The woman who got burned by the coffee didn't intially want to sue because she got burned. Her lawyer suggested that she sue after McDonalds refused to cover her medical bills.
It was also the decision of the court which set the payout figure which got reduced on appeal. Like you say, she just wanted her medical costs covered but they doubled down, lost, then proceeded to spend outlandish amounts of money on spinning it against her (I think more than the payout figure was?)
All she wanted was the medical expenses paid. But the money she got was two days worth of profit on just the coffee sold at McDonald's. TWO DAYS, JUST PLAIN COFFEE Let that sink in how much McDonald's actually makes in a year, from its whole menu. That law suit was nothing to them financially, it was the image. But they should've listened to the people who complained before that then
@@WolfgangDoW no doubt. McDonald's didn't give a rats ass about that woman and did what most corporations do ... Drown your adversary in court debt until they give up. But this time they got screwed because of how heavily in the wrong they were. Now they spend far more than was asked, and they all looked like crooked assholes in the media. Good work McDonald's lol their image was tarnished far more, when they decided to be cunts.
Why don't they just make a "1/5th Pounder" and charge people more for it? If people don't realise it's smaller then the extra cost is just a tax for being dumb.
Oh, the irony... You don't want to "charge more" for that. If you're trying to get people who are too dumb to do math, the burger has to be _the same price or less_ as the quarter pounder so they think they're getting a better deal. _That's_ how you tax them for being dumb.
Honestly though, do that, wait for people to notice it's shit in comparison, announce the "Double Fifth Pounder", which is just a slightly meatier third pounder, abuse math and human psychology for greater income, there's no need to worry about people thinking it's stupid either since that's not your target demographic apparently.
I had the same thought and it doesn't sound like a bad idea. But, people won't listen or give a shit when you say 1/3 is bigger than 1/4 but they will definitely listen when somebody tells them that they are getting ripped off because 1/5 is smaller than 1/4.
I can just imagine that board meeting: “Johnson! Why aren’t these burgers selling? They’re literally better in every way!” “Sir, the customers don’t want to buy it, because the number is smaller.” “I.... wha?”
KAKAKAKAKAKAK this is wonderful! PRANK! It is terrible! I looked in the mirror and saw something UNPRETTY: my face. KAKAKAKAKAKA! But I am happy agayn because I have TWO HOT GIRLFRIENDS and I use them to get views on my videos! KAKAKAKAK!!! Good day, dear notan
I had the burger, it was awful. I don't know what meat they used for the patty, but it was trash. There is a reason why they were able to use more meat for less money. I think that the company just used the stupid customers excuse to save face.
@@IceMetalPunk ...I know what you probably intend to convey, but median is one way of calculating the average (the others being modal, or most popular; and mean, which is the most common method of determining the average). Granted, the terms mean and average are often considered synonymous, but they aren't. Not quite. That said, given a typical bell-curve distribution, the mean, mode, and median averages are going to be pretty close, which would make Carlin's assertion reasonably likely to be true regardless (although it does deliberately conflate average as a mathematical concept with average meaning typical. Interestingly, this is a bit of linguistic trickery that I, among others, would take to indicate that he was refering to the mode, in which case it is possible that there are sufficient skewing at one end of the scale or another that his assertion would not be true)
@@IceMetalPunk but studies have concluded that intelligence over a population does fit into a bell curve, in fact IQ testing is literally a bell curve.
This reminds me of the Lemmy bit "but steel is heavier than feathers." I also did something similar to that trolley thing, at least before this mess. People would forget to take their coins, easy cash.
@@Dude-sr4ji Think of it like a deposit for rental, the coin goes in and acts like a key to unlock the shackle, you then use the cart as normal, then when you've put your goods in your car you have the incentive to return your cart to the corral, link up the shackle, and the coin gets released for you to take back. It really seems to work and it means the store can save money on hiring lots of trolley boys to roam the parking lot, which means they can more competitively lower the prices of goods, Aldi and Lidl in the UK generally beats most other supermarkets on price for this reason of encouraging customers to return their own cars, as well as plonking down half the product on pallets rather than neatly shelving every single item throughout the day.
Speaking of A&W (i used to be in the military. Please don't thank me I didn't see combat or get shot therefore I don't feel like I deserve thanks) anyways I went to an A&W once and I could've sworn the cashier said something about her husband serving to the couple in front of me. I got to the register and asked her about it. She misheard me and promptly told me "we don't give military discounts here" My first thought wasn't "I didn't want a discount" it was "you're supposed to be the most American restaurant in the US what do you mean you don't give deals to military?" Was quite the experience
Seems like the trick to selling a 1/3 Pounder would be to make the ad for it go like that sketch from Limmy's Show about the kilo of steel vs the kilo of feathers. Show that the 1/3 pounder is bigger than the 1/4 pounder, and have a confused idiot go "But 4 is bigger than 3!" and have more and more people show up and explain that no, that's not how that works.
The funny thing about the McDonald's lawsuit is that it wasn't frivolous at all: McDonald's was making coffee several dozen degrees hotter than they should've been, and it was so bad, that the (elderly) victim had several 3rd degree burns on her legs and genitals, and needed multiple surgeries. Even worse, she didn't want a big cut from the company; she only wanted her medical expenses covered, but after months of asking McDonald's *out of court*, she decided to sue when they gave her no other option. She only got a big payout, because when the jury heard her story, they were so outraged, that they forced McDonald's to pay 2 days of coffee sales as punishment. It was one of the few instances where an average citizen took on a big company and won, and it was followed by years of misinformation campaigns by these big companies to try and convince the public (and subsequently, future jurors) that there was an epidemic of frivolous lawsuits (because apparently broke Americans just love to spend money they don't have tussling with multi billion dollar international corporations), to make future juries more friendly to them if they wronged someone and wound up in the same position again. It's cool that you didn't propagate the myth, I just wish you got more of the details.
