May 18, 2018

I wasn't going to participate in the Yanny/Laurel thing...

... although I have been reading about it. (Here's the NYT, "Laurel or Yanny? What We Heard From the Experts," and here's the original Reddit post.)

I mean I wasn't in a position to blog about it when it was relatively new and it so quickly got Harry-and-Meghan old that I didn't see any value to my chiming in. Does it help anyone to know that I hear "Yanny"?

But the White House response is truly funny:



And — less funny and a bit arcane — I read the EW recap of the TV show "Survivor," and there's a contestant this season whose name happens to be Laurel. In this week's recap, there's this description of a puzzle-solving challenge in which Laurel narrowly edged out another contestant, Wendell, because, though he finished first, she yelled "Jeff!" first (Jeff being Jeff Probst, the show's host, who has to come over and check that the puzzle is in fact correctly solved). The recap goes like this:
The contestants were in the middle of an immunity challenge that ended in a slide puzzle, and the first person to finish it would win immunity — or so we thought.

Wendell went into this portion of the challenge with a huge lead. Yanny was the third person to start on the puzzle, but she had the advantage of having worked on it before at the opening marooning challenge. (By the way, not a fan of recycling the same puzzle twice in one season. Not sure the thinking behind that one.) After sliding back and forth like we wanted to cha-cha real smooth, Wendell appeared to have the puzzle solved. He paused, looked it over, and extended his arms to the side.

Then, out of nowhere, Yanny yelled “Jeff!” He came over, looked at her puzzle and called her the winner. But was she?

“I guess I had to scream your name,” protested Wendell mildly.

“What? Did you call me?” asked Probst.

“I didn’t call you,” admitted Wendell.

“Well, you gotta call it,” said Probst. “Wendell, you understand, right? Because a puzzle’s not done until you tell me.”

At this point, Yanny entered the fray, explaining that she also had it and could have called it earlier as well....
That is, the recapper, with no explanation, just started calling Laurel "Yanny."

If you're interested in the "Survivor" rules question, here's "Survivor: Jeff Probst addresses Wendell–Laurel challenge controversy":
Nothing like this has ever happened before. It was bizarre. I think Wendell was half-checking his puzzle and half-dazed. Truthfully, I didn’t even know he had it because there was no sign from him at all. It was only seeing it back in editing later that I could clearly see he had it finished before Laurel. But we are deep into this game, and cognitive function is in rare supply, and I honestly think Wendell just had a slight lapse. What impressed me most was how both Wendell and Laurel handled it. Laurel obviously took the necklace, but she was aware it was a tricky situation. And Wendell just handled it straight up. He didn’t complain at all. He was frustrated, but he owned it as his mistake.
The "typo" tag refers to the big punchline at the end of the White House video.

28 comments:

gilbar said...

i LOVE our President!

Jaq said...

Fearless Leader.

Darrell said...

Trump wins again.

Ann Althouse said...

Imagine how fantastically cool it would have been if the Obama White House had played a social media that well.

But, as it is, millions of millennials will need to maintain a grim stink face as the President says "covfefe" and if you say, come on, can't you laugh, you'll get an earful of hypotheticals about Hitler posing as cute on social media.

Matt Sablan said...

Did Obama's staff ever poke fun at themselves and how they are portrayed the way some of Trump's staff does here?

Curious George said...

"you'll get an earful of hypotheticals about Hitler posing as cute on social media."

Especially if that sentiment is found on vox.com because our resident dullard will copy and paste it here.

Matt Sablan said...

I thought it was mildly amusing and a reminder that this staff is way more human than I'm constantly told they are. Even looking at responses they are called subhuman filth, animals, garbage and ghouls by the noisier parts if Twitter. I remember the right at least being amused by Pelosi Rick Rolling people.

rhhardin said...

Yoni would make it interesting.

Rick said...


Another Test

Just curious why you didn't touch on this given your stated goal of keeping the NYT honest. Is it because this was so absurd anything feels like piling on?

Darrell said...

Why does the NYT love MS-13 so much?
Is it because they are Mexican-owned?

Jaq said...

The New York Times is an important read, I think. But you just have to realize that they spin everything furiously, but they seldom (but not never) flat out lie, outside of the editorial pages. Omission is a different thing. I can’t say that about the Washington Post which is the poster child for fake news, and it’s effort to kill democracy, memorialized in it’s slogan “democracy dies in darkness,” means it gets no money or clicks from me.

PackerBronco said...

Trump handled it perfectly. If he had said Laurel or Yanni, the MSM would report that he had gotten it wrong.

Ralph L said...

The Clinton WH would have had him in every shot. Obama's probably also.

PackerBronco said...

Pence doesn't know who Yanny is because he hates gays...

Phil 314 said...

This is the aural version of the blue/gold dress.

tcrosse said...

The Telegraph has yet to discover the rest of Megan Markle's family: Fanny Markle, Sparkle Markle, and Simon and Gar Markle.

Darrell said...

The NYT doesn't believe what they hear, they hear what they believe. Same goes for all the other senses.

rehajm said...

I didn’t know how to pronounce coveffe until now

Jaq said...

Is there one where one person hears “Murderous drug gang MS-13” and another person hears “Every immigrant ever”?

Birches said...

I loled.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Ann Althouse said...

Imagine how fantastically cool it would have been if the Obama White House had played a social media that well.

Or economics. Or foreign policy. Or race relations. Or Supreme Court nominations. Or healthcare. Or gun trafficking. Or national security. Or immigration. Or faithfully executing the duties of the office of the President. Or umbrellas.

readering said...

I hear yaMmy

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

When asked, members of the MSM said either 'Stormy' or 'Collusion'

wwww said...


The blue/gold dress was fun.


"it so quickly got Harry-and-Meghan old"

Is there a blog boycott of Harry and Meghan? I'm tired of "breaking American scandal news!!!" I prefer the royal wedding stuff to the scandal/Russia stuff.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

If he didn't have such a good sense of humor he would have been driven mad by Washington by now. So different to have a president now who is serious about foreign policy and border security and jocular about pop culture and battling in the realm of ideas. The last guy was totally unserious about foreign policy (or perhaps just hated America) and too damn invested in weakening border security and surrounding himself with pop culture icons to share in their limelight.

Geoff Matthews said...

Remember when Clinton's campaign staff did the mannequin challenge?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkiMgBQFIJU

This is as harmless as picking March Madness teams.

Vance said...

I loved Sarah Sander's dig at CNN. That was the best for me.

Jim S. said...

I hear "jelly".