Yanny Vs Laurel Explained

Are we going nuts? Where is the audio clip originally from? And what’s up with folks who hear both?

- Jasmine Teo

It’s the audio version of the Great Dress Debate. And just like the white-and-gold/blue-and black frock of 2015, the viral audio clip that’s resulted in the Yanny-Laurel dispute is tearing up the Internet, dividing families, and ruining friendships. It all began innocuously enough when American social media influencer Cloe Feldman posted the audio clip and polled her 1mil Instagram followers (and cross-posted it to her 211k Twitter followers): “What do you hear? Yanny or Laurel?” with a four-second clip of a computer-generated voice making a two-syllable, well, let’s just call it an utterance for now. It sounds like Yanny to some, and Laurel to others. (It’s Yanny, obviously! Agree, all you logical human beings?) One colleague even claims to hear both. Insert eye-rolling emoji. So what the hell is going on, and why on earth is this happening to us once again? Where is the audio clip originally from? We cull theories from the weird and wonderful place called the Internet, currently divided into two factions in the Great Internet Meltdown of 2018.

01 It has to do with age.