Chris and Patrick Vörös, who are 27-year-old Hungarian Canadian twins, have become a huge meme for reacting hilariously to the Instagram trivia question, "Who painted the 'Mona Lisa'?"
"Da Vinki?!" they respond to the correct "da Vinci" answer that appears in the video. The 15-second clip on TikTok has gone hugely viral, with almost 6 million views and almost a million likes.
Over the past week, the twins, who currently live in Surrey, British Columbia, have essentially become the faces of the internet punchline "my last two brain cells" and a new dictionary entry for "himbo."
However, you might be surprised, pleased, and/or displeased to know the Vörös twins intended for you to laugh at them — and they're laughing with you.
"We obviously know who [Leonardo] da Vinci is," they said reluctantly when BuzzFeed News asked. "It's a silly video."
The two then kindly asked BuzzFeed News not to publish anything calling their infamous TikTok "fake" because they don't "want to ruin the fun of it all for people."
been thinking about this for a month now
The twins have been posting on social media for 15 years now, and their goal has always been "to make people laugh," they said. Last week, as they were toying with the Instagram trivia feature, they began riffing off each other when they had the idea to mispronounce the famous painter's last name.
They were also giving false and silly answers to a myriad of other trivia questions, by the way. Here are some of their greatest hits.
When it came to the question of the "Mona Lisa," they said they were laughing so hard about saying "Da Vinki" that they scrolled through the Instagram question prompts for an hour to get the same question again so that they could record themselves doing it.
"We were just seeing how many ridiculous answers we could come up with. We were cracking up so much," the twins said. (Note: Despite BuzzFeed News' best efforts to discern who was talking, the Vörös twins instinctively talked for and over each other, so for the remainder of this story, they will be cited together.)
When they posted the "Da Vinki?!" clip, it instantly went viral. Da Vinki is now classified as an official meme on Know Your Meme. "My last two brain cells vibing," a top comment on TikTok read. "You know those ferrets in ice age that's them," another wrote.
People soon discovered their other videos, which have also gone viral. The twins have even capitalized on their overnight fame by starting a Cameo account.
you will never achieve this level of himbo
Chris and Patrick completely understand why they've become so famous so fast.
"We're just very strange. We hang out together 99.9% of the time... We have silly voices and silly hair. There's a lot to take in," they told BuzzFeed News. "I think the reason it got popular is people want to feel like they’re smarter than someone."
They have no issue with being made fun of, especially during a tough year for everyone.
"We made the entire world laugh for a week now, and if during this time, people could get a good kick out of us...and if it makes people feel smarter than us, then that’s fine," they said.
Despite outwardly admitting that they were performing caricatures of themselves, the twins wanted to stay in character.
When BuzzFeed News asked if they were putting on an act, and if they knew who the Italian Renaissance artist was, they cheekily responded, "I think you can put two and two together. I think it's pretty obvious."
"At the end of the day, obviously we're smart people and we obviously know who da Vinci is," they said eventually. "If you're looking for the headline, 'The video was fake' or something, feel free to not say that because personally I think it was just a funny video. We don't want to ruin the fun of it all for people."
While they're enjoying the "fun" of keeping people both confused and amused, building a strong social media brand is also crucial to their first ambitions: becoming successful pro wrestlers.
The Vörös twins began wrestling as a duo after dropping out of college. The pandemic has temporarily put their careers on pause, but they said they had been competing and performing in the professional provincial leagues in Canada previously. Last year, they were invited to audition for World Wrestling Entertainment.
While they did not make the cut, they were encouraged by WWE to continue building a personal brand.
"They basically said, 'Keep pushing for it, increase your social media presence,' and that's what we've been trying to do," the twins said. "Living where we are in Vancouver, it's hard to get noticed compared to New York City, for example, so we have to use the internet to get noticed."
so uh... the davinki twins have something to say
The Vörös twins also said the attention has also brought much-needed levity to their family as they're going through a hard time. Their dad is currently undergoing chemo for lung cancer, and though they noted that he's "doing pretty well," they're grateful something as fleeting and silly as this could bond their family.
"Like, we were on the James Corden Late Late Show — and to see their reaction, to see our mom and dad laugh along with the video. Our dad is going through lung cancer and he's pretty deep in it, so to see it brings him joy ... that's probably the best part of all this."