Polandball

A Polandball 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 Polandball is that it represents Poland and its history, relations with other countries and stereotypes,[3][9] focusing on Polish megalomania and national complexes.[2][10] With the exception of English-speaking ones, interactions between countryballs tend to be written in broken English and Internet slang, reminiscent of the lolcat meme, and by the end of the cartoon Poland, which is purposely represented as red on top of white (the reverse of the Polish flag), is typically seen weeping.[1][2]

Polandball depiction of Poland portrays a number of stereotypes. These include bad English use by Poles, blaming others for its failures in particular given the backdrop of repeated invasions by Russians and Germans (such as the 18th century partitions and World War II), Polish propensity for telling tales of the glorious past, and the perception of Poles as "dull-witted" and "psycho-Catholic".[11]

Some Polandball comics arise from the premise that Russia can fly into space, whilst Poland cannot.[12][13] One of the earliest Polandball comics begins with the premise that Earth is going to be struck by a giant meteor, 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, Russians put a halt to all discussion with Poles on which country is superior.[1][3][9]

Polandball can also include comics on other countries, but by convention these comics are usually still referred to as Polandball comics,[1] although they are sometimes also referred to as countryballs.[4] States, provinces, and other such divisions can also be used; multi-national organizations such as the European Union and United Nations are also common, but their lack of power compared to their constituent states means that they are portrayed as weak or puppets. Countries are also represented as balls,[5] although there are many novel exceptions. The German Empire of 1871–1918 (on Facebook and elsewhere) or the theoretical Fourth Reich (on Reddit) is represented as a version of the German Empire's flag with a ratio of around 4:3 with small eyes known as Reichtangle (a portmanteau of the words 'Reich' and 'Rectangle', also a pun). The German Empire's general historical hostility towards Poland has established Reichtangle as the main antagonist. Israel as well as the Jewish Autonomous Oblast takes the form of a hypercube (in reference to Jewish physics); the state of Michigan is also commonly depicted as a cube. Nepal (sometimes called Nepalrawr) is in the shape of its national flag (one triangle on top of another) and has teeth; other pennant-shaped flags can be drawn as "rawrs", such as the Maratha Empire and the state of Ohio. Singapore, Bermuda, and more rarely the Colombian department Nariño take the form of a triangle, in which Singapore is sometimes referred to as Tringapore. Kazakhstan takes the form of a brick sometimes called Kazakhbrick, due to Kazakhstan being the only country whose flag icon was inadvertently not changed to a ball on Krautchan.[15] Omsk, a city in Russia, generally takes the form of a malevolent humanoid bird (based on an earlier internet meme), and is based on a drawing by German artist Heiko Müller titled "Winged Doom".[16]

There are various other established conventions. The 'r's and 'l's in East Asian nations' speech switch places in a stereotypes of East Asians. The United States sports a pair of shades and often has its stars replaced by the text "x50", and regularly uses profanity. It regularly mistakes countryballs without a direct historical and/or political connection to it either for their neighbors or with those with similar flags. Japan sometimes wears cat ears, the United Kingdom wears a monocle and a top hat (as does Hong Kong, since it was once a territory of the United Kingdom) and Canada is often seen wearing a coonskin cap.[17] Indonesia is always drawn with either a songkok or Asian conical hat to distinguish it from Poland (given its upside-down flag), with Monaco also distinguishing itself by often being drawn extremely small and with a pair of dark shades. Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay are sometimes wearing a mate pot. Vatican City also regularly wears a mitre. Countries whose emblems are offset to the hoist of their flags (i.e. Serbia, Spain, Portugal and Slovakia) are usually depicted with the emblem as an eyepatch, with Austria-Hungary often being depicted as blind while wearing two eyepatches. The orientation of the star and crescent on the flag of Mauritania gives the appearance that this countryball are perpetually smiling, and the stars on the flag of Venezuela give the illusion that this countryball is perpetually sad. India is sometimes shown wearing a turban with some Hindu and traditional markings on its forehead. Sealand and other micronations are often shown as being eager to assert their statuses as real nations, in spite of disagreements from other established nations or from each other. Antarctica, represented by the Graham Bartram flag, is depicted as mute as it has no native language. Finally, certain ethnic groups without a flag of their own are depicted as billiard balls based on skin colour, such as the black 8-ball representing indigenous Africans.

The simplicity of Polandball, added with its recognition of world history and a focus on current affairs, makes the meme suited to commenting on international events.[5] Amongst events which have been covered by Polandball and have been noted in the media, are the Senkaku Islands dispute,[18] the 2013 papal conclave which saw Jorge Mario Bergoglio being elected as the new Pope,[19] the 2014 Ukrainian crisis,[5][14][20] the 2014 Crimean crisis[6] and issues relating to Filipino workers in Taiwan.[21]