Polandball, also known as Countryballs, is an internet meme that takes the form of a large number of online comics. In the comics, countries flags are drawn as a circle. The balls interact in broken English, often referred to as "Engrish", (except for those countries who have English as their main language) and ridicule international relations.
Polandball has roots in an August 2009 raid between Polish users and other drawball.com users. Drawball.com allowed Internet users to freely draw on a circular canvas, and also allows people to paint over others drawings. On the internet, an idea was raised to draw the flag of Poland on the ball. Many Poles managed to take over the drawball, turning it into a Polish flag. In the middle, the word "POLSKA" was written. As a response, users then covered the drawball with a large swastika.
The beginning of the Polandball meme is credited to Falco, a British user on German imageboard Krautchan. In September 2009, Falco created the meme using MS Paint as a way to troll Polish user Wojak. Wojak was a popular user on the same board and who typed in broken English. The comics became popular the same year. Afterwards, Polandball cartoons were drawn by Russians, and later used other countries.
Polandball typically represents the history, International relations of countries. The meme gained popularity after the plane crash in Smolensk which killed president Lech Kaczyński. Interactions between countries are written with poor grammar and internet slang, similar to the Lolcat meme.
Poland is depicted as an extremely religious country who speaks in bad grammar. Poland is often seen blaming others such as Russia for historical grievances. In other comics, Poland is portrayed as lonely or boring.
Some Polandball comics are based on the premise that Poland "cannot into space" [sic]. One of the most popular Polandball cartoons, dating from 2009, begins with the plot that Earth is going to be struck by a giant meteor. All countries with space technology leave Earth. At the end of the cartoon, a weeping Poland, still on earth, states "Poland cannot into space" in broken English.
Polandball can also include comics on other countries. Normally, these comics are usually still referred to as Polandball. Many countries have particular traits, such as Brazil always laughing, Israel being a rectangular cube, the US wearing sunglasses, and Britain wearing a top-hat and monocle.
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Since the premise of Polandball is simple, along with its recognition of history and current conflicts, the meme is made suitable for dicussing international events. The Crimean crisis, Brexit, and problems that relate to Filipino workers in Taiwan are events and affairs that are satirized in these comics.
Polandball, originally popular on the /int/ board of Krautchan, spread to platforms such as Reddit. The Facebook page "POLANDBALL" gained over 400,000 likes. The Polandball Wiki had over 12,779 pages. R/polandball has strict rules and style guides, with the reason of preserving Polandball's "uniqueness".
Wojciech Oleksiak, who writes on Culture.pl, noted that Polandball comics often use exaggerated Polish stereotypes, such as Poles not being good at English and Poland itself being a country full of "dumb Catholics". On the other hand, he says that some stereotypes used in Polandball comics, such as Poles telling stories about Poland's history, are mostly true.
