Why Ryan Gosling Is Finally Eating His Cereal

When Ryan Gosling posted a Vine of himself eating cereal Monday, his short video immediately went viral. As we went to press, Gosling’s vine had over 28,000 retweets and more than 35,000 favorites on Twitter.

Why the intense reaction? Has the internet suddenly developed a cereal-eating fetish that the handsome star was happy to indulge?

The story is actually much more touching than that.

You see, Mr. Gosling was the focus of another man’s viral Vine account. Ryan McHenry, a Scottish filmmaker, created the popular series called “Ryan Gosling won’t eat his cereal,” which consists of McHenry holding a spoonful of cereal in front of a TV featuring Gosling in various film roles. In each Vine, Gosling looks away, grimaces, and otherwise ignores the big spoon of cereal floating in front of his face.

Six months after McHenry posted his first Vine, he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, The Verge reports. He continued to create Gosling cereal Vines, but he also posted photos and videos of himself undergoing cancer treatments, including an operation in which he had his leg removed.

McHenry told The Verge that his viral success with the Ryan Gosling meme uplifted him during his treatments. “A lot of my positivity has come down to knowing that I’ve got a small audience out there,“ he said.

On Sunday, McHenry died, and as a tribute to the Internet star, Gosling posted the Vine we’d been waiting for: He was finally eating cereal.