Photoshopped pictures of people with mouths instead of eyes

December 26, 2007 12:00 PM

Photoshopped pictures of people with mouths instead of eyesvia Neil Gaiman who may or may not have pioneered the concept with his nightmarish creation The Corinthian.
posted by Kattullus (58 comments total)

DO NOT WANT
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 12:01 PM on December 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

Not at all disturbing--click right on through!

Also, note to Paul: Don't write to this Corinthian.
posted by DU at 12:03 PM on December 26, 2007

Argh. I almost made this my first mefi post... should have been quicker.

In any case, I love Neil Gaiman's blog, everyone should check it out.
posted by synaesthetichaze at 12:04 PM on December 26, 2007

If Keith Richards had three mouths, he surely would have overdosed long ago.
posted by itchylick at 12:05 PM on December 26, 2007

They have three mouths and I must scream.
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:06 PM on December 26, 2007 [2 favorites]

This is disturbing, in part, because, for most people, one mouth is too many.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:06 PM on December 26, 2007

Oh. Wow. This makes me all kinds of squirmy-uncomfortable. Especially Keith Richards. You know, moreso than usual.
posted by uncleozzy at 12:07 PM on December 26, 2007

This isn't scary. What would be scary is replacing the eyes or mouth with vaginas.

...off to see therapist
posted by Pastabagel at 12:09 PM on December 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

Off to fire up Photoshop.
posted by emelenjr at 12:18 PM on December 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

The most unsettling aspect is the number of Toy Story, Shrek, and Garfield manipulations.
posted by Item at 12:21 PM on December 26, 2007

This isn't scary. What would be scary is replacing the eyes or mouth with vagina dentata.

More correct.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:24 PM on December 26, 2007

"A nightmare created to be the darkness, and the fear of darkness in every human heart. A black mirror, made to reflect everything about itself that humanity will not confront."

...

Neil Gaiman has stated that the Corinthian is gay on both his journal and in the Sandman Companion.

Wtf?
posted by prostyle at 12:28 PM on December 26, 2007

This post is the weirdest thing to happen to me in a long time. My roommate went on vacation and left 2 trade paperbacks on the living room table. Last night I could not sleep, and took a look. At 5 a.m. this morning I finished reading, for the first time ever, the first two volumes of sandman. I had dreams of the Corinthian.

Am I still asleep?
posted by Dr. Curare at 12:30 PM on December 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

..Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "your smiling eyes."
posted by TechnoLustLuddite at 12:39 PM on December 26, 2007

welp
posted by boo_radley at 12:41 PM on December 26, 2007

Jeepers...creepers...where'd you get those peepers...
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:41 PM on December 26, 2007

Really ideal for skull-fucking.
posted by flarbuse at 12:43 PM on December 26, 2007

This isn't scary. What would be scary is replacing the eyes or mouth with vaginas.

I don't think this one's so far away....
posted by forallmankind at 12:47 PM on December 26, 2007

Really ideal for skull-fucking.

Nahhh. Where's the challenge?
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:50 PM on December 26, 2007

Wtf?

I think you might be reaching, there.
posted by cortex at 12:57 PM on December 26, 2007

The Manson one looks surprisingly ok (as are a lot of the closed eyed ones)... the 'Lamprey disease' is the most AIEEE!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:06 PM on December 26, 2007

I think you might be reaching, there.

Or a reach around!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:12 PM on December 26, 2007

Neil Gaiman has stated that the Corinthian is gay on both his journal and in the Sandman Companion.

Wtf?

Yeah. Moved that to trivia at the bottom.
posted by Kickstart70 at 1:16 PM on December 26, 2007

Creepy, but I have to ask, why the Hillary Clinton mouth eyes gap-toothed, when the others are more or less straight ahead depictions? Are they trying to say something there? Is this part of some vast, right wing conspiracy?
posted by psmealey at 1:33 PM on December 26, 2007

I think you might be reaching, there.

After posting I realized someone might interpret the proximity of those statements as if I were trying to make a point greater than one that would be suitably expressed with the furrowing of my brow punctuated by a sharp snort. Rest assured, it is not so.

