A McDonald’s promotion targeting fans of the cult TV show Rick and Morty has gone disastrously wrong, after police dispelled chanting mobs seeking the chain’s fabled Mulan McNugget sauce.
Fans lined up by the thousands at McDonald’s locations around the country on Saturday for a one-day taste of the Szechuan Sauce, but were outraged when only a few dozen packets were distributed.
The sauce, previously released only in the summer of 1998 in a promotion for Disney’s Mulan, has achieved mythical status after the quest to taste it again was revealed as the main motivation for mad scientist Rick of the TV show.
‘I want that Mulan McNugget sauce, Morty,’ Rick told his grandson at the end of the season three premier in April. ‘That’s my series arc, Morty! If it takes nine seasons!’
‘I want that Mulan McNugget sauce, Morty,’ Rick told his grandson at the end of the season three premier. ‘That’s my series arc, Morty! If it takes nine seasons!’
Protests broke out at McDonald’s locations around the country on Saturday over the availability of the highly prized Szechuan Sauce
Fans of the show were initially thrilled when McDonald’s announced it would bring back the sauce in a special one-day event, but for many the sentiment turned to outrage.
Reports from across the country indicate that many participating McDonald’s stocked only 20 or so packets of the prized sauce, leaving hundreds of angry fans in lines stretching down the sidewalk.
‘Give us sauce!’ one mob chanted, crowding the dining area of a San Jose, California McDonalds.
In some locations, there were reports of police being called in to disperse fans of the zany animated sci-fi show.
‘Return to your homes, they do not have the sauce,’ cops announced on a bullhorn to one crowd in Philadelphia, one witness said.
Fans packed this New York City McDonald’s and were shocked to find that the few packets of sauce there had already been distributed by the promotion’s starting time
Police in Philadelphia were called in to disperse angry crowds seeking the Szechuan Sauce
A witness in Kentucky said that a man in costume as Rick made off with all 20 packets of sauce
According to one report from Kentucky, which could not be independently confirmed, one super-fan dressed up in a full Rick costume and was the first in line for the sauce at an area McDonald’s.
The man dressed as Rick got all 20 of the location’s sauce packets, said one witness.
‘I was disappointed but way more amused because cheating the system to get them all is exactly what Rick would do,’ the witness said on Twitter.
On Sunday, packets of the Szechuan Sauce had sold on Ebay for hundreds of dollars apiece.
Some disgruntled fans called for a boycott of McDonald’s in the wake of the fiasco.
In a statement, McDonald’s acknowledged its mistake and vowed to bring back the sauce soon in an improved promotion.
A McDonald’s promotional poster for the sauce is seen. The company has apologized for the fiasco and promises to bring back Szechuan Sauce in a wider promotion this winter
The sauce was featured in the Rick and Morty’s season three premiere, when time traveling alcoholic granddad Rick tells the alien holding him captive about the magical condiment
A crowd chanted ‘we want sauce!’ outside of this Los Angeles McDonald’s on Saturday
‘Yesterday, we were truly humbled by the amazing curiosity, passion and energy this community showed to welcome back Szechuan Sauce – even if for just one day,’ the statement read.
‘Szechuan Sauce is coming back one again this winter. And instead of being one-day-only and limited to select restaurants, we’re bringing more – a lot more – so that any fan who’s willing to do whatever it takes for Szechuan Sauce will only have to ask for it at a nearby McDonald’s.’
The disastrous promotion on Saturday was not the first time that the fast food chain had winked back at Rick and Morty about its strange place in the show’s universe.
In June, the company sent the show’s creators a 64 ounce bottle of the precious Szechaun Sauce, and a note from McDonald’s Chef Mike.
‘We wish we could have brought more sauce through, but we couldn’t risk keeping a portal like that open,’ he wrote, adding that they had brought the bottle back from a another dimension where it was 1998 everyday.
‘Holy s**t,’ show creator Justin Roiland tweeted in response to the package, while Rick and Morty Twitter account added: ‘Guys, we f**king did it, we got the sauce.’
In June, McDonald’s sent the show’s creators a 64 ounce bottle of the precious Szechaun Sauce from ‘Dimension C-1998M’, where it is always 1998