And Now You Can't Unsee It.

December 21, 2012 12:10 PM

Facemath : [archive] Where one celebrity plus another celebrity equals a third celebrity. In certain cases, it's pretty eerie how well some of them work.
posted by quin (52 comments total)

I literally did not see even one example of Facemath where I recognized more than 2 of the participants. That sort of ruins the fun for me, but I suspect others will recognize the individuals involved. Mostly, however, it was "Don't know who that is" + "someone from tv, maybe?" = "looks like an athlete, perhaps".
posted by newfers at 12:14 PM on December 21, 2012 [27 favorites]

God I miss Spy Magazine's 'Celebrity Math'.

This is closer to it.
posted by mazola at 12:20 PM on December 21, 2012 [5 favorites]

This is pretty cool, but would be 20 times better if they simply tagged who all these people are. Their definition of "celebrity" appears to be different than mine, it seems. Not that their definition is totally wrong, of course: I couldn't name too many non-baseball athletes or nearly anyone from American Idol or The Voice, for instance. Also, I don't really consider fictional cartoon characters to be celebrities.
posted by mysterpigg at 12:21 PM on December 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

Facemath: Where one celebrity plus another person I vaguely recognize equals someone I have no idea who they are.

Or: "I used to be with it, but then they changed what *it* was. Now what I'm with isn't *it*, and what's *it* seems weird and scary to me. It'll happen to you..."
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:23 PM on December 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

I've got a mild case of face blindness, so for me this is basically X + X = X.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 12:26 PM on December 21, 2012 [12 favorites]

I really want to come in and say I have no idea who most of those people are but then I'd be that guy who goes into a thread and says he has no idea who any of those people are.

Still, this is pretty cool.
posted by bondcliff at 12:27 PM on December 21, 2012

Someone plus their own self equals their own self?
posted by mike_bling at 12:27 PM on December 21, 2012

Yes, this blog is killing itself by omitting captions. I'm also baffled by the lack of "next page/previous page" controls.
posted by Help, I can't stop talking! at 12:28 PM on December 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

I didn't even know many of the celebrities used in these were different people until I saw this.
posted by shesdeadimalive at 12:29 PM on December 21, 2012 [4 favorites]

Finally, a version of math that makes zero sense to me (kind of face-blind).
posted by idiopath at 12:32 PM on December 21, 2012

Yeah, I'm also in the "Who?" boat here, at least mostly. Most of them I recognized zero or one. There were a number of twos, but not many. For the only one that I actually recognized all of them, I don't even know the name of one of them:

Weird Al + Humpty Hump = that guy from LMFAO

There were some in which I literally would have guessed that two photos were the same person; e.g.:

somebody + somebody else + the guy from the White Stripes = the guy from the White Stripes

posted by Flunkie at 12:34 PM on December 21, 2012

There were some in which I literally would have guessed that two photos were the same person; e.g.:

I feel your pain -- the first link (at "where") seems to be Liv Tyler plus Bjork equals Liv Tyler. Cool, I guess.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:38 PM on December 21, 2012

I think the problem isn't just that they are hard to recognize (very bland face close-ups of mostly white people) and no names are given, but that they are kind of bad, and it's not really clear what they are going for with the addition.
posted by graymouser at 12:38 PM on December 21, 2012

The controls are kinda shity - but man, the math is pretty eerie in its accuracy. I wish it was interactive so that you could enter images and see what the blend would be. A friend of mine swears Serena Williams + Tracy Jordan = Tina Turner. I personally disagree vehemently.
posted by helmutdog at 12:40 PM on December 21, 2012

Like most of you, I agree that this would do so much better with captions.

As it is, I've snapped and pointed at my screen and said, "ohhh...that's the guy from...that show...dang" for almost every single one of these.

