For the last two years, the student-run Instagram meme page @brandeis.chungles, commonly referred to as just “Chungles,” has graced the Brandeis community with memes relating to campus life behind a veil of anonymity. Displayed in the account's bio was the message “Face reveal at 1,000 followers.” The masterminds behind the memes would be revealed when that threshold was met. 

On Friday, March 15, the account shared a screenshot of its profile with 1,000 followers on its Instagram story. Beside it, the page wrote “Face reveal on Monday” with a purple devil emoji.

On March 18, the page began teasing their announcement. There was a countdown to their face reveal which would be released at 5 p.m. Under it, they posted a question: “Who do you think Chungles is?” People responded in a myriad of ways while playing along with the humorous nature of the page. They guessed everything from “Ron Liebowitz,” to “Sherm sea salt grinder” to “Brandeis chungles isn’t real. It’s a leftist hoax. Wake up sheeple.”

At 5 p.m., the page released a post with two slides. On the first slide, there was a letter explaining the origins of the page, its role in the Brandeis community and a message of thanks to all the followers for their support. Signed at the bottom was “Peace and Love, Asa, Preston, and Penny.” The next slide showed photos, names and years of the page's creators, Asa Colby Weinstein ’25, Preston Lincoln Merrill ’25 and Penelope Cuba Llibre ’26. The post included incorrect graduation years of the page members. 

During a March 20 interview with The Justice, Weinstein recalled a conversation he had with a friend about the post where he told them, “I showed it to five people,” and the friend responded with the quip, “you should have shown it to six.”

Publicly, Chungles was anonymous, but many friends of the three were already in on the secret. “I felt like it was going to happen eventually — so many people knew. This was just more of a formality more than anything,” Llibre said during the same March 20 interview. 

Some friends would guess that it was the three behind the page. In other cases, the three would have conversations with a friend. The next morning a joke the friend made would be that day’s Chungles meme, though they didn’t always catch on that this meant they were friends with those responsible for the page.

Alongside those who already knew of the mystery creators of the page were many who had no clue that it was Weinstein, Merrill and Llibre. Upon their reveal, they received texts from friends, classmates and alumni who were surprised by the revelation.

Brandeis Chungles was created during Merrill and Weinstein’s freshman year. Throughout their time at Brandeis, the two have been interested in creating projects together. A year ago they built a chessboard together in the wood shop. Last semester they made a documentary about the third smallest town in Massachusetts. They’ve also created an album.

During their sophomore year, Merrill decided he was going to study abroad in St. Andrews, Scotland. The pair knew they would require another person to help with the page upon Merrill's departure. They decided that Llibre would be best to join their team. “When we first became friends with her, she very quickly got into me and Preston’s comedic vibe,” Weinstein said.

Before ever officially becoming a part of the team, Llibre would influence posts on the account. “It was kind of like an inside joke prior, that we were always stealing Penny’s jokes for memes. Like sometimes she would say stuff, not even very related to Chungles, and somehow we would just turn it into a Chungles meme,” Merrill said while joining the March 20 interview on Zoom.

Part of Chungles' success is their frequency of posting. According to their March 18 letter, they had posted for 279 straight school days. In order to maintain this streak, they try to post by 10 a.m. every day. To achieve this, they often will create the memes the day before or the morning they’re supposed to post. “I wake up at like 8 am. And then call Penny. And I say, ‘What do you have? What do you have? There must be something.’ And Penny's like, ‘Oh, I'm not sure.’ And then I'm like, ‘Okay, I think I saw this yesterday,’” Weinstein explained. 

Sometimes, the memes address issues on campus, such as housing concerns. Other times, the memes highlight interesting parts of campus that most students look past, such as a hole in the wall in Sherman Dining Hall. They then created a meme about how this hole in the wall is now a drive-thru. Some memes are just seemingly random, such as President Ron Liebowitz edited to be in hype beast attire.

Most of the memes that Chungles posts are not controversial, and most students won’t be upset with the creators for posting them. However, what was once simply a post by Chungles is now a post by Weinstein, Merrill and Llibre. “I think ideally, we posted [the face reveal,] and now we never have to talk about it again,” Weinstein said with a laugh. 

Going forward, people will be able to scroll down and see who is behind the account. That’s probably all it will be in the coming future. The account will continue to focus on the community Chungles has built, not the three people behind it. As the days go on, and as Weinstein, Merrill and Llibre continue to post every day of instruction, Brandeis Chungles will continue to serve as a way for students and alumni to laugh about the community we all share.