Word to the wise: Don’t promise Rick and Morty fans something and not come through. That’s the lesson McDonald’s learned on Saturday, when the fast food behemoth promised to bring back, on a one-day-only basis, the promotional Szechuan sauce that was revealed as mad scientist anti-hero Rick’s “one-armed man.” But when the big day finally rolled around, countless fans were left crying into their decidedly non-Szechuan McNugget dipping sauces, and they were not chill about it.
From the looks of things, some people came near to an all-out revolt. Videos circulating on social media showed lines of outraged fans, in disbelief and disgust that their weekend quest for Szechuan sauce had been foiled. The sauce in question, originally released in concert with the 1998 Disney film Mulan, was cited by Rick as his central motivating force in the show’s third season premiere.
Plenty of Rick and Morty fans took that rambling confession to dipping sauce obsession to heart, and it made things pretty awkward when participating McDonald’s locations starting running out of the stuff in record time. A brief glance through social media tells the tale.
https://twitter.com/luluramadan/status/916729163305947137
Got there an hour early for Szechuan sauce. Left because McDonald’s was only sent 30 packets. Sending bad vibes to McDonald’s Corporate smh can’t complete my serie arc now #szechuansauce pic.twitter.com/MTuAOSqwfG
— Amber Cocchiola (@frenchhornist) October 7, 2017
https://twitter.com/Vic_Alinaa/status/916717026684690432
mcdonalds really ruined the szechuan sauce promotion
— ego (@notmalkinego) 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
To get a perfect, representative sense of how many Rick and Morty fans had their hearts broken over this, just take a look through the replies to this McDonald’s tweet after the promotion had ended, embedded below. Needless to say, people were a little riled up.
The best fans in the multiverse showed us what they got today. We hear you & we're sorry not everyone could get some super-limited Szechuan.
— McDonald's (@McDonalds) October 7, 2017
https://twitter.com/kylegrantham/status/916753491363811330
I'm an adult I can deal but a kid literally left crying. pic.twitter.com/qHugRIjDtm
— Idiot (@ezlkill) October 7, 2017
https://twitter.com/angel_guel/status/916763735565279232
And, of course, plenty of people were all too eager to have a laugh at the people who lined up for hours to get a taste of a discontinued McDonald’s sauce just because a cartoon told them to. Schadenfreude is undefeated, huh?
https://twitter.com/karengeier/status/917051935764738048
the Venn diagram of dudes lining up for Szechuan sauce and dudes who make fun of girls lining up for Unicorn frappuccinos is a circle
— fiona ✌️ (@neonfiona) October 8, 2017
https://twitter.com/crushingbort/status/917067540446240774
https://twitter.com/MelissaStetten/status/916911956421775360
https://twitter.com/nkulw/status/917040886957199361
https://twitter.com/theshrillest/status/916829323536900096
Hundreds of people waited for hours in failed attempts to have try a condiment they only like because they were told to by a cartoon man.
— C. Everett Cope (@cushbomb) October 7, 2017
I must have the cartoon sauce. I will pay any amount for it. The cartoon sauce! The sauce of the fine cartoon!
— C. Everett Cope (@cushbomb) October 8, 2017
There’s no way to know whether McDonald’s will roll out this clearly prized sauce again. But based on how the first go-around went, it seems like it might not be worth the headache.