Why Is This Tweet About Chicken Nuggets More Popular Than Ellen DeGeneres?
A teenager hoping to score free chicken nuggets broke her record.
It all started weeks ago with an innocent tweet. "Yo @Wendys how many retweets for a year of free chicken nuggets?" asked Nevada teen Carter Wilkerson. "18 million" was the response from Wendy's.
Since then, Wilkerson has been campaigning hard to get the needed retweets to score him the free nuggets. Eighteen million is pretty near impossible: The reigning retweet record holder was Ellen DeGeneres, whose 2014 Oscars selfie—showing the talk show host flanked by the likes of Meryl Streep, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and other A-list celebs—has garnered an impressive 3.4 million retweets so far.
Well, the nugget-loving teen from Nevada just broke her record, as reported by The Verge. As of press time, his tweet has reached 3.5 million retweets, and counting. Wendy's reports he'll get his nuggs, and will also donate $100,000 to The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.
Just how did he do it? His #NuggsForCarter movement has gotten a lot of press coverage and support from big brands and celebrities, including Google, Microsoft, and even Twitter itself (it gave him a verified badge and also created a special emoji for his cause).
Even DeGeneres herself got in on the action, inviting him to appear on The Ellen Show in mid-April. She confronted the 16-year-old, asking him why he was trying to take down her Oscar selfie tweet.
"Honestly, I just want chicken nuggets," Wilkerson admitted, shrugging sheepishly. "I just have a love for the chicken nuggets."
DeGeneres encouraged fans to retweet Wilkerson to help him get his nuggets, but with the stipulation that they retweet her Oscars pic as well so she can stay in the lead. And she threw in some prizes to sweeten the deal, too: a 55-inch Roku TV and "a year's supply of Ellen underwear." But if Wilkerson's tweet surpasses hers, DeGeneres threatened to come to his house and take back the TV and underwear.
"Hey @TheEllenShow sorry about that…Can I still keep my TV and Underwear??" Wilkerson tweeted after learning he broke her record.
"Absolutely not. Sending Bradley Cooper to pick 'em up," DeGeneres responded.
We hope they take a selfie together, and tweet it.
