50 Confusing Photos It Might Take Your Dumb Brain 10-15 Seconds To Figure Out

The brain sees what it wants to see. Usually, that results in seeing your average, everyday stuff. Cars in traffic, a familiar face, and, of course, thousands of spam emails.

But, occasionally, the brain will tell us that the sheet on our bed is an intruder or that the tree outside our house has a human face. Why is that? And why is it so funny when it’s a photo of something normal that makes it look like a person has baby legs or a dog’s face instead of a human one?

The answer is that your brain tells your eyes what to see and not the other way around. I don’t mean to confuse you. I saw Tenet recently and couldn’t explain what was actually going on even after reading 20 articles on entropy. However, I do think I have a handle on this subject.

Pictures that seem confusing and funny at first glance when you are playing to the top of your intelligence. Your ancestors survived by being able to recognize danger out in the wild. Now you see what might be a leopard hiding in your closet, but it’s actually some leopard print leggings that were a mistake. I’ll explain more below, but for now, let’s see what your brain can do with some confusing photos.

Here are some funny and confusing photos that your brain will take a few seconds to figure out:

1. No, sir. I don’t like it.

2. A floating towel or what?

3. Standing tall.

4. Not always a great idea to match your clothes.

Your brain wants to find patterns. I’m not saying what your eyes observe isn’t there. But, your brain isn’t some dull machine that takes in random visual stimuli like I sometimes feel when watching sports in my post-Thanksgiving meal food coma.

No. Your brain is an active participant in what you see. Your brain bases everything you see on previous information it has absorbed during your lifetime.

5. The world would be a happier place if what you saw were the case.

6. Another one in the wild.

7. Got a real Roger Rabbit situation here.

8. Sloths?

9. Man-baby but without photoshop.

10. Shrunken.

11. Is it a big concert?

12. Put your… whole body on my shoulder.

13. Ooo! Another dog. Wait.

14. You want to fight?

15. You should be helping her cook instead of taking photos.

16. It’s like the Coppertone logo but weirder.

In Bill Bryson’s latest book The Body, the author explains that not only are your eyes not the sole arbiter of what you see, but you never actually see the present moment. The amount of time it takes for outside visual information to hit your retinas and travel to your brain and actually be processed is about 1/5th of a second. Everything you see, including this sentence you’re skimming right now, is on a delay.

If you can’t even see things in real-time, how can you trust that you know what’s really happening?

Well, that’s another reason your brain jumps to conclusions. Your brain evolved to infer patterns before they actually even happen in the present. Sometimes, the brain goes too far and makes up the wrong message. That’s why a coat hanging on the closet door can become the Babadook.