MrSpherical is a YouTube channel created by Peruvian animator Alvaro Calmet, who is known for other animation projects such as The Lyosacks. The channel is managed under Now Creatives. The channel is well known for making Countryball videos that examine historic and modern events from a lighthearted and comedic perspective.
The project is worked on by a whole team of people, and was directed by Calmet from its inception until late 2022. It has spawned a spinoff channel known as SolarBalls, which focuses on the Planetball comics (itself spun-off of Countryballs), a second spin-off in WorkerBoi (focusing on companies), as well as a third spin-off in Human Buddy (focusing on human organs).
You can see the channel here.
MrSpherical contains examples of...
- Abusive Parents: Suffice to say... depictions of European colonies don't paint it in a good light.
- Affectionate Parody: MrEarth is one to MrBeast; currently, he's given away America, the Moon (until learning that the UN agreed that no one can "own" the Moon), Mars, and Antarctica, as well as holding a competition to see who has the least amount of coups.
- Animation Bump: The earlier episodes have rather simplistic shapes and shading; it's most notable with the faces, which became larger and more animated.
- Arch-Enemy: America to the Taliban, and both Koreas to each other.
- Batter Up!:
- In "America vs Tree", North Korean forces use the baseball bats to beat the South Korean forces down.
- In "Greece vs Greece", America and Greece use the baseball bat to beat the Greek Communists down.
- In the end of "Ukraine’s SNEAKY counterattack", a Ukraine soldier uses a baseball bat to attack a Russian ball.
- Betrayal by Inaction: In "America… WHY?!", America promises not to leave Afghanistan alone, but when they are surrounded by the Taliban, America doesn't do anything and just escapes by riding a helicopter.
- Beware the Nice Ones:
- Canada in "Canada is PISSED!" (goes mad from people using their shipping lanes), "Canada is not SORRY anymore!" (increases NORAD budget, eventually turning him into an unstoppable robot) and "Canada Destroys Everyone!" (becomes among the greatest allies to Britain and the U.S. in the World Wars).
- India is normally shown to be one of the more normal countries, but upon hearing the death of one of their citizens due to a Portuguese vessel, he forces Portugal to Goa way. Not to mention, his involvement in World War II.
- *Bleep*-dammit!: The swear words are censored with sounds (such as dolphin noises), but other swear words aren't censored out.4
- Catchphrase: "YOU SON OF A BITCH!" whenever something doesn't go America's way.
- Covert Pervert: The United Nations, of all organizations is interested in erotic My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fan art as revealed in "Facebook Sabotages the UN".
- Crossover: The Countryverse series with PWA and Drew Durnill.
- Culture Equals Costume:
- The United States and Australia wear Cool Shades, while Canada wears regular glasses.
- The United Kingdom wears a top hat and monocle (although these features are absent in Afghanistan Yeets the British).
- Mexico and Australia wear a sombrero and straw hat.
- India wears a red turban.
- Vietnamese balls wear conical hats.
- Dissonant Serenity: Nobody seems to care about Greenland spilling out water and flooding the disco in "Greenland Explodes".
- Dragon Rider: In "China invades Taiwan... again?", China rides an Asian red dragon while meeting Taiwan.
- Dude, Not Funny!: When seeing the frozen Nazis and saying nice in "Nazis invade Russia!", the Soviet Commander warns the Soviets not to laugh at him, saying it's not cool, which leads to the Soviets laughing at him again.
- Eat the Camera: Happens in "My Best Friend, Ukraine". When Russia takes Crimea and threatens Ukraine for being friends with NATO and the EU, Ukraine is screaming while the camera zooms into his mouth.
- Enemy Mine:
- The United States, China, and Russia in "Canada is not SORRY anymore!".
- In "Countries create AI...", China and the United States put aside their differences to fight a rogue AI.
- Gunboat Diplomacy: How the U.S. got Japan to trade with the rest of the world.
- Heel Realization: Parodied and subverted in "Nazis invade Russia!"Nazi advisor: Sir, that laugh was pretty evil. Are we… are we the bad guys?
Hitler: That's a stupid question! Of course we are!
Nazi advisor: Oh. Makes sense… - Mirror Universe: The Upside Down, where the relationships of countries are reversed (e.g. America being Platonic Life-Partners with Russia and Ukraine possessing nukes).
- Mythology Gag: The third part of the Countryverse series makes some references to standard Countryball jokes; this includes Poland being drawn upside down, Singapore being a triangle, and Nepal talking entirely in rawrs.
- Politeness Judo: Canada gains their independence from the UK by just asking nicely, unlike the U.S. when he tells them about it.
- Poorly Disguised Pilot: ""Space is normal..." they said" and "Welcome, WorkerBoi!" for the sisters channel SolarBalls and WorkerBoi.
- Pretext for War: Heavily Decontructed in "Who started World War 1?"; all of the major powers of Europe wanted to hold onto to their territory, and viewed the expansion of any other country with extreme paranoia. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serb lead to Austria-Hungary peacefully investigating the incident by invading them, causing both sides alliances to quickly kick-in, resulting in millions of deaths.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Too many instances to count.
- Running Gag:
- MrEarth's giveaways almost always result in negative side effects, including him being unaware of the Native Americans, or leering that one can't "give away" the Moon.
- Climate change being ignored until it is too late.
- Turncoat: Poland in "Poland save Haiti".note
- Only Sane Man: India more often than not takes up this mantle.
- Out of Focus: The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, China, Japan, India, Nazi Germany, the Koreas and Ukraine are the only ones that appear regularly; others like Greenland and Kazakhstan have only made one appearance each.
- Skewed Priorities: Most of the countries end up getting focused on Bruno Mars' new single rather than the rising sea levels (eventually resulting in a massive tsunami) in "News: Then vs. Now".
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Hugo Chavez in "Totally NOT a dictator: Hugo Chavez".
- Take That!:
- "~jOiN tHe MeTaVeRsE~!" is practically one giant Take That! to Meta for their data-collecting practices.
- "The Truth about Dubai..." and "The Truth about Qatar..." are also more or less Deconstructions of all their major problems, particularly with both countries' usage of migrant labor abuse.
- "Ok so we r a contryhumans chanel now."
- Vocal Evolution: North Korea in "America vs Tree" has a more high-pitched voice than later appearances.
