As you’re probably aware, comic Matt Rife has been under scrutiny in recent weeks following the release of his Netflix special, Natural Selection.
Matt got his big break after blowing up on TikTok last year, building himself a pretty huge online following that was mostly made up of women.
So when he started the special with a joke about domestic violence, fans were left horrified — especially as he had previously admitted that he had consciously tailored his show to men.
Speaking to Variety ahead of its release, Matt said that he gets “ridiculed” for having women fans as he insisted: “Despite what you think about me online, I don’t pander my career to women.”
This apparent chip on his shoulder seems to be linked to Matt’s insecurity over his looks, with the comic being renowned for his chiseled jawline and high cheekbones. In recent months, he has repeatedly spoken out about how hard it is to be physically attractive as a comedian.
In an interview with Men’s Health back in August, he said: “I’ve been doing stand-up for a little over 12 years now. I will say, I don't think it helps you by any means — people don’t want to laugh at physically attractive people, you don’t want to walk on stage and have people looking at your arms rather than listening to your jokes.”
Matt went on to add that his looks force him to “work that much harder” on his material.
And in a viral clip from his stand-up, Matt tells the audience: “I’m good looking, I don’t like it any more than you guys do.”
But people can't help but notice that Matt looked remarkably different at the start of his career, when he was cast in the MTV improv show Wild ’N Out in 2015.
Matt would have been around 20 when he made his first appearance, and he is almost unrecognizable to his current self in old clips.
This has prompted speculation that Matt had either plastic surgery or facial filler to achieve his new look, but he has repeatedly insisted that it was actually just a natural "glow up” due to late puberty.
“This shit just happened,” he said during one of his stand-up routines. “Puberty hit me so disrespectfully late — I was ugly as shit for the first 22 years of my life.”
And during an appearance on the Cancelled with Tana Mongeau podcast earlier this year, he addressed the rumors that he’d undergone cosmetic procedures.
Asked by the host if he’d had anything done, Matt said: “Not a single fucking thing. I just kept getting older I guess, it’s so funny. The only thing I’ve had done is my teeth — I got veneers, obviously, because my teeth were fucked when I was a kid.”
“But it’s so fucking funny to me,” he reiterated. “People’s number one online insult is: ‘Well, as least I don’t have plastic surgery,’ cool, neither do I. I’ve had people who claim to be plastic surgeons that’ll be like: ‘He’s had this…’ and I’m like, cool, you’re not only lying but you’re wrong at your job.”
“I’m like, thanks, people pay for this? That’s so crazy!” Matt continued. “Shoutout to doctor G-O-D!”
But despite Matt’s insistence that his glow-up was entirely natural, the speculation has continued to grow — and reached a fever pitch on Tuesday when plastic surgeon TikToker @manyfacesofchicago uploaded a new video.
In the clip, the surgeon — Dr. Benjamin Caughlin MD, FACS — is shown reacting to a caption that reads: “Me after creating the greatest jawline ever seen just for my patient to get canceled right after…”
He added in the description: “He shall not be named… #cancelled #jawlinecheck #comedian #standup #celeb”
The video immediately went viral and has been viewed almost 14 million times, with over a million likes. It was also shared to the account’s Instagram page, which is where the situation came to a head when Matt took it upon himself to comment on the post: “Lying about medical history is illegal, just FYI.”
Needless to say, this caused a pretty big stir, and other users replied to his comment to share their reaction. One of the top responses points out: “@mattrife he didn’t even mention you 😂 🤦🏻♀️”
“✨gasp✨… whose medical history is he lying about? Spill that tea sis ☕️ 👀” another user replied.
“Bro’ why you commenting. No one has mentioned you. You give yourself away 😩 Delete! I had no clue what he was talking about, I doubt anyone else knew either,” someone else added.
Others alluded to Matt’s problematic joke in his Netflix special, which he’d previously acknowledged the backlash to when he shared a link to his “apology” on his Instagram story only for it to lead to an e-shop for “special needs helmets.”
“Matt…are you not able to take a joke??????? 🙂” one asked. Another echoed: “but its a joke? I thought you could joke about anything?”
One more quoted Matt’s own Instagram profile as they commented: “As your profile says… 'Stop taking the internet so seriously.’ 😂”
Matt’s comment comes after another clip from his appearance on Tana’s Cancelled podcast went viral earlier this week for the way that the host brutally shut down his theory as to why people "hate" him.
Speaking in the episode, Matt said: “Here’s a very humbling epiphany that I’ve had recently, because so many fucking people hate me for really no reason, and it made me realize that people only hate somebody they’re jealous of.”
“That’s a really, really good well-rounded answer that I’m trying to wrap my head around,” Tana replied earnestly, to which Matt proudly responded: “Thank you.”
