About

Lizard People of New York is a Weird Facebook page run by comedian Jeremy Kaplowitz that parodies the popular blog Humans of New York (HONY) by presupposing the people giving confessional stories are reptilians.

Origin

Kaplowitz started the page as a rising senior at Binghamton University because he "has always found the reptilian conspiracy intriguing," according to an interview he gave to the BU Pipe Dream.^[1] On May 21st, 2014, Kaplowitz posted the first update to Lizard People of New York,^[2] pictured below.

Spread

In its first summer of existence, Lizard People of New York gained over 15,000 followers and inspired copycat pages across the country. Brandon Stanton, who runs Humans of New York, implicitly gave Kaplowitz his blessing in an email that read:

“I stole your idea because I am the Lizard King, and I knew that if I started a site called Humans of New York, your site would never be seen as anything other than a parody.”

Over the course of the next two years, Lizard People of New York gained recognition as a top HONY parody by Observer,^[3] Salon,^[4] and Bustle.^[5] On December 28th, 2015, Kaplowitz and other writers on the page did a live stand-up comedy performance under the billing Lizard People of New York (Live!).^[6]

In 2016, Kaplowitz launched LizardPeopleMeet.com,^[7] a fake dating website for reptilians. He told The Daily Dot^[8] that he did it as a way to creatively expand upon the success of Lizard People of New York.

As of July 29th, 2016, Lizard People of New York has over 187,000 Facebook likes.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References