If you’re on Instagram, you’re probably familiar with F*ckJerry. The account has millions of followers and purports to “curate” humorous content, which many see as stealing jokes. As Vulture‘s Megh Wright wrote in a recent post, “The man behind F*ckJerry, Elliot Tebele, has managed to attain over 14 million Instagram followers by passing Twitter jokes and memes off as his own — the general style being screenshots with proper attribution (most commonly, Twitter usernames) conveniently cropped out.” The joke theft accusations are nothing new, but it’s taken on added significance since the account’s agency, Jerry Media, was also hired to promote — you guessed it — Fyre Festival.
Fyre Festival, a train-wreck among boondoggles, has led to lawsuits, imprisonment, blowjob memes, and Ja Rule testing whether all publicity is, indeed, good publicity. It was a social media influencer daydream turned nightmare, thanks largely to the efforts of Jerry Media, which promoted the event online (and then executive produced a Netflix documentary about said event, which resulted in some fine shade from Hulu).
Wright is leading a campaign to spread the word about F*ckJerry’s extremely profitable manner of business. It’s working, too, with the likes of Patton Oswalt, Paul F. Tompkins, Eliza Skinner, Tim Heidecker, and Westworld‘s Jimmi Simpson boarding the #F*ckF*ckJerry train.
Please read this short, fascinating thread. And #FuckFuckJerry https://t.co/jLTHbatY8x
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) January 31, 2019
It hiss without saying, but #FuckFuckJerry https://t.co/11Tl1Gh032
— Paul F. Tompkins (@PFTompkins) January 30, 2019
Fuck Jerry steals content from struggling comics (who put it out for free) and then uses it to make money from ad sales. If you don’t want to help rich dudes make money by stealing from people who didn’t grow up rich enough to work the system then UNFOLLOW THEM. #fuckfuckjerry
— Eliza Skinner (@elizaskinner) February 1, 2019
I don’t have massive followers and I’ve never heard of #fuckjerry but after reading this thread it sounds like the IG equivalent of Kent from REAL GENIUS. Which is weird cuz Kent worshipped Jerry. https://t.co/DOnH4auC8C
— Jimmi Simpson (@jimmisimpson) January 29, 2019
i would've loved to get $250k for this post instead of have it be stolen by #fuckjerry who gets paid that much per post. it was *at the time* one of the first 100 or so **most viral tweets of all time.** where's my money sweetie #FuckFuckJerry // cc: @megh_wright pic.twitter.com/hFghYmX9Kd
— Ingrid Ostby (@ingridostby) February 1, 2019
https://twitter.com/hellolanemoore/status/1091180874194927616
#FuckFuckJerry indeed https://t.co/flHOOIRXtl
— Colin Hanks (@ColinHanks) February 1, 2019
https://twitter.com/NiaVardalos/status/1091164715915431936
https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/1091110207772602368
https://twitter.com/VicBergerIV/status/1090703919368540160
accounts like Fuck Jerry encourage the whole online culture of stealing work. it’s easy to not feel bad saying “lmao who did this” when you haven’t spent hours, days in front of an editing software making a video, hoping it will lead to gigs only to have it stolen #FuckFuckJerry
— dom nero (@dominicknero) February 1, 2019
Why don’t you take every other dollar from your agency and give it back to the comedians and writers you steal from every day! Your profit from material that isn’t your own. You could change the aggregation game by properly paying those whose material you use. https://t.co/tk6IzGvTML
— Anthony Atamanuik (@TonyAtamanuik) February 1, 2019
Want to join @megh_wright on the #FuckFuckJerry outcry. I somehow still have like 100 mutual followers with this thieving account that monetizes other people's jokes without credit — including fuckin' mine! So please, unfollow. And fuck @FATJEW as well, but that's another day. https://t.co/nHLwJsWaMh
— Chase Mitchell (@ChaseMit) February 1, 2019
When a Twitter follower asked why she’s spending energy on her noble anti-F*ckJerry crusade, Wright responded, “Because I care, because tons of comedians and artists care, and because it’s overdue.”
(Via Vulture)