Living rent free in your head
Sep 25, 2026 · 2 min · 2 segments
Send us Fan Mail I came across the expression recently and wondered where it originated. My latest research assistant ChatGPT informed me that the…
Sep 25, 2026 · 2 min · 2 segments
Send us Fan Mail I came across the expression recently and wondered where it originated. My latest research assistant ChatGPT informed me that the…
Tudor RickardsHost
My research assistant, Chuck GBT, informed me that the earliest documented print version appears in Rabbi Abraham Tversky's 1988 book, Living Each Day.
In it, it says, Hanging on to resentments is letting someone you don't like live rent-free inside your head.
The phrase became widely associated with the American advice columnist Anne Landers, who used a similar version in her syndicated column in March 1990.
In short, it began as advice about letting go of resentment, and then evolved into an internet insult and the meme we know today.
I have a vague recollection of the term being used by an English politician recently, but I haven't been able to trace who it was.
What I have found is Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, who noted just a few years ago that Donald Trump was so obsessed with him that it felt like he had been living rent-free inside Donald's head for ten years.
And Nigel Farage reacted in similar fashion recently, claiming that he was living rent-free in the head of the then Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
From the other side of the Atlantic, California Governor Gavin Newsom earlier this year announced that he was living rent-free in Trump's head after a series of rants from the President.
It is interesting to note that the examples I have found have all come from politicians.
Maybe it's just a power thing, although I can see the possibilities in other walks of life, including mine of education.
My research assistant, Chuck GBT, informed me that the earliest documented print version appears in Rabbi Abraham Tversky's 1988 book, Living Each Day.
In it, it says, Hanging on to resentments is letting someone you don't like live rent-free inside your head.
The phrase became widely associated with the American advice columnist Anne Landers, who used a similar version in her syndicated column in March 1990.
In short, it began as advice about letting go of resentment, and then evolved into an internet insult and the meme we know today.
I have a vague recollection of the term being used by an English politician recently, but I haven't been able to trace who it was.
What I have found is Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, who noted just a few years ago that Donald Trump was so obsessed with him that it felt like he had been living rent-free inside Donald's head for ten years.
And Nigel Farage reacted in similar fashion recently, claiming that he was living rent-free in the head of the then Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
From the other side of the Atlantic, California Governor Gavin Newsom earlier this year announced that he was living rent-free in Trump's head after a series of rants from the President.
It is interesting to note that the examples I have found have all come from politicians.
Maybe it's just a power thing, although I can see the possibilities in other walks of life, including mine of education.
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