.
        • Because of this, Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, etc.) were moved southwest so they would fit on the map.
    • Many countries that border each other share the same color. Not strictly an error, but it is very bad map practice as it leads to confusion.
      • An example of this is Belize changing from Guatemala's color when Yakko sings about North America, to having Mexico's color when he moves towards South America. In between these two shots, Nicaragua is yellow, sharing colors with Costa Rica, and Honduras is dark green, but the latter is made dark purple (the same color as El Salvador), and the former turns dark green.
      • Other examples include Albania and Yugoslavia (now broken up into different countries) sharing the same color, as well as Bulgaria and it's neighbor Romania sharing colors.
      • Bangladesh and India also have no borders.
    • Antarctica appears to be much smaller on the map.
    • All of the constituent countries (or provinces in Northern Ireland's case) of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are highlighted in the same color (yellow) despite England and Scotland being mentioned independently (the latter of which is also shown as independent on the map), and Wales and Northern Ireland not being mentioned at all. Furthermore, the island of Great Britain (which includes both Scotland and Wales) lights up when Yakko sings "England."
    • The Chinese region of Manchuria has several issues:
      • The line between Manchuria and the rest of China implies that Manchuria is an independent nation from China, even though it hasn't been a separate "puppet" state (as Manchukuo) since World War II.
      • Despite this, Manchuria has the same color scheme as China. And sometimes, the border between China and Manchuria completely vanishes whenever Yakko dances between the verses.
      • Oddly enough, however, Manchuria is not once lit up during the entirety of the song, including when China is mentioned. Yakko never points to or mentions Manchuria despite its apparent sovereignty in the animation.
    • Thailand's highly distorted shape and identical coloration to neighboring Burma/Myanmar make it look as though it has been entirely left out of shots showing the whole map.
    • As Yakko sings the countries in the Eastern half of Asia, all of Africa that is visible is colored as though it was a single country, except for Egypt and Madagascar.
    • When Yakko points to Mauritania, both Mauritania and Mali light up.
    • There is a line running through the middle of South Africa that matches the location of the Orange River. No other rivers are shown on the map, except for those that mark international borders, so the reason for this is unclear.
    • There is another line running through Guyana, which might represent the border dispute with it and Venezuela. At some parts of the song, the unclaimed territory is shown with the same color as neighboring Suriname, with the Guyana-Suriname border still being shown.
    • The disputed Kashmir region, which is administered by India, Pakistan, and China, is the same color as Pakistan, but a line runs through it, either meaning that the show means to list Kashmir as fully Pakistani territory, or independent from all claimants of the area, but with the same color as Pakistan. The latter is more likely to be the case, as Kashmir doesn't light up when either India, China or Pakistan do.
  • A number of international dubs have changed the song for linguistic or political reasons, sometimes introducing new inaccuracies.
    • In the German dub:
      • Where Yakko says "Yugoslavia, Crete, Mauritania, then Transylvania" with "Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia".
      • Russia is instead referred to as "die GUS," the German acronym for the "CIS" (Commonwealth of Independent States), a post-Soviet organization of most of the former Soviet states
      • Sri Lanka is referred to using its former name, "Ceylon".
      • Where Yakko says "The Spanish Sahara is gone", it is translated to "Sahara, Sahel zone and now".
      • Where Yakko says "Germany now in one piece", it is translated to "And Germany is already known to you".
    • In the Dutch, Polish and Italian versions, Yakko sings "Benelux" instead of "The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium." This is due to the fact that the countries in the verse have a longer name in those languages than in English. Benelux is a politico-economic union between the three countries, often called "the EU of the EU."
    • The 2003 Russian dub (listen here) of the song completely rewrites the lyrics. Due to Yakko now pointing at the wrong countries in the animation, he is referred to as “the unfortunate geographer” by the narrator.
    • In the Polish dub:
      • Some countries are missed. (i.e. "China is there, Japan is too" (są Chiny, Japonia też jest) instead of "China, Korea, Japan") for rhyming reasons
      • Some countries are substituted for their capitals (i.e. "Warsaw, Bucharest, Edinburg, Tirana" (Warszawa, Bukareszt, Edynburg, Tirana) instead of "Poland, Romania, Scotland, Albania") as the names in Polish are more difficult to sing.
      • When Yakko sings "the Spanish Sahara is gone", it is translated to "it's hot because the land is black".
      • When Yakko sings "Crete, Mauritania then Transylvania, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Malta and Palestine, Fiji, Australia, Sudan", it is translated to "Croatia and Serbia, Bosnia and Slovenia, Monaco, Andorra, Malta and Comoros, Australia and the whole world". That means Crete, Mauritania, Transylvania, Liechtenstein, Palestine, Fiji, and Sudan are all excluded in the Polish dub.
    • In the Arabic dub:
      • There are two mentions of Palestine: first, taking Israel's spot from the original song, and then again in its original spot.
        • In the Egyptian Arabic version, however, Palestine was mentioned only once as Egypt has recognized the State of Israel since 1979, the first Arab state to do so.
      • Barbados is mentioned twice. It is said in its place in the original song, as well as where Yakko mentions Tobago. This is for unknown reasons as the Arabic name for Tobago ("توباغو" [tubaghu]) is easy enough to sing and fit into the song.
