GIF Me a Break

Will Butler:

You're listening to Say My Meme, the podcast that describes the internet's best memes for those of us who can't see them. I'm Will, from Be My Eyes. And I'm joined today, as I am every Monday by my cohost, Caroline from Scribely. So, gosh, a lot has happened last week. How fun was it to have Bree Klauser on there?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh, that was so fun. Oh my gosh. And she brought her vocal stylings to the episode and her voices. It was fantastic.

Will Butler:

Oh my gosh. Yeah, that was amazing. And everyone should definitely go check out the Disability Film Challenge films, the Dogumentory, and Social Fitness. Those are awesome as well. All blind crew, everything. It's amazing what they're doing now.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. Those are really great. Definitely check them out.

Will Butler:

We've got a whole new type of episode today. And I think before we get to the memes, we have to clear up some confusion, because as soon as we start talking about GIFs, people are going to protest and say, "GIFs aren't memes. Are memes GIFs. What's going on here? What are you guys putting us through?" So Caroline, what's the deal? Why do we have an episode today dedicated to GIFs?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, let's head this one off at the pass. So the definition of a meme is actually just simply a concept or idea that gets passed from one person to another person, especially by some sort of invitation that's happening. And then of course, those memes or those ideas are copied and spread rapidly on the internet. So by definition, a meme is not necessarily an image, it can be something else.

Will Butler:

Wow. And now of course, we've seen the video memes and we've seen some departure from the standard image, but GIFs are moving images. How would you describe them for someone who's never seen a GIF before?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, moving images is a good way to describe it. It could also be just a short video clip, and they're often played on a continuous loop. So they're designed for that format, and maybe even get funnier the more times you watch it in a row, that's kind of how GIFs work in an amazing way. But yeah, GIFs, these are just flying around the internet. They can be responses on Twitter, they can be... Your friend can text you a GIF, as a reaction to something you said, we're communicating with these moving images.

Will Butler:

It always frustrates me how quickly sometimes people are to respond via text message with the GIFs, I'm like, "Where did you find that? How did you get that so quickly? And what is it? I can't really tell it's small and pixelated."

Caroline Desrosiers:

I know, yeah. So what is that experience like for you when you're on the receiving end of the GIF?

Will Butler:

I use zoom on my phone, so I'll try to zoom in on it to figure out what it is. And I can sometimes think like, "Okay, person. I'm seeing moving person," but I know I'm missing the facial expression, I know I'm missing the cultural reference. I don't know necessarily who it is or what it's from, because I haven't got that level of detail.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Interesting. So these GIFs definitely need to be described so that everyone can be a part of the conversation, and understand what you're talking about.

Will Butler:

And you've read a little bit of scholarship this last week about GIF accessibility, haven't you?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. I've read a really interesting article. And there's a lot of potential here to make GIFs more accessible, because of the way that social media platforms like Twitter, for instance, are tied into other apps like Giphy, which is a source for GIFs. And they're actually able to grab some of the information that's loaded into Giphy as the alt text. So, I think right now they're picking up like a very brief title of the GIF, and that in some cases is feeding through to Twitter, but obviously the title is not a complete description like the ones that we're giving everyone on Say My Meme, there could be much more and it doesn't answer that question of what does this mean and why did someone just use this?

Will Butler:

So how are these GIFs on Giphy titled?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. So they could be just one, two, three-word titles, just really the basic surface-level details. Like for instance, if it's a GIF of Oprah shrugging, it will be like Oprah Shrug, but her face may be really significant, or where she is, or the context, maybe it was that interview with Meghan and Harry recently, it wouldn't tell you that.

Will Butler:

Interesting. And I imagine there's a lot of information being lost. People are looking for GIFs and if they don't type Oprah or shrug, they won't find that amazing thing that has all this depth of meaning. So, maybe if Giphy were to add descriptions in for their alt tags, it would also have a benefit of helping people use the app better.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh, absolutely. Great point. That's one of the benefits of alt texts, is that search just gets better all around because there's more specific information that's relevant to that image or that GIF that's going to surface on the web.

Will Butler:

Well, Giphy, if you're out, if you're listening, let's describe some GIFs. That would be such a cool project.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, absolutely.

Will Butler:

I know someone who could do it too. Caroline, how many GIFs did you bring today?

Caroline Desrosiers:

I brought five.

