Why Ryan Reynolds is a fan of the Kiffness, let's talk about internet culture

Ryan Reynolds has led many lives, intertwined with iconic colours. A 40.6cm yellow and adorable detective (Detective Pikachu), a jade shaded member of the green lantern corps (Green Lantern) and of course the iconic red and black legend Deadpool.

However, his latest role is the colour of the rainbow nation. Reynolds is pretty much a fan of the Kifnness, for the most unconventional basis music-wise. And it says a lot about internet culture.

The Kiffness? Like the Cape Town based musician? Like that guy, David Scott, who made a collab with a cat on the internet?

Indeed.

It wasn’t many of the musos’ other hits that locals have grooved to throughout the years that put David Scott on the map for the Hollywood icon. Not the years of hard work, performance or productional grind. It was that collab with the cat.

Reynolds first went on to share the “Alugalug Cat” video, in a story on Instagram. He liked it on Twitter and shared with his own Fleets as per GoodThingsGuy.

The original post was from @teydayway who captioned the Kifness’ mashup “I got high and listened to this for 4 hours straight.”

To date, the video has 29 million views on Facebook, 4,4 million views on TikTok and 1.3 million on Youtube.

So what does this say about internet culture as a whole?

Internet culture, by nature, is really a weird and wonderful place as the Kiffness said himself as per GoodThingsGuy.

“it feels great, but it mostly feels absurd.”

“I do these videos for my own enjoyment, so it feels super weird that you can make something in your home, in South Africa, and it has the power to make its way all the way to a Hollywood celebrity,” the Kiffness added.

Internet culture in its simplicity is all about three elements:

How unique something is
How relatable it is (does it speak to you in some sort of way? self-depreciating humour, a laugh, ‘in your feels’ content, or just something that makes you feel warm inside like butter toast all apply)
How many other people are talking about it (let’s be honest, we are curious creatures, even the most critical of us)

Now, these are some of the common denominators for a lot of viral internet culture. It’s been this way from the early days of YouTube (remember Charlie Bit Me?) and was truly recognized on platforms like Vine (TikTok’s sort of ancestor now).

However, just because these elements are common for viral explosions, it doesn’t mean they’re a recipe that will always make the cake if your intention is to go viral.

It’s sometimes complicated to wrap one’s head around. Sometimes the most beautiful and unique work ever will get three likes or minimal reach. And sometimes, after years of a career in an industry, it is a collab with a cat that will put you on Hollywood’s map.