Around the holiday season, it’s always fun to take a look back at some of the internet’s weirdest obsessions. The early 2010s were some of the best years for copy-paste horrors — or Creepypasta as the internet later dubbed them — stories that circulated the web on Tumblr and any number of “chan” sites and were altered by those who read them.
Plenty of Creepypasta greats started circulating around then, but one of the first was Jeff the Killer. The fictitious-but-murderous Emo boy appeared all over the web by 2011, but his origin is hotly contested. Like most copy-paste stories, the original idea has been passed from user to user, leading to multiple creators taking credit for the beloved internet murder. After all these years, there are plenty of derivative copies of Jeff the Killer, but these are the very first contenders to claim the pale killer as their own.
Where did Jeff the Killer come from?
Jeff has been memorialized in hundreds of stories and fanart pictures over the years, but perhaps his most well-known image (the upsetting picture just above) lives in infamy. As I said before, the picture has no clear source of origin, but two contenders have claimed ownership of the 2008 picture. The first and most widely corroborated and accepted is that YouTuber Sesseur originally created and shared a video on his account. While his YouTube account has been locked down for violations, his Deviantart account does have a version of the original picture, though it wasn’t uploaded until April 2021.
The second from 2008 comes from Newgrounds user KillerJeff, who allegedly snapped the shot from a pop-up-scare video. Another rumor says that the picture was a photo of a woman photoshopped by multiple users until it was unrecognizable. Another debunked rumor claimed it was the last image of a 4chan user who later took her own life. And others still claim the photo is from 2005 or older.
What is Jeff the Killer: Origin Story?
The first expanded story about Jeff the Killer (aptly named Jeff the Killer: Origin Story) appeared in 2011. Though it’s now been removed from the official Creepypasta fandom page for being terribly written and obscenely long for the limited content, it can still be read on Wattspad. To say this story is hilariously bad would be an understatement, and it’s widely disregarded by most of the Creepypasta community for its ridiculous cadence. It was so bad the community held a competition for a new origin in 2014, and has forbidden it from appearing on the Wikipedia page.
Clearly inspired by the pictures circulating the internet, the story starts with a “newspaper article” detailing a boy’s encounter with a madman known as Jeff. The boy wakes one night to see a disturbing man with ominous black-rimmed eyes looming over him. Through his red-stained lips — twisted into a horrible smile — the man psychotically whispers for the boy to “Go. To. Sleep.” The boy panics, and while Jeff tries to murder him at the sound, the child is saved by his father.
The story then jumps back in time so the reader can understand this crazed murderer, and boy, are there some incredibly unhinged moments in this five-page Razzie masterpiece that could put even Morbius to shame. 13-year-old Jeff Woods is brand-new to town and doesn’t fit in with the fancy folks his parents are cozying up with. In fact, these rich kids are downright deadly, openly packing knives, which they immediately threaten Jeff and his little brother Liu with. But Jeff isn’t really feeling like himself since the big move – something deep inside of him seems to be breaking apart.
In a love letter to teenage angst, Jeff is just your average kid with innate butt-kicking abilities and a just cause. He manages to stab most of his attackers and escape with his brother to school, but by the time they get home, the cops are hot on their trail and itching to take someone to Juvie. Like a good brother, Jeff tries to send himself, but Liu takes the fall and is immediately carted off, talk about a miscarriage of justice. Jeff is depressed, but time keeps on ticking and before he knows it, it’s time for the big fancy-pants party his parents want him to attend.
During the party, Jeff is again attacked by the bullies, but they’ve learned from their last encounter – this time, they’ve brought guns to the knife fight. The bullies threaten to shoot the other kids at the party, and, as a true hero, Jeff lets the beatdown begin. The bullies throw him through windows, pile-drive him into tables, and smash a bottle of vodka over his head. The funny feeling inside of him returns, and this time it’s too much to bear. Jeff’s psyche snaps. Just like Rambo in the latter half of the franchise, all he knows how to do is kill. Jeff turns all that fury on his attackers, viciously killing one of the boys in front of the adults (where did they come from?) before the other two turn their guns on him.
Jeff — who is now channeling John Wick — avoids the bullets and races upstairs to hide in the bathroom. Out of ammo, the bullies follow, and during the altercation, Jeff knocks bleach over himself and his attacker. After Jeff nearly knocks him unconscious, the bully makes the ultimate sacrifice, lighting himself and Jeff on fire while the adults watch on in horror. Talk about a vendetta.
As the vodka left on Jeff’s skin starts to burn, the bleach continues to, well, bleach his skin. Jeff survives the incident but is terribly maimed. His skin is bleached white, his lips a scarlet red, and his hair burned black. Despite his maniacal cackling at his deformed appearance, doctors and nurses discharge him and think nothing of the deranged behavior. Completely off of his rocker, Jeff is delighted by his transformation; but he needs more. Later that night his mother finds him in the bathroom, where he has carved a smile into his face and singed off his eyelids so he can always gaze at his face.
The story ends with Jeff killing his parents for lying about liking his new face, and his brother for having the audacity to wake up at the sound.
Despite his bad breakout story, Jeff has remained one of the most popular Creepypastas. Fans may not have appreciated the character’s “official” treatment, but the story still spawned multiple offshoots. Homicidal Liu and Jane the Killer both debuted after the story appeared, cementing its legacy, even as it fades from the annals of internet history.