Close Menu
    Subscribe
    Music & Audio Trends

    Yanny or Laurel – 2018’s Viral Audio Illusion

    A vocabulary-site pronunciation split the world: do you hear “Yanny” or “Laurel”?
    ViralTrendBy Updated:No Comments4 Mins Read

    Overview

    Yanny/Laurel is an auditory illusion built from a pronunciation recording of the word “laurel” on Vocabulary.com. When replayed and re-recorded in a noisy setting, the clip produced two stable perceptions: some listeners heard “Laurel” (lower frequencies), while others swore they heard “Yanny” (higher frequencies). The debate leapt from Instagram to Reddit to Twitter in hours, then into mainstream news and science explainers. Wikipedia
    • POPULARITY Vox Twitter poll drew 547,212 votes on May 15, 2018 (55.3% “Laurel” / 44.7% “Yanny”); Feldman’s tweet shows 180k+ RTs/160k+ likes (snapshot).
    • FIRST KNOW CREATOR Katie Hetzel (student who posted the clip); Cloe Feldman amplified via Twitter (May 15, 2018)
    • HASHTAGS #Yanny, #Laurel, #YannyOrLaurel

    How It Started

    The spark was Katie Hetzel, a Georgia high school student studying the word laurel who heard “Yanny” when she pressed the site’s audio. She shared it on Instagram (May 11, 2018); a classmate reposted as a poll; a friend (Redditor “RolandCamry”) uploaded it to r/blackmagicfuckery; and YouTuber Cloe Feldman then tweeted it to a massive audience on May 15, 2018. The underlying voice was later identified as Jay Aubrey Jones, who recorded thousands of entries for Vocabulary.com in 2007.

    • May 11, 2018: Hetzel’s Instagram Story (Flowery Branch HS, GA). WIRED

    • May 15, 2018: @CloeCouture tweet supercharges virality. X (formerly Twitter)

    • Voice talent: Jay Aubrey Jones (Vocabulary.com project). Vocabulary.com

    How It Spread

    The illusion rode a classic meme supply chain: closed social → Reddit → Twitter → press/science explainers. Within 24 hours, “Yanny” and “Laurel” amassed ~640k mentions on Twitter, and major outlets produced interactive tools that let users sweep the audio to hear both words. The White House and celebrities piled in, proving the format’s mainstream grip.

    • Mentions: “Yanny” (310k) + “Laurel” (330k) in first 24h (UK Standard). The Standard

    • NYT interactive slider reframed it as a perception demo. X (formerly Twitter)

    • Brand/government joins: White House “covfefe” video (May 17-18). The Guardian

    Examples

    Variations & Spin-offs

    The template-ambiguous stimulus + binary camps-spawned fresh illusions and crossovers. The “Brainstorm/Green Needle” toy clip (2018) surged as a sister meme, and outlets contrasted Yanny/Laurel with earlier perception battles like The Dress. Brands and even the U.S. Air Force attempted on-trend riffs; the latter drew backlash for an ill-judged wartime pun.

    • Brainstorm vs. Green Needle (2018).

    • Air Force tweet controversy (May 17, 2018).

    Why It’s Popular

    Yanny/Laurel lives on a perceptual boundary: listeners weight high vs low frequencies differently, so the same noisy clip yields two stable interpretations. That subjective certainty-paired with a one-tap participation prompt-drives playful argument and endless re-shares. Media tools (like the NYT slider) gave people a wow moment of flipping between both words, cementing its cultural foothold.

    By the Numbers

    While centralized counts vary, multiple platform snapshots convey scale. The Vox poll drew 547k+ votes in hours; UK press logged ~640k tweets across both keywords in the first day; Feldman’s tweet accrued hundreds of thousands of RTs/likes. Academic letters and blog analyses followed within months, showing the meme’s transition from novelty to case study.

    • 547,212 votes (Vox poll, May 15, 2018).

    • 310k “Yanny” / 330k “Laurel” mentions in 24h.

    Community / Ethics Notes

    The meme is largely benign, but institutional attempts to co-opt it can misfire; a U.S. Air Force tweet joking about combat noise prompted quick apologies. Coverage also underscores hearing-health realities: age-related high-frequency loss nudges perception toward Laurel, which shaped some online teasing-creators and editors should avoid ageist or ableist framing.

    How to Spot It

    Expect a short, looped audio clip posted with a bare question: “What do you hear?” Replies split into #Yanny and #Laurel teams, often with people insisting they cannot hear the other word. Posts frequently embed spectrograms, EQ screenshots, or the NYT slider to “prove” both sides.

    How to Recreate This Trend

    To ethically riff on it, start with a clean word recording, then introduce controlled noise or EQ shifts so different listeners weight frequencies differently. Share with a neutral either/or prompt and an interactive element (e.g., a pitch/EQ slider) so people can flip perceptions. Don’t misattribute sources-credit pronouncers/speakers and avoid deceptive edits that implicate real individuals.

    • Tools: DAW or mobile EQ; gentle high-shelf / low-shelf filters; mild compression; room re-record.

    • Post copy: “What do you hear? #YannyOrLaurel – try sliding the EQ.”

    Update Log

    This section records significant revisions or new information (e.g., updated participation totals, new academic evaluations of impact, or notable anniversary revivals). We’ll adjust figures and attributions if stronger primary sources emerge or if platforms release new analytics.

    • Dec 2007 — Jay Aubrey Jones records “laurel” for Vocabulary.com pronunciation project.

    • May 11, 2018 — Katie Hetzel posts the clip to Instagram after hearing “Yanny” while studying.

    • May 12–14, 2018 — Classmate Fernando Castro reposts as a poll; friend RolandCamry posts to r/blackmagicfuckery.

    • May 15, 2018 — Cloe Feldman tweets the audio; Vox runs a poll (547k+ votes: 55.3% Laurel / 44.7% Yanny).

    • May 16, 2018 — NYT launches the pitch-slider tool; Vox/TIME publish explainers.

    • May 17–18, 2018 — White House releases “covfefe” video; U.S. Air Force deletes a controversial meme tweet and apologizes. 

    • Dec 5, 2018 — JASA (Acoustical Society) letter demonstrates context/pitch effects with >500 participants. 

    Share.

    Related Posts

    Add A Comment
    Leave A Reply