It took that series of events happening four times in a row before I realized I was doing it.
posted by phunniemee at 12:40 PM on December 21, 2012

See, in the ones where I can recognize all three (for instance, Reba McEntire + Andy Dick = Kathy Griffin), I think they're hilarious. It's just that the majority of them make me feel like I'm looking at someone else's yearbook trying to make sense of the in-jokes scribbled in the margins.
posted by Help, I can't stop talking! at 12:42 PM on December 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

Wow, all white people really do look alike.
posted by 2bucksplus at 12:43 PM on December 21, 2012

I'm glad most everyone else couldn't recognize or identify hardly any of these people. I thought it was just me.
posted by Curious Artificer at 12:47 PM on December 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

One Tumblr + another Tumblr = a third Tumblr
posted by perhapses at 12:49 PM on December 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

I always thought Sting + Bono = the lead singer for Wang Chung.
posted by no relation at 12:53 PM on December 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

I recognized, like, two people.... my next door neighbor and my dog... I've got no idea who the rest of these people (who, for the most part, look nothing like each other) are...
posted by HuronBob at 12:54 PM on December 21, 2012

I thought the Liv Tyler one was pretty good, actually, despite not recognizing the third person. My reaction to it was:

"Whatshername... uh, Liv Tyler... plus Bjork equals... Bjorkian Liv Tyler?"

The third person does look like a Bjorked-up Liv Tyler to me.
posted by Flunkie at 12:58 PM on December 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

flunkie: michelle monaghan
posted by leotrotsky at 1:01 PM on December 21, 2012

Good lord. I don't know who the guy on the end of this one is, but there is no amount of convincing in the world that will make me believe that he's not the result of some top secret genetic experiment.
posted by phunniemee at 1:04 PM on December 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

Yep, Michelle Monaghan, after Kiss Kiss Bang Bang I kind of developed a bit of a crush on how awesome she was.
posted by quin at 1:04 PM on December 21, 2012

See, I recognized Liv Tyler and Michelle Monaghan instantly but had no idea what Bjork looked like, despite knowing who Bjork is. So, yeah, captions would be nice.
posted by Justinian at 1:09 PM on December 21, 2012

quin, that would be Taylor Hicks, one of the lesser-known American Idol winners.
posted by Help, I can't stop talking! at 1:11 PM on December 21, 2012

phunniemee: I think that's... um... whasshisname... a guy who won one of the middle seasons of American Idol.
posted by Justinian at 1:11 PM on December 21, 2012

curses, foiled again.
posted by Justinian at 1:11 PM on December 21, 2012

Also, you didn't used to need any math to get Zoeey = Katy, although their appearance has diverged quite a bit now that Perry plays up her sexuality so heavily.
posted by Justinian at 1:14 PM on December 21, 2012

The picture of Gareth Bale makes me think this must be based in the UK.
posted by josher71 at 1:14 PM on December 21, 2012

Yes, this blog is killing itself by omitting captions. I'm also baffled by the lack of "next page/previous page" controls.

They're there, down at the bottom, but they're just teeny little light blue chevrons on a white background.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:19 PM on December 21, 2012

so is this like Conan's "if they mated" or is it just some pictures, math symbols and someone's opinion?
posted by IvoShandor at 1:45 PM on December 21, 2012

and to answer my own question, not like "if they mated" but definitely dumb.
posted by IvoShandor at 1:46 PM on December 21, 2012

Horace Rumpole: I've got a mild case of face blindness, so for me this is basically X + X = X.

Yep, they all look a) exactly the same and b) completely unfamiliar to me. High five?
posted by capricorn at 2:02 PM on December 21, 2012

Who are these people?
posted by Bwithh at 2:07 PM on December 21, 2012

I see it more as

expression + expression = hair
posted by jsturgill at 2:16 PM on December 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

Who is the first face that is added to Ellen Barkin to get Cameron Diaz?
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 2:32 PM on December 21, 2012

Young Cameron Diaz
posted by wabbittwax at 2:41 PM on December 21, 2012

Three Unidentified People Who Look Very Similar To One Another
posted by threeants at 2:59 PM on December 21, 2012

Nigella Lawson + Eric Stolz from 'Mask' = Russell Brand was worth a snort.
posted by TheRedArmy at 3:17 PM on December 21, 2012 [4 favorites]

Wow, though I don't know the first lady, this one might explain why my eye has always been drawn to Reese Witherspoon.
posted by TheRedArmy at 3:22 PM on December 21, 2012

At this point I expect not to know who people are, and these matches are really good, so it works pretty well for me anyway. Some of them are amazing.

flunkie: michelle monaghan

Yeah, see, that answer makes no difference, and I’d have to search for every one of them to figure out who they are, and Lord knows I can’t be bothered to do that. Because the answer will always be "someone I don’t care about".

