Polandball

Poland cannot into space.

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Polandball is a community webcomic and Internet meme that grew out of Krautchan sometime in the late 2000s. Although it was originally created to mock a Polish nationalist who was trolling the board, it has since almost matured and has grown to encompass national stereotypes of many nations (including Germany), political satire, and world history. It is said that "Polandball makes fun of everything equally" - though inevitably some things get made fun of more equally than others.

The Good

When done well, Polandball can be an entertaining and informative meme, definitely one of the better ones on the internet. Otherwise obscure topics in North America and Europe, such as South American and Asian history, are shown in an entertaining way that can easily be accessed by someone with little to no training in the subject. Despite its whole point being national stereotypes, the subreddit takes a sympathetic view of the struggles faced by some minority groups, such as Native Americans, Hispanic migrants, and African-Americans and other Africans. Occasionally, you can even see both wingnut and moonbat memes be thoroughly mocked by the community. Across the internet, memes such as "Poland cannot into space" have become commonplace even outside of the context of the strip.

The Bad

On the other hand, the low-barrier of entry means the quality of an individual Polandball strip inevitably depends on its author. Regular readers may note a streak of right-wing (and often Christianity-centric) European nationalism and chauvinism in the general memeplex, particularly when it comes to minority groups who live in Europe itself as opposed to colonized groups. Racist memes such as Eurabia and Antiziganism are regularly repeated on its subreddit and elsewhere for the sake of "irony". While the subreddit takes the issue very negatively, with users being permanently banned from it for making genuinely racist comments, places without such strict moderation (such as Facebook groups) tend to become ultranationalist hives.

In conclusion

Read it, laugh at it, even look beyond it to find more about the topic it describes. Just don't treat it as gospel truth.

External links

• Polandball on Reddit