Thăm Ngàn

Submission 5,710

About

Thăm Ngàn (Thai. ทำงาน, Eng. Work) refers to a public service announcement (PSA) video from Thailand that encourages people to work instead of drinking alcohol. Since its first appearance online in 2015, the video has been quoted and used in motivational memes and parodies, often referencing a video game "grindset."

Origin

On October 30th, 2015, YouTube^[1] user Cộng đồng Tuyển sinh uploaded the earliest shared footage of the Thai PSA video, which had been translated to Vietnamese. In the video, a man who was stressed and drinking later changes his mind and starts working. He then uses the money he earned working to pay his debts and otherwise benefit his life. The video received more than 1 million views in seven years (shown below).

Spread

Over the years, the video inspired memes on social media. For example, on April 28th, 2020, YouTube^[2] user FUK ICE uploaded an edit with a clip from the game Defense of the Ancients (DotA). The video received more than 1 million views in two years (shown below, left). On May 17th, 2020, YouTube^[3] user TQuang uploaded an edit with a clip from Minecraft. The video received more than 1.2 million views in two years (shown below, right).

On September 20th, 2020, Reddit^[4] user kilyasy uploaded a redrawn image based on the video, referencing farming in the game Arknights. The post received more than 1,700 upvotes in two years (shown below, left) on the /r/arknights subreddit. On January 20th, 2023, Twitter^[5] user @YUNOTUTIHIRA uploaded a Bocchi the Rock! redraw based on the video that received more than 11,400 retweets and 48,900 likes in one week (shown below, right).