It seems like dunking on millennials will never go out of style.
The latest victim of this Gen-Z-led campaign? Overpriced burger joints — specifically those owned by and marketed to millennials.
You know the type: exposed brick, steel stools and truffle fries. The burgers cost $20 and the ketchup comes in a little metal cup. Instead of listing appetizers and entrees, the menu contains “shareables” and “handhelds.”
On TikTok, creators have been making videos of the meme using the song “We Will Never Die” by comedian Kyle Gordon. Gordon is known for his parody songs (see: ‘90s-style Eurodance hit “Planet of the Bass”) that very accurately capture a specific era and aesthetic.
“We Will Never Die” pokes fun at peak 2010s millennial culture, down to the tiny scarf, skinny jeans and fedora.
First posted on Feb. 2, the video has received 14 million views, and the song has been used in nearly 10,000 videos — and many of these videos are making fun of people’s local “millennial” burger joint.
Jake Continenza, a 26-year-old content creator from Minneapolis, Minnesota, went to his local burger spot to hop on the trend. In a video that has been seen 8 million times, Continenza went to Burger Press in Edina, Minnesota.
In his video, you see him walking into the burger spot, ordering his food, paying and eating inside of the establishment, with the text on screen reading, “Two best buds from college with a ‘crazy’ dream ahh burger joint.” This was his second time eating there.
“I actually found out that burger [spot] and then the restaurant next to it next to is like a shawarma place and they’re actually owned by like immigrant from Cairo, Egypt,” Continenza tells TODAY.com.
“I didn’t say anything bad about the restaurant. Like the food was good … I would never like go to any small business and take a shot at them or said food. I was like, this mostly about the trend,” he adds.
Restaurants and chefs are also poking fun of themselves, asking TikTok if they’re also a millennial restaurant cliche.
Woodman Burgers, a chef making burgers in his garden in the U.K., called them “handhelds” in his video, which garnered 9.4 million views.
Raleigh’s Pub in Berkeley, California asked, “Chat are we cooked?” while showcasing its burgers and pub in a TikTok that’s been viewed 4.2 million times.
Kyle Gordon even joined in on the trend, popping into his own burger spot in his millennial character. Later, he apologized “to the entire hamburger community” at Cubby’s, a burger joint in New York City, while profusely shaking the skeptical owner’s hand, “for the pain that I’ve caused him and his industry.”
“So many of [these burger joints] just have so many commonalities, especially with … those metal stools [and] the hanging lights,” says Continenza. “It’s just kind of the kind of the same aesthetic at all those places. I mean, it must work because a bunch of them are popping up and they seem to be doing well, so I mean, they probably know something we don’t.”
And what’s the Gen-Z equivalent? “Maybe like an In-N-Out-style of burger?” he suggests.
