Full disclosure here: my girlfriend works for Grubhub. I’ve done contract work for Grubhub creating some internal videos for training and such. But neither of us – I swear to you – had ANYTHING to do with this particular piece of internet infamy.
There’s this ad, see, called “Delivery Dance.” It features animation reminiscent of the sort of those hastily-made Illumination movies, with dancing folks generally celebrating food set to some, er, difficult-to-ignore music.
For certain TV watchers, it’s been more or less constant. The YouTube upload of the spot has a rather surprising 6.6 million view count at the time of writing, but not for the reasons the company would probably celebrate. The like to dislike ratio is appalling, and the comments have been disabled altogether.
It is, for better or for worse, one of the year’s first memes.
10. First time
People are shocked – SHOCKED by what they see.
Just saw the grubhub ad for the first time pic.twitter.com/XNWSIYgFfo
— RKzero10 – COMMISSIONS CLOSED (@RKzero10) January 11, 2021
9. Repetition
Like so many ads, it’s generally irritating but forgettable at first. The pain sets in when you’re involuntarily shown it over and over and over and over and over…
if i see the grubhub commercial one more time i will crush someone’s head with an anvil pic.twitter.com/kAGToQ5AtN
— spaggin (@spaggin1) January 6, 2021
8. The cringe
Soon the remixes started coming in.
grubhub ad, but it's just the kid cringing pic.twitter.com/FiaB4of1NT
— Silvanatorr (@Silvanatorr20) January 10, 2021
7. Get into it
And then the nihilistic lean-ins reminiscent of old school YouTube Poop.
I hated the GrubHub ad so much I made it worse pic.twitter.com/kU47relzlW
— Kinng (@KinngYeen) January 5, 2021
6. Hate
People really REALLY do not like this ad.
Fun question, out of everyone in the Grubhub commercial, who do you fucking hate the most pic.twitter.com/Eukyo8AZLS
— Post ☕️🌿 | Reading Chainsaw Man (@postsynthpink) January 6, 2021
5. Your pick
Some form personal vendettas against specific characters.
The salad lady made the grubhub commercial like 7 times worse and dont even get me started on the mcchicken guy pic.twitter.com/4z0DGghxOO
— Lucas 🎨 (@AlolanToaster) January 5, 2021
4. A legacy
The lore of this dark bit of madness is getting deeper.
grubhub commercial 2 pic.twitter.com/7xPVLN915y
— binej yeah (@binej_yeah) January 10, 2021
3. Reaction?
They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but Grubhub doesn’t seem to know what to do.
When Grubhub becomes the first meme of 2021 and our social media manager did not prepare for it pic.twitter.com/uj9mcll0Eu
— Grubhub (@Grubhub) January 12, 2021
2. Nice try
There was an attempt to cash in on it.
— Grubhub (@Grubhub) January 11, 2021
1. Cringe
But ultimately, we’re all just staring at it like this.
This you? pic.twitter.com/3kQJtFGEWT
— Grubhub (@Grubhub) January 8, 2021
May god rest the souls of each and every one of us who have endured this horror. Amen.
What’s your take on the ad?
Let us know in the comments.