The Man Behind the Meme: The Fat Jew & His Claim to Meme Fame
If you’re unaware of who the “The Fat Jew” is, then you’re probably wondering why I’m so racist. However, his real name is Josh Ostrovsky and he’s known as an American Instagram celeb, writer, actor, model and entrepreneur (and yes, he gave himself the nickname). With over 10 million followers on Instagram and almost 300,000 followers on Twitter, he has become quite the online superstar.
How did he get so popular on social media, you may ask? Well, by posting MEMES of course! There are many different types of memes, but The Fat Jew is mainly known for sharing Macro Memes. These typically include a recognizable photo, with either text placed at the top or bottom of the image — the latter tends to serve as the punch line for the meme and the font is usually Impact.
With his extremely controversial posts, everyone seems to love The Fat Jew and just can’t get enough. Even The New York Times said, “he has parlayed a profane sense of humor that mocks the tropes of social-media culture and the hipsters who propagate them; an apparent affection for pot, pets and grandparents; and his own slovenly, outlandish physical appearance…into a huge web following”. In 2015, Time magazine also added his name to their list of The 30 Most Influential People on the Internet. So, basically he’s effing awesome.
Not only has Ostrovsky been posting a bunch of hilarious memes, but he has definitely been taking advantage of his recent stardom by writing books (one called “Money, Pizza, Respect”, which are some of my favorite things by the way), selling his own merchandise (this also includes selling a “Fat Jew chit chat” where he talks to you on the phone for about 20 minutes totalling at $1500 US), starring in movies, launching his own wine called White Girl Rosé, and charging appearance fees for events.
Even though he is most likely making a lot of money from all of those things that I just mentioned, he is making A LOT more off of advertising. Financial Times magazine mentioned that his income from ads alone includes brands paying him approximately $6,000 JUST for him to mention their products on his Instagram. Is it just me or is that absolutely crazy? This may be running at a rate of several hundred thousand dollars a year. I now know what you’re all thinking… how do I start my own meme Instagram account? I’m thinking the exact same thing. Keep reading and you might find out.
But, fame typically comes at a price. In Ostrovsky’s case, he had broken the Internet’s “Golden Rule” that began back from the early days of blogging: if you are going to use someone else’s work, give credit and link back to them. Comedian, Davon Magwood is one of the many people who accused The Fat Jew of copying without giving credit, and some are even accusing him of “malicious cropping in order to obscure a watermark or other identifying information”. Being the nice Jew that he is, he decided to credit all work that he reposted from that moment on. Good job Fat Jew, good job.
Vice magazine asked Ostrovsky questions about his social media presence and when he personally felt that he could make a career out of it, and here’s his hilarious response: “The moment I realized that social media was more than a way to try and sleep with Jewish girls named Lauren who have things like “LIVE. LOVE. LAUGH” in their online bio was when a nice couple from Portland told me they were huge fans, and asked me to sign their baby. THEIR ACTUAL BABY. WITH A SHARPIE MARKER. I was like, “Ok, I think this might be a thing now.”
Believe it or not, Ostrovsky isn’t the only one who is making a living off of memes. There are hundreds to thousands of other Instagram accounts that are successful enough to rely on their posts for income. With over 13 million Instagram followers, FUCKJERRY is an Instagram account-turned-marketing agency led by Elliot Tebele. He is also famous for posting daily memes in order to keep up to date with all of the popular trends (one day it’s a meme about that Dr. Phil “cash me outside” girl and the next it’s about that Justin Timberlake kid from the Super Bowl). Do you want to know what I think? I think that this is what the world has come to, and if anything, these people should be praised for being such creative geniuses. Here’s some tips that I’ve created to get you as famous as The Fat Jew or FUCKJERRY in no time:
- Create an Instagram account, and a unique yet funny handle.
- Buy some followers — noone will want to follow you if you have 4 followers.
- Watch some comedy skits on YouTube — maybe this will help you become funnier (I can’t make any promises though).
- Start off by reposting memes from other popular Instagram accounts (give them credit of course… but if you don’t then I won’t tell anyone).
- Be consistent — Post at least 3 memes a day.
- Try to get shoutouts from similar accounts with larger followings.
- Begin creating and posting your own memes.
- Become famous (while giving me 20% of your ad revenue).
- Live a great life.
And, finally, for those who don’t see this meme-generating career as a serious pursuit, The Fat Jew wants to say, “BONJOUR, HATERS.”
