Web Video / Geography Now

Main title card as of October 30, 2019.

"It's time to learn Geography... NOW!"

Geography Now is an Edutainment show hosted by American Youtuber Paul Barbato (AKA "Barby") that premiered in October 2014. The episodes cover informational profiles on countries in alphabetical order, beginning with those largely or fully recognized starting with Afghanistan and moving through Zimbabwe; he intends then to cover those countries with more limited recognition and those which aren't really independent but have their own identity.

Each episode is separated into four segments:

• Political Geography: The country's sovereign domain and administrative divisions are explained as well any overseas territories, autonomous regions, enclaves, exclaves, border disparities, major and capital cities, as well as landmarks and other points of interest.

• Physical Geography: The country's natural landscape and terrain features are explained, in addition to resources that are produced and cultivated. Natural landmarks and points of interest are also highlighted in addition to flora, fauna, and other factoids.

• Demographics: This segment focuses on the populace and culture of the inhabitants of the country. This segment typically includes a population and ethnic make up chart, as well as language, culture, tradition, religion, customs, and value systems in the country.

• Friend Zone: Focuses on diplomatic relations of the country, highlighting factors such as political, economic, cultural, and militaristic ties the country has with other countries.

Initially, episodes began with a Flag Dissection segment, where the flag and other symbols of the country like the coat of arms are explained with each part, colour, shape and piece broken down in terms of meaning and significance. Starting with Cuba (May 18, 2016), this segment was spun off into separate videos called "Flag Fridays"; beginning with the Germany episode (February 8, 2017) Paul started to include corrections to the main episode for the country in this segment; starting with Ghana (one week later) Paul expanded Flag Fridays to Fan Fridays where he opens packages that fans have sent in on camera. However, this was reduced to Youtube Shorts starting in the Venezuela episode due to declining views, and the episode corrections and package-opening were cut.

Paul, being a rather jolly guy, sometimes adds pop culture references (specifically those referencing Bob Saget) and puns. He usually gets punched or slapped after saying a pun, in addition to regretting bad puns and jokes that might or might not offend certain groups.

When the series first began, there was no set schedule as Paul basically produced the episodes by himself - the wait time between videos sometimes went as long as a month. When Paul signed with production company Studio 71 starting with Cuba (May 18, 2016), episodes began to be uploaded both more frequently and more consistently (this was also when Flag Dissection was spun off into Flag Fridays).

Watch the episodes including the latest one here.

This show provides examples of:

• Accentuate the Negative: Deliberately inverted. While the show doesn't shy away from tragic events, it consistently focuses on the positives. Talk of past troubles ends by mentioning present recovery, present troubles by efforts to fix things, poverty with hope of progress, and long held grudges with trade and diplomacy that persist despite them.
• Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable:
  • Informs us in the Colombia video the stress in the name of the capital, Bogota, should be on the Ta, not the Bo, like most English speakers say it.
  • Caught some static from his Canadian viewers when he repeatedly pronounced the Canadian province of Newfoundland as "New Finland" (the correct pronunciation puts the emphasis on the NEW, not on the FOUND - which most Canadians do indeed pronounce more like "fin"). Enough people mentioned it that he had a Canadian guest correct his pronunciation in a subsequent video.
• Affectionate Parody: Of CGP Grey in his video PGC Brey: What are the "kind of" countries?. He did such a great job that the artwork and style are virtually indistinguishable from the original.
• April Fools' Day:
  • The Bandiaterra episode is the first in Barby's annual April Fool's tradition where he talks in detail about a country that doesn't exist. It's followed by Limberwisk, Patch Amberdash, Qitzikwaka, Sovonthak, Volanca, Ululiona-Linulu, and finally Geolandia, which has Barby shill his merchandise in the guise of sharing his experience as a native Geolandian.
  • "PGC Brey: What are the "kind of" countries?", a video exploring partially-recognized countries as well as microstates, imitates the style of fellow edutainment YouTuber CGP Grey.
  • "Geometry Now!", where Barby discusses geometry, except that it's also riddled with overly-distracting on-screen captions.
• Art Evolution: The infographics, title cards, title sequence and overall animation get better and better with the progression of the show.
• Ascended Extra: Noah eventually got promoted to Physical section co-host in the eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) episode. Hannah, Kaleb, Keith, and Art have all had similar rises to prominence as the channel has gone along.
• Ascended Meme: The Bearsharktopus and the Backwards Unicorn Duck.
• Audience Participation Song: The fan appreciation videos tend to include numerous interpretations of the minuscule theme song, by fans from all over the globe.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: Paul runs through a series of facts about French society such as their high average amount of daily sleep, shorter work week, being able to claim pensions at age 62, and of course the sport that French people rank highest in the world...going on strike.
• Berserk Button:
  • The Cyprus conflict between Greeks and Turks, although it's less violent now than years ago.
  • "Wanna know the best way to anger a Colombian?" C-O-L-U- is as far as Paul gets before his Colombian friend Diego punches him out.
  • Paul has to carefully navigate most of the Macedonia video because the name of the country alone is enough to hit the button for the more hardcore nationalists.
  • Once the Israel video gets past the relatively straightforward Political and Physical Geography sections, Paul clearly treads carefully in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian situation with repeated emphasis about the fact that Geograpeeps from both sides were consulted in the making of the skit he performs about it.
  • At the beginning of "Political Geography" segment of the Hungary episode, Paul asks his guest, Nick Uhas, "Hungary is so Eastern-European, isn't it?" Just then, Nick punches him out and explains that the Hungarians hate it when people think like that.
  • At the beginning skit of the Paraguay episode:
  Caleb: [As an attendance taker] You're the one that talks weird and drinks yerba mate, right?
  [The Sensory Abuse Triggered meme plays as Paul, playing as Paraguay, gets offended by Caleb's comment]
  • At the beginning of "Political Geography" segment of the Poland episode:
  Paul: How To Piss Off A Polish Person 101: "Oh man, I've just visited Poland! I sure love that "EASTERN" European country." [Proceeds to get beaten up by his half-Polish friend Art Napiontek]
  Art: It's Central! Central European!
  Paul: [Recovers instantly in the next frame] Yeah, they don't like being called Eastern Europe, even though I mean, c'mon, they're kinda more on the Eastern side of the continent, and it's- [Receives a Death Glare from Art and Paul leans back in shock] Okay, okay, Central, Central, Central European, Central!
• Bilingual Bonus: Paul sometimes speaks the national language of the country he's talking of.
  • The introductions for the Austria, Belarus, China, France, and South Africa episodes are respectively in German (Bavarian dialect), Belorussian, Mandarin Chinese, French, and Xhosa.
  • The tease for France at the end of the Macedonia video was also in French.
  • His complaining of Non-Indicative Names for Cote d'Ivoire and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the Costa Rica episode were in French and Korean (initially unsubtitled - YouTube-provided translations were added later).
  • Played for Laughs in the Bolivia video:
  "No tiengo dinero."
  "Huh?"
  "Estoy yesca...?"
  "Ah! ...todavía me debes dinero, cabron."
  • Played for Laughs and used as a Genius Bonus in the Poland video:
  Keith: ...and the suka^notea type of knee-mounted Polish fiddle. [Shows a picture of the suka]
  [The video then suddenly cuts to this]
  Caption: Russians be like...
  Paul: [As Russia] WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!
• Blatant Lies:
  • The intro clip for Finland states how Paul totally doesn't have any preconceived biases towards it. Cue an angelic choir as Paul daydreams with a contented smile on his face.
  • The intro clip for Honduras has him go:
    "Guys, I'm not gonna make any puns in this episode. At this point for Geography Now, cheesy stuff like that is just...Hun-der-us."