So, some celebrity + some celebrity = some other celebrity is pretty cool.
posted by bongo_x at 3:23 PM on December 21, 2012

Ugh sorry for keeping posting, but in the archive screen if you mouseover the picture the links all have the people's names in it for August and a few other months.
posted by TheRedArmy at 3:23 PM on December 21, 2012

These are hilarious even not knowing who 3/4 of these folks are. It's like that "only so many faces in the world" post from last weekend, but with a funnier visual punchline.

So is the person behind this using face recognition software with an army of spiderbots trolling gossip sites, or using scissors and lifetime subscriptions to Us Weekly and People in a Room Full of Crazy? I can't decide.
posted by mediareport at 4:32 PM on December 21, 2012

1. Liv Tyler + Björk = Michelle Monaghan

2. Charly Lopez + Gene Simmons = James Lew

3. Weird Al Yankovic + Shock G (of Digital Underground) = Redfoo (of LMFAO)

4. Mark L. Walberg + Michael McDonald = Zach Galifianakis

5. Chris Brown + Puss in Boots = Shannon Brown

6. Lizzy Caplan + Zooey Deschanel = Katy Perry

7. Jennie Finch + B.J. Novak = Kaitlin Olson

8. OJ Borg + Orlando Jones = Clint Dempsey

9. Fernando Couto + Charlie Sheen = Ricardo Arjona

10. Jason Sudeikis + Doug Stanhope + Jack White = Gavin DeGraw

11. Clifton Collins + Efren Ramirez = Elvis Crespo

12. Alexi Lalas + Thomas Gibson = Benedict Cumberbatch

13. Crispin Glover + Christopher Reeve = Mario Gómez

14. Diego Torres + Joseph Gordon-Levitt = Heath Ledger

15. Kevin Spacey + Jim Parsons + Phil Collins = James Mercer

16. Jay Leno + George Clooney + Jake Gyllenhaal + Taylor Hicks

17. Chris Hemsworth + John Krasinski = Liam Hemsworth

18. Emily Blunt + Zooey Deschanel = Katy Perry

19. Amy Smart + Ashley Olsen = Laurie Holden

Miscellaneous additional annotated Facemath images.
posted by Rhomboid at 9:19 PM on December 21, 2012 [5 favorites]

Bookmarked in case anyone ever accuses me of thinking people of another race all look the same.
posted by mannequito at 9:39 PM on December 21, 2012

So I think that the thing that is really irking everyone here is that this would be really properly funny if we had the names of the people involved, instead of being expected to know them. it's like they are telling us the joke , but expecting us to guess the punchline. Fuck that! you're telling the joke, the onus is on you to make me laugh.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 11:13 PM on December 21, 2012

To me most of these

"X (plus) Y (equals) Z"

would be more accurately described as

"X (roughly equals) Y (roughly equals) Z"

which of course is less interesting so I guess you can go make the tenuous stronger claim.
posted by Anything at 1:02 AM on December 22, 2012

The picture of Gareth Bale makes me think this must be based in the UK.

I doubt it, there's a lot of people from American sports on there that aren't really famous over here unless you particularly follow American football or baseball.
posted by mippy at 1:37 AM on December 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

I was all ready to be like, "Shut up, old fogeys adrift on the pop culture seas! Sorry you haven't been to the movies since 1993!" except then I looked at them myself and the only ones where I recognized every picture were #s 16 and 18 (I suppose I should have gotten 6 - that is a weird picture of Lizzy Caplan, though). So anyway, either I am also old, or I am a jerk, or both.
posted by naoko at 8:45 AM on December 22, 2012

(Also with number 16 I spent a long time trying to remember what the last guy's name was: "Taylor....something. From American Idol. Taylor Lautner. Taylor Swift. It's not Taylor Swift, you idiot. Lautner? Swift? We already established it wasn't Swift, shut up brain. And it's not Taylor Lautner either and you know it. Taylor Lautner. Taylor Swift. There have to be other Taylors out there. AUGH.")
posted by naoko at 8:52 AM on December 22, 2012 [2 favorites]