One post on X sharing the video racked up more than 31 million views in mere days
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 1 source. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
◌ Single Source
Fact checkers traced the footage to a slapstick skit by the Chinese comedian Jin Long, posted to TikTok in mid-June.
Key facts
- By the fourth week of the 2026 World Cup, the internet had already decided who Erling Haaland
- Similarly, an AI-generated track mimicking Drake and The Weeknd that appeared in 2023 created its own fan hype, getting streamed enthusiastically before the labels could get it pulled
- One post on X sharing the video racked up more than 31 million views in mere days
- Last week, somewhere amid the World Cup frenzy, a now-viral video circulated of Norwegian striker Erling Haaland mid-mouthful in a restaurant, glancing left and flinching at his own reflection
Summary
Last week, somewhere amid the World Cup frenzy, a now-viral video circulated of Norwegian striker Erling Haaland mid-mouthful in a restaurant, glancing left and flinching at his own reflection. If the old model of stardom was a white-knuckle grip on your own image, the new one, as evidenced in Haaland’s recent internet fame, is being a character so vivid, so relentlessly meme-able, that AI can do the hype thing for you. And the Haaland fake didn’t spawn from nowhere. The reflection clip was one artefact in an entire cottage industry of AI Haaland memes and edits, all riffing on the same joke. What, then, happens when deepfake becomes fan art?