What's Wrong With This Picture?
From Screamer Wiki
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This page is about a screamer or shock site, whose original copy has been deleted. |
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What's Wrong? or What's wrong with this image? was an infamous internet screamer created by 'Jaybill McCarthy', originally hosted on his personal website "Jaybill" in early 2002, late 2001.[1] Many copies have since began to appear on the internet, and it was an early example of E-mail chainmail/chainletter pranks.
Content
The animation itself disguises as a normal stock photo of a dining room, depicting an open window, table, chairs, paintings, and flowers - the person is asked to find something wrong in it. However, there are no actual errors in it, and after about 30 seconds, the screen cuts into an inverted picture of an eyeless woman with a wide mouth, accompanied by audio of a man screaming. The animation repeats afterward,
The screamer face itself originated from gettyimages[2], and was created by 'Gandee Vasan' in 1998 as a stock photo based on "The Scream" by Edvard Munch. This stock image was also used (albeit edited) for the 2001 movie "Maniacts." Jaybill himself doctored the original stock photo into it's infamous screamer form associated with this prank.[3]
History
NOTE: This section is about the histories (and the rise) of WWWTP.
The Screamer gained traction rather quickly, with 5,000 page views an hour (6 million per month) shortly after it's release. Ironicially enough, many viewer did not get the "joke" the first time so the creator Jaybill made an alternate version of the screamer titled the "observationally impaired" edition with a bunch of added text pointing out all the things it wasn't, then warned the viewer the scare was coming with big arrows saying "this is it! this is what is wrong! the original image was just to deceive you!"[4]
In February 2002, Funshack released their own screamer, which featured a living room and the need to figure out what's wrong with it; after 10 seconds, a mouse (from Liquid Generation's Optical Illusion) appears with a shriek.[5] A Spanish version of the original was released in March 2002 by Jaca101 on the website Jaca101.com.[6] Another comparable version also exists, but there are no links to it, though ScreamerCentral uses the .swf file as a showcase video for “What's Wrong?”, which can be accessed here.[7] Liquid Generation made a series of WWWTP in April 2002, only 3 animations were made altogether. from April to December, many copies began to appear, though most of them were deleted.
Weasel Circus also created their own version of WWWTP in 2003, in 2009 Amendia uploaded a YouTube video which have reached over 1.7 million views, WikiHow also used the screamer as a reference to “Internet Screamers”.[8] though many screamers like this began to appear, but they aren’t well-known in the new era.
Impact
The animation has been reuploaded on multiple websites including YouTube, where it has gained many views. The screamer has also been featured on TV shows like America's Funniest Home Videos (also used there as a substitute screamer for Regan MacNiel in The Maze). Screamers of this kind became more and more popular as they began to circulate on the Internet. A few more examples of this are What's wrong with this picture?, Zoeken, Forest-wmv and Basement Ghost.
Interestingly enough, the very first screamer reaction video on the internet may have originated alongside this screamer. Jaybill posted article in mid 2002 of a video someone reacting to his screamer on his website, the subject of the video being "Jose."[9]
References
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20020317063912/http://www.jaybill.com/article.php?articleID=49
- ↑ https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-woman-screaming-close-up-royalty-free-image/BD4381-001
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20020716184225/http://www.jaybill.com/article.php?articleID=57
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20020802050810/http://www.jaybill.com/article.php?articleID=79
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20070704220607/http://www.funshack.com/scary.html
- ↑ web.archive.org/web/20020329184718oe_/jaca101.com/efectooptico.swf
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXWOti9M3ek
- ↑ WikiHow's "Recognize an Internet Screamer Video"
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20020609151218/http://jaybill.com/article.php?articleID=94
Links
NOTE: The following animation contains a screamer!
- tekzoned.com/whatswrong/
- Raw .swf:
winterrowd.com/whatswrong/whats-wrong.swf - Rum Design .swf Archive: web.archive.org/web/20050514064626/rumdesign.com/wrong/wrong.swf
winterrowd.com/whatswrong- Raw .swf from TekZoned: tekzoned.com/whatswrong/whatswrong.swf
- Showcase Video: youtube.com/watch?v=f0VXgx1tegk
- Where the face is used in The Maze instead of Regan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZKZa9bwhnA&t=27s, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWKuearEGfE