Well here’s a big fucken surprise. McDonald‘s has attempted to capitalise on the sudden fame brought to their 1998 promotional McNugget dipping sauce, the Mulan Szechuan Sauce, by cult cartoon Rick & Morty, and it has not gone well.
The saga of the Szechuan sauce has been ongoing since the episode containing the reference first aired – first in the form of wild demand, then in the form of Macca’s actually sending the show’s creators a giant bottle of it, and now in an ill-planned promotion in which the fast food chain sent limited amounts of the sauce to several of its American restaurants for one day only.
And when we say “limited amounts”, we mean extremely limited. Like 20.
Apparently seriously underestimating the dedication of Rick & Morty fans to the Szechuan cause, almost all the restaurants sold out in no time flat, leaving hordes of infuriated adult cartoon watchers spitting chips (sorry, fries) all over Twitter.
How y’all gonna bring the Szechuan sauce back in limited quantities, for a single day @McDonalds? Look at this. pic.twitter.com/xrL3vYsjUi
— remainSOLID naturaL (@zeLrsn) October 7, 2017
Cops are at Wellington McDonalds where tons of angry people lined up for hrs for Rick and Morty Szechuan sauce only to learn they had none pic.twitter.com/3T272osid4
— Lulu Ramadan #timeforchange (@luluramadan) October 7, 2017
@McDonalds *belch* they screwed us over Morty *belch* there was barely any Szechuan sauce Morty *belch* we want more sauce Morty *belch* pic.twitter.com/zUuakWJzPj
— Brad Bognar (@bradbognar) October 7, 2017
. @McDonalds I’m at the Merrimack,NH location for the Szechuan Sauce! I was told they didn’t get them! WTF!! pic.twitter.com/DKkRwAqV0l
— Chris MacDonald (@cmacdonald) October 7, 2017
https://twitter.com/BradleyWBrower/status/916729572145745921
@McDonalds drove 4 hours at 6am from Canada for that #szechuansauce – no sauce, wouldn’t even give us a poster 🙁 #iwantmymcnuggetsauce pic.twitter.com/HzYkmhplbO
— Jillian Campagnola (@RadioJillian) October 7, 2017
To anyone who has obtained szechuan sauce; message me with a picture of your stash, we will talk terms and conditions. #szechuansauce
— Styxhexenhammer666 (@Styx666Official) October 7, 2017
Plenty of furious Szechuan hopefuls had been queuing for hours, apparently, only to find out that their local restaurants had either sold out or never had the sauce in the first place.
Conspiracy theories abound about McDonald’s employees getting into the Szechuan stashes early and pilfering them all for themselves, alongside reports of some restaurants (or punters) selling the sauce at massive markups.
As someone who’s tasted Szechuan sauce I cannot imagine the disappointment of the person I saw pay $400 for a packet outside this McDonald’s
— bitzer (@btzr_) October 7, 2017
Regardless of what actually went down behind the counter, the result was some truly embarrassing scenes, including lines around city blocks and mobs of angry would-be customers crowded outside, CHANTING. Good lord.
chanting #wewantsauce#rickandmorty pic.twitter.com/7vrlswJwlT
— webigriega (@webigriega) October 7, 2017
Everyone who was frothing for that sauce might be absolutely fuming right now, but at least we’ve been given the opportunity to get some fantastic zingers in.
Percentage-wise how many of the dudes who queued up for Szechuan Sauce made fun of girls going out for the unicorn frapps
— Jenny Nicholson (@JennyENicholson) October 8, 2017
https://twitter.com/LucyXIV/status/916914242648805376
https://twitter.com/anildasharez0ne/status/916717129923166209
Ahh, that’s the stuff.
