1. Background

2. Themes
     Poland    Other countries  

3. Assessment

4. See also

5. References

6. External links

Polandball, also known as countryballs, refers to user-generated visual art, typically manifesting as online comics, where countries are personified as (typically) spherical personas decorated with their country's flag, interacting in often broken English named Engrish (with the exception of countryballs that speak English natively). 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 (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 Internet in Poland, 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.^[1][2]

Polandball comics have no defined authors, and anyone is able to make one.^[6] This has become an internet meme, presented e.g., at Reddit^[4][5] and Facebook.^[6][7]

Themes

Poland

The premise of Polandball is that it represents Poland and its history, relations with other countries and stereotypes,^[3][8] focusing on Polish megalomania and national complexes.^[2][9] 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.^[1][2]

Some Polandball comics arise from the premise that Russia can fly into space, whilst Poland can not. (Although in reality, a Polish astronaut, Mirosław Hermaszewski, did fly into space aboard the Soviet Soyuz 30 spacecraft in 1978.){{cn|date=April 2019}}

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".^[3][18] In this humorous way, Russians put a halt to all discussion with Poles on which country is superior.^[1][3][8]

Other countries

Polandball can also include comics on other countries, but by convention these comics are usually still referred to as Polandball,^[1] although they can also be called countryballs.^[4] States, provinces, and other such divisions can also be used; multi-national organizations such as the European Union and United Nations are also common. Countries are also represented as balls,^[6] although there are many novel exceptions. The German Empire of 1871–1918 (on Facebook and elsewhere) or the theoretical Fourth Reich (on Reddit) is a tall rectangle with small eyes known as the Reichtangle. Israel as well as the Jewish Autonomous Oblast takes the form of a hypercube (in reference to Jewish physics); the state of Michigan is also commonly depicted as a cube. Nepal (sometimes called Nepalrawr) is in the shape of its national flag (one triangle on top of another) and has teeth; other pennant-shaped flags can be drawn as "rawrs", such as the Maratha Empire and the state of Ohio. Singapore, Bermuda, and more rarely the Colombian department Nariño take the form of a triangle, in which Singapore is sometimes referred to as Tringapore. Kazakhstan takes the form of a brick sometimes called Kazakhbrick, due to Kazakhstan being the only country whose flag icon was inadvertently not changed to a ball on Krautchan.^[10]{{Better source|reason=This is a primary source. |date=September 2017}} Omsk, a city in Russia, generally takes the form of a malevolent bird or humanoid entity, and is based on a drawing by German artist Heiko Müller titled "Winged Doom".^[11]

There are various other established conventions. The United States sports a pair of shades, Japan sometimes wears a Kabuto, the United Kingdom wears a monocle and a top hat (as does Hong Kong, since it was once a territory of the United Kingdom) and Canada is often seen wearing a coonskin cap.^[12] Indonesia is always drawn with either a songkok or Asian conical hat to distinguish it from Poland (given its upside-down flag), with Monaco also distinguishing itself by often being drawn extremely small and with a pair of dark shades. Vatican City also regularly wears a mitre. Countries whose emblems are offset to the hoist of their flags (i.e. Serbia and Slovakia) are usually depicted with the emblem as an eyepatch, with Austria-Hungary often being depicted as blind while wearing two eyepatches. The orientation of the star and crescent on the flag of Mauritania give the appearance that the countryball is perpetually smiling. India is sometimes shown wearing a turban with some Hindu and traditional markings on its forehead. Sealand and other micronations are often shown as being eager to assert their statuses as real nations, in spite of disagreements from other established nations or from each other. Antarctica, represented by the Graham Bartram proposed flag, is depicted as mute as it has no native language. Finally, certain ethnic groups without a flag of their own are depicted as billiard balls based on skin colour, such as the black 8-ball representing indigenous Africans.

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.^[13] Amongst events which have been covered by Polandball and have been noted in the media, are the Senkaku Islands dispute,^[14] the 2013 papal conclave which saw Jorge Mario Bergoglio being elected as the new Pope,^[15] the 2014 Ukrainian crisis,^[13][16][17] the 2014 Crimean crisis^[5] and issues relating to Filipino workers in Taiwan.^[18]

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 ("Four tank-men and a dog"), Russophobia and Polandball.^[19]

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.^[20]

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, 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.^[20]

Oleksiak further notes that from Polandball, Poles can learn to have "a sense of humour about our long-time grudges".^[20]

See also

• Axis Powers
• National personification
• Polish joke

References

External links

• [https://www.reddit.com/r/polandball Polandball] subreddit

• Ponkeri Kheri
• Ponkeri kheri
• Ponkundu
• Ponkunnam Varkey
• Ponkvica
• Ponlat-Taillebourg
• Ponle Remedio
• Ponle remedio
• Ponley
• Ponmagal Vandaal (2007 song)
• Ponmala
• Ponmanai
• Ponmeindanallur
• Ponmela
• Ponmudi (1950 film)
• Ponmudi Dam
• Ponmudi Muthusamy Gounder Trust
• Ponmudy
• Ponmundam
• Pon. Muthuramalingam
• Ponmuttayidunna Thaaraavu
• Ponmuttayidunna Tharavu
• Ponnachi
• Ponnagyun
• Ponnagyun Township