Countryballs

Countryballs, also known as Polandball,The term "Polandball" is often used interchangeably, regardless on whether or not Poland appears. is a geopolitical satirical art style, genre, and Internet meme, predominantly used in online comics strips in which countries or political entities are personified as anthropomorphic ballsExceptions are Kazakhstan, Nepal, Singapore, Israel, Chile, and others, which are drawn with other non-circular shapes. with eyes, decorated with their national flags. Comics feature the characters in various scenarios, mostly poking fun at national stereotypes, international relations, and historical events. Other common features in Countryball strips include non-English countries speaking in broken English — with vocabularies of their national languages included — political incorrectness, and black comedy. Strips are generally created using Microsoft Paint or more advanced graphic art software, often made to intentionally look crudely-drawn.

Countryballs continue to be popular on the Internet, with the Facebook community reaching over 215,000 members by July 2015, and the subreddit r/Polandball reaching over 650,000 by 2024. Several other communities are active on VK, Telegram, YouTube, Twitter, and Bilibili. It has also been the subject of research by various institutions, as well as positive and negative commentary for both their simplistic and offensive nature, with some feeling they could allow readers to learn about unknown events. Various video games and alternate history works have been based on the meme.

Background history

Precursors

An indirect origin of Countryballs can be traced back to . On the website, users could freely draw on a circular canvas called a "drawball". In August 2009, thousands of Polish netizens from Wykop.pl, PokazyWarka, and various other sites took over the entire drawball with an illustration of the Polish flag with the word "POLSKA" in the middle. The circular canvas constrained the flag in such a way that it became a literal "Poland ball". The raid happened after a person on the Kibice.net forum asked for people to help them draw the Polish flag.

Other users on the website attempted to sabotage the artwork by inverting the color scheme to match that of a Poké Ball, or defacing it with a large swastika. Eventually, hackers attacked NK.pl and Wykop.pl on August 18. The sites withstood the attacks, but ran considerably slower for the rest of the day.

British magazine ''The Shortlisted'' noted the strips were possibly inspired by the works of Italian animator Bruno Bozzetto, particularly the 1999 animated web short ''Europe VS Italy'', which acted as political satire on Italian and European Union cultural differences, and which also featured the characters as spherical.

First Countryball strips and spread

The creator of the modern Countryballs format is often attributed to Falco, a British user of the German imageboard Krautchan.net who drew the first strips in Microsoft Paint, before posting them in September (or October) 2009 to the /int/ board. Notably, Poland was drawn with an inverted Polish flag (making it look like the flag of Indonesia or Monaco), which some have debated on whether or not was intentional, or Falco being unaware of its color pattern. Poland being drawn upside-down grew in popularity as a way to antagonize Polish Krautchan user Wojak, for whom the Internet meme Wojak is named. The two meme formats grew out of the same message boards.

Unlike modern Countryball comics, the original strips were apolitical and were made to troll Wojak, a Polish user on the same board who often spoke in broken English.

After the initial strips, creating Countryballs cartoons became popular among other users on the board, particularly Russians who started adding several new countries to the comics. The comics would continue to gain notoriety following the Smolensk air disaster on 10 April 2010, in which the president of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, was killed.

Popularity

The style became widely popular as a meme and gained dedicated communities on Internet platforms such as Reddit and Facebook. One reason for the popularity of this art style is its ability to convey short stories about different cultures simply and humorously. In addition, the group's characterization also lends itself well to a shorter comic format. Another common format for Countryballs are alternate history videos, often involving maps of the world changing to show an alternative scenario to a war or conflict.

On July 2015, the Facebook community had over 215,000 members, although the main community has been occasionally banned due to the constant usage of hate symbols including the swastika. The r/polandball subreddit reached over 250,000 subscribers at around the same time, growing to over 650,000 by 2024. while the Polandball Wiki had 480,159 edits before its deletion by Fandom.

Themes

The premise of Countryballs is that they represent countries and their histories, foreign relations, and stereotypes. Mainly focusing on megalomania, history, current affairs, and national complexes. Except for natively English speaking countries, the dialogue of Countryballs tends to be written in broken English and Internet slang, reminiscent of the lolcat meme. Countryballs often use bits of the countries' national language, incorporating them in a grammatically incorrect way. The countryball medium does not have a singular defined author, and are sometimes drawn by anonymous users.

Poland

Poland is a central character in the meme. The representation of Poland in Polandball often relies on stereotypes. This can include portraying Poles as having poor English skills, frequently blaming others for their past failures due to repeated invasions by neighboring countries, having a tendency to glorify their history, and being perceived as unintelligent and overly religious.

