Steven Spielberg Is A Menace To Puns And Fast Food Burgers
Even if Steven Spielberg is a gazillionaire movie director, you best not try to capitalize off his name in punny tomfoolery, or he will come for you with a social media cease and desist! There’s nothing that gets me going like some wordplay, which is probably why I weighed 900 pounds as a kid from eating so many Cheesecake Factory “glamburgers.” Alas, Steven isn’t here for that, so he’s put the kibosh on a Carl’s Jr. burger that was to be named in his honor.
Carl’s Jr. announced on Monday that it’s renaming its Charbroiled Sliders to “Spielburgers” as a tribute to Steven and Ready Player One, that virtual reality-tripping movie he’s releasing tomorrow. Carl’s may have gotten ahead of themselves because Steven hadn’t signed off yet, but they said he’d totally be down with it:
BIG NEWS GUYS!! As a tribute to the legendary director of #ReadyPlayerOne, we’re going to change the name of our Charbroiled Sliders to #SpielBurgers. @StevenSpielberg hasn’t signed off yet, but we’re pretty sure he’ll be down with it. pic.twitter.com/botJPM0Hjn
— Carl's Jr. (@CarlsJr) March 26, 2018
Steven replied… and not in the way Carl’s would have liked:
OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM READY PLAYER ONE DIRECTOR STEVEN SPIELBERG REGARDING @CarlsJr “SPIELBURGERS” pic.twitter.com/BF8KF4VGc7
— Amblin Entertainment (@AmblinEnt) March 27, 2018
Warner Bros weighed in, too:
.@CarlsJr Appreciate the #ReadyPlayerOne love but this is not approved. https://t.co/utSVlmt5aj
— Warner Bros Pictures (@wbpictures) March 26, 2018
Carl’s has a promo partnership with Ready Player One. Before the back-and-forth, they had been tweeting up a storm about Steven and even stormed the Amblin Entertainment lot to show Steven the burgers (I guess that’s where he suspiciously knew how they tasted…or he’s as much of a fast food shame eater as the rest of us). Even in the face of rejection, Carl’s tried to spin it into a positive:
OMG Spielberg likes our Charbroiled Sliders! (He's not down with #SpielBurgers but we're fine with that) #Sliders #ReadyPlayerOne https://t.co/PYtiY7rT8U
— Carl's Jr. (@CarlsJr) March 27, 2018
Psh, why don’t you firm that wrist, Carl, and stand your ground?! This isn’t like the old days! Now that we have free reign to make up Olivia de Havilland calling her sister a nasty-ass triflin’ ho (or whatever it was she claims Ryan Murphy cajoled Catherine Zeta Jones to say), who is Steven to say we can’t slap his name on a burger?
Pic: Wenn.com