Lightning, car wrecks, demolished video equipment, and a bunch of people falling down. It's been quite a week. Vote, and help us decide the greatest animated GIF of the week.
Hello, everyone, and welcome once again to THIS WEEK IN GIFs, the every-Friday series in which I present the week's best animated GIFs, and you vote on the winner. Week 10, I confess, offers only seven GIFs instead of eight. There just wasn't an eighth GIF I found that was worthly of inclusion. I promise, though, that this week's offering more than makes up for it in terms of quality.
Before we get to the GIFs, though, I'd like to give you a brief MMA lesson. Watch as Dan and Isaac pick their favorite GIFs, and I show you how to execute MMA moves such as "punch" and "submission":
IN RUSSIA, CARS RUN OVER YOU!
Every news story I read about this simply called him a "Russian reporter" or "young reporter." After 10 minutes of searching I still couldn't dig up his actual name. Thanks to the GIF and the absolute dearth of context it provides, we now have tons of these nameless cult heroes, and I would imagine that we have better odds of learning the Tienanmen Square tank guy's identity than we have of ever hearing the name of this dude.
Anyway, this reporter sustained only minor injuries and is apparently fine. I wouldn't want to worry any minglers at the Neighborhood Animated GIF Block Party you're doubtlessly holding every Friday night.
POWWWW
(Click image to view. Via @bubbaprog)
This is from the MLB Futures Game. Thank God the camera broke. If we had seen any more footage from the future, it would have ripped the space-time continuum, All-Star Weekend would have been ruined, and the Chicago Yankees and St. Petersburg Giants would have had to play the Blurold Series in a neutral location (the home-field rule has been implemented in every alternate universe, as well).
RANGERS-TWINS GAME INTERRUPTED BY LIGHTNING STRIKE
(Via Baseball Nation)
In June of 1846, the first official baseball game was played. In Arlington, Texas, 166 years later, it finally happened. Roy Oswalt looked in. Ryan Doumit awaited the 1-2 pitch. And then they both realized it, and at exactly the same instant as everyone else: baseball is boring. There are almost never any slam dunks. Let's go play basketball.
KYRIE IRVING IS NOT ON TEAM USA, SCHOOLS TEAM USA
(Click image to view. Via @cjzero)
This is a cool GIF, whether you care about context or not. If you do, this is Kyrie Irving fighting his way through Team USA's full-court defense, shaking Kobe twice along the way. If you don't, given the unusual full-court press and the weird FIBA-ish basketball, it looks like a half-finished idea for a sport that they play in the background of a movie about the future.
ANDERSON SILVA/CHAEL SONNEN
Welp, the UFC has decided that it can't bear the notion of an animated GIF of their product being on the Internet, so this has been taken down. Sorry, friends.
LOL BRYCE HARPER
(Click image to view. Via @bubbaprog)
This isn't a wildly unusual GIF, but it got so much play this week that I couldn't not include it.
TIGERS ARE COMPLETELY RUINED BY A POP-UP BUNT
(Via Jeff Sullivan's Week In Worst)
lol
VOTE!