The 'What's the Shape of Italy?' meme plays on the recognizable silhouette of the Italian peninsula, which famously resembles a high-heeled boot. In its most common form, the joke describes the country as a boot kicking a football, represented by the island of Sicily. This concept has been a staple of classroom humor and geography trivia for decades, later evolving into various internet formats including comics, map annotations, and educational parodies. It is frequently used to mock basic geography knowledge or to celebrate Italian culture in a lighthearted, visual way that everyone can understand.