Derek Mercer's latest posts
From @derek.mercer.2006 on Instagram. Counts as of Oct 4, 2026.
Why don’t they understand me… Made with @higgsfield
120.9K plays1.7K likes
Remember your gym bro.
29.7M plays2.7M likes
Another gym sesh with GIGACAT Who’s joining me next?
4.1M plays276.9K likes
He was mogged.
5.4M plays86.3K likes
Chillin’ with my gym bros 💪 You in?
16.1M plays199.8K likes
SMELLS LIKE PUMP!đź’Ş @monsterenergy
1.2M plays9.8K likes
Love hurts💔 Bass heals❤️‍🩹
1.1M plays9.4K likes
Music is my escape
2.5M plays37.2K likes
Pumping with GIGACAT
13.4M plays902.3K likes
Am I scary?(
3.4M plays68.9K likes
Why does nobody understand? ;_;
3M plays112.6K likes
Nobody understands međź’”
7M plays75.8K likes
Derek Mercer and the other AI characters
Derek Mercer is one of four big names in the Sep 2026 wave.
Jean PhilanthropeThe original AI Frenchman. 230K+ followers, coin $JEANPHIL.
Archibald BrownJean Phil's English rival. 110K+ followers, coin $ARCHIBROWN.
Benjamin StachioTriple moustache, bar dancing, 90K+ followers, no coin.Jade OrlhabitAppears in Jean Phil clips and promotes $JEANPHIL. No account is named.Nigel BattBlack Farquaad hair. Cointribune says he has his own token.Brigitte MacaronA creator thread is credited with 16 million views. No account is named.Character sheet
Derek Mercer
AI-generatedaka derek.mercer.2006Active as of Sep 28 2026
- Handles
- @derek.mercer.2006 on Instagram
- First seen
- Late Sep 2026
- Reach
- 1,200+ Instagram followers (Sep 25 2026)
- Coin
- $DRMR. About $74K market cap.
- Made by
- Unknown.
Who is Derek Mercer, the bodybuilder?
Derek Mercer is an AI-generated bodybuilder on Instagram, @derek.mercer.2006. Long hair, impossible muscles, gym-bro captions, and a coin in the bio.
He is the smallest of the Jean Phil copycats: about 1,200 followers on Sep 25, per Dexerto. Same formula, different gym.
Searches for Derek Mercer also turn up a singer with the same name. This page is about the AI bodybuilder on Instagram.
Is the Derek Mercer bodybuilder real?
No. The Derek Mercer bodybuilder is an AI character. Dexerto, Cointribune, The Tab and EarlyGame list him with Jean Phil and Archibald Brown as AI personas with memecoins.
The body is the giveaway. Proportions no gym produces, the same face in every clip, and no life outside the posts.
What to take from Derek Mercer
The part worth copying is the brief, not the coin and not the face. One look that reads in a thumbnail, one gesture, a new ordinary place every post.
- One look. Hair, one facial feature, one outfit. It has to read in the first second, before the joke.
- One gesture. The same move in every clip. No talking, no interview, no second bit.
- A new place. The street, the cafe, the bar. The face and the outfit stay. The location is the only thing that changes.
- Leave the coin. Dexerto describes the wave as a persona, a visual joke, a fake feud, then a token. A brand keeps the first two.
Derek's version is the smallest: long hair, impossible gym muscles, the caption "No skinny guys allowed", about 1,200 followers on Sep 25. Same brief as Jean Phil, and Dexerto had Jean Phil past 230,000. The formula does not guarantee the reach.
How to make an AI character like Derek Mercer
No Higgsfield, no Runway. ChatGPT draws the character sheet, Seedance generates a reference clip in Derek Mercer's format, and one Seedance API call swaps your character into it. The sheet is what keeps the face the same from clip to clip, which is the whole trick behind Derek Mercer.
Have ChatGPT draw the character sheet
Paste this into ChatGPT: "An original gym character: a cartoonishly huge bodybuilder with a tiny head, a mullet and a neon tank top. He always flexes at the camera. Make it a character reference sheet: front, three-quarter and walking side profile on one plain off-white background, same lighting and scale in every view." Keep the image. It is the only reference you will give the video model, on every clip.
A fuller sheet: four full-body views, then four heads. The wig, the shirt, the tie, the shorts and the briefcase stay put in every frame. Get a Seedance API key
Seedance 2.0 runs on BytePlus ModelArk. Turning it on takes $30 of credits or a resource pack. Create an API key there and keep it asARK_API_KEY. That key is the whole toolchain: no editor, no subscription to a video app.
API keys in the BytePlus ModelArk console. Create API Key is the blue button. Save it as ARK_API_KEY. Generate the reference clip
Prompt the motion and the setting, not the face: "Bodybuilder flexing in a gym mirror under harsh lights, slow push-in, vertical 9:16, 8 seconds." Generate a few and keep the one with the best motion. Make it on your own account: Seedance refuses reference videos with real human faces, and a clip it made for you in the last 30 days is the exception.
Seedance, set to a vertical 9:16 clip at 720p for 8 seconds. The prompt box is where the motion and the setting go. Swap your character in
Send one task to Seedance with the sheet as thereference_image, the clip as thereference_video, and this prompt: "Replace the bodybuilder in Video 1 with the character in Image 1. Keep the camera move, framing and timing from Video 1. Keep the character identical to Image 1." Poll the task until it succeeds and download the video within 24 hours. Check the hands and the outline before you keep it.
Omni reference is the Seedance mode that takes the character sheet and the reference clip in one generation. On the API those are reference_image and reference_video. Post the same character every week
One clip is a meme. The same character in a new setting every week is a mascot. The recognition compounds.
Jeff D'La Cross. Five posts, one look: the cross, the pink shirt, the green tie.
Step by step with real outputs: how to make a character reference sheet, keeping one AI character consistent and the Italian brainrot generator. The full request, with the exact JSON, the polling loop and three original reference sheets, is in how to make an AI mascot. Why the wave works in ads is in the weird AI character wave. What each clip tool costs per finished ad is in AI video tools for ads, and Seedance against Kling is in Kling vs Seedance.
The Derek Mercer coin ($DRMR)
$DRMR is the memecoin linked to Derek Mercer. It was worth about $74K, per Dexerto and Cointribune.
Small next to $JEANPHIL, which peaked at $12.2M.
More weird AI characters
Frequently asked questions
Is Derek Mercer the bodybuilder real?
No. The Derek Mercer bodybuilder on Instagram (@derek.mercer.2006) is an AI-generated character.
Does Derek Mercer have a coin?
Yes, $DRMR, worth about $74K per Dexerto and Cointribune in late Sep 2026.
Want a recurring character in your ads every week?
Director by Sprites is a full creative team for your ads. Every Monday you get finished, on-brand video ads, reviewed by a human, with your own character in them. You pick the winners. Sprites ships the campaigns.