US comedian Bert Kreischer is known for a variety of gigs, from podcasting to acting, and performing his stand-up routines shirtless.
However, some fans were stunned to find “Bert Kreischer jailed” trending on social media.
The rumor sprung after fellow podcaster Tom Segura announced the “news” on episode 113 of their podcast, Two Bears One Cave.
Tom took it upon himself to announce, with an impressively deadpan tone, that Bert was absent from this week’s episode because he had been arrested for an undisclosed crime.
While fans were sent into a frenzy and even made its way to Fox 5 News, it has since emerged that this was nothing other than a prank, and it is not the first time that Tom has crafted an elaborate tale to prank listeners.
In August last year, he claimed that Bert was in need of a kidney transplant due to his excessive drinking.
Although seasoned fans noticed the prank for what it was, plenty of newer listeners misunderstood Tom, taking to social media to offer their support for Bert.
On February 19, Bert released a new episode of his podcast Bertcast, where he revealed how the jail rumor started. He joked that he was actually in “podcast jail”, referring to how busy he currently is with all of his podcast projects.
Bert’s career emerged out of a 1997 Rolling Stone article in which he was dubbed “The Number One Partier in the Nation”, which inspired the 2002 comedy National Lampoon’s Van Wilder and opened doors for Bert.
He became discovered by Will Smith, invited on The Joe Rogen Experience podcast, and took to creating his own podcast.
In 2022, Pollstar named Bert as number four in the Top 10 Highest Grossing Tours and recent reports suggest that the comic is currently worth an eye-watering $14 million.