Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
A viral image claiming to show “Princeton University’s 3D rendering of Adam, the first human being created by God”, has evoked varied reactions across social media, with many pointing out how the model bears a resemblance to Hollywood actor Vin Diesel. The image has become the subject of Twitter jokes, spurring more such 3D models, like this one of Moses that looks like wrestler Hulk Hogan.
The archived versions of the tweets can be seen here and here.
Fact check
Newschecker first ran a keyword search for “Princeton 3d model Adam”, which, barring news reports on the viral image, did not throw up any relevant or official reports of such a rendering by the university. We then went to the university’s website and did not find evidence of any such project while scanning the website and running a search.
Newschecker then ran a reverse image search of the viral photo, which led us to when the image was first tweeted, by Alamo Drafthouse NYC, a verified account of an indie theatre operator, on October 27, 2022.
We noticed a follow-up tweet by the same account on October 28, 2022, which stated “Just a reminder that we’re a movie theatre, not an academic journal. That said, here’s our soundcloud: http://drafthouse.com/nyc,” proving that the image was meant as a joke. The soundcloud link itself led us to the theatre’s homepage, further indicating that the whole thing was intended as humour.
We also came across multiple media articles stating that the viral image was just the latest in a meme trend on Twitter. According to the New York Post, “On Twitter, a disclaimer was placed underneath Diesel’s name in the trending category, saying: ‘Vin Diesel becomes the latest celebrity to fall into a meme trend of someone posting a picture of a celebrity or 3D-rendered character for humorous effect’.”
“The joke was a riff on earlier viral memes, including one that purported to show a 3D model of how Joseph, husband of Mary, might have looked — which, it turns out, is the spitting image of Andre the Giant,” an article in Variety read.
Conclusion
Viral image of “3D model of Adam rendered by Princeton University”, which resembles Vin Diesel, is just part of a meme trend that created similar models of celebrities.
Result: Satire
Source
Image analysis
Tweet by Alamo Drafthouse NYC, October 28, 2022
New York Post article, October 28, 2022
Variety article, October 28, 2022
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
