diff --git a/r2/r2/lib/scraper.py b/r2/r2/lib/scraper.py
index acaa3d027..c10eef72d 100644
--- a/r2/r2/lib/scraper.py
+++ b/r2/r2/lib/scraper.py
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ def fetch_url(url, referer = None, retries = 1, dimension = False):
     nothing = None if dimension else (None, None)
     url = clean_url(url)
     #just basic urls
-    if not (url.startswith('http://') or url.startswith('https://')):
+    if not url.startswith(('http://', 'https://')):
         return nothing
     while True:
         try:
diff --git a/r2/r2/lib/template_helpers.py b/r2/r2/lib/template_helpers.py
index e63577c40..9f60032eb 100755
--- a/r2/r2/lib/template_helpers.py
+++ b/r2/r2/lib/template_helpers.py
@@ -378,7 +378,7 @@ def add_sr(path, sr_path = True, nocname=False, force_hostname = False, retain_e
       c.cname, c.render_style, c.site.name
     """
     # don't do anything if it is just an anchor
-    if path.startswith('#') or path.startswith('javascript:'):
+    if path.startswith(('#', 'javascript:')):
         return path
 
     u = UrlParser(path)
diff --git a/r2/r2/lib/utils/utils.py b/r2/r2/lib/utils/utils.py
index 750f54b6d..481a7cfe9 100644
--- a/r2/r2/lib/utils/utils.py
+++ b/r2/r2/lib/utils/utils.py
@@ -251,7 +251,7 @@ def path_component(s):
 def get_title(url):
     """Fetches the contents of url and extracts (and utf-8 encodes)
        the contents of <title>"""
-    if not url or not (url.startswith('http://') or url.startswith('https://')):
+    if not url or not url.startswith(('http://', 'https://')):
         return None
 
     try:
diff --git a/r2/r2/lib/validator/validator.py b/r2/r2/lib/validator/validator.py
index fda5524de..10c2a26aa 100644
--- a/r2/r2/lib/validator/validator.py
+++ b/r2/r2/lib/validator/validator.py
@@ -1808,10 +1808,7 @@ class VDestination(Validator):
             dest = request.referer or self.default or "/"
 
         ld = dest.lower()
-        if (ld.startswith("/") or
-            ld.startswith("http://") or
-            ld.startswith("https://")):
-
+        if ld.startswith(('/', 'http://', 'http://')):
             u = UrlParser(dest)
 
             if u.is_reddit_url(c.site):