Googly eyes, or wiggle eyes, are small plastic crafting items used to imitate eyeballs. Googly eyes traditionally are composed of a white plastic or card backing covered by a clear, hard-plastic shell, encapsulating a black plastic disc. The combination of a black circle over a white disk mimics the appearance of the sclera and pupil of the eye to humorous effect. The inner black disk is allowed to move freely within the larger clear plastic shell, which makes the eyes appear to move when the googly eyes are tilted or shaken.
The plastic shells come in a variety of sizes ranging from diameters of 3⁄16 inch (4.8 mm) to over 24 inches (610 mm). The inner disks come in a variety of colors including pink, blue, yellow, red and green. Googly eyes are used for a variety of arts and crafts projects including pipe cleaner animals, sock puppets, pranks, and other creations. Googly eyes may also be attached to inanimate objects in order to give the objects a "silly" or "cute" appearance. This use often personifies the objects for a humorous effect, or to make an object less threatening and more appealing.[1][2][3]
- ^ Gotthardt, Alexxa (2 October 2018). "How Googly Eyes Became an Essential Part of Crafts". Artsy. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
- ^ Corkery, Michael (26 February 2020). "Should Robots Have a Face?". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
- ^ Tarantola, Andrew (22 May 2019). "Why putting googly eyes on robots makes them inherently less threatening". Engadget. Retrieved 21 April 2021.