About

Can't Have Shit In Detroit is a humorous catchphrase used in memes about certain objects being stolen or damaged. Originating from a viral May 2018 Facebook post, the catchphrase saw a surge in popularity as a caption in December 2019.

Origin

On May 30th, 2018, Facebook^[1] user Joshua Cromwell posted a photograph of a house missing a porch, writing "Opened the door 🚪 and fell I’m pissed 😤 Can’t have shit in Cincinnati mfs done stole my porch bra 😠" (post shown below, left). The post received over 4,800 reactions and 21,000 shares in two years. Later on the the same day, Facebook user Headd Honcho reposted the photograph, changing the caption to "Someone stole my f--king porch . I opened my door an fell 🤦‍♂️ u can't have shit in Detroit" (original post no longer available; screenshot shown below, right). On May 31st, 2018, Twitter^[2] user @iAmTreboR_TSOE posted a screenshot of Headd Honcho's post, with the tweet gaining over 20,800 retweets and 54,700 likes in two years.

Spread

On May 31st, 2018, variations of the meme were posted online by Instagram^[3] account philly_scoophall and Facebook^[4] user Jakee Wolf (shown below, left and right). The posts received over 520 likes and 170 reactions in two years, respectively.

In the following months, the screenshot of Headd Honcho's post was widely circulated online. For example, a July 16th, 2018, repost by iFunny^[5] user eve_kali received over 68,800 smiles in two years.

In December 2018, the phrase "can't have shit in Detroit" gained popularity on iFunny as a snowclone. For example, a December 2nd, 2018, post by iFunny^[6] user DanQuayle received over 570 smiles in one year (shown below, left). A December 5th meme by iFunny^[7] user Blocc received over 230 smiles in the same period (shown below, center).

After the December 2018 surge, the format did not see further spread until on December 19th, 2019, iFunny^[8] user PyroStorm posted an image of a horse skin being prepared for taxidermy captioned "Those Fuckers Deflated My Horse, Can't Have Shit In Detroit" (shown below). The post received over 2,200 smiles in three months. On December 27th, 2019, Twitter^[9] user @graveyardmilk reposted the joke, with the tweet accumulating over 3,300 retweets and 19,500 likes in two months. On January 24th, 2020, Redditor^[10] sssnark reposted the image to /r/okbuddyretard where it received over 23,600 upvotes in one month.

On March 2nd, following a viral post by Redditor^[11] TheTexasBacon, the format briefly gained popularity in /r/okbuddyretard before getting banned from the subreddit.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References