The Pleasures of Polandball. Paul Mutter, in Monday's Souciant.
The Italian "The problem has solved itself!" defamation is, after all, not all that different that a recent U.S. Presidential candidate's enthusiasm for "self-deportation." And who can argue with the observation that "Everyone has a love-hate relationship with somebody"? Note, though, that USball has the last word in the UKball/Franceball "mutual loathing" song -- and in a way that is so painfully astute that all we can do is -- laugh at ourselves.
Barchiators - I'm in agreement with Paul Mutter. I don't see anything negative in his writeup. It's very nuanced, and appreciative, but careful to point out the limits of Polandball's irony, at the same time. The article even ironizes itself, to a certain degree, in the spirit of the meme, IE the title, and images shown. No Gawker here.
This is the least funny article on humor I have ever read. Author must be German. Also, this particular subreddit - of which I am a devotee - hates attention from articles like these and when the strips are xposted elsewhere on the net or in reddit. People who don't get the joke flood in and try and correct folk who are just joking around. So - bad show, author.
Hi, author here. While I understand you're not happy about the xposting, this isn't exactly an excoriation of the humor or effort people put into their posts. And I'm definitely not looking to "correct" how people make these comics. I was interested in explaining to a wider audience why Polandball is significant, and not just some obscure Internet meme with no real-world context: because it has become a kind of political cartooning that exists somewhere between the editorial section, the comic pages, and articles' comment sections. Sure, some of the stuff is offensive, even as parody, while some is actually extremely to the point (like the 3 immigration cartoons, which I think are very cutting commentary hence the Charlie Hebdo reference, how the rest of the countryballs see the Reichtangle) and/or funny (like that Franco-British duet about mutual loathing). That's the point of the article: Polandball is a pretty unique Internet phenomenon, especially since a lot of the humor derives from shock value and exaggeration.
Never said it was an excoriation just that it seemed dry and lacking in humor. It is silly to point out whether the strips are offensive, they are meant to absurdly reductionist. I didn't feel like you were attacking polandball, just that article wasn't any fun.