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Jeff the Killer: Difference between revisions
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'''Jeff the Killer''', also called '''''Killer Jeff''''', is an infamous [[creepypastas|creepypasta]], internet urban legend, fictional character, and image commonly used in [[Screamer|screamers]]. Jeff the Killer refers to an edited image of a pale, noseless, unknown person with black eyes with white and black pupils, a long canine-like smile, in a dark room with laundry hanging in the background. The creepypasta, first created around 2008, suggests that the person in the image is a 13-year old serial killer named Jeff who sneaks into people's homes and whispers "Go to sleep" before killing them with a knife. A user named Sesseur was the first person to create a story behind the image, but his version does not revolve around the person in the image being a serial killer. Instead, a remix version of the story was made more popular than the original, and revolves around a tragic story behind Jeff, which led him to become a serial killer due to his insanity. | '''Jeff the Killer''', also called '''''Killer Jeff''''', is an infamous [[creepypastas|creepypasta]], internet urban legend, fictional character, and image commonly used in [[Screamer|screamers]]. Jeff the Killer refers to an edited image of a pale, noseless, unknown person with black eyes with white and black pupils, a long canine-like smile, in a dark room with laundry hanging in the background. The creepypasta, first created around 2008, suggests that the person in the image is a 13-year old serial killer named Jeff who sneaks into people's homes and whispers "Go to sleep" before killing them with a knife. A user named Sesseur was the first person to create a story behind the image, but his version does not revolve around the person in the image being a serial killer. Instead, a remix version of the story was made more popular than the original, and revolves around a tragic story behind Jeff, which led him to become a serial killer due to his insanity. | ||
This image became controversial shortly after it was believed to be of a supposed woman named "Katy Robinson," who had allegedly committed suicide in 2008. This belief started on [[4chan]] in 2005, but after years of extensive research, it was revealed that the images originated on various Japanese message board and forum websites, including pya.cc and gazo05.chbox.jp in 2005.<ref name=":0">docs.google.com/document/d/1QN-ekAPPiW-b2iCGDikyseemBV73ek_7ZB7EgRVQHSI/edit</ref> This more famous image, in particular, is also an edited version of another earlier version, called White powder (2), which appears to be an edited image of a person with googly, cartoon eyes and a large smile. The former file name of this image was "prettyFACE.jpg" on 5chan before it was posted onto pya.cc.<ref name=":0" /> The more famous version was edited further to make the mouth stretch out and the eyes edited to have white and black pupils | This image became controversial shortly after it was believed to be of a supposed woman named "Katy Robinson," who had allegedly committed suicide in 2008. This belief started on [[4chan]] in 2005, but after years of extensive research, it was revealed that the images originated on various Japanese message board and forum websites, including pya.cc and gazo05.chbox.jp in 2005.<ref name=":0">docs.google.com/document/d/1QN-ekAPPiW-b2iCGDikyseemBV73ek_7ZB7EgRVQHSI/edit</ref> This more famous image, in particular, is also an edited version of another earlier version, called White powder (2) (also called JTK 2), which appears to be an edited image of a person with googly, cartoon eyes and a large smile. The former file name of this image was "prettyFACE.jpg" on 5chan before it was posted onto pya.cc.<ref name=":0" /> The more famous version was edited further to make the mouth stretch out and the eyes edited to have white and black pupils. | ||
==Stories== | ==Stories== | ||
The first person to create a story around it was a [[DeviantArt]] user Sesseur.<ref name="Gizmodo">Newitz, Annalee. “Who Is ‘Jeff the Killer’? and Is His Picture Haunted by a Real Death?” [[Wikipedia:Gizmodo|Gizmodo]], Gizmodo, 16 Dec. 2015, <nowiki>https://gizmodo.com/who-is-jeff-the-killer-and-is-his-picture-haunted-by-1016241494</nowiki>.</ref> In the original story, a person named "Jeff" was hauling a gallon of acid into his bathroom to clean his bathtub. Suddenly, Jeff accidentally slipped on a bar of soap, fell on the floor, and the gallon of acid splashed over his face. Jeff's neighbors began hearing him cry for help, and they took him to the hospital. The incident happened while his brother, Liu, was at work. The accident has led Jeff to never look the same way again.