"Tomorrow..." - @doughboyspo
Synopsis
The mysterious and eccentric Bug Mane returns to the podcast to discuss his enigmatic online community and to review IHOb's new burger options. Plus, the debut of an all new segment that tests our guests' condiment knowledge, Sauceton Powers.
Nick's intro
In the early "wild west" days of social media, corporations were often lost on how to engage with customers online. Food brands in particular seemed prone to miscues that later led to shameful deletions and profuse apologies.
In 2011, grocery-store pastry brand with a case at the end of the aisle Entenman's tweeted, "who's #notguilty about eating all the tasty treats they want?" - not realizing they were hopping on a trending hashtag about the verdict in the Casey Anthony murder trial.
Spaghetti-Os remember Pearl Harbor
In 2013, canned Italian-for-kids brand Spaghetti-Os tweeted a tone-deaf drawing depicting their anthropomorphic pasta mascot holding an American flag while licking its lips with the caption "Take a moment to remember Pearl Harbor with us."
And in 2016, an American diner best known for its pancakes became the monster-of-the-day for its problematic riffs on misogynistic jokes, tweeting pics of flapjacks with captions reading "the butterface we all know and love" and "flat but has a great personality."
But now with full-time social-media teams in place, many brands receive enthusiastic responses from the general public for their posts, though some savvier users groan as companies like Denny's, MoonPie, and Wendy's maintain absurdist online presences, often via reappropriating memes from Black Twitter and Weird Twitter. And in May of 2018, that previously controversial pancake chain used social media to take over the news cycle, by flipping the P in its name into a lower-case b, prompting a week of speculation about what it stood for.
Then came the prestige.
Reflected in an updated signage at select high-visibility brick-and-mortar locations, the 'b' was for 'burgers' - all a scheme to market their reimagined line of hamburger/sandwich offerings for the lunch and late-night set.
But the incidence perhaps illustrated that social-media buzz doesn't translate into profits, as an Adweek survey saw less than a 5% increase in foot traffic to stores. Still, for an aging brand primarily associated with carb-heavy breakfasts and senior discounts, altering its acronym was an inspired way to briefly re-enter the social-media zeitgeist. This time, in a positive light.
This week on Doughboys: IHOb.
Fork rating
This is the third time that the Doughboys have visited IHOP. First, back in episode 3, Nick gave it 4 forks and Mitch 3.5; then in episode 115, Nick gave it 3 forks and Mitch 2.5. For this episode, they attempt to focus on IHOP's new burger menu.
| guest / host | ordered | rating |
|---|---|---|
| Nick Wiger |
| 3.75 forks |
| Mike Mitchell |
| 3.75 forks |
| Bug Mane |
|
Nick, Mitch, Bug Mane, and Mike Carlson ordered all eight of the new IHOb burgers to share: The Classic, The Classic with Bacon, Mega Monster, Big Brunch, Cowboy BBQ, Jalapeno Kick, Mushroom & Swiss, and Patty Melt. They also wanted three orders of fries, three orders of onion rings, and two orders of hash browns.
Bug Mane, however, prankster that he is, pulled a fast one and got the IHOb waiter to serve them Big Macs and Fries from McDonald's instead.
The Doughboys also ordered some pancakes from IHOb and reviewed those.
But then... in a stunning turn, The Doughboys b-b-b-bugged the Bug and re-obtained all of the above eight burgers from IHOb and ate them live on the podcast. However, Bug Mane only rated the Big Mac, and refused to rate IHOb.
(This episode is a roller coaster ride. -ed.)
The Doughboys also promise that the long-awaited McDonald's episode, with a special guest (not Bug Mane), will come out as the final episode of 2018 (it did).
Sauceton Powers
In Sauceton Powers, yea baby, Nick reads the ingredients of a sauce and the first person to bzz in tries to guess what it is.
The sauces given were ketchup, Hershey's chocolate syrup, teriyaki sauce, turkey gravy, and classic Alfredo sauce.
Mitch got more correct, but mostly because Bug didn't try.
Mt. Fruitmore 🍓🍉🍎[]
Per The Feedbag question below, The Doughboys were asked to choose their four favorite fruits for their Mt. Fruitmore (limited to only one berry).
| guest / host | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nick Wiger | 🍓 | 🍌 | 🍑 | 🍉 |
| Mike Mitchell | 🍍 | 🍇 | 🍊 | 🍓 |
| Donald Trump | 🍊 | 🍊 | 🍊 | 🍊 |
| Bug Mane | 🥭 | 🍎 | 🍅 | cum |
Roast Mitchy 2 Spoonz
Paul Funyon
| “ | Paul Funyon | ” |
–Jacob B. | ||
Quotes
| “ | Hey, by the way Nick, for the summer, you're Pancake Boy. | ” |
–Mike Mitchell, inverting Burger Boy like IHOP became IHOb | ||
| “ | I think aliens come here as tourists to experience our Big Mac. | ” |
–Bug Mane | ||
| “ | That's the only thing in [Trump's] Mount Fruitmore: four oranges. | ” |
–Nick Wiger re: the Orange Buffoon | ||
#hashtags
- #BugCon
- #Puddy vs. #PuddySauce vs. #SkittleSkattle vs. #SkittleSkattlePuddySaucaLubADubHubPornHub
- #WhichBurgerWouldYouWantToSmash
- #MunchOnSomeBrunch or #BrunchACrunch
- #GiveEmTheClaw
- #PerfectNut
The Feedbag[]
| “ | My lovely wife and I are expecting our first child this fall, and we were hoping to unite Spoon Nation (me) and the Burger Brigade (her) in peace and harmony once and for all. We have both been trying to eat healthier in preparation. We were discussing our favorite fruits. We established a ground rule to only include one berry. What would you include in your Mount Fruitmore? | ” |
–Tom in Philadelphia | ||
Related Episodes[]
Photos (via @doughboyspod)
