Cultural differences

people from stockholm call everything that's outside of the city spenaten, "the spinach".

In Romanian it's „unde și-a înțărcat dracul copiii” which means "where the Devil weaned his children".

American English has “Buttfuck, Idaho”, possibly substituting more polite names, and/or other equally sparsely populated states. If it’s abroad, it becomes Buttfuckistan or some equivalent.

Not sure about a British equivalent, but I’ve seen “Invernowhere” used in a Scottish context (there’s probably a swearier version this was bowdlerised from), and Dylan Thomas named an imaginary Welsh town Llareggub (read it backwards).

In belgian french, we have "Outsiplou-les-Bains-de-Pieds". Made up town name that both sounds funny and too long to actually exist, but the Outsiplou part kind of means "listen if it's raining" in walloon. And "Perpète-les-Oies". Which you could translate to "Far-away Geese", which is plain gibberish but sounds like a lot of real places in France. There's plently of variations but they mostly try to invent a name that sounds like a stereotypical countryside village name.

In Polish we've got "gdzie psy dupami szczekają" or where dogs bark with their assess.

We have a few in Spanish, one of my favourites is "Donde Cristo perdió el mechero": Where Christ lost his lighter.

In Québec, we say "Saint Clin-Clin Des meuh-meuh"; "Saint", because a lot of towns here are named after a Saint, "Clin-Clin" because of another expression "ti-clin" which means some random person, so "Clin-Clin" means a random Saint, and "des meuh-meuh" because a lot of towns here have some kind of suffix like "des Saults", or "de Brandon", so "des meuh-meuh" (like moo-moo) is the sound a cow makes, and I guess it sounds rural or something. Also, when we talk about somewhere very far away, we say "au diable vert" "at the green devil"; not sure about the origin of this expression, though.

In Italian we say we are in culo ai lupi which means in the ass of wolves or at inculandia which translates to in the ass land

In Spain we have "en el quinto pino": in the fifth pine, and "estoy a tomar por saco", which badly translates to "to go get fucked in a bag".

That’s literally the first time I heard that hungarian version, that’s not what we use, we use “az isten háta mögött” which is “behind gods back” to refer to places in bumfuck nowhere

In British English there's:

• arse-end of nowhere
• the sticks
• back of beyond

and probably more

In Danish you can say "where the crows turn".

Icelandic has "lengst úti í rassgati" which means as far as you can go to an asshole. There's also the leas common "í langtíburtistan" which is in Far-away-istan

In Slovenia we either use the serbian one or we say Bogu za nogo/hrbtom. Meaning behind god's leg/back.

This may be the first post I've ever come across where I wish there was an "Upvote All Comments" button...

These could all be made up for all I know, but they are all very entertaining! 😄

A Levant arabic way of saying it is "في طيز العقرب" which literally means "in the scorpions ass"

In French: trou du cul du monde, or World's asshole.

In Scotland, we say 'middleae fucking naewhere' or 'Largs'.

In Hebrew, the closest we have is טיזינבי (tizinabi), which doesn't mean anything in Hebrew but comes from Arabic طيز ٱلنَّبِي where it apparently means "the prophet's butt". TIL.

Since there's surprisingly no Russian here yet, here are a few I know (some are probably regional):

• Где раки зимуют [Gde raki zimuyut] - "where crayfish spend their winter"
• У чёрта на куличиках [U chyorta na kulichikah] - "on the devil's little Easter breads" (there's also a version "on the devil's horns")
• За тридевять земель [Za tridevyat zemel] - "beyond threenine (i.e. 27) lands" feels somewhat fairytale/archaic, haven't heard anyone use it unironically
• В жопе мира [V zhope mira] - "in the ass of the world"
• Зажопье [Zazhopye] - a made up placename roughly meaning "beyond ass", evocative of many toponyms which start with the same prefix (e.g. Замосковоречье [Zamoskvorechye] - "beyond river Moscow")
• Мухосранск [Mukhosransk] - made-up town name, roughly translatable as "where flies shit"
• Ухрюпинск [Ukhryupinsk] - corrupted name of the town of Uryupinsk, probably on account of it being far away from my birthplace
• Подзатворожинск [Podzatvorozhinsk] - made-up town name, roughly "[place which] started to turn into cottage cheese" or "under the [place] beyond cottage cheese" or some combination of the two

