I'd say it's slightly different; countries always make jokes about neighbor countries, but why this story stroke me and I pointed to the same Spanish reference is that somehow Spain has agreed to make jokes about a tiny otherwise unknown town _within_ the same country.

In a similar vein, I grew up in the state of Missouri hearing jokes about how the residents of Arkansas, the state directly south, were dummies. Little did I know that Iowa, the state to the north, had the same jokes about us.

Mainland Aussies also have Tasmanians to target.