Yanny or Laurel

About

Yanny or Laurel refers to the debate surrounding an audio clip of a voice saying a word. Some people claim they hear the word "Yanny" and others the word "Laurel." The debate about the clip spread in a similar fashion to #TheDress.

Origin

On May 12th, 2018, Redditor RolandCamry posted the video to /r/blackmagicfuckery,^[1][2] gaining over 300 points. In a comment on the post, RolandCamry revealed the original audio came from a pronunciation recording for the word "laurel" on vocabulary.com.^[4]

Spread

On May 14th, Twitter user and social media influencer Cloe Feldman posted the clip (shown below).

On May 15th, Twitter user @xxv posted several pitch-shifted variations of the clip, noting how different the spoken word sounds at various levels (shown below).

Meanwhile, Twitter user @azalben^[3] tweeted #TheDress photos with the names "Yanny" and "Laurel" (shown below, left).

That evening, Twitter user @MBoffin posted a tweet with pitched-shifted versions of the clip, claiming that those who can hear high frequencies hear "yanny" while those that cannot hear "laurel" (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 23,000 likes and 15,000 retweets.

Yanni's Reaction

On May 15th, 2018, the Greek new-age musician Yianni Chryssomallis tweeted an animated GIF of himself performing on stage with a harp musician along with the message "The reaction you make when people think it’s Laurel and not Yanny… #YanniToBeExact" (shown below).

On May 16th, Chryssomallis tweeted a video of himself listening to the audio recording on a plane, announcing that he heard his own name (shown below). Within 24 hours, the video accumulated upwards of 3,800 likes, 1,300 comments and 1,200 retweets.

White House Response

On May 17th, 2018, the White House tweeted a video showing various staffers and members of the administration responding to the "Yanny or Laurel" question. Included in the video are Ivanka Trump, Mike Pence, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Kellyanne Conway who jokes, "I hear 'Laurel.' But I could deflect and divert to ‘Yanny’ if you need me to.” The video ends with Donald Trump saying "I hear covfefe."

Chuck Tingle Book

Satirical erotic author Chuck Tingle quickly wrote a short book about the moment titled Seduced By The Handsome Physically Manifested Sound That Some People Hear As Yanny And Others Hear As Laurel. The book was covered by Daily Dot^[5] and retails for $2.99 on Amazon. ^[6]

US Air Force Tweet

The US Air Force drew controversy when they tweeted saying the Taliban would have "rather heard Yanny or Laurel" than their new A10 jet (shown below). Many Twitter users were upset as it appeared the Air Force was using the meme while celebrating its immense killing power of potentially innocent lives. The tweet was later deleted and the Air Force issued an apology.^[7]

Search Interest

External References