About
The phrase, “I’m gonna blow”, is a shock phrase in the videogame Rust used to indicate one is about to violently murder another player in order to incite surprise in the victim. It usually starts with a whisper, like “I’m gonna…” and then eventually ends up in the player yelling shocking loud while screaming “Blow!” before shooting the other player. It is more of a humorous way of killing a player that is often performed on players that would be unable to defend themselves since most players familiar with the phrase would be able to foresee the attack. The meme as a whole is a parody of the interactions between players on Rust, depicting that a “proper greeting” would only be a violent one resulting in the deaths of a neighbor, illustrated by how the creator of the guide advises that the viewer “takes notes” on how the players interact.
Origin
The shock phrase originates from a joke guide for the videogame (shown below), that deceptively acts as a helpful page to teach players the “proper” way to greet and respond to an approach by another player. However, once the reader is directed to the main video, the reader is presented with an unseen neighbor knocking on the recorder’s door while the recorder softly whispers the phrase, “I’m gonna… I’m gonna blow!” in a progressively louder voice before opening the door and shooting the knocking player in the face with a sawed-off shotgun.
The video (seen below), rapidly grew in popularity due to many positive and hearty responses from readers who had laughed from the deceptively helpful guide. In mere days, the guide skyrocket in popularity and remained the most popular Steam Guide on Rust for weeks before eventually being replaced by legitimate guides.
Spread
The video itself spawned many reactions from the audience as well as it’s own animation made by the animator, Zortov, (Seen below), which helped the gaming meme’s growth but not as much as the posts on sits like the Rust subreddit, where within about 30 minutes a post of the video titled “How I Greet my Neighbor When he Knocks on my Door” received over 60 upvotes and remained one of the most popular posts on the subreddit for about a week. The post on the subreddit had been deleted for unknown reasons, however.