They Live Sunglasses

Stoolie33 · 1.4M views · 2012-08-13 · 3:39

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Overview

A short clip from John Carpenter's They Live showing how the special sunglasses reveal hidden messages behind ads and media.

On Hacker News

HN links it as a pop-culture reference for adblock-like glasses and filtering advertising out of the real world.

Discussed on HN; no positive recommendation is recorded in this export · HN mentions 2015–2019

Topics

Film & TV clips Media, journalism & propaganda

What people said

52-6F-62 · 2019-09 · Joke / meme
It's not different, and advertising has been a focus of many since the 80's. Ever seen they live? [VIDEO] [LINK] [LINK]
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crispyambulance · 2018-10 · Reference
Pretty damn cool. Sort of reminds me of the sunglasses from the 1988 John Carpenter film: "They Live". [VIDEO]
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kszx · 2015-01 · Reference
Found it: "They Live" by John Carpenter. The idea is a bit different though. "Nada discovers the sunglasses are special. After putting on a pair, he sees the world in black and white and discovers it is not what it seems. Media and advertising hide constant subliminal totalitarian commands to obey and conform." ( [LINK] ) Here you can see how the "sunglasses" work: [VIDEO] [Added additional information]
Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by Stoolie33, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

Data and selection notes

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HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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