Jeff the Killer

"Go to sleep."

- Jeff the Killer's most famous quote.

Jeffrey Woods also known as Jeff the Killer is the titular main protagonist of the creepypasta story of the same name by the brother of GameFuelTv, who loses his sanity and begins killing to satisfy his homicidal urges.

Jeff has extremely pale skin and burnt off eyelids, giving him an even more ghostly appearance. Jeff later got his most distinctive trait, the smile that he had carved into his face. His build is commonly described as slim but fit at the same time and reaching a height of around 5 to 6 feet. His clothing normally consists of a pair of black skinny jeans with a white hooded sweatshirt, sometimes stained with fresh and old blood from his victims.

He has become one of the largest creepypasta icons to date, even rivaling Slender Man. Jeff is a teenage boy, who was a caring youth and deeply cared about his brother Liu. As a killer, all that changed and he became a vengeful, dangerous, and bloodthirsty sociopath.

Creation and Development
Jeff the Killer was originally created by Newgrounds user killerjeff better known on the internet as Sesseur for his YouTube name on August 10th, 2008, through a news post. Stating that he found the image on his ED account and gives a background story of Jeff.

Jeff the Killer is apparently a ghost game similar to that of Bloody Mary. The instructions are that you perform it in a closet with all lights in the room turned off, then you sit down cross-legged, repeat the sentence "He's in here with me." 3 times whilst turning your head back and forth, then close your eyes and call out the name "Jeff". Jeff will then appear in front of you and proceed to yell and try to chant harm at you. To make him stop is to stand there and compliment him, not doing so will result in a disaster.

On September 12th, 2008, killerjeff posted the source of the Jeff the Killer image that he used to create it, claiming the face to be the aftermath of an acid attack.

On October 3rd, 2008, killerjeff uploaded a video on his YouTube channel, titled "Jeff the killer (Original Story)", the video explains the story of Jeff the killer and his brother Liu (NOTE: killerjeff's YouTube channel has been terminated due to his violations of YouTube's community guidelines, which took the video down with it. When questioned, his response was that his account was taken down due to the disbelief of him being the original creator of the Jeff the Killer character. Fortunately the video was reuploaded by a YouTube user called PhenomenonPoltergeist, however, the original audio was not kept, which was the song I Guess You're Right by the Posies playing in the background for a majority of the video).

Liu is described as a well-liked person and a "ladie's man" who will befriend those who drink alcohol with him, Jeff is said to have often teased Liu back in his mid-teens by wearing his glasses. Jeff is then described as a serial killer, as he kills people "in favor of the world", he is also said to be "good with children".

The video then transcribes to an explanation of what happened to Jeff's face, it is said that Jeff was hauling a gallon of acid into his bathroom to clean out his bathtub, however he accidentally slipped on a bar of soap and as a result the acid splashed all over his face, however luckily he was saved by his neighbour who called an ambulance after hearing his cries, Liu quit work that day to come and visit Jeff in the hospital after hearing about the accident.

Derivative Works
In 2010 the Jeff the Killer image was posted by an anonymous user with the headline "Go To Sleep" photoshopped at the top, the image was used for a YouTube video on November 21st, 2010, titled "creepy pasta " go to sleep ", which depicts the image being slowly zoomed in with the song Hasta El Ultimo Silencio by Arcadia Libre playing in the background reversed and slowed down. It is believed that the lyrics of the song describe Jeff's pain and suffering.

In August 14, 2011, the image was used for a 4chan post, presenting a story about Jeff the Killer spying on someone in bed struggling to sleep, he whispers to the person to "Go To Sleep" before hiding under the bed, the person silently panics before unintentionally falling asleep, after waking up the person is immediately killed by Jeff, his eyes being the last thing the person sees.

At an unknown date in 2011 (the earliest possible known date being November 21st, 2011), wiki user GameFuelTv, posted a story (written by his brother) onto the Creepypasta wiki. The creepypasta tells the story of a 13-year-old Jeff, who gets into a fight with several bullies and in the end suffers scarring on his face after being burned alive while drenched in bleach and vodka, after waking up in hospital and seeing the result of his face, he went insane and later that night he damages his face to become more disturbing.

This creepypasta became well-known among many creepypasta readers, soon after MrCreepyPasta narrated the creepypasta, it blew up quickly, creating an inexplicit fanbase and was declared the official Jeff the Killer story, making Jeff the Killer a full-fledged creepypasta character and altogether is what made him well known across the internet. Many of the fans including MrCreepyPasta declared that Jeff's theme song be Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of These) by Marilyn Manson.

Fans created various Creepypasta crossovers to Jeff, such as Slenderman, as well as making various ridiculous fan favouriting Jeff, pairing him with other creepypasta characters such as Ben Drowned, Eyeless Jack, Ticci-Toby, Laughing Jack, Jane the Killer and even becoming a "proxy" of Slenderman as well becoming friends with MarbleHornets characters "Masky" and "Hoodie", examples like this can be seen in the fanmade webcomic pasta monsters. Some of the fan bases made video games based on Jeff the Killer, most of them (if not all of them) are very poorly made (check out John Wolfe's video if you want to see a good example of them).

