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    Mr GlitchReid McCarter
    12/08/17 2:54pm

    That’s a really neat effect. I don’t *hear* anything, but I definitely get a thudding, booming sensation every time it hits ground. It’s involuntary, too. I can’t will myself into not feeling that sensation.

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      Little Debbie HarryMr Glitch
      12/08/17 2:58pm

      Me too - it’s like there’s an imaginary earthquake happening, or someone’s playing bass guitar loud enough to shake the floor. My guess is that a lot of those super low frequencies that we can’t hear we instead perceive through a combination of touch and sight. So the visual queues in the image prime us to feel some sort of large vibration. But obviously this is all what I pulled out of my ass while being bored thinking about this at work.

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      Kareem BadrMr Glitch
      12/08/17 2:59pm

      I suspect it is related to the compression/low resolution of the clouds in the sky and the way the whole image blurs. When I look at it, I know intellectually that the *image* is blurring, but it feels like my eyes are actually blurring. Which is fucked up.

      I hereby name this gif The Michael Bay

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    chriskReid McCarter
    12/08/17 3:19pm

    Synesthesia is a problem, not something that you can be tricked into having.
    i’ve thought about this picture a lot, and i think whats going on is the same effect as a person that can read lips. You’re not hearing it, you’re instantaneously comprehending the sound, which is probably a similar sensation as hearing/activating the same part of your “thump thump” brain. the picture blurring is assisting in that experience.

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      GalvaTron Guychrisk
      12/08/17 3:56pm

      Yes, kind of like how you hear your own voice when you’re thinking or writing.

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      Brickstarterchrisk
      12/09/17 1:09am

      I’m sorry, but my Synesthesia is not a problem.

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    Good CopReid McCarter
    12/08/17 3:23pm

    WHAT THE FUCK I CAN ACTUALLY HEAR THAT. I WAS NOT AT ALL EXPECTING TO ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO HEAR IT.

    THIS IS SO DAMN WEIRD. Great job indeed, Internet.

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      Shane DanielsenGood Cop
      12/08/17 7:13pm

      Clearly thirty-three years of seeing bands—or maybe just that one Sunn O))) show last year—has fucked up my ears, because I don’t hear a damn thing.

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    squirtloafReid McCarter
    12/08/17 3:47pm

    I hear this:

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    The Artist Formerly Known as YReid McCarter
    12/08/17 3:15pm

    Jesus, AV Club, maybe warn a guy before inviting him to click on such an ear-splitting GIF? I was drinking champagne from my favorite goblet and it shattered into a million pieces in my hand. Then the AC/DC cover band that lives next door called me to turn it down, they were trying to practice. Fuck, does anyone else have tinnitus now?

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    D.I. Keith FowlerReid McCarter
    12/08/17 3:07pm

    This is the first GJI I’ve enjoyed in months. So GJAVC!

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    SeanReid McCarter
    12/08/17 3:23pm

    I don’t get it. Has no one watched a TV with the mute on? Thinking you know what something sounds like is not hearing sound.

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      jmyoung123Sean
      12/08/17 4:33pm

      I still sort of viscerally feel the thud when watching. Something about the visual cue must trigger a reaction.

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    Petty MayonnaiseReid McCarter
    12/08/17 4:02pm

    This isn’t such a mystery. The impression of vibration caused by the image blurring is causing a perception of sound. It’s not hearing so much as your brain registering that that’s what is being communicated.

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    JoesReid McCarter
    12/08/17 9:18pm

    The brain expects certain sounds to accompany certain visual cues. It’s not that you can actually “hear” anything in this GIF, it’s that you’re filling in what you would expect to hear based on past existential knowledge (i.e., a large object falling attended by vibration would produce a “thudding” sound).

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    clemReid McCarter
    12/08/17 3:57pm

    No one’s going to bring up the fact that electrical towers are jumping rope? Talk about burying the lede!

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