Last week the International House Of Pancakes announced they were changing their name from IHOP to IHOb. But they never said what the 'b' would stand for, sending the Internet into a frenzy. Does the b stand for breakfast? Broccoli? Bugs? The possibilities were endless.
Today the restaurant chain announced that the 'b' stands for burgers, which was pretty surprising. Most people assumed the 'b' would stand for 'breakfast,' and they were simply expanding their early meal cuisine. But 'burgers' is an odd choice. I mean, come on, burgers aren't a breakfast food! You can't just go from pancakes to burgers! What's next, Burger King becomes Taco King? Subway becomes Weinerway? Kentucky Fried Chicken becomes Kentucky Fried Kale? It's a slippery slope!
You might be thinking, "Wait, aren't there already, like, a million burger chains?" Yes, there are, and they're all roasting IHOb for its name change on Twitter. It's the greatest beef since Pusha T vs. Drake. Wendy's fired the opening shot, sarcastically tweeting, "Can't wait to try a burger from a place that decided pancakes were too hard." Ooohhhhh! Damn! They tweet pretty tough, for a company whose mascot is a little girl.
IHOP - I mean, IHOb - responded, "We don’t want any beef with you, we just want to share our beef with the world." Hey, you have to give them credit for responding to a jab with good humor. After Pusha T released the scathing diss song, "The Story Of Adinon," Drake failed to respond, hiding from the public for weeks. This means IHOb officially has more hip-hop cred than Drake. Congratulations.
Wendy's slammed IHOb again in another tweet, writing, "Remember when you were like 7 and thought changing your name to Thunder BearSword would be super cool? Like that, but our cheeseburgers are still better." Ooooohhh! (Blares airhorn multiple times.) I did not realize little girls with pigtails could be so savage.
But Wendy's wasn't the only fast food chain to make fun of IHOb on Twitter. As you can tell from the ridiculous marketing campaign, IHOP flipped the uppercase 'P' to create a lowercase 'b.' Did they do this so the change wouldn't seem jarring? Or to save money on marketing? Or because their advertising team was super high? Nobody knows. But A&W poked fun at the concept by flipping their own logo upside down, and tweeting "Please do not ask what it means — we don't know either.
Red Robin, Waffle House and Whataburger also joined in on the fun, assuring their fans they'd never give up burgers for pancakes.
Also, Burger King changed its Twitter handle to Pancake King, with the bio "The official tweets of Pancake King USA."
There's still no mention from McDonald's. They probably want to stay away from beef, just like they do when they make burgers. Because they're all made from rats! Just kidding. I am sure their burgers are made from highest quality beef, and would never insinuate otherwise. But come on, Mickey D's, tweet something funny about IHOb.
Well, name changes aren't easy - just ask Puff Daddy. Roasting IHOb is the fast food chains' way of saying "Welcome to the neighborhood."
