The Truth About Matt Rife Is Tumbling Out

It wasn't too long ago that comedian extraordinaire Matt Rife was ready to pack it in and quit the standup career he'd been struggling to get off the ground for nearly a decade. "I wasn't selling any tickets at any comedy club, I couldn't get any kind of break," Rife recalled during an appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" in 2023. "At a certain point you go, 'Am I delusional? Maybe I'm not funny.'"

In the midst of that soul-searching despair, everything changed when Rife posted a hilarious bit on TikTok, which he'd dubbed "The Lazy Hero." The video went viral, garnering millions of views. Before long, Rife had become a TikTok sensation, leading his once-dormant standup comedy career to explode overnight. To capitalize on his newfound popularity, Rife hit the road for his "ProbleMATTic" world tour that was a hit before it even began; demand for the shows was so high that the Ticketmaster website crashed as 600,000 fans simultaneously attempted to scoop up presale tickets.

There's no doubt that Rife's popularity is continuing to soar, and he's become a force to be reckoned with in the comedy community. Yet the success he's experienced has also been accompanied by a healthy helping of controversy, something that Rife has not only refused to shy away from, but actually seems to take pride in. To find out more about this fascinating funnyman, read on to see why the truth about Matt Rife is tumbling out.

In June 2023, Matt Rife announced plans to embark on a massive world tour, sharing the news in a hilarious video (featuring a special guest star appearance from actor Ashton Kutcher, no less) that he posted on Instagram. The "ProbleMATTic" tour kicked off that July, boasting more than 100 shows. In addition to traveling throughout North America, the tour also took Rife to Australia, in addition to several European cities, including Paris, London, Dublin, Amsterdam, and Stockholm, among others. 

Undertaking a tour of that duration proved to be a bit more taxing on Rife than he'd anticipated. In May 2024, he announced the cancelation of two shows — both in Bloomington, Indiana — hours before he was scheduled to take to the stage. "I'm so f***ing sorry, but due to a last minute medical emergency i have to reschedule our shows tonight (again)," he tweeted.

Further shows were canceled, with the Los Angeles Times reporting that ticket-holders received an update about the situation via email. "On the way to a recent show in Indiana, Matt experienced extreme exhaustion symptoms and nearly fainted heading to the venue," the email read. "Matt is currently under advisement from his medical team to take immediate time off from touring for two weeks." He subsequently wrote a message on Instagram, revealing info about rescheduled dates, indicating he was on the mend. He resumed the tour in mid-June.

A bizarre rumor caught fire in November 2023 thanks to a video posted on TikTok by Dr. Benjamin Caughlin, a plastic surgeon with the TikTok handle @manyfacesofchicago. "Me after creating the greatest jawline ever seen just for my patient to get cancelled right after," he wrote atop the clip, adding the hashtags #cancelled, #jawlinecheck, #comedian, #standup, and #celeb. After the post went viral, bursting with comments speculating that Dr. Caughlin was referring to Rife, the comedian responded by leaving a comment of his own, writing, "Lying about medical history is illegal, just FYI" (via Life & Style).

Rife also confronted the rumor during an appearance on "Access Hollywood" when former "Saved By the Bell" star Mario Lopez asked him to reveal the "biggest lie" that he'd ever read about himself. "That I've had plastic surgery," Rife declared. "That's the funniest thing in the entire world to me. Because I hit puberty too late, I didn't look like this until I was like 23. Sorry if you need surgery to look like that."

Rife also addressed the rumor during a standup set in December 2023. "People were saying I had jaw surgery to have a jawline," Rife riffed, as reported by USA Today. "That's funny to me because I'm like ... use your ... brain. If I'm gonna get transformative surgery done to me, do you think I'm starting with my face? You would never hear me tell another joke for the rest of my life."

There's no question that Matt Rife has become one of the hottest young comics in the standup comedy scene. According to Rife, there's only one factor preventing him from becoming even bigger: his chiseled physique. 

Or at least that's what he claimed during an August 2023 interview with Men's Health, discussing how he began working out in earnest after he'd started performing standup. According to Rife, being in killer shape might be advantageous when starring in a Hollywood action movie, but not necessarily when telling jokes. "I will say, I don't think it helps you, by any means," he said with a laugh. "I mean, people don't want to laugh at physically attractive people. You don't want to walk onstage and have people looking at your arms, rather than listening to your joke." He concluded by explaining that being so attractive only forced him to work even harder on his material, in order to shift the focus from his buff body to his jokes.

