Quit shaking your eyes!

June 28, 2015 7:32 PM

The resonant frequency of googly eyes

is about 433 Hz, in case you were wondering.

posted by moonmilk (32 comments total)

There's got to be an Ig Noble prize in that somewhere.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 7:37 PM on June 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Stop sawing the table!
posted by Zedcaster at 7:43 PM on June 28, 2015 [19 favorites]

This is so stupid that I'm furious that I didn't have this idea first.
posted by DoctorFedora at 7:58 PM on June 28, 2015 [13 favorites]

Why don't you just go and join a shaking rock n' roll band!
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 8:05 PM on June 28, 2015 [8 favorites]

That's not too far from Concert A, 440 Hz. A steady note from an out-of-tune instrument could make this happen by accident.

Now to find the resonant frequency of real eyes, and play for a packed concert hall.
posted by Rangi at 8:10 PM on June 28, 2015 [5 favorites]

All those eyes should go join some stupid shake and rock and roll band!

Bah! beaten by the soups!

Nice title reference
posted by Popular Ethics at 8:25 PM on June 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

There's a blue one in the upper left hand corner that isn't shaking.

STAND FAST, BLUE! NEVER GIVE IN TO THEIR SCIENTIFIC NONSENSE!
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 8:49 PM on June 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

at least you always know where you stand with them.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:55 PM on June 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

I like this very much.

WHAT IS THE OPTIMAL FREQUENCY FOR THE EYES?

Nice title reference

Also fun in French, even if you don't understand it.

I'd recommend watching it twice, once in each language.

Even better, if you don't understand French, watch THIS version first:

Le p'tit chaos.

...then the one Popular Ethics posted.

Yes, Canadian taxpayer dollars funded this and that is fucking awesome.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:58 PM on June 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

tHE GOOGLING OF THE HIDEOUS EYES!
posted by poffin boffin at 9:07 PM on June 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Right now our nations are at peace... But when the puppet wars begin...
posted by 0bs01337 at 9:19 PM on June 28, 2015

Coincidentally, also the resonant frequency of a very annoyed-looking cat.
posted by Room 641-A at 9:37 PM on June 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

............goo......
............oog......
.....go...ly.........
goo......gly....
go..o..oog...ly
g...g..ggooggly....
goooooglygooglygooglygooglygooglyGOOGLYGOOGLYGOOGLY--
posted by JHarris at 10:13 PM on June 28, 2015 [7 favorites]

This is reminding me. A friend of my parents worked for the NFB until they were savagely defunded in the early 90s...she had a Big Snit t-shirt, which I'm jealous of to this day.

I'd pay for NFB merch like that.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:31 PM on June 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

Fine ,mock me ...I'll be vacuuming the tub.
posted by boilermonster at 11:21 PM on June 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

I think there's a slight color dependence? Several of the blue ones start first, and the yellow ones don't start to shake until quite far into the video.
posted by kagredon at 12:02 AM on June 29, 2015

Harmonic resonance with the different frequencies of light that the different eye colors absorb, obviously. </blatantlies>
posted by NMcCoy at 2:50 AM on June 29, 2015 [3 favorites]

Rangi: Now to find the resonant frequency of real eyes, and play for a packed concert hall.

It's about 18 Hz, and infrasound at this freuquency can apparently cause hallucinations that are msitaken for ghosts.
posted by James Scott-Brown at 4:11 AM on June 29, 2015 [7 favorites]

The truth is wibbly wobbly.
posted by flabdablet at 5:36 AM on June 29, 2015

This seems like a good place to trot out an SNL sketch with Christopher Walken as a gardener who needs to anthropomorphize his plants. After all, you never know where you stand with them unless you can look them in the eyes.
posted by Queen of Spreadable Fats at 7:13 AM on June 29, 2015

Why don't you just go and join a shaking rock n' roll band!
Seriously. It seems like she needed to have her personal frequency calibrated or something.

(Ah! Popular Ethics beat me to it, but it's a great short and it deals with the little known problem of chronic googly eye adjustment syndrome, so here it is again.)
posted by Heretic at 7:34 AM on June 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

Oh man, I was really hoping they would all explode at the end.
posted by fiercecupcake at 7:43 AM on June 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

I also just want to say that I am impressed by all the Big Snit references. That cartoon is 30 years old! Are you all Canadian?
posted by maxsparber at 7:57 AM on June 29, 2015 [3 favorites]

Stick-on googly eyes are one of the greatest gifts one can buy themselves. It will change your public transportation experience.
posted by maryr at 8:40 AM on June 29, 2015 [3 favorites]

I also just want to say that I am impressed by all the Big Snit references. That cartoon is 30 years old! Are you all Canadian?

I saw it late at night on PBS, like... christ... 17 or 18 years ago
posted by RustyBrooks at 10:46 AM on June 29, 2015

I saw it at an animation festival at the UC Theater in Berkeley, and probably haven't gone more than a month without thinking "stop shaking your eyes!" in the decades since.
posted by moonmilk at 11:21 AM on June 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

Canadian here, and I think the first time I saw it was on TV Ontario.

Went around for months afterward repeating "Sawing For Teens!" and giggling to myself.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:53 AM on June 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

I used to work in a very particular video shop in Indiana that carried mostly foreign/art films. Saw The Big Snit in the late 90s and never forgot it. "Carrost" is accepted in our household games of Scrabble.
posted by Heretic at 12:39 PM on June 29, 2015 [6 favorites]

The glory days of Cartoon Network included a show called O Canada, late at night. That's not only how I know The Big Snit but also why, every time I go down the frozen foods aisle, I end up singing "pot pies, chicken pot pies, always the pot pies wherever I go. I'll die with the pot pies pickin' my bones, beside Digiorn-I-O, I O, beside Digiorn I-O."
posted by darksasami at 1:17 PM on June 29, 2015 [4 favorites]

Ha! And I used to walk my little black dog singing "black dog, little black dog, always the black dog wherever I go". I didn't die with the black dog pickin' my bones, though. Nor did I ever take him to north Ontar-i-o.
posted by moonmilk at 2:38 PM on June 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

Man, I totally derailed this thread. Sorry. Although I did enjoy hearing about Canadian cartoons.
posted by maxsparber at 4:55 PM on June 29, 2015

Well, I did start it by choosing the title. Remember Lupo the Butcher?
posted by moonmilk at 5:23 PM on June 29, 2015 [2 favorites]