• *Bleep*-dammit!: For the first time, curse words are openly used in the show, starting from the Poland episode. However, they're all bleeped out and come from Paul's half-Polish friend Art Napiontek.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Described Massachusetts's residents as coming in three varieties: The uppity, the gritty and the intellectual gritty.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Paul is always on the receiving end whenever a punch in the face is done on presenters.
  • Ken, the cameraman and animator, is often belittled and fired over the smallest of things, and doesn't get promoted, yet still hangs around anyway.
• Call-Back:
  • Necessary to paragon certain facts or qualities of a country with another one - for instance the Sahel span multiple countries.
  • Paul is still angry at Rihanna for not participating in the Barbados video.
  • The Lithuania episodes repeatedly calls back to the Belarus episode, and how Barby did a surprisingly well job at explaining the latter, because he doesn't have to explain about all of the Lithuanian stuff that relates to Belarus again.
• The Cameo: Jay Foreman appears for a few seconds in the Pakistan episode to back up Paul's claim that the two of them are cool after Paul pretty much yoinked the map of the previously convoluted mess that was the India-Bangladesh border from Jay's Map Men episode on the same topic. Except not really, as he Stage Whispers right afterwards.
• Christmas Episode: Appropriately enough, it's about Christmas Island. Also, it's the only episode to be filmed in Barby's living room and without a script.
• Cluster Bleep-Bomb: In the Flag/Fan Day episode for Turkmenistan, Barby is aware that the sub-series gets the least amount of views on the channel, so he rapidly swears (albeit censored) because he thinks he can get away with it.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In the Comoros video he talks about how they were of the few instances of islands settled by Africans, and recalls about the last time that happened (in the Bandiaterra video). Bandiaterra was also given a sly nod in the Denmark episode.
  • In the Luxembourg episode, Paul makes some terrible puns with the place name but doesn't get punched because the guy who usually does the punching isn't available at the time. The preemption slides made it clear that he'll get a beatdown in the next episode, which does happen in the Madagascar video.
• Creepy Twins: How Barby characterizes Latvia and Lithuania, given how similar they are in terms of physical features as well as folklore and hotels that tend toward the macabre. Latvia and Lithuania are represented by the Grady daughters, with Estonia meant to be Danny.
• Curse Cut Short: In the Japan episode, Keith was about to laugh at the fact that Fukuoka's IATA airport code is FUK when Barby jumps in and covers Keith's mouth.
• Cutaway Gag: More and more common with the progression of the show.
• Dada Ad:
  • Referenced and parodied at the end of the Japan episode, which was brought to you by Bob Saget's Bearsharktopus Coffee Shoes.
  "Watashi wa kouhii to kutsu ga hoshii, Let's super harassment sandwich!"^note The Japanese translates to "I want coffee and shoes"
  • Done again while parodying the ad breaks for Korean TV dramas.
• A Day in the Limelight: Ken co-hosts the Phillipines episode alongside Barby as he is half-Filipino.
• Deranged Animation: Barby notes early in the series that red on a country's flag standing for the blood of those who fought for the freedom of a country is a very common theme worldwide, and so to stave off boredom by repetition across the many episodes Paul took to putting up insane and crazy animations whenever this happens. Each animation clip is different (in more ways than one) visually and is accompanied by someone going "Blood of those who fight for the freedom!" twice to a heavy metal riff.
• Don't Try This at Home: Paul and company often get small gifts in the mail from viewers on Fan Fridays, including various bottles of alcoholic drinks. They will sometimes try them on camera as several are quite the connoisseurs, though Paul will always rattle off a disclaimer against underage drinking (noting that everyone there is at least 21).
• Dope Slap:
  • Paul finds himself on the receiving end of one after he makes the obligatory pun about it being "chilly" in Chile.
  • He receives another one at the end of the China episode, after the horrible pun on Colombia.
  • In general, every time Barby says a horrible pun, expect a slap or a punch to happen to him afterwards.
• Famous Ancestor: In the Italy episode, Paul says that, due to having the surname "Barbato", he may be a descendant of Scipio Africanus Barbatus, who defeated Hannibal in the second Punic War.
• Fictional Country:
  • Bandiaterra, an island nation in the Indian Ocean formerly colonized by the Danish. Barby goes into great detail and the entire video is really convincing until the reveal at the very end.
  • Repeated three years later with Limberwisk, an archipelago in the Arctic between Greenland and Norway. Like Bandiaterra, Barby goes into great detail and the entire video is really convincing until the reveal at the very end.
  • One year later, it was repeated yet again with Patch Amberdash, a collection of islands and exclaves in various places across the world that was founded by Baltic runaways. Like Bandiaterra and Limberwisk before it, Barby goes into great detail and the entire video is really convincing until the reveal at the very end.
  • One year after Patch Amberdash, it was done again with Qitzikwaka, a country in the Saharan Desert whose people live underground.
  • And another year after Qitzikwaka, Barby discussed Sovonthak, a recently independent nation in the Andaman Sea where the people live in floating houses.
