Comments on: That Crouton Looks Like Aunt Marge!

That Crouton Looks Like Aunt Marge!

amyms — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:56:24 -0800

Things That Look Like Other Things. Also known as pareidolia, it's the phenomenon in which our brains perceive familiar things (especially faces and human forms) in random places. See also The Pareidolia Museum and the Flickr pareidolia pool. [Previous pareidolia-related threads here]

By: celerystick

celerystick — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:26:45 -0800

awesome.. want to go listen to Pink Floyd now very cool thanks

By: Tube

Tube — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:37:37 -0800

My kitchen floor stain is obviously a face, but whose? I finally realized that it's the Minnesota Iceman!

By: loiseau

loiseau — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:42:19 -0800

This person clearly doesn't know that a grilled cheese isn't a piece of cheese, grilled.

By: Bookhouse

Bookhouse — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:45:22 -0800

I tried to look at the pictures without reading what they were supposed to look like, and I got it less than fifty percent of the time. Maybe I just got no imagination.

By: katemonster

katemonster — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:47:38 -0800

The Virgin Mary grilled cheese isn't pareidolia, it's an outright hoax. It's a picture of Marlene Dietrich -- this picture of Marlene Dietrich, in fact. Doesn't take a trick of the brain to perceive something that's actually there. Cool post, though. The skull is especially freaky.

By: amyms

amyms — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:49:15 -0800

Very compelling, Tube, lol.

By: amyms

amyms — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:50:58 -0800

OMG you're right about Marlene Dietrich, katemonster!

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:58:38 -0800

I can't see the man's face in #1... ... oh wait, there it is. *Quietly freaks out*

By: zeusianfog

zeusianfog — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:00:04 -0800

It occurs to me that if this list were on Cracked.com it would be a) much more well-written and b) instantly torn to shreds. If only this were as amusing as "People Who Look Like Things," featuring Dr. Nick Riviera. Here's more links/discussion on the topic.

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:03:20 -0800

zeusianfog: You're just bitter because you need a new candle*. *I'd been wracking my brain for an excuse to make the reference, so thanks!

By: mattoxic

mattoxic — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:40:42 -0800

Its telling that most of the similarities are of a Christian nature. I pity the poor fool that finds the likeness of Mahomed in a stained tea towel or a falafel.

By: LeeJay

LeeJay — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:41:26 -0800

Ohhh thank you! Particularly for the Flickr pool which I suspect I will have a lot of fun going through over the next few days. (I love this one.)

By: Metroid Baby

Metroid Baby — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 01:31:46 -0800

I prefer pareidolia of the "that looks like a wang" variety to the religious kind. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks most Virgin Mary sightings look a lot like vaginas.

By: Kirth Gerson

Kirth Gerson — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 03:43:32 -0800

If they have to tell you what it looks like (as the first link insists on doing), then it probably doesn't look that much like the thing. They'd be a lot more interesting without the descriptions, except for the ones that really don't look like much of anything.

By: ubiquity

ubiquity — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 03:46:08 -0800

I couldn't see the man in #1 either. Perhaps it doesn't work if you know how to spell "forest".

By: milquetoast

milquetoast — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 04:36:25 -0800

angry bbq hates winter

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 04:47:37 -0800

I'll never forget the day when I was swimming in a Lake in GA with my cousins, and there was a giant cumulonimbus overhead that looked like a huge dude giving us the finger. There was also the time I was in a plane and saw a protrusion above the otherwise flat cloud layer that looked like a giant gun pointed at the earth.

By: taz

taz — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 05:25:53 -0800

I got a cute little cartoon elephant head in my coffee pot, though some misguided and apparently blind people continue to insist that it's a squirrel. see? elephant.

By: strangeguitars

strangeguitars — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 06:19:32 -0800

You're all obviously just a bunch of pareidophiles!

By: dances_with_sneetches

dances_with_sneetches — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 06:23:12 -0800

Good site, if only for the cats that look like Hitler link.

By: rifflesby

rifflesby — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 06:34:48 -0800

happy chair enjoys life to fullest

By: Ella Fynoe

Ella Fynoe — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 06:46:22 -0800

This reminds me that Things Look Like Things is fun to look at. Though not pareidolia, actually.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 07:19:32 -0800

OMG you're right about Marlene Dietrich, katemonster! I think not. The direction of light is wrong (see the shadow on the nose). I think katemonster is a victim of double pareidolia. The interesting thing to me is how this phenomenon has evolved through natural selection, likely because it gives us a better chance of survival. I must admit, though--the fact that virtually all of these faces in trees and rocks and smoke are right side up makes me wonder if these really are signs from the spiritual world intended for human observation :^)

By: PeterMcDermott

PeterMcDermott — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 07:54:31 -0800