      • When Yakko sings "Germany now in one piece", it is roughly translated to "Germany is now safe".
      • When Yakko sings "the Spanish Sahara is gone", it is translated to "from Africa, the sweetest countries".
      • Right before that, Uganda is repeated when Yakko should mention Burundi despite already being said when it is originally.
    • In the Brazilian Portuguese dub:
      • The Brazilian Portuguese dub of the song replaces "Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Botswana" with "A lot of weird names" and "Monaco, Liechtenstein, Malta, and Palestine" with "And all countries where I go have friends."
    • In the Latin Spanish dub:
      • The song mentions Brazil as ¡Arriba Brasil! (literally, "Up Brazil"), Luxembourg as "El Ducado" (the Duchy), and the Netherlands as "Holanda" (Holland, also happens in the Hungarian and Russian 2003 dubs). Meanwhile, Austria is incorrectly called "Australia," Mahore is replaced with the Spanish island of Majorca (also happens in the German, Hebrew, Polish and Romanian dubs), Denmark is left out entirely, and Yugoslavia is pronounced "Yugueslavia".
    • In the Croatian dub:
      • Yugoslavia is replaced with "Once a upon a time", done because Croatia is a former part of Yugoslavia and is trying to move on from its past within it.
      • Instead of saying "France, England, Denmark and Spain", Yakko says "obevi sdanete se" ("both of you surrender").
    • In the Italian dub:
      • Greenland's name is literally translated as Green Land, meaning "Terra Verde" in Italian.
    • In the Hebrew dub:
      • Guyana and New Guinea are replaced with Guinea, while French Guiana is referred to as "the other Guinea".
    • In the Czech dub:
      • Instead of saying "Republic Dominican, Cuba, Carribean", Yakko says "States of the Antilles, the Caribbean Sea".
      • "The Spanish Sahara is gone" is translated to "the Sahara is a desert like thunder".
      • Guyana is omitted, with Yakko saying "even in Honduras it lives".
      • Yakko says "Bohemia and Slovakia" instead of Czechoslovakia. Bohemia is an ancient kingdom and region which is pretty much made up of the western regions of modern-day Czechia.
      • Asia is omitted, with Yakko saying "China, Korea and Japan I know" instead of "Asia and China, Korea, Japan".
      • Tobago, Ecuador, Borneo, Bahrain and Barbados are all omitted as other nations take up the spaces in which they would be said.
  • The 2017 verse includes numerous countries that were excluded from or did not exist at the time of the original song, but introduces a few new inaccuracies:
    • US Samoa (more properly called American Samoa), New Caledonia, and Crimea are all territories of other countries: The United States, France, and Russia (disputed with Ukraine), respectively. Macau is a special administrative region of China, like Hong Kong.
    • The Balkans are a region of Southeast Europe that is compromised of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Turkey, and is not a country.
    • Eastern Slavonia is one of a couple of entities that existed for brief periods in the 1990s, but are now part of Croatia.
    • Dubai is a city and the capital of the namesake emirate in the United Arab Emirates.
    • Kosovo is a disputed territory in the Balkans. It was an autonomous province of Serbia until it declared independence in February, 2008. While Serbia still claims Kosovo, 112 nations have recognized Kosovo as independent at some point. 15 of those 112 nations have also withdrew their recognition. [5]
    • In 1986, the government of the Ivory Coast declared that its official French name, Côte d'Ivoire, should be used in all international dealings and is not to be translated into other languages.[6] "Ivory Coast" does continue to be used widely in English, however.
      • The government of Cape Verde also did this in October 2013, where they requested that its Portuguese name of Cabo Verde be used instead of the translated name of "Cape Verde." As with Côte d'Ivoire, the name "Cape Verde" is still in common use in English.
    • The second syllable of Palau is pronounced as rhyming with "too," when it should rhyme with "cow."
    • While the song was accurate at the time the new verse was written, Macedonia was officially renamed North Macedonia in 2019. This settled a long-standing dispute with Greece over the ambiguity between the country of Macedonia, the Greek region of Macedonia, and the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon.
    • The following nations continue to be excluded from or mentioned inaccurately in the song, as of 2022:
      • Left out entirely: Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan (potentially; see above), Maldives, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Micronesia, Nauru, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, Singapore, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Vatican City.
      • Partial, inaccurate, or outdated names: Cabo Verde (as Cape Verde), Cambodia (as Kampuchea), Côte d'Ivoire (as Ivory Coast), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (as Zaire), Dominican Republic (as Republic Dominican), Eswatini (as Swaziland), Moldova (as Moldovia), Myanmar (as Burma), North Macedonia (as Macedonia), Papua New Guinea (as New Guinea), the Republic of the Congo (as Congo), Trinidad and Tobago (as Tobago), and Türkiye (as Turkey).
      • Included as part of another country or region:
        • As Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
        • As Czechoslovakia: Czechia and Slovakia.
        • As Korea: North Korea and South Korea.
        • As Yugoslavia: Croatia and Slovenia.
        • As Sudan: South Sudan.
      • Only formerly or non-sovereign areas included: The United Arab Emirates (as Abu Dhabi and Dubai), the United Kingdom (as Scotland and England), and Yemen (as both Yemens).

Sources


Advertisement