One the one hand, yes, Jerry did actually do just that: he announced he was just taking a break, and he did let privileged few know when, exactly, he would be returning from his break . . . not to mention, this was definitely one of his longer breaks, even de-activating all of his social media accounts as well.
On the other hand, yes, MC has had a history of certain members making a big deal out of leaving, and then making a big spectacle out of their return, even if their absence hadn't been that long (Kimp the Shrimp was notorious for this back in the day, and more recently, a certain member named for a iconic video game character).
But let's face it - there's also been occasions in the past where members would take a break from MC without saying anything, which would result in threads being started by other members acting like they were filing a forum-wide missing persons case, with posts like, "SO-AND-SO, WHERE ARE YOU?", "SO-AND-SON, WE MISS YOU!", "SO-AND-SO, PLEASE COME HOME!" (Yes, somebody even did a thread like this for me once when I took an unannounced break from the forum waaaaaaay back when - it was a little embarrassing).