About

Papa John's "Day of Reckoning" Interview refers to a WDRB interview with John Schnatter, the former face of Papa John's who resigned after a series of controversies, including his controversial positions on #TakeAKnee and saying the N word on a conference call. In the WDRB interview, Schnatter promises a "Day of Reckoning" is coming. He also claimed he had eaten 40 pizzas in 30 days. Clips from the interview went viral on Twitter as users joked about Schnatter's appearance and his quotes.

Origin

On November 25th, 2019, WDRB aired a segment in which they interviewed John Schnatter.^[1] In the interview, Schnatter says he was "set up," and that the conference call where he said the N-word was taken out of context and used as an opportunity to push him out. He also stated the new CEO of Papa John's, Rob Lynch, has "no pizza experience," and that the pizza doesn't taste the same. Schnatter confirmed this by saying he had eaten "40 pizzas in the last 30 days." He also stated that he had more information, promising, "The day of reckoning will come." Twitter user @bubbaprog tweeted clips from the interview, gaining over 6,500 retweets and 36,000 likes (shown below).

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After Bubbaprog's tweet, Twitter users mocked the clips of Schnatter. Chrissy Teigen tweeted, "papa john has fucking HAD IT," gaining over 470 retweets and 60,000 likes (shown below, left). User @_buhhh tweeted, "Papa John looks like the guy in a zombie movie that gets bit and tries to hide it from the rest of the group," gaining over 1,300 retweets and 5,800 likes (shown below, right).

Many were particularly amused by Schnatter's claim that he had eaten "40 pizzas in the past 30 days." This was widely parodied online. For example, user @GenePark tweeted a picture of an 8-bit Garfield saying the phrase (shown below, left). User @tallmaurice photoshopped a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles face onto Schnatter's face, gaining over 570 retweets and 3,600 likes (shown below, right).

H3 Podcast Interview

On February 10th, 2020, Schnatter appeared on the H3 Podcast. During his interview with Ethan Klein, he admitted that he did not consume 40 pizza in 30 days.

"Well I didn't say I had eaten 40 pizzas in 30 days," said Schnatter. "I said I had 40 pizzas in 30 days."

"When I said I had a pizza, it means I'm inspecting. I'm not eating every pizza. I may be eating parts of pizzas."

Within three days, the video of the interview received more than 1.3 million views on YouTube.

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