Jeremy Harrington (born: September 22, 1985), better known online as Jerma985 (also known as Jeremy Elbertson, Frank Ugly, and The Sus Guy), is an American YouTuber who makes commentary videos about gaming and currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was first known for his numerous Team Fortress 2 video commentaries which began his channel, but has since produced many videos featuring a variety of games and comedy sketches.
As of 2016, Jerma has abandoned his original channel Jerma985, keeping it alive as an archive, claiming that it's not dead but in fact "in a museum". He now primarily streams on Twitch, though he has a YouTube channel for stream highlight videos called 2ndJerma, which is still regularly updated. In 2023, Jerma announced that he would be going into a “soft” retirement, meaning that he will continue to stream and make content as normal, just with far less frequency. In 2024 Jerma said he was "completely retired" from streaming as a career [1]. He streamed occasionally in 2024 [2], and in February 2025, he began to streaming more frequently.
History[]
Jerma uploaded his first video in 2011. His channel would soon grow, mostly thanks to his Team Fortress 2 and Grand Theft Auto 4 content and his collaborations with fellow YouTuber STAR_. Around 2012, he was temporarily partnered with Machinima.
Most of Jerma's old videos feature him playing games while doing live commentary, with little editing. This includes Team Fortress 2, Grand Theft Auto, and often random obscure games. Some of his old series include Face-cam Fortress and Scare Saturdays, both of which included using a face-cam. Jerma has also done various live action sketches such as the Jerma Rumble - Live Action! and The Photos Are In!.
Jerma has also had his hand at animation. There are 2 movies Jerma has worked on. Rat Movie: Mystery of the Mayan Treasure, and Rat Movie 2: The Movie. Both were made in Microsoft 3D Movie Maker, a 3D animation game from 1994.
Jerma has also done voice acting for the games Apotheon and Cryptark (as the Horse Lord and Engineer, respectively).
In 2016, Jerma moved to Twitch to stream video games in addition to his regular YouTube content. He initially planned to keep lower-stakes content such as gameplay on Twitch, while larger projects and skits would be on YouTube. However, over time, Jerma found streaming to be much more rewarding, and ended up streaming said larger projects to Twitch as well, thus eliminating the need to use his old YouTube channel. It is now effectively abandoned, but kept online as an archive. His stream highlights channel, 2ndJerma, is now his most frequently-updated channel, and is run by a team of editors.
He is also known as the “Sus Guy”. A meme created from a distorted face of Jerma indicating a suspicious and humorous face from the indie game Among Us. This has done a very well job at making himself appear even to the newer generation of fans and viewers that enjoy his fun content.
In 2023, Jerma announced that he would be going into a “soft” retirement, meaning that he will continue to stream and make content as normal, just with far less frequency.
On May 27, 2024, Jerma admitted to being "completely retired" from streaming as a full-time job and as a career[1]. He occasionally streamed in 2024.[2]. On December 14, 2024, Offbrand official accounted posted on X about shutdown of Offbrand event business [3]. Jerma confirmed he has left the company in a January 2, 2025 stream [4]. In February 2025, he returned to streaming with frequency similar to pre-2024.
Accolades[]
| Awards | Date of Ceremony | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Streamer Awards | March 12, 2022 | Best Streamed Event (for The Jerma985 Dollhouse) | Won |
| The Streamer Awards | March 12, 2022 | League of Their Own | Won |
| The Streamer Awards | March 11, 2023 | Best Streamed Event (for Jerma Baseball Stream) | Nominated |
| The Streamer Awards | March 11, 2023 | Streamer of the Year | Nominated |
| The Streamer Awards | March 11, 2023 | Legacy Award | Won |
Personal life[]
Jerma was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts; in his older videos, he still has a Boston accent. He went to college, where he majored in communications and minored in art. After this he had various jobs such as working at a call center, filming weddings, and being a substitute teacher at a middle school. The validity of these jobs is questionable at best and it’s likely the majority were jokes. He was in a long term relationship with a woman named Kim, lasting several years before ending in September of 2020. Jerma moved from Boston to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2019, mostly due to his disdain of the internet provider Comcast and the effect it was having on his streaming. He also has numerous health problems, such as IBS, and in May of 2020 took a medical hiatus due to issues involving his back and spine, believed to have been exacerbated by his attempt to breakdance in his green screen video.