As has often been the case with Rife, his comments were hit with backlash as people bashed him for complaining that being good looking was detrimental. He addressed his comments when speaking with Today, and doubled down by sharing his belief that everyone assumes attractive people have it easy, which doesn't exactly generate laughs. "So that's why I would say it's a little bit harder," he said. "You have to win people over more often."

Matt Rife seems to revel in controversy, and he clearly knew he'd be barraged with backlash when he joked about domestic abuse in his 2023 Netflix special, "Matt Rife: Natural Selection." That was evident when he responded to criticism with another joke, also delving into political incorrectness. "If you've ever been offended by a joke I've told, here's a link to my official apology," he wrote in a post he shared on Instagram Stories, which was highlighted by a link that read, "Tap to solve the issue." According to Variety, the apology link led to a website selling helmets to protect the heads of people with special needs.

In May 2024, Rife addressed the utter lack of actual consequences he faced after generating all that controversy. "What am I gonna do? Get canceled? Cool, I'll do another Bowl show, awesome," he said during a standup comedy set at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, reported Variety. "You know that's not a real punishment," he added, referring to being a victim of cancel culture. "Nothing happens; prison's a punishment."

During that same show, he also joked about his social media helmet prank. "I got in so much trouble for making a joke about special needs helmets, and then I come to LA and perform in the biggest helmet," he quipped, comparing the concave shape of the Hollywood Bowl to the interior of a helmet.

Matt Rife made headlines in 2017, when he was just 21 years old, when he briefly dated British movie star Kate Beckinsale, who was twice his age. While that romance ended badly, he bounced back into a new relationship with actor and dancer Jessica Lord. Best known for her starring role in Hulu series "Find Me in Paris," Lord reportedly began dating Rife in 2023.

Rife opened up about Lord in an October 2023 interview with People, confirming the relationship was then still in its early stages at the time. "It's newer, but I mean I do prefer to keep it on the more private side," he said of why he doesn't like to talk about his personal life that much. He credited her for keeping his life balanced — or, at least, as much as possible in the midst of his worldwide comedy tour. "She forces me to take personal time, obviously, and I love that," Rife added. At the time, Rife told Esquire that he was longing for a traditional relationship. "I know I am just in my mid-to-late 20s, but still, I do want a wife and a family and a prominent home life that makes me feel comfortable, safe, and is my peace," he said.

However, the relationship didn't stand the test of time, with TMZ reporting in July 2024 that the two had split. In his subsequent standup comedy special (via YouTube), Rife addressed his uncoupling from Lord. "I went through a horrible breakup at the beginning of this last year, and I thought it was such a low in my life," he said.

Matt Rife found himself at the center of a bizarre allegation implying he owed his fame and fortune to the Hollywood casting couch. In 2024, self-described comedian Nima Yamini posted a video on social media that was subsequently shared all over X, in which he claimed that he and Rife were once together in a meeting with some powerful figures in the entertainment industry. Yamini claimed the industry executives told him and Rife that their success would be assured — but only if they performed oral sex in return. In Yamini's account, he immediately burst out of his chair and headed out the door, while Rife stayed behind to accept the offer, implying that was the reason for Rife's success.

When Rife caught wind of the video, TMZ reported that he considered Yamini's false claims to be defamation and was mulling over whether to sue. Yamini, clearly realizing he was in big trouble, began backpedaling in another video shared on X. In the update, he confirmed that the story he'd told was bogus, insisting that his earlier post was a "parody video" and meant to be satirical.

He also confessed that he'd never met Rife and didn't intend for anyone to take him seriously. "But my silly joke shouldn't discredit him," he said.

Over the course of his standup comedy career, Matt Rife has occasionally come close to crossing the line between what's considered tasteful and what's deemed to be offensive. When it comes to the latter, however, he'd prefer to push the envelope rather than play it safe. "I don't believe there's anything you can't talk about if you do it correctly, in the right way, at the right time," Rife told Variety. "You have to be yourself and not worry about offending a certain amount of people. You might miss out on a joke that you're worried might offend somebody, but might make you a million new fans," he added, while admitting that it was also wise to be ready to handle any potential repercussions — something he'd learned firsthand after the blowback he received from "Matt Rife: Natural Selection."

Appearing on a roundtable panel for Variety alongside fellow comics Sam Jay, Tom Segura, and Marlon Wayans, Rife insisted that the difference between a joke that's offensive and one that's merely edgy is the intent of the comedian. "Like, what is your intention with saying some reckless s*** right now? Are you trying to upset somebody or are you trying to make light of a certain subject?" he said. "Because that way it doesn't take up such a negative space in someone's mind, and they can laugh at something that's brought them so much grief."

