Here in Australia we’ve got a state to the west called Western Australia, a state to the south called South Australia, a territory up north called Northern Territory, a state named for the queen called Queensland, another state named for the same queen called Victoria, a territory where we keep the Australian capital called the Australian Capital Territory, a bit off the bottom nobody remembers, and New South Wales. Really, NSW is the closest to imaginative that we’ve managed to come in terms of naming things.

@chadmcqueen2456

3 жыл бұрын

who is this "we've" you speak of?

@kirklenagh3095

3 жыл бұрын

Come on we have the Great Barrier Reef and The Great Australian Bight and The Great Sandy Desert as well as The Great Artesian Basin and The Great Dividing Range. Imagination abounds in our Great Southern Land.

@derekmills5394

3 жыл бұрын

Mr. Tasman is miffed that you forgot the bit he named after himself and to hell with the Monarchy!

@patrickhector

3 жыл бұрын

The thing that really annoys me is we have the north*ern* territory, west*ern* australia, and south... australia. Wtf, why is it not named southern australia??

@kevinchappell3694

3 жыл бұрын

I personally think that "Kangarooland" would fit the bill. For that matter Canada could be called "Beaverland".

"If these are the indies... and incidentally that's something else I'd like to talk to you about at some point..." lol

I love how the New South Wales one has the Dover Cliffs in the background

@kevg3320

3 жыл бұрын

Don't you mean the white cliffs of Cardiff?

@whophd

3 жыл бұрын

They did pretty damn well, with the colour grading and fake plant placement, I have to say. As a NSWelshman it was amazing how far they could stretch a British beach.

@eskimofireman

3 жыл бұрын

@@kevg3320 we have a Cardiff in NSW too.

@Lightw81

3 жыл бұрын

Seven sisters.

@markgearing

3 жыл бұрын

What, you’ve never heard of the Sydney Harbour Cliffs?

Surprised they didn't do Newfoundland "It won't be new forever.....!"

@ProjectRedfoot

5 жыл бұрын

That's a good one lol

@liquidsonly

5 жыл бұрын

@Anastasia Seriously are you five?

@philipleworthy7871

5 жыл бұрын

@Ann, I fully understand where you are coming from, as they say "it's only easy if you already know it". But don't go assuming America knows squat about geography, they couldn't point out Greece on a map. Or A great many other countries.

@philipleworthy7871

5 жыл бұрын

@Ann, very true, but Americans only give a shit about themselves, so even Newfoundland is a bit of a stretch for them.

@someguy3766

5 жыл бұрын

@Ann I hate to dogpile but Newfoundland isn't part of America, it's in Canada.

I’m a captain and I think I have just found my new style of management - “Tell it to the hat”

@11Kralle

3 жыл бұрын

I shudder to think of your old style of management ;)

@anderspedersen7488

3 жыл бұрын

@@11Kralle “Whip and revolver”;-)

@squick1842

3 жыл бұрын

@@anderspedersen7488 "Who has the captains hat?"

@anderspedersen7488

3 жыл бұрын

@@squick1842 "You do"

I'm American and have just discovered today Mitchell and Webb! I love these guys!

@LuizAlexPhoenix

4 жыл бұрын

Lucky bastard, you get to watch it all afresh!

@0ldFrittenfett

4 жыл бұрын

you lucky bastard! I've been through all of their shows already twice. I recommend "Snooker Commentary".

@esquilax5563

4 жыл бұрын

Watch their sitcom Peep Show, it's one of the funniest comedies in decades!

@memybikeni9931

3 жыл бұрын

Essentially we are all like this. Most of us Brits just act like this all the time 🤣🤣🤣

"Greenland" deserves its own sketch since it was named so just to get people to move there. "Iceland" was named so to deter settlers to come. They are both very clever marketing schemes haha

@ModeratelyAmused

2 жыл бұрын

Half correct. Greenland definitely comes from Erik the Red trying to attract more settlers to join him. Iceland has many origin stories. Much more probable than trying to keep people away. It's not like Vikings were afraid of "visitors."

