I'm Not Gay But 20 Dollars Is 20 Dollars

Submission 13,077

Part of a series on Catchphrases. [View Related Entries]

About

I'm Not Gay But 20 Dollars Is 20 Dollars, also known as I'm Not Gay But $20 Is $20 or 20 Whole Dollars, is an axiom that attests if given a monetary reward, one would perform sexual acts that are not typical for their sexuality. Namely, the joke implies that a straight person would perform gay sex acts once given $20 USD. The joke originated from a t-shirt that was created sometime in 2013. In the 2020s, the meme became commonplace on TikTok, often paired with femboy signifiers and object labeled captions.

Origin

The phrase "I'm not gay but $20 is $20 dollars" was used on Twitter / X^[1] as early as January 2013. This was due to a graphic t-shirt that read the phrase which was likely sold at print shops. For instance, an Amazon^[2] listing for a t-shirt (shown below) was added to Amazon on October 31st, 2014.

Spread

Going into the 2010s, the phrase gained some usage online but nothing largely viral. For instance, on January 2nd, 2017, Redditor DaChronMan posted to /r/AskReddit^[3] subreddit the "What's your 'I'm not gay, but $20 is $20' story?" gaining 11 upvotes in six years.

Currently, the first known viral meme to reference the concept of 20 dollars being 20 dollars was a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure meme posted by Redditor NemesisRider to /r/ShitPostCrusaders^[4] on March 11th, 2020. The meme followed the Increasingly Verbose format and was also similar to the Galaxy Brain format. The meme's last text caption read, "I ain't gay but $20 is $20." In three years, the post gained roughly 10,000 upvotes (shown below).

Going into the 2020s, the concept was recited in viral TikTok videos. For instance, an early example was posted by TikToker^[5] @ridge_the_kidd on July 3rd, 2021, in which he waved $20 at a man with a bumper sticker that read the phrase, gaining roughly 2.2 million plays and 164,400 likes in two years (shown below, left). On March 26th, 2023, TikToker^[6] @theotakulineman posted an object labeling video that referenced the term "20 whole dollars," receiving roughly 3.4 million plays and 331,100 likes in seven months (shown below, right).

Starting in mid-2023, meme creators started to pair the "20 dollars is 20 dollars" phrase with videos that signified a femboy transition. For instance, on August 21st, 2023, TikToker^[7] @itsbluey__ paired the phrase with an anime video that showed a boy becoming a girl, gaining roughly 3 million plays and 509,400 likes in two months (shown below).