She also had nerve damage and suffered everyday of her life. The settlement allowed her to hire a live in nurse to take care of her until her death in 2004 at the age of 91. She settled for less than 600K.
@@MrNateSPF Sure, if you kept spilling it on you. 3rd degree burns from coffee in seconds would be coffee at like 20-30° above something you could actually drink.
@@simmerke1111 Yes, she did spill an entire fresh hot cup of coffee in her lap where the heat was held insulated in a sensitive area for 5 seconds. All major vendors of hot coffee have had reports of burns but these are generally quick splashes, so somewhere around a table spoon on the hands for under a second. All hot coffee has inherent risks of burns if handled improperly. It all depends on the exposure, how much hot coffee and how long it's on the skin.
Ah yes those same Land Whales that think 5g causes Diseases like cancer would still say "your ripping us off" just goes to show how stupid deep stupidity is its like the only thing infinite in the universe is Stupidity.
Doesn't matter. Americans, particularly the ones impacting the sales of the third pounder, don't believe marketing when it doesn't fit their internal narrative. They are now the "fake news" screeching banshees on social media.
It is in America, At least at all the mcdonalds I've been to. The only times I've seen people get just a normal quarter pounder, is if it was part of some kind of deal.
i love these videos. just the perfect mixture of random factual things and then funny random stories that are still somewhat factual but always funny. keep up the content
The McDonald's fact that always makes me laugh is the one about France. The French are always talking about how they have such sophisticated cuisine, and American food is garbage. However, France has the most McDonald's per capita than anywhere else in Europe and the 4th highest in the world.
@@smrtfasizmu7242 Honestly depends on the store. I have had day and night experiences in two Mc'Ds that are in my home town. One was god awful and the buns tasted like cardboard and the other had pretty decent food but always over cooked the fries. I think the best one I ever went to was in Texas. Actually tasted like a burger I would get from an specialty shop. Food chains are weird.
@@Seth9809 If they are all in tourist spots than yeah, but France is a big country that few people want to just go to the country side, unless they are like me and want to visit the vineyards. Thanks for the mental image of Paris just full of mc donalds though, that was fun to imagine
@@skulldoxbox2 Lots of people go to the country side. Wat? Southern France, northern France, the French islands and all the major cities are all quite popular tourist destinations. Perhaps less so for tourists from Asia or America, but northern Africa, Europe, Scandinavia,... travel to the quite parts of France quite often. Lots of families spend their winter holidays there.
This is probably the most American story I’ve ever heard. I’m gonna open a burger joint in America with a 1/1000000th pounder burger, which will have a single molecule of cow meat.
Welcome to why I'm actively anti-social instead of merely introverted. There are far too many idiots out there. Impacting society... Voting... Buying guns...
The big M spent millions in advertising to make us think the lawsuit was indeed frivolous. They bought off big tv shows to make jokes out of the whole thing.
She only sued cuz McD didn't want to pay the medical expense that she was initially asking for as a settlement which was around 5-10k so when she took them to court she won close to a million in damages instead.
I mean they sold fake burgers for God knows how long and didn't get sued while Taco bell used tofu (something actually healthy and not a chemical concoction from hell) and got sued to a ludicrous degree and it tasted better back then than it does now.
@@barongerhardt she actually required skin grafting from the severity of the burns, burns she only got because of an unfilled pothole in their drive-through.
Yep. McDonalds is very, very aware of their market and have spared no expense to exploit/satisfy said market. It's like the republican party of fast food restaurants: very good at knowing the average intelligence of their target demographic and tailoring everything to ensure that they get the profits they want while the customer remains unaware of said methods and profits.
If I was in charge of A&W, I would have made that part of the advertisement. I'd make commercials of people poking fun at their friends for being stupid. So people wanting to test their friends and family would, "take them and give them THE BURGER TEST."
That McDonald's where the lady sued for burning herself was the one near my house when I was growing up. McDonald's deserved to be sued because they had an obnoxious bump in the road right outside of the drive thru window. We dropped and spilled a lot of food and beverages because of that bump until we just got used to it. But you couldn't see it from the driver side of any American car, and it was there for years.
The bit about McDonalds owning the rights to the name Quarter Pounder reminded me of the court case between Blockbuster Video and a local UK independent video rental store called Blockbusters. Blockbuster opened stores here in the UK and heard about the local store, and took them to court to stop them from using the name because of the similarity in the names. The judge ruled in favour of the small store, stating the fact that they had been using the name for something like 20 years so had the intellectual rights to the name and could keep the store name as Blockbusters.
Wasn't there a case in the UK, I think it may have been Ireland, where McDonalds lost the trademark on Big Mac and the Burger Kings up there trolled them hard? I seem to remember this being a thing and being very, very funny.
They could’ve just had a death battle styled showdown with the quarterpounder vs the thirdpounder where they say their strengths before showing who wins
@@Alphanoob99 It isn't so much that they don't understand math, but that they're affected by a numbers fallacy called the Fractions Fallacy. It's where numbers that are smaller appear to be larger because they have larger numbers. At a glance, if you see 1/3 and 1/4, most people will only notice the 3 and the 4 and won't take into account that they're fractions.
lets be honest here though... this was nothing but a failed shitty marketing gimmick. How much bigger is a 1/3 pounder than a 1/4 pounder? 1/12th of a pound. That's really not worth shit. This was basically some marketing bullshit to try and change something that already worked and needlessly complicating a market. Probably most people looked at a 1/4 pounder burger and a 1/3 pounder burger, were familiar with what a 1/4 pounder was and went with what was tried and true. If this actually did work we'd end up with a ton of bs 1/4 pounder, 1/3 pounder, 3/8 pounder, 5/12 pounder, etc. Giving you a tiny, insignificant bit of extra meat each time. If you want to be this pedantic about your burger size go to a butcher and ask for it in mince meat and make the damn burger yourself. Would probably taste better anyway.
