Lauren Hockenson, GIF Detective, is back on the case to solve some very recognizable GIFs. Get the low-down on three very weird and wonderful GIFs that you’ve likely seen in your casual perusal of various social platforms. Every GIF has a story, and I’m finding them out clip by clip.
Read more about these great GIFs, and view their source material, below:
Double-Decker Dog
Do you know what is better than a dog? A dog that magically turns into two dogs! Meet Goldie and Ami, a golden retriever brother-sister pair who were about a year old when they performed their magic trick for their owner, YouTube user Jimmie Theodorus, in 2014. They live in Japan and have quite a few videos of their antics, but it’s this short video that propelled them to Internet fame.
Their video made it onto /r/videos, which then circulated the pair through a media whirlwind including Mashable, Boing Boing, and The Dodo, bringing smiles via GIF wherever they went. After all, who doesn’t love a secret dog?
Check out the original video below:
Cheetos Obama Guy
A popular spin on the ‘Thanks Obama’ meme, this guy spilled his Cheetos and can’t believe the president made him do it. This is actually the first scene for a parody commercial ribbing the ineptitude of people in infomercials, advertising a fake product called the Lap n’ Snack. Follow that deep tunnel down, and the Lap n’ Snack parody was actually developed as an ad campaign for Subaru, called “Maybe you should get out more.”
If you look closely, a later scene also has a very popular Cheeto-spilling GIF. These guys really know how to fail at eating chips.
Check out the original parody commercial for the Lap n’ Snack below:
Cube-eating Putty
No, what you’re seeing isn’t some kind of movie magic. It’s science! This magnetic putty is actually absorbing a rare-earth magnet. This GIF is a clip of a time-lapse of that process, which might not look as impressive to the naked eye: the putty’s process takes 90 minutes.
The reason this can happen is because the putty is infused with ferrous particles, making it look and feel like regular putty but actually attracted to metal. When placed next to the neodymium iron boron cube, the putty becomes magnetized and forms itself around the magnet. It won’t stop until it’s evenly coated around the whole cube. Neat.
Check out the time-lapse below:
Do you have a favorite GIF with mysterious origins? Feel free to email us at tips@thenextweb.com. We’ll come back with a fresh batch next week.
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