Sunday afternoon Billy posted the Rufus Tower video.
Sunday night my brother nodded sagely in approval after watching it. "This is cool. The guy have a channel?" That should have been an indicator of the potential for viral success, that and the fact that I kind of actually got slightly teary whilst watching it.
Monday saw the video rampage its way around Facebook, being shared by seemingly everyone who saw it.
Now it's Tuesday, and Billy just descended the stairs with a look on his face that seemed to be at a crossroads between confusion, excitement and pain.
"I just did an interview with The Herald Sun." He said.
My response was to flail around with excitement and tell him all about the love he was receiving on the cat-loving community of Reddit. Billy looked a little freaked out.
What started as a bunch of shares around Facebook has now turned into something "LEGIT VIRAL". And as someone who spends way more time on the internet than is healthy and probably cares way too much about internet happenings, I am most probably at a level of excitement that can only be deemed as "inappropriate".
He's featured on the Huffington Post, on Jezebel, as well as a bunch of Most Watched-esque sites, and something called Life With Cats. It was when I did my daily morning Reddit check though, that I very nearly spilled my cereal all over myself. Hell, Billy's even been dubbed an "Internet Hero". Who else can say that? That they're an INTERNET HERO. Not many people. Not many cats have stirred Actual Emotions in me either, so I'm gonna have to declare this video to be Extremely Noteworthy in the ol' Reb books.
In my last post I mentioned a project thing I did at uni in which I spent many hours of every night "researching" the way internet communities form and evolve and the ways in which content grows and spreads around different communities and environments. As someone who probably has a slightly unhealthy fascination about the inner workings of the internet, to see something grow and spread right IN FRONT OF MY EYES starring A CAT (also human) THAT I KNOW AND LIKE has been extremely exciting and reason enough to run around the building in a bit of a frenzy, spurting internet nerdisms all the while. Obviously. I kind of wish I was still at uni, so I could have a legitimate reason to keep writing endless postulating about internet communities.
Also, as an added piece of exciting ways the forces of the internet have been harnessed for good, Billy's brother's band Parallel Lions (formerly the frontman of Art of Fighting) is currently sitting at number two on Bandcamp's top sellers list. Not surprising, considering the song used in the ol' Rufus video is an incredibly pretty one.
Frankly I think I'm going to get all star-struck next time I see Rufus. He really is a very handsome cat.
I also think I'm going to find it difficult to get any work done over the rest of the day. The phone rings, and I'm going to have to be honest: "CALL BACK TOMORROW PLEASE. I have internet things to watch and observe."
EDIT: Here's a quick thing I had to write for Campaign Brief. Spruikin' the workplace, I suppose.
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