Countryballs, also known as Polandball,^[a] is a geopolitical satirical art style, genre, and internet meme, predominantly used in online comics strips in which countries or political entities are personified as balls^[b] with eyes without pupils, decorated with their national flags. Comics feature the characters in various scenarios, generally poking fun at national stereotypes, international relations, and historical events, with the balls moving about by walking or jumping. Other common features in Countryball strips include non-English countries speaking in broken English — with vocabularies of their national languages included — political incorrectness, and black comedy. Strips are generally created using Microsoft Paint or more advanced graphic art software, often made to intentionally look crudely drawn.

Countryballs date back to an August 2009 incident on drawball.com, where thousands of Polish internet users swarmed the website to transform the illustration into the Polish flag (a literal "Poland ball"). However, Falco, a British user of the German imageboard Krautchan.net, is often credited with creating the modern Countryballs comic format. This user created the first countryball comic strips to ridicule Polish internet troll Wojak, who used broken English on the same board. Falco created the strips using Microsoft Paint in September 2009 and posted them to Kratuchan, where they gained popularity among other users on the board, particularly Russians. The meme gained further notoriety following the death of Lech Kaczyński, president of Poland, in the Smolensk air disaster in April 2010.

Countryballs continue to be popular on the internet, with the Facebook community reaching over 215,000 members by July 2015,^[1] and several other communities being created on Reddit, VK, Telegram, YouTube, Twitter. It has also been the subject of research by various institutions, as well as positive and negative commentary for both their simplistic and offensive nature, with some feeling they could allow readers to learn about unknown events. Various video games and alternate history works have been based on the meme.

Background history

Origin

The origin of Countryballs can be traced back to drawball.com. On the website, users could freely draw on a circular canvas called a "drawball".^[2][3][4] In August 2009, thousands of Polish netizens from Wykop.pl, PokazyWarka, and various other sites took over the entire drawball with an illustration of the Polish flag with the word "POLSKA" in the middle. The circular canvas constrained the flag in such a way that it became a literal "Poland ball".^[5][6]

Other users on the website attempted to sabotage the artwork by changing the color scheme to match a Poké Ball, or drawing a giant swastika over it.^[4][5][7] Eventually, hackers attacked NK.pl and Wykop.pl on August 18, which withstood them but ended up running a lot slower for the rest of the day.^[5]

First Countryball strips and spread

The creator of the modern Countryballs format is often attributed to Falco, a British user of the German imageboard Krautchan.net who drew the first strips in Microsoft Paint, before posting them in September 2009 to the /int/ board. Notably, Poland was drawn with an inverted Polish flag (making it look like the flag of Indonesia or Monaco), which some have debated on whether or not was intentional, or Falco being unaware of its color pattern.^[4][8][9]

British magazine The Shortlisted noted the strips were likely inspired by the works of Italian animator Bruno Bozzetto, particularly the 1999 animated web short Europe VS Italy, which acted as political satire on Italian and European Union cultural differences, and which also featured the characters as spherical.^[10] Unlike Europe VS Italy, however, the original strips were apolitical and were made to troll Wojak, a Polish user on the same board who often spoke in broken English.^[5][7][11]

After the initial strips, creating Countryballs cartoons became popular among other users on the board, particularly Russians who started adding several new characters to the comics.^[5][11][12] As a result of its increasing popularity, a separate Countryballs community was created on 15 October 2009.^[13] The comics would continue to gain notoriety following the Smolensk air disaster on 10 April 2010, in which the president of Poland Lech Kaczyński was killed.^[11][14]

Popularity

The style became widely popular as a meme and gained dedicated communities on internet platforms such as Reddit^[12][15] and Facebook.^[16] One reason for the popularity of this art style is its ability to convey short stories about different cultures simply and humorously. In addition, the group's characterization also lends itself well to a shorter comic format.^[8][17] Another common format for Countryballs are alternate history videos, often involving maps of the world changing depending on the event.^[18][19]

As of July 2015, the Facebook community has over 215,000 members,^[1] although the main community has been occasionally banned due to the constant usage of hate symbols including the swastika.^[20][21] The r/polandball subreddit reached over 250,000 subscribers at around the same time,^[8][22] while the Polandball Wiki had 480,159 edits.^[8]

