Burger King breaches McDonald's

On Monday, the Burger King burst into a McDonald's restaurant in Rome, Georgia, handed out free hamburgers to customers, danced, and posted for photos with children. Managers called the police, but the Burger King escaped in a white Acura before the fuzz arrived. "Man dressed as Burger King visits West Rome McDonald’s"

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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steamed punk

Sadly I fear this will one day be looked upon as the start of the Fast Food Civil war. I pray this King of Burgers protect well his Burger Princes and Burger Princesses for rumor abounds that the Hamburglar has been tasked with revenge most foul.
- desiredusername
  
  My allegiance is with Taco Bell. If you are wise, your’s will be too.
  - chellberty
    
    Mine was with Señor dingdong up until the point where he asked if anyone has jumper cables.
  - robdobbs
    
    nevermind
- Navin_Johnson
  
  The Burger King’s castle is well protected, an army’s been raised, and he has the goodwill of the people. Mr. McDonald would be a fool to strike back.
  - ChicagoD
    
    Ah, but McDonald’s has numbers on its side. Unless Burger King can enlist the legions of Wendy’s, I fear BK will be overwhelmed in any war of attrition.
    - Ipo
      
      They better not make Jack have to come out of his box.
      - morcheeba
        
        Carl is going to get his dad
      - Brainspore
        
        Junior can look out for himself; he’s a Big Boy now.
    - Navin_Johnson
      
      Capt. D, Long John Silver and Arthur Treacher are patrolling the seas and waiting for orders.
    - allium
      
      She serves the Lord of Light, for the drive-thru lane is dark and full of terrors.
      - ocker3
        
        +1 Internets!
    - ocker3
      
      If it is numbers you seek, the followers of the Subterranean Way have the most entrances to emerge from
    - jackbird
      
      This being Rome, he has the gladii of Little Caesar’s legions behind him.
  - Brainspore
    
    The Burger King’s castle is well protected…
    
    He can’t hide in that White Castle with his Dairy Queen forever.
- cj howeareya
  
  “Sadly…?” More like “Totally awesomely.” Let slip the Grimaces of War!
  
  Also:
  a) Loving the Gangnam Style.
  b) Why is that McDonald’s manager against “all the children?” tsk-tsk.
- RJ
  
  Let them reduce their numbers together. When they are exhausted, they will leave this world knowing that Arby’s has my axe.
  - welcomeabored
    
    ‘The Ultimate Angus, 100% Black Angus, lightly seasoned with just the right touch of our special blend of cracked black pepper, herbs, spices, (and Machiavellian philosophy on the art of war)’. Bon appetit!
- hypnosifl
  
  I remember as a kid listening to the comedy album Born to be Tiled by the group Duck’s Breath Mystery Theater, they did a funny segment about a dystopian future devastated by the “Burger Wars”–can’t find it for free anywhere on the internet unfortunately, but you can hear a few disconnected pieces of it here, or just create an account with the site and apparently they let you download two tracks for free, then others are 16 cents a pop (the rest of the album is here)
freemoore

Isn’t that Wayne Coyne in a plastic head?
http://sterlinganderson.net Sterling Anderson

This could only have been possible if there was an inside man at the McDonald’s. My money is on the Hamburlgar.
- niktemadur
  
  The Hamburglar can coordinate ninja-style warfare.
http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch

Some guy in a mask hands me a free hamburger, I’m not going to eat it. Then again, I’m not going to eat BK or McD’s. Also, the answer to “why didn’t you ask first” is always: “Contrition is better than permission” (or, “It’s easy to say No.”)
Felton / Moderator

Begun this clown war has.
- absimiliard
  
  Ooooohhhh, BOOOOOOO! BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
  
  -abs throws things, like rotten fruit things, or would if he could
Brainspore

Managers called the police, but the Burger King escaped in a white Acura before the fuzz arrived.

If you’re gonna hit a rival burger chain, you don’t dawdle. Remember: “In-N-Out. In-N-Out. That’s what a burger prank is all about.”
- Felton / Moderator
  
  It might have gone more smoothly if he’d had help. You need, say, Five Guys to really pull of a job like this.
  - http://profile.yahoo.com/65CSAR3QATRNKJW4NYNB2BESZE JohnQPublic
    
    You need pros. Pros like the Baconator.
Paul Coleman

I went all the way through this thread thinking that this happened in Italy.
- Adam Peller
  
  As someone who grew up in Rome, Georgia I can say that this is one of the single most exciting events I have witnessed (2nd hand) occurring in this town. The only other exciting thing I’ve noticed in the 20 years of residency was a small statue of Romulus and Remus donated by Benito Mussolini with the inscription “From Big Rome to Little Rome, Your Friend Benito Mussolini”.
- theophrastvs
  
  me too. oddsfish people! don’t name your settlement the same as a famous place without at least a “New” jammed in front (and don’t even do that or someone will come along with Newer/est York)
  - Felton / Moderator
    
    Hello from Athens, Georgia. I agree with you, but I’d rather keep the name as it is, because the alternative would probably be Bulldawg, Georgia.
    - http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher
      
      Lucky you, living so close to the Terrapin Brewery.
      
