There was a lot of discussion this week about the Hamburglar ‘Cuda, which is the surprisingly tasteful restomod that the McDonald’s corporation created to celebrate Hamburglar. Does Hamburglar require celebrating? Is this a case of McDonald’s trying to make fetch happen or is he an actual beloved figure that helps move hamburgers? I have my doubts.
The lack of backstory for the Hamburglar is annoying. I gotta admit. It wasn’t something I thought much about and it wasn’t something I was planning on devoting a few hours of my life to, but this is The Autopian and this is what happens.
This week has been one of our best weeks for new membership, so thank you to all of you who joined and, of course, thank you to all of you who have been here since Day 1. Or Day 432. Whatever day it is, we’re grateful, and now I’m excited to make you immediately regret it with all the conversations we had about the Hamburglar. Not even all of them. Honestly, there was apparently a whole earlier period of Hamburglar talk I forgot about until just now:
In case you missed the article, here is the Burger ‘Cuda:
They did a good job.
My theory, and the very expensive muscle car restoration only supports this, is that the Hamburglar is just a bored rich kid committing crimes of attention. There’s no good economic reason to steal hamburgers and he does it so brazenly it’s the only thing that makes sense. He even dresses like a criminal!
I don’t buy it.
This Slack Tales is making me super hungry, actually. I just want to note that this conversation started at 7:30 in the AM and sticks around until about 8:23 AM as we’re all variously working in between talking about a fictional hamburger thief.
We move on for a bit but Jason can’t let it go.
One would assume this would be the end of it. It was not:
Is he a Robin Hood? Is he just stealing from the rich and giving to the poor? I hadn’t considered it, but maybe?
Wait, Adrian worked at a McDonald’s? For some reason we just let this drop, because…
I’m not sure, actually, but I will always get distracted by a Simpsons quote:
This is such a great episode. I just watched it with my kiddo.
So, I think I learned a few things here, but the biggest is that Adrian keeps trying to defend the Hamburglar, and also worked at McDonald’s and, um, is Adrian actually the Hamburglar? Here’s what the original one looked like:
And here’s Adrian:
I mean…
In other news, after spending all morning talking about the Hamburglar, this happened:
SMDH.
You know, I feel like a similar conversation once happened at the old site, except in that case they unironically posted that asinine article trying to explain how train thieves were really the victims here. Somehow making it about the Hamburglar actually allows it to make more sense, which is not something I ever expected to write. 🙂
I have it on good authority that the Hamburgler is paid well for his shenanigans.
He’s an inside man, employed by McDonald’s, paid under the table.
He (actually they) is hired to tail health inspectors.
In the event that one visits a poorly managed McDonald’s his (their) duty is to interfere with the inspection in the most confounding way possible.
He (they) must be seen as an outsider.
A random thief causing chaos the instant said health inspector walks into the establishment.
“Inspection? Did you see what that masked man just did? He destroyed the place. It’s gonna take us a few days to clean up before we are operational again.”
An elite Hamburgler can cause such a burger stealing scene that nobody notices his true intent of hiding all the makings of the McRib as he escapes, decoy burgers in hand.
Trust me. I know the truth.
I was a Hamburgler.
I now live in fear for speaking out about it.
Every knock on my door, every stop light where a car cuts in front of me and blocks me in…
Every stranger that gets too close to me in public…
I’m just biding my time in this world.
Waiting for the Grim Ace to shuffle my soul across the golden arched bridge over the river Styx.
So is Hamburglar like batman, but does crime instead of fights it, and steals hamburgers instead of… well, actually that sounds like something a E-list batman villain would do.
They’re almost ALL E-list!
What’s stuck in my head now is a mashup of Jason’s revision of the word ‘Hamburgler’ with the Simpsons episode where Homer joins the Navy.
“Burg-u-lar. It’s pronounced Burg-u-lar.”
Am I the only one assuming Adrian was absolutely fired from his gig at McDonald’s? I’m going out on a limb here to say it was related to sardonic customer service and a liberal definition of “punctual”.
The very qualities that got me hired at the Autopian.
Seeing how people in those sort of jobs get treated by customers, I can’t blame them for becoming jaded at work. I had my share of bad customer encounters working at a clinic, but the pay was decent and my family had health insurance.
I worked there 90-96. It was a different time.McDonald’s took customer service (along with a lot of other things) very seriously, and the majority of customers weren’t the entitled spoilt toddlers they are today. I ended up assistant store manager.
Glad that you were there before the era of people going viral. And I meant no offense with my earlier joke about what the Hamburgler does with his loot, it was another long week at the hospital and we were all openly dropping F bombs and making crude jokes to let some steam off. I can’t tell Aetna to get fucked over the phone no matter how badly I want to.
I respect that The Autopian is a better site than that and I will behave better in the future.
Is part of the job being obligated to wear autopian clothing, or, even better, do you just photoshop that on later no doubt against Adrian’s protests?
“I’m not sending you any more freakin’ photos if you keep doing this!”
“Yeah? Next one goes on your hair.”
I wore that specifically for that article. I couldn’t take it off fast enough when I got home because the colours were bringing me out in a rash.
I’m sticking with my explanation that he fucks those burgers. He doesn’t need money if he can restomod a classic Barracuda, and his ass would be dead if he ate everything he stole. He takes the burgers home, violates them, and puts them back on the warmers.
Jesus what is wrong with you.
Whatever thought process ended in that conclusion must have been a hell of a ride.
Criminals are motivated by money, hunger, and perversion. I’ve watched enough TV to know that. This guy doesn’t steal because he needs to. He probably has a steady job and does this on the side. The costume? Not exactly inconspicuous. Now he has a unique car that will be leaving every crime scene. He’s flaunting it.
Criminals are motivated by money, hunger, and perversion. I’ve watched enough TV to know that.
Sigh. Another victim of the CSI effect…
The early version definitely looks the part. He’s a scary looking… whatever he is.
Dude, that’s a road we don’t want to go down!
Amen!
I flew a little, er, a lot off the handle with that one.