Polandball (2009)

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About

Polandball is a cartoon character drawn in the shape of a ball with the color schemes of the Polish flag (white & red). It was originally featured in the multi-pane comic series that became popular in /INT/ (international) board on Krautchan.net, a German-language version of 4chan. These user-generated cartoons typically follow the lives of ball-shaped creatures representing different countries (also known as Countryballs) and “international drama” surrounding their diplomatic relations.

Origin

Polandball comic strips were created by a British anon user “FALCO” in the /INT/ board of Krautchan around September 2009. Unlike other image-boards on the German-language site, /INT/ board (nsfw) is frequented by English-speaking netizens from the rest of Europe and the world.

According to several sources (including the Russian version of Lurkmore Wiki) on the interweb, FALCO’s original comics were decidedly apolitical and aimed to poke fun at a fellow Polish /INT/ user “Wojak”, who frequently posted in less than perfect english. However, as the cartoon’s appeal grew within the /INT/ board, some of the derivative artworks began to reflect on the subject of European Union and international relations, featuring other country balls like Russia, Germany, Austria, Great Britain and the US.

Related Episode: Drawball Takeover

Drawball is a popular website hosting a huge circular canvas on which anyone can draw and collaborate on larger artworks with other users.

In mid-August 2009, a large group of Polish netizens took on a mission to take over the Drawball canvas with their national flag in white and red. Alarmed by a sudden flood of red and white, Drawball users in communities like New Schoolers, 4chan responded by making counter moves, including an attempt to sabotage the takeover by flipping the color scheme to resemble a Pokemon creature. However, the battle didn’t last long and by August 15th, Drawball canvas read “Polska.”

Popularity in the /INT/ board

Polandball comics became so popular on the /INT/ board that a spin-off cartoon of “Country balls” was created in october the 15th 2009. Then, any post was followed by the icon of a small ball with big eyes representing the poster’s own country like , , and

As stated in the Russian Lurkmore wiki:

Интересный факт — Бавария и Германия в комиксах выступают как отдельные страны. А еще 15 октября все флаги в /INT/ были заменены на Countryballs. Such cases.

Translation:

Interesting fact – Bayern Munich and Germany in the comics appear as separate countries. And on October 15 all the flags in the / INT / have been replaced by Countryballs. Such cases.

Features of Polandball & Countryballs

- Polandball’s proper color scheme is red top, white bottom. (why? because he is such a precious little snowflake – and Falcolad probably screwed up his first few strips. Nevertheless, it stuck and became a trademark usually frowned upon by Polish anons – and thus a surefire means to troll them)

- Countryballs including Poland have no limbs, pupils, eyebrows or mouth.

- Countryballs cannot into proper English (which kind of resembles the lolcat-meme. The “X cannot into Y” became a Polandball related meme itself)

Spread Outside of /INT/

Starting nearly afterward, Non-German Speaking websites began hosting some of those webcomics:

• Forums.d2jsp.com
• Board.alluc.org
• A thread on a forum called militaryphotos.net, the 30th of October, leading to 18 pages of pictures and comments
• A 4chan discussion talking about it the 25th of October
• A Facebook group

It also made its way to vichan, the polish imageboard having the same feature installed for their /int/ board in December.

Also on Uachan, a Russian imageboard and on Britfa.gs imageboard as well.

Tributes on YouTube

A few videos concerning Polandball tributes for New Year’s Eve (especially its well-known line Polandball cannot into space) exist on Youtube.