Photo: Printscreen
January 2025.
As part of the program Regional Initiative for combating disinformation “Western Balkans Combatting disinformation Center: Exposing malicious influences through fact-checking and Analytical Journalism“, we present you a new analysis of fake news and disinformation narratives.
The most expensive Danish word, or what is so funny to Serbs about Greenland
The new American president, Donald Trump, even before his official inauguration on January 20, made a series of (un)expected controversial foreign policy initiatives and plans, some of which were directly related to traditional American partners and political allies – such as Denmark. Trump’s prominent intentions to buy/take over Greenland – a territory under Danish sovereignty – from his (future) administration sparked doubts, concern, and dissatisfaction in European political circles.
However, the reactions of part of the Serbian public – primarily on social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) – took a significantly different direction – humor and political satire. For days, a considerable number of social media users posted various “memes,” adapted verses from folk and popular songs, or creatively reinterpreted political statements – all of which have long been present in Serbian political and public discourse, mainly related to the topic of Kosovo. In this “wave,” however, Kosovo and Greenland/Denmark “swapped places.” A few days later, a columnist for the domestic service of the Russian state media outlet Russia Today attempted to explain in an op-ed what he believed was the “broader” meaning of the undeniably creative humor and political satire on Serbian social media concerning the relations in the US-Denmark-Greenland triangle.
The op-ed titled “The most expensive Danish word, or what is so funny to Serbs about Greenland” was also published on the portal Srbin.info. In addition to categorizing the content that emerged regarding this topic and the Greenland-Kosovo parallels on Serbian social media, the author provided an interpretation that is full of anti-Western and, in the context of the Serbian political scene, anti-liberal narratives.
“That the Greenland issue struck a nerve with the Serbian public is probably most eloquently testified to, albeit by a small number, but very symptomatic reactions of the so-called ‘second Serbia,’ civic nationalists, or the serf elite,” the text states, sharply criticizing the pro-Western segment of the Serbian public, accompanied by disparaging labeling. The author continued in an even more radical tone, asserting that “collectively, they do not possess enough brain cells to grasp the Greenland phenomenon in all its complexity (they fare even worse with humor), but they unfailingly detect situations around which a social consensus arises among Serbs and automatically raise their voices to explain that something bad is happening.”
From the position of self-proclaimed patriotic authenticity and superiority, the author generalizes and projects his view on the very few critics of political humor on social media regarding Greenland and Kosovo, applying it to a much wider segment of the pro-Western public in Serbia. This is followed by claims that they have been “misleading the Serbian people for decades with self-loathing, autocolonial, and comprador formulas, mantras, and fairy tales,” contrasting this by emphasizing that “the Serbian people collectively demonstrate… a concentrated cultural reaction to geopolitical events… because it is an intriguing testimony of the unique state of the national spirit.”
In conclusion, it is emphasized that “this free play with malignant Western propaganda is testimony to how immune the Serbian public is to it, and that is probably exactly what bothers and irritates our pro-Western citizens so much.” The text, which was initially published on the Serbian service of the Russian state media, thus expanded the analysis of the creative and, for the majority, sympathetic humor regarding the “Greenland case” into a tendentious critique of the pro-Western public in Serbia and the promotion of already established anti-Western narratives.
Author: Igor Mirosavljević