I remember all the comedians on Prime Time making fun of that lady for years.When I watched a Documentary about it I realized how bad it was and how McDonald's engineered a whole campaign to make her look bad.
I used to do something similar when I was allowed outside. Attach all the chains to loose trolleys that people forgot to take the coins back from, make a little money
All Stella, the woman who was burned by the Mcdonalds' coffee, wanted was her hospital bills paid for as well. And the lawyers and the jury went kinda crazy.
They go on short tangents about stuff in other videos, and then do whole videos on it later. Like one of their other food videos or something having them go on a tangent about this wouldn't be too crazy an idea. Happened before.
Just started working in a customer facing capacity, and can confirm this. You want to give them the best standard of care, but you're usually stuck just giving them whatever you can get them to accept, regardless of whether or not it's actually ideal. Customers are rarely experts in the business they take part in, but they sure want to believe they are.
I could totally imagine a scene in Idiocracy (which I always call Dumbercratie) where they go like: "But 4 is larger than 3.... there is 3 and then... uh.... 4. 4 is larger. Yea!"
Man, this is why I follow your content. Getting these moments to hear about how fucking stupid people can be is great. And you and your friends present it in a great and comical way with facts and banter. Love it. Hope you all stay safe!
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that". The only reason for the correction is that the stupidest person I know is far stupider than average.
@@endless_ocean7987 There is that but I'm more impatient than I am lazy. You can sit in your car for 15 mins or get served in 3 mins by walking a short distance.
While McDonalds lawsuit with the lady specified succeeded, other lawsuits against similar things did not. Starbucks itself sells coffee as hot or hotter than McDonalds.
If I remember correctly, the lady in the lawsuit was burned by coffee that was WAY hotter than the machines were supposed to normally get, and so she won because there was no expectation that the coffee was supposed to be that hot. It wasn't just her being a klutz, but the fact that the machine was malfunctioning and heating coffee too far above regulated temperatures. In most of the other lawsuits, the coffee is the normal temperature that it's supposed to be at, and people are just clumsy, which is why they don't win. In one case the coffee is the way hotter than is reasonsble, and in the other is it's at hot, but still reasonable drinking temperatures, so there isn't any liability on the restaurants part because they did everything they needed to by providing a warning
It also didn't succeed. That's part of the Myth. They settled out of court for $160k+$480k, a promise to put a warning on their coffee, and an NDA for all parties involved. It only got that far because Liebeck requested that McDonald's cover her medical bills only (15-20k) and McDonald's replied with an offer for $800. However, in conducting the case the way they did, McDonald's was able to avoid setting precedent, avoid taking any blame or responsibility in public, and misrepresent the case for over a decade as a way to lobby about "tort reform". For the low, low price of 1/3rd of a day of revenue from coffee alone.
They also handed it out in cups that didn't provide enough insulation to safely hold on to them without burning your fingers. So it wasn't just that the coffee was dangerous when spilled, but it was also their fault _that_ she spilled her coffee, because she couldn't hold it and couldn't put it down at that moment. Maybe Starbucks just puts those insulation paddings around their cups so customers have a chance to walk away safely.
Regarding the coffee lawsuit, if I'm not mistaken the Seinfeld episode where Kramer got burnt by hot coffee at the cinema and he went to court to claim compensation, was based on the case mentioned in video.
In the UK, The Big Tasty is actually a 1/3 lb burger. Due to not allowing imperial measurements though, the big tasty patty is actually marked on boxes on delivery as 3:1 patties, and Quarter Pounder patties are marked as 4:1.
"A third pounder is smaller than a quarter pounder, because 3 is less than 4..." this is why Conservatives usually win elections. The general populous is embarrassingly thick.
I can't believe they didn't capitalize on that stupidity by offering "The 1/6th Pound Burger"... if three is one less than four and thus smaller, then this is two numbers "bigger" and must be a real deal!!
We had this for coffeeshops in the Netherlands. People were afraid that the coffee shops would close so all around the city for 2 days before the government announcement, there were permanent 20- 50 man queues at every coffeeshop in the city.
In canada they brought back the 1/3 pound burger (well 5 oz). But since in canada its marketed as the "familly burger" its sold under the name "uncle burger".
This isn't surprising. Our education system is broken. I'm 54 and didn't have an actual algebra class until I went to a private college to finish my degree 15 years ago. Had one single introductory algebra class in high school, which was just multiplication all over again and that was it. It's been basic math all throughout. They covered fractions in third grade and never touched on them again.
This story I 1/1 believe. I just finished a quick math reminder class for my apprenticeship and over half the class of full grown adults had no idea how fractions work or how to get a % from a decimal
this is why McDonald's uses the "Double Quarter pounder" instead of the 1/2 pound. people can understand two quarter pounders is more than one but a quarter pounder twice the size will baffle them
A&W burgers buns are buttered and toasted, they also don't put copious amounts of salt and pepper on the burgers. Some restaurants have fire grille that's has a chain conveyor, others have a flat top grille.
I would just like to say that I fucking love you guys. I don't watch every single video, but every one I do, I enjoy the hell out of. I hope you all keep being awesome as shit.
I admire the restraint of A&W focus testers who apparently didn't respond with "were you kicked in the head?" to everyone who responded that they thought 1/3 was less than 1/4.
helped someone clean out there car when they got a new one found an insulated glass bottle for mountain dew in the back and they had stopped using that packaging about 10 years before
ive been having mcdonalds more than ever since lockdown, going to the shops is the only thing i can really do and its on the way so i always stop by. Ive had it almost twice a week for months
Here in Canada, 1/3 pound burgers did eventually take off, but when they named them differently, particularly at McDonnald's and A&W. McDonnald's calls it the Angus burger. A&W rebranded their entire burger menu to bring back their nomenclature from the '50s, the "Burger Family." The 1/3 pounder is called the Uncle Burger. But A&W abandoned their policy of being the same price or cheaper than McDonalds, and instead allows their burgers to be slightly more expensive but *far* better quality. At McD's, I'll usually spend $20-25 for my wife and I; but at A&W it's $25-30, more food, and tastes about a thousand times better.
