11 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Burger King’s Whopper
Updated: Mar. 11, 2024
Which came first: the Whopper or the Big Mac? Find out the answer, plus more fun facts you never knew about the 61-year-old burger.
It predates the Big Mac
By more than ten years, as a matter of fact. While McDonald’s and Burger King have both been around since the 1950s, Mickey D’s didn’t introduce the Big Mac until 1968. The Whopper, meanwhile, debuted in 1957, when co-founder Jim McLamore noticed that a rival burger joint was having success with an extra-large burger. He chose the name “Whopper” to automatically conjure thoughts of something big.
Its original price was 37 cents
Ah, how times have changed; when the Whopper first debuted in the 1950s, it would only set you back 37 cents, according to Politico. Today, you’ll get one for an average of $4.19. In celebration of the burger’s 55th anniversary in 2012, the price did drop back down to 55 cents for a brief time. Well, sort of—it was a buy-one-get-one deal.
Whopper or Big Mac?
This seems to be the primary question that American burger aficionados are most inclined to argue about, simply because these are the two most popular burgers at their respective franchises. But in actuality, it’s not an apples to apples comparison. The Whopper, with its quarter-pound patty, is actually much more similar to a McDonald’s Big N’ Tasty, a 1997 addition. Burger King had introduced a Big Mac equivalent with two patties called “the Big King,” also in 1997. Despite each brand’s not-so-veiled attempts to recreate the competitor’s signature sandwich, the primary rivalry between the Whopper and the Mac continues to this day. Check out more facts you never knew about the McDonald’s Big Mac.
There was an “Angry” version at one point
In 2009, Burger King released a limited-edition burger called the “Angry Whopper.” In addition to all of the usual Whopper components, this burger also had spicy crispy onions, pepper jack cheese, jalapeños, and a spicy “angry sauce.” Some consumers thought that it wasn’t spicy enough to merit the “angry” descriptor, but that didn’t stop BK from releasing a follow-up: The “Angriest Burger,” with a red-tinged, hot sauce-infused bun, was introduced in 2016.
The Whopper Jr. was a happy accident
In 1963, Luis Arenas-Pérez was opening up a Burger King restaurant in the Puerto Rico municipality of Carolina. Pérez discovered that the shipment of molds for the Whopper buns from the United States hadn’t arrived in time for the grand opening. So he decided to improvise, using the regular-size buns and calling the creation the “Whopper Jr.” The name and the product stuck, and Pérez’s quick thinking and lasting impact on the company earned him a spot in the Burger King Hall of Fame. Don’t miss how these 8 famous fast-food restaurants got their names.
It temporarily couldn’t call itself a “Whopper” in one U.S. city
The Burger King franchise ran into a little trouble when it first tried to expand into the San Antonio, Texas, area. A totally separate, unaffiliated chain called “Whopper Burger” held all rights to the name “Whopper” in that area. And this copyright snag actually successfully kept the King out of San Antonio for several years—for the most part. My San Antonio reports that there was, temporarily, a BK open in San Antonio, but it couldn’t drop the W-bomb in any of its advertising. It had to call its famous burger the “Deluxe,” and it didn’t last very long. The dispute was resolved in 1983, when the widow of Whopper Burger’s owner sold the franchise to Pillsbury, who also owned Burger King at the time, per The Daily Meal. Learn about the first locations of your favorite fast-food spots.
There was once a Halloween version with a black bun
If you’re saying, “Wait, wasn’t it green?” you’re recalling Burger King’s bizarre introduction of a green-tinted “Nightmare King” burger for Halloween 2018. But that wasn’t the chain’s first strangely colored Halloween special, nor was it actually a Whopper. The first oddly colored burger that Burger King introduced, at least to its American customers, came in 2015 with the announcement of the “A1 Halloween Whopper“—a special edition that used A1 Steak Sauce to spook-ify the bun.
It encouraged “unfriending” sprees
In a marketing scheme rivaling the strangeness of multicolored burger buns, Burger King once promised Facebook users free burgers, at the cost of a few friends. This promotion advertised a new Facebook app with the eyebrow-raising name “Whopper Sacrifice.” The app would provide you with a coupon for a free Whopper for every ten Facebook friends you deleted. However, Burger King pulled the program after Facebook demanded a tweak to the most controversial aspect—a notification sent to the unfriended users, telling them that their online friendship had been traded for a burger. (Or, more accurately, a tenth of a burger!) Before the end of the campaign, though, the New York Times estimates that nearly 234,000 people had been “unfriended.” Here are 10 more of the biggest scandals that rocked the fast food industry.
It helped Ellen DeGeneres break into comedy
Stars, they’re just like us! But a 20-something Ellen DeGeneres wasn’t actually a star yet when she took the stage for her first-ever comedy performance at a fundraiser with friends. Her buddies had been urging her to take the stage, and so she nervously obliged, bringing a Whopper, shake, and fries she’d just purchased onstage with her. Per HuffPost DeGeneres told “Oprah’s Master Class” that her first performance wasn’t much of a routine. “People enjoyed me eating onstage and not talking,” she recalled. Someone sitting in that audience invited her to perform at a nearby university campus. After that, she continued to get bigger and bigger gigs, ultimately making a name for herself as a comedian.
Say cheese!
If you’re a Cheesehead living near Green Bay, Wisconsin, you’re one of the lucky few who may have had the chance to try out the latest variation on the Whopper. Last fall, six different Wisconsin locations sold an extra-cheesy Green Bay Whopper with a *whopping* eight slices of American cheese. The Green Bay Whopper was available until December 2.
Whopper, hold the meat, please
As of April 2019, Burger King announced that it would be introducing a… meatless Whopper. No, we’re not kidding—the meatless Whopper will be made with a vegetarian patty supplied by start-up Impossible Foods. The Impossible Whopper, as it will be called, will first be rolled out to 59 Burger Kings in the St. Louis area, according to the New York Times. If consumers like those meatless burgers, we can expect to see the Impossible Whopper expand into every Burger King in the nation.
Originally Published: March 11, 2024
