Now, about those farmers... Sriram Srikanth, 27, Anil Geela, 24, and Pilli Tirupati, 28, have lived most of their lives in the village of Lambadipally in the southern Indian state of Telangana. "Feelings" was the first English song Geela ever heard; he says he instantly fell in love with the lyrics. And his and his fellow farmers were definitely up for the Kiki challenge.
For the farmers of Lambadipally, a day "riding" doesn't mean driving in a car. It means using the local means of transport — a pair of oxen!
As director of the YouTube channel 'My Village Show,' Srikanth says he's been documenting village life and culture for over five years. He uses humor to explore how villagers react to modern influences.
In one episode, he introduces the elderly women in the village to a burger for the first time and records their reactions."Oh, so this is what a burger is! Curry in bread," exclaims one. "This burger costs one hundred rupees?" cries another.
In other episodes, he coaxes villagers to use selfie sticks and introduces them to virtual reality technology and fidget spinners.
When Srikanth heard about the Kiki challenge, he and his two friends didn't need to come up with choreography. "We decided to do the moves that came naturally to us," says Srikanth. It took 45 minutes to shoot the 39-second video for Instagram.
Monsoon season — going on now — is harvest time for rice. So while Srikanth manned the camera, Geela and Tirupati shook their booties while plowing the muddy rice paddy fields behind two oxen, something they do every day.
They said they didn't mind the mud at all, since they walk in the paddy fields all the time. It wasn't difficult to find their footing and dance.
But they never dreamed they'd dance their way to global fame.
They posted the video on August 1 on Instagram and Youtube, and the rest is Kiki challenge history. Their Youtube channel now has 492,000 subscribers. Their video has had over three million views over the last four days.
"I think they just won the Keke challenge," Trevor Noah, the host of The Daily Show, posted on Facebook. (He used an alternative spelling for Kiki.)