Archie Walters
4 December, 2025
Deepfake tech usually shows up in serious conversations, fake news, scams, and all the way people can be tricked online. But this year, it took a sharp turn into pure silliness with a trend called "kirkifying", a joke that spread everywhere almost overnight.
Here is what happened: people started using simple face-swap apps to stick Charlie Kirk’s face onto all kinds of random videos and images. At first it was just a small inside joke, but the results were so strange and funny that the internet grabbed onto it fast.
Soon, his face was showing up in cooking tutorials, dramatic movie scenes, dance clips and much more
Soon, his face was showing up in cooking tutorials, dramatic movie scenes, dance clips and much more
The humour comes from how wrong it all looks. Even when the tech does a decent job, the face never fits quite right.
The expressions are a little too stiff, the head tilts do not match, and the whole thing feels just off enough to make you laugh. It’s the kind of weird, slightly cursed energy the internet loves.
The expressions are a little too stiff, the head tilts do not match, and the whole thing feels just off enough to make you laugh. It’s the kind of weird, slightly cursed energy the internet loves.
But the joke also shows how far deepfake tools have come. A few years ago, making something like this would take real skill. Now you can do it on your phone in a few taps. In the case of kirkifying, people used that power for harmless fun.
Still, it is hard not to notice how easily the same tools could be used to fool people instead of entertaining them.
Still, it is hard not to notice how easily the same tools could be used to fool people instead of entertaining them.
For now, though, the trend is a reminder that the internet has a special talent: it can take something serious or even something a little scary and turn it into a running joke.
And somehow, deepfake tech, of all things, ended up at the centre of one of the year’s biggest laughs.........
And somehow, deepfake tech, of all things, ended up at the centre of one of the year’s biggest laughs.........
