About

Hamburger Cheeseburger Big Mac Whopper, or the Hamburger Song, is a 2008 song by James Cunningham consisting of throat-sung lyrics repeating the phrase "hamburger cheeseburger Big Mac whopper." The song was remixed by YouTuber bigwillystatus in 2009, resulting in a number of popular memes, most notably video edits and shitposts using it for comedic effect.

Origin

On April 14th, 2008, YouTuber^[1] James Cunningham uploaded a skit titled "The Hamburger Song" in which he drives up to a fast-food restaurant to order then repeats into the ordering terminal using a Tuvan throat-singing technique, "hamburger cheeseburger Big Mac Whopper" a number of times and drives off (shown below). The video gained over 299,000 views in 13 years.

On February 22nd, 2009, YouTuber^[2] bigwillystatus uploaded a remixed version of the song featuring a beat and additional lyrics, garnering over 1.8 million views in 12 years (shown below).

Spread

The song didn't take off significantly in memes until 10 years later in 2019 when internet users began using it in various shitposts and edits. For example, on July 4th, 2019, YouTuber^[4] RohanVeidt 115 posted an edit in which a bot traverses a 3D maze made of images of the protagonist from the animated film Shark Tale eating a burger and a loop of the song, garnering over 106,000 views in a comparable span of time (shown below, left). On July 8th, YouTuber^[3] DandyDani uploaded a video of a number of Jewish people dancing to the song, garnering over 44,000 views in a comparable span of time (shown below, right).

On August 8th, Instagram^[5] meme page @salad.snake posted a video consisting of a number of cursed emojis over the song, garnering over 115,000 views in just under two years (shown below). Notably, this is the first known use of the Screen-Reaching Hand / Emoji.

On August 23rd, Redditor u/401painters posted an edited Burger King logo featuring the phrase to /r/sbubby,^[6] garnering over 160 upvotes in just under two years (shown below).

On January 15th, 2020, Instagram^[7] user @tampon.mp4 posted an Anonymous Asexual ear rape video in which a trans character sings the song (shown below). The video was reuploaded to YouTube^[8] on November 16th, garnering over 10,900 views in five months.