A pair of tweets from 22 July 2018 in which U.S. President Donald Trump threatens Iran and to which an ordinary Twitter user replies, “Sir, this is a Wendy’s drive-thru.”
23 March 2021
This is a Wendy’s is a joke commonly found on Twitter and other social media platforms. It’s used as reply to a rant or controversial comment. It is a reference to the Wendy’s fast-food chain and implies that the forum isn’t an appropriate one for that rant or comment. The use of the phrase on social media is a succinct illustration of how comedic lines from movies or television can become memes and the difference between regular tweets and those that go viral.
The phrase originated on an episode of the U.S. version of The Office television series that originally aired on 17 April 2008. The character of Michael Scott, played by Steve Carell, is trying to find a particular woman he has seen and is enamored with, and his co-worker Kevin has given him a phone number that is purportedly hers.
The Wendy’s chain, named after the daughter of its founder, has as its icon the image of a freckled, red-haired girl in pigtails, and promotes its “hot and juicy” hamburgers:
Michael Scott: Okay. Wendy. "Hot and juicy redhead." I'll give this a try. [dials number]
Woman: Wendy.
Michael Scott: Hello, Wendy. This is Kevin's friend, Michael.
Woman: This isn't Wendy.
Michael Scott: Oh, I'm sorry could you put her on please?
Woman: Dude, this is a Wendy's restaurant.
Michael Scott: [mutters] Damn it, Kevin.
It was quickly turned into a joke on Twitter. Just a week later on 24 April 2008, this tweet appeared, the first such tweet that did not directly reference the television episode. The tweeter was making a self-deprecating joke, and the “ego storm” refers to the fact that he has been having a day when everything has been going right for him. In early use, the phrase was often so deployed by the original poster, indicating self-awareness of their own unreasonableness:
Emergency call to Dominos to quell the ego storm: "I need a humble pie!" "What?!" "It's a joke!" "I get it, sir, but this is a Wendy's."
The joke would be repeated on Twitter sporadically until 2012, when it started taking off, with the number of people making the joke growing steadily. It just so happens that 2012 was when the Netflix video service started streaming episodes of The Office. The on-demand availability of the episode kept the joke fresh in people’s minds.
These early repetitions of the joke were almost all in the context of embarrassing incidents, mostly presumably fictional, involving dialing wrong phone numbers or obliviously trying to order something not available at a Wendy’s.
But around 2016, the line this is a Wendy’s began to be used as a reply to rants or controversial statements. An early example is this tweet from 29 September 2016 (it’s not necessarily the first, as it’s often difficult to determine the context in which a particular tweet has been made):
Trump: [leans into microphone] Doing illegal business deals in Cuba means I’m *smart*.
Drive-through clerk: This is a Wendy’s, Mr. Trump.
And we have this tweet from 7 December 2016 about football coach Matt Rhule leaving Temple University for Baylor University:
Me: I'm happy for Coach Rhule and I expected him to leave at some point, but Baylor? Why? I don't get it.
Cashier: Sir, this is a Wendy's.
Neither of these are actual replies to another’s tweet. That happens on 25 August 2017 when @GaryCMiller2 replied to a tweet by @LordeCelsius. The context is that of Hillary Clinton and the 2016 U.S. presidential election:
Yeah, we should have went [sic] the "witch" who was so smart she "didn't know" that it was wrong to send classified emails by public server.
To which @LordeCelsius replied:
sir this is a Wendy's drive-thru
None of these early examples garnered much notice. The joke was widespread and understood by many, but it had not gone viral.
That would change on 22 July 2018. At 11:24pm on that Sunday night, President Donald Trump, seemingly without provocation, tweeted the following:
To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!
The tweet rattled many, who were afraid of the potential fallout from such bellicose words from a U.S. president. But unperturbed, Ben Yelin, @byelin, an ordinary Twitter user, replied to Trump:
Sir, this is a Wendy’s drive-thru.
Yelin’s reply went viral, putting a humorous face on a scary situation. It garnered over 15,000 retweets and over 80,000 likes by the next day, and the exchange was reported in major media outlets.
The phrase is an excellent example of how a joke from an old television show can percolate for years before bursting into public consciousness as the result of a combination of continued availability from on-demand streaming and its being deployed in a very apt situation.
Sources:
@byelin. Twitter, 22 July 2018.
@fuzzytypewriter. Twitter, 24 April 2008.
@GaryCMiller2. Twitter, 25 August 2017.
@Jallen_Town. Twitter, 7 December 2016.
@LordeCelsius. Twitter, 25 August 2017.
@Moltz, Twitter. 29 September 2016.
@realDonaldTrump (suspended account), Twitter, 22 July 2018. Trump Twitter Archive V2.
“Mediaite: Trump's Explosive Late-Night, All-Caps Threat to Iran Melts Down Twitter: 'DEFCON 2'” Newstex Trade & Industry Blogs, 23 July 2018. ProQuest: Blogs, Podcasts, and Websites.
Novak, B. J. “Chair Model.” The Office (U.S. TV series), airdate 17 April 2008. Deedle-Dee Productions. IMDb.com.