Is anyone else tired of hearing about Matt Rife?
The man came within inches of launching a successful comedy career, before rapidly spiraling into the weird corner of fame where despised, controversial, but still relevant stars reside. Move over, Mel Gibson — you’ve got company.
The endless barrage of Rife news started with the comedian’s rise on TikTok, and peaked when his first-ever Netflix special dropped. The response to Rife’s opening joke — which leaned into exhaustingly outdated sexist tropes — was swift and fierce, and saw a majority of the 28-year-old’s fanbase depart for less problematic pastures. Rife doubled down on his embarrassing misstep by mocking his insulted former fans, and soon after sparked renewed controversy when he initiated a beef with an actual six-year-old child.
Then there’s the myriad of rumors swirling around the comic. It started when Rife was first making a name for himself, and gossip arose surrounding his career-making looks. Rife is attractive, there’s no denying that, but a number of the star’s fans suspected those good looks were bought and paid for. We’ve been debunking — or confirming — rumors about Rife’s supposed lip injections, fake teeth, and jawline surgery for months now, and I suspect our work is far from over.
The rumors about jawline surgery were by far the most widespread, and also the most-discussed by Rife himself. He’s largely dismissed chatter that his jaw is the result of surgery — and, based on images of his pre-fame days, we have to reluctantly agree — but that hasn’t stopped Rife from getting up in arms about the jokes. Sure, he pretends to be flippant and dismissive, but his response to a TikTok surgeon’s joke lays his real feelings on the matter bare.
Matt Rife’s jaw surgeon
Let me start this by saying that I already wrote about Matt Rife’s alleged jaw surgery, and — as much as I dislike the petulant man-child — it does appear that he was born with that chiseled mandible. That’s what Rife says, and I try to take people at their word, but more importantly, the evidence seems to support Rife’s own claims. Old images of him from his youth showcase the same jaw, albeit a bit less defined. My jaw also emerged when I was well into my 20s, so I can understand why it took Rife a few extra years to fully grow into his looks.
All that being said, the 28-year-old did experience quite the glow-up. And, since so much of his initial, uncontroversial fame was linked to his looks, its fair that people assumed he upgraded a bit. Even though we now know he didn’t, jokes about Rife’s “surgery” have been popping off for weeks, and one of the very best came from TikTok surgeon @manyfacesofchicago, who dubs himself “Not your mom’s Plastic Surgeon” on the app. He cheekily responded to the Rife jawline rumors by dipping his toes into the drama, putting out a video — without naming any names — that hinted toward his involvement in Rife’s nonexistent surgery.
The resulting video went massively viral, collecting 3.5 million likes and a truly insane number of views within a matter of weeks. It seems obvious, but just in case — no, this is in no way confirmation that Rife had surgery, or that @manyfacesofchicago performed it. It was a well-timed joke, on the TikToker’s part, and one that (most) people took as such.
Not Rife though. Infant that he is, the 28-year-old simply had to pout over the, on its face, very amusing, topical joke. In a since-deleted comment, Rife responded with a catty “Lying about medical history is illegal, just FYI,” giving the internet yet another excuse to roll its eyes.
The funniest thing about the entire situation simply has to be Rife outing himself as the clear subject of the video. Of course, we all knew he was the target of the joke, but Rife piping up with yet more petulance? Pure comedy gold. Maybe the man’s funnier than we thought, after all.