Kyle MacLachlan Is the Best Thing That Ever Happened to the Internet

It’s no secret that social media isn’t as fun as it used to be. Once upon a time, it was all about viral cat videos, memes, and sharing moments with friends. Now, the social media landscape often feels like a toxic stew of Trump headlines, divisive rhetoric, and a general sense of despair.

But in the darkest pits of the internet’s voids, a beacon of joy emerges, ready to save us all from our doom scrolls. And that beacon is Kyle MacLachlan, whose social media presence is both delightful and hilarious, reminding everyone what the internet could be, nay what it should be.

MacLachlan first rose to fame in the early ’90s by playing quirky characters on cult television shows like Twin Peaks and Desperate Housewives. But in the past few years, the actor has garnered a new fan base in one of the last places you would expect for a Boomer—social media.

Arguably, it all began on Instagram in the winter of 2024 with an incident that some (and by some, I mean me) have affectionately dubbed Lorde-gate. In a post to promote the premiere of his new podcast, Varnamtown, MacLachlan recreated two of Lorde’s selfies, where she dons a blue striped button down and Apple AirPod Max headphones, looking pensive as she leans into the palm of her hand and captions the photos: “listening to myself.”

In typical internet fashion, the post went viral, with even Lorde herself praising MacLachlan for his recreation.

“I am………. speechless Kyle!” Lorde commented on his post, quickly following it up with: “O KAY Kyle !!”

One day later, MacLachlan posted a video of himself on TikTok rolling down a hill on a skateboard with the same pair of headphones from his Lorde post while playing “Let the Light In” by Lana Del Rey. And people couldn’t get enough of it.

“u are the moment,” one TikToker proclaimed, while another user simply commented: “father,” anointing MacLachlan as the cool Boomer.

Since then, MacLachlan gained more than 600,000k followers on TikTok and 1M on Instagram, proving himself to be a master of social media trends.

When the pop singer Chappell Roan blew up, MacLachlan created a video where he dressed up in a hot dog costume, doing a dramatic reenactment of the singer’s hit song, “Hot to Go.” Then, Charli XCX released Brat, the album of last summer, so MacLachlan donned a shirt in the iconic Brat green color and strutted down the street to “Girl, so confusing.”

It’s not just his TikToks and Instagram reels to popular songs that make MacLachlan’s social media so beloved; it’s also his ability to take popular trends and make them distinctly his own.

In fact, his vibes online are so immaculate that people often ask the actor if he has a social media team.

“I need to know who manages the content you post,” one Instagram user commented. “You simply cannot be THIS online.”

Other fans simply declare MacLachlan as a social media genius, writing: “see this is how social media should be used” and “when Kyle posts, the world heals a little bit.”

Whether it’s his podcast marketing team behind his accounts or MacLachlan himself, all that matters is he continues to show up on our algorithms, brightening our feeds for a few happy moments.