• Founding Day: The hour-long United States episode was released on July 4, 2023.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The "Political Geography" title card that was used from the Costa Rica episode all the way up to the end of 2017 showcases a globe sitting on a bookshelf, in which in it are book titles such as "Choreography Now", "LOL EARTH", "Bob Saget Biography", and "Flags with Red in Them".
• Fun with Subtitles:
  • When first describing the border dispute over the Isla Conejo between El Salvador and Honduras, Barby makes the analogy of a Latin American telenovela - what follows is a rapid-fire sequence of six characters (only the first two are shown as representing El Salvador and Honduras) all speaking Spanish. Subtitles are provided, but the last one only says "Ay, Dios mio por que!" while the accompanying subtitles are absurdly long and veer way off topic.
    "Hernando, I should have known that this whole time you were the one that I was to follow into the path I once questioned but my father would not approve so I went with Juan but he has become a monster. A monster of my own creation! Also, tamales con pollo at Sabor Latino are only like $2 each! Let's get some!"
  • Geometry Now is rife with this, to the point where it heavily distracts from the main subject.
  • South Korea's Korean TV drama skit also messes with subtitles in the same way as El Salvador.
  • Paul mentions in the Norway episode that Norwegians tend to use "Ha" with many different inflexions to convey a wide range of statements, though the last one he uses as an example is another Hernando Wall of Text.
  • In the Geography Go episode where Barby visits Ukraine amidst the 2022 Russian Invasion of the country, his mom voices her concerns for him in Korean, which is translated into English. She then says, "I don't care" in English, with that translated into Korean instead.
• Funny Background Event: The introduction segment to the Latvia episode has Keith doing a goofy dance while wearing a dress as Barby segues into the Political Geography segment.
• Genius Loci: During the "Friend Zone" segment, the countries have googly eyes and speak to each other directly.
• George Jetson Job Security: Ken's job status as an animator and cameraman is frequently put in jeopardy by Paul (as a joke, mind you), though he has actually been fired on camera only once in the Lesotho video (and was rehired about two minutes later when the graphics quality took a nosedive).
• Guest Star: A lot of, if not all of the guest stars, are from the countries that the particular episode they're guest starring on is discussing.
  • The Colombia episode guest stars Diego, who is Colombian himself.
  • The Ecuador episode guest stars Cindy, who is reportedly the only Ecuadorean Paul knows.
  • The Egypt episode also stars Mohab, an Egyptian.
  • The Ethiopian episode stars Samri.
  • The Hungary episode stars Nick Uhas from Nickipedia.
  • The Ireland episode guests Paedar (rhymes with "ladder"), who did the first "Blood of Those Who Fought" Deranged Animation segments.
  • The South Korea episode stars Paul's own mom who is originally from South Korea.
  • The Maldives episode stars Hannah, a friend of Noah. In the previous episode (eSwatini), she explained that the audience wanted more females on the show.
  • The Mexico episode stars Cesar, Paul's friend from Puerto Vallarta.
  • The Netherlands episode stars a time-delayed Vincent, who did some of the earlier animation work for the series a few years before Ken joined.
  • The Paraguay episode stars Paraguayan Geograpeep Marian, who just so happened to be the episode's chief researcher and visiting Los Angeles with her mother at the time, hence why Paul can have her do a small segment of its "Demographics" at the last minute.
  • The Poland episode stars Art Napiontek, who is half-Polish, and Konrad, the Polish member of Norwegian Let's Play channel Commonwealth Realm.
  • The Russia episode stars Mike, Paul's Russian-born friend (he's primarily lived in the US).
  • The Rwanda episode stars Edmond, a Rwandan who Paul is friends with.
  • The Serbia episode stars Ivan, a Serbian who Paul went to high school with.
  • The South Africa episode stars Katharine, a South African who volunteered to co-host with Paul.
  • The Spain episode took things further with two co-hosts, José and Ana (both of whom are from Spain).
  • The Sudan episode stars Ruba, who is Sudanese and makes flag-patterned shirts of all the African countries (which Paul wears in several of the African country episodes).
  • The South Sudan episode stars Akon and Nyamal, two South Sudanese fans of the show.
  • The Sri Lanka episode stars Jenil, a Sri Lankan who even wore a traditional Sri Lankan outfit for the episode.
  • The Sweden episode has two guest stars once again, this time Karolina and Jonas (both of whom are Swedish).
  • The Switzerland episode stars Hermann, a Swiss friend of Paul's. Paul even flew all the way to Switzerland to have him on the show (because of COVID travel restrictions to the USA).
  • The Turkey episode stars Ege, who Paul met on a trip to Turkey five years prior. When they first met, Paul promised Ege that he could star in the Turkey episode one day, and he kept his promise. Ege is also the youngest person to co-star in Geography Now, as he was only 19 years old at the time they filmed the episode.
  • The UK episode stars Jay Foreman, host of Unfinished London and co-host of Map Men, the latter from which Paul accidentally stole a map from for the Bangladesh episode.
• Hates Everyone Equally: How Barbs jokingly describes France's foreign relations, insofar as the countries they hang out with the most either tend towards being Vitriolic Best Buddies (Quebec, UK, US) or have had a centuries-old rivalry that has turned into probably their closest ally post-World War 2 (Germany).
• Heävy Mëtal Ümlaut: Art often calls soccer, the world's most popular sport, "Fēüøot-bõl" (football).
• Heh Heh, You Said "X":
  • Played straight when Barby mentions the region of Belarus called Brest.
    "Heh Heh. Brest."
  • Subverted in the Bolivia video when he brings up Lake Titicaca.