Like many comedians, Matt Rife has ventured into acting, a sideline that has included guest spots on such TV sitcoms as "Fresh Off the Boat," and "Brooklyn Nine Nine." What many of his fans may not have realized is that he's also starred in a movie, portraying low-rent P.I. Mort Madison in the feature-length comedy "The Private Eye." The low-budget indie, however, will enjoy a wide release. As Variety reported, the film was picked up by Glass House Distribution in April 2024 as plans were announced to distribute the movie worldwide; it was finally released on video and VOD that August.

"It was very important for us to find the right home for 'The Private Eye' because it is my directorial debut," the film's director, Jack Cook, said in a statement. "I wanted to partner with people that showed the movie the attention it deserves, Glass House Distribution are those people."

If Rife has his way, fans will be seeing him onscreen in even more acting roles. "I love acting just as much, if not more than standup. I just haven't been doing it as long and I haven't been able to get my foot in the door as well as I have been with standup," he told Deadline. "So I'm really looking forward to the next project that I work on in acting to be something I'm really proud of and enjoy doing."

Matt Rife's aspirations to do more acting received a big boost when he signed with one of Hollywood's most powerful talent agencies. In April 2024, Deadline reported that Rife was being repped by United Talent Agency. As part of the agency, Rife joined a roster of A-listers that included actors Chris Pratt and Timothée Chalamet, music stars Bad Bunny and Lizzo, and many other big names.

Working with a major agency would understandably broaden the horizons of his already-burgeoning career. According to the report, the agency would not only represent him for his live comedy performances — which have been incredibly lucrative — but also explore new opportunities in TV and movies. That dovetailed perfectly with some comments that Rife made in an earlier interview with Deadline. "But now that I have the freedom in success via standup, it opens up avenues in other areas that I am passionate about, like film and television, that I'm hoping I can make that transition over to, because it can only feed itself," he explained.

Shortly before the announcement that Matt Rife had signed with UTA, Variety reported that he'd entered a deal with Netflix to produce not one, but two new comedy specials for the powerhouse streaming service. The first of those specials debuted in August 2024 and proved to be something of a departure for both Rife and Netflix. That's because the special — "Matt Rife: Lucid — A Crowd Work Special" — didn't feature Rife performing a routine that he'd written, but instead consisted entirely of crowd work, with Rife generating laughs from his spontaneous interactions with members of the audience. Directed by comedian Erik Griffin, filming took place at The Comedy Zone in Charlotte, North Carolina.

According to Charlotte's WBTV, Rife performed six sold-out shows at the venue in May 2024 with cameras on hand to film it all. In order to keep things under wraps, members of the audience not only had to sign release forms allowing their permission to appear on camera, but were also ordered to hand over their phones so that footage wouldn't leak on the internet.

Crowd work has long been a specialty of Rife's, and while he's admitted it can be somewhat hit or miss, often yielding mixed results, he also believes that it keeps his standup skills sharpened. "It keeps me on my toes," Rife told the Los Angeles Times.

As well as signing a two-special deal, Deadline reported in April 2024 that Matt Rife was in the process of writing and starring in a new workplace sitcom set in a gym for the streaming platform Netflix.

As has often been the case with Rife, controversy emerged as soon as the project was announced. That was clear in an article for The Mary Sue that boasted the headline, "The Last Thing I Want Is a 'Workplace Comedy' From Matt Rife." According to writer Rachel Leishman, not only are Rife's potential punchlines for the series bound to be problematic (his material tends to "lean towards sexism," Leishman wrote), but the workplace sitcom premise has already been done to death. "Given how his last standup special went, I don't think that his premise is going to go well by any stretch of the imagination," Leishman added. 

As it turned out, a rumor alleged that a workplace comedy on Netflix might not be the only television show on which Matt Rife will be seen. In an interview with E! News, Rife was confronted with a claim that he was going to be seen in an episode of reality TV hit "Vanderpump Rules." However, Rife had some bad news for Bravo fans yearning to see him cavorting with the likes of Tom Sandoval, Ariana Madix and even the grand dame herself, Lisa Vanderpump. He shot that rumor down completely.

"Did it come from me?" he said of the gossip. "Then probably not." He continued by marveling at all the wild — and not even close to accurate — things he's seen about himself. "I read the craziest stuff about me all day long, and none of it's true," he said. "It cracks me up. Whatever gives people the clout they need."

