Outright parody can be funny, and often is. Sadly, parody is also really easy to miss the mark on. (As far as Hetalia goes, the portrayals of Korea and China are kind of sketchy, considering the history of Japanese imperialism and racism, but Europe? Have fun.)

I'd rather ignore the big deal people make of it, because I think it's stupid, than parody it, because, as I said above, parody often misses the mark. And I really don't like humor making fun of individual people, in jest or not. (Whether making fun of large groups of people and stereotypes is funny depends on the power balance between the groups. Whitey telling n-er jokes? Not cool. Chris Rock telling honky jokes? Fine.)