/r/polandball Official Tutorial (2024)

(Redirected from Official Polandball tutorial)

The "Official" Polandball tutorials (manual of style) are a series of images and descriptions produced on r/polandballthat describe how a Polandball comic should be designed and submitted (according to their policies). Amongst these tutorials are what is referred to as a "Joke Life Preserve", which is a list of features of Polandball comics not to be posted on the subreddit. It is created using a monthly petition, which allows frequenters of the subreddit to vote on things they don't want to see in Polandball comics. The petitions that receive the moderators' blessings are added to the Joke Life Preserve. The self-described purpose of the Joke Life Preserve is to "preserve the comedic value of certain polandball in-jokes and prevent them from being forced and overused". A set of subjects have also been "Deported to Syberia", meaning their usage is permanently prohibited on the subreddit.

The Polandball tutorial is one of the most commonly-referred to tutorials on the internet for people learning Polandball for the first time.

The list of items that are "Deported to Syberia" are^[1]:

• Classic jokes
• Template comics
• Turning existing comics into polandball comics (plotless adaptations of existing stories, with characters replaced by countryballs)
• Internal affairs of US states and territories (click link to see the subreddit for this)
• Grey Poland
• "Faux script" (using false syllabary in a way that resembles English)

The current Joke Life Preserve (last updated September 2015) poll includes the following things:

Overview and list of rules^[2][3]

The primary tutorial describes the design of a Polandball comic, and the details it should and should not include.

It prohibits the following:

• Adding pupils
• Adding arms and other limbs
• Ears, mouths, pupils, hair, mimic wrinkles, bears, eyelashes and moustaches.
• Adding black lines between color borders on flags
• Drawing a countryball in a shape other than round, unless it is an exception like Reichtangle, Israelcube, Tringapore, Kazakhbrick, NepalRawr or OhioRawr or others.
• Usage of circle and line tools
• Drawing the Polish flag correctly (white on top)
• Copying and pasting pictures of the internet (this includes, copying and pasting panels/drawings, everything must be mouse-drawn)
• Drawing one panel comics with no plot, storyline or point.
  • Animated comics are excluded.
• Using any meme, such as and especially "Le", "Rage faces", "Trollfaces", "Forever alone", "Doge/Shibe", and others.
• Using fonts such as Comic Sans, Curlz or Papyrus
• Using advanced image manipulation tools
• Any non-countryball, this includes cityballs, non-governmental organizations, siteballs, gameballs (for e.g. Xboxball, Playstationball...) Note: states, provinces, intergovernmental organisations and unions are allowed!
• Making Polandball genuinely into space.
• Using advanced tools to make gradients, blending, motion blur, etc.

Countries with permanent attributes and shapes^[4]

• UKball and Hongkongball (A former British colony) must always have a top hat and monocle. However, since Hong Kongball has been assimilated into Chinaball and has lost its characteristics, Hongkongball's top hat and monocle can be omitted, if you are not uploading it to Reddit.
• Israel is a cube, along with Jewish Autonomous Oblast and Michigan.
• Nepal is portrayed as a dinosaur because of its non-quadrangolar shaped flag. Teeth and dragonic eyes are usually optional, but certainly recommended. Along with Nepal, ReichRawr, Ohio, the Indiasaurs and every non-quadrangolar shaped flags-owner must be shaped like the actual flag.
• USAball (and sometimes its son, Liberiaball) always wears sunglasses.
• Kazakhstan and its subdivisions and ancestors are always drawn as bricks.
• Tringapore, Bermudatriangle, and Nariñotriangle and all their ancestors and subdivisions are always drawn as triangles.
• Reichtangle (which represents a possible 4th reich, though is often used to depict the German Empire during World War I) is rectangular-shaped, facing upwards, and with anschluss eyes, which are tiny pupils.

• Billiard Balls are used to represent ambiguous, non-colonized (or prehistoric) indigenous communities. For example:
  • 8ball represents Africans and other dark skined people.
  • 7ball represents Native Americans and/or Austronesians/Pacific Islanders and is usually accompanied by a feather atop its head.
  • 6ball represents aliens.
  • 1balls represent prehistoric or indigenous East Asians or Mongoloids and are accompanied with slanted eyes.
• Polandball is depicted red-top, white-bottom pattern, rather than the actual white-top, red-bottom pattern as depicted on its flag. Sometimes the white part is depicted light gray, though this is frowned upon unless for shading purposes.
• Indonesiaball often wears a rice hat or peci to differentiate from Polandball, due to being in Asia.
• Monacoball often wears sunglasses to distinguish from Indonesiaball and Polandball, due to being fabulously rich.
• Chadball and Republic of Upper Voltaball often have 8ball eyes to distinguish from Romaniaball and German Empireball.
• The Anglosphere countryballs (USAball, UKball, Canadaball, Irelandball, New Zealandball, and Australiaball) must speak English with "proper grammar".

Phrasing^[5]

From the document:

Countries never refer to each other as "balls" (e.g. polandball, usaball, russiaball, germanyball). Country names only.

Grammar and spelling is supposed to be incorrect for everyone but Anglophones. Native English-speaking countries speak perfectly, and all other countries speak "Engrish".

This Broken-English is all about broken grammar rather than broken spelling (i.e. no Dolan spelling), and incorporates bits of each country's native language when it speaks. Lurk around to get a feel of the language. (Try translating the phase the the country's language with google translate, then translate it back to english.)

Comic Sans is absolutely not allowed. Same for any comic script or goofy font like "Curlz" or "Joker".

Here are some good and bad examples of how to send Polandball content to their subreddit.

Impact on Polandball itself

Outside of /r/polandball, the tutorial is not typically followed, but often referenced. Drawing lines between colours, circle/line tools, countries referring to each other as "-balls" (e.g. Polandball, Germanyball, Swedenball...) and using memes are all commonly practiced in sects of other communities. However, communities at large outside of /r/polandball tend to be familiar with the basic rules of Polandball, partially thanks to this tutorial.

Eyes tutorial

Sources