McDonald’s brought back its highly in-demand Szechuan sauce on October 7. The 1998 classic, made even more popular today by Rick and Morty , brought fans of the show in droves to McDonald’s outlets across the country. Due to the limited availability of the sauce, many who waited in long queues for hours weren’t able to get their hands on the coveted sauce. This resulted in a massive chaos and with McDonald’s staffers allegedly harassed by angry customers.
According to the Pitt News, one fan jumped on the counter and shouted two Rick and Morty catchphrases: “I’m Pickle Rick” and “Wubba Lubba Dub.” The fan went on to roll around the floor before making his exit.
While McDonald’s has issued a public apology for being unable to accommodate all Szechuan sauce searchers, Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland also expressed his apology for contributing to the fiasco.
Speaking to TMZ, Roiland said he felt sorry for the workers who had to endure such treatment from fans. At the same time, he also said he understood that fans, having waited for an entire day, were very upset after finding there were no more Szechuan sauce stocks left.
The show’s creators didn’t expect that featuring the Szechuan sauce in the third season of Rick and Morty would create such an explosive craze.
“All that stuff was a joke in the show,” Roiland said. He also gave props to McDonald’s for taking advantage of the craze and re-distributing the limited edition sauce.
The McDonald’s Szechuan sauce riots and the misbehaving fans that initiated them have given the Rick and Morty fanbase a bad reputation. But the incident of harassment isn’t isolated. Series co-creator Dan Harmon previously called out sexist fans that harassed female writers Jane Becker and Jessica Gao, Entertainment Weekly reported.
Some fans aired out their dislike of the episodes written by Becker and Gao, and even went on share their personal information on social media in an attempt to threaten and scare them out of the show.
Meanwhile, Rick and Morty Season 4 is in the works, but fans can’t expect an official release date anytime soon. In the Season 3 finale, Mr. Poopybutthole returned and told viewers that the next season won’t be out for a “really long time,” adding that he’d probably already have grandchildren by the time the show returns on air.
[Featured Image by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]