The woman who got burned by the coffee didn't intially want to sue because she got burned. Her lawyer suggested that she sue after McDonalds refused to cover her medical bills.
It was also the decision of the court which set the payout figure which got reduced on appeal. Like you say, she just wanted her medical costs covered but they doubled down, lost, then proceeded to spend outlandish amounts of money on spinning it against her (I think more than the payout figure was?)
@@rickau hurt pride is a bitch
All she wanted was the medical expenses paid.
But the money she got was two days worth of profit on just the coffee sold at McDonald's. TWO DAYS, JUST PLAIN COFFEE
Let that sink in how much McDonald's actually makes in a year, from its whole menu. That law suit was nothing to them financially, it was the image. But they should've listened to the people who complained before that then
@@WolfgangDoW no doubt. McDonald's didn't give a rats ass about that woman and did what most corporations do ... Drown your adversary in court debt until they give up.
But this time they got screwed because of how heavily in the wrong they were. Now they spend far more than was asked, and they all looked like crooked assholes in the media. Good work McDonald's lol their image was tarnished far more, when they decided to be cunts.
@@EL-ISS Classic case of the "asshole tax" in action!
I'm selling a new burger that's over twice as big: The 2/6th Pounder Burger!
Wow, that's like twice the burger!
Call it the double deluxe 1/6 pounder
The worst part is, this probably would have actually helped the sales lol
5oz burger+
That's obviously to a ripoff Lol
Why don't they just make a "1/5th Pounder" and charge people more for it?
If people don't realise it's smaller then the extra cost is just a tax for being dumb.
Pretty sure i heard this was market tested and most Americans thought it was more meat
Edit: annnnnd yah, shoulda waited 20s. Ah well
Just release a third and fifth at the same time and wait until the idiots realise
Oh, the irony... You don't want to "charge more" for that. If you're trying to get people who are too dumb to do math, the burger has to be _the same price or less_ as the quarter pounder so they think they're getting a better deal. _That's_ how you tax them for being dumb.
Honestly though, do that, wait for people to notice it's shit in comparison, announce the "Double Fifth Pounder", which is just a slightly meatier third pounder, abuse math and human psychology for greater income, there's no need to worry about people thinking it's stupid either since that's not your target demographic apparently.
I had the same thought and it doesn't sound like a bad idea.
But, people won't listen or give a shit when you say 1/3 is bigger than 1/4 but they will definitely listen when somebody tells them that they are getting ripped off because 1/5 is smaller than 1/4.
I can just imagine that board meeting: “Johnson! Why aren’t these burgers selling? They’re literally better in every way!”
“Sir, the customers don’t want to buy it, because the number is smaller.”
“I.... wha?”
KAKAKAKAKAKAK this is wonderful! PRANK! It is terrible! I looked in the mirror and saw something UNPRETTY: my face. KAKAKAKAKAKA! But I am happy agayn because I have TWO HOT GIRLFRIENDS and I use them to get views on my videos! KAKAKAKAK!!! Good day, dear notan
I had the burger, it was awful. I don't know what meat they used for the patty, but it was trash. There is a reason why they were able to use more meat for less money. I think that the company just used the stupid customers excuse to save face.
@@colinstewart3531 do you like normal a&w burgers? i generally find them to be one of the best.... in n out still wins though.
Remember to report@@AxxLAfriku for spam, using the flag, possibly hidden by the three dots
@@colinstewart3531 ah but the pink slime was soooo much better.
“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” ― George Carlin
@@IceMetalPunk ...I know what you probably intend to convey, but median is one way of calculating the average (the others being modal, or most popular; and mean, which is the most common method of determining the average). Granted, the terms mean and average are often considered synonymous, but they aren't. Not quite.
That said, given a typical bell-curve distribution, the mean, mode, and median averages are going to be pretty close, which would make Carlin's assertion reasonably likely to be true regardless (although it does deliberately conflate average as a mathematical concept with average meaning typical. Interestingly, this is a bit of linguistic trickery that I, among others, would take to indicate that he was refering to the mode, in which case it is possible that there are sufficient skewing at one end of the scale or another that his assertion would not be true)
I wish I could like this twice.
@@IceMetalPunk but studies have concluded that intelligence over a population does fit into a bell curve, in fact IQ testing is literally a bell curve.
Then realize that I am absolutely one of them
This reminds me of the Lemmy bit "but steel is heavier than feathers."
I also did something similar to that trolley thing, at least before this mess. People would forget to take their coins, easy cash.
'Mercan here. Would you mind explaining how your trolleys (shopping carts) work? Do you have to put a coin in them in order to use them?
Also American, if there's an Aldi's supermarket near you, it's the same as those shopping carts.
@@Dude-sr4ji Yeah, it's to ensure that people return the carts.
@@Dude-sr4ji Think of it like a deposit for rental, the coin goes in and acts like a key to unlock the shackle, you then use the cart as normal, then when you've put your goods in your car you have the incentive to return your cart to the corral, link up the shackle, and the coin gets released for you to take back.
It really seems to work and it means the store can save money on hiring lots of trolley boys to roam the parking lot, which means they can more competitively lower the prices of goods, Aldi and Lidl in the UK generally beats most other supermarkets on price for this reason of encouraging customers to return their own cars, as well as plonking down half the product on pallets rather than neatly shelving every single item throughout the day.
