Whopper virgins

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Kneedragger

Kneedragger

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RaySirX
The website whoppervirgins.com has a short film documenting what happens when you get isolated village people to try a hamburger for the first time. But not just that, to see if they like the Whopper better than the BigMac.

Some people see this as a humiliating rape of an innocent native culture, but to me its a harmless and good natured experiment. The filmmaker is Stacy Peralta, who did Dog Town and Z-Boys, and also Riding With Giants.
 
Stacy Peralta was the Tony Hawk of my day, except of course he didn't have anything like the endorsement opportunities.
 
Wow, that's a really interesting video.

But I do think those people were wronged. Those aren't real burgers! Now someone needs to step up and take a proper charcoal grill over there and some ground chuck with all the fixin's and cook up those people a real burger. The burger is an American staple, but I don't like the fact that those fast food joints seem to define our culture of food. They're just cheap, quick ripoffs of a great classic. And everyone makes it different. That's one thing that makes them great.
 
Keef
Wow, that's a really interesting video.

But I do think those people were wronged. Those aren't real burgers! Now someone needs to step up and take a proper charcoal grill over there and some ground chuck with all the fixin's and cook up those people a real burger. The burger is an American staple, but I don't like the fact that those fast food joints seem to define our culture of food. They're just cheap, quick ripoffs of a great classic. And everyone makes it different. That's one thing that makes them great.
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You don't go to McDonalds for a burger, you go for a McBurger. Likewise, you go to BK for a whopper.
 
Good video. I agree that those aren't real burgers, but I think it's an interesting experiment anyway.
 
Double Whoppers are pretty good if you eat them right after theyre cooked.

I argue against the idea that the people were 'wronged'.
You can say the burgers dont represet the pinnacle of burgerdom all you want, but thats different than claiming the people were wronged. Those isolated people reacted pretty naturally-- they can defend themselves. They arent mental infants. One guy said he prefered his seal meat. In another place they offered the film crew their own native food to taste.. nobody made fun of their basic stew. The film crew liked it!
 
Patrik
Intresting video for sure. 👍

American fast food however is... 👎
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Clearly you haven't had the good stuff. And I think Subway and Pita Pit qualify as fast food. Tend to get in and out of those faster than Jack 'n the Box.
 
Subway for me is in the middle between being called fast food and not. Nevertheless, I still would take Subway of McD, BK, Sonic, or any other related company.
 
I'm a whopper virgin. :(

Wish they would open a Burger King here in town. The nearest is one state above mine, a two and a half hours' car trip.
 
exigeracer
Did this film reveal anything at all unexpected other than the superficiality of the Whopped being the preferred sandwich?
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First and foremost it was an advertising campaign, and secondly it was a genuine experiment to see how people react to food that they've not only never eaten, but are completely unheard of. You wouldn't be able to compare it to, say, me eating Chinese food. I never have, but I've seen it done and I've used chop sticks before, albeit badly. Those people don't get exposed to the world of food like we do.
 
Keef
First and foremost it was an advertising campaign, and secondly it was a genuine experiment to see how people react to food that they've not only never eaten, but are completely unheard of. You wouldn't be able to compare it to, say, me eating Chinese food. I never have, but I've seen it done and I've used chop sticks before, albeit badly. Those people don't get exposed to the world of food like we do.
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I understand the point of exposing this, but I could've predicted they didn't know how to pick it up, weren't familiar with the taste of certain ingredients etc. Did they need to make a movie about it? I don't feel like I was shown anything I couldn't have already pretty accurately guessed.
 
If you are going to talk about need, then no. Absolutely no need for this movie to have been made.

To actually see, what an intelligent person could have predicted, holds a certain amount of relative charm. Like watching kids open christmas presents. The point isnt that its unexpected, its the experience of watching it.
I wonder how the young men in that village would react to several hours of driving GT5p :-)
(the village elder would approach them and explain it was someone elses turn, to which they would get the reply, 'shut up and get me another hamburger')
 
If anyone is interested, I'd like to make my own film called Seal Meat Virgins.
 
Keef
Wow, that's a really interesting video.

But I do think those people were wronged. Those aren't real burgers! Now someone needs to step up and take a proper charcoal grill over there and some ground chuck with all the fixin's and cook up those people a real burger. The burger is an American staple, but I don't like the fact that those fast food joints seem to define our culture of food. They're just cheap, quick ripoffs of a great classic. And everyone makes it different. That's one thing that makes them great.
Click to expand...

I thought I would post on this article, but Keef explains my opinion better than myself! 👍
 
Azuremen
Clearly you haven't had the good stuff. And I think Subway and Pita Pit qualify as fast food. Tend to get in and out of those faster than Jack 'n the Box.
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Subway is bloody awful. The bread tastes like plastic, half the meat is processed... and there is reasonable call for too much choice. At the very least I don't want some sort of production line crap, I'd rather have a system where you get given a piece of paper with all your options on, you tick boxes, give it to them, and they create the sandwich, rather than being shuffled along and trying to pick things with limited time to choose and being offered two dozen sauces that are unidentifiable.

I'd rather have a McDonalds.

As for the experiment in the OP, interesting concept. Again, I agree that they aren't really the best representation of burgers, even as far as fast food chains go and certainly not compared to home-made ones or burgers from good bar/grills or restaurants. It always makes me laugh having a "quarter pounder" in McD's, as the burger is just under 1/3 of the size of a quarter pounder at a pub near me.

That said, McD's is a godsend when it's at a motorway service station. It's the same, low price everywhere, 99p for a burger or whatever, when at most service stations the "healthy" option of pre-packed sandwiches normally costs £4+
 
homeforsummer:
I dont guess they allow this in the UK, but the absolute lowest form of fast-food life in the US is of the gas station 'heat lamp' variety. Its comprised (usually) of either a previously deep fried blob of something, or a weathered hot dog. This is lovingly prepared by the non hair net attendant sometime in the wee hours (of last week.) Its then presented in all its culinary glory atop several layers of paper (to help absorb the deep fry oil these objects sweat off) and then sits beneath a heat lamp (funny how in some people the sensation of 'warm' can mitigate the sensation of 'disgusting') until someone buys it.
These are so-called food items even a starving racoon would reject on principle.
 
I mercifully managed to avoid that when I was over there. Here, as I mentioned, the biggest thing to contend with is extortionate cost. I did get salmonella from a chicken burger at a roadside "Little Chef" once though.
 

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