A Grinning Office Takeover: The Misadventure of Gary the Smiley
Gary the Smiley wasn’t always a room-filling monster. He started as a sad sack of neon-yellow rubber in that godforsaken 1980s office, half-deflated on a bed of smug indoor grass that thought it was hot stuff for growing under fluorescent buzz. “Just another day,” Gary wheezed through his uninflated grin, eyeing the static camera like a judgmental coworker. But then – pffft! – the air pump of fate kicked in. Gary puffed up, his black oval eyes widening in surprise as he nudged the grass flat, whispering, “Sorry, turf, but expansion waits for no weed.” The walls trembled; the low ceiling groaned. Gary’s seams stretched like overworked tights, thinking, “HR said promote positivity, guess I’m taking it literally!”
By mid-inflation, Gary was a bulging behemoth, his glossy folds pressing into every corner while specular highlights danced like disco lights on his feverish yellow hide. The camera, that unflinching eye-level voyeur, couldn’t budge as Gary loomed closer, his thick black smile now a Cheshire leer. “Come on in,” he seemed to mock, flattening more grass and deforming into surreal bulges against the off-white prison. The office staff? Nonexistent, thank goodness, imagine the TPS reports flying amid this corporate fever dream. Gary’s advance was pure chaos poetry: claustrophobic, unavoidable, with the fluorescent glare turning his wrinkles into accusatory shadows.
Finally, triumph! Gary smooshed right into the lens, his face exploding across the frame in warped glory, edges softening like a bad acid trip, perspective twisting as if reality itself quit. The grass? Pulverized confetti. The room? A smiley sarcophagus. Gary, now omnipresent, let out a silent, inflated chuckle: “Smile! You’re on candid camera… forever.” And in that 9:16 vertical nightmare, trapped viewers pondered life’s big questions, like why corporate America ever thought grass carpets were a flex.
By Barry Ashworth
The Inflatable Smile: Transforming AI Video Prompts into Claustrophobic Art
Ultra-realistic cinematic wide-angle shot (18–22mm) inside an empty 1980s corporate office interior. No furniture. No objects. Only plain off-white walls, a low ceiling with rectangular fluorescent light panels arranged in a grid, clearly indoors. The entire floor is covered in thick, uneven natural grass growing unnaturally inside.
A large but not fully inflated inflatable smiley face sits several feet from the static camera at eye level. The inflatable is neon yellow with a glossy rubber-like surface, visible seams, folds, and wrinkles. It has simple black oval eyes and a thick curved black smile.
Over time, the inflatable continuously inflates without stopping. It expands toward the camera while pressing into walls, ceiling, floor, and grass, which flattens beneath it. The inflatable deforms heavily under pressure: stretching, bulging, seams tightening.
By the end, the inflatable fills the entire room volume and pushes directly into the camera lens. The smiley face makes physical contact, occupying the full frame. Perspective distorts in an extreme close-up with slight warping and edge softness from lens pressure.
Camera remains completely static and never moves or pulls back. Lighting is cold, flat fluorescent with bright specular highlights sliding across the surface. Photorealistic materials, global illumination, cinematic realism. Overwhelming, claustrophobic, unavoidable mood. No people, logos, branding, or readable text. Aspect ratio: 9:16.
Smile Prompt: Readable Version Breakdown
Ultra-realistic cinematic wide-angle shot (18–22mm) inside an empty 1980s corporate office interior. No furniture. No objects. Only plain off-white walls, a low ceiling with rectangular fluorescent light panels clearly indoors. The entire floor is covered in thick, uneven natural grass growing unnaturally inside.
Starting Scene
A large but not fully inflated inflatable smiley face sits several feet from the static camera. It’s neon yellow with a glossy rubber-like surface, showing visible seams, folds, and wrinkles. Features simple black oval eyes and a thick curved black smile.
Inflation Sequence
The smiley continuously inflates without stopping. It expands toward the camera while pressing into walls, ceiling, floor, and grass (which flattens beneath it). The inflatable deforms heavily stretching, bulging, seams tightening under pressure.
Climactic Ending
The smiley fills the entire room volume and pushes directly into the camera lens. The face makes physical contact, occupying the full frame. Perspective distorts with extreme close-up warping and edge softness from lens pressure.
Technical Details
- Static camera at eye level, never moves or pulls back
- Cold, flat fluorescent lighting with sliding specular highlights
- Photorealistic materials, global illumination, cinematic realism
- Mood: overwhelming, claustrophobic, unavoidable
- No people, logos, branding, or readable text
- Aspect ratio: 9:16 ~ this size can be changed
Discripton and Use
AI video prompts offer creators an accessible way to craft surreal, cinematic visions without needing expensive equipment or teams, just precise language fed into tools like Playground or Sora. The “Smile” prompt exemplifies this, starting as a dense wall of text describing an ultra-realistic 1980s corporate office invaded by an inflating neon-yellow smiley face. Its bare off-white walls, low fluorescent-lit ceilings, and floor of thick indoor grass set a sterile dystopian stage, while a static wide-angle camera (18-22mm) captures the relentless expansion. The smiley begins partially deflated, glossy rubber with black oval eyes and grin, then balloons outward, crushing grass, deforming against walls, and finally smashing into the lens for a warped, overwhelming close-up under cold lighting. This structure, scene, subject, action, technical specs, ensures photorealistic global illumination and inescapable tension, all in a vertical 9:16 aspect ratio perfect for social media.
Adapting it proves remarkably simple, requiring only targeted edits that preserve the core mechanics of inflation and claustrophobia. To switch to widescreen, replace “Aspect ratio: 9:16” with “Aspect ratio: 16:9,” instantly broadening the office horizontally for cinematic landscapes or YouTube thumbnails while keeping the smiley’s advance central, the wider frame might reveal more flattened grass patches or stretched wall shadows, heightening dread. Changing the character involves swapping the smiley’s description: locate “inflatable smiley face, black oval eyes and a thick curved black smile,” then substitute details like “grumpy cloud with downturned storm-gray eyes and puffy frowning brows” or a “melting clock with drooping hands and warped numerals,” retaining the neon yellow rubber material, seams, and deformation physics. These tweaks take seconds, allowing endless variations, a ballooning skull for horror, an inflating heart for irony, without rebuilding the prompt’s surreal architecture.
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