What We Learned From Celebrities' Ice Bucket Challenge Videos

It's hard to remember a time before the Ice Bucket Challenge, no? Our Facebook feeds have been overrun by clips of all kinds of characters from our pasts-camp friends, high-school exes, old work colleagues-muttering about who they're nominating ('Karen, Joe Francone, and, you too, Christy!') and then getting right to it and dumping a giant bucket over their heads. Right around the time the challenge had seemed to reach its peak pervasiveness, the celebrities caught on. Now, the entire Internet-not just Facebook-seems to be a mall where every store front features an Ice Bucket Challenge video. Athletes! Models! Actors! They're all doing it.

The Challenge has raised a staggering amount of money for A.L.S. research, and any movement that involves both Tom Cruise and Anna Wintour is clearly a triumph. And it's also been fun, as with every choice made by celebrities, to overanalyze each video. Who chooses a quirky twist, like Chris Pratt? Who enlists a friend, as Leah Remini did with J. Lo? Some show off their pools or backyards; some go shirtless, while some cover up in baggy sweatshirts. Maybe most tellingly of all, a few nominate their non-celebrity friends, while others decide to nominate the likes of Angelina JolieBarack Obama.

Let's take a look at a few of the celebrity Ice Bucket Challenge videos that have included some especially interesting choices, and figure out what, exactly, we're learning from them.

Ben Affleck: A great way to strike back at breakup rumors is by posing in an adorable Ice Bucket Challenge video with your wife!

Gwyneth Paltrow: A great way to mitigate rumors about tension with your ex is by nominating him in an Ice Bucket Challenge video!

John Krasinski and Emily Blunt: This extremely likable couple went with a slapstick-y video in which Krasinksi greets Blunt-returned from grocery shopping-with a surprise ice-dumping. Such goofballs! It's proof of what you've suspected all along: they have the most fun marriage ever.

Taylor Swift: Swift recruited one of her BFFs, Jaime King, to help her out, and the two are surrounded by a bunch of very attractive non-celebrities! If it wasn't for, you know, the ice dumping, this could be a clip from a mid-2000s Total Request Live episode.

Tom Cruise: As if portraying a character from one of his movies, Cruise got pummeled with eight buckets of water and barely flinched.

David Beckham: Who are these businessmen who poured water on a (shirtless) David Beckham?! (Also, we are desperate for a Posh Spice video.)

Britney Spears: This one's just really adorable. As in many of the best Ice Bucket videos, it feels like we're getting an unfiltered glimpse of the unguarded celebrity, no?

Lady Gaga: This one is extremely on-brand, we'll say that.

Miley Cyrus: Ever the rebel, Miley subbed out ice for . . . rice.

Justin Bieber: We really enjoy that Bieber filmed one with a shirt on, and then decided, 'Wait, what was I doing? I'm Justin Bieber. I can't be wearing a shirt in my Ice Bucket Challenge video. What is a Justin Bieber who isn't wearing a shirt in an Ice Bucket Challenge video?!' So then he went ahead and filmed a second, shirtless one.