pause and rewind.

Earlier today, fatmanatee aka kevin called out the obviously fake video of the guy falling down while shoveling for being obviously fake. Good on you, sir manatee. WINKY FACE.

However, he ALSO posted this today:

fatmanatee:

moderation: I think this is faked. Someone threw that cat in. You can tell by the cats body language. And no cat would just run into a snowbank blindly.

we’re all snow video truthers now

later in the day, he updated his stance:

“WAIT, There’s something that briefly appears on the left side of the snow hole and then disappears. Is it a hand? Is anything real?”

upon further inspection of the original video, it is clear that there is something there. Kevin’s game is afoot.

HOWEVER.

in the description of the video, the video’s owner states:

No animal abuse here and no one throw the cat , it’s our dog you see behind the cat , not someone throwing the cat . We love our animals , so please stop your trolling comments ! The second video Sparta cat was edited to remove the dog because all people think it’s someone’s hand throwing the cat . Thanks to understand .



Here’s what we know:

1. First, this is just a really weird video. Seems very staged, doesn’t it? And even if the cat’s owner didn’t know that the cat would try to jump through the snowbank, her reaction in the full video definitely suggests a lack of surprise.

2. The existence of the second video, mentioned above, which is a remix of the original video with a sound track from the movie 300, has not been edited to remove the “dog,” as the uploaded claimed in the above comment, but to instead freeze the dog in place so that he doesn’t move away and draw attention to himself. I made a GIF from that video here:

How does this cat lady have access to video composition tools that could freeze a section of video and matte it in there? Seems rather suspicious, I’d say.

3. In the comments of both videos, there is already an email address to contact for licensing inquiries. Now, this is fairly common in today’s viral landscape. Every time a video starts to attract attention, the internet Slugworth basically starts whispering in your ear immediately. It happened to me with the burger on a windshield video that I made. Still haven’t seen a cent from that, by the way, but oh well. I was contacted pretty late in the game and the video only existed on instagram and tumblr, two things that are almost impossible to monetize. BUT, the existence of this licensing plan means that they’re at least aware of the money-making potential to be had here.

4. WHICH may make LYING about animal abuse something that we have a motive for.

5. What kind of dog watches a cat pull a miley cyrus through a snow bank and then WINCES AWAY LIKE A TIMID FOOL. EVERY DOG I KNOW WOULD RUN THROUGH IT VICTORIOUSLY. Or at least keep watching or something? right?

6. Nothing on the internet is real and everything is fake.

7. BUT DECIDE FOR YOURSELF!