McDonald's "Ran Ran Ru" Commercials — 3D rendered Donald McDonald in yellow jumpsuit with arms raised above head

McDonald's "Ran Ran Ru" Commercials

2007viral videoclassic

Published October 9, 2026

A series of Japanese McDonald's TV spots featuring Donald McDonald chanting 'Ran Ran Ru' became fuel for Niconico Douga MAD video remixes starting in 2007. The chaotic edits, especially one set to a Touhou boss theme, broke out to YouTube and spawned one of the defining Japanese internet video fads of the late 2000s.

japanese internet memes nico nico douga memes mashup video memes advertising memes late 2000s memes

Overview

'Ran Ran Ru' (らんらんるー) is a nonsense catchphrase paired with a two-fingered hand pose used by the Japanese version of Ronald McDonald, called Donald McDonald, to express happiness in a run of early-2000s TV spots1. The meme itself is the MAD video genre that chopped those spots into surreal, often terrifying mashups, usually by cutting Donald's dancing and chanting against unrelated anime, game, or music footage2.

The formula is simple: isolate Donald's uncanny grin, voice samples, and 'Ran Ran Ru' gesture, then loop or sync them to something incongruous. Later edits leaned harder into horror, speeding him up, drowning him in bass, or syncing his movements to boss themes from games like Touhou and EarthBound3. Western viewers who found the videos through YouTube reuploads mostly read them as nightmare fuel rather than kid-friendly ad parody, which is a big part of why they stuck4.

Origin & Background

Platform
Niconico Douga (NND) / YouTube (viral spread)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2007

Between 2004 and 2007, McDonald's Japan aired a series of short spots titled 'Ronald Rumors' (ドナルドのうわさ, Donald no uwasa) in which Donald McDonald asked trivia questions about himself and struck his 'Ran Ran Ru' pose. The ads were aimed at children and pointed viewers to answers on the McDonald's Japan website5. One commonly circulated example of the original ad has been archived on YouTube1.

The meme format itself started on Niconico Douga. On May 3, 2007, user すこぺん posted a mashup of one of the 'Ran Ran Ru' spots with footage from the tokusatsu show Ultraman Mebius, which the KYM entry identifies as the earliest known 'Ran Ran Ru' edit4. The original Niconico upload is still listed on the site6.

How It Spread

The genre broke out when Niconico editors started pairing Donald with cult music tracks. On December 6, 2007, a Niconico user uploaded a remix mashing a 'Ran Ran Ru' clip with 'U.N. Owen Was Her,' the Flandre Scarlet boss theme from the Touhou Project game Embodiment of Scarlet Devil2. A follow-up edit in the same vein was uploaded on January 1, 2008, then reposted to YouTube that day by user mrhorseshoe under the title 'Ronald McDonald insanity.' That YouTube version was the gateway for North American viewers and racked up tens of millions of views3.

On Niconico itself, 'Ran Ran Ru' was grouped with Werther's Original and Nerunerunerune edits as part of what Japanese users jokingly called the 'Three Major Religions of NND' (ニコニコ三大宗教)4. The fad also crossed into other fan projects: on December 17, 2007, Japanese M.U.G.E.N creator kishio released a Ronald McDonald character for the freeware fighter, using voice samples ripped straight from the 'Ran Ran Ru' commercials and sprites edited from Dio Brando in Capcom's JoJo's Bizarre Adventure PlayStation game7.

MAD creators kept piling on new source material. A March 17, 2008 edit synced Donald to the final boss theme of SNES RPG EarthBound, with Giygas visuals layered behind him, a video that English-speaking fans nicknamed 'McGiygas'8. By 2010, Donald's clown appearance plus the shock-cut edits earned the YouTube version a spot on PC World Australia's roundup of the most disturbing YouTube videos of all time4. 'Ran Ran Ru' edits also fed the 'McRoll'd' bait-and-switch tradition, in which videos sucker viewers in before cutting to a Donald remix in the style of Rickrolling4.

Timeline

2004

McDonald's Japan begins airing the 'Ronald Rumors' (ドナルドのうわさ) ad series featuring Donald McDonald's 'Ran Ran Ru' pose.

2007-05-03

Niconico user すこぺん uploads the earliest known 'Ran Ran Ru' MAD, mashing the commercial with Ultraman Mebius.

2007-12-06

A Niconico remix pairs 'Ran Ran Ru' footage with 'U.N. Owen Was Her' from Touhou Project.

2007-12-17

M.U.G.E.N contributor kishio releases a Ronald McDonald fighter using 'Ran Ran Ru' voice samples and modified Dio Brando sprites.

2008-01-01

Mrhorseshoe reuploads a Niconico 'Ran Ran Ru' + 'U.N. Owen Was Her' mashup to YouTube as 'Ronald McDonald insanity.'

2008-03-17

The 'McGiygas' MAD, syncing Donald to EarthBound's Giygas boss theme, is uploaded to Niconico and YouTube.

2010-03-11

PC World Australia lists 'Ronald McDonald Insanity' among the most disturbing YouTube videos of all time.

Frequently Asked Questions