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Webcomic / Polandball

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/863021bd_771e_49f1_88e3_60f384c597c8.png
This isn’t even the whole cast.

"Polan can into TV Tropes!" *

Polandball is a series of user-comics that uses spherical Anthropomorphic Personifications of various nations to satirize international relations, both contemporary and historical. It started with Poland (obviously), but it quickly branched out to other countries as well. Having its origins on a German ImageBoard, it originally featured National Stereotypes and extreme political incorrectness but has grown to include Engrish, history and geography jokes.

It currently has a large community on Facebook and Reddit.

Compare Scandinavia and the World and Hetalia: Axis Powers.

Examples can be read here and here.

Currently, a character page has begun construction. View it, and help build it here. Feel free to move character-specific tropes there, as well.

Other works in and related to the Polandball series:

Video Games

Web Animation

Webcomics

Gib examples plox:

  • A Day in the Limelight: The Polandball subreddit has had numerous contests that either focus on other countries that usually don't get too much focus or ban the use of certain countryballs.
  • Adaptation Distillation: The Polandball Animated Series is Exactly What It Says on the Tin - an Animated Adaptation of existing Polandball comics. However, it can make a few changes to them by expanding on the endings, setting the plot up and throwing in a few extra jokes.
  • All Germans Are Nazis: While Germany and Nazi Germany are two separate countryballs, Germany has a tendency to turn into Reichtangle and spew out variations on "Arbeit Macht Frei", especially towards Greece.
  • Ambiguous Gender: As the characters are countryballs, this is to be expected although male pronouns are used as the default. Some countries like Moldova and Estonia (referred to as Esti) are sometimes portrayed as female consistently in universe.
    • Comics where the gender of a countryball is explicit will use bows to represent females.
  • And Then John Was a Zombie: Nie, Ameryki. You are immigrants.◊
  • Anthropomorphic Personification: Of countries and their subdivisions, which makes up most of the cast. This may not be limited to them though, since anything can become a ball.
    • Except on the subreddit community, where only nations and supranational entities like UN, EU and ASEAN can be balls. Only exceptions being indigenous people and aliens represented with billiard balls.
  • Artifact Title: Poland is but one of many characters.
  • Armored Closet Gay: Since it enacted its infamous "Gay Propaganda Law", Russia has been mocked as this. President Vladimir Putin's insistence on being photographed with his shirt off and his cultivation of a ridiculous manly image has not helped.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: For some reason, Russia is often on the receiving end. Normally, it has something to do with Russia's inability to get over the collapse of the USSR or his closeted homosexuality. An example◊:
    Russia: I of already biggest stronk, but cold maek Россия into big bear of many strength more even. This is how I kill France and Nazi.
    America: Then how come you lost the Cold War?
    • A series of comics on the subreddit for Polandball has been created by different authors, where Poland always asks this kind of question.
      Pakistan: And that is why Islam is best religion.
      Poland: If Islam is good why is yuor capital Islamabad?
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: This comic displays the worst of history's atrocities: The Holodomor (a bunch of starving Ukrainians), The Holocaust (Nazis herding a score of Jews and Eastern Europeans into the gas chambers), the Nanjing Massacre (Imperial Japanese cutting up Republic of China balls), the Armenian Genocide (Turks shooting various Armenians and dumping them in a pile) and the invention of Hawaiian pizza (Canada happily cutting up a pineapple and sprinkling some on a pizza).
  • Art Evolution: The earliest comics are extremely crude, drawn with an unsteady hand in Microsoft Paint. More recent comics may cross over into Awesome Art, even when they are created with simple drawing tools.
  • Artistic Age: All countryballs look the same age, although some are older literally, and some act older.
  • Artistic License – History: Historical and cultural facts may be overlooked simply for the sake of humour. In fact, a common saying is "polandball > history".
  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: The typos representing accents generally are not intended to sound like an actual speaker's accent, but just give the impression that there is some sort of foreign accent.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Serbia will fly straight into a murderous rage whenever he sees "kebab". note 