Some of the fans even made expansions to the creepypasta, the most well known expansion is Jane the Killer, created by a DeviantART user named FearOfTheBlackWolf, a woman who views Jeff as her nemesis and kills those before he can, telling them to "Don't Go To Sleep, You Won't Wake Up.". Although her creepypasta story was short, she became well-liked among the creepypasta fan base and many created fan arts of her, even a full audiobook style written creepypasta was created between the 2 rivals encountering. One fan of the character even a made creepypasta of Jane's backstory and motivation for wanting Jeff killed, although the story plagiarises the character (such as changing her surname from "Richardson" to "Arkensaw"), the fanbase took it as canon, which made the creator of the character unpleased.

Another expansion was Homicidal Liu created by a DeviantART user named VampireNote13, a story about Jeff's brother Liu surviving his encounter with Jeff in the creepypasta and obtains a split-personality, becoming a serial killer himself and contemplating whether to get revenge on Jeff or spare him, the expansion also claims that Liu is the older brother even though it was never stated in the actual creepypasta itself which sibling was the oldest, this expansion was also the origination of where fans gave Jeff the last name "Woods" as Liu is named "Liu Woods" in the expansion.

The creepypasta itself, however, was criticised by many for it's poor quality and it was even protested that it should not have been allowed on the creepypasta wiki for not meeting the actual required standards. Because of this, it was taken down from the creepypasta wiki a year later, however, users constantly reuploaded it, objecting to the idea of it being taken down due to it being one of the most popular creepypastas at the time. In late 2014 it was finally decided by the community that the story is banned from the Creepypasta wiki entirely and officially be moved to the Spinpasta wiki, however, the story was also taken down from it as well. The story can be found on the official creepypasta website, Trollpasta wiki, and Just The Kittens wiki (originally "Jeff The Killer wiki", a wiki dedicated to all Jeff the Killer fandom stories, but later renamed for unknown reasons).

As a result of the creepypasta being taken down from the creepypasta wiki, a [http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Underscorre/Jeff_the_Killer_Rewrite_Contest! competition] was made to remake the story entirely and create something more realistic and frightening that can be featured on the wiki. Admin K. Banning Kellum's story [http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Underscorre/Jeff_the_Killer_Rewrite_Contest_-_The_Winners! won first place], however, it had to be cut down to half it's size due to the contest's word limit, the fully uncut version can be viewed on the spinpasta wiki.

The remake stays true to the original creepypasta with the same characters and with Jeff and his family moving into a new neighborhood as well as a fight with between Jeff and a trio of bullies, however, the result of Jeff's deformed face is different to one in the original Creepypasta. Unlike the original Creepypasta, Jeff and Liu's ages are stated, Jeff being 15-years-old, and Liu being 14-years-old, however, this is only revealed in the uncut version of the remake.

K. Banning Kellum became proud of his remake, and soon after wiki user Kevin Tierney made a Jane the Killer adaption to the remake, he decided to [http://spinpasta.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Banningk1979/Jeff_the_Killer_2015_Sequel_Coming_Soon_to_Spinpasta! continue the creepypasta] by making a sequel.

YouTube user [https://www.youtube.com/user/MrBettyKrueger MƦ. ƁЄƬƬƳ ƘƦƲЄƓЄƦ] created a brand new version of Jeff, creating him to be a more 90's style villain. In this version, Jeff Keaton starts out to be a really tall man with pale skin, blue eyes, and a black trenchcoat. Once he becomes "The Killer", he gains the appearance similar to how the original creepypasta depicts him, but his red-lipped smile is much wider, and his eyelids are not burned off. Eventually, Jeff dies and is resurrected, becoming a zombie, being a far more monstrous character than originally created.

In 2015, it was announced that Purity Films plan to make a full film of Jeff the Killer, an indiego page raising money for the film was made to kickstart it. It sought 1 million dollars in donations and merchandise sales for it's budget, but only made $402. Submissions are now closed. The teaser of the film was heavily criticised by many, and it is assumed that the project has been abandoned as no update about the film has been released since 2015 (It should be noted that Sesseur has mentioned that he has had his production team working on trying to get the project shut down for copyright reasons. Whether Sesseur succeeded in this or has had any involvement with the project lacking any updates whatsoever is unknown).

Sesseur's Response
In an interview with YouTube user ScareTheater, Sesseur reveals that he became unpleased about the direction that the fanbase viewed Jeff the Killer as. Viewing Jeff as a child murderer, as he claims that Jeff would never kill Liu or his parents, he was also disappointed about the fact that the fans view him as a teenager as he made Jeff be a mature character and not as a child. Sesseur was hoping when he first made the character back in 2008 that it would blow up and become a phenomenon across the internet and when the character finally became popular in 2011, he felt insulted and found the fanbase to be that of anti-fame seeing as the creepypasta story was practically a remix of the original authentic one that Sesseur himself made in the first place. Sesseur also revealed that Jeff the Killer's name was in fact based off of his own true name "Jeff".

