Not a Lambo

Submission 8,640

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

About

Not A Lambo is a catchphrase and phrasal template used to describe expensive items purchased with cyptocurrency. The expression can be used to showcase items purchased in earnest and ironic or sarcastic items posted for humorous effect.

Origin

The earliest known usage of the phrase was posted on June 7th, 2017 by Redditor ^[1] Cptredbeard22, who posted an image of a white car with the thread title "Its not a Lambo, but its my dream car. Thanks ETH [ethereum]!!" The post (shown below) received more than 295 points (93% upvoted) and 100 comments in one year.

Spread

Over the next year, the phrase continued to be used as the thread title of items purchased by people using cryptocurrency earnings. On October 6th, Redditor^[2] chobidoo posted an image of the driver's seat of a boat and the title "Not a Lambo but….made in Italy! Thanks ETH, QTUM, DICE, OMG." The post (shown below, left) received more than 500 points (91% upvoted) and 115 comments in 10 months.

The following year, Redditor^[4] hangrydog posted an image indicating that their student loans had been paid off. They titled the thread "Not a lambo… but still pretty cool. Thanks /r/CryptoCurrency." The post (shown below, center) received more than 14,000 points (89% upvoted) and 1,000 comments in one year.

On August 11th, 2018, Redditor^[3] posted a version in which they featured a picture of the steering wheel of a Ferrari automobile (shown below, right). They titled the thread, "Not a lambo, but mine thanks to BTC."

The Ferrari post inspired a wave of variations all using the same title (example below).

Several media outlets covered the meme, including The Next Web,^[5] Cryptonews^[6] and more.