Not much of a Gaiman fan, it just seemed strange that it would be relevant whatsoever in the context of the character archetype. More like something you'd expect to read on an Anime fan page, where they seem to be the breed that's concerned with the sexual orientation of the world crushing/soul stealing/eye devouring demon abomination du jour.

Yeah. Moved that to trivia at the bottom.

I think that's a good move, although I didn't set out to inspire any edits. Apologies for the recursive confusion loop, carry on.
posted by prostyle at 1:39 PM on December 26, 2007

After posting I realized someone might interpret the proximity of those statements as if I were trying to make a point greater than one that would be suitably expressed with the furrowing of my brow punctuated by a sharp snort. Rest assured, it is not so.

And vice-versa with the double-take. Sorry for the eyebrow hitch. Also, I have replaced the entire article with a Cillit Bang advert, just to keep everyone else on their toes.
posted by cortex at 1:45 PM on December 26, 2007

A while back, there was a Photoshop thread on Something Awful where the premise was to remove the eyes entirely. It was very creepy. Mine is here, but don't say I didn't warn you.
posted by Mikey-San at 1:53 PM on December 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

I find the open mouths with no visible teeth the most disturbing. Maybe because I mind the absence of the eyes more than the presence of extra mouths...
posted by tbastian at 1:55 PM on December 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

At first glance, these photos really horrified me. But it only took a moment for my mental defenses to kick in and protect my poor psyche.

I just see any one of these terrifying creatures, with all three mouths doing different bits from Monty Python sketches and suddenly it goes from nightmare material to...

Well, something that I might pay money to watch.
posted by quin at 2:01 PM on December 26, 2007

From the Corinthian's talk page:

This article is within the scope of WikiProject LGBT studies, which tries to ensure comprehensive and factual coverage of all LGBT related issues on Wikipedia.

Comprehensive and factual coverage of fictional eyeball eating murder monsters? What? What is wrong with Wikipedia?
posted by boo_radley at 2:12 PM on December 26, 2007

I just realized this post needs the "nomnomnom" tag.
posted by Mikey-San at 2:20 PM on December 26, 2007

I find this kind of sexy.
posted by 23skidoo at 2:34 PM on December 26, 2007

Okay Mikey-San, I'll bite [and endure the wrath of 30 something internet libertarians].
posted by moonbird at 2:41 PM on December 26, 2007

He's bringing back the gold standard three mouthfuls at a time, moonbird.
posted by cortex at 2:56 PM on December 26, 2007

Magritte did some distorted faces, didn't he? That's long before Gaiman.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 3:19 PM on December 26, 2007

Did Magritte do faces-with-mouths-for-eyes, specifically?
posted by cortex at 3:32 PM on December 26, 2007

The best eyepatches are made from soft Corinthian leather.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:39 PM on December 26, 2007

Do these people need to brush their eyes?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:40 PM on December 26, 2007

Ever since I saw the first sort of version of this (the thumbnail along side contest directions) -- I really can't say why, but this sort of photoshopping really creeps me the hell out.

I mean, I've been pretty desensitized to most things by now -- thank you, internet! -- and horror movies don't usually phase me. But just a single still frame of mouths replacing eyes and my brain is doing somersaults and I want my blankie.

Mommy!
posted by cavalier at 4:43 PM on December 26, 2007

You know, oddly enough these mock-ups actually don't look as strange as you'd think they would. There are a lot of similarities between the way the eye and the mouth are shaped, and how they express emotion.

In unrelated news, I've huffed more glue than a hyperventilating Robert Downey Jr., and I eat paint chips with salsa. But that's neither here nor there.
posted by aftermarketradio at 5:05 PM on December 26, 2007

Semi-related photoshop of a nipple replaced with what looks like a honeycomb with larvae.