<ref name="Horror Stab">Gobbo, Lorenzo. “Jeff the Killer – Leggenda Creepypasta o Fenomeno Reale?” Horror Stab, 12 Mar. 2021, from <nowiki>https://www.horrorstab.com/storie/creepypasta-ita/jeff-the-killer-leggenda-creepypasta-o-fenomeno-reale/</nowiki>. </ref> The first story does not revolve around Jeff being a serial killer. However, one of the fans of Sesseur, named GameFuelTV, wrote a story about Jeff in a completely different way to the original, such as Jeff becoming a serial killer because of his insanity. | The first person to create a story around it was a [[DeviantArt]] user Sesseur.<ref name="Gizmodo">Newitz, Annalee. “Who Is ‘Jeff the Killer’? and Is His Picture Haunted by a Real Death?” [[Wikipedia:Gizmodo|Gizmodo]], Gizmodo, 16 Dec. 2015, <nowiki>https://gizmodo.com/who-is-jeff-the-killer-and-is-his-picture-haunted-by-1016241494</nowiki>.</ref> In the original story, a person named "Jeff" was hauling a gallon of acid into his bathroom to clean his bathtub. Suddenly, Jeff accidentally slipped on a bar of soap, fell on the floor, and the gallon of acid splashed over his face. Jeff's neighbors began hearing him cry for help, and they took him to the hospital. The incident happened while his brother, Liu, was at work. The accident has led Jeff to never look the same way again.<ref name="Horror Stab">Gobbo, Lorenzo. “Jeff the Killer – Leggenda Creepypasta o Fenomeno Reale?” Horror Stab, 12 Mar. 2021, from <nowiki>https://www.horrorstab.com/storie/creepypasta-ita/jeff-the-killer-leggenda-creepypasta-o-fenomeno-reale/</nowiki>. </ref> The first story does not revolve around Jeff being a serial killer. However, one of the fans of Sesseur, named GameFuelTV, wrote a story about Jeff in a completely different way to the original, such as Jeff becoming a serial killer because of his insanity. | ||
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At an unknown date, the original back-story video was shortly deleted after [[YouTube]] terminated Sesseur's channel for disbelief of him being the original creator of Jeff The Killer. The Brazilian channel PhenomenonPoltergeist shortly re-uploaded the video to YouTube on January 20, 2014, but the original video was muted, which claimed to have "I Guess You're Right" by [[wikipedia:The Posies|The Posies]] as the background music. Later on, the video with the original audio was finally uploaded to YouTube by user Bob's Brother on an unknown date, but was deleted after the channel was terminated. | At an unknown date, the original back-story video was shortly deleted after [[YouTube]] terminated Sesseur's channel for disbelief of him being the original creator of Jeff The Killer. The Brazilian channel PhenomenonPoltergeist shortly re-uploaded the video to YouTube on January 20, 2014, but the original video was muted, which claimed to have "I Guess You're Right" by [[wikipedia:The Posies|The Posies]] as the background music. Later on, the video with the original audio was finally uploaded to YouTube by user Bob's Brother on an unknown date, but was deleted after the channel was terminated. | ||
As [[creepypastas]] became a major fad, many [[screamers]] used the image of Jeff the Killer as their segment to scare the viewer, examples including [[Anne.jpg]], [[Spooky Scary Skeletons]] and more. The first screamer ever to use Jeff the Killer as a jumpscare image was a YouTube video titled [[NNN Special Broadcast]] in 2007. | As [[creepypastas]] became a major fad, many [[screamers]] used the image of Jeff the Killer as their segment to scare the viewer, examples including [[Anne.jpg]], [[Spooky Scary Skeletons]] and more. The first screamer ever to use Jeff the Killer as a jumpscare image was a YouTube video titled [[NNN Special Broadcast]] made in 2007. | ||
===4chan controversy and image origin=== | ===4chan controversy and image origin=== | ||
{{See Also|4chan}} | {{See Also|4chan}} | ||
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Another story was created to explain the origin of these images, made by a few users on 4chan's /b/ imageboard. The story involves an alleged woman named "Victoria", who was a webcam model on the site [[wikipedia:Stickam|Stickam]] who used /b/ as self-promotion of herself. A /b/ user took a screenshot of her face and posted it to the board with the caption "Am i pretty?". Later, other users on 4chan began photoshopping the image and posting their edited version back as a reply, with one of the users posting the less-edited image with the caption, "''Now you are.''" The woman then found out about the post and quickly vanished off the internet.<ref><nowiki>[https://archive.4plebs.org/x/thread/23477917/ "Finding the unedited image of "Jeff" (Oldfag Edition)"]</nowiki> 28 Sep 2019 - Anonymous on 4chan.org</ref> This Victoria is another example of people who were rumored to be the person in the image. | Another story was created to explain the origin of these images, made by a few users on 4chan's /b/ imageboard. The story involves an alleged woman named "Victoria", who was a webcam model on the site [[wikipedia:Stickam|Stickam]] who used /b/ as self-promotion of herself. A /b/ user took a screenshot of her face and posted it to the board with the caption "Am i pretty?". Later, other users on 4chan began photoshopping the image and posting their edited version back as a reply, with one of the users posting the less-edited image with the caption, "''Now you are.''" The woman then found out about the post and quickly vanished off the internet.<ref><nowiki>[https://archive.4plebs.org/x/thread/23477917/ "Finding the unedited image of "Jeff" (Oldfag Edition)"]</nowiki> 28 Sep 2019 - Anonymous on 4chan.org</ref> This Victoria is another example of people who were rumored to be the person in the image. | ||
