A woman who says she’s in the food service industry has taken to the internet with a bold claim about a Barstool Sports podcaster leaving a tiny tip.
In the post, Joanne (@ten_toast_down) claims that a Barstool personality tipped her $170 on a $2,400 tab at Chili’s. That amounts to less than 10%, well below industry standard.
It never happened. But it has inspired a heated debate about tipping culture.
Is it satire?
In the post, Joanne alleges that “Pinky from Barstool” left the stingy tip at Chili’s. Pinky likely refers to Ryan Whitney, a former professional hockey player turned Barstool personality.
Joanne also joked that Barstool founder Dave Portnoy should send a payment via Zelle “to make this right.”
The TikTok is a joke.
Joanne, who describes herself as “[expletive]-post CEO” in her bio, captioned it “too niche?” When one person said it’s “hilarious” that “no one gets that this is a joke.” Joanne replied, “Def too niche.”
Another user laughed, “No one in the comments got it.”
Via email, Joanne told the Daily Dot that the satirical post had “no deeper meaning or intention behind it beyond making a few people laugh or crack a smile.” She said she made it a few seconds after seeing a Barstool podcast clip in which Portnoy talked about getting contacted over one of his employee’s purportedly small tip.
She said she didn’t even know who Pinky was before she made it.
“A lot of people didn’t get the joke and that’s totally fine,” she said, adding, “I’m sure I’ll have many posts in the future that I end up regretting, but I doubt this will be one of them.”
A debate about tipping culture breaks out
The joking post inadvertently sparked a serious discussion about tipping. People have increasingly grumbled about gratuity creep—that is, the rising number and types of businesses that prompt customers to leave a tip.
Most of the top comments are from people taking one side or another in the great tipping debate.
It’s long been standard to leave tips for restaurant workers, such as a Chili’s server, but some feel even that is getting out of control.
Many commenters are of the mindset that expecting to make hundreds of dollars on a single table is ridiculous.
“Expecting $480 to bring some plates is absurd,” wrote one, referencing the amount a tip would be if someone left the fairly standard 20%.
Several suggested that a server should be grateful to make $170 on a single table, as Joanne claimed.
One person with this mindset wrote, “$170 for bringing some plates and cups from one side of the room to the other is pretty good.”
Someone wondered whether Portnoy was even at the restaurant. “People need to stop begging for money, it’s embarrassing. Tipping is optional!” they griped.
Naturally, this inspired multiple clapbacks.
“Tipping isn’t optional. Don’t go out to eat if you can’t afford a tip,” wrote one. “Because when you don’t tip, the SERVER PAYS FOR YOU TO BE EATING AT THE RESTAURANT.”
They’re likely referring to the fact that many servers give an established portion of their sales to their coworkers, such as table bussers, irrespective of how much they made in tips.
The joke about Pinky stiffing a server at Chili’s may not have landed with many of the 293,000 who’ve watched the TikTok as of this writing, but it did at least make them think about tipping culture.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
