Jeff the Killer: Difference between revisions

'''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, and a long canine-like smile, in a dark room with laundry hanging in the background. The creepypasta surrounding the image 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.

 

This image became controversial when it was believed to be of a supposed woman named "Katy Robinson," who had allegedly committed suicide in 2008. This belief originated on [[4chan]] in 2008, but after years of extensive research, it was revealed that the image originated on a Japanese message board website called pya.cc in 2005.<ref name=":0">docs.google.com/document/d/1QN-ekAPPiW-b2iCGDikyseemBV73ek_7ZB7EgRVQHSI</ref> This more famous image, in particular, is also an edited version of another earlier version, called White powder (2) (also called JTK 1), 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" before it was posted onto pya.cc.<ref name=":0" /> The more famous version was further edited in Adobe Photoshop to make the mouth stretch out using the liquify tool and the eyes edited to have white and black pupils.

The creepypasta centers around a 13-year-old teenager named Jeffery Woods who lived in a normal Surburuan town with his parents and his brother Liu. Jeff had thought of the idea of moving into another neighborhood after his father got a promotion, which his family agreed to, and moving on. On his first day of school, while hanging out with his brother, the three bullies approach the two and mug them at knifepoint. Jeff urged the feelings and began fighting them, paralyzing three of them. He and his brother exited the scene to board the school bus for the ride to school. A day later, police arrived at Jeff's home, where the two were accused of attacking the bullies with no manners. Jeff even tried to convince the police that the bullies were mugged, but the police failed to believe him. However, Liu snitched on Jeff by making them believe that he was the one to blame for the whole incident, which drove Jeff into depression and stress. His mother suggested moving to a party to make him feel better. However, Jeff managed to run up to the bullies, and brutally beat them up, and he managed to kill one of them. Then, Jeff lured the two other bullies into the bathroom and began wounding them, but he was doused with alcohol and the bullies set him on fire.<ref name="ScreenRant">Cotter, Padraig. “Who Is Jeff The Killer? Creepypasta's Evil Villain Explained.” [[Wikipedia:Screen Rant|ScreenRant]], 21 June 2019, screenrant.com/jeff-killer-creepypasta-villain-origin-explained/.</ref><ref name="CBR">Wilkinson, Chase. “6 Terrifying Creepypasta Stories That Need Movie Adaptations.” CBR, 30 Nov. 2021, from <nowiki>https://www.cbr.com/creepypasta-stories-that-need-movie-adaptations/</nowiki>.</ref> He woke up from the coma at the hospital, where he saw his mother informing him that Liu was released after it was revealed that Randy was the one responsible for the incident that happened with his brother After taking those bandages off, he found out that his face had become disfigured from the burns, which has a ghostly pale,<ref name="ScreenRant" /> but Jeff oddly seemed to like his face this way. After being told to go home, Jeff's mother saw him burning off his eyelids and carving his own face with a smile.<ref name="ScreenRant" /> This led his mother to tell his father that he had become insane and needed to be killed. Jeff heard this and killed them. Jeff became a serial killer that sneaks into people's home and tell them to "go to sleep" before killing them,<ref name="ScreenRant" /><ref>Cotter, Padraig. “Who Is Jane the Killer? Creepypasta Character Explained.” [[wikipedia:Screen Rant|ScreenRant]], 17 May 2019, screenrant.com/jane-killer-creepypasta-origin-explained/.</ref> such as Jeff going into Liu's room before telling him to "go to sleep" before being fatally killed with the knife plunged into his chest,<ref name="CBR" /> finishing the story.

Prior to the original backstory video, Jeff The Killer was seen on the account "killerjeff" on [[Newgrounds]],<ref name="Nerdvana">Houston, Madison. “From Legendary Horror Icon to Internet Meme: Jeff The Killer.” Nerdvana, 1 Mar. 2017, nerdvanamedia.com/sci-fi-fantasy/legendary-horror-icon-internet-meme-jeff-killer/118341/.</ref><ref name="Daily Dot" /><ref name="Gizmodo" /> which was created by Sesseur on June 7, 2006, pretending to act as his version of Jeff. In one of the account's news posts, posted on August 10th, 2008, Sesseur stated that he had found the photoshopped image on [[Encyclopedia Dramatica]], and he decided to create a backstory behind it. Jeff was originally supposed to be a game similar to Bloody Mary, where the person must hide in a closet with all of the lights in the room turned off, sit down cross-legged, and repeat the sentence "''He's in here with me''" three times while turning their head back and forth. After doing this, the person must close their eyes and call out the name "Jeff," so that Jeff will appear in front of them. This can be stopped by standing there and complimenting him; otherwise, the person will have nightmares.<ref>killerjeff.newgrounds.com/news/post/169853</ref>

A [[YouTube]] video posted on October 3rd, 2008,<ref name="Daily Dot">III, Fernando Alfonso. “4chan Hunts down the Origins of an Internet Horror Legend.” The Daily Dot, 1 June 2021, <nowiki>https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/4chan-x-origins-jeff-the-killer/</nowiki></ref> told a completely different story than the one shown above, and suggests that Jeff accidentally spilled a gallon of acid onto his face while cleaning a bathtub,<ref name="Horror Stab" /><ref name="Daily Dot" /> while the more famous version, which was written by a fan of his earlier work, is about the consequence of Jeff becoming an insane serial killer. Jeff's real name in the actual story was Jeffery C. Hodek, rather than "Jeffrey Woods". On August 14, 2011, the image was posted to 4chan captioned "Go to sleep"; the caption had become known as Jeff's signature catchphrase.

At an unknown date, the original backstory video was removed after [[YouTube]] terminated Sesseur's channel. A Brazilian channel PhenomenonPoltergeist shortly re-uploaded the video to YouTube on January 20, 2014, but without any audio, as the original video had "I Guess You're Right" by [[wikipedia:The Posies|The Posies]] as background music. Later on, the video with the original audio was uploaded to YouTube by user Bob's Brother on an unknown date, but was deleted after the channel was terminated.

*'''Miyama's White powder (2) (JTK 1) edit:''' web.archive.org/web/20180118092048/pya.cc/pyaimg/pimg.php?imgid=17882