# The Burger King The Burger King is the plastic-faced advertising mascot that Burger King's agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky revived in October 2004, starting with the unsettling 'Wake Up With the King' commercial. His frozen grin and oversized head quickly earned him the nickname 'Creepy King' and spawned a wave of YTMND remixes built around the caption 'where is your god now?' ## Origin Burger King launched the modern King character in October 2004, shortly after hiring the Miami agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky as its lead creative firm[4]. The first commercial in the campaign, 'Wake Up With the King,' showed a man rolling over in bed to discover the King staring at him with a breakfast sandwich in hand[2]. Slate's ad critic reported that the plastic-headed look was reverse-engineered from a vintage helium balloon tank fixture spotted on eBay, intended to make the brand impossible to mistake for McDonald's[1]. The 'Creepy King' nickname surfaced on the Free Republic chat board on October 25, 2005, where user pabianice complained about waking up to 'a hulking Burger King with a frozen face, mouth open' and getting creeped out by the whole series[3]. That reading of the character spread fast, and the agency leaned into it with follow-ups like the Super Bowl XL 'Whopperettes' spot in February 2006[4]. - **Platform:** Television (ad campaign) / YTMND (viral spread) - **Creator:** Crispin Porter + Bogusky (mascot redesign); ilpadrino86 (earliest known YTMND remix) - **Date:** 2004 ## Overview The Burger King is the fast-food chain's human-costumed mascot, redesigned in 2004 with a rigid plastic face and an oversized bejeweled crown that made him look like a frozen bobblehead rather than a cheerful spokesman[1]. The look came from a helium tank fixture that a Crispin Porter + Bogusky employee found on eBay while hunting for ideas, and the agency built an entire campaign around his silent, staring presence[1]. The joke, intentional or not, was that the King acted like a stalker. Commercials put him next to men's beds, outside their windows, and in locker rooms, holding a sandwich and saying nothing[2]. Online, people cropped his gaping grin into reaction images, pasted him into horror movie stills, and ran it under the stock caption 'where is your god now?'[3]. The character became known as the 'Creepy King,' a nickname Burger King itself eventually used in the Xbox game Sneak King[4]. ## How to Use The template typically pairs a still of the King's rigid, grinning face with a dramatic or hopeless scene, captioned 'where is your god now?' Common conventions include dropping him into horror movie frames (replacing the alien in Signs or standing behind someone in Prince of Darkness) and pitting him against Ronald McDonald in YTMND-style loops with pulsing music[4]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is The Burger King? The Burger King is a fast-food advertising mascot with a stiff plastic face and oversized crown, redesigned by Crispin Porter + Bogusky in 2004 and nicknamed the 'Creepy King' online[1]. ### Where did The Burger King come from? The modern character debuted in the October 2004 commercial 'Wake Up With the King,' in which he appeared uninvited at a man's bedside offering a breakfast sandwich[2]. ### What does The Burger King mean? Online, the King is shorthand for stalker-mascot humor, most often paired with the caption 'where is your god now?' first used in a March 2005 YTMND page[4]. ### How do you use The Burger King? People typically paste the King's frozen grin into horror movie stills or dramatic scenes under the 'where is your god now?' caption, a format that fueled YTMND fads like 'It's Behind' and 'Ultimate Bedside Surprise'[4]. ### Is The Burger King still popular? Burger King retired the mascot in August 2011 after dropping Crispin Porter + Bogusky, so the character is now a classic 2000s meme rather than an active ad presence[4]. ## References 1. [https://www.slate.com/articles/business/ad_report_card/2004/10/the_return_of_the_king.html]() 2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4_5qoy4oaQ]() 3. [https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1508997/posts]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-burger-king]() 5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o_lzS_O88k]() 6. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHt9oSpzmec]() 7. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1KajrPR85s]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/the-burger-king Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library