Overview
For about five minutes in May 2018, the internet stopped doing whatever it was doing and started arguing with itself over a tiny robotic voice.
Some people heard “Yanny.”
Other people heard “Laurel.”
And somehow, both sides were completely convinced the other side needed their ears checked.
- FIRST SEEN May 2018
- PLATFORMS Instagram, Reddit, X (Twitter)
- 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
What Was Yanny or Laurel?
Yanny or Laurel was a viral audio illusion built around a short pronunciation clip of the word “laurel.” The original audio came from Vocabulary.com, where actor and opera singer Jay Aubrey Jones had recorded thousands of word pronunciations years earlier.
The weird part was that when the clip was re-recorded and shared online, it became distorted enough that listeners split into two camps:
- “Laurel” people heard a lower, clearer voice.
- “Yanny” people heard a higher, slightly gremlin-like version.
- A few smug people claimed they could hear both, because of course they did.
It was basically The Dress, but for ears.
Where Did Yanny or Laurel Come From?
The trail starts in Georgia, with a high school student named Katie Hetzel. In May 2018, she was studying vocabulary for school and looked up the word “laurel” on Vocabulary.com. When she played the pronunciation, she heard “yanny” instead.
She shared it on Instagram, where classmates started testing it on each other. Then another student, Fernando Castro, reposted it as a poll. From there, Reddit user RolandCamry posted it to r/blackmagicfuckery on May 12, 2018.
Then YouTuber Cloe Feldman posted it on Twitter/X on May 15, asking: “What do you hear?! Yanny or Laurel.” That was the version that pushed it into full mainstream internet argument territory.
Examples
The Quick Timeline
- 2007: Jay Aubrey Jones records “laurel” for Vocabulary.com.
- May 11, 2018: Katie Hetzel hears “Yanny” while studying.
- May 12, 2018: The clip reaches Reddit.
- May 15, 2018: Cloe Feldman posts it on Twitter/X.
- May 16, 2018: Newsrooms, scientists, brands, and everyone’s group chats pile in.
A very normal week online, then.
Why Did Some People Hear Yanny and Others Hear Laurel?
The short version: frequency.
The “Yanny” sound lives more in the higher frequencies, while “Laurel” is stronger in the lower frequencies. Depending on your hearing, your speakers, your headphones, the volume, and even what word you expected to hear, your brain could lock onto one version over the other.
That’s why people could sometimes switch what they heard by:
- changing the pitch
- using different headphones
- playing it through phone speakers
- listening in a noisy room
- being told in advance what to expect
The original word was Laurel. But the viral version had enough distortion and ambiguity to make Yanny feel just as real to millions of people.
Why Did Everyone Become So Obsessed?
Because it was the perfect low-stakes internet fight.
Nobody had to know anything. Nobody needed context. You just pressed play and immediately had an opinion.
It also worked beautifully on social media because it was:
- instant — you could join the debate in seconds
- shareable — perfect for Twitter/X, Instagram, Reddit, and group chats
- personal — people treated their hearing result like a personality test
- argument-proof — both sides genuinely heard what they heard
It had the same magic as The Dress from 2015. One tiny piece of media. Two completely different experiences. Endless replies from people insisting they were obviously correct.
The Internet Reaction
The funniest thing about Yanny or Laurel was how quickly it became a social test.
People weren’t just saying what they heard. They were judging everyone else for hearing the “wrong” thing.
There were office polls. Family arguments. News anchors playing the clip live. Brands trying to make jokes. Scientists patiently explaining frequencies while half the internet ignored them and shouted “IT CLEARLY SAYS YANNY.”
Very 2018.
Did Yanny or Laurel Have a “Correct” Answer?
Technically, yes: the source recording says “Laurel.”
But the viral debate wasn’t really about the original file. It was about the distorted version that travelled through Instagram, Reddit, and Twitter/X. That version contained enough messy audio information for people to genuinely hear two different things.
So Laurel wins on origin.
Yanny wins on causing unnecessary problems.
Why It Still Gets Remembered
Yanny or Laurel lasted because it was simple, silly, and weirdly repeatable. It belonged to that era of internet culture where one strange post could jump from a classroom to Reddit to national news in a couple of days.
No big production. No influencer campaign. No carefully engineered trend.
Just a distorted vocabulary clip and millions of people quietly wondering whether their ears had betrayed them.
