Footage of an orangutan grabbing a man through a cage has gone viral and been turned it into a meme on TikTok

• A video of an orangutan grabbing a man through the bars of its cage has gone viral on Twitter.
• The orangutan held onto the man's leg in the video, appearing to try and put his foot in its mouth.

A video of an orangutan who reached through its cage to grab a man trying to "play" with it has become a viral meme on social media.

On June 7, a London-based video site called Newsflare shared the clip on their website and Twitter page, with a description saying that it showed a visitor who jumped over a fence at Kasang Kulim Zoo in Indonesia to "taunt" an orangutan.

The man, described in the video description as 19-year-old Hasan Arifin, could be seen holding his arms out near the orangutan's cage in the video. The animal then grabbed at Arifin's shirt, and he could be heard shouting as it pulled him towards the bars of the cage.

Throughout the 30-second clip, an unidentified person can be seen trying to free Arifin from the grip of the animal, who was grabbing onto his leg and at one point appeared to try and put his foot in its mouth. The person eventually pulled Arifin out of the animal's grip at the end of the video.

Several international news outlets reported on the story after it was shared by Newsflare, and the video was subsequently reshared on social media platforms like Reddit and Twitter.

One Twitter post of the video, captioned "I have never laughed this hard on a Tuesday morning," now has 24 million views and 149,000 likes, with many users appearing to find the incident funny, commenting with laughing emojis.

Some users have posted memes and screenshots about the clip, joking about the way the orangutan held onto Arifin and appeared to try and "bite" his toes.

Other people criticized Arifin for interacting with the animal, saying he received his "just desserts" and "deserved" what happened.

On June 9, UK newspaper the Mirror reported that Arifin said he was only trying to "play" with the animal and was not attempting to "tease" it.

According to the outlet, Arifin also said, "The monkey's reflexes were so quick. It was unthinkable, I was not prepared. I thought it would kill me. I really thought I would die."

Insider was unable to contact Arifin for comment directly. Kasang Kulim Zoo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On TikTok, people have been re-enacting the clip in sketch-like comedy videos

The video has also spread to TikTok, where it's been turned into a meme, with people posting re-enactments of the clip.

In one, posted on June 8 by a user called @julianadamh, one person can be seen acting as the orangutan, crouching behind a fence and grabbing another person, who played the role of the man, trying to break free from their grip. A third person can be seen trying to help in the video, in a similar way to what can be seen in the original clip.

The TikTok now has 43 million views and 5 million likes. Most commenters under the video appeared to understand and appreciate the reference to the original viral clip, saying the re-enactment looked just like the "real video."

Several other TikTok creators made references to the clip in their videos, creating a trend around the viral moment. Many have received millions or hundreds of thousands of views each.

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