Bouncing DVD Logo

Confirmed 111,053

About

Bouncing DVD Logo, or DVD Screensaver, refers to the animated screensaver commonly found on American DVD players, in which the DVD Video logo bounces to different parts of the screen and changes color. Online and in pop culture, people brag and joke about seeing the logo land perfectly in the corner of the screen.

Origin

The bouncing DVD logo was introduced by the international organization DVD Forum^[6] and DVD Format/Logo Licensing Corporation^[7], a Tokyo-based international company established in 2000 with the purpose of standardizing the DVD format.

Spread

While the bouncing DVD player logo could be found in any home with a DVD player, the bouncing logo gained notoriety when it became the subject of a popular cold open on the America television sitcom The Office. On the fifth episode of season four, entitled "Launch Party^[2]," the cast hovers around a TV playing the bouncing logo in hopes of witnessing the logo hit the corner, making jokes about one character's claim that they saw it when they were alone. The episode aired on October 11th, 2007.

On June 22nd, 2008, YouTuber unpoppedcollar uploaded the video "The science behind the perfect DVD screensaver corner bounce" to YouTube. in the video, following the brief clip from The Office, several men assert that the DVD logo hits the corner every "three-and-a-half minutes." The video has received more than 126,000 views.

On November 10th, 2012, the website BouncingDVDLogo.com launched, allowing users to watch the bouncing DVD logo online.^[5]

Videos of the logo hitting the corner have been very popular on Reddit as well. On October 15th, 2016, Redditor coneballs15^[4] posted the video "When the DVD logo hits the corner," garnering more than 22,700 points (77% upvoted) and 990 comments. The video is a 10 second clip of a rowing team on a bus cheering for a corner hit. Uploaded by YouTuber Gurt Skrt on June 25th, it has received more than 982,000 views.

Mathematical Properties

On September 30th, 2013, software engineer Bill Green posted an explanation of the math behind the bouncing DVD logo on his blog.^[3] In his entry he discovers, among other things, that it is possible to determine when it will hit the edge, as well as:

When you hit a corner, you will hit a different corner before hitting the same one again, etc.

You can never hit 1, 3 or 4 corners, always 2 or 0.

It’s a loop, at some point it will always repeat.

2018 Resurgence

On November 30th, 2018, YouTuber SpartaYoshi posted edited footage of English football fans excitedly watching an international football match at a crowded bar. In the edit, the sportscast on the screen is replaced with the bouncing DVD animation.

On December 2nd, 2018, Redditor^[8] B45M5N posted the video to /r/funny subreddit, where it gained over 111,000 upvotes in three weeks. On December 5th, Instagram^[9] user yupanthony posted an Etika Reaction Parody meme featuring the screensaver. The post gained over 232,000 views within three weeks.

On December 6th, YouTuber PewDiePie^[10] featured the yupanthony's edit along with several reaction videos from previous years in his Meme Review video. In the following days, several more bouncing DVD edits were posted by Instagram users, including popular versions by willmakememes4food^[11] and IGotSilver^[12].

On December 9th, YouTube^[13] user Memetastic launched a bouncing DVD logo live stream with a counter for corner hits. The original stream gained over 7,6 million views before being relaunched on December 16th^[14] and then on December 22nd^[15]. As of December 27th, 2018, the DVD logo hit a combined total of 465 corners during the broadcasts.

On December 15th, 2018, Redditor^[16] jol_cesar posted a labeled image of DVD screensaver to /r/dankmemes subreddit (shown below, left). The post gained over 2,900 upvotes in 10 days. On December 16, Redditor^[17] ryzikx posted another labeled meme to /r/memeeconomy subreddit, referring to the template as "DVD Screensaver Hits Corner" (shown below, right).

In the following days, more versions of the meme appeared on /r/dankmemes, /r/2meirl4meirl and other subreddits.

On February 10th, 2019, indie developer RoomsForRockets released free-to-play video game titled Bouncing DVD: The Game on Steam. ^[18] As of February 12th, the game maintained a positive rating with 26 votes.