The first episode of the latest season of "Rick and Morty" had a strong message to send: Bring back our favorite McDonald's sauce from the '90s!
The Adult Swim show's fans were not expecting the show to return on April 1 after a nearly two-year hiatus. Assuming it to be an April Fools' Day prank, many people did not even check to see the Season 3 premiere on Adult Swim.
There was one thing in particular that the wildly popular TV show addressed that people have taken note of: On the show, we get a glimpse of Rick Sanchez' origin story, in which (spoiler alert!) we learn that his raison d'etre is to bring back McDonald's Szechuan sauce that the fast food giant released in 1998 to promote Disney's "Mulan."
"That's my series arc," Rick says, adding that it's going to take him nine seasons until he is able to find more of the sauce.
Since then, the show's agenda has snowballed out of control into a massive viral campaign to get the sauce back, starting with Rick and Morty's Twitter page, where Dan Harmon and his team of writers begged McDonald's and even God to bring it back.
"Please God, I don't ask for much, please let us gain enough cultural influence to force McDonald's into bringing back that f***ing sauce," tweeted the show's account.
They even tweeted at McDonald's to help them out. The fast food chain responded rather cryptically.
.@McDonalds
— Rick (((and Morty))) (@RickandMorty) April 2, 2017
you wanna get in on this?
Call me.
Here is the original 1998 ad for the sauce, if you are feeling nostalgic:
McDonald's "Mulan" Commercial (1998) https://t.co/A4xtuikACC
— Rick (((and Morty))) (@RickandMorty) April 2, 2017
And legions of fans of both "Rick and Morty" and the sweet, savory nugget sauce hopped on board, creating a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" request for "Someone who has tried McDonald's Szechuan sauce," according to Grubstreet. At least two petitions to revive the sauce popped up on Change.org, each of which have more than 17,000 signatures as of April 3.
Since Disney is making a live-action remake of "Mulan" in 2018, we are crossing our fingers that the sauce fans get their wish and have the opportunity to stock up on a lifelong supply of the stuff if it does return.