Rotating a Cow in Mind

Submission 38,608

About

Rotating a Cow in Mind refers to a viral tweet humorously describing the concept of mental rotation through an example of creating a mental image of a cow being rotated in one's mind. Posted in January 2021, the tweet became a subject of cultural references, with users creating memes about rotating a cow in one's mind and about mental rotation as a whole.

Origin

Mental rotation refers to the ability to rotate mental representations of two- and three-dimensional objects in one's mind.^[1] The ability of individuals to rotate objects in their minds has been a subject of scientific interest, with the inability to perform the task being a symptom of aphantasia.

On July 8th, 2015, Tumblr^[2] user itwashotwestayedinthewater made the first humorous post based on the concept of mental rotation. The post received over 37,000 likes and reblogs in six years (shown below).

The post saw spread online in the following years. For example, on July 2nd, 2018, Redditor^[3] Starbucks-Hammer posted a screenshot of the post to /r/tumblr, where it gained over 260 upvotes in six months.

On January 31st, 2021, Twitter^[4] user @AynRandy made a post in which he wrote that in case of boredom one could entertain themselves by rotating a cow in their mind without fear of being persecuted by police. The post received over 43,300 retweets and 306,800 likes in eight months (shown below).

Spread

The tweet inspired multiple memes referencing the idea of rotating a cow in one's mind in the following months. On February 4th, 2021, voice actor Gianni Matragrano posted an impression of Krusty the Clown giving the advice, with the video accumulating over 610,000 views on YouTube^[5] and 42,700 smiles on iFunny^[6] in eight months (shown below).

On February 14th, 2021, Tumblr^[7] user depsidase shared a screenshot of the tweet, with users disgustinganimals, nyx-has-rocks and naamahdarling engaging in a humorous exchange. The post received over 105,000 likes and reblogs in eight months, with screenshots of the post and exchange widely circulated on Reddit^[8] and other sites (shown below, left).

On May 12th, Instagram^[9] user unfriendlymemepage posted a How Are You So Small meme referencing the concept of mental rotation and aphantasia. The post gained over 11,600 likes (shown below, right).

More posts referencing the tweet and the concept of mental rotation were posted in Spring 2021, with the How Are You So Small version experiencing a spike in popularity in October 2021.