    "Heh heh. Lake."
  • Played straight with Djibouti.^note *snicker* At one point he even makes a booty pun without meaning to.
  • Played straight again with India.
    "Heh, Vijaya..."^note Earlier, in the history summary, mentioned the Vijayanagara empire that lasted from 1336 to 1646.
    (note on-screen) Hey that's offensive
  • Paul can't help but point out that Ireland has a town named Dingle.
  • Subverted once again in Kazakhstan and its Valley of Balls.
    "Heh heh. Valley."
  • And subverted yet again when the Lake Titicaca of South America was brought up again.
    "Heh heh. South America."
• Hidden Depths: Ken is surprised to learn Paul knows so many street gang signs at the beginning of the Namibia episode (he was going through them to make sure none of them happened to match the way he was told how to describe Namibia's shape using hands). Paul simply replies he grew up in Chicago.
• Hipster: Paul has sometimes used the term tripster: like a hipster, but wants to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to where to go on vacation. First mentioned in the Bulgaria video due to its beaches and range in the landscape for a country with relatively low visibility in terms of tourism.
• Inconsistent Episode Lengths: As par for the course with YouTube content. The earlier episodes used to run an average of 15-20 minutes, but sometimes depending upon the content, the episodes can run much longer. Recently, the videos have now been running 30-40 minutes on average.
• Insistent Terminology: Invoked (unsurprisingly) in the (Former Yugoslav Republic of) Macedonia episode due to the usage of "Macedonia" being a Berserk Button.
• It Was a Gift: Paul has received a plethora of gifts from fans through Fan Friday. Some are cultural, some are interesting and some are just plain odd, such as a taxidermy badger head sent from an Australian.
• Just Here for the Free Snacks: In the North Korea episode, Paul mentions that North Koreans make the best neng myon (a Korean noodle dish) in the world. Since neng myon is his favorite food, he then says that he'd like to go to North Korea just to try their neng myon.
• MacGyvering: In the Cambodia episode, Paul says that Cambodians are masters of this, due to living in a poor country with a highly unregulated economy. As an example, he says that one could start a gas station in Cambodia with only a steel drum, an air compressor, and empty soda bottles to store gasoline in.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Exaggerated with the place names in Jamaica, each having its own unique story and context to it, like "Broke Neck Gully", "Old woman savanna", "Rest-and-be-thankful", "Time and Patience", and "Wait-a-bit".
  • A less extreme version in Mauritius, where many places have French or Mauritian Creole names that "each have backstories as to why they're named that way", like "Mon Goût" ("my taste"), "Mon Desert" ("my desert"), Nouvelle Découverte ("new discovery"), and just plain "Britannia".
• Megaton Punch: After giving Paul a "The Reason You Suck" Speech in the beginning of the Phillipines episode, Ken punches him so hard that it not only sends Paul flying upwards but also blew up the entire studio building!
• Metaphorgotten: Barby was apparently hungry when he compared Central America to a bag of potato chips:
  "When you first look in, they all look like potato chips. But then when you inspect them a little closer you realize some are a little bigger, some are a little crispier, some have a little bit of green, and that's my job...to eat potato chips." (eats a handful of chips, continues with mouth full) "What were we talking about?"
• Momma's Boy: His mother lives with him, as he felt it necessary to take care of her and keep her happy and safe after his father died. She's appeared in a few episodes (starting with the South Korea episode).
• My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad: In the South Korea episode, when Paul's mother reveals that she was a black belt in taekwondo, Paul says "So yeah, basically, my mom can kill your mom."
• National Geographic Nudity: In the eSwatini episode, Paul includes footage of the Reed Dance, which features topless young women, held annually in the country. While he admits that it is YouTube's policy to not restrict nudity where it is culturally or traditionally appropriate, he still opts to censor the footage out of consideration for certain viewers who might still be offended by it.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Gary Harlow, the character Kaleb plays in the show's animal segment, is very clearly based on Steve Irwin.
• Noodle Incident:
  • In the India episode, he says he doesn't want to go to jail...again (while holding up an Indian rupee banknote, which can't legally be taken out of the country). A closed caption just says "Don't ask".
  • Mohab saying that he was exempt from Egypt's compulsory military draft for an unknown reason (doesn't give a straight answer and only said "it's a long story").
  • Whatever happened in Monaco that caused Paedar to stop drinking.
• No Smoking: Invoked in the Bhutan episode. In fact, tobacco and cigarettes are banned in that country.
• Non-Indicative Name: Averted with Costa Rica ("Rich Coast"), which Paul explicitly agrees fits the country before slapping the tag straight onto Côte d'Ivoire and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted in the opening to the Georgia episode, when internet searches kept returning Paul results related to the US state rather than the country in the Caucasus. It gets solved by searching for "Sakartvelo".
• Public Domain Soundtrack: The background music is always public domain music.
• Puns: Way too many to count, and at least once per episode, but not always. Sometimes they work, sometimes they backfire.
  "'Bet-you-wanna' land in Bechuanaland!"
  • He'll usually lampshade the intentional bad-ness of the lamest ones.
• Pungeon Master: Paul really loves puns to the point he often gets punched for them.
