Twitter user @thegallowboob shared the video on Tuesday evening and said: “someone did a collab TikTok with a cat and it’s perfect.” The video has 1.4 million views on Twitter at the time of writing.
The original video of Barney the cat playing the piano was first shared to TikTok—where it has been viewed 270,000 times—by user @mars.gilmanov, who said: “New work from Barney.”
TikTok user @akizguitar then debuted the video with a clip of him playing guitar alongside Barney’s original melody, saying: “still working on my phrasing with maestro cat.”
Although the TikTok of the cat has now gone viral on Twitter, this is not Barney’s first brush with fame. A different video of Barney playing the piano was posted in June and amassed 1.8 million views.
It appears that Barney may be a cat prodigy as, according to his owner and piano teacher, this video was taken during only his second month of training.
TikTok user @Akizguitar or AG also duetted with the viral video and captioned it: “Groovie lesson with maestro cat.” Despite only being viewed around 9,000 times on TikTok, it has been viewed more than 50,000 on Twitter after being shared by @thegallowboob.
The viral TikTok posted by @thegallowboob has been shared widely on Twitter, amassing more than 110,000 likes and 30,000 retweets at the time of writing. The internet has—naturally—reacted with awe and glee at the adorable collaboration.
Actress Jane Lynch shared the video and simply said: “Good morning,” while the band Guster shared the video and said: “Sometimes humans do good things.”
Actress Lily Mariye said: “I found it. My favorite song of 2020,” and writer Rob Harvilla joked: “the new Devendra Banhart record is incredible.”
YouTuber Kyle Hill shared the viral video on Twitter and added: “I support the Cat Jazz genre,” while tech and social media commentator Lance Ulanoff said: “This is exactly how I would expect a cat to collaborate.”
Twitter user @Tahk0 compared the duet to “the music at 3 a.m. in Animal Crossing” in a tweet that has been liked more than 16,000 times.
Although only two duets between the pianist and guitarist have been shared so far, social media users clearly want to see more of this unlikely musical duo.
Novelist Michael Marshall Smith said: “Tonight I want to go downtown and find the hidden alleyway that was never there before and descend into a smokey walk-down bar and drink cocktails made of an old teal liquor that smells of fog and tastes of cinnamon, and listen while these two play quietly in the corner forever.”
While the duo may not be performing in cocktail bars anytime soon, if—like Smith—you’d like to see more of Barney and AG, be sure to follow the piano-playing cat and the guitar teacher on TikTok.
