Scan QR Code for Menu at Restaurant

About

Scan QR Code for Menu at Restaurant refers to a series of memes about restaurants and bars that make you scan a QR code to access the menu, often portraying this as a negative thing and an annoyance. Memes about scanning QR codes at restaurants were first popularized in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and became increasingly popularized over the following years. In late June 2024, a series of memes on X / Twitter using the copypasta "imagine her being told she has to scan a qr code to order at a restaurant" went viral in which a photo of a character who might not react positively to a QR code menu is attached to the catchphrase.

Origin

On July 12th, 2020, Redditor u/kaifilion posted an Actual Advice Mallard meme to the subreddit /r/AdviceAnimals^[1] reading, "If your menu is a QR code make your wifi public," garnering over 34,000 upvotes in four years (shown below). This is the earliest known meme to critique QR code menus.

Spread

Memes complaining and joking about QR code menus continued to grow in popularity over the following months and years. On October 17th, 2020, X^[2] user @johnistoasted posted, "My dad and I went to a restaurant and the waiter pointed at the QR code on the wall and said 'thats our menu' and left and my dad looked at it really close and said 'Is this some kind of joke,'" garnering over 522,000 likes in four years.

On October 20th, Redditor u/SkrooImperator posted a The Future Is Now, Old Man meme using the post to /r/memes,^[3] garnering over 106,000 upvotes in the same span of time (shown below).

Imagine Her Being Told She Has to Scan a QR Code to Order at a Restaurant

On June 23rd, 2024, X^[4] user @punishedgarage posted a photo of Livia Soprano from The Sopranos under the caption, "imagine her being told she has to scan a qr code to order at a restaurant," garnering over 63,000 likes in three weeks (shown below).

The caption became a copypasta and catchphrase over the following weeks, accompanied by different images of characters who might not react well to QR code menus.

For example, also on June 23rd, X^[5] user @matt_tbr posted the phrase over a photo of Emily Gilmore from Gilmore Girls, garnering over 97,000 likes in three weeks (shown below, left). On June 25th, X^[6] user @joolyholiday posted the copypasta under an image of Julie Andrews's character from The Princess Diaries, garnering over 101,000 likes in the same span of time (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References