Anything about football can become viral for any reason.
But this time, a football clip racked up views because of a reason not about the sport itself. Several years back, a video posted on Twitter became viral. It says two names – Yanny or Laurel.
What do you hear?! Yanny or Laurel pic.twitter.com/jvHhCbMc8I
— Cloe Feldman (@CloeCouture) May 15, 2018
It divided us between those who voted they were hearing Yanny and those who were hearing Laurel. Now, this TikTok video is dividing us the same way but not only between two choices.
TikTok user @keg_has_style posted an audio clip that baffled many.
The video he posted had a caption, “What do you hear?” and this seemingly innocent question offered a wide array of answers that ranged from something football fans would cheer like “That is Embarrassing” to straight-out-of-the-box suggestions like “Baptism piracy” and “Bart Simpson Bouncing”.
Other choices included “Rotating pirate ship”, “That isn’t my receipt”, “Lobster in motion”, Lactates in pharmacy”, “I’m chasing Martian”, and “That isn’t mercy”.
It was one of @keg_has_style’s most popular videos.
The audio illusion became so baffling and disturbing to others that the video received over 22 million views. Users shared it with friends and together they tried to figure out not what the audio clip is telling them but why all the choices sounded correct.
The words don’t even rhyme like “bouncing”, “Martian”, “mercy”, and “receipt”, much like the “Yanny and Laurel” question.
So, what are we really hearing?
No matter how many choices are presented, there is still a correct answer to the “illusion”. If you chose “That is embarrassing”, you are correct.
The chant originated from Derbyshire, England, and is used by the Derby Country Football Club to probably mock their opponents. We sure do want to see Bart Simpson bouncing, though, but we’ll take what our ears can give us.
But why are we hearing different things?
There can be different reasons attributed to this phenomenon, but like other illusions, it basically comes down to our senses trying to make sense out of something.
One culprit can be the McGurk Effect. The illusion is created when the speech sound is mistranslated because it comes into conflict with the visual cues.
So even if we are hearing “That is embarrassing”, once we mismatch it with say, “Bart Simpson bouncing”, our brain tries to match these two cues.
The video’s commenters found it hard to wrap their heads around the phenomenon.
“I can read through them all and hear all I think that’s cool.” Said one comment.
Some of them began hearing other things like “Rotating battleship”, “I texted Bobson”, and “That is in motion”.
No matter what they heard, though, they all agreed that it was a strange thing to experience.
The TikTok user’s page also included other audio illusions.
It includes some of the famous ones like the puzzle between “Green Needle” and “Brainstorm.” He also included clips from some pop songs and made a list of misheard lyrics.
How about you? What do you hear? Is it from the list or something else your brain came up with entirely?
Click the video below to hear the illusion for yourself!
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