Study Time vs. Game Time

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Published September 30, 2026

Study Time vs. Game Time is a two-panel comic showing the same student slumped and sleepy over their books in one frame, then wide-eyed and alert with a video game controller in the next. Thai comics artist Jod 8riew posted the original in November 2012, and an English 9GAG upload months later pushed it worldwide. The image spawned translations, live-action recreations and an ironic 4chan edit that pulled it back around as self-deprecating student humor.

two panel memeswebcomic memesstudent life memesgaming2012 memes

Overview

The joke works on pure visual contrast. The left panel shows a student face-down or drooping at a desk covered in textbooks, eyes barely open. The right panel puts the same character upright with a video game controller, pupils dilated and fully switched on1. Nothing else in the frame changes. Same room, same person, opposite energy state, and no caption is required if you can read the drawing.

Study Time vs. Game Time was passed around straight for years as a relatable student post before ironic uses took over. Later remixes swap the right panel for whatever else keeps someone awake at 2 a.m., including a 'Facebook Time' variant hosted on a quote-image site3. A 4chan /v/ thread from June 2018 added a third line reading '101% true,' turning the shrug-emoji sincerity of the original into self-aware bait5.

Origin & Background

Platform
Facebook (source) / 9GAG (viral spread)
Creator
Jod 8riew
Date
2012

Thai comics artist Jod 8riew posted the original comic to Facebook on November 23, 2012. The Thai-language post pulled more than 37,000 reactions, 560 comments and 3,400 shares in the six years after upload6. The two panels show the same character asleep on an open book, then bright-eyed with a controller in hand, all in Jod 8riew's simple line style4.

How It Spread

9GAG user jedd07r uploaded an English version of the comic on February 10, 2013. It pulled more than 35,000 points on the site over the next several years1. Three days later the official 9GAG Twitter account reposted it, drawing over 2,400 retweets and 575 likes2.

Translations followed. On July 29, 2013, Vietnamese Facebook page ThptCongHoaLacSonHoaBinh reposted the comic with local text7. In 2016 the format started getting reworked instead of just re-uploaded. On June 19, 2016, the site profilepicturequotes published a version swapping 'Game Time' for 'Facebook Time'3. That October, the Facebook group thebestofgaming1 shot a live-action recreation with real people playing both panels, pulling more than 8,300 reactions and 2,500 shares8.

An anonymous 4chan /v/ poster revived Study Time vs. Game Time on June 18, 2018 with a mock-earnest '101% true' caption bolted onto the bottom5, the point being that the image had aged into a sincere-post cliche worth mocking.

How to Use This Meme

The template is a two-panel diptych. The left panel typically shows a sleepy or bored version of a character captioned 'Study Time' (or an equivalent), and the right panel shows the same character alert and locked in, captioned 'Game Time.' Common edits swap the right panel activity for whatever else the poster finds more interesting than schoolwork, as with the 2016 'Facebook Time' relabel3. Ironic reposts often add a third caption underneath, in the style of the 4chan '101% true' edit5.

Frequently Asked Questions