Countryballs

Countryballs, also known as Polandball,[lower-alpha 1] is an art style and internet meme used in online comic strips in which countries are typically personified as crudely spherical characters (there are some exceptions, such as Israel, Nepal, Kazakhstan, Singapore, who are not portrayed as balls)[lower-alpha 2] decorated with its flag. The characters often interact in broken English, characterized by the vocabularies of their national languages (e.g., France's broken English is interspersed with French words). The comics poke fun at national stereotypes, international relations, and historical conflicts.

The character of Poland, represented as a ball coloured like an upside-down Polish flag.

Background
A group of Countryballs characters.

The origin of countryballs can be traced back to drawball.com. On this online platform, users could freely draw on a circular canvas called a "drawball". In August 2008, thousands of Polish netizens took over the entire drawball with an illustration of the Polish flag. The circular canvas constrained the flag in such a way that it became a literal "Poland ball".[1][2]

The origin of the Countryballs format is attributed to Falco, a British user of the German imageboard Krautchan.net. Falco created a meme of Wojak, a Polish internet troll who used broken English on the same board. Falco used Microsoft Paint to create the meme. After this, creating Countryballs cartoons became popular among other users on the board, particularly Russians.[1][3][4]

Popularity

The style became widely popular as a meme and gained dedicated communities on internet platforms such as Reddit[4][5] and Facebook.[6] 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.[7][8]

Themes

Poland
A Countryballs comic, which is an extension of the "Poland cannot into space" [sic] catchphrase. The comic references Poland joining the European Space Agency in 2012.

The premise of Countryballs is that they represent the country and its history, foreign relations, and stereotypes,[3][9] focusing on megalomania and national complexes.[2][10] 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.[1][2]

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.[11]

Some Polandball comics arise from the premise that some countries can fly into space while Poland cannot.[12][13] 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, in broken English, pronounces the canonical Polandball catchphrase, "Poland cannot into space".[3][14] In this humorous way, other Countryballs halt all discussions with Poles on which country is superior.[1][3][9]

Other countries

Countryballs usually include comics from other countries: these comics are sometimes still referred to as Polandball comics.[1] However, they are more commonly referred to as Countryballs.[4] 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.[15]

There are various other established conventions. For example, the United Kingdom usually wears a monocle and a top hat, often holds a cup of tea, and often talks about when it was a superpower.[16][17] The United States wears big black sunglasses and is usually depicted as having an egocentric personality.[17] 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. Montenegro is frequently depicted as very sleepy and lazy, referring to real-world "Lazy Olympics".[18]

Countryballs graffiti art depicting the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement during Euromaidan in Kyiv, 2013

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.[15] Amongst events that have been covered by Countryballs and have been noted in the media are the Senkaku Islands dispute,[19] the 2013 papal conclave (which saw Jorge Mario Bergoglio being elected the new Pope),[20] the Revolution of Dignity,[15][14][21] the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation,[5] and issues relating to Filipino workers in Taiwan.[22] In the prelude to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and after the invasion, Ukraine and Russia saw an increase in comic appearances.

Assessment
A Countryballs comic which satirises Sweden–Finland

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.[23]

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.[24]

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.[24]

Oleksiak further notes that from Polandball, Poles can learn to have "a sense of humour about our long-time grudges".[24]

An online multiplayer third-person shooter called Countryballs: Modern Ballfare was released on Steam in June 2021 for Microsoft Windows.[25] 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.[26]

See also

Notes
  1. The style may be referred to both as Polandball (by convention, even in cases where Poland is not present) or countryball (or, collectively, countryballs).
  2. Nepal is depicted as a monster due to its irregularly-shaped flag. Kazakhstan is portrayed as a brick due to its flag's unusual proportions. Israel is a cube because of "Jewish physics." Singapore is a triangle, called "Tringapore".

