Countryballs

Countryballs, also known as Polandball,^[a] is an Internet meme, predominantly used in online comics strips in which countries or political entities are personified as anthropomorphic balls with eyes, decorated with their national flags. Comics feature the characters in various scenarios, mostly poking fun at international relations and historical events. Other common features in Countryball strips include non-English countries speaking in broken English^[1] — 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 continue to be popular on the Internet, with the Facebook community reaching over 215,000 members by July 2015,^[2] and the subreddit r/Polandball reaching over 700,000 by 2026.

An indirect origin of Countryballs can be traced back to drawball.com. On the website, users could freely draw on a circular canvas called a "drawball".^[3][4][5] 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".^[6][7] The raid happened after a person on the Kibice.net forum asked for people to help them draw the Polish flag.^[6]

Other users on the website attempted to sabotage the artwork by inverting the color scheme to match that of a Poké Ball, or defacing it with a large swastika.^[5][6][8] Eventually, hackers attacked NK.pl and Wykop.pl on August 18. The sites withstood the attacks, but ran considerably slower for the rest of the day.^[6]

British magazine The Shortlisted noted the strips were possibly 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.^[9]

The first Polandball comics are 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. The name "Polandball" is derived from the comics' origin as a means to troll Wojak, a Polish user on the same board who often spoke in broken English.^{[6][10][8][11]} 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.^[5][10][12]

After the initial strips, comics featuring other Countryballs became popular among other users on the board, particularly Russians who started adding several new countries to the comics.^[6][13]

The style became widely popular as a meme and gained dedicated communities on Internet platforms such as Reddit^[13][14] and Facebook.^[15] 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.^[10][16] Another common format for Countryballs are alternate history videos, often involving maps of the world changing to show an alternative scenario to a war or conflict.^[17][18]

On July 2015, the Facebook community had over 215,000 members,^[2] although the main community has been occasionally banned due to the constant usage of hate symbols including the swastika.^[19][20] The r/polandball subreddit reached over 250,000 subscribers at around the same time, growing to over 650,000 by 2024.^[10][21] while the Polandball Wiki had 480,159 edits before its deletion by Fandom.^[10]

When the first Polandball comics were shared on Facebook, Reddit, and other popular social media sites, the name "Polandball" was retained to describe the meme, although the comics' subject matter had expanded to include other countries.^[22] However, in the early 2020's, Google Trends data indicated that the name "Countryballs" had eclipsed "Polandball" as the most popular search term^[23], although the two names are generally considered interchangeable.

The premise of Countryballs is that they represent countries and their histories, foreign relations, and stereotypes.^{[11][24][25]: 87} Mainly focusing on megalomania, history, current affairs, and national complexes.^[26][7] Except for natively English speaking countries, the dialogue of Countryballs tends to be written in broken English and Internet slang,^[25]: 87 reminiscent of the lolcat meme. Countryballs often use bits of the countries' national language, incorporating them in a grammatically incorrect way.^[1][3][6] The Countryball medium does not have a singular defined author, and anyone is able to make one.^[6][26][5]

Poland is a central character and main protagonist in the meme.^[5] 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, being perceived as unintelligent and overly religious.^[5]

Some Polandball comics arise from the premise that some countries like Russia can "into space" [sic] while Poland cannot.^[7][27] This premise was used to satirize Poland's former exclusion from the European Space Agency up until 2012.^[21] 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 settling into orbit around the planet. At the end of the cartoon, a tearful Poland, still on Earth, says the phrase "Poland cannot into space" [sic].^[b][11][31]

Countryballs usually include comics with other countries. These comics are sometimes still referred to as Polandball comics.^[6][11] However, they are more commonly referred to as "Countryballs".^[13] States, provinces, other subdivisions, and multinational organizations (such as the European Union) may also be portrayed.^[26]

Countries are mostly represented as balls,^[26] although there are exceptions. Singapore takes the form of a triangle and is called Tringapore; Israel takes the form of a hypercube (in reference to Jewish physics); and Kazakhstan takes the form of a brick.^[13] One common character, the Reichtangle, is rectangular. Decorated with the flag of the German Empire and bearing expressionless white dots for eyes; the Reichtangle often scares other countries (particularly Poland) by looming behind them poised to attack and saying the phrase "Guten tag".^[3][32] Depending on the comic, it either represents the German military or German imperialism, although it is officially a fictitious Fourth Reich.^[19]

There are various other established conventions in Countryball comics, such as the wearing of accessories and bearing of props — Canada wears a fur hat while the United Kingdom usually wears a monocle and a top hat while holding a cup of tea.^[21][27] The United States wears big black sunglasses while also having a patriotic, idiotic, and prideful personality.^[10][27] Nepal (Nepalrawr^[33]) is depicted with a regular flag.^[34]

Plot points may involve countries recalling their glory days or individual events of success. For example, Russia may remind themselves of their role repelling the Axis Powers' invasion of their country,^[35] while the United Kingdom may reminisce about their Empire in the manner of an elder gentleman.

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.^[26] Among the events and topics that have been covered by Countryballs are the Senkaku Islands dispute,^[36] the 2013 papal conclave,^[37] the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation^[14] and the Southeast Asian haze.^[38]

Strict moderation of Polandball comics on Reddit led to widely-observed stylistic conventions, which include avoiding the use of the "circle" tool when drawing characters, employing broken English for the speech of "non-English-speaking" countryballs, and always depicting Poland's flag upside down.^[39] Drawing outside these rules is discouraged within the wider Countryballs community, as it is often considered visually unappealing.^[40]

According to the conventions established in the original Polandball comics, the outlines of the ball, eyes, flags, coats of arms, and other attributes must be drawn manually, without using built-in graphic editor tools such as “line” or “circle” tools,^[41] as well as without inserting images from the Internet (including flags, coats of arms, weapons, and other objects).^[41] Countryballs are not supposed to have hair, pupils, legs, arms, mouths, eyebrows, or any other body parts,^[42][43][44] nor should there be separating lines between the colors of a flag. The official genre guidelines strongly recommend using the correct, authentic colors of national flags.^[40]

Characters express their emotional states by changing the shapes of their eyes^[43][45], which can convey emotions such as joy, sadness, anger, and others^[34]. Countryballs are typically colored according to their national flags.^[46] Additionally, they may feature specific attributes that indicate their identity or behavior, such as headgear, objects (e.g., weapons), and other accessories.^[43]

There is also an informal drawing style within the community, where countryballs are depicted in a deliberately simplistic manner, often using the most basic digital drawing tools.^[43][47] It is also commonly assumed that all Countryball characters are male by default.^[48]

• Countryballs has adopted a series of symbolic images representing various peoples and tribes that do not have flags or statehood as such, as well as other entities (0 — angels, 1 — Asians, 2 — ancient Europeans, 3 — Native Americans, 4 — prehistoric tribes, 5 — Australians, 6 — aliens, 7 — South Asians, 8 — black people, 9 — zombies or mutants, β — ancient Greeks, ᛟ — Germanic tribes, −8 — members of the Ku Klux Klan).^[49]

An online multiplayer third-person shooter called Countryballs: Modern Ballfare was released on Steam in June 2021 for Microsoft Windows.^[50] 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.^[51]

• Social commentary
• Editorial cartoon
• List of Internet memes
• Hetalia: Axis Powers – a Japanese webcomic in which the countries are personified as humans
• Year Hare Affair – a Chinese webcomic in which countries are personified as animals

• r/Polandball on Reddit
• Polandball Wiki