You’ve probably seen @FuckJerry on Instagram. The meme page, which has over 14 million followers, is run by a 27-year-old Syrian Jew, Elliot Tebele.
After the premiere of the dueling Fyre Festival documentaries (one on Hulu, one on Netflix, don’t pretend like you haven’t watched both), controversy has begun to swirl over @FuckJerry’s involvement with the disaster (we’ll just write “Fuck Jerry” from here on out).
So, let’s break it down…
Who is Fuck Jerry?
Fuck Jerry is the Instagram name of Elliot Tebele. Tebele came up with the name while watching Seinfeld. (Because, of course.) He explained to Forbes that when he joined Instagram, “I would post a comedic post here and there and noticed the engagement was much higher than the other posts so it slowly evolved into a full fledged comedy account. @fuckjerry was one of the only meme accounts at the time and the account started to go viral from all of the engagement.”
Tebele’s wife, Jessica Anteby, also started a meme account (@beigecardigan). She grew up in the same Syrian Jewish community as Elliot — but unlike Elliot, she doesn’t post on Shabbat. They also have personal Instagrams (@jessicatebele and @jewhead) that are filled with more normal photos of their life and their baby daughter.
Anyways, Tebele grew quickly past the meme account. “My vision is to become the New Age Hasbro,” he told The New Yorker. “Games are a great way for people to get off their phones, hang out, laugh.. At this point, I’m so sick of the Internet.”
Tebele branched out his Instagram account into a media company (Jerry Media), a Cards Against Humanity type-game (What Do You Meme?), and a tequila brand (Jaja).
Okay, so what’s up with Fyre Festival?
As part of his new media company, Tebele’s team was brought on to help promote the Fyre Festival. By now, thanks to two brand-new documentaries on Hulu and Netflix, we all know what went down with Fyre. (One word: disaster!) Most of the anger and blame has been placed on Fyre Fest organizers Billy McFarland and Ja Rule (McFarland is currently serving jail time for wire fraud.)
This is where it gets interesting…
The Netflix documentary, Fyre, was produced by Jerry Media in partnership with Vice. A bit of a conflict of interest, as Emily Nussbaum pointed out on Twitter:
Wow, these FuckJerry guys realllllly cut around their own responsibility in the Netflix doc. The Hulu doc was necessary for the FJ whistleblower alone.
But the Netflix one was worth it for the Customs blowjob story. I love that guy! So honest about the full-on insanity.
— Emily Nussbaum (@emilynussbaum) January 20, 2019
The Hulu documentary, Fyre Fraud, featured a former Jerry Media employee, Oren Aks (also a Jew! So many Jews in this story!). Aks accused Jerry Media of knowing how terrible the event was going to be yet continuing to promote it. Aks said Jerry Media was complicit in the fraud.
Hulu’s documentary accuses Jerry Media of knowingly lying and promoting false information.
i also hate that the FuckJerry guys are now trying to say Oren Aks, who outed their culpability in the Hulu doc, only worked on the fest for two weeks. What’s hilarious is that Oren still runs the @fyrefestival acct because i guess no one ever changed the password https://t.co/FDlC4v26xR
— ashley ray (@arayyay) January 19, 2019
After the dueling documentaries came out, Tebele tweeted that all the money they earned working on Fyre would go to a GoFundMe for the Bahamian workers who were not paid.
Just gave every dollar my agency earned from the Fyre Festival back to the go fund me. Others should do the same. https://t.co/x7saQiPiGC
— Elliot Tebele (@FuckJerry) January 21, 2019
However, many are annoyed they’re just now helping out the Bahamian workers. As one commentator wrote, “This happened a year and a half ago and now you want to help the people that got fucked over?! I’m sure this has nothing to do with the fact that Hulu exposed you scumbags and you needed a positive spin, right?”
People on Twitter also expressed outrage over Jerry Media’s involvement:
(1/3) @fuckjerry is almost as big of a con artist as #BillyMcFarland, went along with what could only described as an elaborate hoax, with loads of red flags along the way, pocketed money, now made a documentary w/vice to spin it in their favor
— Kaitlyn Oates (@kaitlynoates) January 20, 2019
Even Serena Williams’s husband, Alexis Ohanian, chimed in:
The #FyreFest doc on @netflix was a good additional take but #FyreFraud on @hulu was the champ. Brilliant move by FuckJerry to get involved in the Netflix doc using the making-of footage they shot to help control the narrative around their role.
— Alexis Ohanian Sr. 🚀 (@alexisohanian) January 20, 2019
Why is Patton Oswalt involved?
Why is he involved!? Well, people started tweeting about their anger at Fuck Jerry/Jerry Media and their role in Fyre Festival, and Patton Oswalt stepped in.
He re-tweeted a Fuck Jerry tweet, pivoting the issue from Fyre to stolen jokes.
Good. GOOD. On behalf of all the comedians and creators whose content you’ve stolen and passed off as your own so you could profit? GOOOOOOOOOD. https://t.co/btrsI4lAbe
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) January 29, 2019
How ‘bout giving the rest of your $$$$ back to the comedians and artists whose content you stole and passed off as your own to build your brand? Now that you’ve been bitten by the Integrity Bug. https://t.co/7d5HsQUCFA
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) January 29, 2019
$150k? That’s AWFUL. You guys should have lost your entire company and the ability to ever work again in any creative medium. Oh well. #FuckFuckJerry https://t.co/hEyIvemRGy
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) January 29, 2019
Patton helped #FuckFuckJerry trend on Twitter, with many others tweeting the hashtag (coined by Twitter comedian Judah Friedlander).
Hey, if you follow FuckJerry on any platform, do me a solid and unfollow them. Aside from the Fyre Festival shit, they steal content from comedians and monetize it for themselves. Fuck that. #FuckFuckJerry
— Kyle Romero (@itskyleromero) January 28, 2019
Wait, what’s up with stealing jokes?
Ah, yes, the stealing jokes thing.
Megh Wright has a great explainer in Vulture, calling Jerry Media “every comedian’s worst enemy.” Why? Wright writes, “FuckJerry’s rise to social-media stardom was built on stolen jokes — or as both account creators like to call it, “curating” jokes. Like [@thefatjew Josh] Ostrovsky, the man behind FuckJerry, 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.”
She’s also been using the #FuckFuckJerry campaign:
hello @AndyRichter @SarahKSilverman @pattonoswalt @robdelaney consider supporting our #FuckFuckJerry hashtag and letting your fans know that following notorious joke-stealer FuckJerry on Instagram is bad, with much respect and thank you for your consideration
— Megh Wright (@megh_wright) January 28, 2019
Not great!
Should I unfollow FuckJerry?
Maybe.
But — did you unfollow @GirlWithNoJob after her racism scandal?
Update: Elliott Tebele released a statement on February 2nd.