    • Don't insult Poland's Jan Pawel statues unless you want a invasion by transforming mecha statues.
      I BRING DEATH TO THE CULTURE OF DEATH
    • The UK loves tea. There's no telling what he'll do if it runs out, or if someone makes it the wrong way.
    • Do not insult Russia's vodka and say that you would rather drink French vodka. It will not end well at all as Poland learned◊.
    • Colombia is spelled with ''two'' "O"s◊.
    • Dodos◊ are this for Mauritius.
    • Don't chew gum in front of Tringapore. Even mentioning gum will make him violent. This is due to gum being banned in Singapore in real life.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Poland occasionally gets this. In At the Kostume Ball he sees Germany dressed as a Nazi zombie, which causes him to flip out and kill Germany.
    • A common characterisation of Canada. He's a Nice Guy, but when it comes to war...
  • Big Brother Instinct: France and Britain have this towards their former colonies... Italy doesn't.◊
  • Bilingual Bonus: Countries often throw words or phrases from their own languages into their Engrish. Some comics also have a cross-language pun as a punchline.
  • Black Comedy: Notable subjects that always produce near-the-knuckle comics are Arab–Israeli Conflict, The Yugoslav Wars, World War II, and anything to do with Africa. This is a comic series in which Serbia being obsessed with repeating the Srebenica Massacre, Russia invading Ukraine, Syria being in civil war, etc. are played for laughs.
  • Black Comedy Rape: International aggression is sometimes portrayed as this, with especially Russia (and Reichtangle) being common perpetrators. A few comics go that extra mile and have black comedy necrophilic rape.
  • Blood Knight: Serbia, again. He loves removing "kebab" (and Croatia).
  • Body Horror: Secessionist movements or civil wars are often shown as new Countryballs growing out of the body of their parent, tumour-like. Spain is usually on the receiving end of this.
    • Similarily, Red October has been represented with red spreading and covering Russia, turning him into the the Soviet Union
    • Canada has absorbed Quebec, assimilation style.
    • Enclaves are often depicted like parasites, such as Lesotho in South Africa, Gambia in Senegal, and San Marino and the Vatican in Italy.
    • Russia under the effects of krokodil is not a pleasant sight◊.
  • Bond One-Liner: The UK after killing Imperial France.◊
    France: More clay?
    UK: Claymore.
    Somalia: Get back here bastard infidel American scum!
    USA: Well I'd love to stay, but I have Togo.
  • Bragging Rights Reward: On the Subreddit, winning a contest or reaching the number one slot of top comics of all time grants you the coveted Hussar Wings, complete with award ceremony broadcast in its own thread. It does nothing but give your username fancy icons.
  • Brown Note: Serbia can kill Muslims with accordion music.
  • Butt-Monkey:
    • Poland, 95% of the time. He's often represented as the UK's put-upon plumber.
    • Gypsyballnote  is singled out for abuse in almost every comic he appears in.
    • Portugal occasionally gets a promotion to this status, usually by showing how Portugal has fallen from relevancy or being overshadowed by his son Brazil.
  • Catchphrase: There are a few. Often countries will be depicted simply saying words which are not an actual language - they are onomatopoeic sounds to display them minding their own business or flooding another country with their people. For instance, South Africa going "zulu zulu" or New Zealand going "emu emu". A more comprehensive list is available here.
    • This has now expanded to all anti-X (where X is an ethnicity or nationality) sentiment; so anti-Chinese protesters in Vietnam shout "Remove Dim sum!" and Irish independence fighters shout "Remove blood sausage!"
    • England: "U wot m8?" [the text speak is usually left in, representing the usual sub-par literacy of English football hooligans]
    • France: "Hon hon hon hon hon".
    • Germany: "Wörk wörk".
    • Italy: "ital ital"
    • Brazil: "Hue hue hue hue hue hue".
    • Mexico: "Taco taco" and "Fierro pariente"*
    • Serbia: "REMOVE KEBAB!"
    • Reichtangle: "Anschluss" and "Guten tag."
    • Poland: "Poland cannot into space."
      • Also "kurwa", Polish for "whore" but more generally meaning "FUCK!"
    • Saudi Arabia: "Burka".
    • Nepal: "Kukri kill!" as well as "RAWR"
    • Finland: "Perkele!"
    • The Netherlands: "Tjulp tjulp" and "Neuken in de keuken"
    • Albania: "Shqip shqip".
    • Sweden: "Börk Börk".
  • The Cavalry: Poland of all countryballs shows up in a tank to help Ukraine.
  • Comedic Sociopathy: One of the basic mainstays of the comic. Notable exceptions are Canada, Brazil, and New Zealand... usually.
  • Crossover: Several comics feature the Omsk Bird, a separate Russian meme. The Omsk Bird is essentially a Polandball character
  • Culture Equals Costume:
    • The UK wears a stovepipe hat and a monocle.
