The Jake Shane Men’s Health shoot required five training days a week, a spray tan, a lymphatic session and a short fast, and he did it, as he told GQ, without touching the Reta sitting untouched in his fridge. That decision was deliberate: he wanted to be able to say he did Men’s Health clean.
Shane came up through TikTok during Covid, where improvised historical reenactments spread widely. From there came Therapuss, a podcast in which he speaks to celebrities in the casual, unguarded way you might talk to people you actually know. Paparazzi photos placed him on the streets of New York and Los Angeles alongside Kaia Gerber and Tate McRae. The Men’s Health cover, shirtless in Alo shorts, was the latest chapter.
He acknowledges the reaction was mixed. ‘There was an uptick in people being like, “This doesn’t feel correct,”‘ he told GQ. He takes the point: the photos, he said, were not realistic to how he looks day to day. The spray tan and the fast were part of the preparation. Training was always with a trainer (‘I give up’ on his own, he admitted) five days a week, with a 5K attempt every fortnight.
Jake Shane Men’s Health and the Netflix Moment
The shoot lands at a moment when Shane’s audience is expanding beyond the people who found him on YouTube. Therapuss moved to Netflix, and he told GQ that the platform has brought in older viewers who do not scroll YouTube but will browse Netflix. That shift has real context behind it: according to TheWrap, Netflix added podcasts to its platform in January through major partnership deals with Spotify and The Ringer, iHeartMedia and Barstool Sports. Shane noted that Netflix changed only the upload process, but considered the overall effect an elevation of the show.
He has always made the video format central to what Therapuss does. A lot of his comedy, he explained, is physical, the way he reacts, the way he moves his face. Audio-only would strip that out. He credits the instinct to classroom years of having to make people laugh in silence, through expression alone, when speaking was not an option. ‘The best laugh in the world is one where you’re not supposed to laugh,’ he said.
Acting, a Show in Development and the Jake Shane Men’s Health Aftermath
Beyond the Jake Shane Men’s Health moment, acting is where he says he is happiest. A guest stint on HBO’s Hacks led to a role in season two of Hulu’s Adults. Longer term, he is developing a show he describes as ‘gay Dave’ (a reference to the Hulu comedy Dave) built around his own life. He wants to find new voices for it rather than simply populate it with famous friends, and plans to attend comedy shows to scout talent. The alt-comedy world he mentioned: Meg Stalter, Paul Downs, Cole Escola.
Growing up, he said, the benchmarks were Bridesmaids on film, then How I Met Your Mother, Dave and Girls on television. It is Girls he is trying to replicate in tone: dry, quick, self-deprecating. ‘I want the show to feel new,’ he said.
In New York he walks, shops and goes out more than he does in Los Angeles. He named a vintage store called Mothfood, with locations in both cities, as a regular stop, and mentioned being close with someone there named Tommy. Shopping, he said plainly, is a problem he has.
On Instagram he is enjoying himself again, more confident than he has been in a while, a confidence he connects directly to the training that led to the Men’s Health cover. As for the fella-interest he might have expected after going shirtless: ‘Not really,’ he said. He still has the Reta in the fridge. He just also has, as he put it, his therapist.
