Loyal Jake Shane followers, a.k.a. “Pussies,” are familiar with the long running gag that he is on Ozempic — and now he’s revealing the impetus for the rumor.
“Do you wanna know why I started that? I wanted to see if people would believe it,” Shane, 25, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting his partnership with CeraVe. “I was like, ‘If they don’t believe it, then maybe I have some work to do.’ But if they believe it, then, I feel good about myself. Luckily enough, they believed it.”
When Shane asked his followers to spread the fictitious rumor on social media, fans took the request seriously. Some took a page out of his “nyming” trend, heading to the comments section to write notes like, “J.O.O.A (Jake’s on Ozempic again).”
“That’s the Pussies. They really showed up from me,” Shane told Us. “I said, ‘Please start a rumor that I’m on Ozempic,’ and they showed up and showed out.”
While Shane had a feeling that his fans might appreciate the lie, he was surprised that the rumor gained as much traction as it did.
“I thought they would think it’s funny, but I didn’t think it would become as big of a bit as it has been,” Shane admitted.
Shane skyrocketed to stardom on TikTok as @octopusslover8 in 2023 when he began creating a series of skits reenacting historical events from a Gen Z lens. Since then, he’s amassed over 3.5 million followers on TikTok and catapulted into the pop culture zeitgeist with his “Therapuss” podcast and Live With Jake Shane tour.
“The whole thing is, I feel like, one big inside joke,” Shane told Us.
Despite being a widely successful influencer, Shane said the content that hits well online is still “always unexpected” to him — and is something he’s bonded over with pal Alix Earle, whom he speaks to “every single day.”
“Alix and I always say, you just keep posting, posting, posting, posting, posting,” he said. “There’s slumps where you’re gonna go down and then there’s things where you’re gonna go up, and up and down and up and down and up and down. The only constant you can have is you, through it, continuing to post. Which sounds so silly, but it’s true.”
One video that resonated with fans? Shane hitting the Alo gym with Glen Powell. While Shane is now on the road for his tour, he’s no longer able to work out with the actor — but the pair “check in on each other every now and then.”
“He is actually probably one of the busiest people I think I’ve ever met, but I did recently just speak to him, and he’s doing incredible,” Shane said of Powell, 36. “The busiest man alive and doing it all.”
Despite checking off several bucket list items from his list (the Super Bowl commercial with Earle, 24, was “the best news ever,” he said), Shane hopes to pursue acting down the line.
“I just did my first acting thing. It’s not announced yet, but it’s small, but it’s really, really, really cool, and I’m really excited about that. So hopefully that opens more doors. I’m like really, really, hoping to get into that,” Shane told Us, gushing that Powell gives him “really great” advice when it comes to a career in front of the camera.
Shane is also open to lacing up his dancing shoes and heading to the ballroom for a chance to win the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy.
“I think I’d be honored if they asked me to come on Dancing With the Stars,” he said, adding that his dream partner would be Rylee Arnold. “I just know we would be [close].”
While balancing his busy schedule, Shane has made sure to prioritize his skincare routine with CeraVe. For the Skinterrogations campaign, Shane teamed up with 11 board certified dermatologists to put them to the test — the lie detector test, asking them questions with Hollywood’s favorite polygraph examiner John the Lie Detector Guy.
“Being on the road, you can’t really get adjusted to a certain environment, so having one constant, which is my CeraVe, facial cleanser and the moisturizer is really important,” Shane said. “I’ve used CeraVe since I was a kid, so it felt authentic to who I was.”
