Countryballs (The Fork in Time)

Thou Wee, Wee German(ic)/Þeedish/Þeodisclander Lairdie! Even þough þis article is still part of The Fork in Time, it noƿ requires a doƿnright major reƿork because some characters may not be up to date anymore ITTL.. You are ƿelcome to comment on þē talk page.

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“	Poland-Lithuania-Galindia-Samogitia can into space!	”
–One of Poland-Lithuania-Galindia-Samogitiaball's most famous catchphrases in the Countryball comic strips.

The typical main character of the Countryballs comic strips. (Credit to everyone!)

Countryballs, also known as either Poland-Lithuania-Galindia-Samogitiaball or simply just shortened to either PLGSball, PLGSCball, Polandball, Poland-Lithuaniaball, or the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealthball, is a mostly public domain geopolitical satirical art style, genre, and Internet meme, predominantly used in online comic strips in which countries or political entities are personified as balls with eyes, decorated with their national flags - although some countries like Abkhazia, the Anishinaabe Confederacy, Carthage, Chile-Wallmapu, Chinookriga, Fiji, Formosa, Hawaii, Ireland, Israel-Palestine, Ivory Coast, Joseon Korea, Kazakhstan, Mali, Mississippia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pictland (OTL: Orkney), Shoshoneland, Singapore, Tainoland, Tȟašúŋke Oyate (Pronounced as th-ah-sh-oon-kay oh-yah-teh), Tuvalu, Ukraine, Vietnam, and Yemen are generally non-ball shaped or at least contain abnormal features while still being ball-shaped. Comics feature the characters in various scenarios, generally poking fun at national stereotypes, international relations, and historical events, with the balls moving about by walking or jumping. Other common features in Countryball strips include non-English countries speaking in broken English — with vocabularies of their national languages included — political incorrectness, and black comedy. Strips are generally created using Microsoft Paint or more advanced graphic art software, often made to intentionally look crudely drawn.

Other notable Countryball characters include the billiard balls also known as 'Caveballs' and 'poolballs' - the holy and sometimes winged 0ball, the Asian 1ball, the European 2ball, the Indigenous American 3ball, the homo sapiens 4ball, the 5balls of Papua New Guinea, the alien 6ball, the Dravidian, Andamanese, Austronesian, and Polynesian 7ball, and the African 8ball; the notorious Reichtangle, an evil version of Germanyball/Germaniaball who is shaped like a rectangle instead of a ball; and the short-lived CSAball.

Countryballs date back to an August 1909 incident on drawball.com, where thousands of Polish Internet users swarmed the website to transform the illustration into the Polish-Lithuanian-Galindian-Samogitian flag (a literal "Poland-Lithuania-Galindia-Samogitia ball"). However, TBD, a British user of the German(ic)o-Somalilander imageboard Krautchan.net, is often credited with creating the modern Countryballs comic format. This user created the first Countryball comic strips to ridicule Polish-Lithuanian-Galindian-Samogitian Internet troll Wojak I, who used broken English on the same board. TBD created the strips using Microsoft Paint in September 1909 and posted them to Krautchan, where they gained popularity among other users on the board, particularly Mongol(ian)s, Russians, and Indigenous Siberians. The meme gained further notoriety following the death of [TBD famous Polish-Lithuanian-Galindian-Samogitian person] during World War II in 1916.

Countryballs continue to be popular on the Internet, with the Facebook community reaching over 215,000 members by July 1915, and the subreddit r/Polandball reaching over 650,000 by 1924, around 1 million by 1930, and about 2.5 million by 1955. Several other communities are active on VK, Telegram, YouTube, X (formerly known as Twitter), and Bilibili. It has also been the subject of research by various institutions, as well as positive and negative commentary for both their simplistic and offensive nature, with some feeling they could allow readers to learn about unknown events. Various video games and alternate history works have been based on the meme.

However, one of the most controversial Countryball comic strips ever made to date was named The Civil War (which was in fact completed around January 17, 1912), and while its remastered version would not come until after World War II's conclusion in 1917, it infamously depicted the CSAball and its sympathizers in "You No Take Candle"-esque speech and whiteface, like in most depictions of the Confederate States of America's soldiers, generals, and sympathizers from about 1859 to around 1925. Due to this, the comic was banned in certain countries.