Resident Moves Into New Home—Next Day a Mysterious Letter Arrives
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
A social-media post featuring a mysterious and comical letter composed almost entirely of the word "chicken" has left thousands of users laughing and guessing about its origins.
Shared by u/Living-Ad-6751 to the subreddit r/Weird, the poster shared in the post: "In 2013 I moved into my very first house. One day after moving in, I received this letter addressed to me by name." The post has garnered over 10,000 upvotes since it was posted on June 26.
The accompanying images show several typed pages filled with the word "chicken," as well as charts, tables and numerical data—all featuring the word "chicken."
"To this day it still makes me laugh, but I have absolutely no idea who sent it," the poster wrote.
The phenomenon arrives amid an increasingly dire housing market. A 2024 report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University found that elevated home prices and interest rates have left millions of Americans priced out of buying homes. The report found significant home price increases in 97 of the nation's 100 largest housing markets, with the Northeast and Midwest seeing some of the steepest rises.
Meanwhile, renters aren't faring much better. Roughly half all U.S. renter households are considered cost-burdened—spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing—and 12.1 million households are now "severely cost-burdened," devoting over half their income to housing, the report said.
'This Is a Work of Art'
The unexplained letter in the viral Reddit post struck a chord with users across the platform.
Some were baffled, while others saw it as a creative masterpiece. "Da'hell???" wrote u/Kttail. "This is a work of art," u/nopethanx posted.
Another user, u/Moby1313, commented: "A cow sent you this." U/simcity07 said, "Woah!!! That is a lot of effort," marveling at the anonymous sender's apparent dedication.
For many, the letter quickly turned into a source of absurdist inspiration. "Definitely printing this and leaving it on the printer for my husband to find," wrote u/VintageVirtues.
Many commenters expressed a desire to replicate the prank. "I'm 100 percent going to email it to my students next spring as a last minute few hours before class 'read this before class and summarize,'" wrote u/Katerina_VonCat.
"Totally give bonus points for anyone who brings me a summary of 'Chicken chicken chicken chicken. Chicken chicken! Chicken chicken.'"
"I'm printing it in bulk and leaving it everywhere I go," wrote u/BabyNOwhatIsYouDoin.
For u/allosaurusfromsd, the appeal was in its subtlety: "I have to admit that I want to slip this into my assigned readings and see if anyone even notices."
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via the Reddit messaging system.
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