But honestly the most likely phrase I'd use in an informal context is a boring чёрт знает где [chyort znayet gde] - "devil knows where"

In Lithuanian we have these:

• Dievo užmirštame kampelyje - In the little corner God forgot about (typically meaning a beautiful place)
• Giliame užkampyje - Somewhere deep, behind the corner
• Pasaulio pakrašty - At the end of the the world

Meanwhile in Chile: "A la conchade su madre" (Literally: "Towards your mother's c**t")

In New Zealand we say 'in Waikikamukau' (pronounced "Why kick a moo cow") because it's juuuuust enough like actual place names here that people don't instantly pick up on the alternate meaning.

I guess closest turkish version I ever seen used is "ebenin götünde," which translates to "in your midwife's butt."

UK does have the idiom "bumfuck, nowhere" a fictional town in the fictional county of nowhere

I always liked “east jabip” and “east jahunga” (sometimes jahunga road or Jahungaville)

Dogpatch is an interesting one bc I’ve heard it used to mean “middle of nowhere” and also “where poor people/hillbillies live”. It’s got history too since Lil Abner comics were set in Dogpatch, and there’s a San Francisco neighborhood of that name.

In Québec we also use au milieu de nulle part. But abetter option is Saint-Glin-glin des meuh-meuh. Saint-ding-dong on the moo-moo.

I find it funny that the title is "cultural differences", but the content is actually showing how all these cultures needed someway to describe being in the middle of nowhere.

In Greek it is: στου διαόλου τη μάνα, which means "at the Devil's mom"

In my hometown we usually say "a Puttemburgo" (literally "Whoreburg") or "in culo ai lupi" ("up the wolves' arsehole") or "a Tron di Dio" ("on God's throne").

In South Africa, we say "halfpad tussen Pofadder en Putsonderwater"

Which translates to halfway between Pufadder (named after the snake) and well-without-water town.

Both are real places, with the stereotypical names that already play on the fact that there is very little going on there.

The open stretch between the two with no roads, no farms, no railways.

These days, it does not work in reality as their built the Square Kilometer Array there, as it was probably the quietest place (radio signal wise) in the world where you could build radio telescopes.

"Buttfuck, Egypt" is my favorite version of this expression.

Anyone remember "BFE"?

As in,
"Where are you?"
"I'm in the middle of BFE."

In Central American Spanish, we sometimes call it "donde el Diablo perdió la chaqueta" (lit. "where the Devil lost his jacket"). Or we downright translate the first German one

In Italy we have "in culo ai lupi", literally "up the wolves' arses" and variants involving Satan's or god's respective asses depending on how blasphemous you're feeling.

Also, in my area, the madeup town name is "Vergate sul Membro" a play on real town and river names that sound similar (Vergiate and the river Lambro) which translates to "rod strikes to the member" (i.e. penis).

The English version of in the middle of nowhere is "aaaa where the fuck am I" which means "where the pigs turn to sausage"

In English, I say that I’m in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere.

I guess we all have a tendency to envision anuses as being the middle of nowhere, even if we almost certainly love glutes.

As @CryptoKitten@sh.itjust.works pointed out, the origin of the expression is "au Diable Vauvert", or "at the Vauvert Devil". I just read about it, and Vauvert is a castle in France, reputed in the Middle Ages to be the home of the Devil, for one reason or another. It just means "somewhere very far away".

Huh, I hadn't thought about the origin of the wop-wops but it checks out. Also I thought people who said woop woops were townies but apparently they are Aussies.

German also has a few other interesting ones that refer to actually real places.

• Buxtehude (small town near Hamburg)
• Timbuktu (ancient town in the Sahara)
• Pampa (grassland in agentinia)

The last one makes historical sence since many Germans migrated to that region of south America in the 1800, and then more Germans got replaced in the soviet union and moved there and then many Nazis fled there after the surrender. So its just a synonym for a place very far away. Not sure where the rest come from

In America we also have "fuck-ass nowhere," "bumble fuck," and "bum fuck." And that's before you get creative and start making shit up.