      • As does its former territory Hong Kong.
      • Scotland wears a Tam 'O' Shanter on occasion.
    • The USA wears a pair of sunglasses.
    • Countries with coats of arms or escutcheons on their national flags are sometimes portrayed as having eyepatches.
    • When countries go to war or into space, they tend to don helmets.
    • Albania frequently wears a qeleshe.
    • Australia sometimes wears a wide-brimmed hat or a slouch hat when at war.
    • Canada often has a Beaver fur hat.
    • Finland frequently has vodka, a knife, or both.
    • Indonesia wears either a conical hat or songkok to distinguish himself from otherwise identical Poland and Monaco.
      • Malaysia and Brunei also don the occasional songkok.
    • Mexico usually uses a sombrero, sometimes a cowboy hat.
    • The Netherlands is often portrayed with red eyes and a joint.
    • Ancient Rome wears an Imperial Italic helmet.
    • Russia/the USSR sometimes sport an ushanka.
    • Switzerland sometimes has a head mirror or nurse's cap, due to being a color-inverted red cross.
      • Similar deal with Austria, but with glasses rather than a cap, due to Sigmund Freud.
    • The Vatican wears a papal mitre.
    • Vietnam sometimes wears a conical hat.
    • Former Ottoman Muslim countries such as Turkey, Morocco, and Bosnia and Herzegovina may wear a fez.
    • The Spanish Empire wears a morion.
    • Antarctica sometimes wears a scarf and goggles.
    • ISIS/Daesh typically manifests as Syria or Iraq with its flag as a headband.
  • Deadly Euphemism: "Remove kebab" is a rallying cry to eliminate Muslims. (Whether the comic itself advocates or opposes this sentiment varies from artist to artist.)
  • Depending on the Artist/Depending on the Writer: Obviously, since the strips are made by different people. Apart from the obvious art style changes, other factors subject to change are countryball family relationships, personalities, and even gender.
  • The Dog Bites Back: The "Latvia in World War II" series of comics shows Latvia suffering a variety of comic abuse from the Soviet Union until he finally snaps and joins Nazi Germany.
  • The Dreaded Toilet Duty: One of the many Running Gags of the comics is depicting Poland as an unwilling plumber, always being forced to clean toilets under Britain's orders, much to his own chagrin.
  • Dysfunction Junction: The Balkans, which in this case refers to ex-Yugoslavia.note They are always fighting amongst each other. In-universe, they are associated with being crazy.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: Initially the countryballs represented the various users of krautchan's /int/ board. It was not unusual for one countryball to appear twice in the same frame of the comic with contrasting personalities.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: In The Autonomous Region Of Åland - "A Romantic Tragedy", Sweden loses his love for Åland and they eventually drift apart due to being separated by both the Russian Empire and Finland for so many years(and getting mocked by Denmark and Norway for being a "crybaby"), but Åland just ended up being an annoyance to Finland and Sweden is implied to have found love again with Thailand.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Any country that's not a ball, especially Nepal and Reichtangle.
    • The Omsk Bird, derived from a Russian meme about the stereotype that everyone from Siberia is a junkie. It tends to offer Faustian pacts and generally terrifies the shit out of people.
  • Epic Fail: Portugal's first test of a new navy drone.
    • Poland's attempts to travel to space will almost always result in failure.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • Whilst the comic depicts all countries as evil to a greater or lesser degree, a common theme is that the other imperial powers are disgusted by the Belgian rule in the Congo.
    • While Serbia loves killing Turks, he freaks out when he finds that Romania's preferred method is impalement on a stake◊.
  • Every Car Is a Pinto: China's Engineering Quality◊.
  • Everyone Has Standards: The Maldives may be desperate to save itself from sinking into the ocean, but not enough to take refuge on a trash ridden Indian beach◊.
  • Eyepatch of Power: Serbia, Slovenia and Slovakia all tend to sport this look. Portugal may also be drawn this way as well.
    • Played for Laughs with Austria-Hungary, who is sometimes depicted with two, making him completely useless. If he is portrayed with two eyepatches, he usually also has an Austrian/Hungarian split personality disorder, making him a blind and deranged lunatic.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: Called "cannot into [verb or noun]". A more exhaustive list can be found under "terminology" on the Polandball wiki.
    • Most famously, Poland cannot into space.
    • Greece cannot into monies.
    • Turkey cannot into EU.
    • Khazakhbrick cannot into BRICS.
