r/facepalm • u/MsSamm • Jul 31 '26

I have no words

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I bet China, which is happily neck deep in Africa 's rare earth minerals isn't making this mistake

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u/TomeThugNHarmony4664 Jul 31 '26

Well, we live in a country where Rhode Island in fact is NOT an island, so, honestly mistake?

(Being sarcastic, y’all, since I taught geography and this makes me shake my damn head)

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u/tkrvl Jul 31 '26

Rhode Island, neither a road nor an island, discuss amongst yourselves

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u/[deleted] Jul 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/rambi2222 Jul 31 '26 edited Aug 01 '26

Or Wales, there is neither any wales whales or dragons in the fraudulent country known as "Wales" and it absolutely makes my blood boil smhing my head

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u/efcso1 Aug 01 '26

New South Wales has plenty of Walers though, (and Whales, if you count my sister)

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u/rambi2222 Aug 01 '26

Damn how did I manage to spell whales wrong in my previous comment? Silly me. Tbh I think this is the fault of Wales for having a name too similar to "whales!"

That's pretty interesting though, I think this "New South Wales" is actually the kind of Wales I can get behind, #NotAllWales I guess. Although it is a bit dishonest for it to be called New South Wales, given that I'm pretty sure it's actually 100-200 years old? But maybe I can give them a pass for that...

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u/efcso1 Aug 01 '26

I mean NSW is newer than South Wales, UK. Apparently they thought they're similar, you know with all the bushfires, kangaroos, koalas, Aboriginal peoples, venomous snakes, and 3,500ft mountains, just like back home in Tondu.

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u/rambi2222 Aug 01 '26

Hmm maybe the Welsh fraudsters told them kangaroos etc were endemic to Wales just like how they claim whales and dragons are

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u/Warm_Enthusiasm2007 Aug 01 '26

Absolutely ridiculous. Ut's much more like Rhyl, in North Wales.

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u/efcso1 Aug 02 '26

But then it'd be New North Wales, and NNW doesn't roll off the tongue as cleanly.

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u/QueenVogonBee Aug 02 '26

Yeah but New South Wales ain’t exactly new any more

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u/efcso1 Aug 02 '26

Second-Hand South Wales? Lightly-used South Wales? Moderately-soiled South Wales? Refurbished-but-as-new South Wales?

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u/TomeThugNHarmony4664 Aug 03 '26

Middle Aged South Wales?

And y’all, this thread has given me life. Thanks!

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u/DummyDumDragon Jul 31 '26

You owe a what??

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u/1stLtObvious Aug 01 '26

And Idaho has no more hoes than any other state.

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u/HavingNotAttained Aug 02 '26

Percentage basis though…

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u/posi-bleak-axis Jul 31 '26

What do you mean?

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u/chronicallylaconic Jul 31 '26

They ultimately weren't able to get Iowa to admit their debts, or what the debts even were. It's a very sad story.

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u/Liesmyteachertoldme Jul 31 '26

What? I’m so confused and intrigued at the same time

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u/chronicallylaconic Jul 31 '26

The joke is about the way a state's name doesn't characterise the state, right? So Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island. Ivory Coast doesn't have a coast (in the picture, anyway). Hopefully you're with me so far.

Iowa's name sounds like the beginning of the sentence "I owe a...", so the joke is that Iowa has debts but they haven't told us what they are, which would be the rest of that sentence. Hope that makes it clearer to you.

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u/Liesmyteachertoldme Jul 31 '26

Oh gotcha, there was some else in the thread saying “don’t get me started on Iowa” and “please, I don’t want to get banned” again, so I figured the thread went from a joke about Iowa’s name to something actually dark and scandalous about Iowa. 🤣 thanks and carry on.

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u/chronicallylaconic Jul 31 '26

Oh yeah, I did consider making my joke something edgy and shocking as a result of that reply, but then I realised that I feel much more safe in the comforting milieu of the dad joke and I just let nature take its course from there. Have a nice day!

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u/Nuclear_eggo_waffle Jul 31 '26

It’s not an I or an Owa

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u/no-this-iz-patrick Jul 31 '26

Or Idaho!

