A TikToker’s filmed attempt at pranking a McDonald’s drive-thru employee is sparking a debate about minimum wage workers and customer etiquette.
The resulting video is the most popular upload on user @phillicia4’s page by far. It has collected 4.4 million views in the two days since it went up, along with several hundred thousand likes.
The video wastes no time on set up. It simply begins as Phillicia approaches a McDonald’s drive-thru window in her car, revealing a young blonde employee with a prepped bag in hand. As the employee hands over Phillicia’s meal, the young TikToker asks after “my shake,” a request which clearly confuses the employee. The worker’s note that Phillicia only ordered “some nuggets” is almost immediately cut off by the first lines of Splack Pack’s “Shake That Ass Bitch.”
As the band bellows out “shake that ass bitch and let me see whatcha got,” Phillicia drops her nuggets to the side of her seat and starts to dance. The McDonald’s employee’s face remains mostly impassive, gradually shifting from a polite, polished customer service smile into a confused deadpan, before ultimately landing on a marginally amused smirk as Phillicia drives away.
The video sparked an immediate debate among viewers, the vast majority of whom found the clip “embarrassing.”
“Hurts to even watch,” one commenter noted. Most people agreed, calling the stunt “cringe” and “lame,” with many noting that fast-food employees don’t get paid enough to be props in people’s TikToks.
“Ain’t nobody McLaughin,” one person wrote. While most were busy roasting Phillicia, however, some commenters arrived to defend her. They noted that fast food can be a boring job and predicted that the employee may have appreciated the joke.
“This definitely made her day,” one person said of the employee.
Most people agreed that TikTok clout is not worth tying up an employee’s time, however, and told Phillicia to “just let people work.”
Phillicia, for her part, doesn’t seem disheartened by the negative comments. She’s continuing to make TikToks of her more typical fare, which see her making jokes and performing physical comedy for laughs.
Phillicia could not be reached for comment.
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