Cinnamon Toast Crunch Shrimp Controversy

Overview

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Shrimp Controversy refers to a public complaint made on Twitter by television writer Jensen Karp that he had discovered shrimp tails and a string in his box of breakfast cereal Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Karp kept Twitter abreast of his conversations with the brand online while Twitter users made jokes about the incident. As the story developed, several facts about Karp became more widely known, including that he is married to Danielle Fishel, the actress who played Topanga on Boy Meets World, and that he used to rap under the name "Hot Karl." The surprising factoids led people to remark about the surprising depth of the story.

Background

On March 22nd, 2021, Jensen Karp tweeted^[1] to Cinnamon Toast Crunch, asking why there was shrimp in his cereal. He provided a picture that showed the shrimp tails in the box, gaining over 23,000 retweets and 142,000 likes (shown below, left). He later tweeted^[2] the rest of his findings in the box, which included several more shrimp tails and a piece of string (shown below, right).

Developments

Initially, Cinnamon Toast Crunch denied^[3] that it was shrimp, saying it was just an "accumulation of sugar" (shown below)

This led Karp to post his direct messages with the Cinnamon Toast Crunch Twitter account^[4][5] (shown below).

On March 23rd, 2021, the Cinnamon Toast Crunch Twitter account^[6] tweeted that they were investigating Karp's allegation (shown below).

Online Reaction

As the story spread around Twitter, users responded with numerous memes mocking the incident. For example, Twitter user @bobbyhundreds^[7] posted a photoshop of the Cinnamon Toast Crunch box, gaining over 570 retweets and 6,300 likes (shown below, left). User @Gardenboy15^[8] posted a picture of a shrimp inside an oreo, gaining over 12,000 retweets and 136,000 likes (shown below, right).

Others were surprised to learn about Karp's myriad claims to fame, including being married to Boy Meets World actress Danielle Fishel and performing as rapper Hot Karl.^[9] User @cbranch89^[10] tweeted, "Imagine saying 'wow the shrimp cinnamon toast guy is married to Topanga' to any normal person," gaining over 8,500 retweets and 92,000 likes (shown below, left). User @dreadcraft^[11] tweeted, "The funniest thing about the CTC shrimp tails thing is this is how I found out the rapper formerly known as Hot Karl from NBA Live 2003 is big on Twitter now and also married Topanga," gaining over 110 retweets and 950 likes (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References