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.
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 (@luluramadan) October 7, 2017
https://twitter.com/frenchhornist/status/916719978719694854
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.
https://twitter.com/McDonalds/status/916752002268450816
The bigger problem is you lied about locations getting it, people went where you said to go, and employees had no clue.
— 𝐊𝐲𝐥𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐦 (@kylegrantham) October 7, 2017
I'm an adult I can deal but a kid literally left crying. pic.twitter.com/qHugRIjDtm
— Zack the worlds forgotten zombie boy (@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?
McDonald’s should pour out a trough of the Szechuan Sauce behind every location to watch nerds lick sauce out of a trough
— Legendary demi-hottie Li’l 🌳 (@karengeier) October 8, 2017
https://twitter.com/neonfiona/status/916981712504147968
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.
— crisp mattman (@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!
— crisp mattman (@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.