The original file name of the less-edited Jeff the Killer image is White powder (2), suggesting the | The original file name of the less-edited Jeff the Killer image is White powder (2), suggesting the existence of another version which predates the existing two. There has been debate over what this image may look like, and whether or not this image may actually even exist. Some people have speculated that an image known as "Green Eyed Jeff" may be the original, though this theory has been proven false.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVAie3i18SA</ref> Investigators where able to track down Mr. Malholland, the pya.cc user who first posted the White powder (2) image on that site, on his Twitter account Miyama. His responses to the investigators questions were: | ||
*"To put it simply, in mid-2005, a cropped image of a video of a middle-aged Asian woman appeared in Japan. At that point [her] face was white. *I edited a little in Photoshop to post to "pya.cc". | *"To put it simply, in mid-2005, a cropped image of a video of a middle-aged Asian woman appeared in Japan. At that point [her] face was white. *I edited a little in Photoshop to post to "pya.cc". | ||
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*"Someone edited the cropped image of a video. This image was posted on various BBS as a scare image and spread in Japan. The reason why this image spread was that it was suddenly posted on various BBS and it was a scare image, so I think it left a strong impression on everyone." | *"Someone edited the cropped image of a video. This image was posted on various BBS as a scare image and spread in Japan. The reason why this image spread was that it was suddenly posted on various BBS and it was a scare image, so I think it left a strong impression on everyone." | ||
*"There was no fixed name. For example, some people called it "いつもの画像", (usual image) "オバQ", and so on. I'm sorry, but this is the end of the reply to this tweet so that the message exchange is not cluttered." | *"There was no fixed name. For example, some people called it "いつもの画像", (usual image) "オバQ", and so on. I'm sorry, but this is the end of the reply to this tweet so that the message exchange is not cluttered." | ||
Mr. Malholland suggests the image originated from an unknown video, and that Jeff the Killer is a highly photoshopped image of a woman. He claims the image was already photoshopped when he found it, and he slightly edited it further and posted it to pya.cc, meaning he created the White powder (2) version, but not the original photoshop | Mr. Malholland suggests the image originated from an unknown video, and that Jeff the Killer is a highly photoshopped image of a woman. He claims the image was already photoshopped when he found it, and he slightly edited it further and posted it to pya.cc, meaning he created the White powder (2) (JTK 2) version, but not the original photoshop (JTK 1). Someone else took his edit and turned it into the famous Jeff the Killer image (JTK 3). For now, the complete origins of Jeff the Killer remain unknown, this alleged video remains lost, and the search continues. | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||
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==Links == | ==Links == | ||
<u>NOTE</u>: The following links contain potentially scary images! | <u>NOTE</u>: The following links contain potentially scary images! | ||
*'''Miyama's White powder (2) edit''': web.archive.org/web/20180118092048/pya.cc/pyaimg/pimg.php?imgid=17882 | *'''Miyama's White powder (2) (JTK 2) edit''': web.archive.org/web/20180118092048/pya.cc/pyaimg/pimg.php?imgid=17882 | ||
*'''Screenshot of current earliest upload''': linkpicture.com/q/July242005JTK.webp | *'''Screenshot of current earliest upload (JTK 1)''': linkpicture.com/q/July242005JTK.webp | ||
*'''Preview of oldest upload''': web.archive.org/web/20051226014105/dl3.n1e.jp:80/DATA/MOVIE/7-24h2659b/7-24h2659b-mo.jpg | *'''Preview of oldest upload''': web.archive.org/web/20051226014105/dl3.n1e.jp:80/DATA/MOVIE/7-24h2659b/7-24h2659b-mo.jpg | ||
*'''More famous image used for the character of Jeff''': web.archive.org/web/20210618155920/pya.cc/pyaimg/pimg.php?imgid=20716 | *'''More famous image used for the character of Jeff (JTK 3)''': web.archive.org/web/20210618155920/pya.cc/pyaimg/pimg.php?imgid=20716 | ||
*'''Original story with no audio''': youtube.com/watch?v=5RSDIIEoLkA | *'''Original story with no audio''': youtube.com/watch?v=5RSDIIEoLkA | ||
*'''Learn more''': youtube.com/watch?v=aVAie3i18SA | *'''Learn more''': youtube.com/watch?v=aVAie3i18SA | ||
