A cat that looks like a train. Shoes that look like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. A tree that looks like a mountain of spaghetti. All of these examples sound quite unbelievable when put in words, but, as images, they are hilarious.
The collection of posts below is a variety of different things that look like other things. Some of them are confusing images that make you do a double take. Others are hilarious because they are paired with witty observations. Then, there are also the unexpected comparisons that can make you chuckle. All of them have been collected on the stuffthatlookslikestuff Instagram page for your enjoyment.
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Scientists love to take the fun out of everything by studying it and, unsurprisingly, fun is one of the things they have done the same with. However, understanding why we laugh (or just exhale sharply through the nose) at an image of a dog that looks like an ancient philosopher is actually quite interesting.
For example, in her article Liz Sills, an associate professor of communication studies at Northern State University, argues that funniness happens when you take a truth and turn it on its head. “It takes our perceptions of reality, scrambles them around in our heads, and leaves them even more open to interpretation than they already were.” She believes that jokes make us question the truth.
In a way, that’s what the images posted here do, too. When you see a picture of Pharrell William’s house that he put on sale, you might think, 'oh, another rich person’s mansion'. That is the reality or the truth of the situation. However, when you read the comment below that points out how similar his house looks like to a community college, the reality in your head shifts. For a moment, you escape into a fictional world where college students are treating a celebrity’s house as a campus. You do know it’s not the truth, but questioning it is very amusing.
Of course, that’s not the only explanation for why we find things funny. There are multiple distinct theories that consider the reasons for humor appreciation. A paper published in 2020 breaks it all down to four things: surprise, simultaneity, superiority, and violation appraisal.
Surprise is probably the easiest to explain. As the philosopher Blaise Pascal puts it, “Nothing produces laughter more than a surprising disproportion between that which one expects and that which one sees.” As in, you might expect a joke about being disheveled when you see a picture of a tired-looking Justin Bieber, but a comparison to a doll from “Rugrats” might be so out of the blue, you simply can’t help but laugh. It works so well because it increases physiological arousal which, in turn, makes us appreciate the joke a little more than usual. However, surprise is not necessary for something to be funny. For example, you might watch a comedy multiple times and still find the jokes in it funny.
Then there is simultaneity or any ability to evoke contradictory feelings or present incompatible ideas in one thing. Puns are a good example here, where words have more than one meaning which makes them amusing. When it comes to pictures, it’s the images that require a double-take. Yes, this is a picture of a rug under a chair but it also looks like a crazy party with a big crowd of people and impressive lights. The fact that the image presents both of these ideas is what makes it so amusing.
Superiority is basically laughing at someone else’s defeat. This is not about a video of someone falling down the stairs or a picture of someone’s unfortunate make up or design choice. It is actual, meanspirited laughing at other people’s misfortune that veers into aggression territory and often crosses the line. Making fun of someone, for example, is a type of superiority humor. “Yo mama” jokes can be considered superiority humor, too. It’s a tricky side of funniness and there haven’t been many studies exploring it.
Violation appraisal is the milder version of superiority humor that’s usually easy to stomach for most. It includes a violation of some sort of norm. This could be a social, cultural, conversational, linguistic, or logical threat to the status quo. It’s why we find farts funny. Fail videos and memes belong to this category. Edgy humor about risqué topics can be seen as a violation of some norms, too.
On top of these four types of humor, there’s also one secret ingredient that seemingly has to be a part of all of these to make them funny. That is the benign nature of whatever is happening. Seeing someone young and healthy slip and fall can be funny because it’s easy to assume they weren’t seriously injured. Seeing an old person fall over might illicit a different reaction because the context can make you believe that there is a serious threat there. It’s also the reason why when you’re telling a story of a terrible experience you’ve had that went over without any serious consequences, you are able to make light of it and laugh.
All in all, humor is quite a complicated matter. There’s no one simple formula for what makes things funny or a sure-fire way to make a person laugh. We all have different thresholds for what’s benign too, so things that are funny for some are offensive to others. Either way, this collection seems to have combined surprise with simultaneity in quite a genius way, and we hope that a picture of Nicolas Cage as Ross from Friends will make you giggle.
