Where Are They Now? Here's What Jeff Bliss, The 'Hand Them A Freakin' Packet Yo' Guy, Has Been Up To Since His Viral Video

You may not know what his name is, but if you've been around on the internet anytime before the year 2013, you've probably seen the clip of Jeff Bliss dissing his lazy world history teacher.

The video of a long-haired blonde teenager criticizing his teacher in a thick Southern accent was one of 2013's most viral videos, and for good reason.

It seemed as though students around the world were dealing with a plague of lazy, disaffected teachers, and the recording of Jeff Bliss giving his history teacher a lesson was the perfect catharsis for the global crisis.

Ten years after Jeff Bliss said, "Teach them something instead of handing them a freakin' packet, yo," his message still resonates. Memes featuring Bliss are making a comeback online, although colored with the ironic tint that permeates most internet content in the 2020s.

Here's a look back at Bliss's rise to fame and a look into what he's been up to since his valiant attempts at education reform over a decade ago.

Who Is Jeff Bliss and What Is He Best Known For Online?

Jeff Bliss first went viral back in 2013 after a video of him storming out of his high school classroom went viral online. The clip shows Bliss getting up from his seat in the back of the classroom and airing out his grievances against his world history teacher.

Bliss cuts a striking figure in the video. He's dressed in a relaxed blue outfit and bright red kicks, his long blonde hair flowing over his shoulders and bobbing along to his animated gestures.

"Just … get up and teach something instead of handing them a freakin' packet, yo," Jeff Bliss said as he stormed out of his classroom, his classmates either twiddling their thumbs or giggling at him as though the outburst is not an unfamiliar one.

Meanwhile, his teacher can be seen sitting at her desk with her phone to her ear, waving and saying, "Bye!" repeatedly, even as Bliss continues his tirade. "There's kids in here who don't learn like that," Bliss said, "They learn face to face. You want kids to come into class and get excited for this? You gotta come in here and you gotta make 'em excited […] You gotta touch his friggin' heart!"

Jeff Bliss's video exploded the day it was posted to YouTube by James Smith on May 8th, 2013, where it gathered over a million views in short order. This virality was possibly exacerbated by the peculiar fact that the video kept getting taken down across various major platforms.

How Did Jeff Bliss Go Viral Back In 2013?

The video of Jeff Bliss storming out of his Texas classroom after delivering his now-iconic speech was reposted to YouTube, Facebook and Reddit multiple times on May 8th, 2013, often under a caption like, "Student schools his high school teacher," gathering millions of views in 24 hours.

However, many people who watched the viral video that day came back the next to find the post mysteriously deleted or censored.

A Reddit post to the /r/videos subreddit gathered over 19,000 upvotes before the video and all the top comments were removed the following day. This prompted other Redditors to share the clip to /r/Conspiracy, where people discussed how the video have been deleted from Reddit and YouTube on multiple occasions.

The clip also received widespread media coverage, with everyone from Gawker to World Star Hip Hop resharing the clip the very day it dropped.

The day after the large amount of coverage, DBS Dallas-Fort Worth reported that Jeff Bliss's teacher Julie Phung had been placed on paid leave and that Bliss had not been reprimanded for his actions like many had feared.

What Did Jeff Bliss Think About His Viral Fame?

Jeff Bliss made a number of media appearances soon after his video went viral, eager to raise awareness about the shortcomings he had experienced in the American education system.

In a May 9th interview with local television station WFAA, Bliss shared that his mother was a teacher and that he had returned to school as an 18-year-old and just wanted to make the most of his education.

Bliss also made an appearance on the YouTube channel SAY CHEESE! on May 10th, during which he talked more about why he was still in the 10th grade despite being 18 years old and how the altercation between him and his teacher started.

Bliss says that his teacher had told him to "Quit b----in'" after he asked her a question about the time allocations for the test, causing him to have his frustrated outburst.

Bliss eventually made it to the internet big leagues, getting a spot on Comedy Central's web show Tosh.0 where he and the show's sardonic host, comedian Daniel Tosh, exchanged a few jabs over Bliss ripping into an underpaid teacher and saying, "credibility," when he really meant "credit."

Did Jeff Bliss Ever Make A Comeback Online? Where Can You Find Jeff Bliss Today?

While many people hoped that Jeff Bliss would continue his foray into education reform or public speaking, it seemed like Bliss had different ideas. His Twitter and Facebook posts began to dwindle after November 2013, soon after he began his junior year in high school.

Bliss also expressed cynicism about becoming a teacher in the formal education system, going against what many of his fans and followers had hoped he would do after his viral fame.

It seemed as though Bliss was growing tired of being at the center of attention of his ever-vigilant followers and was not ready to rise to their expectations just yet. After his initial media run, Bliss essentially left all social media by mid-to-late 2014.

There were some unconfirmed reports about Bliss's life in the late 2010s, with an anonymous Redditor responding to a post on the subreddit /r/WhereAreTheyNow on November 8th, 2018, claiming to be Jeff Bliss's supervisor at a UPS loading facility.

The supervisor said that Jeff Bliss was a "really cool guy," albeit a little quiet and that he doesn't really like talking about the viral video.

People didn't hear back from Bliss himself until another unconfirmed post on TikToker @espdaniella's page showed him retweeting someone who said, "JEFF IS ALIVE," way back in 2016.

Jeff Bliss continues to be an all-time reference for high schoolers around the world, with students resonating with his message over a decade later in 2024.

Memes about Bliss also made a sudden, irony-tinted comeback in 2024, after several meme pages began to post images featuring his signature catchphrase, "Instead of handing them a friggin' packet, yo."

For instance, on December 12th, 2024, Instagram user @realeaterforeverr shared a video with an Impact font top caption reading, "Yo bro we got Packets and things of that educational nature."

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For the full history of Jeff Bliss, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information. To see the rest of our "Where Are They Now" series, you can find them all here. Stay tuned for next week's editorial!