Polandball (Meme): Difference between revisions

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== History ==

[[File:Polandball.png|thumb|Polandball, the Main Character, notice the fact that the flag is upside-down.]]

=== Drawball.com incident ===

The roots of Polandball can be traced to an event dubbed a 'cyber-war' among [[Polandball|Polish]] Internet users on a website called ''drawball.com'', which occurred in August 2009. The website, which offers a larger, circular-shaped virtual canvas, allows internet users to draw what they want on the canvas, based upon what has previously been drawn by other users. The idea of drawing the [[Polandball|Polish]] flag on the entire canvas rallied thousands of [[Polandball|Polish]] Internet users together, and they were able to paint the entire canvas with a red top and white below, with the word "POLSKA" written in the middle. This coordination devolved into drawball's familiar chaos soon afterward when it was raided by 4chan to cover it with a giant swastika.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNo707FsBYU Video footage of the incident]</ref>

[[File:DRAWBALL.jpg|link=https://www.polandballwiki.com/wiki/File:DRAWBALL.jpg|center|frame|Image of the incident, before and after]]

=== Polandball's Beginnings ===

[[File:10410346_10154811005445483_3033318395039171311_n.jpg|link=https://www.polandballwiki.com/wiki/File:10410346_10154811005445483_3033318395039171311_n.jpg|thumb|One of the first Polandball comics, created by Krautchan frequenter FALCO.]]

The beginnings of the actual meme began a month later, on [[Krautchan]], a [[Germanyball|German]]-language imageboard website.

The first Polandball comics are attributed to a [[UKball|British]] user of Krautchan's English-speaking /int/ imageboard, dubbed "FALCO", who in September 2009 created the meme using Microsoft Paint to troll another user dubbed "Wojak", who is known for his drawings of a bald man that is nicknamed "Feels Guy". Wojak, a [[Polandball|Polish]] -[[UKball|British]] frequenter of /int/, was speaking of his poor employee contributions and nationalism for his former country in a rambling style. Eventually, he began talking about how superior Polish women are to women from other countries. FALCO created the first Polandball comics to satirize this, along with several others later, and they became the most foundational stereotypes attributed to [[Polandball (Character)|Polandball]]. This caught the interest of many users of the board, who then began spreading and imitating FALCO's comics across the internet. Russians espoused it the most, themselves creating their own stereotypes of drunken enjoyment and obsession with making fun of Poland. These stereotypes were placed into the character [[Russiaball]]. In a similar fashion, many other stereotypes began forming for the various other characters of Polandball.

== Later History ==

Polandball, after being established by the community from Krautchan, began spreading their works across other websites in addition to cementing the popularity on their home website. On Krautchan, the meme became so widespread that the managers and moderators of the website established markers for the anonymous users' home countries using countryballs instead of flags. This later became a feature among many other /int/ boards on other imageboards and is also an optional feature.

=== Reddit ===

''See main article: [[Polandball (meme)/r/Polandball|/r/Polandball]]''

Another large Polandball community is headquartered on Reddit. On Reddit is a "subreddit" named eponymously after Polandball. It currently has 590,596 subscribers around the world, mostly from America and Europe. It is known for its strict rules for how comics and comments are posted and shared. Many regard the subreddit as a source for high-quality comics, while others criticize it for its heavy moderation or its tendency toward a more complex style of art. Controversial rules include the banning and temporary banning of certain jokes and a heavy comment policy that bans the use of any meme (including subtle meme references and even having a meme title for a comic).[[File:Polandball.png|thumb|Polandball, the Main Character, notice the fact that the flag is upside-down.]]

==Spin-offs==

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 == History ==
-[[File:Polandball.png|thumb|Polandball, the Main Character, notice the fact that the flag is upside-down.]]
+=== Drawball.com incident ===
+The roots of Polandball can be traced to an event dubbed a 'cyber-war' among [[Polandball|Polish]] Internet users on a website called ''drawball.com'', which occurred in August 2009. The website, which offers a larger, circular-shaped virtual canvas, allows internet users to draw what they want on the canvas, based upon what has previously been drawn by other users. The idea of drawing the [[Polandball|Polish]] flag on the entire canvas rallied thousands of [[Polandball|Polish]] Internet users together, and they were able to paint the entire canvas with a red top and white below, with the word "POLSKA" written in the middle. This coordination devolved into drawball's familiar chaos soon afterward when it was raided by 4chan to cover it with a giant swastika.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNo707FsBYU Video footage of the incident]</ref>
+[[File:DRAWBALL.jpg|link=https://www.polandballwiki.com/wiki/File:DRAWBALL.jpg|center|frame|Image of the incident, before and after]]
+=== Polandball's Beginnings ===
+[[File:10410346_10154811005445483_3033318395039171311_n.jpg|link=https://www.polandballwiki.com/wiki/File:10410346_10154811005445483_3033318395039171311_n.jpg|thumb|One of the first Polandball comics, created by Krautchan frequenter FALCO.]]
+The beginnings of the actual meme began a month later, on [[Krautchan]], a [[Germanyball|German]]-language imageboard website.
+The first Polandball comics are attributed to a [[UKball|British]] user of Krautchan's English-speaking /int/ imageboard, dubbed "FALCO", who in September 2009 created the meme using Microsoft Paint to troll another user dubbed "Wojak", who is known for his drawings of a bald man that is nicknamed "Feels Guy". Wojak, a [[Polandball|Polish]] -[[UKball|British]] frequenter of /int/, was speaking of his poor employee contributions and nationalism for his former country in a rambling style. Eventually, he began talking about how superior Polish women are to women from other countries. FALCO created the first Polandball comics to satirize this, along with several others later, and they became the most foundational stereotypes attributed to [[Polandball (Character)|Polandball]]. This caught the interest of many users of the board, who then began spreading and imitating FALCO's comics across the internet. Russians espoused it the most, themselves creating their own stereotypes of drunken enjoyment and obsession with making fun of Poland. These stereotypes were placed into the character [[Russiaball]]. In a similar fashion, many other stereotypes began forming for the various other characters of Polandball.
+== Later History ==
+[[File:Polandball_World_2015.jpg|link=https://www.polandballwiki.com/wiki/File:Polandball_World_2015.jpg|center|thumb|527x527px|Polandball map of the World in 2015]]
+Polandball, after being established by the community from Krautchan, began spreading their works across other websites in addition to cementing the popularity on their home website. On Krautchan, the meme became so widespread that the managers and moderators of the website established markers for the anonymous users' home countries using countryballs instead of flags. This later became a feature among many other /int/ boards on other imageboards and is also an optional feature.
+=== Reddit ===
+''See main article: [[Polandball (meme)/r/Polandball|/r/Polandball]]''
+Another large Polandball community is headquartered on Reddit. On Reddit is a "subreddit" named eponymously after Polandball. It currently has 590,596 subscribers around the world, mostly from America and Europe. It is known for its strict rules for how comics and comments are posted and shared. Many regard the subreddit as a source for high-quality comics, while others criticize it for its heavy moderation or its tendency toward a more complex style of art. Controversial rules include the banning and temporary banning of certain jokes and a heavy comment policy that bans the use of any meme (including subtle meme references and even having a meme title for a comic).[[File:Polandball.png|thumb|Polandball, the Main Character, notice the fact that the flag is upside-down.]]
 ==Spin-offs==