Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably seen the “Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal” meme that went wildly popular since early 2013. Scottish filmmaker Ryan McHenry, the creator of the meme, shot to fame after uploading a series of 6-second Vine videos that showed Gosling appearing to reject a spoonful of cereal offered by him.
He told The Verge that he created the meme while watching Gosling’s movie “Drive” and eating cereal. After his 8th post on Vine, the meme blew up. The amount of his followers on Vine increased and his posts were featured on various websites, including The Huffington Post and Entertainment Online.
However, it wasn’t until 6 months later that McHenry discovered he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, in his leg. Though the cancer caused him to go on a hiatus, he managed to stay positive for his followers by sharing his “cancer selfies”, videos, and other stories during his treatment in the hospital. Multiple Vine artists and fans even banded together to raise $10,000 for him so that he can get back to a normal life after an operation on his leg in late 2013.
Gosling himself acknowledged the presence of the meme several times, admitting that he actually loves cereal. He then jokingly said “No” when McHenry apologised to him for creating the meme and asked if Gosling would forgive him on Twitter.
In return, McHenry used a clip from Gosling’s recent interview with BBC for another installation of the cereal meme, which turned out to be his final post on Vine.
The 27-year-old Vine star succumbed to his cancer as Vine’s official Twitter account broke the news on Monday (4th May) that the meme creator has passed away. This came as a shock for most of his fans as McHenry updated his Twitter on 1st May, accounting for his time alive on this planet.
Before McHenry passed away, he told The Verge that he likes to “have a conclusion to things”. He then added, “The only conclusion I can see out of this whole thing is to have Ryan Gosling respond to this. Even if it’s just him eating cereal.”
We don’t know how, but someone must have told Gosling about McHenry’s death. The actor recently took to Twitter to post his tribute to late Vine star. Yes, he has finally eaten a spoonful of cereal.
— Ryan Gosling (@RyanGosling) May 5, 2015
His cereal eating video went viral as well, with many praising him for his amazing tribute.
A “JustGiving” page set up in McHenry’s memory also raised almost £2,600 for cancer research.
My heart goes out to all of Ryan McHenry's family and friends. Feel very lucky to have been apart of his life in some small way.
— Ryan Gosling (@RyanGosling) May 5, 2015
Rest in peace, Ryan McHenry. You will forever be missed.
