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This swing-set illusion is the last great pointless internet argument of the decade

It's clearly Laurel, and she's wearing a black and blue dress.

Caitlin Welsh

on December 23, 2019

If you're steeling yourself for arguments over the Christmas table this year, bookmark this now. When the conversation turns to impeachment, climate change, or whether Star Wars is ruined now, pull out your phone and show them this video of a silhouetted figure on a swing set in the snow.

Then ask them which way the swinger is facing.

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User @ectupper originally posted the illusion on Twitter on February, and then to TikTok recently, where it blew up and made its way back to Twitter to wrinkle brains and cause arguments about forced perspective.

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Like other conflict-inciting viral illusions, of The Dress or Yanny/Laurel kind, at first it seems obvious which way the swinger is facing. You can't even understand why anyone would see it the other wa—

Oh. Oh, no. There it is.

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Don't worry, there are diagrams.

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And there's always one man who just wants to watch the world burn.

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Just like Yanny and The Dress (and climate change and impeachment and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, for that matter), there is actually a single correct answer, no matter how you see it personally.

While it's easy to see it either way while the swinger's chilling on the shorter curve, once they've really got some momentum and hit the level of the top bar — which, as any seasoned swinger knows, is the true and honorable goal — you can just make out that bar in front of them.

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But if you want to keep the family harmlessly distracted for a little longer, feel free to withhold that information until the food coma hits.

Topics TikTok Viral Videos

Caitlin Welsh

Caitlin is Mashable's Australian Editor. She has written for The Guardian, Junkee, and any number of plucky little music and culture publications that were run on the smell of an oily rag and have since been flushed off the Internet like a dead goldfish by their new owners. She also worked at Choice, Australia's consumer advocacy non-profit and magazine, and as such has surprisingly strong opinions about whitegoods. She enjoys big dumb action movies, big clever action movies, cult Canadian comedies set in small towns, Carly Rae Jepsen, The Replacements, smoky mezcal, revenge bedtime procrastination, and being left the hell alone when she's reading.