Most of Jerma’s real life outside of the internet isn’t entirely known, as he usually makes so many jokes (such as his numerous professions for the sake of telling funny stories) and fabrications to protect his identity (such as his pseudonym of Jeremy Elbertson) involving his life that the truth gets lost in between. For example, people still don’t know if he actually has a brother or not, but we do at least know that he is an uncle. Most of the truth is revealed in small bursts of anecdotes, such as when he revealed that he won a blockbuster game tournament as a kid.
Quotes[]
- "You know...don't...say...sw...swears..."
- "Okay, if I... if I chop you up in a meat grinder, and the only thing that comes out, that's left of you, is your eyeball, you'r- you're PROBABLY DEAD!"
- "LIFE IS PAIN! I HATE-"
- "OH LOOK IT'S A SHPEE!"
- "And take care, everybody."
- "Game sucks."
- "IT'S OVER."
- " What the F*CK is that thing?! "
- "I'm not tiny, I'm compact."
- "Check out this unprecedented grassroots movement from my boy Bern over here. Thanks guys. Can we get a BerniePog in the chat? BerniePog. BerniePog."
- "Brush your teeth if you wanna not go to f*cking jail kids"
- "HEY, how about you suck a fart out of my a**!?"
- "Coffeeee, cheetooos, chickeeen..."
- "Let's go, JERMA VS.STAR JERMA VS.STAR, EVERYBODY WANTS TO SEE THIS HAPPEN!"
- "That joke's getting edited out of the video"
- "Oh my god, I'm gonna squeeze an orange in my own mouth, and f*cking that's how I'm gonna drink orange juice tomorrow morning."
- " I don't want you to ship me a Original Xbox. ".
- "Merry Christmas, motherf*cker!"
- "I'll be playing Team Fortress 2 as... the PIRATE SPY!"
- "There's no feet on camera! There's no feet on camera! Stop talking about feet!"
- "I can feel this p*ss filling up in my esophagus right now."
- "I'm seriously gonna go sit down on the toilet and p*ss up into my face."
- "Oh yeah, Jerma is mad pt.3! Let's put cigarettes out on my d*ck!"
- "STAR_, if you're editing this, don't use the put cigarettes out on my d*ck line, okay?"
- "It's Goofy! From McDonald's!"
- " Dreamcast sucks. Laugh my ass off ".
- "AA EE OO! AudioJungle."
- "WHERE AM I? WHERE AM I?"
- "Grab The Auto 5. Please accidentally download me."
- "Same game, same engine, same music. The only difference is this time they decided to make you a robot Spiderman."
- "WHAT? NO! IT'S NOT IN THIS GAME! IT'S IMPOSSIBLE! IT'S LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE !"
- N-n-n-n-no-no-no the thing in the fridge is definitely not human meat.
- "Sonic was never good."
- "It's Super Mario World 2 Yoshi's Island a game for sissies who can't handle their meat."
- "This doesn't look like hair. It looks like coral reefs."
- "Arin Hanson... I am going to rip that guys hair off. He is trying to copy Jesus hairstyle and that is blasphemous."
- "Shalalala Woop Wah."
- "Handy Manny SUCKS! I don't want a handy, MANNY! And his theme song is just his name repeated over again! FUCK HANDY MANNY!"
- I'm killing you, I'M KILLING YOU, I don't care about anything else, I don't give a sh*t about anything else. My- my programming is just get, that f*cking guy right now. It doesn't- there is no like, "Oh, he's running, I'll back off, a little!" No it's just, *thumping noises* until I get you. It's horrifying, it's like a, nightmare, it's a dream.
- "Nipple net nipple net put those nipples in a net and shove a piece of poop from the pantry all over their nasty looking ass! Shove a piece of poop from the pantry shove it!"
- "How was the Earth conceived? Infinite space, is there such a place? YOU MUST BELIEVE IN THE HUMAN RACE!"
- "Can you believe God makes you breathe?"
- "Why did he lose a million goos?"
- "People are stood moved by the goo coming outta me!"
- "Watching Game Grumps makes me wanna fart."
- "Can someone in the chat buy me a nintendo 64 everdrive? Pretty pwease?"
- "Jeremy Bender was a man of leisure. He decided to become a nun!!!"
- "Jesus, Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world. Have mercy on us."
