What in the Hot Crispy Kentucky Fried Fuck?

Submission 28,718

Part of a series on Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). [View Related Entries]

About

What in the Hot Crispy Kentucky Fried Fuck is a catchphrase used to describe extreme surprise and confusion. The phrase is typically paired with an image edited photograph of KFC mascot Colonel Sanders seated behind a desk.

Origin

The earliest known usage of the phrase was posted by Twitter ^[1] user @ilovemylab93 on March 28th, 2018 (shown below).

Spread

On July 11th, 2018, BuzzFeed ^[6] reported about a Facebook group that used the phrase as a group name. However, the group is no longer active.

The following year, on May 1st, 2019, Facebook^[8] user Friedlien Viviane Ricewich posted a distorted image of Colonel Sanders seated behind a desk with the phrase printed around him (shown below). The image of Sanders comes from a KFC commercial, which premiered on May 19th, 2015

The following year, on June 19th, 2019, Redditor ^[2] NigelPoot shared the image in the /r/dankmemes subreddit (shown below, left). (shown below, right).^[3] The image received more than 300 points (96% upvoted) in less than four months.

Days later, on June 22nd, the image was shared on the /r/ExpandDong subreddit,^[4] receiving more than 370 points (100% upvoted).

On July 3rd, Redditor^[5] shaggy_almighty shared the image as the reaction to a satirical news article about a man accused of sexually assaulting a fish. The post received more than 820 points (98% upvoted) in less than three months (shown below, left).

Months later, on September 11th, Redditor^[7] MysteriousQi shared a version of the meme in which the image reacts to a news report about the Colonel Sanders Dating Simulator. the post received more than 39,400 points (97% upvoted) and 230 comments in one week (shown below, right).