We've got the official ten best optical illusions of 2015.
Let's talk about that!
♪ (theme music) ♪
- Good! Mythical! Morning! - Every year, the folks over at
Illusionoftheyear.com gather the best illusions that are internet-based
from that year, and they present them to you and they name the top three.
- Yes! - So we're gonna go through all ten
of those optical illusions here, with you. You can experience them along with us,
and... let's just get into it, man! Let's optical illusion-ize ourselves.
Let's do it! Okay, here's one of the runner-ups.
- Okay. - Link, experience this.
Look in the middle. Just kind of focus on the middle.
I see the lower right dot-- ooh, it's starting to--
- No, it's just kind of moving around. - What's happening to the circles, Link?
- What's happening to 'em? - They're wiggling around.
- Okay. - (yells) NO! They're not!
- It's an optical illusion! - They're still moving within the boxes,
- though. - No, they're not moving at all.
- It's almost like-- - They're not moving!
- Like they're bouncing off of the boxes. - Link, it's an optical illusion.
They're not moving. They're staying completely stationary, but they're just
changing color from between dark and light and it makes you think that they're
moving. So if you've got any balls that you wanna make people think are moving,
- (crew laughs) - you just change... change colors real fast.
- Just flash 'em! - And then... that'll take care of it.
Okay. Let's move on. The Star Wars Scroll Illusion. Tell me where each of these
Star Wars scrolls are headed, Rhett. Where's the one on the left headed?
- To a galaxy far, far away, Link. - Which direction, though?
The one on the left is going to the left and the one on the right is
- going to the right. - Like up and to left, up and to the right?
Well, yeah, up. I mean, yeah, they're going-- yeah, to the left and to the right.
- It's a trap! They are identical scrolls! - Was that a Star Wars joke?
- Yeah, it kind of was. - It was a noncommittal Star Wars--
- Mreeh. - (mocking) "It's a trap. Mmnh."
If you read the scroll, at one point it says "holy cow" in there, and I hope
- that's also an optical illusion. - (laughs)
- Gimme another one! - I got one for you. Just think about how
- fast that snow is falling, Link. - Okay.
- Just kind of get that in your mind. - I'd say it's moving pretty fast!
And then we're gonna open up the blinds... and look, the snow slows down.
Ooh, it slowed down! It did slow down. No, okay, so it didn't slow down.
You've caught on by now. It didn't slow down, right?
- (crew laughs) - The blinds make it seem like the snow's
- falling fast, though. - And this is a trick that you can play
- with children! - (crew laughs)
You can be like, "Hey kids!" Turn the blinds on and like, "Look, it's a blizzard!"
- Fast! - And then you're like, "Nope!"
I mean, you can keep a kid-- or a dog!-- completely bewildered all day.
- (laughs) With "fast snow." - With blinds!
All right, this next one is the famous, or infamous, "The Dress" illusion.
- Yes. - I mean, do we really need to go back
through this one? But I think it does need to be said that this is an amazing
- illusion from this year. - It is.
- So we gotta give it a shoutout. - Why isn't it number one? I don't know.
'Cause it's kind of played out at this point.
- Oh, okay. - I do believe that the dress, no matter
what, is still gold and blue, which is not even an option.
Link, you're the only person who thinks that.
- (crew laughs) - And I'm not lying about that.
- It is gold and blue. - I was sure that it was white and gold,
and I know I'm wrong, and I've learned to deal with that, but I still see it
- that way, so, sorry. - But they explain how the ambient
lighting cues tell your brain to interpret the dress in different ways. But we should
just move on because we've all been "The Dress"-ed out.
We've all seen it. Okay, check this one out: Stare at this--
- Honeycomb! - honeycomb.
- Yes. - And what I want you to do is stare
- at one honeycomb. - Okay.
Yeah, that one right there that just turned white.
