Johnny Hilbrant Partridge never worked an hour on Wall Street, but you’d never guess that by looking at him. Nearly every day, Partridge takes to YouTube to channel his inner finance bro as P.E. Guy, a puffer-vested private equity putz who brags about his million-dollar deals, Aspen manse and private plane.
Partridge, who once taught fitness classes in Boston, debuted the character on social media last year, which boosted his following beyond Barry’s and SoulCycle devotees. Today, he has 400,000-plus Instagram followers, up from 7,000 about 18 months ago.
Although Partridge lampoons private equity, his skits resonate beyond buyout boys. “I think a lot of people have that experience of coming in contact with somebody who wants to one-up you and make you feel like they win the conversation because they have an impressive-sounding job,” he says.
As certain business figures become as talked about as celebrities, Wall Street yuksters like Partridge are surging on social media. While memes still flood finance bro DMs, creator-helmed videos are gaining momentum on both Wall Street and Main Street. Some riff on Bloomberg headlines, while others simply play on C-suite stereotypes.
Other creators skewering corporate life include The Swiss Chris (442,000 Instagram followers), who portrays a highfalutin European banker; Clemente Varas Collado (115,000 Instagram followers), who frequently roasts asset manager BlackRock, and engineer-turned-entertainer Varun Rana (90,000 Instagram followers).
It’s not an entirely new trend — Wall Street meme pages have been around for over a decade — but social media algorithms are increasingly favoring shortform video, benefiting creator-actors over anonymous meme lords. It’s led to stalling growth for some picture-heavy accounts, including Trust Fund Terry, which launched about eight years ago on Instagram.
Trust Fund Terry has never revealed his identity, though he admits on the phone that he has toiled in consulting and finance. Terry, a pseudonym, said audience building on Instagram has become more difficult thanks to Reels. “I think they’ve really been trying to push the more traditional creators, where they’re telling a story in either short or longform video,” he said.
The Swiss Chris, who shows his face but remains anonymous, says he first played a character named Goldman Stanley. Chris, who was a banker in Europe, says the industry is one “where the humor practically writes itself.”
Josh Kaplan, who runs creator management company Smooth Media, says part of these creators’ success is making their followers feel like they’re alongside Blackstone associates at the watercooler. “I feel like people love being on like the inside of a joke,” says Kaplan, whose company manages Rana.
Josh Brown, the CNBC fixture and CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, is in numerous texting chains with Wall Streeters who pass around Partridge’s latest videos. He says Partridge’s P.E. Guy character is identifiable to the finance crowd. “When I first started my career in the late ’90s, it was investment bankers who were doing all the IPOs,” he says. “Now in the 2020s, the personification of that level of douchiness is private equity.”
These Wall Street jesters are ascending at a moment when there’s immense interest in the machinations of finance firms and rainmakers. Some of the biggest sports storylines now involve the corporate dealings of billionaire owners. Hollywood A-listers are romancing private equity guys. And many consumers are keenly aware of investors behind businesses.
Brown believes Partridge’s and other creators’ outrageous personas stem from the growing number of people with equally outrageous wealth. “It’s a level of satire that television really hasn’t caught up to,” he says. “I think these people are nailing it in a way that maybe 20 years ago The Simpsons would have.”
P.E. Guy still attracts the real-life P.E. guys, especially on LinkedIn, where he has over 10 times more followers than on X. “I’ve been able to satirize stuff on LinkedIn in a really fun way, where people don’t always know that it’s a joke because of how absurd things already are on LinkedIn,” he says, “which really tickles me.”
This story appeared in the Oct. 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.