Johnny Hilbrant Partridge, better known as the “P.E. Guy,” has turned humblebragging about three-car garages, platinum credit cards and Lake Como vacations into a viral comedy career.
Earlier this year, Partridge launched a satirical character on social media, playing an ultra-wealthy American from different corners of the country. With a smug grin and matter-of-fact delivery, he casually drops lines about the wealth “his role” — a recurring joke in the clips — has afforded him.
“Yeah, no, having four kiddos is really expensive. Yeah, I mean, it’s expensive. But due to my role, it’s not a problem,” he deadpans in one viral clip.
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“It’s not going to move the needle. We’ve got one-to-one childcare.”
Partridge has racked up 174,000 Instagram followers and nearly 50,000 on TikTok. His videos pull in hundreds of thousands of views.
Now, Partridge is sharing his theory on why so many people are drawn to the character.
“I think he’s resonating because we can all see a little bit of ourselves in him. And then also we all know P.E. Guy,” Partridge said Friday on “America Reports.”
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“Like I know maybe 12 to 15 P.E. Guys that I’ve met in my life, probably.”
Audiences seem to be recognizing the rich archetype, too — the friends or coworkers who can’t resist bragging about their cars, clubs or vacations.
In real life, Partridge is a Boston fitness instructor and content creator. He says he researches and crowdsources before each video to better embody the type of person he’s poking fun at.
“In the beginning, I was just Googling relentlessly and looking up the most expensive country club initiation fee in Baltimore,” he said.
“It’s now pretty much 50-50, me Googling and then crowdsourcing. So all of my followers are like, ‘Do St. Louis, you would live in this place and you would drive this car and you go to this restaurant,’” he said, explaining the skit that has now become a nationwide joke.
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