Themes

Poland

The premise of Countryballs is that they represent the country and its history, foreign relations, and stereotypes,^[11][23] focusing on megalomania and national complexes.^[6][24] Except for Anglophone countries, the dialogue of Countryballs tends to be written in broken English and Internet slang, reminiscent of the lolcat meme. By the end of a cartoon, Poland is typically seen weeping.^[5][6] The representation of Poland in Polandball often relies on stereotypes. This can include portraying Poles as having poor English skills, frequently blaming others for their past failures due to repeated invasions by neighboring countries, having a tendency to glorify their history, and being perceived as unintelligent and overly religious.^[4]

Some Polandball comics arise from the premise that some countries can go to space while Poland cannot.^[25][26] One of the earliest Polandball comics begins with the premise that Earth will suffer an impact event, 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 says the phrase "Poland cannot into space".^[c][11][28] In this humorous way, other Countryballs halt all discussions with Poles on which country is superior.^[5][11][23]

Other countries

Countryballs usually include comics from other countries: these comics are sometimes still referred to as Polandball comics.^[5] However, they are more commonly referred to as Countryballs.^[12] States, provinces, other subdivisions, multinational organisations (such as the European Union, NATO, and the United Nations), and former countries (such as the Roman Empire) are also used.^[29] Other countries are typically seen recalling their glory days or individual events of success, including Russia repelling the Axis Powers' invasion of the country.^[30]

There are various other established conventions in Countryball comics. The United Kingdom usually wears a monocle and a top hat while holding a cup of tea.^[22][31] He is often portrayed as an old gentleman sadly reminiscing about his glory days as an empire. The United States wears big black sunglasses and is usually depicted as having an egocentric personality.^[31] Japan is occasionally drawn with catgirl characteristics and is portrayed as being obsessed with anime, particularly hentai. Canada is often drawn with a coonskin cap, and is portrayed as a relatively friendly country who apologizes excessively, but is known for clubbing seals to death in his spare time. In a more bizarre example, Israel is usually depicted as a cube. A common joke is that Israel is depicted this way because of "Jewish physics". Coats of arms in the upper hoist side are most often depicted as eyepatches; the civil ensign, which depicts Austria-Hungary in the comics, has two coats of arms, rendering the country either blind or wearing tinted glasses.^[32]

A common character in the comics is the Reichtangle, a tall rectangle decorated with the flag of the German Empire and expressionless white dots for eyes; it often scares other countries (particularly Poland) by standing behind them, saying the phrase "guten tag" and threatening to eat them.^[2][33] Depending on the comic, it either represents the German military or German imperialism.^[20] Nepal and the U.S. state of Ohio are drawn as monsters with jagged teeth (known as "rawrs"), in reference to the unusual shape of their flags,^[18] while Singapore is depicted as a triangle, both as a name pun and in reference to the Indonesia–Malaysia–Singapore Growth Triangle. Montenegro is frequently depicted as very sleepy and lazy, referring to what is called the "Lazy Olympics".^[32] In instances where the ball does not have any influence on the world, they are drawn as billiard balls.^[3]

The simplicity of Countryballs, together with its recognition of world history and a focus on current affairs, makes the meme suited to commenting on international events.^[29] Among the events that have been covered by Countryballs and have been noted in the media are the Senkaku Islands dispute,^[34] the 2013 papal conclave (which saw Jorge Mario Bergoglio being elected the new Pope),^[35] the Revolution of Dignity,^[28][29][36] the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation,^[15] and issues relating to Filipino workers in Taiwan.^[37] In the prelude to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and after the invasion, Ukraine and Russia saw an increase in comic appearances.

Assessment

Wojciech Oleksiak, writing on culture.pl (a project of the Polish government-funded Adam Mickiewicz Institute which has the aim of promoting the 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 meme par excellence, he further stated that comic plots could be "rude, impolite, racist, abusive, or just plain dumb", while also noting that the politically incorrect nature of the comics adds to the attractiveness of the meme.^[38]

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, he admits that 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. In contrast, the stereotype that Poles hold many national complexes and blame external forces for their 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".^[38]

A report on the Russian radio station Vesti FM noted a Livejournal post asking readers to list five images that come to mind when thinking of Poland or Poles. The five pages of responses, illustrating the complex and often difficult 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.^{[39][unreliable source?]}

In popular culture

An online multiplayer third-person shooter called Countryballs: Modern Ballfare was released on Steam in June 2021 for Microsoft Windows.^[40] CountryBalls Heroes, a strategy game, was released on Steam in November 2021 for Microsoft Windows. The game later won the 38th Fan Favorite weekly vote at the Game Development World Championship 2021.^[41]