Where did Burger Emoji Debate come from?

Danish media analyst Thomas Baekdal kicked it off on October 28, 2017, with a tweet comparing Apple and Google's burger emoji builds side by side[5].

What does Burger Emoji Debate mean?

The name refers to the argument that Google's cheeseburger emoji stacked the ingredients incorrectly compared to Apple's, and by extension every platform drawing the burger differently[1].

How do you use Burger Emoji Debate?

People reference the debate as a template for mock-serious criticism of emoji design, often complete with diagrams and ingredient physics arguments[1].

Is Burger Emoji Debate still popular?

The fight peaked over one weekend in late October 2017 and is now cited as a classic example of Twitter arguing about pixel-level tech design[2].

Who is Thomas Baekdal?

Baekdal is a Danish media analyst and author whose October 28, 2017 tweet comparing Apple and Google's burger emojis set off the debate[5].

What was wrong with Google's burger emoji?

Google's design put the cheese underneath the patty and directly against the bottom bun, which critics said defied both burger physics and taste[1].

What was wrong with Apple's burger emoji?

Apple placed the lettuce underneath the patty, which many users argued would wilt the leaf against the hot meat[6].

Did Google fix the burger emoji?

Pichai publicly promised to address the emoji the following Monday if the internet could agree on the correct build[4].

Burge is the editor of Emojipedia and vice-chair of the Unicode emoji subcommittee, and he ran polls and outreach to burger chains during the debate[6].

Burger Emoji Debate

Q: What is Burger Emoji Debate?

It was a viral October 2017 Twitter argument about how tech companies stacked the ingredients in the cheeseburger emoji, especially Google's decision to place cheese under the patty[1].

Q: What did Sundar Pichai say about the burger emoji?

The Google CEO tweeted, 'Will drop everything else we are doing and address on Monday:) if folks can agree on the correct way to do this!'[5]

2017eventclassic

Published August 17, 2026

The Burger Emoji Debate was a viral October 2017 argument over how Google, Apple, and other tech giants stacked the ingredients in the cheeseburger emoji. Twitter user Thomas Baekdal sparked the fight by comparing Google's cheese-under-patty design against Apple's lettuce-under-patty build, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai publicly promised to fix it.

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Overview

The Burger Emoji Debate was a viral October 2017 argument about how tech companies stacked the ingredients in the cheeseburger emoji. The core complaint was that Google's design placed the cheese underneath the meat patty, directly against the bottom bun, while Apple's version put the lettuce underneath the patty so the cheese and tomato sat on top1. Neither choice matched the classic American bun-salad-cheese-patty-bun build, and Twitter turned it into a weekend-long fight.

The disagreement pulled in Google CEO Sundar Pichai, dozens of mainstream news outlets, and Jeremy Burge, the editor of Emojipedia and vice-chair of the Unicode emoji subcommittee6. The Verge published its coverage under the nickname 'Burgergate'1. Different platforms drew the burger emoji wildly differently: Microsoft went with the American archetype stack, WhatsApp added ketchup, HTC used a double patty with a lettuce divider, and Mozilla stripped everything back to a slice of cheese on a sesame bun2.

The hamburger emoji itself was approved as part of Unicode 6.0 in 2010 and added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015, and every company had been free to draw its own version since7. The 2017 argument was the first time users at scale actually compared the designs side by side and got mad about the differences.

Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter

Creator

Thomas Baekdal

Date

2017

The Burger Emoji Debate had an early rumble in March 2017, when Twitter user @rgov posted a comparison of Samsung and Facebook's cheeseburger emojis. He called out both companies for melting the cheese on top of the lettuce and tweeted, 'Also who melts cheese OVER the lettuce? Samsung and FB.' Two days later, a Facebook designer replied that 'the emoji chef' had been sent 'back into the kitchen' with a fresh burger design3.

The main flashpoint hit on October 28, 2017, when Danish media analyst Thomas Baekdal tweeted side-by-side images of Apple and Google's burger emojis with the caption, 'I think we need to have a discussion about how Google's burger emoji is placing the cheese underneath the burger, while Apple puts it on top'5. Within two days, Baekdal's post picked up more than 17,000 retweets, 35,000 likes, and 1,500 replies4.

How It Spread

The argument jumped from Baekdal's mentions to the entire platform inside a day. Twitter user @KeiyosX posted a diagram trying to settle the correct build, while @MarkGoodge tweeted, 'They're both wrong. Google's cheese is wrong, Apple's lettuce is wrong. The correct order, from bottom up, is burger, cheese, toppings'3. Physics arguments and appeals to In-N-Out and Five Guys stacked up all weekend1.

On October 29, 2017, Google CEO Sundar Pichai posted the reply that turned this into a full news story: 'Will drop everything else we are doing and address on Monday:) if folks can agree on the correct way to do this!'5. The internet immediately failed to reach any agreement, with reply-guys arguing over whether lettuce touching a hot patty was a war crime and whether cheese needed the patty's heat to melt properly6.

Coverage went wide fast. Twitter published a dedicated Moments page about the fight, and outlets including CNN, USA Today, BBC News, The Washington Post, and Business Insider ran their own writeups3. Ars Technica published a piece titled 'How hard is it to draw a cheeseburger?' with an audit of platform designs2. Fox News covered Pichai's promise to fix Google's emoji4, and Mashable tracked how Jeremy Burge started polling Twitter users and reaching out to burger chains to figure out the real-world stacking order6.

How to Use This Meme

The Burger Emoji Debate itself became a reference template for any online argument about emoji design. Posts typically frame the fight as mock-serious food criticism, complete with ingredient physics arguments like 'how do you cook it to drip down the bun like that?' and appeals to real burger chains as culinary authorities1. When a company redesigns an emoji today, users often bring up the burger fight as the case study for what happens when the details go wrong.

Cultural Impact

The debate raised the profile of Emojipedia and Jeremy Burge, who used the moment to publish public research on stacking order across platforms and to survey burger chains directly6. Sundar Pichai's willingness to publicly promise a Monday fix showed how quickly a CEO could get dragged into a viral trivia fight over pixels. Mashable pointed out that the argument even upstaged breaking political news on certain networks over the weekend6, and HuffPost joked that the story took precedence over 'way more important news' at certain outlets5.

Frequently Asked Questions

References (7)