Student tracks down internet personality Skweezy Jibbs on campus
- Skeet Starr, Editor-in-Chief
- 7 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Rachel Swenson (ʼ27) usually doesn’t get up early on Fridays, which she has off. But at 9 a.m. on Friday Oct. 17, she was up searching the Willamette campus with one goal in mind.
The day before, social media personality Skweezy Jibbs had uploaded an image to Instagram with a familiar red brick building in the background: Eaton Hall.
Via that post, Jibbs, the online persona of comedian Tim Savage, announced he would be coming to Willamette in promotion of his soon-to-be-released movie, “Skweezy Jibbs Makes a Movie,” and that the first person to find him and say the codeword “BERDSEED” would receive two free tickets to the Salem premiere. Swenson was determined to be that person.
Savage first uploaded videos online as Skweezy Jibbs in 2007, according to KnowYourMeme.com. A Don Quixote of the modern age, Jibbs falls somewhere in the LifeAccordingToJimmy- Kyle Mooney- J-to-the-R-O-C- sphere of caricatures.
He gained major notoriety both for his viral misadventure to India when he meant to travel to Indiana in 2019 and a 2023 upload which saw him confused amidst a police and crowd incident in Colombia.
He’s also often taken political stands, or tried to. In 2023, he resolved to volunteer his support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement but ended up at a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) property.
“I had to do a lot of explaining to people in my life” regarding who Jibbs is, Swenson said. She has been a follower of his for around five years.
To prepare for Jibbs’ arrival, Swenson took stock of online mutuals of hers who also followed him and could compete for the free tickets.
Then, at 9 a.m., she hit the campus, intermittently walking around and hanging out at the Bistro.
Around noon, three hours after she began her search, she bumped into a friend and asked if they’d seen a guy with a hat walking on campus. They had.
Swenson took off in the direction her friend told her to go. In the distance, she spotted a pedestrian with a familiar baseball hat and a flag. It was Jibbs.
“I really didn’t think I was going to be the first to find him,” Swenson said. “It felt like everything I had worked for had come to fruition. I woke up at 8 a.m. for a reason.”
A video of Swenson and Jibbs’ subsequent encounter, uploaded by Jibbs to Instagram on Oct. 17, shows him in the middle of filming his video intro when Swenson rushes to meet him.
When she, out of breath, asks if “anyone had told [Jibbs] BERDSEED,” Jibbs responds, “I’ve only been on campus for four seconds."
Since going up, the video of their interaction has racked up nearly 5,000 likes. “I can tell people I’m Instagram-famous,” Swenson said. “It’s not true, but it’s fun to say.”
Via Instagram direct message to The Collegian, Jibbs later recalled that “RACHEL HAD SOME REALLY GREAT INFECTIOUS ENERGY AN SCREAMED BERDSEED SO LOUD THAT A SQUIRREL RAN AWAY.”
He also explained, regarding the code word, that BERDSEED is his “HOMEY,” who earned that name by saying “CHIRP CHIRP MOTHERFUCKS A LOT.”
After Swenson snagged a selfie, Jibbs asked her if she knew where he could put up posters to advertise his new movie. Swenson then guided him from the State Street sidewalk near Ford to the Bistro.
On the way, they made small talk, discussed Jibbs’ being from Florida, and Swenson introduced him to passersby.
Throughout their interaction and being turned away from the Bistro poster board due to the posting policy, Savage never broke the Skweezy Jibbs character, Swenson said.
Swenson and Jibbs have since made contact via email, so Swenson hopes to soon receive her tickets to the movie premiere, which will take place at the Grand Theater on Nov. 18. She plans to bring a friend and dress as Jibbs.
Editors note: Following this article's release, Skweezy Jibbs contacted The Collegian to inform us that tickets to his Salem movie premiere are now half off for those who use the promo code: STUDENT.
Comments