Everyone loves reaction GIFs. They’re everywhere. People love them, and brands co-opt them. There are probably, at this point, millions of them. To describe something as “highly GIF-able” is now a compliment.
Which is a long way of saying that the format is getting stale! The reaction GIF generally tends to be pulled from pop culture — a clip from a television show or a movie or a viral video featuring your “spirit animal.” But how many times can we see the same clip from American Horror Story?
When I need a truly great reaction GIF, I turn to one of the best blogs on Tumblr, Fruits of the Web.
TFW you log on to Fruits of the Web:
The fact is that 99.9 percent of all video on YouTube is garbage. Well, garbage is the wrong word. Maybe insignificant or useless is better. What I mean is that the vast majority of video uploaded to the internet has no ambition toward, and serves no purpose for, a general audience. It exists for its small intended audience. Fruits of the Web is especially adept at finding these videos, mainly of scientific and medical computer simulations, and turning them into hypnotic GIFs. It turns out that what is useless as a YouTube video is terrific as a reaction GIF.
The most famous of these GIFs is the pear wiggler, a GIF showing how poorly packed produce could bruise in transit. The six-second video that the GIF is derived from — “Damage prediction on pears during transportation.” — has 62,225 views. The GIF on Tumblr has more than 288,000 notes. The video was uploaded by DEM Research Group, whose second-most popular video after the pear simulation is “Simulation of meshed gummybears using the Discrete Element Method.” Total views: 7,586.
The blog features a well-maintained appendix, and each category within holds mesmerizing treasures, perfect for your next #relatable social media post.
From the “skeleton” tag: When the work emails just won’t stop …
From “smoothed particle hydrodynamics”: When your crush finally asks you out …
From “drop test”: When the rest of the squad is freaking out but you’re keeping it together …
From fluid dynamics: When the bathroom line is too long and you can’t hold it in anymore …
And so on.
It’s time to stop relying on TV GIFs to speak for us. It’s time to get weirder, and Fruits of the Web is a great place to start.
