"Brazilian Guyana" meme circulates again with Portugal's World Cup match Reproduction/Social Media Portugal's draw with the Democratic Republic of Congo in their 2026 World Cup opener on Wednesday (17) revived the "Brazilian Guyana" meme on social media, which angered the Portuguese in 2025 (see below). 📱Favorite g1 on Google and follow the top news of the day In the first half of last year, Brazilians recorded videos with a joke treating the country as if it were a Brazilian territory in Europe. The prank even topped Google Brazil's year-end meme ranking. ➡️ The Portuguese national team tied 1-1 with the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday (17).
Star player Cristiano Ronaldo's performance fell short of expectations, according to international media. Check out the memes from Wednesday's match (17): Initial plugin text Initial plugin text Initial plugin text Initial plugin text Portuguese people were annoyed by the joke One of the Portuguese individuals who pushed back against the meme last year said he enjoys jokes, but warned that some comments cross the line and can encourage prejudice. "Talking about a culture, a people of a nation, a flag, everything has limits," said Bruno Oliveira. "This is bad, this is not a joke.
It's on another level." 'Brazilian Guyana' meme angers Portuguese on social media: 'This is not a joke' Another said that the Brazilian Guyana meme doesn't bother her, but that she feels "vicarious embarrassment" when Brazilians comment on the Portuguese accent.
"I love Brazilians, but these attitudes only generate more conflicts," stated Bruna Filipa. "Badmouthing the language of the people who welcomed you, the Portuguese, the country, comparing it to a favela, is a huge lack of respect."
Portuguese people posted videos to counter the 'Brazilian Guyana' meme, which treats Portugal as Brazilian territory Reproduction/Social media In another video, a Portuguese man countered by saying that Brazil would love to be part of the European Union and have the euro as its currency. "Keep Brazil on one side of the Atlantic while we keep Portugal on the other.
Don't try to convince yourselves that Portugal will one day be Brazilian," said the user, who identifies only as Bruno. An influencer named Nokas made a humorous video and admitted that Brazilians are creative with memes.
"First, it was the gold meme. Then, it came out that we speak archaic Portuguese, prehistoric Portuguese.
And now, we're a Guyana?". The meme even ended up on Wikipedia, where a page created on Friday (18) stated that Portugal had been integrated into Brazilian territory in a historic agreement. The content was taken down from the site in about 10 minutes. Brazilians responded with more memes In the comments, Brazilians doubled down with even more memes — suggesting renaming Lisbon as "Victory of the Reconquest" and nicknaming Portugal "Pernambuco standing tall," alluding to the similar shape of the two on the map. Others claim the joke is nothing compared to Portuguese colonization in Brazil and cases of discrimination suffered by Brazilians in Portugal. In 2021, 109 complaints of xenophobia against Brazilians were registered in Portugal, a 142% increase compared to 2018, according to a survey by the Commission for Equality and Against Racial Discrimination. Cases range from veiled situations like difficulty renting an apartment, finding a job, or accessing healthcare services, for example, to requests to speak English instead of Brazilian Portuguese, up to explicit insults and assaults.
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