Listenbourg

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Listenbourg
Fictional country Listenbourg map.svg
Fictional country Listenbourg map [1] [2] [3]
Flag of Listenbourg fictional country created from Emblem of Napoleon Bonaparte and Lutry flag.svg
Listenbourg flag [4]
Created byGaspard Hoelscher [4] [5]
Based onA joke to test the stereotype of Americans having a lack of knowledge of European geography [6]
Genre Humorous internet meme
In-universe information
Type Fictional country
Location Iberian Peninsula, Europe
LocationsLurenberg (capital)
Fluẞerde, Kusterde, Mitteland, Adrias, Caséière (regions)
CharactersGaspardo (president)
Population59,000,000 [2] [7]

Listenbourg is a fictional country created as the subject of an internet meme in October 2022, which depicts it as an extension of the Iberian Peninsula. [1] [2] [3] French Twitter user Gaspard Hoelscher shared a doctored map of Europe with a red arrow pointing to the outline of a pasted country adjacent to Portugal and Spain, and joked that Americans would not be able to name the country. [8] [6] [9]

Contents

The nonexistent nation went viral on social networks, with users expanding on the fictional history of the country and some major brands, national politicians, and official organisations playing along with the joke. [10]

Origin

Europe with (left) and without Listenbourg Europe with and without Listenbourg fictional country.svg
Europe with (left) and without Listenbourg

The trend started as an internet meme posted by a French Twitter user intending to test the stereotype of Americans having a poor grasp of European geography. [4] [11]

On October 30, 2022, Gaspard Hoelscher, known as @gaspardooo on Twitter, [4] [5] shared a photoshopped map of Europe with an additional landmass attached to the Iberian Peninsula. [9] The post was captioned: "Je suis sûr que les américains ne connaissent même pas le nom de ce pays ptdrrr" (transl."I'm sure Americans don't even know the name of this country lol"). Another user responded with the rhetorical question "Qui ne connaît pas le listenbourg?" (transl."Who does not know Listenbourg?"), giving the hoax its name. [3] [12] [13]

The country's name has been described as sounding like a blend of "Luxembourg" with "Lithuania" and/or "Liechtenstein". [3] [14] Listenbourg's outline is that of mainland France, resized and rotated.

Viral spread

The joke became a viral phenomenon with other Twitter users offering invented facts about the country, doctored photographs and satellite maps [5] purporting to show aspects of it. [6] Dozens of Twitter accounts claiming to represent Listenbourg government institutions arose in a few days, and people invented a capital, flag, history, national anthem, culture and language for the fictional country. [15] [12] [2]

Five regions: Flusserde, Kusterde, Mitteland, Adrias and Caseiere, in Listenbourg. The capital is named Lurenberg. Fictional country Listenbourg five regions and capital.svg
Five regions: Flußerde, Kusterde, Mitteland, Adrias and Caséière, in Listenbourg. The capital is named Lurenberg.

Several large, verified social media handles joined in on the joke. [5] Participants in the joke attempted to flesh out Listenbourg's existence with detailed social media threads. Collaborative actions established that the country was split up into five regions called Flußerde, Kusterde, Mitteland, Adrias and Caséière. [12] [16] The population was said to be 59 million. [2] [7] The meme's originator, Gaspardo, was proclaimed president of Listenbourg, [2] [1] [10] although he admitted his prank totally overwhelmed him. [17]

Plausible buildings generated by DALL-E deep learning AI model from the prompt "Listenbourg" Artificial intelligence DALL-E generated images from the prompt Listenbourg.png
Plausible buildings generated by DALL-E deep learning AI model from the prompt "Listenbourg"

It was noted that the DALL-E artificial intelligence program generated European-style buildings when given the word "Listenbourg" as a prompt. [3]

In November, the nonexistent country was trending on Twitter, and the TikTok hashtag #Listenbourg had more than 75 million views. [1] [3] [10] [11]

Responses

Major organizations and news channels played along with the hoax, although most of them made clear they were not being serious.

Photomontage published by the RATP Group claiming the inauguration of a new metro station Photomontage metro station Listenbourg - derivative work.jpg
Photomontage published by the RATP Group claiming the inauguration of a new metro station
Hoax shared by La Clusaz announcing its twinning with Osatri in Listenbourg Photomontage Twinning La Clusaz & Osatri in Listenbourg derivative work.jpg
Hoax shared by La Clusaz announcing its twinning with Osatri in Listenbourg

On October 31, 2022, the official Paris 2024 Olympics channel tweeted: "The number of Olympic delegations has risen from 206 to 207 with the arrival of Listenbourg". [15] [2] [20]

Amazon Prime Video announced that a report on the history of Listenbourg would be released on the impossible date of "February 31". [11] [10]

The low-cost carrier Ryanair published the viral map, writing that they were "Proud to be announcing our new base in Listenbourg!" [3] [10]

The French television network TF1 presented a realistic weather report for the imaginary country. [3] [21] [14]

Toulouse Football Club said its team was going to a training camp in the fictional nation. [22] [2] [23] The prank also reached the Formula 1 Grand Prix, with the Canal+ Sport supporting the sham state. [5] [15]

On November 1, 2022, the GPS navigation software company Waze posted in French a tweet of "Le Listenbourg, nous au moins on sait comment y aller!" (transl."Listenbourg, at least we know how to get there!"). [3] [20]

French politician Jean Lassalle pretended to have visited an agricultural festival in Listenbourg. [12] [7]

The French city of Nice announced a twinning with Listenbourg's capital, while its official airport inaugurated a new air link to the extra chunk of land. [10] [24]

Other brands and organisations that posted about Listenbourg include the ski resort of La Clusaz, [2] [14] [19] the British online food delivery Deliveroo, the restaurant chain Buffalo Grill, [2] the Parisian transportation operator RATP Group, [18] the high-speed TGV trains of the SNCF [18] and the French national hockey team. [5] [9]

See also

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References

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  19. 1 2 Bouchet, Stéphane (1 November 2022). "La Clusaz jumelée avec une ville du Listenbourg : pourquoi il faut en rire..." [La Clusaz twinned with a town in Listenbourg: why we should laugh about it...]. Le Dauphiné libéré (in French). Grenoble, France. Archived from the original on 20 January 2023. Retrieved 21 January 2023.
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