What is Painfully Thick?

A McDonald's milkshake ad slogan that turned into a reaction image and Drakeposting template in the late 2010s, mostly used in anime meme circles.

Where did Painfully Thick come from?

A McDonald's billboard campaign advertising thick milkshakes; the earliest saved online post about it came from Falkon Digital on November 30, 2009.

What does Painfully Thick mean?

In the ad it described the milkshake's texture, but online it plays on the thicc slang term for curvy or heavy-bodied.

How do you use Painfully Thick?

Pair the ad photo with an image of an oversized or curvy subject, or slot the phrase into the approving panel of a Drakeposting template.

Is Painfully Thick still popular?

Peak use was 2018 and 2019 in anime subreddits like r/saber, and activity tapered off as thicc slang itself faded.

Painfully Thick

2009reaction imagedeclining

Published September 20, 2026

Painfully Thick started as a McDonald's advertising slogan for their milkshakes and later took on a second life online as a reaction image and Drakeposting template. The phrase found new meaning once thicc hit slang vocabulary, giving the ad copy an accidental double meaning that anime and meme communities ran with through the late 2010s.

advertising memes double entendre memes fast food memes accidental fame memes reaction memes

Overview

The joke hinges on a collision between McDonald's straight-faced billboard copy and the thicc slang term that spread through internet English in the mid-2010s1. Reaction versions pair the phrase with images of curvy characters, oversized food, or dense-looking objects, letting the ad copy carry the punchline on its own.

The format also fed into Drakeposting variants, where Painfully Thick sat in the second panel as a mock stamp of approval on whatever the poster was hyping up2. Anime communities did the heaviest lifting with it, tacking the McDonald's photo onto edits of visual novel characters and Fate/Grand Order fanart.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

McDonald's ad campaign (source) / Reddit (viral spread)

Date

2009

The McDonald's ad ran Painfully Thick as a straight sell for how dense their milkshakes were. The earliest saved commentary appeared on November 30, 2009 from Falkon Digital, who flagged a Painfully Thick billboard placed directly next to a L'Oreal ad featuring Cheryl Cole2. The unfortunate side-by-side placement is what got the phrase circulating in the first place, since neither the ad agency nor McDonald's created the meme themselves.

How It Spread

The image bounced around ad-culture blogs through 2010, including the charlottehancocks blogspot and the McDonald's-tracking site McServed2. Cheezburger picked it up on July 7, 2014, and Jokideo posted a "That's What She Said" version two days later on July 9, 20142.

Real momentum only arrived once thicc became mainstream slang for curvy body types1. On March 4, 2018, Reddit user koalamaster12334433 made a Doki Doki Literature Club image macro using the phrase that pulled over 870 upvotes. On March 20, 2019, user ProffesionalWaifu posted an edit on the r/saber subreddit that crossed 1,000 points2. From there the ad photo became a stock element in anime waifu edits, though usage tapered as thicc slang itself aged out.

Timeline

2009-11-30

Falkon Digital posts the earliest known commentary on the Painfully Thick billboard, pointing out its placement next to a L'Oreal Cheryl Cole ad.

2014-07-07

Cheezburger reposts the McDonald's ad image, giving it wider meme-audience reach.

2014-07-09

Jokideo posts a "That's What She Said" joke built around the same billboard photo.

2018-03-04

Reddit user koalamaster12334433 posts a Doki Doki Literature Club image macro using the phrase that gathers over 870 upvotes.

2019-03-20

User ProffesionalWaifu posts a Painfully Thick edit to r/saber that crosses 1,000 points.