• Reading Stage Directions Out Loud: At the end of his section in the Trinidad and Tobago episode, Gary Harlow reads "ad lib stage exit" out loud before doing the robot on the way out.
• Real Life Writes the Plot:
  • Paul talked about Bahrain...just some time after returning from a trip to Bahrain.
  • The Czech Republic changed its English name to Czechia a month before its episode.
  • The time between the release of Bangladesh episode and the India episode just happened to be when the two countries announced an agreement regarding the ton of enclaves each had with the other near the border, something he makes note of in the latter's episode.
  • Shortly after producing the Malaysia episode, Swaziland changed its name to the Kingdom of eSwatini, causing Paul to bump up its episode to be the next one produced, as he had already passed the country's new place in the alphabet.
  • After all that effort in producing the Macedonia (i.e. FYROM) episode, the two countries resolved their conflict and agreed that the country's new name should be North Macedonia. The change was in effect by February 2019.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Paul's first comparison between North and South Korea is how their news broadcasts talk about their respective leaders, or at least his impressions of them. North Korea's "The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's Dear Leader and General Kim Jong Un..." is full of emphasis, drama and changing tones, while South Korea's "So, this week President Mun Jae In visited China..." is so flat the newscaster sounds bored.
• The Rival: The series' later episodes develop one between Random Hannah^note plus her husband Ian when he shows up, who does cultural segments about a country's populace like dances and traditions, and Keith, who does segments about the country's music scene — the former roots for the Alabama Crimson Tide while the latter roots for the Florida Gators.
• Running Gag:
  • The Bearsharktopus (debatable).
  • Red on a flag standing for THE BLOOD OF THOSE WHO FOUGHT FOR THE FREEDOM.
    • Subverted in the Cameroon and Croatia videos, where red actually stood for the unity of the people, and the revolution & sacrifice, respectively.
    • Subverted again in the Congo (Republic) episode, where Paul explains how the red in the flag doesn't have any actual meaning according to the constitution.
    • Subverted yet again in the Limberwisk episode, where Paul explains that it's actually the black that stands for blood.
  • When he explains how a country's name is pronounced, he lists some erroneous spellings of it. Expect Bob Saget to be listed at the end, for no reason.
  • Don't forget little LIECHTENSTEIN! Can be substituted with other tiny nations like Luxembourg in the Germany episode or Eswatini in the Malawi episode.
  • Paul getting punched out whenever he (intentionally) screws up a fact or a pronunciation.
  • Ken, the camera and animation guy, almost being fired for the littlest things, but staying hired; also references to Ken's "dungeon" which is basically a hole in the floor as his residence.
  • Noah having a different entrance every time Paul is about to go on his espresso break.
  • Paul reminding the audience about how he's still waiting for Rihanna to call him.
  • When it comes time to showcase a country's culinary landscape at the tail end of the Physical Geography section, it's always introduced with a shout of "FOOD!"
  • Using "Anyway" to segue into a different topic, and its variations (including "Anywho" and "Any-HUWAH").
  • Whom'st'fort'width
• Russian Guy Suffers Most: In the Russia episode, Mike mentions that Russians love to fetishsize their own suffering. They don't live, they survive.
• Scenery Porn: The showcase of iconic landmarks and landscapes in the various countries discussed.
• Self-Deprecation: Sometimes Paul makes fun of the first three videos (Afghanistan, Albania and Algeria), criticizing the bad audio mixage and the lack of in-depth research in those videos.
• Separated by a Common Language:
  • Inverted in the Bosnia and Herzegovina video. He explains that Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian are mutually intelligible, but they are treated as entirely different languages. He makes this comparison:
  "Hi, I'm speaking American!"
  "Hello, I am speaking British!"
  "Hi! I'm speaking Irish!"
  "Y'know, you guys all pretty much understand each other, you all kinda like say the same thing, aren't you all speaking the same..."
  "NO!!!"
  • Paul grew up in the Midwest, where soda is called "pop". He remarks it in the Cambodia video.
• Shirtless Scene: In the Liberia episode, Paul takes off his shirt and juggles when he talks about "shikii", or when Liberians flaunt themselves to make an impression of people.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: While Paul is known for his love of puns, the Israel episode has a distinct lack of them, as he wanted to deal with a delicate and controversial subject as seriously as possible.
• Shout-Out: Sometimes Barby dabbles in these, sometimes with lampshading on how he does these to pander to the younger generation.
  • In the Cuba episode, he says that the Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved by the X-Men stopping the missiles. He then follows that up with "Oh, wait, that didn't happen... unfortunately."
  • To demonstrate how different Finland is from the other Nordic countries, Barby compares the former to a heavy metal guitarist (played by Keith) while the others are presented as Queen Elsa skipping along going "La la la la la" (played by Barby).
  • In the Georgia episode, he points out several similarities between Georgia and Rivendell: both are hidden away in the mountains, laden with castles and fortresses, and have a language with a curly, wispy script.
  • He often compares the "Baltic sisters" Latvia and Lithuania with the creepy Grady twins from The Shining. The parody clip of the movie in the Lithuania episode has Estonia standing in for Danny.
