Ciao Ryan

Submission 12,594

About

Ciao Ryan refers to University of Louisiana Lafayette student Ryan Scott who became popular in a viral video for saying goodbye to a fellow college student with "Ciao."

Origin

On October 15th, 2017, Twitter user @Tslight_24, real name Thomas, uploaded a video of himself interacting with Scott several times. At the end of each interaction, Scott says "Ciao" (shown below). The tweet gained over 177,000 retweets and 464,000 likes in two weeks.

Spread

The video quickly attracted comparisons to Damn Daniel. The Tab^[2] posted an article about Ciao Ryan on October 16th, including various commenters making the connection. On October 18th, Twitter user @corutny703^[1] posted a You vs. The Guy She Told You Not To Worry About joke comparing Damn Daniel and Ciao Ryan, gaining over 3,900 retweets (shown below).

Meanwhile, Twitter users began using Ryan as a reaction image for situations in which one leaves abruptly. On October 17th, Twitter user @memeprovider^[3] posted such a joke and gained over 65,000 retweets and 156,000 likes.

Since becoming well known, Scott told the Tab^[4] that he has been approached on campus, saying, "I have more people coming up to me and chatting, and I honestly feel so great." He also reports that he and Thomas are now friends in real life. The story has been covered by Buzzfeed^[5] and The Daily Dot.^[6]