    • Estonia cannot into Nordic.
  • Fantastic Slur: Muslim countries are called "Kebab," popularised by Serbia and its historic conflict with Turkish and Muslim ethnicities.
  • Food Porn: The 2010 Cultural Heritage Cook-Off◊ features detailed drawings of various countries' national dishes, and their preparation as well.
  • Foreign Cuss Word: When a countryball swears, it's more likely than not to be in their own language. Most frequently with Poland saying "Kurwa".
  • Forever War: The Israel-Palestine conflict◊ continues throughout the grim darkness of the far future and beyond.
    Sweden: Well Polen, here is end: is to inevitable heat death of universe.
    cue Israeli-Palestinian slap-fight
  • Friendly Enemy: The USA and the USSR had this dynamic during the Cold War.
    I think we'll both agree that violence breeds violence. But in the end: it has to be this way.◊
  • Fusion Dance: Germany + Austria = Reichtangle... or worse, Nazi Germany.
  • Global Ignorance: America will never correctly identify other countryballs, except when it's funnier.
  • Gratuitous Foreign Language: many countryballs will pepper in words from their native languages. Especially European countries, European offshoots, and Japan.
  • Grotesque Cute: All too common. The countryballs may look cute but they are capable of acts of extreme violence and are subject to Body Horror.
  • Half the Man He Used to Be: Panama gets forcibly cut into half by other countries, in reference to its famous canal.
    • Ukraine has been depicted as being cut into half◊ by Russia to represent its pro-European and pro-Russian sides.
  • Head-in-the-Sand Management: As the UK says in one comic:
    First they came for Czechoslovakia, and I did not speak out — because I don't know where that is
    Then they came for Poland, and I did not speak out — because I already have a plumber
    Then they came for France, and I did not speak out — because it was funny as hell
    Then they came for me — but I have an Empire.
  • Heroic BSoD: Combined with the Droste Effect (well, sort of) and an appearance by Omsk Bird.
  • Heteronormative Crusader: Russia and Poland are often depicted as this, in line with the countries' hard-line policies against QUILTBAG sexualities. To a lesser extent, the USA can also be this, though this is changing (as reflected in several 2015 comics) following the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2015 decision in favor of same-sex marriage.
  • Hope Spot: In this comic◊, it seems that Bolivia can finally into sea after so long only for Chile's springboard trap to activate at the last second.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Romania's preferred method of killing. Depending on the Writer, sometimes Serbia does it as well. (It's all about the irony of turning kebab into literal kebab.)
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: Togo is often used as a joke for when other countryballs have "to go". Here are two◊ examples◊.
  • In-Series Nickname: Germany is "Germoney", especially when Greece wants cash.
    • The United Kingdom is called "le rosbif" by France.
    • Estonia is often referred to by her Estonian name, "Eesti".
    • Poland is often called "Polan" by other (usually Slavic) countries, while he's called "Polen" by Germanics.
    • Serbia tends to call Montenegro "Montenigger" when he's mad at the latter.
  • Insistent Terminology: Countryballs almost always refer to territory or land as clay.
    • Poland (and sometimes other countries) occasionally refers to gay people as "gender", a reference to Polish Christian conservatives coining the term "gender ideology" to refer to pretty much anything except heterosexuality.
    • They are also referred to as "homosex" or "homogay" in form with Polandball characters' poor grammar.
    • The word "anschluss" note  It was used to refer to the one between Nazi Germany and Austria. In a sort of Once Done, Never Forgotten way, it has come to mean forced assimilation in-universe. In the Facebook Polandball community, the character Faceblock often "anschlusses" Poland's page whenever he makes a joke with dark humor.
    • Turkey and other Muslim countries are regularly referred to as "kebab", despite kebab being used to refer to Turkic peoples initially. As per the wiki, modern political rhetoric still believes Islam is an entire race.
      • Central Asian Turkic countries like Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are somehow exempt as Sovietball distanced them from Islam in the past. You know...despite those countries still being ethnically Turkish.
  • Intentional Engrish for Funny: One of the most important parts of the comic's humor is the ungrammatical, misspelled English that everyone except the native-English-speaking countryballs converses in.—-> Poland: Poland cannot into space...
    Poland (or any other nation): Poland, yuo are of genious!
    Poland: Gib monies plox!
