Mr. Incredible Becoming Uncanny

Two faces of one character

The image is split by a vertical line. On the left, against a gray background, is a close-up of Mr. Incredible: light hair, a deep crease on his forehead, blue eyes and a calm, wide smile. The rendering is smooth, the colors are warm, and everything looks like a Pixar film.

On the right is the same angle, but the picture seems to have been run through a nightmarish filter: grainy black and white, deep shadows, one eye sunk into a black patch, a stretched and heavy face, and a strained smile. The character is still recognizable, but he looks as if he has been through something frightening.

How the image came about

According to an English-language meme encyclopedia, on October 15, 2020, a Twitter user with the handle CitizenPlain posted a set of “un-cartoonified” Incredibles characters: the official concept art of Mr. Incredible and, next to it, a version distorted by the StyleGAN neural network. That distorted version became the basis for the right half.

In November 2020 the image reached Reddit: on November 5 it was posted to r/blursedimages, and a few days later the first comparisons and parodies appeared, such as “a copy of the teacher and a copy of the student.” The format took off in 2021. On September 5, 2021, a Reddit user applied it to anime with the captions “Those who don't know” and “Those who know,” and from that point the template became widespread.

How the joke works

The left side shows an innocent, surface-level view of something, and the right side shows the view of someone who knows the details and is therefore shocked. What makes it funny is not the horror itself but the mismatch: the smile stays, but it becomes unsettling.

There are variations. In one, both images get captions with opposite tones; in another, the right half is left without a caption so the viewer can guess. A separate branch is videos of “Mr. Incredible becoming creepy,” in which the face gradually distorts to rising music. According to the same encyclopedia, one such YouTube video reached hundreds of thousands of views in late September 2021 and then spread to TikTok. Later a mirror version appeared, in which the character, on the contrary, “rises” with each frame.

Caption examples

Left: “Bought a subscription to the service, great price.” Right: “A month later, the renewal bill arrived.” The example works on the gap between the glossy ad and the fine print: the left panel is the promise, the right one the consequence.

Left: “The neighbor upstairs is playing the piano.” Right: “The neighbor upstairs is playing the piano at 3 a.m.” Only one detail changes, and that is enough: the right image amplifies it through exaggeration.

Left: “I see a post about cozy weekends.” Right: “I know I still have to assemble this wardrobe without instructions.” The contrast between the picture and reality makes the theme recognizable.

Left: “First day at the new job.” Right: “Third week. Now it all makes sense.” The caption places the character as someone who has seen behind the scenes.

Advice on use

The template works best when a situation has a clear other side that not everyone knows about. If there is no difference between the “before” and the “after,” the right image will look random.

Keep the left caption neutral and short, and put the scary part on the right: the viewer relaxes first and then gets hit. The meme is not tied to one topic, but it fits everyday trifles, work, study and fandoms especially well.