History Main / SlowLoadingInternetImage

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Comic Book Guy is seen downloading a nude image of [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Captain Janeway]]. Just as it gets revealing, a popup for Homer's internet service appears, leading Comic Book Guy to remark: "Hmm... the Internet King. I wonder if he can provide [[TheInternetIsForPorn faster nudity]]."

* Used in ''Series/QueerAsFolk'' (the UK version): Stuart clicks on the online profile of a guy on a gay dating site. All we see is half of the guy's body (you can guess which half) and the picture hasn't even fully loaded before Stuart is out of the room, off to find the guy...
* A video variation: In ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', Leonard and Priya are communicating through teleconferencing and are attempting to have a long-distance intimate date. Leonard takes off his clothes, but when Priya starts to take off hers, the signal freezes just as she's taking off her bra.
* On ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', Barney begs Ted to "date" a 20-something college student for him since he can't after getting engaged to Robin. Afterwards, Ted shows him a picture of the girl, starting from the feet and panning up. Barney is all excited until they get up to her face, and he realizes that it's his half-sister. He doesn't take it well.
* Parodied in ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Modern Espionage". When Elroy brings up a photo of a character on his computer screen, it loads slowly. The Dean immediately asks if Elroy has problems with his internet connection. Elroy then presses a key and the image loads instantly. Turns out Elroy deliberately programmed his computer to display images slowly. The Dean comments that it is very dorky of him.

* ''VideoGame/HypnospaceOutlaw'', as a loving tribute to 90s internet, has images that load briskly by 90s standards, but still with noticeable delay and lag. But moving your mouse around makes them load faster!

* An AprilFoolsDay comic of ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' made good use of this trope [[http://sluggy.com/daily.php?date=060401 here.]]

* Famously averted with ''Webcomic/VGCats''' Flash-animated anniversary special -- a mistake in the programming caused it to load [[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/extras/100.php in the wrong direction.]]
* Discussed in [[http://xkcd.com/598/ this]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' comic.

* In one ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' panel, the [=[S]=] [[WebAnimation indicator]] is used, but the loading time seems curiously slow... Eventually the reader will scroll down to the text part of the page, [[TrollingCreator which mocks them for spending so much time looking at the gif, thinking it's a movie.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Comic Book Guy is seen downloading a nude image of [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Captain Janeway]]. Just as it gets revealing, a popup for Homer's internet service appears, leading Comic Book Guy to remark: "Hmm... the Internet King. I wonder if he can provide [[TheInternetIsForPorn faster nudity]]."

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', this is what caused Richard Watterson to throw away most of his money on an online scam ("better future for your children" turned out to be "better future for your children of your children's children's great-grandchildren"). To be fair, this happened back in the '90s, or as Richard referred to it, "the beginning of the internet".

Something of a DiscreditedTrope in light of just how much TechnologyMarchesOn; most internet connections these days are more than capable of handling adequately-sized images. These days, if someone encounters one of these, it's most likely an image with an absurdly high resolution, or an issue on the server side, though it theoretically could still happen to someone using a data connection that's being badly throttled. A more modern equivalent is slow or choppy video buffering, which is still very much an issue for most.

When someone is browsing the Internet for a date, or finally gets the picture of that sweet person they've been talking to in the chatbox. When the picture loads, it loads from the bottom up (instead of the top down, as is normal in reality). You see beautiful long legs, nice clothes, long hair etc. The person looking at it will comment in excitement until they see the face and realize their dreamgirl turns out to be a lot less desirable. They are either [[ButterFace ugly]], a relative or someone they really hate.

Something of a DiscreditedTrope in light of just how much TechnologyMarchesOn; most internet connections these days are more than capable of handling adequately-sized images. These days, if someone encounters one of these, it's most likely an image with an absurdly high resolution, or an issue on the server-side, though it theoretically could still happen to someone using a data connection that's being badly throttled. A more modern equivalent is slow or choppy video buffering, which is still very much an issue for most.

* The Swedish ISP Telenordia used this to promote their faster service. In their ad, a girl just met a guy over the internet, so she tries going to his website to get an idea of what he looks like just before going out to their first date. The page's main image of the guy loads so slowly that it's only reached his beautiful eyes before she has to leave, but it's clear that he's a handsome guy. Once she gets out the door, the picture finishes, and it's revealed that the beautiful eyes belong to a wall poster, while the page's owner (the guy she's dating) is the morbidly obese slob sitting on the couch under it.

* A 1998 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCu10PJZMV8 commercial]] for the [[Creator/SyFy Sci-Fi Channel]] features Cindy Margolis hanging out in cyberspace, and jumping up to pose for a scanner whenever someone downloads her picture. The reason the picture takes so long to load is because it takes a while to scan her.

* In a flashback from their dorm days Schmidt walks in on Nick about to view lewd images in ''Series/NewGirl''. A reverse shot a few seconds later reveals the image of a bikini clad girl is still loading, section by section.

* On ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', Barney begs Ted to "date" a 20-something college student for him, since he can't after getting engaged to Robin. Afterwards, Ted shows him a picture of the girl, starting from the feet and panning up. Barney is all excited until they get up to her face, and he realizes that it's his half-sister. He doesn't take it well.

* In ''Series/{{Schooled}}'', the '90s-set spin-off of ''Series/TheGoldbergs'', Glascott and CB form a sex education class. Glascott makes the mistake of telling the students to look up any questions on the internet, and upon realizing the implications, he and CB rush over to stop them from downloading porn. They unplug the computer just as a picture was slowly downloading -- a picture of the top of the head of Creator/WillSmith, because the students were looking up how to "get jiggy with it", thinking it meant sex.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', this is what caused Richard Watterson to throw away most of his money on an online scam ("better future for your children" turned out to be "better future for your children of your children's children's great-grandchildren"). To be fair, this happened back in the 90's, or as Richard referred to it, "the beginning of the internet".

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', this is what caused Richard Watterson to throw away most of his money on an online scam ("better future for your children" turned out to be "better future for your children of your children's children's great-grandchildren"). To be fair, this happened back in the 90's.

When someone is browsing the Internet for a date, or finally gets the picture of that sweet person they've been talking to in the chatbox. When the picture loads, it loads from the bottom up (instead of normal from the top down loading). You see beautiful long legs, nice clothes, long hair etc. The person looking at it will comment in excitement until they see the face and realize their dreamgirl turns out to be a lot less desirable. They are either [[ButterFace ugly]], a relative or someone they really hate.

Can also apply to various other things. But the key is the Slow-Loading Internet Image promising something sweet but getting a twist when done loading. The loading can also occur horizontal, basically any way the show wants it to make the scene funny/exciting.

* An American commercial for faster internet service from the late 90s/early 00s showed a man's computer slowly loading an image of a [[VisualPun snail]], a girl in the same room then picks up the phone which interferes with the dial-up connection. Cue a BigNo from the man on the computer.

* On ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', Barney begs Ted to "date" a twenty-something college student for him, since he can't after getting engaged to Robin. Afterwards, Ted shows him a picture of the girl, starting from the feet and panning up. Barney is all excited until they get up to her face, and he realizes that it's his half-sister. He doesn't take it well.

* In ''Series/{{Schooled}}'', the '90s set spin-off of ''Series/TheGoldbergs'', Glascott and CB form a sex education class. Glascott makes the mistake of telling the students to look up any questions on the internet, and upon realizing the implications, he and CB rush over to stop them from downloading porn. They unplug the computer just as a picture was slowly downloading -- a picture of the top of the head of Creator/WillSmith, because the students were looking up how to "get jiggy with it", thinking it meant sex.

* Sauron at the end of the ''[[http://onering.legendaryfrog.com/movies_or2_w.php One Ring To Rule Them All 2]]'' flash cartoon is loading a picture of Arwen, first showing her face and then loading down to see two round parts of her body that turn out to be her knees.

'''Donut:''' It is a '''very''' high quality picture.\\

* Famously averted with ''Webcomic/VGCats''' flash-animated anniversary special - a mistake in the programming caused it to load [[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/extras/100.php in the wrong direction.]]