      (Off-topic, I realize, but I can’t resist a shout-out to the people who make the world a better place by bringing Rye Pale Ale into it.)
- Ipo
  
  Georgia is a few little countries to the east of Italy.
  Russia invaded part of it.
- Navin_Johnson
  
  I hear they have an Orange Julius Caesar over there.
  - theophrastvs
    
    wherein one may buy an Orange Julius Caesar Salad?
mmcpher

God help me, I love the King! Especially his foray into the NFL! And has anybody told the Chic-Fil-A goons that there’s a guy in tights mincing about in McDonalds?
http://vertigo25.tumblr.com/ vertigo25

“Managers called the police…”

Seems the only law broken here would be trespassing, and that would only be true if the management asked him to leave… which I assume they did.

I will never understand how employees of a corporate held business feel that they must protect the interest of the company. You’d have to pay me a hell of a lot more than a McDonald’s manager makes to actually give even one shit about the franchise owners or corporate heads. I’m certain the corporation heads could care less about the welfare of their employees… why should the reverse be true?

They should have let him hand out the burgers… had a laugh along with everyone else.
- http://twitter.com/WoodcreekTweets Woodcreek Faction
  
  No McDonald’s employees or the manager asked the King to leave. In fact, the McDoanld’s manager didn’t stop the King until he was in his Whoppermobile attempting to leave.
- Boundegar
  
  Maybe it was the Brand Police. Did you think about that? Huh?
- phlavor
  
  I like how she asks him if what he was doing was legal before she says she called the cops and said she didn’t think he had the “right” to do what he did.
  
  Pretty sure there wasn’t a sign that said:
  
  No shirts
  No shoes
  No service*
  * Additionally, entering these premises adorned in competing fast food mascot outfits is forbidden by law.
shrevus

According to this http://www.suntimes.com/business/7158876-420/burger-king-to-drop-the-king-get-healthier.html the king was retired so this was just a local prankster and not officially a BK event.
- Navin_Johnson
  
  ”retired”, I think you mean “abdicated”.
  - ifriit
    
    You assume it was voluntary. I suspect regicide.
  - Brainspore
    
    But to whom did he cede that power? The Dairy Queen? The Duchess? King Dunkin’? One of his royal Cousins, perhaps?
    - Navin_Johnson
      
      A charismatic military strongman from Kentucky named “Colonel Sanders”
      - gehringer
        
        No, I’m pretty sure he ceded the throne to those Five Guys…You know, the ones with those Cajun fries?
      - desiredusername
        
        I hear the Colonel’s realm is challenged by a mysterious warrior-sailor with superhuman strength. I heard that once this fearsome warrior took out ten men by rolling up in a ball and knocking them down like bowling pins.
    - http://www.gyrofrog.com/ Gyrofrog
      
      The Duke of Doubt ostensibly usurped the throne, but the wily Burger Thing was really pulling the strings from within his corrupt frame.
Dub Google

Personally, at first I was shocked and OUTRAGED that there was a MacDonalds in Rome, and that anyone there would have even a clue what Burger King was… Ther I realised it wasn’t Rome, Italy.
- Felton / Moderator
  
  Looks like there is a McDonald’s in Rome, though.
  - Dub Google
    
    That’s made me feel like an even bigger troll now :D
  - Brainspore
    
    At least Rome is a fair-sized, largely modern city. The Italian McDonald’s location that really bummed me out was the one in Venice. It was like going to Giza and finding a Taco Bell amongst the pyramids.
    - Navin_Johnson
      
      http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/oct/06/fast-food-chains-louvre
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        Fucking French. They’ll let McDonald’s into the Louvre but they won’t make Breton an official language. So much for their vaunted preservation of cultural patrimony.
      - Brainspore
        
        Uh, right. Kind of like that.
  - Navin_Johnson
    
    I’ve been to that very one, it’s right in the middle of the touristy area by Trevi Fountain. I just needed to use the bathroom though, haha.
    - Dub Google
      
      What bout Pizza Hut?
      - niktemadur
        
        I’m at the Pizza Hut!
        I’m at the Taco Bell!
        I’m at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell!
Michael Polo

I suspect foreign involvement by none other than General Tsao….
Wreckrob8

This is just irresponsible teaching kids to expect things for free. They will grow up as part of the 47% Obama/Democrat voters. There must be a law against it. Buying votes undermines the essence of Western democracy.