Tyler, The Creator Takes Aim At ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Odd Future merch-pusher and entrepreneurial rapsmith Tyler, The Creator has unleashed a Twitter tirade against viral charity movement the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

Taking to the social platform this afternoon, Tyler displayed — in his usual, capitalised style — a mixture of bewilderment, irate confusion and, progressively, understanding for the fund-raiser, which has taken the internet by storm in recent days following the participation of several high-profile celebrities and personalities from around the world.

"What the fuck is throwing water on yourself gonna actually do for the nigga that lives with whatever you are trying 2 raise fake awareness 4?" Tyler opined on Twitter, going on to insinuate that most of those people who have engaged with the drive — a list that includes the likes of Bill Gates, LeBron James, will.i.am, Mark Zuckerberg, Ricky Martin, Robert Downey Jr, Ricky Gervais, Jimmy Fallon, a super-gross one from Amy Schumer, and Taylor Swift — are simply in it for "the likes".

In case you've missed it this week, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is designed to raise money and awareness for ALS - more scientifically known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's Disease, or, in Australia, motor neurone disease, a progressively degenerative ailment that leaves sufferers totally paralysed, though their minds remain unaffected.

Related: The best ALS Ice Bucket Challenge vids created by musicians

The original premise of the videos was for people to answer a challenge of being doused in ice water within 24 hours, or donate $100 to the cause, although many entrants appear to be choosing to do both, and the movement has since blitzed across the globe, including into Australia, where local personalities such as David 'Kochie' Koch, AFL chief executive Gill McLachlan and Nick Riewoldt have taken part, passing on the (as-yet unanswered) challenge to the likes of Karl Stefanovic, Brendon Goddard and Shane Warne.

To Tyler's credit, however, he seemed to change his tone towards the end of the outburst, still sticking to his guns on questioning the overall usefulness of such campaigns, but noticeably softening towards it nonetheless.

Despite Tyler's scepticism, The New York Times has reported that the "Ice Bucket Challenge" — which took off with 29-year-old sufferer Pete Frates — has raised more than $US13.3 million ($A14.25 million) since July 29, which is more than seven times as much as was managed during the same period last year ($US1.7 million), with an increase of about 260,000 new donors recorded by the US' ALS Association, while 1.2 million videos have been posted on social media to do with the campaign, and it's received more than 2 million mentions on Twitter alone since the end of last month.

Tyler, however, is by no means alone in his criticism of the campaign — a common complaint about the drive is that the disease itself has essentially taken a back seat to the showboating of video participants/novelty of the idea, resulting in the kind of confusion the rapper was alluding to in his tweets. In addition, the disease's many names are causing a few problems on the clarity front for global organisations that deal with the illness. Regardless, the results speak for themselves — significant awareness and funds have inarguably been raised for sufferers of the disease.

Because it's amazing (and for a good cause), you should watch Chris Pratt's answer to his dual challenge from Disney CEO Bob Iger and Law & Order: Criminal Intent star/Edgar suit Vincent D'Onofrio, below: