For years now, there's been a lot of digital ink spilled over the risk of looking unintentionally silly while isolated in a virtual reality headset and how that lack of "cool" will affect the use of the resurgent technology (VR Subway Guy notwithstanding). If you want to look intentionally silly while wearing a VR headset, though, it's hard to do better than wearing a Samsung Gear VR headset without the phone or faceplate attached. As the above gallery shows, the result is an instant bug-eyed monster look that we've been told evokes everything from the Mars Attacks! aliens to Disney fair Bobble to a Thumb Wars thumb to Bubbles from the Trailer Park Boys.

Using the Gear VR as a pair of googly-eyed goggles isn't a new phenomenon. The picture that inspired this collection came from the header image for a Gizmodo review of the Gear VR Innovator Edition that ran almost a year ago (but which we just stumbled upon recently). A few other reviewers had a similar idea around the same time, apparently. Somehow, this look failed to become a widespread meme at the time.

Now that the Gear VR is finally available as a consumer-facing product , though, we think it's time for the "Gear Boggles" look (Special thanks to Nick Horowitz for coining the term ) to spread across the Internet like wildfire. We tried to kick off that process yesterday by reaching out on Twitter to find people willing to model their horrific goggle eyes through the lenses of their Gear VR headset.

We got a few bites, as shown in the above gallery, and we can only hope it doesn't end there. The GearBoggles look continues a proud tradition of meme-worthy VR photo collections, from White Guys Wearin' Oculus Rifts (featuring yours truly) to the old Googly-Eyes-on-a-Rift gag (as our own Lee Hutchinson never gets tired of modeling). Not since the immortal N-Gage sidetalkin' has there been a piece of technology so ripe for silly photos.

Gear VR owners should feel free to add their own GearBogglin' pictures using the below comment thread or by posting with #GearBoggles on social media. Be warned, though, the Gear VR lenses were not designed to be used this way, and the flash from a camera can be extremely bright when your eyes are exposed through the headset. Hey, sometimes it hurts to look this good...

Listing image by Kyle Orland