The McDonald’s holiday cup is going viral because of the "butt" hiding in plain sight

What do you see when you look at this festive McDonald's cup?

Is it mittens, two white mittens tapping tips against a jolly red background sprinkled with stars and snowflakes and hearts, because holiday cheer? Twin mittens is, in all likelihood, precisely the image McDonald's wanted customers to see. But someone out there looked at the holiday design and thought, "That could easily be a butt."

And behold, with the addition of small cartoon hands:

The mittens are transformed into an irrefutable butt, foreshortened paws reaching back to spread its cheeks in the warmest greeting of all. Because butts never cease to be funny, we guess, and because the internet has an inexplicable preoccupation with the seasonal cups furnished by coffee chains, the augmented design is going viral. 

According to BuzzFeed, the artist who originated the butt cup remains anonymous, but the photo now making the rounds on Twitter was first posted on REBRN Saturday, from which point it made its way over to Reddit and achieved what we are sure will be lasting internet fame. 

In an emailed statement, a McDonald's spokesperson clarified that the company's "festive McCafé cups" definitely feature mittens, not a butt; that "the altered image circulating on social media is the result of someone getting a little cheeky and adding some hand-drawing to a cup."

The fun thing about the Rorschach butt is that once one has seen the butt, it's hard to unsee it. Or so say people on Twitter. 

Scroll up to the top of this article. Consider the original design. Still see a butt? Or mittens? What do you think this says about you?

Dec. 12, 2016, 3:40 p.m.: This story has been updated.