And you'll see that there's little barbs. If you look around and you focus on one--
- Yeah, like spurs. - There's little spurs at the
intersections, but if you look at one place, all the barbs that are anywhere
- else completely disappear. - Okay, so if I move my gaze to another
hexagonal zone, I can see the barbs there, but they disappear everywhere around it.
This one's kinda "meh" for me, you know? I mean, it makes me think about honey,
- which I like. I like honey. - (crew laughs)
But there's no honey in this comb. This is an empty honeycomb. This is like
just going to an old dead beehive and staring at it.
- But the barbs disappear. - Yeah, but there are no barbs in a real
- honeycomb. - What if there were, like, a room full
- of Barbaras... go with me here. - Oh.
And the it's like, you make eye contact with a Barbara...
(both) And all the other Barbaras disappear?
(laughs) That happens to me all the time!
- That would be amazing! - If it's the right Barbara.
Here's a mind-controlled motion one. Check this out. As you watch this one,
first of all, you need to be thinking "Left, right, left, right, left, right."
Got it. Going right, going left, going right, going left, going right, going left...
- See it moving that way? - Yep.
And now, think "Up, down, up, down" for this next one.
- Down, up, down, up-- - Oh, oh, ohhh!
- Up, down, up-- - This is kind of mind-blowing.
- I'm assuming that those are-- yeah, see? - They are--
Purely random, totally identical. I mean... I was influencing the...
- You were not controlling the illusion. - No, no.
It was controlling you. I was influencing you.
I know. But I'm saying that's how your brain works. I mean, there's so many
applications in life for this. It's like, what you think is happening is
- actually happening! - There is a perceived...
You can control the world with your brain, Link! We just did it!
You can perceive suggested motion. I suggested the motion, then you
perceived it. That's really all that happened. Don't get your hopes up.
Can you suggest motion for me every day? (laughs)
- Okay, Rhett. Just picture-- - "Go down the stairs, go up the stairs,
- Rhett." (chuckles) - That would be fun for you?
- Oh, yeah! - Then I would be glad to make you happy,
- if that's all it takes. - Okay. All right, this one is not an
optical illusion that you can experience, but you can experience watching other
- people experience it. - That's good enough for right now.
An optical illusion Inception. Okay, so these people have this hand projected on
this screen and they've been told that this thing they're wearing causes them
to be able to control the hand, but it turns out they actually cannot control
the hand. But it doesn't matter, because even when the hand gets damaged--
Look at the guy on the right. Watch, the hand's gonna get damaged.
And look, look how he jumps. So, he thought he was controlling a third hand,
which he really wasn't, and then they cut a finger off of it and he was like,
"Whoa! My fake hand that I'm actually not controlling just lost its ring finger!"
So he experienced losing two fingers. It was a prank on this guy.
I mean, we should show this to, like, Roman Atwood. Like, if he had one of
those skull things, he would be playing this on his wife, making her cry in front
- of everybody... - I think he would probably actually make
- him think that their child had died. - (crew laughs)
- Oh, yeah. - That's what he would be doing.
Insert cruel prank here, sorry, Roman Atwood.
- (all laugh) - Lemme show you another one.
This is the 3rd place winner, all right? So we're into the top three now.
- Okay. - "The Day it Rained on Lowry."
Focus on the center of the screen and let the rain wash over you and describe
- what you see, Rhett. - I see a stormy street.
- Now somebody cut the x-ray machine on. - It's lightning.
- See the people walking down there? - Well, I'll tell you one thing:
It certainly looks like they're walking, but I've been playing this game long
- enough to know that they're not. - Um, you're right. The people are not
walking. If you focus on one person, you'll see it's just-- it's a dark image
and a light image that's slightly in front of it, so you have a perceptual bias to
believe that these people are walking, 'cause it looks like they're walking.
- You sound really smart right now. - It's going forward, back, forward, back,
- forward, back, forward, back. - "Perceptual bias!"
- But it's amazing! - We should start a band called that.
