If you watched any YouTube back in 2015, you know that you just could not escape Tai Lopez and his infamous Here In My Garage ad. The clip seemed to autoplay before nearly every YouTube video, showing him bragging about driving his Lamborghini in the Hollywood Hills, but prioritizing "knowledge" more than material things.

The video, which was Tai Lopez's way of advertising his self-improvement video program "67 Steps to Wealth, Health, Love, and Happiness," became a viral meme that year thanks to a slew of copycat video parodies where people mocked Lopez's braggy energy and cadence. But everyone who sensed a vaguely scammy aura from Lopez has been vindicated, because the SEC just charged Lopez and his business partner with running a whopping $112 million Ponzi scheme. Here's a recap of the wild controversy.

What's The "Here In My Garage" Meme?

The ad opens with Lopez recording himself in his garage, swinging the camera back and forth in front of his Lamborghini. His monologue goes from shifts flexing to philosophizing about how cars are fun, but "knowledge" matters more.

Gesturing to a wall of freshly installed shelves, he claims he bought two thousand books because, in his words, "the more you learn, the more you earn." Lopez then pivots into his real pitch. He tells viewers his "millionaire mentors" gave him three secrets that helped him go from $47 in his bank account to the Hollywood Hills lifestyle. And that if you wanted the same, all you had to do was click through to his website.

Lopez's smarmy video was all over YouTube starting in February 2015, and seemed to autoplay before every video people clicked on that year. People quickly began churning out parodies and investigative pieces trying to get to the bottom of what Tai Lopez's whole shtick.

How Did Tai Lopez's "Here In My Garage" Ad Become A Meme?

On February 6th, 2015, the Blogspot blog Some Final Words accused Lopez of running a "fraudulent internet business," even as Redditors like /u/go_sen asked folks on /r/OutOfTheLoop why the "Lamborghini guy kept showing up on their YouTube ads.

On April 21st, Craig has Dysentery uploading a YTP titled HereInMyGarage.mwv, splicing clips from the ad to create hilarious and surreal jokes like "I only had 47 Lamborghinis in my Lamborghini account." That video alone pulled over 500,000 views and 350 comments within its first three months.

On June 7th, Redditor andybiotic posted an edit to /r/gaming, replacing Lopez with GTA V character Michael De Santa standing beside a sports car. The post racked up 4,400 upvotes and 1,400 comments in its first month.

Days later, on June 9th, YouTuber Vehicle Virgins dropped a parody lamenting that buying a Lamborghini left him too broke to afford a garage. By June 29th, the joke went mainstream. Funny Or Die launched TaiLopez.website, a one-stop hub for parodies of his self-help empire.

What's This About Tai Lopez Running A Massive Ponzi Scheme?

Ten years after the ad burned itself into YouTube’s collective memory, Lopez is back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. On September 26th, 2025, Fox News reported that the SEC has charged Lopez and his business partner, Alex Mehr, with operating a $112 million Ponzi scheme. The pair allegedly raised money from hundreds of U.S. investors by selling stakes in eight businesses they controlled, only to reshuffle the funds amongst each other while running up no profits whatsoever for their investors.

The Valuetainment YouTube channel covered the charges on September 26th, pulling in over 200,000 views in two days.

On September 28th, financial news account @unusual_whales posted about the SEC action on X, racking up 12,000 likes. Others called back to Lopez's meme fame, as seen in a September 27th post by @LeadingReport announcing that the "knowledge" guy had defrauded investors to the tune of a hundred million.

BREAKING: SEC accuses Tai Lopez, aka the “knowledge” guy, of defrauding investors out of $112 million in a Ponzi scheme, per CBS News. pic.twitter.com/ScPr2tlCW1

— Leading Report (@LeadingReport) September 28, 2025

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For the full history of the Here In My Garage meme, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.