About

Why Did You Move Back To New York? refers to a series of sarcastic TikTok videos using audio of someone saying "you know some people ask why did you move back to New York and I was like I don't know I just really love the ambiance and like there's such a charm to the city you know" to showcase strange, gross or disturbing scenes they captured in New York City. The audio became popular on TikTok in April 2020.

Origin

On April 20th, 2020, TikToker literallykasey uploaded a video of a subway rat using her own audio saying she moved back to New York for the ambiance (shown below). The video garnered over 17,900 likes in three weeks.

Spread

On April 29th, 2020, TikToker emburgher posted another rat video using the audio and gained over 122,700 likes in two weeks (shown below, left). On May 9th, TikToker amandapanda767 used the audio in a video of clothes being thrown out a window (shown below, center). The video accumulated over 266,100 likes in four days. On May 12th, TikToker ribzbylorde uploaded a video of a street performer carrying a pumpkin and received over 389,100 likes in a day (shown below, right). The Daily Dot^[1] published an article on the trend.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not Available

External References