@gordonlekfors2708

Жыл бұрын

in the case of Greenland, yes, possibly. Iceland on the other hand, no. that's a factoid.

Virginia could be worse; he could have called it Maidenhead.

@blatherskite3009

3 жыл бұрын

Yep. They basically called a town Hymen. I guess the founding fathers were saying the place was extremely temporary ... or that, like so many things, it would only take one dick to ruin it.

@bobrobertson394

3 жыл бұрын

It would probably be New Maidenhead as there’s one in the uk already

@grumpyoldman3458

3 жыл бұрын

@@bobrobertson394 Good point.

Leave it to David Mitchell to make "Welcome to Virginia" sound bad-ass!

@jeremiahmuth9732

4 жыл бұрын

Virginia is actually named after the fact that when it was discovered, it was a "virgin" land, which actually resulted in a similar problem to naming Newfoundland "Newfound land"

@MrMasterCGO

4 жыл бұрын

@@jeremiahmuth9732 That's not true at all.

@jeremiahmuth9732

4 жыл бұрын

@@MrMasterCGO You are correct

@Bacopa68

3 жыл бұрын

@@jeremiahmuth9732 Nope. Ask any kid from Virginia where the name came from and they will know it came from the "virgin queen" informal title of Elizabeth I. Kinda wild then that the tourism slogan of Virginia tourism has been "Virginia is for Lovers" for the last fifty years.

@BBrecht

3 жыл бұрын

@@jeremiahmuth9732 Wait, you're telling me none of these are accurate!?

Middle management in a nutshell.

@tomlxyz

3 жыл бұрын

Is there still middle management nowadays

@glengraham7080

3 жыл бұрын

@@tomlxyz Yes, indeed there is. The workers may get made redundant, but there is always middle management. They are forever with the human race ....like tapeworms and hemorrhoids.

@squick1842

3 жыл бұрын

Looks lite top management in a nutshell also

@buxxi90

Жыл бұрын

@@glengraham7080 as middle management, I concur.

being from South Wales, I'm looking forward to the challenge of meeting my first kangaroo

@DieFlabbergast

4 жыл бұрын

Welsh kangaroos are very secretive: there's probably one behind you right now, but when you turn round, it'll be gone!

@lazarus9165

4 жыл бұрын

Good luck, you'll need it

@kampkrustysmrblack

3 жыл бұрын

If it's happened in the past 7 years I hope you survived it - if it hasn't happened yet then just remember not to look it in the eyes because it'll getcha

@glengraham7080

3 жыл бұрын

What, you never saw the Attenborough documentary about the elusive Welsh cangarŵ ?

@MrRelaxedanderson

3 жыл бұрын

There were Kangaroos in South Wales but the Merthyr boys nicked them all and set them on fire up the Bogey Road.

There are so many great M&W sketches, but these might be the most original! I've never seen any other comedians tackle this subject before. And, the music is perfect.

"What, the vast terra incognita with flora and fauna hitherto undreamt of by science puts you in mind of nothing so much as Rhyl?" - I had to pause the video here because I was laughing too hard to hear any of the subsequent dialogue.

@tedsmith6137

5 жыл бұрын

Sure looks like New South Wales to me, too. Except our beautiful white beaches tend to a lot more horizontal than the rather upright ones in the background! LOL

Ah yes! The famously beautiful, white cliffs of Bondi

That was great, it was a slow giggle all the way through and a big laugh at the "Greenland?" at the end.

I do this to my brother when we have arguments in the car: 'Sorry, who's driving?'

Surprisingly accurate xD

2:20 "What news Number One?" "Borg ship incoming captain."

@janesmith699

4 жыл бұрын

Borg: Resistance is futile Captain: do u see this hat?

@janesmith699

4 жыл бұрын

@Bora George Well, smoke me a kipper! That makes sense. Jean Luc didn't even have hair.

That ending was BRILLIANT.

"GREENLAND" "Whatever" Thats so funny

So good to watch when you need a laugh.

"Does this mean you're gonna name it what I think you're gonna name it?" Hee hee . . .

I like how all of these are technically accurate.

Thanks a bunch mate!! That was fast, and helpful!