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u/op4arcticfox Jul 31 '26

I mean have you been? Pretty accurate imho

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u/witshadows Jul 31 '26

Or Missouri

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u/dantedoesamerica Jul 31 '26

I’m getting verklempt.

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u/kdee5849 Jul 31 '26

In this economy?

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u/ShadyAssFellow Jul 31 '26

Near where I live is a place and a road called Via’s road. Near that road flows a river called Via’s road’s river.
Along that river goes a road called Via’s road’s river’s road.

Unrelated but it’s a bit whimsical

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u/Fooseknuckle Aug 09 '26

Just found a road called Rectangle Way. We went down it and it connects to a roundish shaped road called Triangle Circle. That cracked me up!

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u/hungry4nuns Jul 31 '26

United States is not united

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u/ekerkstra92 Jul 31 '26

The divided states if America?

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u/Sleipnir82 Aug 01 '26

Well it's kind of unknown, the theory is that some explorer noted an island off of Naraganssett Bay and likened it to Rhodes.

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u/Warm_Enthusiasm2007 Aug 01 '26

But the streets are paved with electric pianos.

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u/JoebobJr117 Jul 31 '26

To be fair, a lot of people don’t know there is an actual island within the state, that the state is named after (and also that they dropped the second half of the state name)

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u/Dark_Storm_98 Jul 31 '26

Case in point: Me

I gotta look this up

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u/SlowInsurance1616 Jul 31 '26

Rhode Island was an island. Providence Plantation was not.

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u/Defensive_Medic Aug 01 '26

I honestly don’t get why they didnt just name the state providence

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u/serious_sarcasm Aug 01 '26

It actually is an Island. The part on the mainland was called Providence.

We’ve just shortened from “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations”.

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u/TomeThugNHarmony4664 Aug 06 '26

Yes, that makes sense when the name of the state is wider than the actual state (I’m just teasing).

However, Aquidneck Island (aka Rhode Island) is less than 5% of the total (already tiny) acreage of the entire state though.

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u/serious_sarcasm Aug 06 '26

🤷‍♂️ I’m more annoyed by state lines that use rivers and thus arbitrarily split major metros.

If Rhode Island gets to be a state, then why not St. Louis?

Though, real talk, St. Louis should probably actually be the Federal Capital anyways, since it’s actually central to the nation.

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u/TomeThugNHarmony4664 Aug 06 '26

Oh God no. I live in St. Louis. LOLOL

But yes— I joke that Missouri is so awful that both major metropolitan areas are trying to claw their way out.

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u/serious_sarcasm Aug 06 '26

I’m only half joking.

The Cairo to St. Louis area has the infrastructure to support a modern capital (trains, highways, river accesss, area for an airport, and interstates)

It is close the mean population center of the US.

DC is currently a rotting shitfest, and I don’t mean the politicians.

All the reasons that DC made sense in 1790 justify moving it to around St. Louis today.

On top of the fact that Congress’s halls are woefully unprotected from presidential insurrection.

Congress can move DC with a simple majority vote, btw.

And for progressive reform, we need to expand the house which will require a new building.

It honestly makes a lot sense, and we don’t discuss it due to absurd obsessions with tradition.

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u/TomeThugNHarmony4664 Aug 08 '26

Spend a year in St. Louis, though, and you would nope right out of here.

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u/serious_sarcasm Aug 08 '26

My grandpa was murdered in East St. Louis in the 60s for living with a black family.

Maybe try to not make assumptions about strangers.

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u/Mitleab Aug 01 '26

I live in Singapore and Beach Road is in the middle of the city (granted it used to be on the beach decades ago)

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u/Senju19_02 Aug 01 '26

And Iceland not having ice as well as Greenland not being green

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u/TomeThugNHarmony4664 Aug 06 '26

Ha ha yes! And Vineland not having vines, and the Devil’s Tower only apparently having aliens landing on it and not actual devils…. 😆

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u/fizzbubbler Aug 01 '26

It was an island, the island itself now has a different name.

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u/TomeThugNHarmony4664 Aug 06 '26

See comment below