# Hostess Bankruptcy

On November 16, 2012, Hostess Brands went to a United States bankruptcy court to liquidate after an 82-year run, and within the hour Twitter turned the death of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Ho Hos into a mass mock-mourning event. The freakout produced a Zombieland-themed panic, eBay auctions demanding six figures for a single snack cake, and one of the defining junk-food meme moments of 2012.

## Origin
Hostess Brands, the Kansas City company behind Twinkies, Wonder Bread, Ho Hos and Ding Dongs, filed a motion with a United States bankruptcy court on November 16, 2012 asking permission to shut down operations and sell off its assets[6]. The immediate cause was a strike by roughly 6,600 members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers' International Union, who walked out of 24 of the company's 33 baking plants after rejecting a fresh round of pay and benefits cuts[6]. Hostess had emerged from a first Chapter 11 in 2009 and re-filed in January 2012, with creditors led by Silver Point Capital pushing for concessions from the roughly 18,000-person workforce[5]. A 15-year Brooklyn Hostess driver quoted by the New York Post said he was earning $65,000, the same figure as a decade earlier, and refused to vote for any deal with more cuts[5].

The court motion went live before markets opened on Friday, November 16, and social platforms reacted within minutes. Between 9:15 and 10:15 AM EST that morning, Twitter logged 26,807 mentions of 'Hostess,' with 'Twinkies' itself peaking at 20,371 tweets in the hour after[6].

- **Platform:** Twitter (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2012

## Overview
The Hostess Bankruptcy / No More Twinkies moment worked less like a single image macro and more like a coordinated internet wake, spilling across Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and eBay in the space of one afternoon. The jokes fell into a few clean templates: Zombieland riffs invoking Woody Harrelson's Twinkie-hunting Tallahassee[1], mock demands for a Congressional 'Twinkie bailout'[1], and Mayan-doomsday jokes tying the snack cake's death to the coming December 2012 apocalypse[3].

Visual variants ran alongside the tweets. Tumblr's #Hostess and #Twinkies tags filled with farewell image macros, and a single-topic blog called RIP Twinkies posted portraits of the mascot Twinkie the Kid[6]. Buzzfeed pulled together Instagram shots of stripped supermarket shelves and pantries stacked with cellophane-wrapped Ho Hos and Ding Dongs[6]. Politicians got dragged in too: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie joked mid-speech that 'it's bad that I even said the word Twinkies from behind this microphone'[2], and users on both sides of the aisle floated Mitt Romney as a post-election white knight for the company[3].

## How It Spread
The joke tone was set within the first two hours. Death Star PR quipped that 'requests on our Please destroy Earth hotline just tripled'[1], comic writer Ben Schwartz mourned that 'there's nothing to eat to cope with Hostess going out of business'[2], and one popular tweet framed the closure as 'Michelle Obama's Osama bin Laden' in a shot at the First Lady's healthy-eating campaigns[1]. Others reached for pop-culture crossovers, including a widely shared line about Woody Harrelson 'desperately buying every Twinkie he can get his hands on' in a nod to Zombieland[1] and jokes about the Mayan calendar delivering a Twinkie apocalypse before the real one[3].

Mashable, the New York Times' DealBook blog and the New Orleans Times-Picayune all ran roundups of the Twitter reaction the same day[1][2][3]. eBay quickly became the second stage. Within hours the auction site listed thousands of Twinkie-related items, from three sealed boxes of Chocodiles at $89.95 to a single unopened box priced at $500, a half-eaten box marked up to $595, a lone Twinkie starting at $5,000, and one seller pitching a box 'before the Zombie Apocalypse' at a $10,000 opening bid[4]. Buyers and rubberneckers watched top-line 'buy it now' listings climb into seven figures[6].

The story then had a clean second act. Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co. bought the snack-cake business out of bankruptcy in early 2013, and Twinkies officially returned to store shelves on July 15, 2013, with a reformulated cake weighing 38.5 grams and running 135 calories, 3 grams and 15 calories lighter than the pre-bankruptcy version[6]. Fans logged the return with Vine clips of anticipation faces via a promotional site called PrepareYourCakeFace[6].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Hostess Bankruptcy?
It refers to the November 16, 2012 announcement that Hostess Brands would liquidate the company, along with the massive Twitter, Tumblr and eBay reaction that treated it as the death of Twinkies[1].

### Where did Hostess Bankruptcy come from?
The event began when Hostess filed a motion in United States bankruptcy court on November 16, 2012, after a strike by about 6,600 union bakery workers[6].

### What does 'No More Twinkies' mean?
It is the shorthand version of the reaction, treating the shutdown as the disappearance of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Ho Hos from American shelves, before the brands were later sold and relaunched[6].

### How do you use the Hostess Bankruptcy meme?
In 2012 people used it as a template for mock mourning, mostly Zombieland references, jokes about a government 'Twinkie bailout,' and Mayan-apocalypse gags tied to the December 2012 doomsday date[1][3].

### Is the Hostess Bankruptcy meme still popular?
It is a classic 2012 moment rather than an active format; historical coverage on Mashable, DealBook and NOLA is still the main way it is referenced[1][2][3].

### Why did Hostess file for bankruptcy in 2012?
The company had already re-entered Chapter 11 in January 2012, and the November liquidation was triggered when its bakery union rejected fresh pay and benefits cuts, leading roughly 6,600 workers to strike[5][6].

### How did Twitter react to the Hostess news?
Twitter logged 26,807 mentions of 'Hostess' between 9:15 and 10:15 AM EST on November 16, 2012, with 'Twinkies' peaking at 20,371 tweets in the following hour[6].

### What were people selling Twinkies for on eBay?
Listings ran from $89.95 for three sealed Chocodile boxes to $5,000 for a single Twinkie and $10,000 for a box marketed as pre-Zombie Apocalypse insurance[4].

### Did Twinkies actually go away?
No. Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co. bought the snack brands, and Twinkies returned to store shelves on July 15, 2013[6].

### Were the new Twinkies different from the originals?
The relaunched Twinkie weighed 38.5 grams and had 135 calories, roughly 3 grams and 15 calories less than the pre-bankruptcy version[6].

### Did any politicians get involved in the meme?
Yes. Governor Chris Christie joked mid-speech about being unable to say the word 'Twinkies' from a podium, and Senator John McCain tweeted his own reaction to the closure[2][6].

## References
1. [https://mashable.com/2012/11/16/twitter-mourns-twinkies/](<https://mashable.com/2012/11/16/twitter-mourns-twinkies/>)
2. [https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/twitter-mourns-twinkies/](<https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/twitter-mourns-twinkies/>)
3. [https://www.nola.com/dining/index.ssf/2012/11/twitter_remembers_twinkies.html](<https://www.nola.com/dining/index.ssf/2012/11/twitter_remembers_twinkies.html>)
4. [https://mashable.com/2012/11/16/ebay-twinkie-hostess/](<https://mashable.com/2012/11/16/ebay-twinkie-hostess/>)
5. [https://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/skinny_on_cake_talks_jxDdlbcwKjCb3ETI4EIXQO](<https://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/skinny_on_cake_talks_jxDdlbcwKjCb3ETI4EIXQO>)
6. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/hostess-bankruptcy-no-more-twinkies](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/hostess-bankruptcy-no-more-twinkies>)
7. [https://x.com/i/status/269426790798336000](<https://x.com/i/status/269426790798336000>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/hostess-bankruptcy-no-more-twinkies
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