Earlier this month, everyone with more than two minutes to kill on the internet found themselves getting dragged into the great Yanny/Laurel debate of 2018. An audio clip was posted to Twitter with the caption, "What do you hear?" and - within a matter of hours - the world went into meltdown.
Since then, the man behind the clip came forward to explain what he really said (and why he was creepily reciting words in the first place), and the internet was at peace once again...
Until now.
Yes, as soon as one illusion door closes, another one opens - and this one comes in the form of two people sharing a friendly hug in an office space. At first, nothing appears to be out of the ordinary, but then - as your eyes drift across the image from top to bottom - you'll notice something a little unusual.
Namely: is that dude wearing heels?
Now, first of all, let's clarify that guys can totally wear heels if they want (especially if they make their legs look as good as the pair in the picture - love the cropped white jeans), but that's not what's going on in this picture.
Look at the snap again, but this time start with the woman's hair and move to the right; then it becomes obvious that she is the one wearing the heels. Meanwhile, the guy is wearing a purple checked shirt, and must be fairly tall, as the woman is concealing a large portion of his left arm and shoulder as she bends over him.
Here's a handy little doodle in case you're still struggling to wrap your head around it:
However, some people are in denial about the solution, and are claiming for certain that the guy is standing and the girl is in the chair.
But that's just the start of it.
Once that photo had done the rounds, other people began responding with their own optical illusions - each one more baffling than the last.
There's this one, which looks like a snapshot of the moment some poor girl had her neck broken:
This one, which makes it appear as if this guy in the pool has a headless baby growing out of his back:
And this one, which is perhaps the most META thing on the internet right now:
As confusing as optical illusions may be, they are - in the simplest terms - a brainfart, basically. When your eyes perceive something that doesn't quite make sense, your brain will attempt to take a shortcut in order to get to the bottom of what you're really seeing and, unfortunately, it often makes mistakes.
If you enjoyed these instances of photographic trickery, check out this mind-bending illusion of a straight road, or this seemingly impossible snap of a girl with ridiculously skinny legs...
