page_title: Polandball
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Polandball / Background
caption_attribution_description: Español: Selección de Polandballs en representación de varias partes del mundo. De izquierda a derecha y de arriba a abajo: Bolivia, Jamaica, Chile, Ghana, Jordania, República Dominicana, Japón, Guinea, Tailandia, Indonesia (una variante), Austria, Finlandia, Zambia, Turquía, Suráfrica, Arabia Saudita (una de las variantes más usadas), Costa Rica, Francia, India, Irak, Mali, Cuba, Nepal, Nigeria, Venezuela, Bélgica, Suiza, Angola, Honduras, Singapur, Corea del Sur, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Irlanda, Unión Europea, República Checa, República Democrática del Congo, Canadá, Ucrania, Panamá, Guatemala, Túnez, Líbano, Hungría, Holanda, Madagascar, Kazajstán, Malasia, Australia, Colombia, Italia, Emiratos Árabes, Argelia, Qatar, Estonia, Uruguay, Antártida (propuesta de bandera de Bartram), Suecia, Nueva Zelanda, Portugal, Argentina, Gran Bretaña, Fiji, Rumania, Bahamas, Polinesia Francesa, España, Egipto, México, Serbia, Aruba, Croacia, Noruega, Etiopía, Corea del Norte, Perú, Papúa Nueva Guinea, Grecia, Tonga, Trinidad-Tobago, Senegal, Palestina, Vietnam, Tanzania, Bielorrusia, Vanuatu, Guam, Brasil, Kenia, Marruecos, Filipinas, Rusia, Israel, Estados Unidos, Naciones Unidas, Polonia, China, Alemania, Irán. English: Selection of Polandballs representing several parts of the world. From left to right and top to bottom: Bolivia, Jamaica, Chile, Ghana, Jordan, Dominican Republic, Japan, Guinea, Thailand, Indonesia (a variant), Austria, Finland, Zambia, Turkey, South Africa, Saudi Arabia (one of the most used variants), Costa Rica, France, India, Iraq, Mali, Cuba, Nepal, Nigeria, Venezuela, Belgium, Switzerland, Angola, Honduras, Singapore, South Korea, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ireland, European Union, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Canada, Ukraine, Panama, Guatemala, Tunisia, Lebanon, Hungary, Netherlands, Madagascar, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Australia, Colombia, Italy, United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Qatar, Estonia, Uruguay, Antarctica (Bartram's flag proposal), Sweden, New Zealand, Portugal, Argentina, Great Britain, Fiji, Romania, Bahamas, French Polynesia, Spain, Egypt, Mexico, Serbia, Aruba, Croatia, Norway, Ethiopia, North Korea, Peru, Papua New Guinea, Greece, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Senegal, Palestine, Vietnam, Tanzania, Belarus, Vanuatu, Guam, Brazil, Kenya, Morocco, Phillipines, Russia, Israel, United States, United Nations, Poland, China, Germany, Iran.
context_page_description: Polandball, also known as countryballs, refers to user-generated visual art, typically manifesting as online comics, where countries are personified as spherical personas decorated with their country's flag, interacting in often broken English, usually with regional and/or national variations. The characters poke fun at national stereotypes and international relations, as well as historical conflicts. Countryballs have also been used in videos and comics involving alternate and speculative history. It is an Internet meme which originated on the /int/ board of German imageboard Krautchan.net in the latter half of 2009.
  The comics style may be referred to both as Polandball and countryball.
context_section_description: Polandball has its roots in an August 2009 "cyberwar" between Polish Internet users and the rest of the world on drawball.com. The website, which offers a virtual canvas, allows Internet users to draw whatever they want, and to draw over others' drawings. On the Polish internet, an idea was raised to draw the Polish flag on the ball, and thousands of Poles together managed to take over the drawball with a painting of white on top of red, with the word "POLSKA" written in the middle. After co-ordination from 4chan, this was then covered over by a giant swastika, an interaction which was repeated several times over the ensuing weeks.
  Krautchan.net was a German-language imageboard whose /int/ board was frequented by English-speaking netizens. The beginning of the Polandball meme is credited to Falco, a British user on /int/, who created the meme in September 2009 using Microsoft Paint in an apolitical way to troll Wojak, a Pole on the same board who contributed in broken English, after which Polandball cartoons were enthusiastically drawn by Russians.
  Polandball comics have no defined authors, and anyone is able to make one. This has become an internet meme, presented e.g., on Reddit and Facebook.
caption: A group of Polandball characters
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