Video of a lemon rolling and rolling downhill captivates Twitter

Maybe people needed something soothing amid stories of tense cave rescues and contentious international summits. Or maybe the video was just too hypnotic to turn off.

Either way, a video of a lemon rolling and rolling and rolling down a hill became a smash on Twitter, with more than 20,000 retweets and more than 1.5 million views by Thursday morning.

Mike Sakasegawa, who posted the video, said he followed the peripatetic citrus for a quarter-mile.

The video itself showed just the last 90 seconds of the lemon's suspenseful adventure. Several times throughout the lemon almost stops before continuing on its travels.

After posting the video that went viral, Sakasegawa gained hundreds of followers overnight.

"Just to answer a couple questions that have been asked a bunch," Sakasegawa tweeted, "the lemon stopped rolling because we got to the bottom of the hill. The lemon is still intact, in my kitchen, and I don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet."

Sakasegawa decided to save the lemon, which is ripe [for internet stardom].

People posted messages of awe and respect for the lemon's stamina.

And some were amazed at their own stamina for watching an entire video of a rolling lemon.

Now, everybody back to work.