Deku Working at McDonald's

Submission 9,557

Part of a series on My Hero Academia Ending Controversy / Quirkless Deku. [View Related Entries]

Editor's Note: This entry contains spoilers for MY HERO ACADEMIA; read at your own caution.

About

Deku Working at McDonald's, also known as McDonald's Deku or Deku McDonald's, refers to a series of memes and videos depicting My Hero Academia character Izuku Midoriya (aka Deku) losing his quirk and then working at the fast-food restaurant McDonald's as a cashier, which is based on the controversial ending of the manga series in mid-2024. Deku was nicknamed "Quirkless Deku" and imagined to have gotten a job at McDonald's following the last chapter. Many of the memes referenced the Just Put My Fires in the Bag Bro saying and the slang term "cu*k" to refer to Deku. McDonald's Deku memes surfaced across TikTok, Twitter / X and Reddit, among other platforms in 2024, manifesting in fan art and voiceover videos. Many of the images of Deku crudely layered a McDonald's uniform onto him, similar to the precursor 2021 McGenshin trend.

Origin

Jokes about Deku getting a job at McDonald's after losing his quirk surfaced on X^[1] in January 2024. Jokes and posts continued to surface on X^[2]^[3] in April and May 2024. However, none of the posts were viral.

The first known viral post about Deku working at McDonald's was a piece of fan art shared by X^[4] user @GG_Doki on June 26th, 2024, showing Deku as a McDonald's cashier saying, "Have a PLUS ULTRA day.." (shown below). @GG_Doki captioned the image, "he may be out of quirks but he ain't out of options," amassing over 75,000 likes in two months.

Spread

On June 27th, 2024, X^[5] user @JohnnySpittin posted a meme that followed the concept of Deku working at McDonald's, using the "Just Put My Fires in the Bag" catchphrase. Over two months, the tweet received roughly 68,000 likes (shown below, left).

X^[6] user @Noah_sky9 replied to the abovementioned tweet with a recaptioned manga panel showing Deku shouting, "100 percent! Fryers on," amassing over 5,100 likes in two months (shown below, right).

On June 28th, 2024, TikToker^[7] @tyrecordslol posted a video skit that had a caption reading, "Me watching the so called 'greatest hero' fix my quarter pounder and fries," amassing over 3.4 million plays and 496,500 likes in two months (shown below, left).

More videos following the trend surfaced on TikTok in July 2024. For instance, on July 1st, TikToker^[8] @seanstama posted a video of a McDonald's worker clearing tables with a POV caption reading, "Deku going 'Plus Ultra' for a promotion," receiving over 2.1 million plays and 424,000 likes in a month (shown below, right).

On August 1st, 2024, X^[9] user @ohsukuny posted a meme showing McDonald's Deku in the Cu*k Chair, gaining over 28,000 likes in five days (shown below, left).

Following the official release of the manga's final chapter on August 5th, 2024, more McDonald's Deku art surfaced online. For instance, a 4chan Greentext was shared to the subreddit /r/greentext by Redditor^[10] dazli69 on August 4th, showing fan art of Deku in a McDonald's uniform, gaining over 1,600 upvotes in two days (shown below, right).

McGenshin

McGenshin or Genshin Impact McDonald's is a social media trend that involves users making memes which unite Genshin Impact characters and McDonald's fast-food restaurants in various ways, most notably in profile pictures of Genshin Impact characters wearing McDonald's hats and headsets. Originating from a viral meme posted on Reddit in February 2021, the trend achieved viral spread in the game's community in mid-April 2021. Images of McDonald's Deku followed the same exploitable format.