Explaining Yakko's World to Your Kids

So, if you listen to "Yakko's World" on a daily basis (which you SHOULD be doing if you don't do this already) you will notice that the song is a wee bit dated. The world has changed a great deal since the early 90s, so playing this song for your own geeklings will probably lead to confusion and bewilderment. In order to help save you the trouble of explaining to your kids why Germany was not in one piece to begin with, I have provided this handy guide for explaining Yakko's World to your kids.

He acts like an idiot, but I'm pretty sure that Yakko has tenure at a university somewhere

1. Republic Dominican is just the Dominican Republic inverted, purely for artistic purpose. 
2. The Caribbean isn't actually a country. It refers to a collection of independent countries and territories located in or around the Caribbean Sea. States in the Caribbean include Trinidad and Tabago, The Virgin Islands, and Dominica.
3. Although Greenland is almost completely autonomous, it isn't an independent country. It's controlled by Denmark
4. Puerto Rico is a Commonwealth of the United States. Although it has declined to join the union as a state, Puerto Rico also has voted against becoming an independent nation.
5. Bermuda is an overseas British territory
6. Tabago is just one half of the Republic of Trinidad and Tabago 
7. There are many San Juan (Juanes?) in North and South America but none of them are countries! This mostly likely refers to the capital of Puerto Rico
8. French Guiana, as the name indicates, is a part of France and is their largest overseas region
9. Guam is a territory of the United States
10. Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993
11. Scotland is a part of the United Kingdom and is not an independent nation
12. "Both Yemens" refers to North and South Yemen, which weren't united until 1990. North Yemen came in existence after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. South Yemen was a part of the United Kingdom until 1967.
13. England is a part of the United Kingdom and is not an independent country
14. Burma officially changed its name to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar in 1989 but many countries, including the United States, still retain the name "Burma" 
15. Kampuchea is more commonly known in the west as Cambodia.
16. Interestingly, no distinction is made between North and South Korea. The nations have been divided since 1948.
17. Tibet is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China...
18. Not to be confused with the Republic of China, which is also known as Taiwan.
19. Sumatra is an island located in western Indonesia 
20. Borneo is a large island divided among three countries: Brunei, Malaysia, and Indonesia
21. "The Spanish Sahara is gone" refers to the modern territory of Western Sahara. It was occupied by Spain until 1975 when it was turned over to Morocco.
22. Dahomey was renamed the Republic of Benin in 1975
23. Zaire was renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997
24. Mahoré is an archipelago located off the coast of Southeast Africa. It is a part of France and is a part of the European Union
25. Cayman refers to the Cayman Island, a British territory in the Caribbean
26. Hong Kong is a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China
27. Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates 
28. Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe. A series of political and economic crises led to the country being divided into Slovenia (1991), Croatia (1991), Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992), Macedonia (1993), Serbia (2006), Montenegro (2006), and Kosovo (2008)
29. Crete is the largest island in Greece
30. Transylvania is a region within the nation of Romania
31. Palestine declared itself an independent nation in 1988 but its claimed territory has been occupied by Israel since 1967 (It's really a lot more in-depth and complicated for a blog about Warner Bros cartoon)"

And of course a few things were left out:

1. None of the nations that were born after the collapse of the Soviet Union (which dissolved 26 December 1991, after the song was written) are listed in the song with the exception of Russia. So the song leaves out Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan
2. They also left out Dominica, South Africa, Singapore, Cote d'Ivoire (The Ivory Coast), Central African Republic, San Marino, and Vatican City, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Kiribati, Tonga, The Federate States of Micronesia, Palau, Tuvalu, and Nauru. 

Now that you've spent about 15 minutes wallowing in nostalgia, go take this quiz and see how many questions you get right (My personal best is 139)