A Popeye's franchise in Rochester ran out of chicken last week. I know that because it made the news. Sure it did.
What? Just a very important objective news story concerning a group of citizens frustrated with the empty claims of a popular retailer. Peabody. (Via EJB via GorillaMask.)
Posted by Gabe at 4:45 PM in Newsmagazines
Tags: Fried Chicken | Racism
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Score = 53
"you betta don't"
Score = 6
"No chicken? Or are they just out of chicken?" Exactly.
Score = 46
That was almost a zen koan.
Score = 11
Wonderful. I guess "no chicken" means no. chicken. ever. again. In which case "just out of chicken" ain't seem so bad.
Score = 0
This video promotes racial stereotypes very well
Score = 17
This video promotes overweight stereotypes very well.
Score = 6
"Do to high demand..."
Score = -1
Maybe you should try to "feed your family" a little harder. Like say, GET OUT OF THE CAR.
Score = 30
They were clucking mad. Badabum.
Score = 5
without commenting on the subtext of the interviews, could I just say (as someone who works in retail) how much I hate the suited fellow's attitude of "they don't want our business." No, you moron. They would love to have your business, but they have no chicken to give you. I'm sure they would be more than happy for you to pay them for a big bucket of nothing.
Score = 35
I think they wanted an excuse to say "clucking" and make it sound like something else.
Score = 3
dafs, I felt the same way then they commented that Customers felt duped." Duped? By what? That would imply that the chicken cost more than advertised, or that they had to buy a different product, neither of which are true. They ran out! Supplies aren't infinite.
I think everyone will agree, this barely constitutes as news....
Score = 13
no, you can't feed your kids (shit today).
Score = 28
what the fuck is wrong with that anchor-womans right eyebrow
Score = -1
Was i the only one freaked out by the discrepancy in the sizes of the anchor-women? I don't know if the one is giant and the other normal size, or if the small one is just extra petite.
Score = 10
No, right? it like cuts back and she's sitting next to a CHILD.
Score = 0
Good lord. The KKK must have had a field day with this video
Score = -6
Boo.
Score = 0
I'm just sayin' this video strikes me as pretty racist, perhaps unintentionally so but racist nonetheless, drudging up old stereotypes and all that. Some people are into that.
Score = -7
Well, I think the fact is that there wasn't much to report that day, so this particular news station landed the Popeyes segment, and I can guarantee you that not a lot of time is spent filming and editing these segments, and I would be shocked to learn otherwise. I personally don't think the news team set out to make any point other than "The Recession, You Guys" and it probably just so happened that anyone willing to give any sort of impassioned opinion on the whole Popeyes thing was black. And I've never been to Popeyes, but maybe it's true that mostly black people go there. I read an article calling one of their recent ads racist because it clearly geared toward that demographic. Is this a secret? Can't we just say this? Black people go to Popeyes? Popeyes patrons are black? WHATEVER.
I do get what you're saying, that this sort of news segment wouldn't exactly be endorsed by the NAACP (if they even did that sort of thing) and probably some fringe supremacist crazies would use this as an example of....something. I guess I just felt like bringing the KKK into a discussion must be some kind of subset to Godwin's law in which you automatically lose because, you know, the KKK.
(I've officially reached the too-many-posts-per-thread limit and am going to shut up now.)
Score = 6
"We were looking forward to this day."
Score = 34
Anyone else wait tables? I'm not gonna lie, 8 out of 10 black people don't tip well either. Just sayin'.
Score = -39
"just sayin" doesn't make it acceptable to say it. and when was this article/video ever about waiting tables or tipping or the demographic versus tipping percentage thesis you are working on? nobody cares.
Score = 24
I'll let you know next time I tip at Popeye's, a fast-food restaurant.
Because you usually don't tip at a fast-food restaurant.
Score = 31
Um, Erin, Skip was making a joke. Get over yourself. No need to be so PC
Score = -22
I was a waiter/bartender for 5 years in Bergen County, NJ. I concur with your statement. It's not a mean-spirited racist presumption if it keeps happening. I mean, there are plenty of groups who seem to misunderstand the social obligation to tip reasonably including foreigners, the elderly, and teenagers, among others. But yeah, blacks often represent themselves as members of a cultural group that seems hostile to tipping.
What's unacceptable about saying this, Erin?
Score = 3
Maybe you were a shit waiter?
Just sayin'
Score = 23
is that last woman laughing up at her own outrage when she closed the car door? how could you not, really.
Score = 11
that part made me the :(est, because i thought she was yelling at her kids to be quiet.
Score = 6
Jesus. If the headline implies that the editors took out all the white people to perpetuate a stereotype, walk into a fucking Popeye's. Black people love Popeye's. Ninety-fucking-nine percent of their clientele is African-American. That's not a racial stereotype, that's just cold, hard fact.
Also, yes. Almost all of these people are idiots. Not because they're black. Because they're idiots.
Constantly looking for racism breeds a different kind of racism. It's nice, understanding eggshell racism, but it's still racism.
Score = 25
99% African-American and backed up as fact.
Can you please direct me to the journal that ran the sociological article "BLACK PEOPLE LOVE POPEYES"? Because that sounds like the most fun academic publication ever.
Score = 20
Hyperbolic exaggeration is not your friend, guy.
Score = -9
By definition, hyperbole is exaggeration.
Score = 36
This is true. But hyperbole implies a certain extravagance in an exaggeration. Semantics!
Score = -16
Nope. Still redundant. Your comment should have been constructed as such: "Hyperbole does not enhance the resonance of your statement, sir!"
You're welcome.
Score = 16
You're one-hundred percent right. I was attempting a half-assed defense of my poor grammar. Thank you for calling me out for it. Honestly.
