About

Sci-fi is When X vs. Fantasy is When X is a phrasal template meme found on Twitter in which the comparison between the science fiction genre and the fantasy genre is shown to be incredibly small, with the two basically being reskins of each other. Memes using the format typically include the phrase "sci-fi is when X looks like this and fantasy is when Y looks like this" with two images shown below referencing each genre. As the comparison trend spread on Twitter in September 2022, the phrase later diluted down into being about actors who have played roles in both genres during their careers.

Origin

On September 19th, 2022, the Twitter account of author Joyce Carol Oates^[1] tweeted about fellow author Ted Chiang, who spoke at the Seattle Book Festival and tried to explain the nuance between sci-fi and fantasy, which was then ratioed as every reply and QRT called out how the two are fundamentally similar (shown below). This sparked a viral debate surrounding science fiction vs. fantasy and subsequently the meme format humorously comparing the two.

Spread

Over the next few days, the Twitter writing community would go back and forth over sci-fi and fantasy, with the phrasal template being set in stone on September 21st, 2022, by the Twitter account @Ruby_Stevens,^[2] who tweeted about sci-fi and fantasy's main love interest, obtaining over 63,000 likes in one week in the process of exposing mainstream audiences to the discussion at large (shown below).

On September 27th, 2022, another step in the evolution of the meme took hold, with it being applied to Pedro Pascal as he has played characters in both genres, turning the meme into being less of a phrasal template and more of an exploitable in which users sub-out the actor's name and pictures to prove their point. An example of this is seen in the meme by Twitter user @LarkOneironaut,^[3] which garnered 380 likes in seven days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References