The meme ‘The American Mind Can’t Comprehend This’ was born in late September of 2023 after Europeans flipped the joke on Americans who started ‘The European Mind Can’t Comprehend This’ meme in late July of 2023.
It all started when one X user shared a post of a Google Maps screenshot showing the time it takes to travel from New York City to Los Angeles by car (41 hours!) and captioned it ‘The European Mind Can’t Comprehend This.’ This image went viral and has amassed almost 31 million views, bringing a new meme format to life.
Of course, the Europeans couldn’t help themselves and answered back with their own version of ‘The American Mind Can’t Comprehend This’ joke. The earliest example of this is an image showing a common German-style window being opened. Over two years, the post has amassed over 164,000 views.
Just recently, the meme was given a breath of new life when user @CigsMake shared an X post showing friends smoking and enjoying their drinks in a Spanish outdoor cafe and bar. The image went even more viral than the original one, amassing over 82.3 million views and 105,000 likes, as the meme continued to reach more people.
The post poked fun at the fact that Americans tend to be so caught up in their work that they don’t spend as much time enjoying being outside with their friends and family as Europeans, which quite a few commenters had a bone to pick with.
Then, Americans couldn’t help but joke back (all in good fun!) by editing the photo to be darker, referencing the electricity outage that occurred in Spain and Portugal, which left people without Internet access for many hours.
Also, on a recent but separate occasion, a British user shared a photo of a terraced, redbrick house with a caption, "Incredible to think that many Americans will look at this photo and think ‘poverty,’" that also garnered a lot of netizens’ attention since it pointed out another surprising difference between Americans and Europeans.
Terrace houses are a common sight in the UK, as they were built during the Industrial Revolution to house the growing city population. Since they are connected to each other and look completely the same, some might see it as a sign of poverty. However, under the post, the opinions on the topic seemed to be very divided.
