Instagram account F*ckJerry, run by a 27-year-old New Yorker named Elliot Tebele, has managed to cash in on every millennial and Gen Z's favourite source of humour - memes. The meme account has over 13 million followers, including tons of celebrities.
Tebele has successfully built his entire career and even his personal life on his account. It's been featured in top publications like Business Insider, Cosmpolitan and The New York Post, who deemed F*ckJerry "the funniest Instagram feed in 2014." He's also married to a fellow Instagram celeb named Jessica Anteby, who runs the meme account BeigeCardigan.
Tebele has just announced the launch of his original programming series, "FJerry's Top 10," which will stream exclusively on Snapchat. It will serve as a kind of weekly recap of online news you may have missed that week, only with a funny meme-infused twist. The name had to be shortened to "FJerry" because of Snapchat's strict ban on profanity.
“In the creative conversations, you throw a lot of things out there. [FJerry has an] animated unicorn with a real personality. It’s delightfully weird and crazed. This is not a talking head, this is a talking unicorn,” says the head of original content at Snapchat.
The decision to stream on Snapchat instead of Instagram's new IGTV feature is an interesting one, considering Snapchat has slowly been fading from everyone's radar and is nowhere near as popular as it used to be. But, Snap is still fighting to get people back on the app by making huge investments in brands and Instagram stars like Tebele.
Snapchat is still the primary source for news recaps from major publications and TV shows, including Daily Mail, US Weekly, People, E! News, MTV, VICE and NBC.
When it comes to original programming, Snapchat has the upper hand over Instagram. F*ckJerry's creative director says that, “by the time Instagram television had launched, I had already been in development with Snapchat for probably a year. Snapchat was the first one to be doing a lot of original shows, vertical. They have a lot of insights and the passion for it.”
You can tune into "FJerry's Top 10" this Sunday, July 27th on Snapchat's discover feed.
Source: Digiday