Fun fact: Greenland has it's name simply due to branding. The explorer who found it wanted it to seem like a nice place to live.

@michaellavery4899

4 жыл бұрын

I heard the Vikings deliberately named Greenland and Iceland the wrong way round to thwart invaders. Think it was on QI. Not saying that's gospel. Just what I heard.

@damienjoseph7540

4 жыл бұрын

All sounds like English bullshit and the people there didn't speak English or Spanish or Italian or Indian and so probably didn't give their land English names

@jannerantanen5121

3 жыл бұрын

@@damienjoseph7540 ....they didn't, they gave their places names in their native language, that were then translated similarly into other languages, thus for example in English, Greenland is Greenland. Is this not obvious to you?

greenland? WHATEVER!

@lindahl458

4 жыл бұрын

stedz bk it was a marketing strategy by the guy who found it to make more people want to move there so he wouldn’t be the only one. (Because if I remember correctly he was banned from Norway )

@colinp2238

3 жыл бұрын

@@lindahl458 Was that Erik the Red?

@lindahl458

3 жыл бұрын

colin Paterson i think it was hos son Leif Eriksson

@colinp2238

3 жыл бұрын

@@lindahl458 I think Leif was the one that sailed to Canada.

Some things never change.

Ahhh. Delightful. Thanks!

@wratched What Columbus believed and what he said he believed were probably two different things. When Eristosthenes proved the world was round, he also calculated the radius. The University of Salamanca who opposed him knew how far China was, and knew he wasn't going to make it. Columbus had met a Portugese who had been to Dominica before, he knew a lot, but the politics and finances were complicated.

@OrganDanai

4 жыл бұрын

Eratosthenes.

Despite what George Gershwin would have us believe Columbus did not need to prove that world was round....

@esquilax5563

4 жыл бұрын

@Marshall Carwood nobody laughed at him for that. He did, however, seriously underestimate the size of the Earth. Many educated people knew he was getting it wrong, which is why he found it so hard to get funding for his voyage

@scottwallace5239

4 жыл бұрын

@Marshall Carwood people knew the world was round in Columbus's day, the Greeks had discovered and proved that over a thousand years before Columbus and everyone knew the world was round

@scottwallace5239

4 жыл бұрын

@Marshall Carwood Columbus got laughed at because he thought japan was closer than it was and that the world was a lot smaller than it actually was

LOL so many sorts of Captain hats love the fedora too!

@Poultron In truth, it is unknown whether it was meant to be the new south Wales or the new Wales of the South, or if the fellow was simply in the grips of the Ocean Madness.

2:36 The way he says * "Wales" * 😂

So true. Cheers

lol the subtitles for this are hilarious

Loved how he pulled rank on Webb.

Outstanding

It's a compounding problem, too. Indiana is named after Native Americans, who were called Indians because Columbus thought he was in the "West" Indies.

@WretchedNZ

5 жыл бұрын

Does that mean someone from Indiana is an Indianaian?

@WretchedNZ

5 жыл бұрын

@Zero 01 That's not what I call them

@thomascoppens8498

5 жыл бұрын

He didn't think he was in India, he thought he found new islands off the japanese east coast. People those days thought asia was much bigger than it was. Also the word 'indian' doesn't come from the same origin of india but it's from the word for indeginous in spanish/italian.

@scipioafricanus5871

5 жыл бұрын

@Xero 01 because that makes perfect sense.

@miguelangelsucrelares5009

5 жыл бұрын

@@thomascoppens8498 Not quite in Spanish, it isn't. Using the word "indio(a)" in this context, although fairly common, is considered uneducated/low register. It is colloquially accepted, but widely considered etymologically incorrect. Children are specifically taught that this use of "indio(a)" comes from Colombus' confusion as to where he had arrived, and are advised to use "indígenas" instead.

the you refers to you having complete control and the tube refers to the tube in tubular televisions;meaning it's like a TV only you control what is played

Webb needed to do a "Look at me. I'm the captain now"

brilliant!!!!!!!

I enjoyed all 10 pixels of this video

@MrWingman it's the theme song for "That Mitchell and Webb Look". I think it was written specifically for the show, but I could be wrong.

ROFLMFAO! One of the funniest comedy duos ever. Mitchell and Webb rock!

@MrKohlenstoff

Жыл бұрын

I very much agree with your 8-year-old opinion!

I love that the resolution is so bad that even the Thumbnail is pixelated

@susie9893

3 жыл бұрын

The film industry was very different back then

Has anyone watched this with captions on? They need a bit of editing in the “Virginia” skit...

@Maniceureka

4 жыл бұрын

Surely you mean the "Chimney what" skit.

@irishandirie

4 жыл бұрын

ALL the captions are royally messed up!

Greenland- of course!

they are the best...

i like to think theyre not playing different characters, theyre just immortal explorers who are thousands of years old

Bloody brilliant XD

LOL, actually, Greenland was named that already in the Viking age, as a way to attract settlers.

@starry_lis

5 жыл бұрын

I'm positive Mitchell wouldn't make that kind of a mistake. Surely he must've been trolling then.

@LordBhorak

5 жыл бұрын

That's a myth, btw...

@JohanDanielsson8802

5 жыл бұрын

@@LordBhorak Really? How was it, then?

@LordBhorak

5 жыл бұрын

Oh wait... I had it backwards. That's the real deal 😅

@magzire

5 жыл бұрын

Should be called Iceland, much better name

ROFL great sketch for history lovers.

Britain: IT'S EVERYWHERE!

Lol especially the end xD

I AM THE CAPTAIN NOW

IIRC when Greenland was discovered by the Vikings it was at a time where the temperatures on earth were slightly higher than now and there was a lot of green around.

Hahaha i love this, i'm from South Wales, it's soo amusing.

Tourism has been popular for far longer than that - earlier examples would be the popularity of Pompeii as a Roman holiday destination, or the ancient Greek interests in travel to Iberia and Britain. One thing that really set the Norse apart from other nations of Europe at the time WAS their interest in travel, exploration, and other cultures. It was part of the drive behind conquering and trading with nations as far apart as the Volgars and Alania, to the Irish nations, to the Mi'kmaq and

@susie9893

3 жыл бұрын

Yes but far more socially acceptable to say "I'm going on a quest" than saying "I'm going sightseeing". Less likely to piss off the wife too

"Bingo!" :)

0:28 "I thought the whole point is that we were proving the world is a globe." Popular misconception. At that time, "everybody" knew the world was a globe, and had done for a couple of thousand years. There was, however, some question about _how big_ the globe was. Columbus had asked several monarchs for money in the decade before his 1492 voyage and all of them turned him down because their experts thought that Columbus was significantly underestimating the distance to the Indies -- and they were correct, as we now know.

@Gynra

3 жыл бұрын

The ancient Greeks knew how big the earth was to within a few percent. Tragically, we have some people even now who refuse to accept the earth is a globe.

closed captions are gold on this.

@morphman86

5 жыл бұрын

I don't get it... They just typed out what was being said. How did that change the context?

@BJWFenix

5 жыл бұрын

@@morphman86 switch them on.

@morphman86

5 жыл бұрын

@@BJWFenix Yeah, that's what I did, that's how I saw they were just transcripts of what was being said.

@morphman86

5 жыл бұрын

@@BJWFenix Or did you watch the auto-translated one instead of the properly translated one?

@BJWFenix

5 жыл бұрын

@@morphman86 Probs the translation version either way it basically gets every single word wrong.

It's not green, per se, but it was supportive of agriculture several centuries ago. Farming, crops.

I love this sketch and I am especially interested in the history of Empire building in the New World and exploration.

"Greenland" must be the single best geography joke on the planet! 🤣🤣🤣 Damned Erik the Red! He wanted to lure settlers by making the damned place sound attractive...

genius!! "welcome to Virginia!!"

"Greenland.” “Whatever”

The argument Columbus had with the authorities wasn't about whether Earth was round (everyone knew that), but about whether the Ocean Sea could be crossed. The circumference of the Earth had been known since ancient times, and anyone looking at a map of the world without America on it would conclude that the ocean separating Europe from the Indies was vast beyond navigation. Columbus believed Earth was 1/4 its true size. Luckily he was also wrong about America or his crew would have starved.