  • Large Ham: Every country will have their moments of bombast, but countries that can always be relied upon to chow down on the scenery are the USA, the USSR/Russia, and Serbia.
  • Manly Tears: On the Croatians◊ at the Siege of Szigetvar:
    Let us goings out from burning place into open and stand up to enemy. Who of dyings, he will beings with God. Who of doesn't die, his name will be of honors. I will into goings first. What I do, yuo do. And God beings my witness... I of never leave yuo... my brothers and knights!
  • Machete Mayhem: Serbia is often seen carrying a machete or combat knife when it's kebab removal time.
  • Mirroring Factions:
    • All the countryballs tend to look down on one another for their various shortcomings, but they are often revealed to be the same on many levels.
    • This comic◊ depicts ISIS Islamic fundamentalists and Serbian anti-Muslim chetniks as being similar at heart.
  • Mistaken for Gay: The Philippines loves his Putos◊.note 
  • Monochromatic Eyes: Countryballs never have pupils.
  • Mundane Utility: Germany's ability to turn into Reichtangle. While he uses it to conquer and coerce countries, he also uses it help countries cross streams◊ or even just reach a high shelf.◊
  • The Musical: "Junta! The Junta Musical", a whimsical retelling of Operation Condor. It's got chords, too!
  • My Friends... and Zoidberg: North America is one big happy family...apart from him.note 
  • Nations as People: Not really people, but rather "Countryballs".
  • National Stereotypes: A great many of them:
  • Negative Continuity: Events in one strip hardly have an impact in others.
  • Neutrality Backlash: Awed by Switzerland, Belgium attemps it. Two times. However, when your territory is mostly flat and conveniently placed between Germany and France...
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Croatia is not over-thrilled when Serbia kills Austria-Hungary.
    Of God damnings it, Serbia...Of God fucking damnings...
  • No Mouth: Countryballs never have mouths. Usually but putting mouths on countryballs are breaking the rules..
  • Non-Standard Character Design: There are a few, often referencing a in-joke:
    • The titular Poland is drawn "upside-down" (i.e., it's flag colors vertically inverted).
    • Israel is a fourth-dimensional hypercube because of Jewish Physics.
      • Michigan as well due to being circumspiced by Israel.
      • Jewish Autonomous Oblast is one as well, despite its population being mostly Orthodox Christian.
    • Nepal and Ohio are monstrous mouths with sharp teeth because of the shape of their flags.
    • Singapore and Bermuda are triangles.
    • Kazakhstan is a brick.
    • Portugal was represented a few times as a rug.
    • Imperial Germany is a Reichtangle.
    • Countries enduring famines are often drawn as a figure-eight shape◊ with visible ribs in the middle.
    • South Africa is occasionally a doughnut, because of Lesotho inside it.
    • The USA is sometimes drawn as a Zol from The Legend of Zelda for the sake of "Americans are fat" jokes.
    • Countries who don't have flags, ancient civilisations that were never turned into countries, or ethnic groups are represented by Cueballs with colors (and corresponding numbers) similar to the skin color of the ethnic group(s) who lived there.
    • Chile may also be drawn as elongated and thin, referencing its shape and 4,270 km coastline.
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten: Comics about modern Germany will often joke about how it hasn't really changed much since the Nazi era. Same with Russia and the USSR.
  • One-Word Title: Also a Portmantitle, as a fusion of "Poland" and "Ball".
  • Overused Running Gag: One of the first classical jokes of Countryballs was to (spitefully) portray Polandball with an upside-down Polish flag. It stopped being funny when people started pointing out how dumb other people were for believing that Indonesiaball and Monacoball were Polandball.
  • Ow, My Body Part!: Parodied. If a country gets hurt, they say their regions or monuments hurt.
  • Painting the Medium: The Reichtangle's dialogue is always written in Courier.
    • More predictably, Fraktur is sometimes used in contexts of German patriotism.
  • Perpetual Smiler: Mauritania's crescent imitates this, often crossing into Slasher Smile.
  • Pokémon Speak:
    • Northern Ireland talks like this, sometimes adding in "fleg". Indeed, it is the only English-speaking countryball to be incapable of proper speech.
    • Liechtenstein and Italy sometimes talk like this ("stein stein" and "ital ital").
    • In this comic◊, Kazakhstan's minions talk like this (Uzbekistan's "uzbek uzbek", Tajikistan's "tajik tajik", and so on).
  • Portmantitle: "Poland" and "Ball".
  • Pre Asskicking Oneliner: "GUTEN TAG."
    • A more general one, when countries band together, is "This is some tough [X] shit you've got yourself into", where X is an ethicity, continent, or linguistic group, for instance "This is some tough Slav shit you've got yourself into".
