About

Thailand Military Draft Videos, also known as Thai Military Conscription Lottery Videos or Thai Military Tok, refers to a series of viral videos showing Thai citizens reacting to the conscription lottery that will decide if they'll serve in the military for at least two mandatory years. The event, which occurs every year from April 1st to 20th for people over the age of 21 years old, gained viral attention on TikTok in early 2024, particularly videos of transgender women and LGBTQ+ men hilariously celebrating being exempt from the military services.

Origin

Although videos and images showing young men reacting to their mandatory military draft in Thailand have been posted online since as early as August 2020,^[1] a video posted on TikTok^[2] by user @dysezk6ajfch, on April 5th, 2024, became the earliest known viral content related to Thailand's military draft event.

The video (seen below) features a young queer man picking a card from a box, which will decide if he gets drafted (red card) or exempt (black card) from military services. The video amassed over 1.5 million likes in a year.

Spread

Videos and images of the yearly event became the subject of memes and jokes over the following months and years as netizens waited to watch Thais' reactions during the military draft lottery clips.

For instance, on April 7th, 2025, X^[3] user @OnlyBangersEth shared a viral video of a young Thai man celebrating being excused from military service (seen below), which amassed over 6 million views and 64,000 likes in a day.

Also on April 7th, 2025, the TikTok^[4] page @itvnews posted a video explaining how the Thai military draft works (seen below), which received more than 462,000 plays and 31,000 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References