Google CEO Sundar Pichai has tasked employees returning to work on Monday morning with one key objective: fix the burger emoji.

The tech giant's big cheese (sorry) stepped in after a tweet from author Thomas Baekdal highlighted inconsistencies in different tech companies' burger construction.

Amid the cheesy puns (sorrier) and breathless bewilderment, it was the meaty issue (sorry - not sorry) of cheese placement which sparked the most fervent debate.

Skip Twitter post by @baekdal I think we need to have a discussion about how Google's burger emoji is placing the cheese underneath the burger, while Apple puts it on top pic.twitter.com/PgXmCkY3Yc — Thomas Baekdal (@baekdal) October 28, 2017 Report

Posting a picture from emojipedia, Mr Baekdal said it was: "time to have a discussion about how Google's burger emoji is placing the cheese underneath the burger, while Apple puts it on top".

In the image, Google is the only company which places its cheese underneath the meat.

Mr Baekdal clearly has his finger on the social zeitgeist, as the discussion he wanted took off online. His initial tweet has attracted 17,500 retweets, more than 36,000 likes and hundreds of comments.

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People really care about burgers, and some were unimpressed with the effort made by both companies.

Skip Twitter post by @teroterotero Obviously, cheese must be on top of meat. But lettuce must be insulated by the tomato - so both are in the wrong. — Tero Kuittinen (@teroterotero) October 28, 2017 Report

The debate came to the attention of Google's CEO Sundar Pichai on Sunday.

"Will drop everything else we are doing and address on Monday if folks can agree on the correct way to do this," he tweeted.

Skip Twitter post by @sundarpichai Will drop everything else we are doing and address on Monday:) if folks can agree on the correct way to do this! https://t.co/dXRuZnX1Ag — Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) October 29, 2017 Report

His pledge to act quickly and decisively was the signal fans of burger puns had been waiting for as a torrent of witticisms was unleashed.

"If Sundar says he'll do it, then consider it bun," one noted on Twitter.

"These burger puns are going to ketchup with you in a bad way," another responded.

It is unclear what, if anything, Google actually plan to do about their controversial cheese-bottomed burger, but perhaps if they can resolve their burger issues by the end of the day then beer might be their next priority.