How is this a fair comparison:

Vanilla JS var s = document.getElementById('thing').style; s.opacity = 1; (function fade(){(s.opacity-=.1)<0?s.display="none":setTimeout(fade,40)})();

jQuery <script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js"></script> <script> $('#thing').fadeOut(); </script>