Not Safe For Sanity.
posted by porpoise at 5:22 PM on December 26, 2007

Oh, and here's a wrieup of the origins of that pic (includes original pic, another pic, and more disturbing links).
posted by porpoise at 5:23 PM on December 26, 2007

Those eyes, that mouth, indeed.
posted by mykescipark at 5:26 PM on December 26, 2007

Do NOT click on porpoise's link. I remember seeing it or something like it a while ago and it still makes me shudder just thinking about it.
posted by ooga_booga at 5:27 PM on December 26, 2007

::insert gender-neutral joke about "skull fucking" here::
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 5:46 PM on December 26, 2007

Semi-related: Rene Magritte's "The Rape" (NSFW nudity)
posted by alidarbac at 5:58 PM on December 26, 2007

People get freaked out when they look a face that's been altered (although that one will just make you dizzy). I forget exactly what it's called but I think there is a term for it.
posted by puke & cry at 6:56 PM on December 26, 2007

puke & cry, The Uncanny Valley.
posted by synaesthetichaze at 8:14 PM on December 26, 2007

Will Smith *still* looks like a nice guy after this treatment.

I'm not sure what that means.
posted by Ryvar at 8:30 PM on December 26, 2007

It means you have a man-crush on Will Smith. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

puke & cry, The Uncanny Valley

Sounds like the title of an Industrial album by a band called Coking Oven or something.

That said, I don't think that's exactly right, in terminology. 'Uncanny valley' is more specifically meant to refer to simulations of human appearance that get progressively more disturbing as they approach verisimilitude rather than more lifelike, because of those 'missing' subconscious cues that our brains require to flip the mental 'human' switch.

Messing about with images of humans and the disturbing results are something else entirely, I think, even if the squicked-out feeling is similar.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:45 PM on December 26, 2007

Okay Mikey-San, I'll bite [and endure the wrath of 30 something internet libertarians].

That is some gold-standard stuff right there, son.
posted by Mikey-San at 10:42 PM on December 26, 2007

This totally changes my view on skull fucking.
posted by ryoshu at 12:30 AM on December 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

I remember the first time I read through Sandman, The Corinthian creeped me the hell out. After looking at all these weirdo pics tho, I'm apparently desensytized to the idea. I find myself comparing them and seeing some as less gross than others. A few of the pics were even aesthetically appealing from an artistic point of view. Don't think I want to know now what would creep me out in this context.

The Doll House was a great story. I used to wish Hollywood would make a movie called Sandman and use Gaiman's work as the source material. It's such a beautiful series. However, looking back at it now I can see how futile an endeavor that would be. The series was never about just Morpheus himself, or even his supporting cast including The Corinthian. It was about telling stories. I don't know if it would be possible to convey even one book in the series properly as a film. I don't think the majority of viewers would grasp it without having read the source material.

It's like what Alan Moore used to say about the idea of turning his epic series Watchmen into a movie. "I didn't design [The Watchmen] to show off the similarities between cinema and comics, which are there, but in my opinion are fairly unremarkable. It was designed to show off the things that comics could do that cinema and literature couldn't."

Perhaps a simple slasher film with some amusing cgi work could utilize The Corinthian character as the bad guy, but it wouldn't capture the nuances of the character as they've been depicted in comic books. I'm not even sure if the end result would be more scary than something to illicit nervous laughter from the audience.

I can't answer if these pictures have been made solely because Gaiman imagined The Corinthian. Maybe some things in life don't have answers.
posted by ZachsMind at 4:42 AM on December 27, 2007

Do these people need to brush their eyes?

After seeing those images, I do.
posted by arcticwoman at 10:43 AM on December 27, 2007

ZachsMind: This should weird you out then.
posted by seanyboy at 12:16 PM on December 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

This is pretty awesome.
posted by Christ, what an asshole at 12:17 PM on December 27, 2007

This isn't scary. What would be scary is replacing the eyes or mouth with vagina dentata.

luckily we won't have to wait long for the movie.
posted by camdan at 5:45 PM on December 27, 2007

This totally changes my view on skull fucking.

Not to mention quintuple penetration.

Yeah, I said it. I'm totally going to hell.
posted by psmealey at 5:50 PM on December 27, 2007