In an episode of his paranormal ghost-hunting series "Overnight," Matt Rife spent a night within the Rhode Island house that served as the inspiration for horror movie "The Conjuring." That night must have been far more enjoyable than he let on at the time, because he subsequently revealed he was interested in purchasing the place. As he explained in an interview with E! News, Rife was seriously looking into buying the allegedly haunted home. "I would love to, I'm really trying to," he said. "I've been there once before, and it's incredible. It's my favorite scary movie franchise by far. I think I could do incredible things with it."

That backed up a previous tweet from Rife's pal, comic Elton Castee, who wrote, "Hey @ConjuringHouse, myself & @mattrife are ready & willing to buy it if you're keen to sell ... Any date, we're ready to make it happen."

Making matters even stranger was the fact that Rife had already recently bought a house in Rhode Island, not far from the location of "The Conjuring" house. As he explained while appearing on the "Are You Garbage?" podcast (as reported by The Providence Journal), he'd purchased a large property on 80 acres, boasting two four-bedroom homes on it. "I got all that for probably the price of a two-bedroom with no yard in LA," Rife declared.

While Matt Rife is hardly an overnight sensation, his rise from relative obscurity to comedy ubiquity was rapid, and he admitted the whole experience did a number on him. Interviewed by Us Weekly, Rife opened up about how his stunning burst of success, coming as fast as it did, was difficult to digest. "The dream I had was, okay, if I could just sell out weekends at comedy clubs for 300-seat venues, I f***ing made it," he explained. "The level of being a Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, Katt Williams — these arena acts [and] top-tier entertainers — never even occurred to me."

He recalled years of waking up each morning and having nothing with which to fill his days until taking to the stage that night. "Now, I wake up and go, 'Wow, I don't know if I'll ever have a free day for the rest of my life,' which is a blessing and a curse," he mused. 

As for how his newfound fame has affected his mental health, he admitted, "It's gotten so much worse. There's no crash course on how to be famous." On the plus side, however, he confirmed that undertaking his massive "ProbleMATTic" world tour gave him the confidence that he could pull off even bigger projects in the future. "I've learned that I'm built for this," he said.

Like many celebrities, Matt Rife receives gifts that fans send to him. However, some of those gifts have apparently veered into the "weird" category. "I've gotten hair. I've gotten toenails. No letter to go with them. Just in a bag,"  Rife recalled during a sit-down with fellow comedian Tom Segura on the latter's "Your Mom's House" podcast.

As strange as that is, Rife has also encountered fans who believe they've established a close personal connection with him — not realizing that they're the victims of online scammers. "So many people will come to shows and be like, 'Matt told me to come here. I sent him $1,000 last week,'" Rife said, singling out one particularly gullible fan who insisted she needed to meet Rife after a show. According to Rife, he was standing on the other side of the stage door while listening to the woman interact with members of his security team. "A lady was like, 'I've been texting with Matt for weeks. We exchanged sexy photos together,'" Rife said, recalling that she tried to prove it by showing them her phone and declaring, "Look, he's texting me right now!" Rife, while listening to the exchange at that moment, was not using his phone.

Rife had a message for fans who believe they're communicating with him online, offering one key factor that would confirm the veracity of that relationship. "I'm never going to ask for money," he said.

Matt Rife may have made it big on TikTok but that doesn't mean he likes social media. On the contrary, the young comedy star abhors this type of networking — even if he has to admit that it saved his comedy career. Speaking to this contradictory mindset on "The View" Rife explained, "I've always expressed my dislike for social media, but I'd been doing comedy for 11 years. I was in LA for 10 of those, and just things weren't adding up ... But, I was like, 'Let me just try the one thing I've always hated and the world seems so about. Let's give social media a chance.'" It didn't take long for social media users to fall in love with his standup. Rife's career took off from there.

One might think that Rife's status as an overnight Internet success story changed his mind about social media. However, the comedian's online fame could inspire him to change his tune about these networking platforms. "I still hate social media," he said in the same interview on "The View." Is there any silver lining to the whole concept of online connectivity? Apparently, there is. "I love my fans and the people that found me," Rife added. 

Matt Rife may credit social media for his sudden rise to fame, but it's important to note that one specific subset of followers launched him to stardom — women. In an interview with Variety, Rife had to admit, "One of the biggest misconceptions of things I get ridiculed online for is people are like 'Oh, he only has a female fan base.' In the beginning yes, because I did blow up on TikTok which is very female dominant." Rife then went on to say that, despite this wave of female support, his Netflix comedic special, "Natural Selection," was intended for a mostly male audience. The special opened with a joke about domestic violence, alienating Rife's female fans once and for all. 