Will Butler:

Tell me a little bit about your selection process for these five GIFs.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh, so actually most of them were found on Giphy, others were just found on Google images and just like I do every week, just going into an internet black hole, trying to find exactly what I'm looking for and uncovering some interesting things along the way. But yeah, mostly on Giphy this week.

Will Butler:

Amazing. And should we just dive in with GIF number one?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Let's do it.

Will Butler:

Okay, cool.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Count Rugen from the Princess Bride poised for a sword fight duel. He turns abruptly and runs away like the Dread Pirate Roberts is who for his soul.

Will Butler:

Oh my God. Were you inspired by Bree Klauser to come in and bring the voice this week?

Caroline Desrosiers:

When she told me to pick a lane, that definitely stuck with me. And also motivated by the fact that I've love Princess Bride, and I've seen it so many times and I can just conjure up random quotes in my head, just at any point.

Will Butler:

One of the beautiful films of all time. Reminded us who Count Rugen is and what is the significance of him running out from the sword fight?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. So I didn't even give you the tagline, that was just the description. But yeah, it could have been the tagline. All right. Okay. So picture all of that. And then the tagline is, "When you're about to kill a spider, but then it moves. Nope."

Will Butler:

And you're like, "Oh, okay. I'll do it later. I'll kill it later".

Caroline Desrosiers:

So yeah, to answer your question, Count Tyrone Rugen, he works with Prince Humperdinck, and he's his sadistic friend, I guess, but he's also in Princess Bride, the six-fingered man that Inigo Montoya is pursuing throughout the movie.

Will Butler:

That's who I remember him as, the six-fingered man, right?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yes. So, the story goes, the six-fingered man killed Inigo Montoya's father when Inigo was a boy. And he then goes on this quest trying to find him, and also becomes an expert sword fighter. So this is the climactic moment where they meet up for the first time, and Inigo Montoya delivers that famous line, "You killed my father, prepare to die." And it's like he's been waiting to deliver that exact message. And he does it with like such fierce intensity that Count Rugen turns and just sprints down the hall in the other direction.

Will Butler:

Yeah. And so, how would one go about finding this GIF? Would they search for princess, or runaway, or what... I don't understand people find it.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. Actually this could be a reaction GIF, which there are a few this week, but if someone's searching for instance the word nope, or no GIF, or something like that as a response, this might come up because that appears. And yeah, he's embodying that like, "Nope. Going to go the other direction, not going to do that."

Will Butler:

Okay. This is a nope GIF, got it. Okay. So that's super helpful, because I would never know how to find it otherwise.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. And yeah, for the Princess Bride fans, there's a lot in that first description. I put a few choice words in there because the Dread Pirate Roberts part is significant to this particular scene, but any clever listeners will figure that out.

Will Butler:

Our Princess Bride cult fans are already waving the flag.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh yeah. And if you haven't seen it, go watch that movie. It's one of the best movies.

Will Butler:

Amazing. Okay. GIF number two.

Caroline Desrosiers:

All right. Number two. Six-year-old tap dance diva on stage. She throws her arms like she's tossing glitter, then snaps her fingers like she's the queen of the Valley girls. Tagline, "Get roasted."

Will Butler:

Wow. That was a fabulous meme. I could picture that perfectly.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh man. It is so fabulous.

Will Butler:

Yeah.

Caroline Desrosiers:

So cute. I don't know if you imagined it as a recital video, but it's a recital video and she's in the middle of a trio of dancers dressed in pink, sparkly tutus and ballerina buns and bows, and they look very cute. And she's very serious, her face is super serious, but she's also lip singing the words to the song and she's just delivering this intensity, and just hitting these moves really hard. She's performing for the people in the back of the room, she's really like selling it.

Will Butler:

Do you know where it's from?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. It's an actual recital performance of these three little girls that were dancing to Aretha Franklin's Respect. And this is the part of the song where she goes, "Guess what? So is my buddy." So, she does these two moves and she's also singing that.

Will Butler:

60-year-old or six-year-old?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh, six-year-old. Yeah, that's a very different image. Yeah, she's six.

Will Butler:

Oh, I thought you said 60. And I was really enjoying that image as well, but it's even cuter.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. This happened a while ago, I think six or seven years ago at this point, but if you scroll Giphy and you're looking at trending memes, this one's still trending, it comes up because people just love it.

Will Butler:

How would you maybe find this on Giphy?

Caroline Desrosiers:

I don't know. You could put in like, that's right, or sassy, or-

Will Butler:

Oh my gosh. I would never-

Caroline Desrosiers:

... something like that.

