Countryballs: Difference between revisions

User-generated representation of Polandball.

Polandball, also known as countryball, is a user-generated Internet meme which originated on the /int/ board of German imageboard Krautchan.net in the latter half of 2009. The meme is manifested in a large number of online comics, where countries are presented as spherical personas that interact in often broken English, poking fun at national stereotypes and international relations, as well as historical conflicts. The comics style may be referred to both as Polandball (by convention, even in cases where there is no Poland among the cartoon characters) and countryball (or, collectively, countryballs).

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.

Krautchan.net is a German-language imageboard whose /int/ board is frequented by English-speaking netizens. The beginning of the Polandball meme is credited to Falco, a British user on /int/, who in September 2009 created the meme using MS Paint in an apolitical way to troll Wojak, a Pole on the same board who contributes 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 culminated in the meme propagating across various sites on the Internet, including Reddit.

Themes

Poland

An example of a Polandball comic which is an extension of the "Poland cannot into space" catchprase. The comic references Poland joining the European Space Agency in 2012.

The premise of Polandball, which gained in popularity in the wake of the crash in Smolensk which killed Polish President Lech Kaczyński, is 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 (the reverse of the Polish flag), is typically seen weeping.

Some Polandball comics arise from the premise that Russia can fly into space, whilst Poland can not. One of the most popular Polandball cartoons 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. In another Polandball comic which delves into historic-political satire, Poland is seen to be boring other countryballs, with its proclamation of "So when we crushed Russia and the turks [sic] were were the biggest country in the world... and...", leading other countryballs to laugh at it. Poland, by now irritated, utters kurwa, and holds up a sign saying "Internet serious business", which is an internet slogan used to deride others who treat subjects with disdain, and in Polandball convention, finishes by crying.

Other countries

A Polandball comic which satirises Sweden–Finland.

Polandball can also include comics on other countries, but by convention these comics are usually still referred to as Polandball, although they can also be called countryballs. Countries are also represented as balls, although Singapore takes the form of a triangle and is called Tringapore; the theoretical Fourth Reich is a tall rectangle with small eyes and is known as Reichtangle; Israel takes the form of a hypercube called Israelcube (in reference to Jewish physics); and Kazakhstan takes the form of a brick called Kazakhbrick. In addition, America sports a pair of shades and the United Kingdom wears a monocle and a top hat.

Cue balls of 1 through 8 are used to represent indigenous ethnic groups without a certain nationality. For example, the 1 ball (yellow) represents East Asians, the 7 ball (maroon) represents Native Americans and the 8 ball (black) represents Africans or black people in general. Extraterrestrials are represented by the 6 ball (green).

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.

A good example of Polandball is the comic titled Element of surprise where each country presents the mineral named after itself, where for example Germany presents Germanium, European Union Europium, while Poland shows radioactive Polonium, which causes other Polandball countries to die - apart from Ukraine, who claims it is resistant to radioactivity what is a reference to the Chernobyl_disaster.

Assessment

An example of a Polandball comic which references Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) by Salvador Dalí, and which illustrates the Polish martyrdom stereotype as described by Wojciech Oleksiak. Israel and Jews in general are traditionally shown as a cube.

A report on 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 ("Four tank-men and a dog"), 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 an example of par excellence on the Internet, 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 psycho-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, is mostly true, whilst the stereotype that Poles hold many national complexes and blames 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".

See also

• Hetalia: Axis Powers
• Polish joke

External links

• Polandball at reddit
• Polandball at Knowyourmeme
• Polandball at militaryphotos.net