Move over ‘Yanny or Laurel’, here’s Grover dropping the F-bomb on Sesame Street

Remember that whole ‘Yanny or Laurel’ debate of 2018? That was the audio trickery where people were pretty evenly divided over whether an audio clip clearly said ‘Yanny’ (wrong) or ‘Laurel’ (correct). Coming years after that infamous ‘The Dress’ debate, folks were pretty split as to their opinions.

Now, it seems like there might be a new entrant into the world of viral Internet debates, all thanks to Sesame Street.

Taking to Reddit yesterday, a user posted a video of beloved character Grover ostensibly dropping the f-bomb. Check out the video for yourself below.

Check out Grover on Sesame Street:

Seems innocent enough, right? Well, while Grover is actually saying “yes, yes, that sounds like an excellent idea”, many people are hearing it as the rather explicit, “yes, yes, that’s a fucking excellent idea.”

Now, logically we know that Grover is saying the former phrase, but once you hear the latter, it becomes rather easy to switch between the two.

So what’s actually going on? Well, firstly it’s worth noting that the only reason we’re hearing such a confusing phrase is because the words are actually slurred somewhat by Grover’s voice actor. However, the most basic explanation for this debate is the power of suggestion.

As it turns out, the power of suggestion can be pretty powerful. Have you ever heard those stories about famous rock bands putting ‘satanic’ backwards messages in their music?

Once you play the record in reverse, it sounds pretty nonsensical, but once your friend tells you that Led Zeppelin are actually summoning the dark lord, you can become a firm believer in this concept pretty quickly.

Basically, the same thing is going on here. Had you watched this now-infamous Sesame Street clip when it was on TV, you likely wouldn’t have realised there way anything wrong with it. However, thanks to the Internet, it looks like we’re closing out 2018 with another furious audio debate. Bring on 2019!

Check out an analysis of the ‘Yanny or Laurel’ debate:

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