24 Hilariously Bad Maps That Make No Sense

Ever since humankind began exploring the world, maps have been a pretty handy invention. First used to map out the world, they are now an invaluable tool when it comes to finding our way around, be it traveling in a foreign country or trying to find where your new booty call currently resides. Maps are used daily by millions around the world, from finding directions, illuminating statistics, or detailing the demographics of certain landscapes, but not all maps are great, as these bad maps highlight. 

Sometimes the true purpose of a map isn’t utilized to its fullest potential, resulting in some pretty funny bad maps. These maps are often confusing and hard to understand, but above all will have you chuckling at how weird and wild they are. Some are purposefully made to be funny, but the majority are mistakes that soon become viral memes to entertain the masses. We’ve collected some of the funniest bad maps below for you to have a giggle at. 

24 Hilariously Bad Maps That Make No Sense

1. Hong Kong’s New Location

According to this world map from CNN, Hong Kong is now located in Africa. 

2. Antarctica, the Confusing Continent

Not sure what happened when this map was drawn but it seems a little out of proportion.

3. America the Beautiful 

This wild map shows all the different weather conditions throughout the United States. While more funny than bad, you wouldn’t want to be using this map as an example for someone to learn about America. 

4. Black and White Isn’t Always the Best Choice

After the 2012 presidential election, where Barrack Obama was reelected, The Wall Street Journal got its panties in a knot and ran an opinion piece about “Obama’s Divided Nation,” complete with a graphic of a map showing the divisions. Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell them that newspapers are printed in black and white, so the map all looks like one color. Good job guys. 

5. Cat Map

This map isn’t a bad map by design but is a hilarious meme that shows the world is actually a cat playing with Australia. Yes, it’s stupid and silly but hilarious at the same time. 

6. The Perfect Post-War World II America

Americans are a little full of themselves as this map proves. Drawn in 1942, it predicts what the perfect post-World War II America looks like. As you can see, that includes the United States of South America and the United States of Europe. Things didn’t exactly pan out that way. 

7. How Far Away Is Ohio?

This map makes no sense and proves that the visualization of data in map or graph form doesn’t always translate the information correctly. 

8. A Map of Every European City

This tongue-in-cheek map is a stereotype of European cities. Anyone who has been traveling through Europe will no doubt have encountered “some kind of tower” and “St. tourist trap’s cathedral.” The addition of “drug dealer park” is also a nice touch. 

9. Super Bowl Wins By Country

Pretty obvious what this map will look like. 

10. Political Map Gone Wrong

This interesting map is meant to show the different boundaries of many of the world’s countries but does a disastrous job of doing so. The United States covers both Canada and Mexico while Australia is made up of several different Asian countries. Found in a school planner, it’s no wonder the education system is going down the toilet. 

11. Take That Russia!

After Russian troops got lost and wandered into Ukraine in 2014, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Canadian delegation to NATO let their thoughts be known on Twitter.

They published a funny map for Putin that outlines where Russia should and shouldn’t go with the caption: “Geography can be tough. Here’s a guide for Russian soldiers who keep getting lost & ‘accidentally’ entering #Ukraine.”

12. U.K. Pubs

This Google maps depiction of all the pubs in the U.K. doesn’t really help when it comes to narrowing down where to grab a drink. Not a great map that’s for sure. 

13. Dance Music Across The U.S.

Electronic dance music site, EDM.com, decided to find out the favorite dance track of every American state and present the data as a flat map. A great idea in theory, but not executed very well, with the publication deciding to use varying tones of blue to distinguish each state and the song. This is a very confusing map to decipher. 

14. 35 Place Names In Iceland That Will Help You Understand What Dyslexia Feels Like

Good luck trying to find your way around Iceland. 

15. The Center of the World

Did you know the Arctic is actually the center of the world? Neither did we. 

16. Atlanta Falcons London Trip

Who let the work experience kid make this map? It shows the journey taken by Atlanta Falcons to London, but there are several strange bits of information, such as the trip taking three planes (only two are needed) and London located in Spain. 

17. Countries That Use The Metric System Vs Countries That Lose Wars To Vietnamese Farmers

Not quite sure what to make of this one. It’s very specific. 

18. Potential EU Leaving Names

After Brexit, someone got creative and made this map suggesting the new names of other European countries should they decide to leave the EU. Swedone is a personal favorite. 

19. The Australian America 

This classic viral map from 2013 was created by an Australian who had no geographical knowledge of the United States. This person couldn’t even find New York and believed there are four Virginias, each named after the four directions of a compass; north, east, south, and west. 

20. Saudi Arabia Mapped Only By Its Rivers

You can’t help but have a laugh at this bad map. Well played. 

21. The Middle East According To Fox News

Somehow Iran has ended up in Egypt. Classic Fox News. 

22. Step Into the Matrix 

This map is like stepping into the matrix. It’s just green lines and strange shapes. 

23. Risk of Bear Attacks

This hilarious map shows you which planets are most at risk of a bear attack. We certainly wouldn’t challenge the accuracy of this map. 

24. CNN Goes To Ukraine

Maybe CNN should get a new graphics guy. This time they’ve put Ukraine where Pakistan is.