Koalas (often erroneously referred to as koala bears note ) are depicted in a variety of different ways in fiction. Because of their cute body, they might be depicted as cuddly despite being wild animals. They also might be stereotyped as Awesome Aussies, much like kangaroos and wallabies. However, a common stereotype is them being the Lazy Bum or The Ditz of the group.
Koalas in fiction are often shown laying in trees like sloths. They are shown as sluggish creatures that aren't very fast due to their stubby little bodies. Similarly, they might be irritable or otherwise not-too-bright creatures. Overall, they aren't portrayed with a whole lot of energy or ambition.
Truth in Television. Koalas are fairly lazy in Real Life. Koalas eat mainly eucalyptus leaves, which are both hard to digest and have very little nutrition, meaning the energy "profit" they derive from them is rather low. Thinking is a very energy-intensive biological process, and as a result koalas have evolved one of the smallest brain-to-body mass ratios of all mammals (and said brain happens to be infamously smooth). Experts theorize that a low nutrition, low effort diet (leaves don't tend to run away) combined with a lack of predators has resulted in koalas being, to put it simply, really dumb. (If you give a koala eucalyptus leaves separated from a branch, it will not recognize them as food.) On top of this, koalas spend the overwhelming majority of their time sleeping (around 18 to 22 hours a day) to conserve even more energy. Basically koalas' biology is just enough to keep them physically alive and that's it.
There’s a common myth that koalas are so sluggish because they are “stoned” from the toxins in eucalyptus leaves. This is not true; koalas can safely digest the chemicals without any intoxicating effects.
Sub-Trope of Animal Stereotypes. Compare Cats Are Lazy, Sluggish Seal, Sluggish Sloths, Dogs Are Dumb, and Buffoonish Tomcat for similarly lazy/ditzy creatures. See also Drop Bears for much larger, ravenous koalas that drop out of trees. Also see High Koala-ty Cuteness for another koala stereotype and Boxing Kangaroo, Kangaroos Represent Australia, Puzzling Platypus, and Volatile Tasmanian Devil for other stereotypes applying to Australian wildlife.
Examples:
- Qantas Airways Limited ran a multi-decade series of television commercials with footage of a live koala and rather timid-sounding voiceover by Howard Morris (ostensibly the voice of the koala) complaining about how all the tourists flown in by Qantas were disturbing the peace and quiet he craved, and ending with the tagline, "I hate Qantas."
- Girls und Panzer. The commander of the Australian tankery team is a koala. Of course it doesn't actually command the tank; it just squats on a small tree in the turret while Vice-commander Wallaby pretends to translate its orders.
- Beyond the Black Stump is an Australian comic strip about Australian wildlife with various stereotypes amongst the animals. That being said, Bruce is a lazy koala and the least committed of the cast.
- Pearls Before Swine has a story arc where Zebra hires Killer Koala, a koala security guard, to defend him from the crocs. Unfortunately, his plan soon runs into trouble when Killer Koala reveals that he needs to sleep for 20 hours per day.
- Krebbs the koala in The Rescuers Down Under doesn't make a strong effort to escape his cage back at McLeach's hideout, though his laziness is partially fuelled by cynicism. It doesn't help that his fellow captives are relying on Frank to get the keys to their cages.
- Inverted with Buster Moon in Sing and its sequel, Sing 2. He is a very ambitious koala who never gives up on his dreams to be successful in the show business. The only time he gives up is when the theater collapses in the first movie. However, he gains the courage to keep working hard after his friends come to cheer him up.
- Mostly subverted with Colin the koala in the Spellsinger novel The Path of the Perambulator, who's smart and pretty intense. The idea that koalas are stoned is referenced, with Colin winding up getting high for a while after being stuck in a Lotus-Eater Machine that made him think he was in a eucalyptus forest, and apparently the magic was enough to make him intoxicated in the real world. (With Funny Animal koalas who are at least bright enough to talk, it might even be true.)
- A Tharawal story has the koala being punished by the kangaroo for being lazy and greedy, having his tail chomped off as punishment.
- Dumbo's Circus: Ironically inverted with Ringmaster Fair Dinkum. He is a koala who is afraid of heights, despite koalas spending most of their days up in trees.
- Ozzie in Animal Crossing is a koala villager with a lazy personality.
- The Battle Cats: Kory is a koala enemy, and his description states that he's freeloading at Gory's house instead of getting a job.
- Played with in the case of Koala Kong, one of Cortex's minions from the first Crash Bandicoot. Despite being an anthropomorphic koala with biceps to spare, he doesn't chase or charge Crash and he limits himself to picking up boulders and throwing them to the other side of the lava river forming his boss level. He's also sluggish enough to be carried away from a rogue cart one-third of his size.
- Palworld: Played With Depresso, a koala Pal. They're very apathetic when assigned to mine at a base, doing a bare minimum of effort by tapping the rock with a pickaxe, and their idea of relaxing in a pool bath is lying face down and floating. However, like their name suggests, this is due to their perpetual depressed mood rather than being laid-back.
- Pokémon: Komala is notable for spending its entire life asleep, and merely sleepwalking to move around. Nobody in recorded history has ever seen an awake Komala. It even translates to gameplay, as Komala has the unique "Comatose" ability which treats it like it has a permanent Sleep condition, which prevents other, harmful status effects without the downsides of actually being asleep.
- Inverted with the update titles for Starbound when it was in Early Access, which are themed around a koala becoming more and more enraged, starting with "Perturbed" and ending with "Rampaging".
- Maoala from Temtem isn't described as lazy, but its Hypnotist trait puts all the other Tems on the battlefield to sleep, and its horizontal pupils make it looks like it has its Eyes Always Shut.
- One of the main members of BT21 is a calm, relaxed koala named Koya. They are often seen sleeping deeply or are lost in daydreams. They even talk with a slow, drowsy voice!
- The Kwicky Koala Show provides an inversion. The titular koala, Kwicky, lives up to his name, being able to move at Flash Step speeds to escape the pursuing Wilford Wolf.
- Steven Universe: In "The New Lars", Steven attempts to engage Lars in a conversation about whether koalas or sloths are the kings of "hanging around doing nothing animals".
- Averted with Leonard from The Penguins of Madagascar, who is very high-strung, neurotic, and prone to fits of panic. Granted, he has a very good reason to be afraid of the main characters.
- In French, the koala is sometimes nicknamed "paresseux australien" ("Australian sloth") in reference to its sluggish behavior.
- In zoology, koalas are often compared to tree sloths as an example of parallel evolution- two types of unrelated mammals that evolved to be quite similar to each other thanks to adopting the same ecological niche on two different continents.
