The world of comedy is overstuffed with controversial figures, which makes Matt Rife‘s latest misstep par for the course.
The 28-year-old comedian is exceedingly fresh to the scene, to be fair, which makes his hugely unpopular Netflix special a bit more damaging. He doesn’t have the weight of Louis C.K. to throw around, this early into his career, and his rejection of his own audience could see Rife’s career end before it truly began.
If you’re not in on the drama, a quick recap: Rife languished in the background of comedy for years before, abruptly, he rocketed to fame between 2021 and 2023. He started to find a foothold at the start of the 2020s, but it really wasn’t until 2023 that he properly settled in — thanks, in massive part, to his largely-female audience base.
That audience base is drawn in by Rife’s humor, yes, but that’s far from the primary motivation behind ticket sales. The man’s chiseled good looks — and Cavill-esque jawline — are a massive factor behind his popularity, something Rife is absolutely aware of. He leans on those good looks to sell out shows and grow his online fanbase, and its working. You can’t really blame the man, either — look at how many famous people got by on their looks.
The problem arises when Rife, frustrated by his status as a comedian loved by women, tries to reassert himself as a man’s man. His Netflix special, which arrived on the streamer in early November, quickly saw the comedian go viral, but not for anything good. After declaring that his latest stand-up was geared toward men, Rife opened the special with a joke about domestic violence and then doubled down in the year of our lord 2023. That was a whole decision.
Now, questions about Rife have taken on a darker tone. People, in particular, that female-heavy audience base, are wondering what they found so appealing in the first place. And, since so much of that hinged on his good looks, accusations about plastic surgery and implants quickly followed.
Did Matt Rife have jaw surgery?
Images of Rife display where the trajectory of his fame started, and that chiseled jawline is the clear answer. The 28-year-old’s “glow-up” in his mid to late 20s helped him reach his current heights, but beauty isn’t everything. Rife is by no means an unfunny man, of course, but his rejection of the audience base that made him popular isn’t a good look.
Despite the bad optics of that foolhardy move, accusations that Rife used surgery to shape his jaw and pronounce his chin appear to be false. Images of the comedian from his early 20s, when he still sported a baby face and some extra roundness in the cheeks, still display an impeccable — if still blossoming — jawline.
The comedian has also debunked the rumors for himself. He noted, in a 2023 interview with Mario Lopez, that rumors about surgery are, to him, “the funniest thing in the entire world.” He notes that these rumors largely hinge on his late-in-life glow-up, which didn’t see him inherit his current sculpted looks until his mid-20s. According to the man himself, however, he’s never leaned on any kind of surgery to shape his face.
We’re inclined to believe him, if only because it’s crummy to assume a person is lying based on a rumor. That, paired with images of him from as far back as 2016 (when he would have been in his early 20s), which display the same jaw (albeit a bit less defined) that helped him rise high, only to plummet thanks to a grossly outdated joke.