Will Butler:

... think to put these things in. It's like, how do people know to search for these things?

Caroline Desrosiers:

I think that that's how they do it. They think, "What do I want to say right now in response to this?" And then they put that into Giphy and see what comes up and then-

Will Butler:

This is becoming the Will Aging Himself podcasts, because I have no idea how people are doing this.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Honestly, I'm not very fast either. I think I just have trouble deciding, because if everything's moving... It is a little overwhelming to be on Giphy. You're like, "Whoa, all of these images," you're just scrolling a grid of moving images.

Will Butler:

Incredible. Okay. GIF number three.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. Okay. The Rock in his wrestling heyday gives you a face like he's saying, "Can you cook what the rock is smelling?" Tagline, "When you smell weed in public."

Will Butler:

Caroline, can I just say, your descriptions have become taglines in and of themselves.

Caroline Desrosiers:

I know. I'm starting to think in memes. No, it's the form that it's taking, I don't know.

Will Butler:

Solving a new type of meta meme.

Caroline Desrosiers:

I know.

Will Butler:

It's pretty incredible. Okay, wow. Yeah. And The Rock had the famous... He had the one eyebrow up, right?

Caroline Desrosiers:

That's exactly what this GIF is. So, picture The Rock in a classic WWE overacting moment, right? He's doing this exaggerated sniff through the nose to begin with and with flared nostrils. And he's breathing in deep, I think for his classic line, like, "Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?" And then he dramatically changes his face and sharply raises an eyebrow, lowering the other, and it's like an S shape. And he just scans the room with his wide open eyeball, holding his face in this expression, it's very dramatic.

Will Butler:

So it really looks like he's smelling something?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. It looks like he's smelling something, and he's like, "Ooh, interesting." [crosstalk 00:16:00].

Will Butler:

And so the eyebrow is when you smell weed?

Caroline Desrosiers:

When you smell weed in public.

Will Butler:

In public. I think your line is better, Caroline.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Right?

Will Butler:

"Can you cook what The Rock is smelling?" This is sidebar, does anyone know why The Rock was cooking things? Was he a chef? What does rock have to do with... Was he cooking rocks or what was going on?

Caroline Desrosiers:

I don't know. Listeners, fill us in, because I missed all of this.

Will Butler:

What was he cooking?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Maybe something with weed in it. I don't know. But yeah, this is like that... It's perfect I think, is like you smell weed in public, it stops you in your tracks and you're like, "Oh, wait, hold on a second. Where's that coming from?" [crosstalk 00:16:52].

Will Butler:

And your eyebrow goes up.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, exactly.

Will Butler:

Okay. GIF number four.

Caroline Desrosiers:

All right. You're sitting across from a sloth in a basket chair waiting for their extremely slow response. "How about no." That was the tagline. Forgot to say that.

Will Butler:

I don't understand this one.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. It's weird.

Will Butler:

In a chair and it's just laying there saying, "How about no."

Caroline Desrosiers:

How about no, yeah. So he's just seated in this wicker patio chair that's also a swing, and his feet are dangling off the edge. And it looks like, in the beginning of the GIF, that he's enjoying a peaceful moment and he's gazing off. And then the camera zooms in dramatically for a close-up on his face. And at the same time, he's also turning his head towards the camera to look directly at it. And the words are timed on this one. So when he's gazing off, it says, "How about," like he's considering, and then when he looks at you, it says, "No."

Will Butler:

That's pretty cute.

Caroline Desrosiers:

It is.

Will Butler:

Is it a cute sloth, or this is just a good-for-nothing lazy sloth?

Caroline Desrosiers:

I don't know. I think it depends on your opinion of sloths, because I think both, cute in his laziness, yeah.

Will Butler:

If you typed, how about no, this would come up?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, exactly, how about no, like a reaction GIF. But yeah, he's very cute. Yeah, he is actually called The No Sloth or The Annoyed Sloth. So if you were to look that up, you might find it.

Will Butler:

So it just indicates this person is not doing anything for you?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Or, like you just asked this sloth to do something, and he's like, "How about no," in response, "I'm going to go back to just chilling here and looking off in the distance, I'm fine."

Will Butler:

I think this sloth should be our cover image.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. He's pretty [inaudible 00:19:15]. I made a, probably about a five-minute effort of try to find out, how do you tell the difference between a male and female sloth? And it's not obvious, by the way, but I don't know if this is significant for any sloth lovers out there, but this is a three-toed sloth, not a two-toed sloth. So, visualize that, for the record.