Some Polandball comics arise from the premise that some countries like Russia can explore space while Poland cannot. This premise was used to satirize Poland's former exclusion from the European Space Agency up until 2012. One of the earliest Polandball comics begins with the premise that Earth will suffer an impact event, leading to all countries with space technology leaving Earth and settling into orbit around the planet. At the end of the cartoon, a tearful Poland, still on Earth, says the phrase "Poland cannot into space". In this humorous way, other countries halt all discussions with Poles on which country is superior. Poland is typically seen weeping by the end of a comic.

Other countries

Countryballs usually include comics with other countries, these comics are sometimes still referred to as Polandball comics. However, they are more commonly referred to as "Countryballs". States, provinces, other subdivisions, multinational organizations (such as the European Union) are also used. Other countries are typically seen recalling their glory days or individual events of success, including Russia repelling the Axis Powers' invasion of the country.

There are various other established conventions in Countryball comics. The United Kingdom usually wears a monocle and a top hat while holding a cup of tea. They are often portrayed as an old gentleman sadly reminiscing about their glory days as an empire. The United States wears big black sunglasses while also having a patriotic, idiotic, and prideful personality. Israel is often drawn as a cube instead of a ball.

A common character in the comics is the Reichtangle, a tall rectangle decorated with the flag of the German Empire and expressionless white dots for eyes; it often scares other countries (particularly Poland) by looming behind them, alongside the phrase "Guten tag" and poised to attack. Depending on the comic, it either represents the German military or German imperialism, although it is officially a fictitious Fourth Reich. Nepal and the U.S. state of Ohio are drawn as vaguely triangular shapes with jagged teeth (known as "rawrs"), in reference to the unusual proportions of their flags, while Singapore is depicted as a triangle. The reason for this is unknown, but is assumed to be either a pun ("Singa" is similar to "Trianga"; thus "Triangapore"), as well as a reference to the Indonesia–Malaysia–Singapore Growth Triangle. Bermuda is depicted as a reversed triangle in reference to Bermuda Triangle. Venice is often depicted with its fringes as tentacles due to its unique flag. Due to the similarity between the flag of Romania and the flag of Chad, Chad is sometimes depicted with sunglasses and an "8" symbol to distinguish it from Romania. In instances where an ethnic group does not have an official flag, they are drawn as billiard balls.

The simplicity of Countryballs, together with its recognition of world history and a focus on current affairs, makes the meme suited to commenting on international events. Among the events that have been covered by Countryballs and have been noted in the media are the Senkaku Islands dispute, the 2013 papal conclave (which saw Jorge Mario Bergoglio being elected the new Pope), the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, and issues relating to Filipino workers in Taiwan.

Assessment

Wojciech Oleksiak, writing on culture.pl (a project of the Polish government-funded Adam Mickiewicz Institute which has the aim of promoting the Polish language and culture abroad), noted that, due to anyone being able to create a Polandball comic, the existence of the meme has created new opportunities for people to express their personal views on race, religion, and history. In describing Polandball as the Internet meme ''par excellence'', he further stated that comic plots could be "rude, impolite, racist, abusive, or just plain dumb", while also noting that the politically incorrect nature of the comics adds to the attractiveness of the meme.

At the same time, Oleksiak notes that Polandball comics often employ exaggerated Polish stereotypes, such as Poles not being as proficient in English as other nationalities and Poland itself being a country full of dull-witted hyper-Catholics. On the other hand, he admits that some stereotypes employed in Polandball comics, such as Poles telling stories about the nation's glorious history and dwelling on a deep-rooted martyrdom, are mostly true. In contrast, the stereotype that Poles hold many national complexes and blame external forces for their failures is true but somewhat justified. Oleksiak further notes that from Polandball, Poles can learn to have "a sense of humour about our long-time grudges".

In popular culture

An online multiplayer third-person shooter called ''Countryballs: Modern Ballfare'' was released on Steam in June 2021 for Microsoft Windows. ''CountryBalls Heroes'', a strategy game, was released on Steam in November 2021 for Microsoft Windows. The game later won the 38th Fan Favorite weekly vote at the Game Development World Championship 2021.

See also

* Social commentary
* Editorial cartoon
* List of Internet memes
* '' Hetalia: Axis Powers'' – a Japanese webcomic in which the countries are personified as humans
* '' Year Hare Affair'' – a Chinese webcomic in which countries are personified as animals

Notes

References

External links

r/Polandball on Reddit

Polandball Wiki

{{Portal bar, Comedy, Countries, Internet, Poland

2000s webcomics
2009 comics debuts
2010s webcomics
2020s webcomics
American political satire
American webcomics
Ethnic and racial stereotypes
Fictional balls
Internet memes introduced in 2009
National personifications in comic books
Poland in fiction
Comics about politics
Race-related controversies in comics
Comics about anthropomorphic objects
Political Internet memes
Political webcomics
Satirical comics
Political satire comics
Works about Poland
2009 webcomic debuts
American comedy webcomics
Parody webcomics
Reddit
Internet meme characters
Internet memes introduced from the United Kingdom