Thus, when e.l.f. Cosmetics invited Rife to advertise for their brand in a commercial, the backlash was swift. Women took to the Internet to protest against the comedian's association with the makeup brand, pointing out that Rife did not really seem to want their support. Why, they asked, should they buy a product promoted by someone who didn't even seem to like women? Before long, e.l.f. Cosmetics issued a public apology that addressed these concerns, stating, "This campaign aimed to humorously spotlight beauty injustice. We understand we missed the mark with people we care about in our e.l.f. community" (via USA Today).

Over the years, Matt Rife has generated a lot of controversy with his jokes — but he is not the only one. Wealthy American comedian Dave Chappelle has also faced a great deal of backlash for his takes on comedy. And, interestingly, a bit of a bromance formed between the two when they finally crossed paths. Reflecting on the experience of getting to know Chappelle, Rife told The New Yorker that it all started with his fellow comedian's sister. Apparently, Chappelle's sibling was a major Rife fan, who was more than happy to drive 30 minutes to go see him live in a small club in Ohio. One thing led to another, and soon, she introduced Rife to her famous brother.

While a meeting between two rival comedians could always end in a not-so-friendly competition, Rife and Chappelle hit it off. In fact, they took such a liking to each other that they decided to work together. Chappelle asked Rife to be one of the comedians in his annual outdoor comedy session, "Summer Camp." The younger comedian accepted and made such a memorable performance that crowds leapt to their feet at the end of his show. Soon, Chappelle began helping Rife with his career. As the budding star told Forbes in an interview, "He, over the past six months, has become an incredible mentor and has just given me so much advice that I wish I would have gotten, like, a year ago." 

Dave Chappelle is not the only important public figure who Matt Rife has connected with throughout his career. Like the young comedian, Whoopi Goldberg has had her share of controversial moments. From what we can tell, that commonality has made her partial to Rife. This connection was, interestingly, established on "The View" when Rife opened up about the backlash he has received for some of his jokes. "You have to just, I guess, decide how much do you want to be yourself and how much do you want to pander to a community that might not even care about you in the first place," he said.

No sooner were these words out of Rife's mouth than Sunny Hostin noted, "Whoopi says that quite a bit." This comment led to a moment of understanding between the "Star Trek" actor and the comedian. "Your work is wonderful," Goldberg gushed. "And, it's great to watch because people do feel like they can come up and say anything to you or spit at you or take a swing." In her view, Rife's decision to stay true to himself is admirable. 

Because of the controversial nature of Matt Rife's jokes, it's perhaps unsurprising that he has expressed a desire to have participated in a previous comedic generation. Speaking on "The View" Rife seemed almost wistful when he shared, "You know, I do feel like I've missed out on a better generation of comedy. For sure. But, you know, it's a double-edged sword, right? As much as they're free to say anything they want about their opinion about my comedy, I feel like I have the same freedom to say whatever I want in the form of comedy." In other words, like the members of "The View" who have complicated opinions on cancel culture, Rife could definitely imagine himself in a world without online policing.

With that, though, it's hard to imagine what Rife's career would have looked like in a previous generation of comics. After all, he had no success as a freelance comedian in Los Angeles and seriously struggled to navigate the city's legendary comedy club scene. It was arguably only because of modern tools like social media that Rife was able to propel himself out of the depths of obscurity and into the spotlight. In that sense, it's difficult to know exactly where Rife's romanticization of the past is coming from. 

In October 2024, Matt Rife announced he would be publishing a memoir titled, "Your Mom's Gonna Love Me." The book, which officially hit bookstores in December of that same year, was described as a close view of Rife's life. Or, as the comedian put it on Instagram, "Learn way too much about me, stories I've never told, and what keeps me going every day."

Interestingly, though, Rife actually completed the memoir before he even turned 30. While this may seem like an odd choice, Rife defended it on "Today" stating, "Well, first, I thought it was very important to kind of reflect on everything I've done to get where I'm at today. Because it's been a whirlwind of the past two years, and sometimes it's hard enough to be present, but sometimes it's easy to forget exactly how much work you put in to get where you're at right now." With this in mind, Rife decided to use his book to do a deep dive into his path to success. As per Penguin's description of the book, "Matt reveals without apology everything that led him to becoming comedy's biggest lightning rod before he reached thirty, in a story full of bold and hysterical take."