LAB31

Today is National Bobblehead day but we REALLY don’t want to talk about that.

Instead, let’s talk about the fact that today marks 131 years since Thomas Edison created the world’s first copyrighted film, which was a very short film of someone sneezing.

Behold the original!

Consider this an experiment in the limitations and abilities of current text-to-video models, or see it as an avant garde commentary on copyright, or perhaps recognize it as the shadow of the “bobblehead yourself” experience you’re not having right now (WE’RE NOT BITTER!)…

However you view it, please enjoy this exploration of various models’ rendition of the very advanced prompt “kinetiscopic film of someone sneezing.”

Could we have been more specific in our prompting? Sure. Are we sorry about what you’re about to see as a result of our haphazard late-night efforts? Not at all. (We love you!!!!)

Let the wild sneezing rumpus begin!

Sora

Google Veo

Runway

Luma Dream Machine

Kling

MiniMax

Haiper

Our awards:

Most Vintagey: Sora

Casting Closest to the OG: Google VEO

Most Likely to Haunt Our Nightmares: Kling

Reminds Us Most of a Pharma Ad: Google Veo

Closest to the Cover of A Little Life: Runway

Best Dramatic Use of Fluids: Sora

Most Like An Out-of-Context Actor from a Porn Scene: Minimax

Participation Trophy: Haiper (bonus points for that weird ass hand!)

These are funny and stupid, yes. But also, we read this article from Wait But Why years ago and it still haunts us. The timescale between “haha how silly!” and “What even IS reality?????” is shorter than we think.

But whatever, we’re sorry we didn’t give you bobbleheads.