* Subverted hard with Winterrowd/Albino Blacksheep flash animation "Jessica Alba Nude", which pretends to be a slow loading pornographic image of Jessica Alba, but is actually a [[ScreamerPrank screamer]], which changes to a screaming image of Amy from Fright Night about 30 seconds in.

* In ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlueTheChorusTrilogy'', while stranded in Blue Base, Simmons sets up Basebook, which is [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial totally not]] a shoddy knockoff of everyday social media websites [[TakeThat full of teenagers trying to get attention]], to communicate between Red and Blue Bases. When Caboose snaps a selfie of him and [[HumongousMecha Freckles]], the picture is so high quality, that it takes about half the season to load. Of course, when the BGC come under attack, and Freckles needs power, all of the power is being used… [[BrickJoke downloading that one image]].

[[folder:Real Life]]
* While most computer graphic formats are stored top-down, the uncompressed Windows bitmap format, while rare on the net due to its size, is in fact, [[TruthInTelevision stored bottom-up by default. The large filesize will also make it quite slow to load even on broadband connections.]] Perhaps [[MagicalComputer Magical Computers]] require Windows Bitmap files.
** It also means producers can use Windows Bitmap files on a slow device or connection to induce slow-loading images when the plot requires one.
* TruthInTelevision: a handful shock sites have images that appear innocuous as they're loading, but are really disturbing when completed. Many of them include unexpected nakedness, just to give you an idea. Another common trick is attractive naked people with genitals that don't match their top halves.
* More TruthInTelevision: Dial-up. Enough said.
** The late Richard Jeni once joked about loading pornography on dial-up: "All right, all right, good boobs, all right, come on- [[UnsettlingGenderReveal PENIS!]] Oh, God!"
** On a less shocking level, it was frustrating in the early days of dialup when a large image of a woman would sloooowly looooad uuuuup and the file would freeze up right before the breasts were shown.
* Can happen today with images with resolutions far larger than the average monitor. And can be [[InvokedTrope faked]] with animated [=GIFs=], although if seen in a browser with a different icon the discerning will be able to catch on.
* GIF Videos are slow-loading. You see them load frame by frame, then get to see it in real time. Note that GIF compression is less efficient (and reduces color) compared to the associated original video.
* The DASH script currently used on [=YouTube=] can be this for people who don't have fast enough Internet: rather than loading while the video is paused like it used to be (allowing you to come back later and watch a good portion, if not all of it, in one sitting), it only loads a few seconds ahead of the point in which you are, meaning it continuously load as you watch. And if you try to backtrack for something you missed, tough luck: it will just reload again from that point, rather than having it already loaded. Assuming it doesn't outright ''crash''.
* One approach to sending images over slow connections is called interlacing or interleaving. Instead of loading every pixel in sequence, left to right, top to bottom, you load every, say, eighth pixel on every eighth row, then every fourth, and so on. What you get at first is a low-quality image, but still identifiable as a naked person or a can of something, which gets progressively clearer as the computer fills in the gaps. [[EnhanceButton Anything about that sound familiar?]]
[[/folder]]

* In ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlueTheChorusTrilogy'', while stranded in Blue Base, Simmons sets up [=BaseBook=], which is [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial totally not a shoddy knockoff of everyday social media websites]] [[TakeThat full of teenagers trying to get attention]], to communicate between Red and Blue Bases. When Caboose snaps a selfie of him and [[HumongousMecha Frec]][[KidWithTheLeash kles]], the picture is so high quality, that it takes about half the season to load. Of course, when the BGC come under attack, and Freckles needs power, all of the power is being used… downloading that one image.

* In ''Machinima/RedVsBlueTheChorusTrilogy'', while stranded in Blue Base, Simmons sets up [=BaseBook=], which is [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial totally not a shoddy knockoff of everyday social media websites]] [[TakeThat full of teenagers trying to get attention]], to communicate between Red and Blue Bases. When Caboose snaps a selfie of him and [[HumongousMecha Frec]][[KidWithTheLeash kles]], the picture is so high quality, that it takes about half the season to load. Of course, when the BGC come under attack, and Freckles needs power, all of the power is being used… downloading that one image.