  • Right before explaining all the wildlife of Madagascar, Paul opens it with "If you've ever watched any kind of documentary, or show, or incredibly accurate cartoon depiction of Madagascar..." along with the image of said cartoon depiction on screen.
  • The Marshall Islands episode opens with a poorly made parody of the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song, due to the fact that Bikini Bottom is based on the real life Bikini Atoll, located on the Islands. The song parody also mentions Godzilla and its origin story of it being a nuclear experiment gone wrong in said Atoll.
  • Apparently, to make a Captain Peru one adds earth, fire, wind, water, and "the rest -- animals, resources, whatever!"
  • In the Romania episode, Art's segment on Romania's physical geography is introduced with Barby turning a pumpkin into Art by saying "Bippidi boppidi Bob Saget!"
  • During the history section of the Russia episode, when they bring up the execution of the Romanovs, Barby adds "...as depicted by the incredibly accurate cartoon" while showing a poster for Anastasia.
• Shown Their Work: Paul does a lot of research when making the videos, even when the facts can't fit in 14 minutes of video. He eventually points out things he left out either in the description, comment section, Flag Friday or in "Geography More".
• Slap-Slap-Kiss:
  • Croatia and Serbia.
  • This is also how Paul describes Austria's diplomatic relations with its neighbours.
• Small Taxonomy Pools: In the New Zealand episode, moa are consistently implied to have exclusively been "12-foot tall bird monsters", referring to the famous giant moa, BUT it completely overlooks the fact that there was extreme size diversity throughout the many other species, including the upland, heavy-footed, and little bush moa.
• The Smurfette Principle: Lampshaded in the Uruguay episode, where Barby introduces Hannah for the culture segment as "the incredibly pregnant token female host".
• Spin-Off: "Flag Dissection" became "Flag Fridays" (later "Fan Fridays" and "Flag/Fan Days") starting with Cuba. "Geography More" adds additional tidbits about countries that Paul couldn't fit into the main episode. "Geography Go" shows videos of his overseas travels beyond his home in Southern California.
• Stylistic Suck:
  • In the Ghana flag dissection video, the lack of the Bloodshed sequence was compensated with Barby dancing around with a cardboard armour and tinfoil sword.
  • The whole "Geometry Now" video, complete with unfitting subtitles that let the audience know that it's supposed to suck.
  • After chief animator Ken is fired again during the Lesotho video, the demographic charts become crudely hand drawn in black and white. The poor quality of the graphics in the video becomes off-putting and Barbs is forced to get Ken back.
• Strictly Formula: See the description. Also frequently lampshaded in his videos, as on a couple of occasions he expresses frustration about a fact that would have made a much better transition to the next topic had it been something else.
• Surprise Party: Barbs and company pull one on Random Hannah during the St. Lucia episode right as she finishes taping her cultural segment about the country, with a little Geography Now cupcake and a surprise trip to the island along with Ian.
• Take That, Audience!: In the China episode, Barby calls out on those who watch geography videos just to hear about controversies and border disputes by depicting them as overly-nerdy with thick-rimmed glasses and a nasally voice who starts shaking in excitement when Barby gets to China's border disputes.
  "This is why I watch Geography Now!"
• That Cloud Looks Like...: Often Paul has a lot of fantasy when comparing a country's shape to something else. For example, he compared the shape of the island of Cuba with that of a vacuum cleaner, with Havana at the handle.
• The Unpronounceable: Half of the Iceland episode has Barby struggling to spell Icelandic words.
• This Is Gonna Suck:
  • At the end of the Chile episode, he briefly shudders to the thought of having to cover China next.
  • Paul is clearly dreading having to address why just the name of Macedonia has been such a source of angry shouting matches. He even tried to skip out the Macedonia episode because of this reason.
  • In several videos prior to its release, Paul stated that the Israel episode would be this because of all the...shall we say, high levels of emotion surrounding it. Once he got through the meat of it, though, he ends up inverting the trope in regards to the North Korea episode since, now that he got through the whole Israel and Palestine thing, that one will seem much easier.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Perpetual Butt-Monkey Ken eventually got to co-host the Philippines episode.
• Title Sequence: A very abrupt one, opening with a shining globe that then bounces around a bunch of random facets of culture and people and cuisine, as the Geography Now title is shown along with the theme song playing, which then concludes with a random animal screaming the "NOW!" part of the song. The Limberwisk episode has Bob Saget standing in for the animal in the theme song, which gives you a hint as to what the episode is really all about.
• Too Dumb to Live: In the Belarus video, Paul comments on the abandoned checkpoint between Ukraine and Belarus, near the Chernobyl disaster site, where people meet to contraband illegal goods and die because of radiations. Then Paul is shown doing this exact thing.
  Hey man, I've got that thing you want- (starts coughing up fake blood)
• Unusual Euphemism: Since Barby tries to be family-friendly in his videos, he winds up saying that Greece is the most hey-heeeeey! active country in the word.
• Vocal Dissonance: Paul introduces Norway as the Nordic sister that everyone either tries to call their best friend or date. However, Norway is also the home of black metal, so at the start of the country's episode Paul introduces Norway like:

  Paul: She smiles at the ground, pulls her hair behind her ear, and looks up with those sky-blue doe eyes and says—

  Norway, acted by Keith in a growling low metal rocker voice with a blonde woman's head superimposed on top of his face: Welcome to Norway!!

• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: In the Belize video, Paul explains that Amber Gris is an ingredient for perfumes extracted from sperm whale vomit. Cue Paul imitating a vomiting whale.
• Walk Like an Egyptian: Mohab, Paul's Egyptian friend who guest stars in the Egypt episode, does the walk when Paul explains about Egypt's most famous tourist attractions like the Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx. The disclaimer at the bottom left of the video during this segment says that it was Mohab's own idea to do it rather than him being told to.
• What Could Have Been: In-Universe, when Barby laments about tweeting Rihanna to collaborate with the writing of the Barbados episode, but she never answered. The same story went for Lilly Singh and the India episode, and later Dwayne Johnson and the Samoa episode.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!:
  • Paul sums up the entire Friend Zone section of Canada as "Canada is friends with everyone - the end" followed by a snippet of the ending credits as a joke before he comes back and does it properly.
  • He sums up Ireland's Physical Geography section as "Ireland is green" and began the Demographics section right after as a joke.
  • Less happily, he tries to skip out on the rest of the FYROM video after finishing the Physical Geography section by pretending the remaining sections didn't exist because he really didn't want to talk about the name issue.

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