I love the a&w story and every time I hear about it, I can’t help but laugh
My mom is 40 and still thinks a third is smaller than a quarter
@@Aram1313 😂😂 ohhh nooo lol
The USA in a nutshell
Guess how my parents felt when they worked there in A&W’s prime, and they got to tell they’re neighbors and family members that they were stupid
Speaking of A&W (i used to be in the military. Please don't thank me I didn't see combat or get shot therefore I don't feel like I deserve thanks) anyways I went to an A&W once and I could've sworn the cashier said something about her husband serving to the couple in front of me. I got to the register and asked her about it. She misheard me and promptly told me "we don't give military discounts here"
My first thought wasn't "I didn't want a discount" it was "you're supposed to be the most American restaurant in the US what do you mean you don't give deals to military?"
Was quite the experience
"I like bread more than I like meat" best quote.
Seems like the trick to selling a 1/3 Pounder would be to make the ad for it go like that sketch from Limmy's Show about the kilo of steel vs the kilo of feathers. Show that the 1/3 pounder is bigger than the 1/4 pounder, and have a confused idiot go "But 4 is bigger than 3!" and have more and more people show up and explain that no, that's not how that works.
Genius! Plus, the whole thing would appeal to internet culture as well, so long as they did it right.
Or just skip a third and go to half.
The funny thing about the McDonald's lawsuit is that it wasn't frivolous at all:
McDonald's was making coffee several dozen degrees hotter than they should've been, and it was so bad, that the (elderly) victim had several 3rd degree burns on her legs and genitals, and needed multiple surgeries.
Even worse, she didn't want a big cut from the company; she only wanted her medical expenses covered, but after months of asking McDonald's *out of court*, she decided to sue when they gave her no other option.
She only got a big payout, because when the jury heard her story, they were so outraged, that they forced McDonald's to pay 2 days of coffee sales as punishment.
It was one of the few instances where an average citizen took on a big company and won, and it was followed by years of misinformation campaigns by these big companies to try and convince the public (and subsequently, future jurors) that there was an epidemic of frivolous lawsuits (because apparently broke Americans just love to spend money they don't have tussling with multi billion dollar international corporations), to make future juries more friendly to them if they wronged someone and wound up in the same position again.
It's cool that you didn't propagate the myth, I just wish you got more of the details.
Yep! And then McDonald’s appealed and had to pay significantly less than what was originally awarded to her anyway
She also had nerve damage and suffered everyday of her life. The settlement allowed her to hire a live in nurse to take care of her until her death in 2004 at the age of 91. She settled for less than 600K.
All hot coffee is served at temperatures that can cause 3rd degree burns.
@@MrNateSPF Sure, if you kept spilling it on you. 3rd degree burns from coffee in seconds would be coffee at like 20-30° above something you could actually drink.
@@simmerke1111 Yes, she did spill an entire fresh hot cup of coffee in her lap where the heat was held insulated in a sensitive area for 5 seconds. All major vendors of hot coffee have had reports of burns but these are generally quick splashes, so somewhere around a table spoon on the hands for under a second. All hot coffee has inherent risks of burns if handled improperly. It all depends on the exposure, how much hot coffee and how long it's on the skin.
"Introducing the Third Pounder -
BIGGER than the Quarter Pounder!"
There. Fixed it.
Just call it quarter pounder plus or something. A quarter pounder, plus a bit extra.
Ah yes those same Land Whales that think 5g causes Diseases like cancer would still say "your ripping us off" just goes to show how stupid deep stupidity is its like the only thing infinite in the universe is Stupidity.
Doesn't matter. Americans, particularly the ones impacting the sales of the third pounder, don't believe marketing when it doesn't fit their internal narrative. They are now the "fake news" screeching banshees on social media.
It always spins me out that the double quarter pounder isn't a menu staple everywhere like it is in Australia
here in canada it is.
Double 1/4? But that's just 2/8!
@@paulcoy9060 that"s a good joke
@@paulcoy9060
Well done, sir. 😆
It is in America, At least at all the mcdonalds I've been to. The only times I've seen people get just a normal quarter pounder, is if it was part of some kind of deal.
If BigWangers goes public and we increase the stock value can we then call it BIGGERWANGERS
@@RichardKelevra *pending*
@@kingvon0125 Maybe he has a TM pendent...
BigWangus inc.
Hugest Wangers
bigwanger burgers perhaps?
If I was in charge I'd release a 1/5th pounder and charge more, make money off of people who can't do maths.
i love these videos. just the perfect mixture of random factual things and then funny random stories that are still somewhat factual but always funny. keep up the content
I mean, just have a 1/4 pound burger called "the 25" and a 1/3 pound burger called "the 33"
People would probably see the 5 before the 2 and confuse it for the 55.
If they can't understand fractions i dont think percentages are going to be much help
2/3 burger. .666
Numbers are too big, their brain can't handle it.
The McDonald's fact that always makes me laugh is the one about France. The French are always talking about how they have such sophisticated cuisine, and American food is garbage. However, France has the most McDonald's per capita than anywhere else in Europe and the 4th highest in the world.
On the other hand, McDonalds in the United States is noticably shittier than just about everywhere else on Earth
@@smrtfasizmu7242 Honestly depends on the store. I have had day and night experiences in two Mc'Ds that are in my home town. One was god awful and the buns tasted like cardboard and the other had pretty decent food but always over cooked the fries. I think the best one I ever went to was in Texas. Actually tasted like a burger I would get from an specialty shop. Food chains are weird.
@@Seth9809 If they are all in tourist spots than yeah, but France is a big country that few people want to just go to the country side, unless they are like me and want to visit the vineyards. Thanks for the mental image of Paris just full of mc donalds though, that was fun to imagine
@@skulldoxbox2 Lots of people go to the country side. Wat?
