What is Taking My Girl Somewhere Expensive (The Gas Station)?

A bait-and-switch prank where someone promises their partner an expensive date, then takes them to a gas station and points at pump prices as the 'cost'.

What does Taking My Girl Somewhere Expensive (The Gas Station) mean?

The gag plays on the double meaning of 'expensive,' using high gas prices as the stand-in for a fancy restaurant bill, with the closing 'and then the fight started' casting it as a tongue-in-cheek husband joke.

How do you use Taking My Girl Somewhere Expensive (The Gas Station)?

Film a partner being driven to what sounds like a special date, then reveal a gas station with the pump sign visible, selling the reveal as the 'expensive' outing.

Is Taking My Girl Somewhere Expensive (The Gas Station) still popular?

The format spiked in late 2021 and surged again in March 2022 during the U.S. gas-price run-up. Fresh TikToks tapered after prices normalized.

Taking My Girl Somewhere Expensive (The Gas Station)

Q: Where did Taking My Girl Somewhere Expensive (The Gas Station) come from?

Early text versions appeared on Twitter in October 2009 via @SteveIsGreater, then an Impact-font image macro circulated in a June 2014 Pleated Jeans post.

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Published October 15, 2026

Taking My Girl Somewhere Expensive (The Gas Station) is a bait-and-switch prank where a partner is promised a lavish night out but driven to a gas station, with the pump prices served as the 'expensive' part. The joke circulated as Twitter one-liners starting in October 2009, then exploded on TikTok in March 2022 as U.S. gas prices spiked over the Russian oil ban.

bait and switch memes relationship memes prank memes economic anxiety memes delayed virality memes

Overview

A typical Taking My Girl Somewhere Expensive post follows a simple setup: the creator announces a date to 'somewhere expensive,' and the punchline reveals a gas station, often with the camera panning to the dollar-per-gallon pump sign7. On TikTok, many versions blindfold the partner for the drive and film the reaction when the cover comes off at a Shell or Chevron.

TikTok

Early written forms on Twitter ended with the line 'and then the fight started,' casting the bit as a short wife-joke in the mold of corny stand-up1. Tone sits between an affectionate couples gag and a pointed jab at pump prices, which really did resemble a dinner tab during the 2022 surge.

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Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter (early text joke) / TikTok (viral spread)

Date

2009

Taking My Girl Somewhere Expensive (The Gas Station) first surfaced online as a text tweet. On October 27, 2009, @SteveIsGreater posted: 'Last night, my girl demanded that I take her some place expensive… so, I took her to a gas station. And then the fight started…,' which received no likes at the time1. In March 2010, @michaelharriot ran a near-identical structure with the same closing tag, suggesting both authors were riffing on a pre-internet husband-joke tradition2.

An image macro treatment followed in June 2014, when a Pleated Jeans 'Funny Pic Dump' post captioned a gas station photo in Impact font with the catchphrase, though the macro's original author is unknown3. Know Your Meme notes the gag likely predates online usage entirely4.

How It Spread

TikTok turned Taking My Girl Somewhere Expensive from a one-liner into a filmed prank. On November 5, 2021, @chrisandchenoa posted the first known TikTok version, which collected about 4.6 million plays and 308,200 likes over four months5. Six days later, @thepasinis ran a wife-prank variant that drew around 768,100 plays6.

Usage exploded again in March 2022 as U.S. retail gas prices climbed after President Joe Biden announced a ban on Russian oil imports in response to the invasion of Ukraine4. On March 8, 2022, verified TikToker @alexandkellz blindfolded his partner, drove her to the pump, and the video drew roughly 1.4 million plays and 113,100 likes in three days7. Screenshots spilled onto Twitter, where @OrwellNGoode's March 10 recap earned about 16,200 likes within a day8.

Timeline

2009-10-27

@SteveIsGreater posts the earliest known tweet with the 'took her to a gas station... and then the fight started' punchline.

2010-03

@michaelharriot tweets a near-identical version ending with the same closing tag.

2014-06-06

A Pleated Jeans 'Funny Pic Dump' post features an Impact-font gas station image macro with the catchphrase.

2021-11-05

@chrisandchenoa posts the first known TikTok of the prank, drawing roughly 4.6 million plays.

2021-11-11

@thepasinis posts a wife-prank version that earns around 768,100 plays.

2022-03-08

@alexandkellz blindfolds his partner for the reveal during the U.S. gas-price surge, drawing 1.4 million plays in three days.

2022-03-10

@OrwellNGoode's screenshot thread brings the TikTok trend to Twitter and earns about 16,200 likes in a day.

TikTok

How to Use This Meme

A typical post tells a partner they are being taken somewhere expensive, films the drive (sometimes with a blindfold), and reveals a gas station on arrival. The reaction shot is the payoff, and the pump sign appears in the background so the price-of-gas angle lands.