Fuck Jerry is not popular among, well, most creatives on the internet.
The Instagram account was recently called out for its shady practices in a video created by Victor Berger. The video, which shot to the front page of Reddit on Monday, details how Jerry Media—more specifically the Fuck Jerry Instagram account—has been stealing content from people for monetary gain. Ironically, however, Fuck Jerry seems to have silenced this criticism on YouTube with a copyright request.
The Vimeo version of the clip likewise shot to the top of Reddit’s r/videos community on Tuesday.
As the video notes, Fuck Jerry has been making money off other people’s unattributed content for some time now. The Instagram page makes money through advertisements, which are attached as tags to amusing posts. These posts, however, are not created by the team behind Fuck Jerry. Rather, they are created by genuinely funny people on the internet, only to be stolen and reposted without credit by the Fuck Jerry account.
The business that would become Jerry Media started over six years ago, according to a Forbes interview with creator Elliot Tebele. What began as a Tumblr account became more than 20 accounts across social media platforms.
Berger created the video in part prompted by a 2016 exchange with Jerry Media’s Chief Content Officer James Ryan Ohlinger. In screenshots posted to Twitter, Berger reveals how he requested that the account credit him for one of his videos, which they reposted. In response, Ohlinger, who goes by “Krispyshorts” told Berger to “shut up.”
https://twitter.com/VicBergerIV/status/1092599089848508416
Not long after Berger’s video went up on YouTube, it was removed. According to a screenshot shared by Berger, the reason given was a “copyright takedown request” from none other than Krispyshorts himself. In response to the video, as well as rising calls for FuckJerry to be boycotted, the hashtag #FuckFuckJerry continued to make the rounds. The hashtag has previously brought to light stories about how Fuck Jerry has screwed over comedians and creators for years.
Such ABSOLUTE FUCKING BULLSHIT from @FuckJerry. No “established norms for re-posting”? LIE. Flat-out fucking lie. They did EXTRA work removing creator’s names from Tweets to steal credit. They knew what they were doing. They got caught and they’re gaslighting. #FuckFuckJerry pic.twitter.com/GEWaZ1gnMu
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) February 4, 2019
https://twitter.com/Alice_Moran/status/1091150481982918662
A recent Medium column penned by Tebele claims that Fuck Jerry is changing its policies, and will no longer take content without permission, but people aren’t buying it. In fact, people are so angry at the Instagram page a quick search yields not one, but two roast-tracks about the “joke stealing jerks.”
hey @megh_wright figured you could use a jingle for your movement #fuckfuckjerry https://t.co/wbuO5M8Inp
— Tim Heidecker™ Official (@timheidecker) February 2, 2019
It’s the #unfollowfuckjerry theme song you’ve been waiting for!
— 16 years of song a day (@songadaymann) February 1, 2019
Seriously, f those guys. Hit that unfollow button HARD. pic.twitter.com/yKzyy71Go2
As Tim Heidecker put it in his track, “shut those fuckers down.”
Fuck Jerry and Berger did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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