Southern France, northern France, the French islands and all the major cities are all quite popular tourist destinations. Perhaps less so for tourists from Asia or America, but northern Africa, Europe, Scandinavia,... travel to the quite parts of France quite often. Lots of families spend their winter holidays there.
"The exact number is over 50%........" that's pretty precise
This is probably the most American story I’ve ever heard. I’m gonna open a burger joint in America with a 1/1000000th pounder burger, which will have a single molecule of cow meat.
*Read Title*
Oh i know EXACTLY what they're gonna talk about
And my faith in humanity just dropped again honestly these people can vote
This is why we can't have nice things
Welcome to why I'm actively anti-social instead of merely introverted. There are far too many idiots out there. Impacting society... Voting... Buying guns...
You said Superb Owl, my mind went right to "what we do in the shadows". They did a whole episode on it.
"Frivolous lawsuit" for giving a woman 3rd degree burns, but can sue you for using the term "Quarter-Pounder" Lol Ironic.
The big M spent millions in advertising to make us think the lawsuit was indeed frivolous. They bought off big tv shows to make jokes out of the whole thing.
The only second degree burns were from the tv stations giving her the second degree
She only sued cuz McD didn't want to pay the medical expense that she was initially asking for as a settlement which was around 5-10k so when she took them to court she won close to a million in damages instead.
I mean they sold fake burgers for God knows how long and didn't get sued while Taco bell used tofu (something actually healthy and not a chemical concoction from hell) and got sued to a ludicrous degree and it tasted better back then than it does now.
@@barongerhardt she actually required skin grafting from the severity of the burns, burns she only got because of an unfilled pothole in their drive-through.
I’ve done nothing but teleport bread for the last three days
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN SENDING IT
I saw the title and instantly thought of A&W. I taught high school math for 9 years and yeah... people can't do fractions. At all. They refuse.
Dont blame them. Fuck fractions 😂
Seriously: could the fact that calculator and computer output is decimal have something to do with it? I learned fractions just fine in the 1970s.
Nisha's (spelling?) laugh is the most British thing I've ever heard.
damn, i see why they called it a “double quarter pounder” now
It's called a double quarter pounder because you're getting 2 quarter pound patties. Not a half pound patty.
@@EnterJustice im pretty sure they are the same thing
Atleast thats how they taught me fractions
1/1=2/2
1/2=2/4
1/3=2/6
@@JosephFlores-yn4yi he obviously meant not 1 half pound patty. no reason to be pedantic.
@@rivertam7827 no it shouldn't, because it's not a half pound patty. It's two(i.e. Double) quarter pound patties
Yep. McDonalds is very, very aware of their market and have spared no expense to exploit/satisfy said market. It's like the republican party of fast food restaurants: very good at knowing the average intelligence of their target demographic and tailoring everything to ensure that they get the profits they want while the customer remains unaware of said methods and profits.
Maybe they should have called it the 2/6 pounder.
One of many many things that makes me ashamed to be American
I may be bad at math but I’m not THAT BAD
that's just like people not wanting their pizza cut to 12 slices instead of 8 slices when asked because 12 slices is too much pizza
My business plan I genius, I just need to put in “The 1/6 pounder”. They will eat it all up.
If I was in charge of A&W, I would have made that part of the advertisement.
I'd make commercials of people poking fun at their friends for being stupid.
So people wanting to test their friends and family would, "take them and give them THE BURGER TEST."
If only there was like a measurement system that wasn't based on fractions.
The metric system is the tool of the Devil!! My car gets 40 rods to the hogs head and that’s the ways I likes it!
Decimals are just fractions of ten and percentages fractions of a hundred.
As an american, the meat to bun ratio of the quarter pounder is TERRIBLY SHIT
Wendy's made that point years ago with "Where's the beef!?
That McDonald's where the lady sued for burning herself was the one near my house when I was growing up. McDonald's deserved to be sued because they had an obnoxious bump in the road right outside of the drive thru window. We dropped and spilled a lot of food and beverages because of that bump until we just got used to it. But you couldn't see it from the driver side of any American car, and it was there for years.
Even after the incident?
The bit about McDonalds owning the rights to the name Quarter Pounder reminded me of the court case between Blockbuster Video and a local UK independent video rental store called Blockbusters. Blockbuster opened stores here in the UK and heard about the local store, and took them to court to stop them from using the name because of the similarity in the names. The judge ruled in favour of the small store, stating the fact that they had been using the name for something like 20 years so had the intellectual rights to the name and could keep the store name as Blockbusters.
Wasn't there a case in the UK, I think it may have been Ireland, where McDonalds lost the trademark on Big Mac and the Burger Kings up there trolled them hard? I seem to remember this being a thing and being very, very funny.
@@mndlessdrwer I think I remember the same thing.
They could’ve just had a death battle styled showdown with the quarterpounder vs the thirdpounder where they say their strengths before showing who wins
When you see the plot twist coming but can't help being desperate facing so much stupidity
I remember the time when McDonald's had the "Angus Third Pounder" burgers. It was so good and I was so mad they got rid of it.
If they had also made an Angus Fourth Pounder it would have sold more.
That explains why the owner of a family restaurant I worked in had a "Quota Paunder" on the menu. Thanks Mickey D's.
McDonalds: if you use the term "quarter-pounder" we'll sue the shit out of you :)
my local kebab: *sweats nervously*
Person: 1/4 is bigger than 1/3
Me: Is 3/12 bigger than 4/12?
Person: Of course not, you idiot!
Me: . . .
@@Alphanoob99 It isn't so much that they don't understand math, but that they're affected by a numbers fallacy called the Fractions Fallacy. It's where numbers that are smaller appear to be larger because they have larger numbers. At a glance, if you see 1/3 and 1/4, most people will only notice the 3 and the 4 and won't take into account that they're fractions.
