Getty Images Baboons

About

Getty Images Baboon refers to a series of short videos (often represented as GIFs) of a baboon or several baboons using office technology on a red background; the images also usually possess a Getty Images watermark. Since their discovery, the videos have been employed as embeddable reaction GIFs, usually on posts relating to feels.

Origin

Between December 2011 and February 2012, the photographers GK and Vikki Hart uploaded 48 different videos to Getty Images of a baboon and a group of baboons using office technology, like computers, flip phones, flip charts, and regular telephones. The baboons were depicted sitting at desks and meeting at conference tables.

The first instance of the images being removed from the stock photography context and used with the watermark as a humorous reaction image was by tumblr user risingtensions on April 15th, 2014, where a short GIF of the video labeled "Medium shot baboon holding stacks of money and making faces" was posted and received 538 notes as of September 1st, 2015.

Spread

At some point during late August, 2015, the videos from Getty began to appear on Twitter. The earliest known instance was a tweet by @BMacGoat on August 20th, 2015 which received 19,866 retweets and 16,230 favorites.

In addition the GIFs have been used commonly on tweets that have been posted to the /r/blackpeopletwitter subreddit, including one post on August 31st, 2015 by user red_45 that received 5,396 points (97% upvoted).

The Getty Baboons have also been catalogued by Gawker, Digg, Blavity, and more publications.

Search Interest

External References