Fuck Jerry doesn't want you to watch a Vic Berger video making fun of them; here's that Vic Berger video
Fuck Jerry, the fine folks best known for their work in marketing the Fyre Festival and making a successful company by stealing other people’s jokes, have found a bold new business strategy for 2019: shutting down videos critical of their practices.
This exciting new innovation has been deployed against Vic Berger, master of comedic video-editing and someone who’s run afoul of the apparently-reformed “aggregator” before. For Berger’s sins—creating a very good video entitled FuckJerry: Easier To Steal—he’s been hit with a copyright strike aimed at making sure nobody can watch his clip goofing on the company.
Here’s the video in question.
Easier to Steal was removed from YouTube yesterday in a “copyright takedown request” filed by Fuck Jerry’s James Ryan “Krispyshorts” Ohliger, someone whose past interaction with Berger consisted of telling him to “Shut up” after being asked to give credit for stolen work.
Berger has the video on Vimeo (YouTube’s cooler older brother) now and is encouraging everyone to download the file and spread it around in order to keep it safe from Fuck Jerry’s carrion-stained talons.
So far, Berger’s request has worked. The video’s doing gangbusters on Reddit, which means it’s been shared far and wide enough that removing traces of it from the internet is now just about impossible. This is good. Not only is Berger’s work funny, but its survival represents a lasting blow to a company that hopes to capitalize on the internet’s open nature without suffering the ramifications of that openness ever biting them in the ass.
Bless Vic Berger and, as always, #FuckFuck Jerry.
UPDATE (2:59 P.M.): In a Rolling Stone op-ed, Berger elaborated on his Fuck Jerry pushback.
He writes:
Tebele grew his accounts over the years, fully aware of the cracks in Instagram’s system. Instagram created an environment where rampant plagiarism means big money, and Tebele knew how to exploit this to the fullest. (The photo-sharing site did not return a request for comment.) The folks at Jerry Media are conscienceless hacks operating within this ethical and legal gray area of the site, and that needs immediate attention. I believe it starts with the deletion of Tebele’s @fuckjerry account, as well as his numerous other accounts that are overflowing with unconsented, uncompensated material. They’ve all gotta go. Get ‘em the hell outta here.
He continued, advocating for comedy journalist Megh Wright’s #FuckFuckJerry campaign.
Like in most situations of rampant corporate greed, people so often feel powerless to create change. But change has to start somewhere. The #FuckFuckJerry campaign, which urges people to unfollow Telebe’s accounts, has gained serious traction online in the past week due to years of outrage built up by ripped-off comedians and a recent piece by Megh Wright for Vulture. Dozens more people have come forward recently about having their stolen jokes and art showing up on @fuckjerry’s pages. My worry is that Telebe will be able to ride out the news cycle until our outrage is replaced with something new, as typically happens. But something feels different about this particular moment of pushback against @fuckjerry. For once, there’s hope.
Major celebs in and out of the comedy world — including John Mulaney, Patton Oswalt and Colin Hanks — are unfollowing and speaking out, using their platform to shift the public to stand up for what is right. There is a $100 million class-action suit in the works for damages related to Fyre Fest. @Fuckjerry’s follower count is dropping rapidly, and Comedy Central recently became the first brand to end their relationship with Jerry Media. They need an incentive to change themselves. Fear of their bank account shrinking does the trick.
Seriously, guys. If you appreciate the people who make the shit that makes you laugh, unfollow these rich, talentless hacks.
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