For a while, Sesseur believed that he did not get enough credit for the whole thing as people did not acknowledge that he was the creator of the character, but years later when people shortly started to realize that he was the creator, he became more appreciative. He hopes that in the future if Jeff the Killer becomes more popular then people will have a whole new level of appreciation for it and that more adult viewers will enjoy it. Sesseur claims that he now has a company that spots for him if any works that are based on Jeff the Killer are now informed to him so he can do something about it, if it was made without his permission, he plans to do this for the Purity Films Jeff the Killer film that is being made.

In a video by YouTube user Kryalis, Sesseur reveals that in the future he and his company plan to make a new story arc of Jeff the Killer and that it will be more than what would be expected from the other stories. Sesseur hasn't hinted or given out any information about the project, aside from the fact that it will be an expanded version of the original story from 2008, he also mentioned that the project will be something for the fan base to "eagerly await for". When it releases, Sesseur hopes that it will finally become the true vision of Jeff the Killer and his legacy. Should this happen, Sesseur is confident that the project will grow further on from there.

Controversy on the Image Origin
In 2013 there was much speculation and confusion as well as theories as to where the image was originated from and who created it. It was believed for several years that the image originated from a 4chan post on April 21st, 2008, about a young woman named "Katy Robinson" who committed suicide after being cyberbullied, the centrepiece that motivated her to end her own life was a photoshopped image of herself that somebody posted, that image apparently being the current Jeff the Killer image.

Sesseur claimed in an interview with YouTube user ScareTheater that the Katy Robinson suicide is a "bogus story", that the image is actually a photoshopped version of an individual wearing a white latex mask that had its picture taken in late 2005.

However, Know Your Meme users found the image in a Japanese YouTube video from August 2nd, 2007, which was uploaded a year before Sesseur claimed ownership of the image.

In January 2nd, 2018, a user under the name "Shaan" on the /x/ thread post from 4chan claimed to have found the earliest possible source of the image. The user discovered that the image originated from a Japanese website called pya.cc. The image itself was uploaded on November 16th, 2005 by a user under the name Omega Bolt. In the image's description is a link that provides a source to the early photoshopped image, revealing that it was posted in September 10th, 2005, this one was uploaded by a user under the name Mr. Mulholland. More information can be found on this 4chan post.

On April 18th, 2018, an anonymous user on a 4chan thread post, discovered that the Katy Robinson suicide story is a hoax. The user found out that the girl in the 4chan post is actually a girl named Heather White; she made her first appearance on a website in November of 2004 called TrueChristian.com, and even found her hate emails on the site. The user furthermore confirmed that the woman in the image did not die in 2008 as she created a Twitter account in 2009 and even made Myspace a page in 2013, which shows that she currently lives in Mallory, West Virginia, she is currently married and is living with her children.

The user went onto further analyse whether to confirm that the girl, Heather White, was the face of the photoshopped image of Jeff the Killer all along. The user discovered that apparently the girl started a thread post on the /b/ forums, which was presumably in 2008, however according to several anonymous users, the post may have been created before 2008. In the thread post, the girl asked those on /b/ if she was "pretty" in response to many pictures she posted of herself on the thread, one picture in particular had a bad flash which created the illusion that most of her facial features could barely be seen due to the brightness, her nose was one of those features that were blinded. The /b/ forum used this very image to troll her by photoshopping her face, the trolling went on for 2 days and by then, many images were posted, one of those images is apparently the early photoshopped Jeff the Killer image.

According to a user who had been around 4chan for years (often referred as an "oldfag"), the /b/ threads were spammed with images of photoshops of this girl's face, all of which was after the girl kept complaining about her appearance and posting images of herself on the thread post for 2 days straight, the user remembers that apparently the current photoshopped image uses a canine jaw overlapping with hers. Ultimately after the trolling went on, she stopped posting and left the /b/ forums. The user claims that one of the images was caught in a screenshot he took, but has not revealed it to the public. He remembers that all of this happened in 2004, as it was the time when /b/ took turns photoshopping the girls face and spamming it across the forums.

One of Heather's images even made an appearance on a youtube video from May 4th, 2007.

Trivia

 * A reboot of Jeff the Killer, written by K. Banning Kellum, is available on The Chilling Tales For Dark Nights YouTube channel.


 * For 2016, YouTuber Mr. Betty Krueger is planning a fifth installment in his Jeffery Keaton series, titled "The Wrath of Jeff the Killer".


 * One of Jeff's most villainous acts was revealed in "Jane The Killer: The Real Story" when he murders Jane Arkensaw's family, friends and his own family like in the original story and lights her on fire by using bleach and gasoline, leaving her scarred and disfigured. He did something similar to this act in her original story however it wasn't portrayed as dramatically as the latter.

Navigation
Jeff the Killer