Quote Retweets (QRTs)

About

Quote Retweets (QRTs) is a catchphrase and site feature that is found on Twitter. QRT memes are almost always negative, and have a connotation similar to "the ratio", especially when a tweet has more quote retweets than likes or comments.

Origin

Quote Retweets became a site function on Twitter in April of 2015, with the function of a QRT being a mix between a traditional post and a retweet, allowing you to add on your own Hot Take to a tweet while providing context at the same time. Memes about QRTs started to really heat up in late 2020, and hit their stride in the later half of 2021. A common theme among QRT memes is that they are made in direct response to Twitter site features, as even one of the first QRT memes made was in direct reference to Twitter posts that have replies turned off, so the only way to comment on it is by using QRT. This meme was uploaded as a mp4 to iFunny by dumbass_normie^[1] on November 2nd, 2020, involving a man running with text above giving it context (shown below).

Spread

The phrase QRT and quote retweet continued to spread throughout the year 2021. A variation of the QRT, called the Private Quote Retweet, also started to get attention during this time. Normally when you look at your twitter post, you can see who quote retweeted your tweet by clicking on the icon. What makes a private QRT different is that because the account is Privated, unless you are one of the people who are able to see the account, you are unable to know who private quote tweeted you. Someone might private their account on twitter for various reasons, but it has become synonymous with shady, illicit, and culturally degenerate things, such as Minecraft YouTubers who go a little far with their hobby. Thus, getting a private quote retweet can be seen as bad, as you don't know what they said or who they are, but you're pretty sure they're not wholesome. This negative sentiment towards stacking up multiple private quote retweets is best seen in the mp4 uploaded to iFunny^[2] on January 29th, 2021 by the userjustintimes (shown below).

Outside of the private quote retweets, standard QRTs themselves have memes about them relating to the fact that QRTs spawn their own individual threads on the QRT account, which can lead to roasting. This is exemplified in the meme posted on Twitter^[3] by MalkavianFrost on September 29th, 2021, indicating that a QRT'd thread was roasting the original poster (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References