Polandball

About

Polandball is a cartoon character drawn in the shape of a ball with the color schemes of the Polish flag (white & red). It was originally featured in the multi-pane comic series that became popular in /INT/ (international) board on Krautchan, a German-language imageboard community similar to 4chan. These user-generated cartoons typically follow the lives of ball-shaped creatures representing different countries (also known as Countryballs) and "international drama" surrounding their diplomatic relations.

Origin

Polandball comic strips were created by a British individual known as "FALCO" in the /INT/ board of Krautchan^[1] around September 2009. Unlike other image-boards on the German-language site, /INT/ board^[2] is frequented by English-speaking netizens from the rest of Europe and the world. According to several sources^[3], FALCO's original comics were decidedly apolitical and aimed to poke fun at a fellow Polish /INT/ user "Wojak", who frequently posted in less than perfect English. One of his memorable quotes "I Know That Feel" also became a meme in May 2010.

However, as the cartoon's appeal grew within the /INT/ board, some of the derivative artworks began to reflect on the subject of European Union and international relations, featuring other country balls like Russia, Germany, Austria, Great Britain and the United States.

Drawball Takeover in 2009

Drawball is a popular website hosting a huge circular canvas on which anyone can draw and collaborate on larger artworks with other users. In mid-August 2009, a large group of Polish netizens on Wykop.pl^[4] and PokazyWarka^[6] took on a mission to take over the Drawball canvas with their national flag in white and red.

Alarmed by a sudden flood of red and white, Drawball users in communities like New Schoolers^[5], 4chan responded by making counter moves, including an attempt to sabotage the takeover by flipping the color schemes^[7] to resemble a Pokemon creature. However, the battle didn't last long and by August 15th, Drawball canvas read "Polska."

Spread

Polandball comics became so prevalent on the /INT/ board that a spin-off cartoon of "Country balls" was created on October 15th, 2009. Then, any post was followed by the icon of a small ball with big eyes representing the poster's own country flag.

As stated in the Russian Lurkmore wiki:

Интересный факт -- Бавария и Германия в комиксах выступают как отдельные страны. А еще 15 октября все флаги в /INT/ были заменены на Countryballs. Such cases.

Translation:

Interesting fact – Bavaria and Germany in the comics appear as separate countries. And on October 15 all the flags in the / INT / have been replaced by Countryballs. Such cases.

Characteristics

- Polandball’s proper color scheme is red top, white bottom. (why? because he is such a precious little snowflake – and Falcolad probably screwed up his first few strips. Nevertheless, it stuck and became a trademark usually frowned upon by Polish anons – and thus a surefire means to troll them)

- Countryballs including Poland have no limbs, pupils, eyebrows or mouth.

- Countryballs cannot into proper English (which kind of resembles the lolcat-meme. The “X cannot into Y” became a Polandball related meme itself)

- Countryballs from east Asian countries have small eyes.

Personalities of respective Countryballs.

Although not mandatory, specific countryballs have personalities that are reflective of stereotypes on how the citizens of a country are displayed on the internet and in popular culture. These personalities are consistently used in polandball comics. Here are a couple of examples:

- The United States are displayed as egocentric people who do not understand anything that happens outside their own border, and who always rush in to bring 'freedoms' when required.

- France always surrenders immediately, referencing to the defeat of France in 1940 at the hands of Nazi-Germany.

- The Netherlands is almost always on drugs, loves his tulips and windmills, and loves to steal ''clay'' (land) from the sea.

- The United Kingdom is an old gentlemen with a top hat on who often looks melancholic back to his glorious days as an empire that are now over.

- Poland wants to go into space, but is unable to do so. ("Poland cannot into space"). He also feels threatened by Russia and Germany.

- Germany tends to always work and have some old longings left inside of him of the German Empire and Nazi-Germany, or at least other countries suspect him of having those. (like wanting Lebensraum)

Outside of /INT/

Shortly afterward, Non-German Speaking websites began hosting some of those webcomics, including on 4chan^[11] and Facebook^[12], as well as niche interest communities like d2jsp^[8], The Mercury Rooms^[9] forum and MilitaryPhotos^[10] forum among others. It also made its way to the polish imageboard site vichan's /int/ board^[13], having the same feature installed in December. Also on the Russian imageboard Uachan^[14] and the British image board Britfa.gs^[15].
The comics became famous enough to eventually warrant their own active sub-reddit^[19].

Facebook Community

On Facebook, several pages for individual countryballs (countries, political groups, religions) developed soon after. Among the admins, several even gained a sort of 'celebrity status', resulting in their pages being more popular than many of the minor countryball pages themselves; some of the most notable ones being Earl of Grey^[16], Reagan^[17] and AP^[18]. These admins, often known for conservative, Christian, traditionalist world views, even grew beyond the Polandball community.

The Polandball community on Facebook often had to deal with bans due to politically incorrect humor (often targeting Islam, or "Kebab", as called in the community) or the display of the swastika (since it's part of the Third-Reich-flag and thus of the Third-Reich-countryball as well). Meta-Pages like The Polandball Report gained popularity, and a major holiday for the community was proclaimed on 27th of July 2014 when the page "Stop Enabling Anti-semitism", which was notorious for getting other pages banned, was removed from Facebook.

Notable Examples

Regional Editions

YouTube Tributes

One of the recurring motifs in the series is Poland's ambition of space exploration, which has been illustrated through a number of Polandball tribute videos uploaded to Youtube featuring the phrase "Polandball cannot into space."

Search Interest

External References