Polandball
Polandball, also known as countryballs, refers to user-generated visual art, typically manifesting as online comics, where countries are personified as spherical personas decorated with their country's flag, interacting in often broken English, usually with regional and/or national variations. The characters poke fun at national stereotypes and international relations, as well as historical conflicts. Countryballs have also been used in videos and comics involving alternate and speculative history. It is an Internet meme which originated on the /int/ board of German imageboard Krautchan.net in the latter half of 2009.
The comics style may be referred to both as Polandball and countryball.
Background
Polandball has its roots in an August 2009 "cyberwar" between Polish Internet users and the rest of the world on drawball.com. The website, which offers a virtual canvas, allows Internet users to draw whatever they want, and to draw over others' drawings. On the Polish internet, an idea was raised to draw the Polish flag on the ball, and thousands of Poles together managed to take over the drawball with a painting of white on top of red, with the word "POLSKA" written in the middle. After co-ordination from 4chan, this was then covered over by a giant swastika, an interaction which was repeated several times over the ensuing weeks.Krautchan.net was a German-language imageboard whose /int/ board was frequented by English-speaking netizens. The beginning of the Polandball meme is credited to Falco, a British user on /int/, who created the meme in September 2009 using Microsoft Paint in an apolitical way to troll Wojak, a Pole on the same board who contributed in broken English, after which Polandball cartoons were enthusiastically drawn by Russians.
Polandball comics have no defined authors, and anyone is able to make one. This has become an internet meme, presented e.g., on Reddit and Facebook.
Themes
Poland
The premise of Polandball is that it represents Poland and its history, relations with other countries and stereotypes, focusing on Polish megalomania and national complexes. With the exception of English-speaking ones, interactions between countryballs tend to be written in broken English and Internet slang, reminiscent of the lolcat meme, and by the end of the cartoon Poland, which is purposely represented as red on top of white, is typically seen weeping.Polandball depiction of Poland portrays a number of stereotypes. These include bad English use by Poles, blaming others for its failures in particular given the backdrop of repeated invasions by Russians and Germans, Polish propensity for telling tales of the glorious past, and the perception of Poles as "dull-witted" and "psycho-Catholic".
Some Polandball comics arise from the premise that Russia can fly into space, whilst Poland cannot. One of the earliest Polandball comics begins with the premise that Earth is going to be struck by a giant meteor, leading to all countries with space technology leaving Earth and going into orbit around the planet. At the end of the cartoon, Poland, still on earth, is crying, and in broken English pronounces the canonical Polandball catchphrase "Poland cannot into space". In this humorous way, Russians put a halt to all discussion with Poles on which country is superior.
Other countries
Polandball can also include comics on other countries, but by convention these comics are usually still referred to as Polandball comics, although they are sometimes also referred to as countryballs. States, provinces, and other such divisions can also be used; multi-national organizations such as the European Union and United Nations are also common, but their lack of power compared to their constituent states means that they are portrayed as weak or puppets. Countries are also represented as balls.There are various other established conventions. The 'r's and 'l's in East Asian nations' speech switch places in a stereotypes of East Asians. The United States sports a pair of shades and often has its stars replaced by the text "x50", and regularly uses profanity. It regularly mistakes countryballs without a direct historical and/or political connection to it either for their neighbors or with those with similar flags. Japan sometimes wears cat ears, the United Kingdom wears a monocle and a top hat and Canada is often seen wearing a coonskin cap.
The simplicity of Polandball, added with its recognition of world history and a focus on current affairs, makes the meme suited to commenting on international events. Amongst events which have been covered by Polandball and have been noted in the media, are the Senkaku Islands dispute, the 2013 papal conclave which saw Jorge Mario Bergoglio being elected as the new Pope, the 2014 Ukrainian crisis, the 2014 Crimean crisis and issues relating to Filipino workers in Taiwan.
Assessment
A report on the Russian radio station Vesti FM noted a post on Livejournal which asked readers to list five images that come to mind when thinking of Poland or Poles. The five pages of responses, illustrating the deep historical ties between Russia and Poland, recalled subjects including False Dmitriy I, Tomek in the Land of the Kangaroos by Polish author Alfred Szklarski, Czterej pancerni i pies, Russophobia and Polandball.Wojciech Oleksiak, writing on culture.pl, a project of the Polish government-funded Adam Mickiewicz Institute which has the aim of promoting 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 par excellence, he further stated that comic plots can be "rude, impolite, racist, abusive, or just plain dumb", whilst also noting that the politically incorrect nature of the comics add 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, 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; whilst the stereotype that Poles hold many national complexes and blame external forces for their own 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".