In 2022, Reeves’s recitation of the Beat poem “Pull My Daisy” for a virtual benefit concert for Tibet House US, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, stirred a negative reaction from users on Chinese social media.[317][318][319] Reeves’s films were subsequently banned from streaming platforms in China, including iQiyi, Tencent Video and Youku.[320][321]
A popular internet meme asserts that Reeves is “secretly immortal” and has lived throughout the last millennia under the identities of several historical figures, including Charlemagne and French actor Paul Mounet.[322] The meme came to media prominence in 2017 when Reeves was asked on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon about it. Reeves addressed his resemblance with Charlemagne, saying “We have a likeness in the eyes. And the nose and the mustache and the beard and the cheekbones and the forehead”.[323][324] When asked in a Q&A event for John Wick: Chapter 4 “if he ever ages”, Reeves responded, “Yeah man, I age. I really – I age. It’s happening, man”.[325] In 2023, a website dedicated to chronicling every time Reeves has spoken the word “whoa” in his film career was created by web developer Avi Mamenko to honor him.[326] In 2022, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.[327]