@LordPercyTrollington Also, it was during a period of time when the Earth's average temperature was higher than today ( for example vinyards covered south england). The vikings lived quite happily there until there were forced out by the "mini ice age" that began early in the second millenium. This is why the Thames in London used to freeze solid 200 or so years ago and very rarely does nowadays.

@theForsling Colombus had a contract to find the 'Indies', and that was what he was going to find. He told his crew that he would rip the tongue out of anybody who said different. By the way, he signed the contract 'Xfer'.

Didn't know that lol, that's amazing, cheeky vikings.

Oh Captain My Captain

the netherlands, it's a province called zeeland wich translates as sealand since it's more sea then land and well below sea level

Made me laugh. !!

"Greenland!?" "Whatever!"

13 years ago o.o

Well thank you.

very cool :-)

... That was a good one.

I'm pretty sure there's no basis to the idea that the name Iceland is supposed to be a disincentive. Where did you hear that? Landnámabók just says it was because Flóki Valgerðarson saw ice on the mountains. Which makes sense. Another thing is that although Greenland was intended by Eirik rauði (Erik the Red) to be a pleasant name to encourage settlers (so says the saga, anyway), the global climate was coming to the end of a warm phase and it genuinely was a lot greener than it is today.

So just wondering.... Where is Old Zealand?

@Hidole555

9 жыл бұрын

Province in the Netherlands

@Juscommentin1

9 жыл бұрын

Most populated island in Denmark also.

@Ulkomaalainen

9 жыл бұрын

Juscommentin1 It refers to the Dutch Province, though

@Herrieberg

9 жыл бұрын

+SY LOH What Hidole and Ulkomaalainen said. Just so you know, Australia used to be known as "New Holland".

@kyguy3242

6 жыл бұрын

So they actually named it after the province in the Netherlands, but they spelled it like the Danish Island. Go figure.

@Experiment47 I remember reading somewhere that Greenland and Iceland were originally called by each others name, and a cartographer accidentally mixed them up whilst drawing a global map... Not sure how true that is though?

@Dayvit78

4 жыл бұрын

Pretty sure that wasn't the case. Iceland was found and settled several centuries before Greenland. It was already well established on the maps of the time. Greenland was, apparently, more of a marketing thing. Since getting to Greenland was much, much farther. And if Iceland was already cold and barely habitable, you needed real motivation to go even farther.

@beeble2003

3 жыл бұрын

Urban legend. There are historical sources for the names of Iceland and Greenland going back basically to their discoveries by the Norse. Iceland has had various names, but has never been called Greenland; Greenland has always been Greenland.

"Welcome to Virginia!"

@perfacetus That's also an interesting point--thanks! You're certainly right that "never before seen trees, and wild animals that jump around" doesn't sound that much Welsh, so the idea of making it attractive through suggesting a rich country sounds good...

@blackwolfcrystal11 Your right, but Wales England and Scotland, though all part of Great Britain, are individual Countries as well.

Also where he settled in greenland is actually abundantly green during the summer. @Experiment47

The Merkle needs a reminder! Bravo Brittan.

@TBustah I think the point the Manaburn was trying to make is that there is quite a lot of snow in parts of Nevada. Still, he didn't have to be so rude, and the rest of your comment was pretty interesting.

You'd be surprised.

"Hell."

@texasoilfields She's is actually a New Zealander by birth. Although Able Tasman discovered New Zealand and her parents are Dutch.

My favourite bit was with "Wales"

Today I learned there is a place called New South Wales.

@fleabag500 Not sure where you're getting that he was talking about snow, (though you're right: I personally live in one of the more snowy regions), but thanks.

"GREENLAND?!".... "WHATEVER!!"

@cadmium48 Actually it sort of is at the coast in summertime..

the subtitles are quite interesting

This video has enough grain to feed a small village

@narcissusgray remind me again narcissusgray: who's playing the captain?

Wonderful stuff!

"chimney"