    • NATO's warcry, always delivered by the USA: "You done fucked up now."
    • "U WOT M8?!"
    • Russia, when looming over smaller countries: "Privyet."
  • Product Placement:
    • Sweden uses IKEA products, to the frustration of other countries. The store may also be seen in the background in comics that take place in the country itself.
    • Denmark plays with LEGO in his spare time and uses it to annoy Sweden.
    • In this comic◊, Russia's lunch is Omskaya vodka.
    • Indonesia's favourite food is Indomie instant noodles.
    • South Korea is obsessed with Starcraft.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: America undergoes one while on trial◊, given to him by Canada. The problem? Canada was suppose to be his defense.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Dark red eyes are a telltale for extreme aggression. Light red eyes indicate stoned countryballs, usually Netherlands or Jamaica.
  • Retired Monster: Belgium, due to its infamous colonial atrocities in the Congo, is sometimes seen in flashbacks cheerfully surfing on oceans of blood and still has a little bit of a soft spot for chopping people's hands off.
  • Ripped from the Headlines: At least 1/3rd of all comics are based on current events.
    • Polandball News bases their comics off current newspaper articles, which are cited alongside them.
  • Rule 34: Yep, even Polandball. (Warning: NSFW & NSFL)
  • Rule of Symbolism: May be used in some comics to represent past and present events. For example, inflation in Zimbabwe may be shown as its respective countryball becoming subject to Balloonacy. A popular way of portraying wars would be the different countryballs playing games.
  • Running Gag : Makes up many of the webcomics' punchlines. The main and most-well known one would be "Poland cannot into space".
    • Turks and Muslims being referred to as "kebab".
    • Serbia's obsession with "remove kebab".
    • Reichtangle's obsession with "anschluss".
    • Poland howling "KURWA!" when something goes wrong.
    • America getting the names of countries wrong.
    • Estonia's inability to be considered Nordic.
    • Argentina's inability to be considered white or European.
    • Bolivia asking Chile to "gib sea".
    • America's inability to keep Mexico from getting through his Southern border.
    • Germany's obsession with work, and digging holes in beaches.
    • South Korea is afraid of fan death.
    • Iceland's volcano Eyjafjallajökull causes problems.
    • France craps himself when he hears the word "strike."
  • Shout-Out:
  • Shown Their Work: Well, of course. A lot of comics show how relationships between many nations work, albeit on a very simplified level. For example, not a lot of people know that the USA has 5 territories and 3 protectorates and that the country was heavily associated in the creation of many nations (many of which share a very similar flag). It really isn't far off to call some countries the "children" of other, older countries.
  • Smarter Than You Look: USA is generally portrayed as ignorant and lazy but when the time calls for it, he can be very cunning. Pointed out in this comic◊.
  • Spinoff: Planetball, focused on stellar bodies, and Stateball, focused on the USA's states.
    • On Reddit, two unofficial sports-themed spinoffs have also grown, CFB Ball, focused on American college football, and Hockeyball, focused on hockey.
    • 4Chan's /sp/ board had "Mestball" comics for a while. While they involved all of Major League Baseball, the focus was usually on Mestball (Representing the New York Mets) and how it could never "into playoffs."
  • Start of Darkness: Quite a few comics tell the story of how Austria turned Germany into Nazi Germany or why any particularly violent country became that way.
  • Stylistic Suck: And intentionally so. Purists insist that the strip should only be drawn in Microsoft Paint and that the countryballs should never be perfect circles. One of the defining characteristics of Polandball is that Poland is drawn upside down on purpose.
  • Surreal Humour: Often present in older comics. This comic involving France, Germany and a box◊ is often cited as the most famous example.
  • Tangled Family Tree: Any country that is in any way an ancestor of another country, or have aided in their independence, can be a parent. This results in situations such as the USA having the UK, France, Germany, and the 7-balls (Native Americans) as parents.
  • Tertiary Sexual Characteristics:
    • Female countryballs wear a pink bow. If they're from East Asia, they sometimes wear odango instead.
    • In the "A World at War" series by user ChickenScuttleMonkey (which retells WWI and WWII), most female countryballs instead wear a flower that symbolises their country.
