High Culture and Low Culture

I believe that this gif would be considered “low culture”. This is because it makes references to pop culture and is therefore more relatable to the average viewer. The gif shows Nightwolf, one of the characters from the Mortal Kombat fighting game series, floating through two portals. I’m guessing that the portals are a reference to Portal, another video game series where the player must use portals to complete objectives, even though the colors of the portal are incorrect. I believe this because you can still see him appear through the other side of the portal when he goes through one side. 

 This gif would probably be considered more “high culture” because it is less cartoony and relatable to a general audience. The movement is only in a few tree leaves in the background. I could not even tell what was moving until I enlarged the image. It is one of those images that most people would just scroll past because the subject matter is not very interesting since it is only a frozen bird with only a tiny bit of movement in the background. It would probably be praised for jumbling up audience expectations by have the bird in midflight be the one thing that is not moving.