McRib

About

The McRib is a boneless barbecue pork patty sandwich sold at many participating McDonald's restaurants during limited times.

Origin

In 1981, the McRib debuted at McDonald's restaurants in the United States to limited success. In 1985, the sandwich was was removed from McDonald's menus, and only returned in subsequent years as a limited promotional item. In February 2003, The Simpsons episode "I'm Spelling As Fast As I Can" was broadcast, which featured a parody of the McRib (shown below).

In 2005, McDonald's announced that the sandwich would be permanently removed from restaurants following a "Farewell Tour." The website McRib.com^[1] was subsequently launched by McDonald's, which featured a petition to "Save the McRib" (shown below).

Spread

In 2006, a second McRib "Farewell Tour" was held. In 2007, McDonald's launched the "McRib Farewell Tour III," selling 30 million of the sandwiches that year. On January 16th, 2009, the McRib Locator website was launched by developer adam Klein, allowed users to find McDonald's restaurants serving McRib sandwiches (shown below).

In 2010, McDonald's held the "Legends of the McRib" promotional event in New York City, where Klein was honored as a "superfan" of the sandwich. On December 7th, the food blog FromAway^[2] published an article about rumors that the McRib was made of kangaroo meat. On November 25th, 2015, YouTuber Libbie Higgins uploaded a rant about the McRib sandwich (shown below). Within one year, the video gained over 3.2 million views and 2,500 comments.

Xanthe Pajarillo's City Council Appearance

On November 24th, 2015, YouTuber Mike Devlin uploaded footage of comedian Xanthe Pajarillo addressing the Santa Clarita City Council to urge local McDonald's locations to sell the McRib sandwich (shown below, left). On December 7th, 2015, Pajarillo uploaded a video of herself singing a song about the sandwich titled "The McRib Song" (shown below, right).

On January 13th, 2016, Pajarillo uploaded a mockumentary about her McRib activist campaign (shown below). On December 3rd, Facebook^[3] user Ross Patterson reposted Pajarillo's address at the Santa Clarita City Council, gaining over 3.3 million views and 31,800 shares over the next month.

Search Interest

External References