We think the USA not using the metric system at all damages their ability to learn maths
lets be honest here though... this was nothing but a failed shitty marketing gimmick. How much bigger is a 1/3 pounder than a 1/4 pounder? 1/12th of a pound. That's really not worth shit. This was basically some marketing bullshit to try and change something that already worked and needlessly complicating a market. Probably most people looked at a 1/4 pounder burger and a 1/3 pounder burger, were familiar with what a 1/4 pounder was and went with what was tried and true. If this actually did work we'd end up with a ton of bs 1/4 pounder, 1/3 pounder, 3/8 pounder, 5/12 pounder, etc. Giving you a tiny, insignificant bit of extra meat each time. If you want to be this pedantic about your burger size go to a butcher and ask for it in mince meat and make the damn burger yourself. Would probably taste better anyway.
@@che3se1495 Looks like someone's a bit salty.
@@bensoncheung2801 How so? I'm not even American. Just think it was a dumb and pointless marketing strategy.
I misread the title as 'the burger that killed a bad man'
They all should have tried the "diet, healthy 5th pounder".
You understand marketing very well, sir!
I remember all the comedians on Prime Time making fun of that lady for years.When I watched a Documentary about it I realized how bad it was and how McDonald's engineered a whole campaign to make her look bad.
This a story I've never forgotten since I first heard it, and love every time I think about it lol
"Also, we're in the middle of a heatwave"
It's snowing outside. Just how many episodes did you record during lockdown?!
Pizza joint waitress: "Would you like the pizza cut into six piece or eight?"
Customer: "Six, please. I could never eat eight."
Me: you can have 800,000 or a quarter of a million
Average person: I’ll take quarter of a million
Karl's strategy of making Bank off of shopping carts is exactly how mafia works 😎😂😂😂😂
I used to do something similar when I was allowed outside. Attach all the chains to loose trolleys that people forgot to take the coins back from, make a little money
@@krell.1415 nice nice nice. I can't knock it
"Meat to Bun ratio. MEAT to BUN ratio. Let that sit in your head for moment."
My thoughts went dirty right after he said that.
(;
All Stella, the woman who was burned by the Mcdonalds' coffee, wanted was her hospital bills paid for as well. And the lawyers and the jury went kinda crazy.
I imagine the people disliking this thought 1/4 was larger than 1/3
Fact fiend is easily the best channel on RUclips
I swear you've talked about this before lol
I swear it was already an entire episode
I think it's making of mcdonald's
They go on short tangents about stuff in other videos, and then do whole videos on it later. Like one of their other food videos or something having them go on a tangent about this wouldn't be too crazy an idea. Happened before.
There was another episode about burger king making an ad for McDonalds having free coffee
@@bing-bop It might have been the coffee vid but I still swear they had a video centered around it
Okay so the easiest way to sell it when people think they're getting a smaller burger because they're idiots is to correct them and call them idiots
last time i was this early, the cameraperson was a man
Just started working in a customer facing capacity, and can confirm this. You want to give them the best standard of care, but you're usually stuck just giving them whatever you can get them to accept, regardless of whether or not it's actually ideal.
Customers are rarely experts in the business they take part in, but they sure want to believe they are.
@@IceMetalPunk Had to take a small double take on the first paragraph, but wow, that's brutal.
Well now McDonald’s has a double quarter pounder. They figured out how to advertise it.
A double 1/4 pounder is more than 1/3 pounder...
@@SuperVstech yep, but the bigger burger if finally working (grammar mistake)
I could totally imagine a scene in Idiocracy (which I always call Dumbercratie) where they go like: "But 4 is larger than 3.... there is 3 and then... uh.... 4. 4 is larger. Yea!"
See, if we had gone metric like the rest of the world, A&W would rule the world with their 150g burger vs McDonald's 115g-er
I agree with you on this since most people are slow on the uptake without them feeling "insulted" when you tell them
No, if we switched to metric, they'd just have to figure out a good name to counter the "Royale" and the "Royale with Cheese."
Man, this is why I follow your content. Getting these moments to hear about how fucking stupid people can be is great. And you and your friends present it in a great and comical way with facts and banter. Love it. Hope you all stay safe!
In the words of George Carlin "Imagine the dumbest person you know, and then realize that half of people are even dumber than that"
George Carlin
was a genius. Well definitely a comedic genius.
I think it was "Imagine how dumb the average person is".
@@zapazap It's actually Imagine how stupid the average person is, but I couldn't remember off the top of my head
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that".
The only reason for the correction is that the stupidest person I know is far stupider than average.
This story always pisses me off because I ALWAYS loved the 1/3rd Pounder and when they removed it I was so mad. It was amazing.
Easy solution: make the patties square. Everyone knows "Square is more bigger", right?
Works for Wendy's. And yes, a 2"x2" square IS bigger than a circle with 2" diameter.
@@arcxjo yes, diameter, since that's a square with no corners.
Just wait until they find out that a standard cheeseburger is 1/10th of a pound
I prefer the fifth-pounder as I have always been a big eater
Edit: Oh so this is actually what the video was about. Gotem
Never understand why people queue for ages in the Drive Thru when it's far quicker to get out of the car and go to the desk inside.
People be lazy
@@endless_ocean7987
There is that but I'm more impatient than I am lazy.
You can sit in your car for 15 mins or get served in 3 mins by walking a short distance.
While McDonalds lawsuit with the lady specified succeeded, other lawsuits against similar things did not. Starbucks itself sells coffee as hot or hotter than McDonalds.
If I remember correctly, the lady in the lawsuit was burned by coffee that was WAY hotter than the machines were supposed to normally get, and so she won because there was no expectation that the coffee was supposed to be that hot. It wasn't just her being a klutz, but the fact that the machine was malfunctioning and heating coffee too far above regulated temperatures.
