"You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer"

This quote by Frank Zappa is a humorous take on the concept of what it indicates to be a "real" country. He suggests that a country needs three things to be thought about genuine: a beer, an airline, and a football team or nuclear weapons. The beer is a sign of nationwide pride and identity, while the airline company and football team represent a country's ability to take a trip and complete on the world phase. The nuclear weapons are a symbol of power and strength. Zappa's quote indicates that a nation needs these 3 things to be thought about a real, legitimate nation. He is satirizing the concept that a nation needs certain things to be thought about real, and that these things are not always important for a country to be effective.