The first time I saw Jake Shane on my TikTok, he was pretending to be one of my favorite things in the world – Diet Coke. His rise to fame came from TikTok short-form comedy skits. In this video, he acted out a potential scenario. This scenario happened to be “Diet Coke’s reaction to Coke Zero.” I immediately loved his unique content and found myself giggling at my screen.
I knew he had made it when Glee’s very own Lea Michele had stitched it pretending to be Sprite.
Jake Shane’s TikTok username @passthepuss represents his love of octopus. He started by reviewing different restaurants’ octopus dishes. Not many people can create a brand based off of this (I tried and failed with a mozzarella stick rating account in high school), but his relatable content and social media presence is one that is very refreshing. Through his creative content, Jake Shane quickly built a strong fanbase, where followers would pitch scenarios for him to act out.
Since then, he has been honored by Forbes in its “30 Under 30” in its social media section. He has had the opportunity to interview guests from Glen Powell to Charli XCX on his podcast “Therapuss.”. His rise to stardom has been meteoric and it really makes people wonder, how did he get so popular?
Shane could be your friend. His content is relatable, with many people in my life pointing out their jealousy that he can post whatever he wants. It’s this freedom that people gravitate towards. For example, in September, he posted a selfie with the caption “If there is 1 TV and I want to watch housewives and you make me watch Thursday night football I want you to be judged by a jury of our peers in a court of law.” It is a raw, unfiltered post that I feel has disappeared from our feeds. It is very reminiscent of the 2010’s Instagram that many of us grew up with.
Back then, social media platforms felt personal. I felt as if I knew a celebrity based off of their posts filled with grainy, over filtered photos of them at parties or posing with friends. Now social media feels overly polished and professional. We get people like Harry Styles who only posts professional photos from his tours, Timothée Chalamet who follows zero people and Taylor Swift, whose Instagram posts can be deleted in a single second depending on the era that she is in.
But Jake Shane’s success is not just about this feeling of nostalgia. He somehow hits an insecure feeling that many of us relate with on social media. We want to be authentic while also appearing cool. There is a desire to have the perfect social media that Shane somehow breaks away from. He owns his niches and connects with people in a way that is refreshingly real. “Therapuss” has been my go-to whenever I need to turn my brain off. Each episode, Shane goes through issues in his life as well as in his viewers’ lives. He plays the role of therapist well in his “Tell Me What’s Wrong” segments in which he reads viewers’ messages and gives advice. Sometimes he calls the viewers with his guests, and it creates a very wholesome, yet hilarious surprise.
Advice from Shane takes the form of pop culture moments. He prescribes movies and TV shows to watch, music to listen to and other humorous solutions. Every episode feels like a casual hangout and the advice feels much like a conversation with a friend.
In a world where we are surrounded by influencers who claim to be authentic while pushing their paid partnerships down our throats, Shane stands out. His content reminds me of the early years of social media, a time where we felt like we shared parts of life with who we followed.
Jake Shane’s rise to fame is a testament to the power of authenticity in the age of social media. Sometimes all we want when scrolling is to relate to who we see. As for Shane, I look forward to what’s next and maybe one day I’ll get a call from him!
