Long Island's "Tank Sinatra" Appears On Ellen DeGeneres Show

BURBANK, CA — Not everyone gets to be featured on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." George Resch, A.K.A. "Tank Sinatra," an Instagram personality from Long Island known for his memes and sharing of positive news, recently got his opportunity.

"Tank Sinatra," who told DeGeneres he got his nickname due to his resemblance to Frank Sinatra, albeit a huge version of him, runs two Instagram accounts. His main one, Tank.Sinatra, is a meme-based "humor with a hint of positivity" account with 2.1 million followers, while tanksgoodnews, offering "positivity with a hint of humor" clocks in at 1.2 million followers.

When DeGeneres asked how he got his start as a memester, "Tank" told her he's been a huge comedy fan since he was little. He was a fence salesman on Long Island at the time the popularity of memes exploded, and due to his knack for selling fences, he had a wealth of free time to find funny pictures and add captions to them between appointments.

"I would see pictures that would remind me of something that happened in my life, and I would just write a caption," he told DeGeneres. "It started to get really big really quick, and I was like, 'Maybe fence is not my destiny at this point.'"

While Resch, who grew up in Commack, is currently making a living off his Instagram accounts and podcast "The Think Tank," he admitted it was a scary move due to him having a wife and kids relying on him.

Still, "Tank" has used his popularity to pass along feel-good news stories on his second account, something DeGeneres lauded.

"I just felt like the constant, never-ending stream of negativity, fear and anxiety that we all experience after watching the news, I felt like people needed another option," he told DeGeneres. "So I started collecting good news stories and just putting them out, thinking nothing of it. [People] needed better stories, I think, to feel better about the world."

Thursday afternoon, "Tank" took to his Instagram account to thank DeGeneres for having him on the show and share a personal message.

"When I got sober 17 years ago, I thought my life was OVER," he wrote. "I didn’t get to mention it on the show because I was so nervous, but I wanted to dedicate this appearance to my mom who told me 'I Hope You Dance,' and I swore to myself and her that when I stopped dying, I was going to start living. I was going to max out my potential. If this isn’t a success story, I don’t know what is."