But whatever anyone thinks of him, Dapper is a very modern media phenomenon.
Who is O'Reilly? He's originally from Woking in Surrey, and spent some years performing on cruise ships. These are early publicity shots from his professional showbiz profile.
His biog says: "I’m a presenter / actor / comedian / model, most of my initial experience has been on cruise ships where I perfected the art of presenting cheesy game shows and performing in my own stand up comedy show 'the life of Reilly'.
"I have done professional modelling and acting in a movie, I enjoy stand up performing and writing. I’m an out going “cheeky cockney chappie” type, very comical and playful, professional and quick witted."
His profile also mentions that he attended Brooklands Performing Arts School from 2000 to 2002 and has done warm-up gigs for Paul Daniels, among others, and appeared in a short film.
He may well be a word-of-mouth, social-media success story, but his roots are in traditional showbiz much more than people may think.
And to top it all, Dapper is headed for the mainstream. He's hosting a new show on ITV2 called On the Pull.
I've been getting into trouble since I was a kid. When someone gives me a slap now it doesn't faze me. I think the worst that can happen is that I'm going to get a punch. It's not really that bad and for the comedy, I love it. I've been knocked about a few times doing Vines. But I've never been slapped by a bird! So yeah I've had a couple of punches… I've always been the one with the big mouth.I done a Vine in Brixton a little while ago and there were four or five geezas standing there, they were like heavies and I was like 'Hi, is this the book club?', and one of 'em chinned me. Like in pubs and that when I'm trying to do Vines at night. But you know what, it's all part of the game. It makes it interesting.
In 2014 he started to do Vines featuring famous people, including Louis Walsh, filmmaker and actor Noel Clarke, Ashley Cole, and Hollywood star Terry Crews.
View this video on YouTube
He has his supporters, but not everyone is a fan.
'Dapper Laughs' is what you get if you create a human man out of 95% testosterone and 5% Urban Outfitters vouchers.
People who said "Mrs Brown's Boys isn't to my taste but it's just snobbery to slag it off" - you are DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for Dapper Laughs.
Dapper Laughs is not funny and is disgusting and sexist.
How has Dapper Laughs got a place at V in the comedy tent?! He's just unbelievably sexist and misogynistic..no comedy value at all.
Established comedians trying to make a living from comedy weren't impressed by the speed with which he was offered a TV show.
Great timing for ITV to commission a series for Dapper Laughs - an extra punch in stomach for all of us about to start our Fringe shows!
This was Radio Times' brutal summation of the Dapper Laughs phenomenon.
But it doesn't really matter what critics think – he's proven he can build an audience without the kind of critical support, and some would say hard work, that many comedians rely on.
His fans see Dapper as a loveable rogue who pushes the boundaries of what's acceptable – like a homemade Leigh Francis, who has for more than a decade played the lethario character Keith Lemon in Celebrity Juice, which feels tired and outdated in comparison.
He's a "lad" that attracts young women to his shows (his management told us the gender split in his followers is 50:50) and makes people laugh by saying out loud the kind of thing they would only say in front of their best friends on a boozy night out.
In a sense, this is the subculture of Vine breaking free and being let loose on an unsuspecting mainstream live and TV audience. But in another this is mainstream entertainment borrowing from the "lad" subculture that has seen The LAD Bible grow to 3.4 million Facebook fans and stag dos become a multi-million-pound international industry.
Dapper Laughs exists because a TV executive or a marketing guru could not have invented him.
We originally said that the line from Forrest Gump was from a black character, but in the film it's said by Forrest Gump, who is white.