[Regular people making fun of rich, privileged people is always good for a yuk or two, so this story worked for me … until, that is, I got to the part that he lives in Wellesley (a wealthy suburb of Boston) in a home with six bedrooms and nine baths. Nine baths! Suddenly the story changes … he’s one of them! This is just a goofy version of who the guy really is. It shouldn’t matter, but it does. SB SM]
A Boston fitness instructor is getting rich off the finance bros he mocks
What started as a bit about obnoxious rich-guy behavior is now a brand machine — part satire, part hustle, all profit.
Last March, Johnny Hilbrant Partridge,was a Back Bay fitness instructor just trying to make a few people laugh on Instagram. But between shifts at SoulCycle and Barry’s he created a particularly modern — and delicious — villain: a private equity guy ceaselessly monologuing about his showy lifestyle, boasting about topics including, but in no way limited to, his Nantucket compound, his “kiddos’” fencing lessons, and “wifey’s” perfect figure — still a “sample size,” even after three children.
“There’s nothing like Lake Como on Father’s Day morning,” the character, “PE Guy,” announces in one Instagram reel, looking self-satisfied with a lake glimmering behind him. “Due to my role, we’re able to vacation here consistently.”
Given the country’s hatred of, but also infatuation with, the rich, it’s probably no surprise that the PE Guy, with his quarter zip zipped just so, and his signature “I don’t want to get into the numbers” humblebrag, before he happily gets into the numbers, is gaining 1,000 Instagram followers a day, and closing in on 200,000.
But in a late-stage capitalism twist, Partridge, 36, is also earning a bundle from the very people he’s roasting, and those who aspire to be roasted.
He’s done social media collaborations with Cadillac, Wall Street Prep, and Blade, the helicopter and seaplane firm, among others. On Cameo, the personalized video site, finance brosare paying him up to $400 for 90-second birthday roasts. His branded hat line has sold out four times, and there’s talk of a newsletter and a podcast.
“A lot of people say, ‘Oh my gosh, the PE Guy is my ex-husband,’” Partridge said. Or, some say, “This is my best friend — or me!”
In perhaps the final irony, he’s hearing from private equity firms. “A few of them have approached me about helping raise a fund,” he said. “It’s kind of like sleeping with the devil.”
But the devil pays well, and Partridge — who majored in general business at the University of Denver but had little interest in, well, business, at least before now — is on track to earn more than half a million dollars this year.
He himself seems surprised by the number. But as his character would say — in the pompous bark that gets stuck in your head, until you’re saying it to yourself, alone — “He’s … untouchable.”
Johnny Hilbrant Partridge poses with Maggie, 1, (left) and Sammy, 3, in front of their home in Wellesley.Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
Partridge isn’t the first satirist to be paid by the rich to mock the rich. In 2022, a business major at Northeastern University went viral with a TikTok video titled, “When ur rich international roommate asks his parents for money.” He created The European Kid social media account and online persona, the New York Times reported in 2024, and now has 1.3 million followers on Instagram.
As for Partridge, in real life, he has a pleasant and unassuming manner, which may be what led him to create the character in the first place. He grew up in an upscale Chicago suburb and was taught never to talk about money. But at social events as an adult, he regularly found himself on the receiving end of wealthy blowhards.
He smiled politely, but he also took notes.
Johnny Hilbrant Partridge in his home studio in Wellesley. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
At 6 feet 4 inches and telegenic, Partridge would not look out of place in a Ralph Lauren ad. But the PE Guy? He’s hard to take. Partridge uses a Snapchat filter to turn his face into one that almost demands to be punched, with bugging eyes and a clinically obnoxious mouth, and a voice that veers between booming and preening with an overlay of self-applause.
He records most of the videos in a makeshift studio, standing in front of a green screen as he bounces up and down in character.
In one, he appears on Beacon Hill — really a greenscreen background — wearing a Harvard rowing quarter-zip and a country club baseball cap, boring an unseen and suffering person.
Johnny Hilbrant Partridge works in his kitchen on Monday. His dogs Maggie (left) and Sammy watch from afar. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
“Yeah, we’re still living on Comm Ave primarily,“ he says. “But we keep a little farm out in Weston … we just use it for kiddos’ birthday activations, really. Wifey does her private tennis lessons out there. On property, obviously.”
In their way, the videos are educational, and perhaps no one has learned more about the habits of the rich and ostentatious than Partridge himself. People hiring him to do personalized Cameo messages ask him to talk about things he didn’t even know existed.
“People will fly their kids with a nanny privately somewhere,” he said. “Or FedEx their urine to a longevity doctor every month.”
Unbearable though he may be, the PE Guy has his charms, and a few people are so eager to meet him that they’ve shown up at Barry’s, where Partridge teaches, hoping to take a class or a selfie.
In Brooklyn, one fan, Norman Dalager, does the PE Guy voice so often that his wife can’t take it. “She’s so over me trying to imitate his punchable face,” he said, treating himself to a quick imitation of the PE Guy saying the word “decent.”
“It’s decent, ya, it’s decent,” Dalager oozed.
Johnny Hilbrant Partridge’s closet of merch. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
In Partridge’s house — a six-bedroom, nine-bath colonial, in Wellesley, with a Yukon Denali out back, and two adorable but wild golden retrievers — he’s got a closet with some 200 logo baseball caps, and enough corporate vests to outfit a whole retreat. They were sent by fanboys and fan firms hoping to work with him.
Here’s the lesson: if you’ve got it, he said, be grateful and keep your mouth shut.
