![If Countries Were People If Countries Were People](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/mobile/000/023/540/countries.jpg)
If Countries Were People
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About
If Countries Were People is a popular forum game centered around a hypothetical scenario in which the participants try to reimagine nation-states as anthropomorphized characters with distinct personalities, in a similar vein to the premise of the Japanese manga webcomic series Hetalia. Since its emergence in the mid-2000s, the game has spawned several variations based on the snowclone If X Were People, including TV shows, films, bands and other media franchises.
Origin
Website anthropomorphism has been a long-running theme in meme culture since the early 2000s, as well as similar application to other groups of things, including nation-states, TV shows, drugs, automobiles and other consumer goods. While it is likely that usage of anthropomorphism in arts and literature predates the Internet age, the earliest known writing on the subject of "if countries were people" can be attributed to a blog post by Faithful Hound[1], published on June 29th, 2006.
Precursor
Prior to being a trope on the internet, anthropomorphized countries were commonly used in allegorical and satirical literature, one of the most famous examples being George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945),[19] which uses farm animals as representations of different countries, historical figures and ideologies.
Additionally, the idea of anthropomorphizing states, countries or other areas of land has been a common occurrence on television, perhaps, most famously on the animated sitcom The Simpsons. In the season five episode[20] "$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)," which aired on December 16th, 1993, Homer, the father, helps his daughter Lisa with her school pageant, in which each student dresses up as a different U.S. state (shown below).
Spread
On April 1st, 2008, a member of the Civilization video game message board Civilization Fanatics Center,[21] ArneHD, posted a thread called "If Nations Were Humans." In the post, the user listed a series of counties and personified them (excerpt below). The post received more than 50 responses.
![If nations were people This is based on a conversation that I had with a few of my friends some time back, and at the time it seemed really funny Norway: A person who lives in a cabin on a far away mountain and is rich enough to be called eccentric rather than just outright mad. Has a drinking problem. Finland: Smart guy, with glasses and a mobile phone, probably designed both of them himself using an old plastic bag, a piece of rubber and a used rubber duck. Has a drinking problem Sweden: Nice guy, stylish, doesn't talk too much, not too loudly, but is noncommittal. An engineer by profession. Has a drinking problem. Denmark: Big, fat guy with double cheeks. Jovial and laughy, but prone to breaking down. Has a drinking problem. Russia: Old army man, possibly an NCO. Got fired and his abused wife and children all hate him now. Now he just stumbles around drunk, singing songs about how great life used to be. Violent and prone to threaten with violence. Drinks more than all others combined, and has a problem with it. Estonia: Child of Russia; hates him, but lives too close to say it out loud. Russia occasionally tries to phone him, but he doesn't pick it up. Still suffers trauma, but with counseling it's getting better. Has a drinking problem. Latvia: Same as Estonia, more or less Lithuania: Like Latvia and Estonia, but lives further away, and is in much better shape than them. Has a drinking problem.](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/280/865/343.png)
On February 19th, 2010, the pilot season for HBO[2] comedy series Funny Or Die began. One of the recurring sketches entitled titled "Playground Politics," in which a group of schoolchildren satirically plays out the personalities of various countries, used people as countries as the central conceit. In the sketches (examples below), children base their personification based on geopolitical relationships, which are then mapped onto schoolyard behavior.[3]
On August 10th, 2011, Bungie.net[5] forum member I am Gatorade started a thread titled "If countries were people and went to school together," which spawned 65 responses from dozens of other members on the site.
On March 11th, 2013, Cracked [12] aired the pilot episode of "If Websites Were Real," which brought renewed online interest in anthropomorphization of digital entities and media franchises.
In 2016, there were at least two Reddit threads with the subject "If X Were People. The first appeared on July 27th, entitled "If Cities Were People"[8] and the other was published on August 10th, which Redditor pvr97aus05dc15 titled "if States Were People."[9]
On August 3rd, 2016, Playbuzz[11] posted a series of images entitled "What countries would look like if they were people," which literally anthropomorphized countries.
![If India was a person INDIA](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/280/870/619.jpg)
![If Australia was a Person AUSTRALIA](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/280/871/f85.jpg)
![Noway Was a Person NORWAY](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/280/872/d10.jpg)
On July 31st, 2017, the Instagram[22] account @memevist posted "If Skincare Products Were People," a variation on the meme. The post (shown below) was captioned "im uhh 50% tired, 25% sad + 25% anxious lmao,,, also this is not a new series, but i knew if i called it a beauty product people would be commenting informing me that it's not one!" Within one day, the post had more than 6,500 likes.
![If skincare products were people if skincare products were people MARIO BADESCU @memevist VEGAN HELLO INTERN What Is Eyebrow Microblading? Facts About Semi-Penmanent Brow Filling | InStyle.com nStyle news what-is-eysbrow-micro.. OAhAP-Feb 14, 2016 Everything You Need to Know About Microblading Your Eyebrows But now there's very natural option that delivers semi-permanent resuts... Unske the sometimes 9warpm-esq勇effects of permanent makeup, microbiading more of an entroidery of rompe ced strokes that look just just drink water! it will solve so many of ur problems xx](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/280/868/e57.png)
External References
[1] Faithful Hound – If countries were people
[2] HBO – Funny or Die: Playground Politics
[3] Wikipedia – List of Funny or Die Presents Episodes
[4] World History Forum – If countries were people
[5] Bungie Forum – If countries were people and went to school together
[6] Facebook – Muriel Comedy's 'If Tube Lines Were People
[7] TechCrunch – Apps as anime characters
[8] Reddit – If cities were people
[9] Reddit – If states were like people, what would they be like?
[10] Quora – If countries were people, what kind of person would they be?
[11] PlayBuzz – What countries would look like if they were people
[12] Cracked – If Websites Were People
[13] Disney Style – If Cars Were People This Is What They'd Wear
[14] The Awesome Daily – If Drugs Were People
[15] Fast.Co Design – If Fonts Were People, Here's How They'd Look
[16] deviantART – Reef1600's Gallery
[17] Li.st – IF TV SHOWS WERE PEOPLE
[18] Cracked – If Famous Websites Were People
[19] Wikipedia – Animal Farm
[20] Wikia – $pringfield
[21] Civilization Fanatic Center – If nations were people…
[22] Instagram – @memevist's Post
Top Comments
Swift
Aug 01, 2017 at 02:33PM EDT
Evilthing
Aug 01, 2017 at 11:05AM EDT