- "Green beans up my nostrils for the whole stream! YEAH!!!!!!!"
- "Mike Matei is a goo master."
Trivia[]
- His fans are called Jermamites. A running community in-joke is that only Jerma likes the term.
- Jerma's natural enemy is the Drew Crew, who wants him to stream Nancy Drew games.
- Jerma's first job was cleaning tables at an event hall when he was 15.
- He has five nieces and a nephew.
- Scout from Team Fortress 2 is named after Jerma, as confirmed by one of the writers of a cancelled miniseries based on the game. He says he was inspired to name him Jeremy after watching the "Jerma Is Mad" videos.
- Jerma, especially old Jerma is also commonly compared to scout because of his accent (since they're both from Boston), his appearance and attitude. There's even a video titled "Jerma sounding exactly like Scout compilation" by Miles Easler on YouTube, highlighting this resemblance.
- Jerma's favorite color is blue/teal.
- He loves Pac-Man, and thinks Pac-Man is the best video game character ever.
- He is a big fan of Spider-Man.
- His favorite Spider-Man movie is Spider-Man: Far From Home.
- Jerma has only watched about an hour of Rocky.
- He has never watched Rocky II.
- When Jerma was in college he ate an entire sleeve of Oreos and threw up on his mother's bed.
- Jerma isn't particularly religious.
- Jerma is a LGBTQ+ ally.
- He hasn't played GTA IV since 2012, even after its update.
- Jerma's first GTA game was Grand Theft Auto 3.
- He has only watched a couple episodes of Ed Edd n Eddy during his teenage years.
- Jerma did not know the Taller's name in his Cry of Fear lets play.
- He promised a stream of Hitman: Absolution to finish the game in 2012 but never did.
- He uses a safety razor to shave.
- Before doing YouTube, Jerma appeared on Newgrounds and became a voice actor for the Salty Swamp short film animation created by Blordow.
- He has double-jointed elbows and can slam his hands on tables and turn them around.
- Jerma has an IQ of 124, but believes that over time it has decreased by at least 20.
- He has been playing Team Fortress since Team Fortress Classic came out.
- Jerma now knows what the omega symbol is.
- His favorite dinosaur is the brontosaurus.
- Jerma can play the drums and is adept at beatboxing.
- Jerma's favorite candy is Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
- His favorite fast food restaurant is McDonald's.
- Jerma's favorite TV show is Curb Your Enthusiasm.
- His favorite band is Gorillaz. He claims they're the only band he really listens to.
- Jerma's favorite video game soundtracks are Team Fortress 2 and Super Smash Bros.
- Jerma's top favorite games include: Bloodborne, The Neverhood, Diablo II, Team Fortress 2, World of Warcraft, Super Mario RPG, and Chrono Trigger.
- He does not use Snapchat and Facebook.
- Jerma's birth sign is Virgo.
- Despite being known by many as the "Sus Guy", a meme related to Among Us, he has only played the VR version and it was only once around 2 years after the meme had gotten popular. He also expressed his dislike of the meme, though in his Among Us VR stream he played in to the meme for the entire stream.
- He was caught fixing his hair with his spit on a March 2021 stream.
- Jerma has a disdain for the song "Happy Rock" by Bensound, due to it being repeatedly used in several GTA ripoffs he played in his Grab The Auto 5 video. He also happens to know the song by heart (likely due to the editing sessions), as in his Agent Roswell stream, he freaks out after hearing the song's opening bassline.
- Jerma's pupillary distance is 62.9 mm
- In Forsaken, Jerma appears as a skin for Slasher (which is a free killer when you join up in the game, this includes Noob, Elliot and Shedletsky too), it cost 985$, the skin has custom voice lines but doesn't have a custom chase theme, however this skin is only exclusive for April Fools.
- Forsaken redid Jason into Slasher due to the game having copyright issues with the Friday the 13th franchise.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jerma985 - Jerma is still retired. May 27, 2024. Retrieved June 30, 2024 – via clips.twitch.tv
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezi7Pj6Fa5U Jerma Streams - Elden Ring (Part 22) [DLC Shadow of the Erdtree]. Retrieved July 12, 2024.
- ↑ offbrand statement. December 14, 2024. Retrieved April 10, 2025
- ↑ Jerma Watching Infomercials. January 3, 2025. Retrieved April 10, 2025