I believe that they're walking at least four steps, so that's one of my favorites.
Totally deserves being ranked number 3. What's number 2?
- Number 2 is this carport. (chuckles) - Amazing.
Basically, you'll see this thing as this guy spins it around. It's actually
this weird M-shape. Not an exact M, but kind of this weird shape.
- Oh, wow. - But you want to think that it's a
complete M-shape on the bottom and then in the mirror that it's totally curved.
Which is interesting because my grandfather once built
a carport just like this.
Did he patent it? Because that's a waste of money.
Hold on, those look just like my grandfather's hands. I thought my
- grandfather was dead! - Oh gosh, Rhett, I'm sorry.
But he's actually been on the internet making mini carports all this time.
So it's neither an M-shape or a U-shape, it's just like a failed attempt at making
a paper airplane that then, in a mirror, looks totally different.
You try to reconcile it, but it's really this completely incongruous shape,
but you wanna make it look like an M or an arch. I mean, it's pretty cool, but
I wouldn't build one of these. I don't want this as my carport. I don't even
want a carport, to tell you the truth. I want a garage.
Well, if the carport's that small, I don't want it.
- That's right. - You know, it's like... I'm not a
- miniature car collector. - I think it's to scale.
(chuckles) All right. And now, are you guys ready for-- drumroll-- number one?
The first place winner of Illusion of the Year 2015 is called
- "The Splitting Colors Illusion." - Okay.
So, all right. These two flickering stripes are identical, but then they're
gonna juxtapose some other colors and movement...
- Okay. - And focus on the upper stripe and tell
- me what the colors become. - Red and green. Very quickly.
- Moving which way? - To the right.
That's right. And now, look at the bottom one. They juxtapose those colors and
- movement, and what do you see? - I see blue and yellow moving
- to the left. - Yes. But as we know, if we were to
- remove the juxtapositions entirely... - They were rainbow the whole time!
- They're still identical! - This gives me an incredible idea, Link.
I'm gonna go to the mall wearing a rainbow suit.
- Again? - You're gonna go to the mall wearing a
blue and yellow suit, and you're gonna come up next to me and go like this.
And people are gonna be like, "Look, he's changing color!"
I'm gonna hold my arm out and you're gonna go like that on each side of 'em.
- With my... - We're gonna make millions!
- (crew laughs) - You don't need a whole suit;
- we just need an arm sleeve. - I mean--
That way we can just take it off and not be embarrassed as we walk out of the mall.
But we set up a kiosk. "The Most Amazing Optical Illusion in the Mall: Rainbow Suit
Man and Blue and Yellow Man." And then we do like this and it-- this is great idea.
There's a reason why we're watching other people's optical illusions and not trying
- to make them ourselves. - I'm gon' do it!
Thanks for liking and commenting and subscribing!
You know what time it is!
- I'm Victoria! - And I'm Juliana!
And we're at a Tampa Rays game!
(both) And it's time to spin the Wheel of Mythicality!
Link has some Peculiarly Perfect Peanut Butter Peppermint Lip Balm
and I've got some Beastly But Balanced Beard Oil. Those are both available over
- at RhettandLink.com/store. - You gotta try it to believe it, guys.
- Limited quantities! - Click through to Good Mythical More.
We're gonna play an amazing optical illusion game called
- "Shine the Light on the Junk!" - (Rhett) Shout-out to the Dee-mve.
Otherwise known as "The DMV."
(over sentimental music) Shout-out to you, the DMV, because people are lining up
- everywhere to experience you. - Shout-out to you, DMV, because I
technically need to update my license because it doesn't have the right address,
but you're not supposed to know that, but it's California law that I do that,
but I haven't done it in quite a while and I'm not admitting it here in public, so
- forget I ever brought it up. - Mm. And... shout-out to you, DMV,
- because I'm in the same boat. - Ohhoho! Really?
[Captioned by Caitrin: GMM Captioning Team]