Will Butler:

Wow. Okay. GIF five.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Okay. Get ready for weird everyone, prepare yourselves. Little blonde girl looks like she's going to show off her equestrian skills, instead she proceeds to upstage the horse and become equine herself. Tagline, "Them: It doesn't matter what you do, just be the very best at something. Her: I like to jump like a horse."

Will Butler:

Trippy.

Caroline Desrosiers:

It's super trippy, Will.

Will Butler:

Wait-

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh my gosh.

Will Butler:

... she literally looks like a horse or what?

Caroline Desrosiers:

No. So she's a 10-year-old girl, and picture an indoor equestrian center set up with a jump course. And it begins with her, just a closeup of her. And then the text overlaid that says, "I like to jump like a horse." And that's what she's saying. And then it cuts to her actually galloping at full speed on all fours and then doing a full airborne dive over the first hurdle and then galloping onto the next one. And she dives up and over, but this time you're seeing the angle from behind, and she kicks her legs back and up at an angle. Aside from being extremely creepy, it's also impressive.

Will Butler:

Do you think it's real?

Caroline Desrosiers:

It is. It's totally real.

Will Butler:

Did you do the research?

Caroline Desrosiers:

I did, yeah. No, this is her actual hobby. Oh yeah, and she's just got the gloves on and everything.

Will Butler:

Oh, my God.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, she's a Swedish girl named Anna. And I guess she became interested in, I think it was like her grandma's dog or something, acting like a dog. And then when she started growing up, she's like, "Wait a second. I also, just in the way horses jump, and horses moving, and I really love horses." So she just decides to start practicing. And then it talks about her progression of how she learned to gallop and then how she learned to jump. And then in this YouTube video, she's gradually raising the bar higher and higher, and announcing very proudly how high the bar is and then like clearing it, in this video.

Will Butler:

Wow. So the GIF captures her, just doing a couple of hurdles? Galloping and then doing hurdles?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. But the full video, she jumps four hurdles each time. It looks fricking exhausting, but amazing. And I just love it. And it's quite significant that, I think a relevant detail, that there's an actual horse in the distant background, running around, the one that should be probably jumping over these hurdles is just in the background.

Will Butler:

Wow. Just like, "Okay. I'm impressed."

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, exactly. Like, "You got this," or, "I don't even want to come close to that. I don't know what that is."

Will Butler:

That's insane. Wow. We should link to that video probably in the show notes if that's something people want to check out, because a lot of these GIFs are derived from longer YouTube videos or whatever.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, definitely. That might be a good one to watch. And yeah, it's also, you'll find a few on YouTube, but definitely paired with creepy music, because it is a little creepy, but I think those are hilarious, because when you put music like that to this GIF, it just completely changes the whole feeling you have, where you're like, "Oh my gosh, is this child possessed or demonic or something?"

Will Butler:

All these GIFs are without sound, right?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah.

Will Butler:

Right. Which is all the more reason why they need to be described.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh, absolutely. Right.

Will Butler:

And the other thing that's interesting is, well, short of the horse GIF, none of the other ones were really super about the movement. I guess they each had a A-B state, right? Like sword play, ready for a fight, and then he runs, or throwing up glitter, snapping your fingers. Or in the case of the sloth, like not moving and still not moving, right?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Right.

Will Butler:

But they're not full videos, GIFs, they're just like this and that.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Right. They're really short, they're meant to be played on a loop. And yeah, they're usually like, I don't know, one to two seconds and then just to repeat. So, they are very simple in that sense with the movement, they're usually not too overwhelming. I feel like it's the looping that's overwhelming. You're like, "Well, when do I stop? I can't look away."

Will Butler:

Well, if any of our listeners want to describe GIFs, that can now be part of the part of the mission here, right?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, exactly. We need to make these GIFs accessible.

Will Butler:

I love it. All right, everyone. Well, thank you for listening. Send us your memes and your GIFs to hello@saymymeme.com, or read the instructions on the submission page at saymymeme.com, and we'll see you all next Monday.

Anna:

Hi. My name is Anna-

Caroline Desrosiers:

See you later.

Anna:

I'm 10 years old. I like to jumping like a horse. Now I'm going to show you.

Will Butler:

Do you want to describe your favorite memes for our community? Send a voice memo to hello@saymymeme.com. That's hello@saymymeme.com.

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