A four-year old, red-haired star of a viral TikTok video, a cat named Ed, is the internet’s latest sensation.
The video is simple enough. It shows Ed “clapping” and twirling along to The Chordettes’ classic 1954 version of “Mr. Sandman” inside a layout reminiscent of the Brady Bunch’s title sequence. The result is a strangely hypnotic kaleidoscopic vision that is quite possibly one of the more amusing things you’ll see on internet today or any day.
While Ed is the star of the show, the video was created by Jade Taylor-Ryan, a 17-year-old high school student in Ontario who is relatively new to TikTok, who spoke to Buzzfeed News about the video.
The video was made on a regular Thursday night when Taylor-Ryan was sitting in her room and, like the best ideas, the idea of making Ed an internet star, just “popped into [her] head” after seeing another example of the TikTok meme that combines the nine-camera split filter with a “Mr. Sandman” soundtrack.
She pulled up the app and the nine-camera split filter, set the phone on the floor, put on the camera timer, picked up Ed, and jumped into action. She then twirled Ed, who she describes as “very chill” in and out of the frame in time with the music. She uploaded the video to TikTok and a few moments later an internet legend was born.
Taylor-Ryan also confirmed that she named her cat, Ed, after Ed Sheeran “because they have a similar hair color” and that he was not harmed or even particularly bothered in the making of the video. No word on whether he has let the newfound internet fame go to his head.
The TikTok is genuinely charming and as it spreads online, it is reestablishing people’s faith in the internet as a source of good in the world.
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