The Rich Jerk: Is It Deja Tom Vu All Over Again?

If you’ve ever searched the Web for information about Internet-based business you’ve probably come across ads for “The Rich Jerk.” The Rich Jerk is both the name and the mascot of a system that teaches you how to make money online.

The Rich Jerk has also aired TV infomercials. Upon seeing them my first thought was: It’s Deja Tom Vu all over again. Or maybe it’s the Tom Vu infomercial with silicone.

See for yourself:

So is The Rich Jerk the second coming of Tommy Vu? Let’s compare their similarities:

1. Brandishing of Expensive Cars and Mansions

2. Surrounded by Hot Chicks in Bikikis

3. Insulting their Potential Customers

Both try to shame their potential customers into getting their products—although the insults are a lot more important to the Rich Jerk’s persona than they ever were to Tom Vu’s.

Tom Vu taunted his viewers by declaring that if you are not willing to attend his seminar “you deserve to be broke.”

The Rich Jerk taunts his customers with mottos such as “I’m better than you” and “His life is awesome. Your life sucks.”

Yet for all the superficial resemblances between the two money-making gurus, I would have to conclude that The Rich Jerk is NOT the second coming of Tom Vu.

First of all, The Rich Jerk is obviously an invented persona not unlike Tony the Tiger or Ronald McDonald (although I can’t remember any commercial in which Ronald McDonald strutted into a McDonald’s Playland and told the kids that they suck). Tuan “Tommy” Vu on the other hand is a real person and he used his life story and pictures from his refugee past to prove it.

An even more important difference is that—in true postmodern fashion—The Rich Jerk act is a big joke and everyone is in on it. The viewers and potential customers all know how over the top it all is—and the creators of the ads know that they know it. In this video the scripted attempts at humor are obvious:

Although many people may have laughed at the Tom Vu infomercial, Vu clearly wanted his viewers to take what they were seeing seriously. He expected the horny losers to really and sincerely believe that they could get the mansions and babes if they would only attend Vu’s real estate seminar.

If you laugh at the Rich Jerk infomercial, you are laughing with him. If you laugh at the Tom Vu infomercial, you are laughing at him.

That’s why The Rich Jerk is not Deja Tom Vu all over again.