Side-by-side comparison jokes were one of the standard shapes of the early image archive: two columns, two labels, and a contrast that the viewer completes. The form is durable because it needs no text beyond the headings and survives being re-saved at any size, which is how these pictures travelled through email and forum posts.
It is also the shape that ages worst. A comparison made from national stereotypes reads as a period document rather than as a joke once the stereotype it relies on has moved on, and the versions that circulate later are often edited to say something the original did not. Entries in this collection are kept as a record of what was passed around. Pictures here circulated by email and on forums, and the authors are usually unknown.
Swappin
Fish N' Chips
Too much drinking
Big cat
Tans
Dress to kill 3
Hope
The main difference between Europe and the USA