Viral photo of Jason Kelce dressed as Alan from 'The Hangover' is fake

The Kansas City Chiefs won their third Super Bowl title in five years, beating the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime on Sunday, Feb. 11. 

Social media was flooded with photos and videos from Super Bowl LVIII, including Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ game-winning touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman, and popstar Taylor Swift celebrating the win with her boyfriend and Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

A photo that was posted at least one day before the big game and later went viral across social media platforms claims to show Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce arriving in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl dressed as Zach Galifianakis’ character Alan from the movie “The Hangover.” 

The elder Kelce brother is known in part for his antics – he recently went shirtless after his brother Travis scored a touchdown in the playoffs game against the Buffalo Bills in January – leading some people online to wonder whether the latest photo of Kelce in costume is real. 

THE QUESTION

Is a photo of Jason Kelce dressed as Alan from “The Hangover” real?

THE SOURCES

• TinEye, a reverse image search tool
• Original photo of Jason Kelce from Getty Images
• Still image of Zach Galifianakis “The Hangover” on the Rotten Tomatoes website
• VERIFY visual analysis of the image

THE ANSWER

No, the photo of Jason Kelce is not real. It was edited. 

WHAT WE FOUND

The photo that claims to show Jason Kelce dressed as Alan from “The Hangover” was edited using a real photo of Kelce from January 2024 and a still image of Zach Galifianakis from the hit movie. 

TinEye, a reverse image search tool, matched Kelce’s face in the fake viral image to a photo published by Getty Images on Jan. 7, 2024. In the original photo, Kelce is pictured in his Philadelphia Eagles jersey in a game against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium – not an Alan costume. 

Kelce’s facial expression in the Getty Images photo is the same as it is in the fake viral image, and he’s chewing gum in both images. 

Using TinEye, VERIFY also traced the rest of the fake image back to a still frame of Galifianakis in “The Hangover” that’s on the Rotten Tomatoes website. The same photo also appears on websites like Amazon and eBay. 

Kelce’s face from the Getty photo was edited onto Galifianakis’ body. 

If you take a close look at the fake image, the creases and wrinkles in the shirt match the original image of Galifianakis. Both photos also show what appears to be the same tan wall with white trim and a blurry green exit sign in the background.