Ever since we stumbled on dvdp, a site devoted to seriously creative animated gif art, we’ve been checking in to see what leaps of techno-brilliance gif-makers have come up with. (There’s a great animated video of the gif’s history here). After the jump you’ll find a play on one of Michelangelo’s most famous images in the Sistine Chapel, cleverly hacked and giffed. We find this gif silly, funny, risqué, full of charm for the crazy imaginativeness of it. It’s been taken down from a couple of sites, so peep at your own risk. (dvdp has posted an interesting dialogue that’s grown up around it, about notions of taboos, which we think are always worth questioning. Wrote dvdp: “I still don’t get it. Priests are working everyday safely under such images.” ).

As for posting it here, we remembered that the word risqué comes from the French “to risk”. Risking is something we think worth at least considering so we’re going with it. (Worrying that it would be “too much”, we almost held back on posting The Scar Project…And it proved to be a hugely popular post.)

…(If you don’t see the gif below moving, click here.)

Yesterday I’ve put this gif to the featured ones, and today it was removed from there. Violent and disgusting/disturbing images are OK (you’ll find a lot of them even on the first page), but this harmless funny one NOT? I don’t get it. I would be...

The question is: Why is this funny?  And the other question is: Why is this taboo?

What do you think?

Related posts: happy valentine’s day ’12 from ‘the improvised life’
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‘gif wrap’ + six strategies for cool, cheap gift wrap (d-i-y)
reminder: shooting stars all around us (gif)
run with style!
find your alter ego while we’re gone!
color/pattern meditation break

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4 replies on “peep show gif: funny, risqué, slightly x-rated

  1. Can’t…stop…laughing!!!!! *breath* *breath*
    So many reasons!
    1) boys are told starting at a very young age to stop touching there winkies in public
    2) It’s an iconic image
    3) It’s ‘God’ playing with his winkie
    4) It’s a winkie!

  2. Thanks a million for this. It seems we’ve got a mashup of iconic image, juvenile mindset and winkies. Come to think of it, if you compare it to the original, it appears to be God playing with someone else’s winkie – even better.

  3. I am shocked, shocked, to discover dick-flicking on my favorite website! This is jactitudinous! Is that the word I want? I’m so confused, and that’s highly
    uncharacteristic. Why is it taboo, you ask? As if!! Why is it funny? Everything dicky is funny. Beer is not beer. It’s pee-pee dicky! I have to go now, to look at my high school yearbook….

  4. This represents the best of Monty Python irreverent type humour! This is hysterical for the same reason they are forever funny. LOVE IT!!

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