About

Jeff Bliss, also known as Student Teaches Teacher or Instead of Handing Them a Freakin' Packet Yo, refers to a 2013 viral video of a Texas high school student named Jeff Bliss being removed from his world history class because he challenged the teacher for not inspiring the students and instead just "handing them a freakin' packet, yo." Bliss is seen in a navy blue outfit with red shoes. He sports long, blonde hair. The video went viral on YouTube and other social media sites after its upload because people largely agreed with Bliss. He became an internet celebrity because people believed he was a hero for being brave. The video later became the subject of ironic memes online, largely aimed at Bliss' appearance, diction and righteous attitude. Ironic Jeff Bliss memes resurfaced en masse on TikTok in 2024. Meme creators made fan edits of him or recreated his iconic moment.

Origin

On May 8th, 2013, YouTuber^[4] James Smith uploaded a video of eighteen-year-old Texas high school student Jeff Bliss being removed from his world history class. In the footage, Bliss is seen openly criticizing his teacher Ms. Julie Phung for taking a passive role in lecturing and resorting to class packets and handouts. The video has since been removed. In a day, it received over 1.3 million views (repost from YouTube^[21] shown below).

Spread

On May 8th, 2013, at least six different duplicate copies of the video were uploaded to YouTube^[5] and Facebook,^[6] earning millions of views within the first 24 hours.

On May 8th, the video was posted to Reddit^[7] where it earned more than 19,000 upvotes and nearly 3,000 points. By the next day, however, all comments had been removed from the post after the disclosure of Bliss' personal information.

On May 9th, 2013, the video was submitted to the /r/Conspiracy subreddit,^[10] claiming it had been deleted from both YouTube and Reddit on multiple occasions. It earned more than 4,500 upvotes in a few days (shown below).

Additionally, a number of YouTubers began uploading video responses, resulting in more than 51,000 search results for "re: Jeff Bliss"^[20] on YouTube by May 10th.

News Media Coverage

On the evening of May 8th, the video was re-shared on Viral Viral Videos^[9], Gawker^[8], World Star Hip Hop^[11] and men’s culture blog EveryJoe^[1], in addition to the websites of two local Texas news stations WFAA^[2] and Fox Dallas-Fort Worth.^[5]

On May 9th, DBS Dallas-Fort Worth^[17] reported that teacher Julie Phung had been placed on paid leave and that Bliss had not been reprimanded for his actions. On May 10th, the video was also featured on a number of news sites and internet culture blogs including Yahoo! News^[12], Geekologie^[13], The Blaze^[14], Fark^[15] and The Huffington Post,^[16] among many others. The same day, an Indiegogo campaign^[19] was created by Californian James Johnson to raise money for Bliss to attend college.

Bliss' Response

Bliss created a Twitter^[18] account to try to interact with lawmakers and start discussions about the American education system.

In an interview with WFAA shared to YouTube^[22] on May 9th, 2013, Bliss said someone needed to share these feelings. He noted that he had gained a greater level of respect for education after previously dropping out of high school and wanted to get the most out of his education. The video received over 7.7 million views in 11 years (shown below).

On May 10th, YouTuber^[23] SAY CHEESE! shared an interview with Bliss, gaining over 385,100 views in 11 years (shown below).

Continued Spread

Throughout the early 2020s, the original Jeff Bliss video was reposted on TikTok,^[24][25] going viral across multiple videos and re-edits. In late 2024, a wave of new Jeff Bliss memes surfaced on TikTok, like a video shared by TikToker^[26] @davidwllce on December 14th, in which he reenacted the original, gaining over 11.7 million plays and 2 million likes in three days (shown below).

Ironic Jeff Bliss memes also surfaced on Instagram during the same timeframe. For instance, on December 12th, 2024, Instagram^[27] user @realeaterforeverr shared a video with an Impact font top caption reading, "Yo bro we got Packets and things of that educational nature," gaining over 7,900 likes in five days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References