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There's A Debate Raging About Which Way The Guy On The Swing Is Facing In This Viral Video

Mike Walsh
Dec. 23, 2019
@ectupper/TikTok

It just wouldn't be a year in the internet without a vicious debate about an optical illusion.

First, there was the dress.

You know the dress. The dress that broke the internet for weeks over whether it was blue and black or gold and white.

*Twitch*

And then there was Laurel. Or was it Yanny?

The gosh dang SHOE with the same problem as the DRESS:

And now, we have a new one. An illusion so confusing that it may just be a one-way ticket to the Twilight Zone™.

The swing.

This one is so confusing that even the people in the video, who are seeing this happen in front of their eyes, cannot figure it out.

"Last February, some friends and I were in Anchorage, Alaska, visiting from Fairbanks, Alaska, for a snowboard trip. We were staying in a house, and we noticed that person swinging. So, we went on the deck and realized some saw him facing us, and others saw him facing away. So, I just took a few videos trying to prove which way he was facing. I just posted it on TikTok two days ago, and it started the debate," the original poster, Eric Tupper, said to BuzzFeed.

Tupper reposted the video to Twitter because TikTok also could not agree.


People have gone as far as to drawing diagrams to argue about this.

The arguments for him facing out say that the angle at which his arms and legs are expanding out would be impossible to hit if he were facing toward the building:






But there's an argument to be made on both sides here.

If you look at the swinger in a certain angle, you can only see him swinging toward the building.






The illusion comes from being a perfect blend of a couple of things:

For one, the swinger is back-lit and at a distance. That means that no matter which way he is actually swinging, the light source is directly facing the viewer/camera and the man is in silhouette.

For another, there are three possible posts on the right-hand side of the swing set. One of those posts does not belong to the set in question, but at this angle, it is impossible to tell. Based on which post your brain immediately picks up, you will see it going one way or the other, since each post dramatically alters the angle of the swing set.





Will this be the final optical illusion of the 2010s to break the internet?