And anyone who has a cat in their home know's that that is an actual machine gun...😁
I thought those were cats legs! I was trying to figure out if it was some kind of cat cult group that brought their cats along to exercise 😭😭
Same. I thought maybe it was take your sphynx kitty to excercise class.
Load More Replies...Dear commenter, you owe me 5 napkins, some iced tea, and 3 minutes of blowing my nose after reading that. Iced tea through the nose is not recommended
Load More Replies...Okay but hers looks so much worse because she has tattoos on her feet. Rotisserie chicken, prolapse uterus, you name it; it just looks really weird and now we all need unseen juice.
at least you figured it out! I had to run to the comments to know ;)
Load More Replies...am I looking at her pussy? edit: ohhh, thats not cat legs. thats her feet. damn.
🤣🤣🤣🤣for some reason your damn at the end took me clean out!
Load More Replies...It took my waaaaaaay too long to realise that it is her feet pressed together.
Load More Replies...Why do all the women appear to have little legs hanging down from their crotches? Are they smothering babies by sitting on them???
Its easier to see that those are feet if you look at the lady to the right
Exactly how I finally saw what it really was. I'm hollering🤣🤣🤣
Load More Replies...Ohhhhhh. I see now. I am sorry, but it looks like a sickeningly inflamed and swollen you know what.
My brain refuses to process this. I'm a little worried that it took me longer than five minutes to realize that her feet are together....
Hah hah, all of the women’s feet are pressed together. It took my way too long to admit to figure this out.
Load More Replies...New Mexico or California? "Ok, I want you to place the cat right up against your vagina. Very good!"
For anyone who also didn't get it, look to the woman on the right and it makes more sense. If you still can't see it fair enough, and it's her feet
This too waaay to many times for my mind to register that those are her feet and not some weird animal legs.
I think she needs to stop doing that, and get the blood going to her feet, again.
The awful thing is that some females actually have meat flaps that look like this…
What the hell has gotten into people with all this exercising with animals? Just do your damn exercises and leave the poor animals out of it. Seriously. To exercise properly, you need to concentrate on what you're doing, and you can't do that if your movement creates potential risk to the animal.
There aren’t any animals in this photo, unless you count the picture on her t-shirt.
Load More Replies...wich one is the orc, the left one seems too handsome to be an orc
One is a bloodsucker that drains energy from it's victims - the other one is Max Schreck playing the role of Nosferatu
Some of these seem to be bored designers going "what can I get away with"...🤣
It's that naked lady from before!good to know she's still living her best life!
Shhhh. don't tell Disney. They'll make all their cartoons into live action films.
I hate that the horse is looking at me. It's like he's saying "you're next".
well, all i see is a little elf with a big present for you
They could at least be used to show the Sentinelese how to make fire without risking disease transmission. It's not known for certain what their fire-making skill is, but it's believed they may only obtain it during lightning strikes.
Is that guy’s hair cut in to the shape of a chicken? Or do I need a nap?
anybody else have to then boil the old over boiled, dried out egg and have it for lunch?
this would be so much fun to do white a friend , i wouldn’t mind bring the shadow
They are the dogs! (Apologies to anyone not British who might need an explanation).
Pharrell lives in a community college and Justin Beiber lives in a water treatment plant.
this post needs to be renamed to "things that look like a w***y or vag"
https://preview.redd.it/ef91tbfap6m71.jpg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=1e498f967c917791fb3f4275b17e7ca20fdb037e
That is NOT the vascular system of a tree. That IS a bowl of spaghetti, photoshopped ( badly) onto a damaged tree trunk. Tree vascular systems conduct water and nutrients to and from roots, trunk, and leaves. They do NOT wander round in circles Annoying supposedly clever but mis-informed posts like these , set citizen scientists back.
this post needs to be renamed to "things that look like a w***y or vag"
https://preview.redd.it/ef91tbfap6m71.jpg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=1e498f967c917791fb3f4275b17e7ca20fdb037e
That is NOT the vascular system of a tree. That IS a bowl of spaghetti, photoshopped ( badly) onto a damaged tree trunk. Tree vascular systems conduct water and nutrients to and from roots, trunk, and leaves. They do NOT wander round in circles Annoying supposedly clever but mis-informed posts like these , set citizen scientists back.