Is the Fat Jew King of (Stolen) Memes?

Image by Instagram

By Maia Efrem August 17, 2015

Looks like the world is turning against The Fat Jew, Instagram’s most popular class clown.

After months of , The Fat Jew, or Josh Ostrovsky’s reported Comedy Central pilot has been canned following accusations of plagiarism and less than legitimate curation of content.

Michael Ian Black, Patton Oswalt and Norm McDonald are just some of the comedians who have called out Ostrovsky for reposting uncredited content, growing his immense popularity and following on Instagram to 5.7 million, all off the backs of unrecognized comedians.

See ya later, aggregator: https://t.co/4xBQEGyWFz

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) August 17, 2015

To me, what makes @fatjew so funny aren’t the stolen jokes he posts, but THE WAY he posts them.

— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) August 16, 2015

Image by TheFatJewish Instagram

With his edgy, irreverent and delightfully filthy humor, Ostrovky gained an instant following, which brought with it sponsorships with brands like Seamless, Bud Light, Virgin Mobile and Burger King, each paying up to $6,000 to be featured in one of the Fat Jew’s memes. Ostrovsky also has a line of wine White Girl Rosé, an upcoming book “Money Pizza Respect” with Grand Central Publishing, a plus size modeling contract with One Management and he recently signed with Creative Artists Agency, the same talent agency that represents Tom Hanks, Will Smith and George Clooney.

Bud Light’s Superbowl sponsorship:

Night is reaching legendary when ur assistants #UpForWhatever & lets ur grandma w/ cataracts tattoo him @BudLight #sp pic.twitter.com/zqEHcBN0if

— The Fat Jew (@FATJEW) February 26, 2015

Seamless sponsorship:

@FATJEW #hangry @Seamless waiting for #Delivery as desperately as for my #unicorn #awkwardlyinthecity #permasingle pic.twitter.com/LTbyefN5vk

— awkwardlyinthecity (@awkwardlyNYC) July 6, 2015

Not bad for a boy from the Upper West Side of Manhattan with an epic Jewfro, or “hair erection” as he calls it, and a good WiFi connection.

Ostrovsky, 30, has yet to comment on the Comedy Central cancellation or the recent backlash but in a May interview with Katie Couric he had this to say about the allegations of joke stealing:

“The internet is like a giant, weird orgy where everything gets shared. A lot of people are using stuff that I make. Every time I make a photo, and I put it out there, it gets reblogged on a million sites and I would never put my name on it because it’s like we’re all on ecstasy in this giant rave.”

A quick scan of Ostrovsky’s Instagram account shows that maybe all this criticism has been acknowledged. At least the last two weeks’ worth of his posts have credited the origin of his memes. And surprise, they’re just as funny with the listed source.

Maia Efrem is the former research editor and assistant to the editor and was also responsible for the Forward’s annual Salary Survey. Previously she served as the editor of Blognik Beat, a blog written by students who emigrated from or have ties to the Former Soviet Union. Maia is a graduate of Hunter College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

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