Score = 1
I agree in the sense that I believe there's a very fine line between laughing at racism and laughing at something racist (basically Dave Chapelle's rationale for leaving his show).
I mean I'm sure the (most likely) predominately white kids who laugh at this justify it by saying "we aren't laughing at the stereotype or the black people in the video, we are laughing at the stupid white people who made it", but I'm fairly sure it's also not a video they are going to forward to all their black friends with giant LOLZ scattered underneath it. So I do find it a little hypocritical to pull the "shame on them" routine, while at the same time laughing because of it while making sure there's not a black person within a ten feet radius when you do.
Score = 1
If you ever had Popeyes' biscuits, you'd wish you were black so you could love them as much as I do. So buttery, so good. White folks don't know being black has its perks.
Score = 16
Is the remaining 1% of the Popeye's audience Adam Sandler? Because I know I saw Little Nicky (oops) but Popeye's Chicken is the only thing I even remotely remember about it.
Score = 7
Ah man I forgot about this special they were selling 200 pieces of chicken for a quarter. On another note why does this news story resemble a Dave Chapelle skit? "We were looking forward to this day." And the woman in the beginnig bawling out the recording. :( and more :(
Score = 22
Though I must say, kudos to Gabe for not even noticing the unintentionally racist undertones of this video, for once. He was just showing us how silly it is that a CHICKEN place ran out of CHICKEN. Haha! Crazy!
Score = 4
actually, i think he did notice it. which is why the article is tagged as "fried chicken" and "racism". he probably just assumed everyone would fill in the blanks on their own and an additional call of "HEY HOW ABOUT HOW RACIST THIS IS" wasn't necessary.
Score = -7
Dogs don't know it's sarcastic.
Score = 13
Also the name of the post is "a randomly selected group of people complain about an unstigmatized product". Subtler than usual, but still pretty blatant town.
Score = 2
oh, erin.
c'mon, friend, keep up.
Score = 0
Two sides to this:
A) That Popeye's should have stocked more chicken. When you provide cheap food, people will flock to it (pun possibly intended). Prepare better. That being said...
B) Customers, go elsewhere. Popeye's doesn't owe you a blood debt for this. They ran out of chicken. Just go to fucking Jack in the Box.
The irritating newscaster moment for me was when the anchor said that a bunch of people went to that Popeye's, "maybe because of the recession?"
Gee, you fucking think, lady?
Score = 19
But the Constitution ensures Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of that Special Deal You Saw on TV. Don't you know anything?
BTW, the white kid version of this is when someone finds a bug on Buy.com that makes 42" flat-panel TVs $99 and reports it to Fatwallet ("refresh the BluRay DVD page until it comes up in 'Related Specials,' then buy with Google Checkout and enter coupon code X3JKULLNVRFINDTHS"), only to have Buy.com fix the bug and nullify all the sales that were made. They then tell the world how they'll never shop at Buy.com again and how the Attorney General should do something to get them the TV they were "promised."
Score = -1
Obviously this is a conspiracy by the PIGS! Here me out:
Restaurant runs out of chicken. What do they serve instead? PORK, of course! And then what happens? The swine flu spreads!!!!!!
They will have their revenge.
Score = 7
i think you're onto something, darren.
i think this is like how the CIA introduced crack into the black communities, only with PORK and with the SWINE FLU.
the truth is out there.
I WANT TO BELIEVE.
Score = 0
News Editor: I don't know if we should run this segment.
News Anchor: What? It's a story about the economy and its affect of some presidents.
Score = 11
Hey, give them a break. They were just trying to put food on their families.
Score = 15
Bobbing for thighs?
Score = -1
"One woman even yelled back at the machine!" = we can't believe we actually convinced someone to do this in front of our cameras!
Something tells me she was duped into thinking she was giving her opinion and the reporter said sumptin like "Yell at the voice thingie-itself, it'll be dramatic!"
Score = 4
This is way worse than the Whopper Freakout.
It's almost MORE upsetting that this is REAL LIFE and not some misguided attempt at viral marketing.
I don't know how to feel.
=(
Score = 10
As a black man who loves Popeyes, I completely agree with these people. I went to Popeyes by my school, but they had the nerve to say they weren't offering the special. Damn truck stops. I refused to pay $8.99 though so I left. Thank God for Mickey Ds!
Score = 5
what's the most delicious thing about popeye's?
i've always been curious but haven't ever gone.
what should i order if i go?
seriously.
Score = 0
repetitious redundancy is not your friend, guy.
Score = 0
I bet that Leprechaun took all the chicken up into his tree. Forget the chicken- I WANT THE GOLD!
Score = 14
But did they still have watermelon??????
Score = -9
Ha, this is like that time Gabe saw that Medea movie and commented on the complexion of of the audience. Sometimes racism just happens in real life because the victims don't realize they're falling into the trap!
Score = 2
As someone who lives in Rochester, I'm humiliated this is online. The anchorwoman's eyebrow though has puzzled me for years and maybe this national exposure will give me some answers about that eyebrow. She looks constantly skeptical.
Score = 4
How much gas did these people waste driving around the greater Rochester area trying to find a Popeye's that was open? $5.99 worth?
Score = 12
I'm from Rochester, too. I heard that the Popeye's in the (predominantly white) Penfield area ran out of chicken too. The reporters chose not to go to that location to do their interviews, however. I don't know if there was as much outrage at the Penfield location as the Lake Ave location-- but then, I guess we'll never know because the reporters didn't interview anyone there. I'm not sure if it was a racist so much as just a stupid decision on the reporter's part, but I thought I'd point it out anyway.
Score = 8
I wonder how the children of Darfur feel about this?
Score = 5
hungry.
Score = 8
I wish I'd known about this. I love that chicken at popeye's
Score = 0
It's funny cause they're black.
Score = 0