Inside the 'They Are Huge' Craze: the Viral Clips and Evidence Behind It
By Sophia Al-Mansoor
A substantial portion of the clips anchoring the trend depicts genuine earthly wonders. Marine biologists and expedition guides frequently capture footage that requires no digital enhancement to astonish. Drone footage captured off the coast of Monterey Bay, California, showing a 90-foot blue whale surfacing alongside an eight-person motorized skiff, provided one of the trend's earliest verified hits.
Atmospheric phenomena supply another massive layer of authentic content. During the severe weather outbreaks of spring 2025 and early 2026, storm spotters across the Great Plains filmed towering shelf clouds associated with tornadic supercells. When recorded from moving vehicles, these dense, rotating cloud shelves appear low enough to scrape communication towers. The sheer verticality of these storm fronts triggers genuine awe, commanding millions of shares without a single modified pixel.
Yet even real footage often relies on subtle photographic tricks. Telephoto lenses compress distance dramatically. When a photographer uses a 600mm lens to film a humpback whale breaching miles offshore, the vessel behind it appears directly adjacent to the animal, artificially amplifying the perception of scale. The creature is immense, but the optical setup makes it look monstrous.
Sophia analyzes international trade, startup ecosystems, retail transformation, and supply chain logistics for modern digital publications.
