Hello, friend,, and welcome to Week 6 of THIS WEEK IN GIFs, in which we round up the best animated sporting GIFs from the last seven days and vote on our very favorites.
This Week In GIFs: Celebrating The Animated GIF’s 25th Birthday
Twenty-five years ago today, the animated GIF was born. Today we pay tribute to the rich man’s photograph/poor man’s YouTube by rounding up the best GIFs of the week. Vote, and help us determine the winner.
As our pals over at The Verge have noted, today is the 25th birthday of the animated GIF. This medium has provided us with so many moments, such as all those times the guy got hit in the wiener, the one time the guy caught a baseball, and the following eight GIFs, which we will vote on below.
First, though, some expert analysis. Here’s Matt Ufford, Dan Rubenstein, and myself breaking down this week’s field of competitors:
Polling will remain open until 11 p.m. ET Sunday night. GO!
THE BUMMER BRIGADE: PAT RILEY, ALONZO MOURNING
(Via @CorkGaines)
The Thunder are still a couple notches away from making me stop and say, “Wait, is ... is this a cult?” But a few alarms are sounding:
- Isolated geographical location
- People of different age groups who would normally probably dress very differently, all wearing the exact same thing
- People embracing a movement that is like four years old
- Slogans on shirts that read ONE THUNDER one day, WE ARE ONE FAMILY the next day
- Rhythmic dancing (kind of)
Four and a half reasons for concern. Anyway, this is a top-notch GIF that probably deserves to win. Zo's sad enough, but Pat Riley is wearing the sort of slanty-face normally reserved for emoticons. Along with that suit and expensive-looking glinting watch, there's a very THE WEALTH OF ALL MY NATIONS CAN'T PURCHASE ME A SMILE vibe going on.
Maybe they’re just pissed. Not because they wanted a ONE THUNDER shirt, but because nobody was thoughtful enough to offer them one.
HAPPY EURO 2012 KID
Here is my opinion on soccer.
(Via Ryan Rosenblatt)
RAJON RONDO IS SCOLDED
(Via Tom Ziller)
Goodbye, Mr. Rondo. You fall into the shadows of the crowd, and in Animated GIF Canon, you shall remain there until November. When the Animated GIF Hall of Fame expands in January 2013 to induct another class, you’ll certainly be high on the list.
CHRIS PEREZ SAVES GAME, THROWS UP EVERYWHERE
(Via Jeff Sullivan)
Oh God, he’s not Tebowing, is he? Oh no, he’s Tebowing. I’m so tired of this meme, it’s so-- oh wait, he’s just blowing chunks. Whew!
LEBRON AND WADE BEING AWESOME
(Via Tom Ziller)
Most of these GIFs deal with someone either a) doing something weird, or b) doing something stupid. Once in a while, we should probably give some love to c) players doing something awesome. I like both the Heat and the Thunder, which makes this year’s NBA Finals a supremely enjoyable series for me. It’s just a lot of really awesome basketball, undampened by something as dumb as “rooting interest.”
CHAD QUALLS FALLS OUT OF HIS OWN GIF
(Via Baseball Nation)
“Gee whiz! I’m in m’very own GIF! Holy moly! Hope I don’t-WHOOOP”
MATT CAIN’S PERFECT GAME ONE-UPPED BY JETPACK
Whew! Okay, it’s Wednesday night. The Stanley Cup Finals are over. The NBA Playoffs, which have been especially compelling and have stolen more of baseball’s thunder than they usually do, are finally taking a night off. Nothin’ but baseball tonight, m’man.
So this is just about the best possible night for Matt Cain to throw a perfect game. And not just a perfect game, but one of the very best pitching performances in baseball history. All eyes will be on this game. This is gonna be--
(Via Grant Brisbee)
--AWWWW A JETPACK ARE YOU FR**KING KIDDING ME
JOACHIM LOW IS A JERK
(Via @bubbaprog)
Special thanks to Matt Ufford for nominating this one. I’m not really a big fan of The O.C. but this was pretty good.
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