In case you thought that the extended Kardashian family was going to reserve their most dramatic reveals for the final run of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the past week has proven otherwise. After sharing photos of her 40th birthday celebration on a private island, Kim Kardashian took to social media to share what husband Kanye West gave her: a message delivered by a hologram version of her late father.
Yes, really. Kanye West arranged for a hologram ghost version of Robert Kardashian to deliver a message that ran for a little over two minutes, involved dancing, praise for her status as a proud Armenian, and of course congratulations on the "most genius man in the whole world" she married.
Coming on the heels of the private island birthday party in the middle of a pandemic, the video brought a whole lot of people out on Twitter with reactions, and some of them were pretty great. First, because seeing really is believing when it comes to a ghost hologram birthday present, take a look:
While I can't say that I watched it "over and over" like Kim Kardashian, I will admit that it took more than one view for it to really sink in. Reactions range from accusations of tone-deafness for showing off something that few people will ever have to disbelief to outright hilarity. Take a look at some of the standout reactions!
Apparently, it wasn't the pandemic or social distancing or even the particularly divisive election cycle that broke this person, but rather the hologram of Robert Kardashian with a scripted birthday message for his daughter. In fact, the scripted nature of the clip is what left a lot of people on Twitter in stitches, considering Robert Kardashian obviously didn't record this prior to his death in 2003. One person on Twitter summed up the consensus:
kanye paid someone to make a hologram of kim’s dad saying she married 'the most most most most most genius man' YOU CANT MAKE THIS SHIT UPKDJDJ
I think it's a fair point to say that this probably wouldn't have occurred to very many people other than Kanye West ahead of his wife's 40th birthday! Ghost holograms of dearly departed family members aren't exactly the latest fad of 2020. Somebody else expressed their sense that this was over-the-top even from the extended Kardashian family:
Of course, the ghost hologram birthday present probably won't become a new fad. Just like very few people have the resources to throw a party on a private island after getting guests to quarantine for two weeks for a return to "normal" (according to Kim Kardashian herself on Twitter), few people can probably create ghost holograms even if they wanted to.
It's possible that the hologram of Robert Kardashian would have been received differently on Twitter if it didn't come just a few days after Kim Kardashian revealed the luxuries of her private island birthday party, but for some, they couldn't ignore the timing.
For some, the idea of Kanye West recreating Robert Kardashian via hologram reminded them of another option he could have used to stand in for his wife's late father: David Schwimmer, who played Kardashian in Ryan Murphy's The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.
Finally, in the true spirit of the spooky Halloween season, watching the ghost hologram had somebody thinking of a certain horror movie rather than American Crime Story. Hopefully this person is wrong, but who can rule anything out in 2020?
While Keeping Up with the Kardashians presumably won't cover Kim Kardashian's 40th birthday or the hologram (if at all) for a while, you can find new episodes of the series airing Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on E! The latest episode covered Khloe Kardashian's struggle with COVID-19, and upcoming installments should continue to show the family dealing with the pandemic.
If you want to relive days gone by of Kardashian family drama, you can find 18 seasons of Keeping Up with the Kardashians streaming on Hulu now. For some options not featuring any Kardashians, Jenners, or holograms of Robert Kardashian, check out our 2020 fall TV premiere schedule.
