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Polandball

user-generated Internet meme

Polandball, also known as Countryballs, 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. The comics style may be referred to both as Polandball (even in case there is no Poland among the cartoon characters) and countryball (or, collectively, countryballs).

Selection of Polandballs representing several parts of the world.

Quotes

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Polandball for Poland
  • In recent years, a little ill-drawn circle called Polandball has gained world fame quasi-instantaneously.
    • Wojciech Oleksiak (9 June 2014). "Polandball - A Case Study". Culture.pl (Adam Mickiewicz Institute). Retrieved on 1 November 2014. 
  • Polandball has its own brand of lolspeak, and only Anglophone countries speak with good English. Other countryballs speak a farcical rendition of their own language into English.
    • Wojciech Oleksiak (9 June 2014). "Polandball - A Case Study". Culture.pl (Adam Mickiewicz Institute). Retrieved on 1 November 2014. 
  • Polandball speaks in an English that mimics Slavic grammar, and confuses the finer points of English usage.
    • Wojciech Oleksiak (9 June 2014). "Polandball - A Case Study". Culture.pl (Adam Mickiewicz Institute). Retrieved on 1 November 2014. 
  • Polandball was born out of a strange cyber war that took place in August 2009. On Drawball.com, a website which allows users to draw on a huge circular canvas, a group of Polish Internet users somehow coordinated their efforts to take over the ball.
    • Wojciech Oleksiak (9 June 2014). "Polandball - A Case Study". Culture.pl (Adam Mickiewicz Institute). Retrieved on 1 November 2014. 
 
Participants in 2013 "Juwenalia krakowskie" celebrations holding a Polandball representation of Poland (right) and Hungary (left)
  • The idea of ridiculing international stereotypes turned out to be so catchy that it soon resulted in the creation of hundreds of Polandball stories.
    • Wojciech Oleksiak (9 June 2014). "Polandball - A Case Study". Culture.pl (Adam Mickiewicz Institute). Retrieved on 1 November 2014. 
  • Polandball is the story of one guy creating a worldwide phenomenon by making fun of another guy, creating a new format of expressing one’s views on nationality, race, language and recent history along the way.
    • Wojciech Oleksiak (9 June 2014). "Polandball - A Case Study". Culture.pl (Adam Mickiewicz Institute). Retrieved on 1 November 2014. 
  • Why did it become so successful? Maybe because the basic rules that apply to Polandball offer every creator a good basis for developing a funny story, yet offering very few restrictions.
    • Wojciech Oleksiak (9 June 2014). "Polandball - A Case Study". Culture.pl (Adam Mickiewicz Institute). Retrieved on 1 November 2014. 
  • Polandball memes function almost like some sort of cultural genes – they self-replicate, freely mutate, and respond to selective pressures.
    • Wojciech Oleksiak (9 June 2014). "Polandball - A Case Study". Culture.pl (Adam Mickiewicz Institute). Retrieved on 1 November 2014. 
  • Is there anything Poland itself can learn from Polandball? Perhaps a lesson in having a sense of humour about our long-time grudges, if nothing else.
    • Wojciech Oleksiak (9 June 2014). "Polandball - A Case Study". Culture.pl (Adam Mickiewicz Institute). Retrieved on 1 November 2014. 
  • Polandball, based on a ball in the colours of the Polish flag, has become a gathering point online for protesters against Russia's actions in Ukraine.
  • Polandball is being portrayed as a hero in comics that exaggerate the nation's response to the crisis.
  • One comic, in which Poland flies into space and stops Russia using Crimea as a means of ramming the United States, has shot to the top of the charts in the Polandball sub-forum on Reddit.
  • In August 2009, Polandball artists took over the popular Drawball site, making its logo look like Polandball.
  • There are clear rules defined by the community stating that country balls can not have limbs nor can they speak proper English, keeping in line with the original Polandball style.
  • What is Polandball, exactly? No, it's not a Calvinball variant — it's a type of webcomic that has been steadily gaining attention on Reddit.
  • Polandballs also generally speak mangled English ('Engrish') of a type supposedly common in whatever countries are being portrayed.
  • What keeps the quality of these comics so high? Each and every submission to the Polandball subreddit is reviewed by a very diligent team of moderators who demand only the highest quality.
  • They have even implemented a mechanism to keep jokes from getting overdone and ruined, the Joke Life Preserve, which limits the ability of submitters to use certain jokes that have become annoying memes. This is part of the genius of the success of Polandball.
  • Polandball comics became so prevalent on the /INT/ board that a spin-off cartoon of 'Country balls' was created on October 15th, 2009.
    • "Polandball". Know Your Meme (Knowyourmeme.com). 15 October 2014. Retrieved on 1 November 2014. 
  • Polandball's proper color scheme is red top, white bottom.
    • "Polandball". Know Your Meme (Knowyourmeme.com). 15 October 2014. Retrieved on 1 November 2014. 
 
Poland can into space
  • 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 featuring the phrase 'Polandball cannot into space.'
    • "Polandball". Know Your Meme (Knowyourmeme.com). 15 October 2014. Retrieved on 1 November 2014. 
  • There are very few things on the Internet where knowledge of history and geopolitics are required to get the joke, but Polandball is one of them.
    • Matt Mitrovich (18 June 2014). "What is Polandball?". Alternate History Weekly Update. Retrieved on 1 November 2014. 
  • Polandball, or Countryballs, are short comics where balls colored to look like national flags interact with each other. Countryballs have no limbs, pupils, eyebrows or mouth and cannot into proper English (see what I did there). They personify many of the national stereotypes of the country they represent.
    • Matt Mitrovich (18 June 2014). "What is Polandball?". Alternate History Weekly Update. Retrieved on 1 November 2014. 

See also

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Commons
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
 
Wiktionary
Look up Polandball in Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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