A video of two long-lost friends running into each other in an Uber has received 10 million views and counting.
While the ridiculous and naive tend to garner the most attention when it comes to virality on the internet, the real is frequently the most valued.
John Johnson, 60, was picked up by Uber driver Danny Blanton, 51, in January and taken to the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Unaware of his passenger’s photo beforehand, Blanton focused mostly on the road while engaging in small talk as the vehicle accelerated. In an interview with People Magazine,
he revealed that Johnson was the final person he picked up that day, and at first he noticed that his passenger looked familiar.
I paused to consider, ‘Do I know this guy?'” but he remembers feeling, ‘No, it can’t be. I’m alone here [in this region of South Texas].
Johnson, a passenger, inquired about the driver Blanton’s prior acquaintance, which caused Blanton to grin broadly, glance over his shoulder, and turn back to the wheel.
They shook hands and burst out laughing. In the 1990s, Johnson was head of security and Blanton was a bartender at the well-known Dallas nightclub Phenomenon.
They talk of a lovely, laid-back relationship that did well at work but not so much outside of it, which finally caused them to break up.
At the conclusion of their Uber ride, Blanton shared the dashcam video with his family on Facebook, expressing his excitement.
The two exchanged numbers and agreed to stay in touch. Ultimately, he added it to his TikTok account so that people who had stopped using Facebook might follow suit.
Then, Blanton’s son informed him that the video featuring the two guys had amassed 4.1 million views on social media.
“We’re both very happy about it and the wonderful feedback it received,” Blanton said to People. “It’s just people expressing how much they love this film and how many others have watched it.
It has produced good results. Iterations of praise like “I wanted to live that moment with yall” and “that sensation is priceless” were often repeated in the over 7,000 comments,
highlighting how viewers could relate strongly to the distinct sensation that you know someone. He continues,
“[We’re] just two little old guys from Mesquite and Dallas that became well-known online.” “That’s it.”