Jett Croisant thought it would be funny to finally respond to his downstairs neighbor's MAGA window display last week.
The Trump 2020 flag and Trump-as-Rambo signage had been on the windows below his apartment on East Fourth Street in Cleveland for a few months before whoever put them there took them down during the city's George Floyd protest downtown a couple of weeks ago.
When they reappeared, Croisant decided to tape a sign up that simply read: "Venmo @Jet513 and I will tapdance at midnight."
His neighbor across the way, Amy Ziemak, posted the photo on Twitter where it soon went viral. The story was picked up by Buzzfeed, the Daily Mail and many other media outlets.
This was last Tuesday.
"I was just sick of the signs," he told our sister paper The Cleveland Scene, noting that he has never actually met his neighbor.
By last Wednesday, he realized his joke had taken on a life of its own as he watched his Venmo account slowly but steadily attract donations.
"It was nonstop that day," Croisant said.
And it kept going as pics of the signs made their way around Facebook, Twitter and Reddit through the weekend.
Hundreds of dollars became thousands of dollars. Some lady asked for his shoe size and told him she'd send him tap shoes.
By Monday morning, Croisant told Scene the grand total had crossed $5,800. He said the money strangers are Venmo-ing him will be donated to the ACLU. And as of today, he has received approximately $25,000 in donations.
There's still the matter of making good on his promise, of course.
Croisant also did receive a pair of tap shoes by mail. He put them on, invited some friends over and danced.
Croisant is also asking people to make their own tap-dancing videos with the hashtag #Tap4ACLU.
