"Where's Your Next Bite?" Sandwich Debate

Submission 1,201

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About

"Where's Your Next Bite?" Sandwich Debate refers to discourse surrounding a viral series of memes asking where you would take the next bite from a sandwich with several bites already taken from it, the options being a section with all crust, a middle section with no crust or a corner section, typically labeled "A," "B" and "C." Memes presenting this question and viral debate first started appearing online in 2019 and became increasingly popularized throughout the 2020s, with one particular example gaining viral spread across Reddit and TikTok in December 2023, inspiring many takes on the meme in early 2024.

Origin

On February 28th, 2019, X^[1] user @Microfry_ posted an image of himself eating a sandwich, circling two sections of the sandwich and asking, "If you were to take the next bite of this sandwich, what side would you do first?" garnering around 10 likes in five years (shown below, left). This is the earliest known example of a meme asking where you would take the next bite of a sandwich. It was reposted to /r/BruceDropEmOff^[2] on June 9th, 2021, garnering around 15 upvotes in three years.

On April 10th, 2022, X^[3] user @Cheapie13 made a similar post labeling three different sections of a sandwich, writing, "Where’s your next bite?" garnering over 530 likes and 300 comments in two years (shown below, right).

Spread

On February 14th, 2023, Redditor u/ShaneTVZ reposted the @cheapie13 post to /r/Memes_Of_The_Dank,^[4] garnering over 2,500 upvotes and 300 comments in a year, many debating the proper way to take the next bite of the sandwich. On December 3rd, u/Occasional-Nihilist posted a new version of the meme to /r/evilautism,^[5] garnering over 670 upvotes and 450 comments in four months (shown below).

The meme gained viral spread over the following months. On December 3rd, it was reposted by Instagram^[6] user shavdon876, garnering over 2,000 likes in four months. On December 14th, X^[7] user @NoContextHumans reposted it, asking, "Where’s your next bite?" garnering over 32,000 likes and 10,000 comments in four months.

The meme spread to TikTok that month, inspiring debates. On December 21st, 2023, TikTokers^[8]^[9] @soogia1 and @thegoldenbalance posted videos sharing the meme and their opinions on the proper next bite, both saying "C" is the right answer because it allows you to save the best bite, "B," the bite with no crust, for last, therefore "saving the best for last" (shown below, left and right). The videos gained over 6 million and 5.1 million views, respectively, in four months.

On January 11th, 2024, TikToker^[10] @themakeshiftproject posted a video in which two men debate the next bite, deciding that "C" is the best option, garnering over 400,000 views in three months. On January 17th, a meme was posted to /r/Memes_Of_The_Dank^[11] sharing a similar opinion, garnering over 500 upvotes in the same span of time.

On February 7th, TikToker^[12] @foodp-rn posted a video in which he claims that while he would go with "C," he also accepts "B" as an answer, garnering over 1.9 million views in two months (shown below).

On April 4th, 2024, People^[13] and Yahoo^[14] reported on the virality of the debate.