X Doesn't Change Facial Expressions

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About

X Doesn't Change Facial Expressions is a series of animated GIFs created by compiling a series of individual's stillshots (or celebrity photos) and producing a montage in loop sequence. Much like Noah Kalina's Photo-a-Day project, the resulting artwork reveals a surprisingly consistent facial expression for each subject depicted.

Origins

The meme initially began as an epic group prank in the notorious SomethingAwful forums^[1]. In January 2003, SA forum user known Pitbull created a thread titled "Solve the Mystery of the Internet Whore, Win a Fabulous Prize." Recounting his midnight encounter with a flirtatious stranger "KSwizzle" on Instant Messenger, Pitbull called for a group investigation to reveal the true identity of "KSwizzle."

To make the long story short, SA users dug up an impressive collection of KSwizzle's photos, which was then compiled into a GIF animation. Aptly titled "Another Girl Who Doesn't Change Facial Expressions"^[2], the same GIF animation was eventually uploaded as a YTMND site in October 2005.

Spread

Lindsay Lohan Version & Internet Feud

In October 2005, a YTMND user SpliceVW created a site titled "Lindsay Lohan doesn't change facial expressions"^[3] which remains one of the most popular "Facial Expression" montages to this day. In January 2006, Lohan's version became the subject of interweb feud when eBaum's World^[4] hosted and watermarked the Lindsay Lohan GIF file without crediting either SpliceVW or YTMND. Somewhat inevitably, this action led to an online feud between the two communities, allegedly through posting spams and launching denial of service attacks.

Lohan GIF: thiz is teh poker face?

Since becoming a notable fad in the YTMND^[5] community, spinoff versions of "X Doesn't Change Facial Expressions" have been also created as flash animations and YouTube videos^[6]. The Swedish DJ Eric Prydz' 2004 house single "Call on Me"^[7] is frequently used as the background music.

President Obama Version

On September 24th, 2009, Vimeo user Eric Spiegelman uploaded a compilation of over 130 photographs of President Obama and the First Lady taken during the reception for foreign dignitaries held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Originally uploaded via U.S. State Department's Flickr^[8] page, the photo montage shows President Obama's ever-consistent smile throughout the night:

Barack Obama's amazingly consistent smile from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.

The video footage was also uploaded as a YTMND^[9] site two days later on September 26th, 2009.