Photo : sam thomas ( iStock )

Update, August 21, 2019: As a postscript to this entire to-do, one which Twitter is still mining for those essential likes and RTs, the three companies directly involved in Monday’s dispute weren’t the only ones to get in on the passive-aggressive chicken debate.



Bojangles also tweeted, and then later deleted, its own sandwich picture. Please, fast food chicken restaurants, we beg of you: let Popeyes have its moment in peace .

Original story, August 20, 2019: By now you’ve probably heard that Popeyes has a new chicken sandwich, and that it’s terrific. It’s so good that this is happening:



The most common point of comparison thus far for the Popeyes sandwich has been Chick-fil-A’s longstanding version. In addition to the structural similarities between the two, many have already celebrated the Popeyes sandwich as a less controversial alternative to Chick-fil-A, which has led to no shortage of internet arguing.


Speaking of internet arguing, it was only a matter of time until an enterprising social media administrator decided to take the great sandwich debate of late summer 2019 to Twitter. It all got started yesterday, when Chick-fil-A decided to assert its status as “the original,” in reference to nothing in particular at all:


Of course, Popeyes couldn’t just let the affront sit:


Chick-fil-A, perhaps wisely, did not engage further. However, since a viral internet argument was going down, there was no chance that the rabble-rousing (read: dickish) Wendy’s team could stay away:


For jumping into a conversation in which it was not involved, in order to push what an arguable majority of diners would call the least of the three chicken sandwiches, Popeyes took Wendy’s to task. That’s when the chirping began in earnest:


Popeyes even dragged Carter Wilkerson, the “year of free chicken nuggets” guy, into the fray:



When the screenshots of ill-formatted, immediately deleted Tweets arrive, that’s when you know the fight has gone too far. All three accounts have since bowed out, leaving any further debate to the reaction .GIF-wielding public. Whether any of this will help to sell chicken sandwiches, the ostensible purpose of all three brand accounts, remains to be seen.