Funny T-Shirts

Holy Toast!
The Miracle Bread Stamper

For me the most suspicious thing is that elaborate measures were taken to prevent the curious from downloading the actual clip and looking at it closely. The second most suspicious is that if I were actually able to pull of such a stunt it would be after lots and lots of practice and I would NOT skimp on the videography and would be wearing something presentable. In other words, why have crappy hand-held video of a practice session? If you can *really* do the stunt, you would want it to be as slick as possible.

"In other words, why have crappy hand-held video of a practice session? If you can *really* do the stunt, you would want it to be as slick as possible."

I agree. Further, if it's a legitimate stunt, why not set up an extra camera or two at different angles?

i think it is real, when she start to pass through the hoop, you can see her left leg reflected in the glass, the reflex can be seen at the same size that her real left leg.
this only can happen if she is passing by very close from the glass.

I watched the clip and happened to pause it as she was "passing" through the hoop. The hoop is visible behind her back but not on her shirt. Even though she is wearing a white shirt, the same shade as the hoop - surprise! - there is no shading from the hoop cords on her shirt. And, if she indeed did go through the hoop, how do we know it was a regulation hoop? The clip is of such low quality the shading of the hoop cords might be there and just not visible. I haven't been on a basketball court in years, but that backboard looks larger than I remember compared to the people in front.

Yep, this is really fake, and it doesn't appear that anyone spent very much time on it. The framerate is very low, presumably because it's a streaming video, but actually the framerate is kept low to avoid actually having to edit any video. There's exactly one frame where you can see her actually interacting with the basket, and, funny thing, it appears the rim has blurred and her body is being peirced by the basket, as there is person where rim should be. They didn't even take the time to edit the *one* image where you see her touching the rim. Fake. Fakefake.

It appears the video is showing more frames when playing than when seeking, so there appear to be more frames where she's interacting with the basket. So they may have spent a little more time on it than I first thought.

I also forgot to mention how I think it was filmed. The people were shot throwing the girl with no basket, then the basket was shot by itself and the two videos were composited and then edited to look more realistic. This should have been easy because of the indoor environment, the lighting is extremely controllable. There are other ways it could have been done, but this seems to be the easiest and fastest.

They could have done a better job on the editing, as it doesn't look very real in slow motion, but it probably wasn't a very big deal to whomever was working on it.

Who cares it is fukin' funny

its real. period. if you keep zooming in it allows you to look at more frames. when her feet first go in, the hoop swooshes to the right(the direction her feet are going), but as her head comes through, the hoop swooshes to the left(the direction her head is going). how could you fake the hoop switching directions. even if you could, who would think of doing that. as for them not showing their feet, its probably because they dont want you to see the mats they have incase they mess up.

Looks real to me too. Made a gif anmation just to see for myself

http://www.aoox77.dsl.pipex.com/1/b1.gif

The diameter of a basketball hoop is 18". The diameter across an typical economy airline seat is 17"

Absosmurfly fake. Ain't it amazing that all of the frames are nice and crisp EXCEPT when her head is going through the rim; except some of the picture of the cheerleader is very clear. Poor photoshop job.

i am a cheerleader and it is defintly possible for someone to do that.have any of you EVER been to a cheerleading competition?they do some crazy things and this video is like nothing compared to competiton...so yeah.its real.

Kayla said:

"i am a cheerleader and it is defintly possible for someone to do that.have any of you EVER been to a cheerleading competition?they do some crazy things and this video is like nothing compared to competiton...so yeah.its real."

Kayla, your logic is flawed. The fact that you have seen some interesting and/or dangerous things done during a cheerleading competition does NOT prove that THIS particular thing WAS done as it appears.

Have you ever seen someone do, in real life, what seems to be happening in this video? Even that wouldn't prove that it happened for real in the video, but it would prove that it COULD have happened.

This is why I strongly think that logic and critical thinking (along with media literacy) need to be taught in school.

The clip is great, very funny and entertaining but I want to explain a few things that many of you may not know. This was shot most likely on digital video then was manipulated in one or more of various applications such as After Effects, Shake or Maya. The final video that you see is a highly compressed version of the original, not to mention that it is playing as a Flash movie (prohibits saving) as opposed to playing in QuickTime. Without a doubt, this is a fake. The average person that may come across this video would be amazed at what can be done with computers.

