About

Firing Gunshots To Keep Rent Down is an online axiom meant to do something intentionally unappealing in order to keep unwanted visitors out of an online space. The catchphrase comes from a joke by Twitter user @2Brazy4u, who joked that he would periodically fire his gun into the air at night in order to give off the impression that his neighborhood was dangerous, thus dissuading would-be gentrifiers from moving in and causing that area's median rent to rise. The phrase began seeing increased use in 2022 when Tumblr users began intentionally posting cringeworthy content in order to ward off Twitter users who might be interested in making an account following Elon Musk's acquisition of the company.

Origin

On May 26th, 2018, Twitter^[7] user @2Brazy4U, now suspended, posted, "When you move into an apartment, you gotta shoot into the air every couple of weeks to make sure the rent don't go up" (shown below). The tweet received over 140 likes in roughly four years.

Spread

Over the following years, some Twitter users joked that when they heard gunshots outside of their homes, they knew their rent would stay stable. On July 2nd, 2019, Twitter user @RicoActMusic^[2] jokingly thanked people for firing guns in his neighborhood for helping keep the area's rent low (shown below, left). On September 29th, 2021, Twitter user @itspushpush^[1] posted a similar tweet to @2Brazy4U's, gaining over 1,400 retweets and 21,000 likes in one year (shown below, right).

The idea started becoming an internet axiom in November 2022. Amid Elon Musk's controversial first weeks as Twitter's owner, some Twitter users discussed returning to Tumblr. In response, some Tumblr users attempted to ward off Twitter migrants by making intentionally cringeworthy posts.

These attempts were then noticed by Twitter user @FTate05^[3] on November 6th, who seemed put off by the posts. However, Twitter user @doubleca5t^[4] understood the posts' true intentions, and wrote, "This post is the tumblr version of firing off a few shots to keep the rent down," gaining over 21,000 retweets and 154,000 likes in two days (shown below, left). The post made users begin referring to intentional cringe posting on Tumblr as "firing gunshots." On November 7th, Twitter user @laughing_emojiii^[5] joked that a tweet from the official Tumblr Twitter account was so cringeworthy it might be an attempt at "firing gunshots" (shown below, right). Similarly, Tumblr users began tagging their intentionally cringeworthy posts with the tag "#rent lowering gunshots."^[6]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References