References
  1. Orliński, Wojciech (16 January 2010). "Wyniosłe lol zaborców, czyli Polandball". Komentarze (in Polish). gazeta. Archived from the original on 1 January 2012. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  2. Zapałowski, Radosław (15 February 2010). "Znowu lecą z nami w... kulki" (in Polish). Cooltura. Archived from the original on 11 October 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  3. Kapiszewski, Kuba (5 April 2010). "Fenomem — Polska nie umieć kosmos" (in Polish). Przegląd. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  4. Erlehmann; Plomlompom (22 July 2013). "MS-Paint-Comics". Internet-Meme - kurz & geek (ebook) (in German). O'Reilly Verlag. pp. 86–88. ISBN 978-3-86899-806-1. Archived from the original on 28 August 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  5. Ryan, Emmet (4 March 2014). "Polandball is Reddit's answer to Crimea crisis". Business Post. Archived from the original on 6 December 2019. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  6. "Ostrava Journal of English Philology" (PDF). dokumenty.osu.cz. University of Ostrava. 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 April 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
  7. Hagen, Sal (15 November 2017). "Polandball is of Reddit" (PDF). pure.hva.nl. Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 August 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
  8. Hagen, Sal (15 November 2017). "Polandball is of Reddit: How r/polandball Transcends Memes through Carefully Curated Geopolitical Satire". Institute of Network Cultures. Archived from the original on 28 September 2020. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
  9. Cegielski, Tomek (12 April 2011). "MEMY LEGENDY INTERNETU". Hiro (in Polish). Hiro.pl. Archived from the original on 15 April 2011. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  10. Kralka, Jakub (11 May 2012). "Polski internet to potęga, po co te kompleksy?" (in Polish). Spider's Web. Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  11. Oleksiak, Wojciech (9 June 2014). "Polandball – A Case Study". Culture.pl. Archived from the original on 28 September 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  12. "Mirosław Hermaszewski. Pierwszy Polak w kosmosie" [Miroslaw Hermaszewski. The first Pole in space]. Polskie Radio (in Polish). 5 July 2022. Archived from the original on 6 March 2022. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
  13. Chiaro, Delia (23 November 2017). The Language of Jokes in the Digital Age: Viral Humour. Routledge. ISBN 9781351379953. Archived from the original on 28 August 2021. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Google Books.
  14. Камышин «может в кантриболз». Infokam (in Russian). 7 August 2014. Archived from the original on 8 November 2014. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  15. Fisher, Max (25 July 2014). "Everything you need to know about the Ukraine crisis". Vox Media. Archived from the original on 22 January 2022. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  16. Hoffman, Steven (2 May 2015). "How Polandball can of taking over internets". Krakow Post. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  17. Chiaro, Delia (5 December 2017). The Language of Jokes in the Digital Age: #Like #share #lol. London: Routledge. p. 150. doi:10.4324/9781315146348. ISBN 978-1-315-14634-8.
  18. Beswick, Emma; Burnett, Stephanie (22 August 2018). "Sleepy Montenegrins win 'Lazy Olympics'". Euronews. Archived from the original on 6 December 2021. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  19. "Japon, Chine, vers une nouvelle guerre froide". France Culture (in French). 9 March 2013. Archived from the original on 9 December 2014. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  20. "Wybór Franciszka okiem internautów" (in Polish). Onet.pl. 14 March 2013. Archived from the original on 17 September 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2014. Alt URL Archived 18 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  21. Аниматор из Камышина нарисовал мультфильм о «заболевшей» Украине. Argumenty i Fakty (in Russian). Volgograd. 6 August 2014. Archived from the original on 8 November 2014. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  22. "台灣最美麗的風景是人　真的嗎？" Chinese [The most beautiful scenery in Taiwan is the people. Really?] (in Chinese). Apple Daily (Taiwanese edition). 31 July 2014. Archived from the original on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  23. Klava, P. (25 August 2013). Польша у россиян ассоциируется с Лжедмитрием и Польшаром. Vesti FM (in Russian). Archived from the original on 8 November 2014. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  24. Oleksiak, Wojciech (9 June 2014). "Polandball — A Case Study". Culture.pl. Adam Mickiewicz Institute. Archived from the original on 10 August 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  25. "Countryballs: Modern Ballfare Review". GamesMojo. 25 November 2021. Archived from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  26. Miller, George (14 December 2021). "CountryBalls Heroes, a strategy game, won the Fan Favorite vote 38 at GDWC 2021!". European Gaming Industry News. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
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