I cooked up a nice plate of beans yesterday, and just as I was about to consume them, I noticed that the beans had somehow randomly fallen in such a way as to produce a perfect representation of mathowie's face. I called The Golden Palace and asked them to bid, but all they were offering was entry into a $10 sit-and-go. So I called mathowie and tried to sell them to him, but he couldn't see it at all. He said I was overthinking the whole business. I was hurt, insulted and disappointed by our leader. What little faith the guru has in his acolytes. As if anybody who posts to this site would ever overthink such a miraculous manifestation of the divine... He was trying to suggest that it was nothing more than, you know, a plate of beans... Heretic! Let him burn in MetaHell! Those of you who wish to form an orthodox Mefi faith, unbeset by the heresies of its one-time leader, please form a queue to the right. At our meetings, we will venerate the face of the *real* mathowie, as was miraculously revealed to us all in the Sacred Beans of Great Crosby. And as for that imposter who just happens to resemble the one true bean-God -- well, he's actually the anti-mathowie! Anyone found pledging allegiance to him will be burned with the toast!

By: sugarfish

sugarfish — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:30:51 -0800

I do this all the time. The other day, I saw an ostrich running across the road. Turns out, it was some guy in a white shirt walking his black dog. But I saw ostrich. It's like my subconscious has completely rejected Occam's Razor for my amusement.

By: es_de_bah

es_de_bah — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:23:12 -0800

ok. where's the face in #1 in the first link?

By: Locative

Locative — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:34:58 -0800

The full story of the Nun Bun, #12. Doesn't seem to have been stolen as the article claimed.

By: DecemberBoy

DecemberBoy — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:54:01 -0800

The Virgin Mary grilled cheese isn't pareidolia, it's an outright hoax. It's a picture of Marlene Dietrich "Marlene watches from my sammich, her mocking smile says it all"... nah, doesn't quite have the same ring to it. It is, indeed, telling that it's always Christians who are seeing religious icons in their snacks. Just once, I'd like to hear about a Hindu seeing Vishnu in his chutney or the image of L. Ron Hubbard appearing in a Pinkberry yogurt.

By: jamaro

jamaro — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:15:45 -0800

rifflesby just gave me a new favorite, displacing Emo Bath.

By: Gular

Gular — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:58:40 -0800

I also couldn't find the face in #1. I asked my roommate if he could find it, and he also had nothing. Unless the entire thing is a face, we're both totally lost on it. Kind of anti-climatic number 1 consider Darth Vader/Gorilla was #2 and it's difficult to deny it. I also thought the skull was super cool. Awesome post and really interesting topic in human perception!

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:40:22 -0800

Gular: #1: The hills are the eyebrow/eye shadows. The central tree trunk is the shadow down the side of the nose, the mouth and chin are bearded--very Christ-like. Squint, or look from a distance.

By: PareidoliaticBoy

PareidoliaticBoy — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:12:21 -0800

This page looks exactly like Beelzebub; when turned upside down, after ingesting certain mushrooms.

By: Gular

Gular — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:10:26 -0800

Gular: #1: The hills are the eyebrow/eye shadows. The central tree trunk is the shadow down the side of the nose, the mouth and chin are bearded--very Christ-like. Squint, or look from a distance. posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 3:40 PM on March 29 [+] [!] Thanks! I finally see it... Is there some kind of clause about how many people need to be able to see it before it gets labeled that phenomena as opposed to just being random crazy?

By: Space Coyote

Space Coyote — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:32:06 -0800

I had no idea there were so many Elephant Rocks.

By: celerystick

celerystick — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:49:23 -0800

"Is there some kind of clause about how many people need to be able to see it before it gets labeled that phenomena as opposed to just being random crazy?" Brainiac Art Historian Norman Bryson would probably have something to say on that(schemas). Me, shrug .. back to my Pink Floyd ...

By: chococat

chococat — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:33:22 -0800

There's this strange knothole in the hardwood floor of the bathroom of my parents' place. It's right beside the bathtub and you pretty much have to stare at it if you're sitting on the toilet. I've always seen it as a face, sort of a 1950's boy, slightly Alfred E. Neuman-esque. I took a really bad, low-light picture of it with a shitty digital camera about 4 years ago. I need to go back with a tripod and take a decent picture; I've always thought it would make a good album cover.

By: sixcolors

sixcolors — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:12:59 -0800

I couldn't find the face in #1 either.

By: NikitaNikita

NikitaNikita — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:49:43 -0800

I sometimes perceive shadows and clothes hanging on backs of chairs, doors, etc*. as people, and the realism can be strong enough to actually startle me. I do like the concept of pareidolia, mainly because I've been wondering if this is how hallucinations start out.
(.... is it?) *very frequent. I have issues with getting clothes onto hangers and into the closet.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 20:51:09 -0800

To me, the enraged cloud man just looks like a happy clown waving hidy. =)

By: Phire

Phire — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:00:20 -0800

Heh, the Emo bath and the Happy Chair both took their stock images from the Faces in Places blog, previously featured on MeFi here. I love that blog and is one of the brightest rays of sunshine on my RSS feed. Never fails to make me smile. That said, I agree with the people who couldn't quite see most of these. A bit contrived, no? I can sort of see the man in #1, but that's cause I'm looking for him. *shrug*