TikTok’s $3 Burger Cheese Hoax Explained

Welcome to Delicious or Distressing, where we rank current food memes, videos, and other downright untrustworthy news. Last week we talked about how Stanley Tucci made Ina Garten her very first martini.

After consuming the first five seconds of the latest TikTok viral saga to grace (plague?) every digital channel I frequent is us. Blindly, without context, I laid my allegiance to her. In the end, I was a changed woman, willing to risk my life to defend her date who had abandoned her at dinner because he didn’t want to pay $3 more to add cheese to his burger.

She recently revealed that the story is fake and that it duped all of us, mere subjects in a social experiment. But as the saying goes: art imitates life. Her TikTok, she admitted, grew out of an exchange she witnessed at a neighboring table. And she was still pro $3 cheese! You’re here alone baby

Dunkin’ is discontinuing its fan-favorite Dunkaccino, we found out this week, causing an uproar among its loyal parishioners. With my brain irreparably infected by the internet, I can’t help but wonder what Ben Affleck thinks about this. Another iconic institution, Vanderpump Rules, made headlines this week – all I know is that a scammer who also owns a restaurant got his comeuppance, and to that I say 👍. Also, people throw a lot of edible things into waffle irons and I have no reason not to support that; crispy away my friends.

It feels like the term Red Flag might have jumped the shark in the past few months. To be clear, red flags are things like “keeps several pet birds” and “thinks recycling is for suckers” and “really likes the Avatar movies”. They’re not like “don’t use crosswalks” — that’s what you’re planning to do to sabotage your budding relationship, baby, and I think we should have a few drinks and really deal with that impulse. However, for TikTok user @DafnaDiamant, a red flag can be so easy that he doesn’t want to pay a $3 premium for cheese on a burger. Long story short, she posted a TikTok describing a dinner where her date turned down cheese on a burger because of the price. She was so uncomfortable, she said, that she excused herself to the bathroom, paid the bill, went out, texted her date to get the cheese — and then blocked him. The video went viral and almost every commenter agreed that this was disordered behavior. Also, it has recently come to light that the story wasn’t even real! Apparently, she and her date overheard a guy at another table refusing $3 worth of burger cheese. people lie? On the Internet? For the content? That, my friends, is the ultimate red flag. I give this an incurable online, milk-based 2.4/5 troubling. – Sam Stone, staff writer

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Dunkin’ has officially announced that it has discontinued the Dunkaccino, the signature coffee and hot chocolate combo that has been on the menu since 2000, and it’s a devastating loss for fans. Prior to the announcement, the drink was already quietly disappearing from the menu in an Irish farewell, stumbling upon its disappearance. As a former Dunkin’ barista who drank the Dunkaccino like water during my shifts, I’m a little heartbroken, if admittedly not surprised, to see this iconic drink leaving the menu. I would speculate that it would have more success if it came back as a limited-time one-off – and I’ll be waiting with open arms when it does. RIP the Dunkin’ Dunkaccino. You are really missed. 2.5/5 frightening. —Julia Duarte, artistic assistant

I love reality TV (ask me about Love Island), but I know absolutely nothing about Vanderpump Rules. Based on those qualifications, I’ll explain the show’s recent cheating scandal in today’s blurb. Let us continue.