Hamburger Straws — Two McDonald's cups with burgers on top and straws stuck through the buns, held in front of red roses

Hamburger Straws

2017photo faddead

Published October 26, 2026

Hamburger Straws is a photo fad in which someone sticks a plastic straw through a fast food hamburger and into a soda cup below, so burger and drink share one piece of plastic. The gag spread on Japanese Instagram in July 2017 after a similar doughnut and iced coffee setup made the rounds in late 2016. By July 24, English-language outlets including Kotaku and Eater had written it up1.

photo fad memes japanese internet memes fast food memes instagram memes 2017 memes

Overview

Posters usually shot the burger from the side so the straw ran vertically through the bun, the patty and the lid of a soft drink cup underneath. McDonald's cups and burgers appear in many Japanese examples, because the chain's medium drink and standard burger fit the vertical stack well1.

The arrangement is almost impossible to eat, since biting around the straw would open a leak in the cup, so the point was always the still life rather than lunch. Western writers who covered the stunt treated it as a visual gag with no caption or message attached, and the NY Mag Select All writer who tried it at a Manhattan McDonald's reported feeling "dumb" doing it2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Instagram (Japan) / 2channel (viral spread)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2017

Before hamburgers, a related photo fad in Japan paired a glazed doughnut with an iced coffee through a single straw. On November 19, 2016, Instagram account dumbodc posted a doughnut version of the gag5, which Know Your Meme flagged as evidence the setup was already growing in Japan in late 20164.

The earliest known hamburger recreation came on July 16, 2017, from Instagram user oym_, who speared a wrapped burger with a straw that reached into a soft drink below3. That post sat at around 120 likes when it was documented4.

How It Spread

Two days after oym_'s photo, on July 18, 2017, Instagram user uwasalabo posted another hamburger example that gathered more than 2,300 likes4. More recreations appeared on Japanese Instagram over the following week.

On July 24, several examples were collected in a 2channel thread titled "最近のJKはハンバーガーにストローぶっ挿すのが流行りらしいぞ" (translated from Japanese: "apparently it's trendy for high school girls these days to stab straws through hamburgers")6. Kotaku wrote it up the same day, with Mashable7, NY Mag's Select All2 and Eater1 all publishing their own takes within about 24 hours.

Select All's write-up stood out because the writer actually bought a Big Mac and a soda in a Manhattan McDonald's and tried the stunt in public2. After that late-July burst of English-language coverage, the fad faded.

Timeline

2016-11-19

Instagram account dumbodc posts a doughnut and iced coffee version of the single-straw gag, an early example of the format in Japan[5].

2017-07-16

Instagram user oym_ posts the earliest known hamburger version, with a straw running through the burger and into a soft drink[3].

2017-07-18

Instagram user uwasalabo posts a hamburger example that gathers more than 2,300 likes[4].

2017-07-24

A 2channel thread collects several hamburger straw photos[6], and Kotaku writes about the trend the same day.

2017-07-24

Mashable publishes its own write-up of the Japanese fad[7].

2017-07-24

NY Mag's Select All runs a first-person piece from a Manhattan McDonald's attempt[2].

2017-07-25

Eater covers the fad for its food news audience, closing out the week of mainstream coverage[1].

How to Use This Meme

A typical hamburger straw photo starts with a wrapped fast food burger set on top of a soft drink cup, straw already fitted into the lid. The straw is driven straight down through the top bun and patty until it rests inside the cup, then photographed from the side so the full vertical line of the straw is visible2. Posters often use McDonald's packaging because the medium cup width matches a standard sandwich footprint.

Frequently Asked Questions