The Surprise ‘Rick And Morty’ Premiere Threw Folks Into A Frenzy For McDonald’s Szechuan Dipping Sauce

The surprise premiere for Rick And Morty‘s third season on April Fool’s Day was a fine trick by the folks at Adult Swim. In past years, they’ve spent the “holiday” showing Tommy Wiseau’s masterpiece The Room on repeat or replacing all of their normal programs with Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos, so seeing a new episode of Rick And Morty from 8 pm until midnight EST was pleasant, even if the rest of the season won’t air until this summer.

Along with that, we were treated a few special Rick And Morty spots — including some spirited advertising from Carl’s Jr. that not only hit against some of its more salacious advertising but also let Rick And Morty play around with living cheeseburgers. But the biggest ad of all wasn’t really for a product that exists right now. Sure, there was a fine plug for Shoney’s that should be the talk of the day for their breakfast buffet alone, but we also got a demand for McDonald’s to bring back their Mulan Szechuan dipping sauce.

If you’re unfamiliar with the sauce or were barred from eating at McDonald’s for most of your life, Ad Age has the details behind the promotion that drove Rick Sanchez to mad science:

McDonald’s Corp., carrying out its pledge to emphasize taste, features an “Imperial Pack” of 20 Chicken McNuggets with a Szechuan dipping sauce as part of its link, starting June 16, to Walt Disney Co.’s animated film “Mulan.” The film opens in theaters June 19. The pack, with a suggested price of $6.99, includes two large fries and two 21-ounce soft drinks. “Mulan” marks McDonald’s first global Happy Meal promotion and will run for four weeks in the U.S. On June 17, the company stages an event in Seattle for the promotion with figure skater Michelle Kwan.

If you notice in the show, the details of the Imperial Pack apparently transferred over to the show because Rick and his space bug friend both have a pack of delicious nuggets. It also highlighted the struggle customers have when getting the right amount of sauce for their food, with the results usually ranging from none to not enough.

Anyway, the appearance of the sauce in the show and the rant that closed the premiere sparked quite the response from people online:

It also spawned a petition for McDonald’s to bring back the sauce, using the upcoming Mulan live-action adaptation as a persuasive argument to bring back the tie-in. They should also just keep around as part of their normal cadre of delicious, unhealthy sauces. Ditch the Creamy Ranch and bring back the Szechuan. Just look how happy these kids are while banging that gong.

(Via Heavy / Ad Age)

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