In July 2021, a widely shared Twitter post appeared to show a distinctly phallic lamp in operation, along with the caption "This lamp is haunting my nightmares."
Twitter user @tyler_posting published the short video clip on July 18, prompting many thousands of retweets and a slew of humorous reactions.
As well as evidently being a source of considerable amusement for Twitter users, the lamp was also an entirely real product, and one that could be purchased online for no less that £3,500 ($4,788). As such, we are issuing a rating of "True."
The lamp was marketed online by an anonymous artist using the moniker "Monsby," and a listing on Monsby's website described the item as "Love in Light," writing:
I had been working on this lamp for about two years. It had different names during that period: Phallamp, Lampenis etc. After all, the main idea of this lamp is not in the similarity with the penis, although, of course, it is funny. It is about love, light and life. The most optimistic lamp ever.
A short promotional video for the "Love in Light" lamp can be found here.
While Monsby, the artist and creator of the lamp, is not named on Monsby.com, the website does stipulate that Monsby LLP is a "London-based company responsible for sales and communication between the artist and the world." Official company records reveal that Monsby LLP is owned by Russian nationals Mikhail Beliaev and Olga Beliaeva.