  • Tournament Arc: Tournaments were a popular fad in the countryball Facebook community in the latter half of 2017, where a countryball would win based on "likes" as votes from the community. The fad ended mainly because of fans of the losing countryballs being sore losers and mass reporting the host page into oblivion, sadly.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Latvia is rarely seen without a potato. Until it's taken away by Russia or other countries.
    • Canada likes poutine.
    • The USA likes to stuff his face with burgers.
    • USA's son Philippines loves balut and puto.
    • Romania loves to drink blood.
    • The UK with his most precious tea to the point that it is how USA got to start his independence by throwing tea at the harbor.
    • Belgium loves his chocolate, waffles and french fries.
    • Turkey loves kebab.
    • Italy loves pizza to the point of lashing out against other countryballs for not preparing it in the traditional way or putting clashing toppings like bell peppers, fruits that aren't tomatoes, or most infamously - pineapple.
    • More generally, countries are sometimes given catchphrases of their favourite food - the USA going "burger burger" as an example.
  • Tragic Villain: Reichtangle is usually portrayed as this (all he wants is for someone to play with him), as is post-Soviet Russia. So too are various Baltic states in WWII that joined up with the Germans after brutal Soviet invasion and occupation.
  • The Un Favourite: Liberia thinks he's this compared to the Philippines.◊
  • Vague Age: Although the countries can technically be hundreds of years old, some countries like England are senior grandfather types while others like Russia and the United States are portrayed as adults or teens.
    • Gets even weirder as strips tend to vary as whether a country taking on a new regime (like Prussia becoming the German Empire) counts as the same nation throughout or is a child of the previous incarnation.
  • Viewers Are Geniuses:
    • Thoroughly appreciating Polandball requires a knowledge of which country corresponds to which flag and a pretty thorough knowledge of geopolitics.
    • Instead of using The Backwards Я trope, Cyrillic letters are used according to their actual pronunciations. For example, Д is pronounced like a D, Я is pronounced "ya", etc.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Countries who are allies but have significant differences are often characterized like this. Examples are the U.K. and France, America and Canada, and America and most of his allies really. They'll stand by each other when it matters but in peacetime it's a constant barrage of insults.
    • The U.K. is this with the other commonwealth nations and his former colonies; Australia, Canada, and the U.S. especially.
  • Wall of Text: Sometimes shows up when a country is shouting at or threatening another.
    • Gaul uses one to deliver a massive rant at SPQR in this comic◊.
    • Germany's rant at Europe in this comic◊.
    • Most of these use some regional variation of the "Serbia Stronk/Remove Kebab!" copypasta, an insane and almost certainly satirical Serbian ultranationalist rant that has been much repeated due to its batshit insanitynote 
  • Wearing a Flag on Your Head: Used to represent different countries. If you can't identify them, it's time for you to learn your flags (although bear in mind Poland is drawn incorrectly.)
  • Why We Are Bummed Communism Fell: The US sometimes experiences regret he doesn't have a big, evil, communist rival to compete against any more, to say nothing of Russia's view on the subject.
    • The Balkans were a lot more stable when Yugoslavia was still around. Many of the ethnic tensions that are featured in the comics weren't really a problem in Eastern Europe when Communism was still a thing.
    • Some ex communist countries now have to deal with being irrelevant and unstable.
    • Absolutely defied with Poland, as he's really, really glad he's no longer taking orders from Sovietball.
  • Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Due to Blank White Eyes being the norm, eyes shrinking to pinpoints are used instead (most visible on Reichtangle).
  • Word-Salad Humor/Yuo No Take Candle: The non-Anglosphere countries speak Engrish by default, but some authors take it up to eleven with it to make dialogue full-fledged world salad, as seen here◊. On the other hand, dialogue-heavy comics may feature relatively large amounts of clearly imperfect but intelligible Engrish.
  • Writers Cannot Do Math: In-Universe, America struggles with the Metric System.
  • Written by the Winners: The Good Guys
  • Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: America is all about telling gays they'll burn in hell, until Russia congratulates him on his policy.
    • Even after Romania thanks him for kicking out refugees, Hungary still hates gypsies enough in this comic◊ to let the refugees back in just to spite Romania.

"Greeting, troper
surprise ruin yuor life"

Alternative Title(s): Countryball

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