Ok I've watched this bad boy a few times... True or fake? Here's my take...

Can this be done? You bet. Some of the more adept and light cheerleaders are able to flip on top of high targets (2 man high pyramids, etc.)

A hoop is just another target - IF you can get high enough and if the guys are the right distance... The girl looks up to see if she is far enough ahead of the basket because she knows that's her target. Her doubt is if the guys can boost her that high, not if she can hit the target.

Fact is, 4 guys who are not basketball players are able to boost an even tinier girl (she is very small) up high enough to do the flip, so long as she sets herself up to basically do a dismount on the hoop.

The physics of the piece is flawless, except for two things... One, I realized she clamps her arms down to slow her spin - but that was the real danger. I entirely expected to see her lose a finger... and yes, BTW that gets rid of the entire 'she hit the net on the way down' thing... She is looking at her feet and the target, not the left to 'tap' the basket... pulling the net at that speed is like grabbing a tree branch whie riding in a school bus... good way to dislocate something...

Dollars to donuts judging by her physical conditioning she's a stellar high dive as well. That plus cheerleading skill would make it entirely possible that she'd be able to straighten out for a straight-through...

The odds of a gymnast being able to do all of the right things on a fake is unlikely. If they know they are not going through a hoop, but just trying to make it 'look' like it, they would not be careful enough to get everything right. A whole lot more things happen when you know you could really get hurt... although if worse came to worse, she'd probably just try to land on the spring base and hope it didn't break...

And yeah, the one thing that is not fake is that she is HOT.

Fake? tough call... depends on what it's shot with... off the cuff, I noticed double rims in a few frames... trouble is, if this thing was shot with a MiniDV (which I believe it was, considering the amount of light in the frame with zoom) then fast movement of the camera will pick up the vibrations of the gym lights (try taking a digital picture of something lit up by flourescent light while moving the camera to smear the image and you will see what I mean..)

A MiniDV would also explain the ability to focus on the part of her body not swinging (torso, center of weight) vs the legs which are basically what is spinning her around. They smear the legs - you don't need PS to do that...

I'd love to hear the story behind this footage, and also find out if these folks got paid well for it...

If you stop the frames by right clicking in the picture and then clicking on "forward" or "back", you can call the frame where her feet seem to touch the top of the hoop frame 1. Now forward to frames 6 and 7.
In frame 6 you can see that the net is pushed to the right and extends down below her knees. In frame 7 look at where her left hand is. It would have to be sticking thru the netting the way I see it. That would have been catastrophic!

They should have had her hold her arms over her head if real or fake. I think I did see a reflection in the glass and I can't see any indication that see is not passing thru the hoop except for the hand position. Very impressive. Fake.

I think all you have to do is watch the guys at the beginning of the video. They continually look up, like they're judging the distance to the hoop..."aiming", if you will.

Follow their sight lines, though. They're all looking at least 5 feet to the left of where the basket actually is.

Good video editing...but thats all.

OK, I have taught cheerleading for twenty years and cheered on a national championship college team.

This is fake.

For those of you cheerleaders out there that want to somehow think this is real just because it is "cool", think about it.

You would have to:
a) stop your rotation from the tuck, would would be a pretty impressive slap in the face to the laws of physics, or
b) you would have to time your rotation like that of a pole vaulter or high jumper going over a bar so that your feet, legs, hips, torso, shoulders and head would rotate through the hoop. One problem with that. You get one shot. Either you make it, and get this cool video or you miss it and tear up your face so bad you wouldn't be recognizeable. Don't forget.. if you over rotate, you're going to have a 10-gauge wire hoop ramming itself through the back of your head. Woops, that didn't work... next girl?

It's a cool video that got people talking. But don't believe for a minute that it's real.

This was filmed at the univeristy of st thomas in saint paul, they were on the radio the other morning talking about this and claim that its legit. For whatever thats worth - the authors are claiming its real.

You can see her aiming her feet for the basket, there is an obvious reflection of her shoes, then her legs, then her shorts and body as she passes the glass; the net follows her body to the right and her head to the left as she passes through; and the rim moves when her head hits it. If that's fake, I'll be very surprised.