*urrrrp!* Well, Rick and Morty fans, you went and did it. You actually did it. Somehow, you (along with series co-creators Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon) managed to convince McDonald's to bring back the Szechuan dipping sauce. It'll be available for one day only, October 7, and only in select locations, but by god you really did it.
Now, for those of you looking at your screen with a confused, raised eyebrow, here's some context:
Back when season 3 of the popular animated show Rick and Morty premiered, mad scientist anti-hero Rick told his grandson Morty that his motivation for... well, everything, was to once again taste the McDonald's Szechuan dipping sauce - a gooey gravy that was used in 1998 to promote the Disney movie Mulan, and had not been seen (or tasted) since.
Thus, as fans are wont to do, many started begging McDonald's to bring back the dressing. Some tried making their own versions at home. Jars of 19-year old flavor paste (I'm running out of synonyms for "sauce") sold for thousands of dollars on eBay. It was, as they say, A Thing.
Now, McDonald's is bringing the sauce back, along with nine others, to promote its new Buttermilk Crispy Tenders. The company isn't explicitly calling out Rick and Morty, Roiland, or Harmon in the announcement of the sauce's return, but I imagine that has more to do with saving money and legal contracts. On the promotion's official website, Szechuan sauce is called out specifically as worthy of "pop-culture status" and each sauce gets an associated poster. Here's the one for Szechuan:
Aliens, portals, and a font that calls to mind the Rick and Morty logo? Feels like a definite wink-and-nod to me. Just plan ahead and make sure your local McD's will be serving up Rick's favorite sauce, and you too can feel like a morally ambivalent super genius for a day.
