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Viral
In December, a panda hidden among snowmen was shared like no other piece of content ever had been prior (sort of), and a new fad in viral news began.
The cartoon was drawn by Hungarian cartoonist Gergely Dudas, whose pen name is Dudolf, who told indy100 at the time:
The popularity of the 'panda' picture amazed me, I still can't believe it, but it makes me really happy! Glad to see how people like something I made.
Now, the latest in the trend is among us, right in time for the Academy Awards.
So - can you spot the Oscars statue among myriad C-3POs?
Scroll down for the answer.
The illustrator and designer of the image for mentalfloss, Mike Rogalski told indy100:
Noting the similarity of C3PO to the award statuette, I figured it might make for a good concept.
There wasn't any deliberate subtext to the illustration, it was devised as a straight-up visual puzzle, but as I was working on it I noted that the premise of this kind of puzzle depends specifically on the lack of visual diversity, which for me lent considerable irony to the underlying Oscar theme and the accompanying controversy, a bit of an inside joke.
The more eagle-eyed among you will notice that in the illustration, C-3PO has a red arm. Mike told us this was done with fidelity to the latest film:
In the latest film C3PO sports a red arm. I wanted the image to reflect the most current model, and I liked the occasional pop of colour that the red arms add to the overall effect.
I'm always intrigued by what kind of phenomena blow up and go viral, and with all the crazy online stunts and gimmicks vying for our attention, it seems kind of heartwarming that something like a simple optical teaser can generate so much attention. The response to the Oscar/C-3PO image has been beyond anything I could have imagined.
You can't orchestrate this kind of thing, it's completely organic.
So what did he make of The Force Awakens?
I have not seen the new film yet, but now I have a sense of connection to it, and will definitely go and pay tribute.
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