The Teacher's Copy vs. What They Give You

About

Teacher's Copy vs. What They Give You, also known as Teacher's Copy vs. Student's Copy, refers to a phrasal template and series of memes that parody the poor quality of copied materials handed out by teachers in schools. The two-panel format utilizes a high-quality image and its cursed black-and-white version that represents the textbook owned by the teacher and poor-quality student copies made from it.

Origin

On February 19th, 2020, Redditor Unk0wn132 posted two images of a cell, with the second image being a poor black-and-white copy of the original, as if made by improperly using a photocopier. The post received over 59,400 upvotes in the /r/teenagers^[1] subreddit in six months, with a crosspost to /r/mildlyinfuriating^[2] subreddit gaining additional 41,300 upvotes in the same period.

Spread

On February 20th, 2020, Redditor DangerousDetlef posted a black-and-white version of the image to the /r/memes^[3] subreddit, where it gained over 43,200 upvotes.

On February 26th, Redditor JustCalmUp posted the first derivative meme based on the format using a cursed image of Mario to /r/memes^[4]. The post (shown below) received over 146,000 upvotes in six months.

Through 2020, the format saw moderate use online, primarily on Reddit. For example, on February 27th, 2020, Redditor^[5] your_religioniswrong posted a Shrek version of the meme that gained over 16,600 upvotes in six months (shown below, left). On May 26th, iFunny^[6] user Fatchu posted a Madagascar version of the meme (shown below, right) that was widely circulated online, including viral reposts on Reddit^[7] and Facebook.^[8]

The format maintained popularity into 2021, with versions of the meme appearing on Reddit and other sites. The format has also been used to parody products that did not live up to expectations.

Related Memes

Traumatized Mr. Incredible

Traumatized Mr. Incredible refers to a series of comparison memes based on two images of Mr. Incredible, one an official art for The Incredibles 2 and the other a "reverse toonified" and black-and-white version of the character that gives him an expression of a man experiencing emotional pain, similar to Withered Wojak.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References