In most of the other lawsuits, the coffee is the normal temperature that it's supposed to be at, and people are just clumsy, which is why they don't win. In one case the coffee is the way hotter than is reasonsble, and in the other is it's at hot, but still reasonable drinking temperatures, so there isn't any liability on the restaurants part because they did everything they needed to by providing a warning
It also didn't succeed. That's part of the Myth. They settled out of court for $160k+$480k, a promise to put a warning on their coffee, and an NDA for all parties involved.
It only got that far because Liebeck requested that McDonald's cover her medical bills only (15-20k) and McDonald's replied with an offer for $800.
However, in conducting the case the way they did, McDonald's was able to avoid setting precedent, avoid taking any blame or responsibility in public, and misrepresent the case for over a decade as a way to lobby about "tort reform". For the low, low price of 1/3rd of a day of revenue from coffee alone.
They also handed it out in cups that didn't provide enough insulation to safely hold on to them without burning your fingers. So it wasn't just that the coffee was dangerous when spilled, but it was also their fault _that_ she spilled her coffee, because she couldn't hold it and couldn't put it down at that moment. Maybe Starbucks just puts those insulation paddings around their cups so customers have a chance to walk away safely.
Regarding the coffee lawsuit, if I'm not mistaken the Seinfeld episode where Kramer got burnt by hot coffee at the cinema and he went to court to claim compensation, was based on the case mentioned in video.
First time in 3 years that I have been this early it’s weird
In the UK, The Big Tasty is actually a 1/3 lb burger. Due to not allowing imperial measurements though, the big tasty patty is actually marked on boxes on delivery as 3:1 patties, and Quarter Pounder patties are marked as 4:1.
"A third pounder is smaller than a quarter pounder, because 3 is less than 4..." this is why Conservatives usually win elections. The general populous is embarrassingly thick.
@@-_pi_- tbf he did order the combo
I can't believe they didn't capitalize on that stupidity by offering "The 1/6th Pound Burger"... if three is one less than four and thus smaller, then this is two numbers "bigger" and must be a real deal!!
Should be 2/6th then. Even better! 2>1 and 6>3
You are in the middle of a heatwave, how long ago was this filmed
I'm guessing in the middle of summer Sherlock
We had this for coffeeshops in the Netherlands. People were afraid that the coffee shops would close so all around the city for 2 days before the government announcement, there were permanent 20- 50 man queues at every coffeeshop in the city.
Earliest I've ever been. Feels weird.
Braum's is only a regional restaurant, based out of Oklahoma, but they've always had a third pound burger. And as far as I know, it sells pretty well.
Hey, it seems i'm the first at the video dates sates it at 38 seconds. Woo!
NEEEEEEEEEERD!!!!!!
In canada they brought back the 1/3 pound burger (well 5 oz). But since in canada its marketed as the "familly burger" its sold under the name "uncle burger".
The average consumer believed a 3rd was less than a 4th...... stupid but believable.
.1 lbs, .25 lbs, .33 lbs, .5 lbs and finally 1.0 lbs pound burgers. That's how you show it so you get past stupid people.
"But...Steel is heavier than feathers"
Nailing a joke and then immediately spilling your drink the very next second is definitely Fact Fiend in a nutshell :P
Love this channel. Got my through COVID isolation
This isn't surprising. Our education system is broken. I'm 54 and didn't have an actual algebra class until I went to a private college to finish my degree 15 years ago. Had one single introductory algebra class in high school, which was just multiplication all over again and that was it. It's been basic math all throughout. They covered fractions in third grade and never touched on them again.
This story I 1/1 believe. I just finished a quick math reminder class for my apprenticeship and over half the class of full grown adults had no idea how fractions work or how to get a % from a decimal
this is why McDonald's uses the "Double Quarter pounder" instead of the 1/2 pound. people can understand two quarter pounders is more than one but a quarter pounder twice the size will baffle them
I can see a commercial with two burgers on scales and an English school teacher voice over explaining about 1/3 vs 1/4
A&W burgers buns are buttered and toasted, they also don't put copious amounts of salt and pepper on the burgers. Some restaurants have fire grille that's has a chain conveyor, others have a flat top grille.
I would just like to say that I fucking love you guys. I don't watch every single video, but every one I do, I enjoy the hell out of. I hope you all keep being awesome as shit.
I admire the restraint of A&W focus testers who apparently didn't respond with "were you kicked in the head?" to everyone who responded that they thought 1/3 was less than 1/4.
Me: Watching this video at 00:00
Also me: "Welp... Now I crave a burger..."
Universe: "Suffer."
Me again: *Cries to sleep*
Hardees and Carl's Jr in the USA has a whole run of burgers with third pound patties but they are marketed as Thickburgers.
Surely the key to making people realize it's bigger is to just call it something else and advertise it as having X% more meat than an existing burger.
helped someone clean out there car when they got a new one found an insulated glass bottle for mountain dew in the back and they had stopped using that packaging about 10 years before
Wow! I literally talked about this for the first time in years yesterday. Nice bit of synchronicity.
ive been having mcdonalds more than ever since lockdown, going to the shops is the only thing i can really do and its on the way so i always stop by. Ive had it almost twice a week for months
Here in Canada, 1/3 pound burgers did eventually take off, but when they named them differently, particularly at McDonnald's and A&W. McDonnald's calls it the Angus burger. A&W rebranded their entire burger menu to bring back their nomenclature from the '50s, the "Burger Family." The 1/3 pounder is called the Uncle Burger. But A&W abandoned their policy of being the same price or cheaper than McDonalds, and instead allows their burgers to be slightly more expensive but *far* better quality. At McD's, I'll usually spend $20-25 for my wife and I; but at A&W it's $25-30, more food, and tastes about a thousand times better.
My place of business has almost nothing to do with numbers, but I quickly learned that numbers and letters are hard for the average person.