Did McDonald’s ‘Permanently Ban’ the ‘McFish’ Sandwich?
"Cancel culture" may have gone too far when it extends to nonexistent fast food items.
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On Feb. 4, 2021, Newsmax TV host Greg Kelly became an ephemeral social media star when he tweeted a complaint that he was unable to order a “McFish” sandwich at “MacDonald’s” and fumed about being called a “male Karen” while he questioned whether the nonexistent food item had been “permanently banned”:
I just went to a MACDONALD’S and there was no MCFISH on the menu. When the hell did that happen? Is it permanently banned? Or is just my “local” MACDONALD’S. I demanded to see the “manager” but they accused me of being a “MALE KAREN” so i walked out. pic.twitter.com/oSpgFqfYGZ
— Greg Kelly (@gregkellyusa) February 4, 2021
Whether or not Kelly was merely being tongue-in-cheek, other Twitter users reveled in seizing on the details of his post, pointing out numerous issues with it — not the least of which is that McDonald’s fish patty sandwich is, and always has been, officially listed as a Filet-O-Fish on the company’s U.S. restaurant menus:
Every part of it is perfect, from the McDonald's misspelling to the punctuation, to not knowing the name of the sandwich, to the implication that there's some sort of conspiracy to deny *specifically him* a fillet-o-fish, to the introduction of "male Karen" into the lexicon. ♥️
— 💀 damned sinker 💀 (@dansinker) February 4, 2021
“McFish” ended up being one of Twitter’s top trending topics of the day as user after user piled on to poke fun at the original tweet:
A male Karen walks into a restaurant he can't spell correctly, asks for something that has never been on the menu, asks to see the manager and leaves in a huff.
Perhaps he should have gone to McDonalds and asked for a Filet-O-Fish.
I'm surprised you didn't pull a gun on them. pic.twitter.com/ReKf9Ugfuu
— Skidz (@TA_Skidz) February 4, 2021
In the US it’s filet-o-fish sandwich and it’s only served after 10:30 AM, so I don’t understand why he thought he could get fish during breakfast hours.
— Sandy Karasik (@srk908) February 4, 2021
In short, McDonald’s has not taken “McFish” off their menu in the U.S., because they didn’t sell a product by that name here in the first place. The properly named Filet-O-Fish sandwich remains a popular menu item in nearly every American McDonald’s.
