The Out-of-Touch Adults' Guide to Kid Culture: Alysa Liu and 'Goonbait'

This week, we're taking a look at goonbait and RegencyCore, and breaking down the infamous video of McDonald's CEO barely eating a hamburger. If you don't know what any of that even is, you're definitely in the right place, so let me break down for ya.

Alysa Liu and goonbait

In Gen Z and Gen A slang, "gooning" refers to extended masturbation without orgasm, sometimes done for the purpose of entering an altered state of consciousness. "Goonbait" is, essentially, media that exists to inspiring gooning.

Speaking of goonbait, a couple weeks ago, I talked about Olympic gold medal figure skater Alysa Liu as the hero athlete of Generations Z and A. It didn't take much time for some of the weirder members of the younger generations to make it creepy. This is a familiar reaction that too many younger people have to women doing anything in public.

At issue is a widely shared photo of Liu looking hungrily at her gold medal, that some are called goonbait. Here's an X post that sums it up:

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This inspired many to point out how creepy it is and to make memes of things that are also "goonbait," like the following:

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The truth is, people used to check whether a coin was gold by marking it with their teeth—gold is a soft metal—and photos of athletes biting their gold medals is an Olympics tradition that's been around since at least 1992, when Greco-Roman wrestling champ Péter Farkas chomped on his for a photo. I'm pretty sure no one called this picture goonbait. Since then, it's expected for all medal winners to do that pose for the funny photographs. Liu seems to be making a joke about that tradition in her photo, not creating "goonbait."

It's not just people online who are all weird about Alysa Liu; real world people are getting into it too. On March 4, the 20-year-old skater posted a story on her Instagram with the text, "So I land at the airport, & there’s a crowd waiting at the exit with cameras & things for me to sign. All up in my personal space. Someone chased me to my car bruh. Please do not do that to me."

What is "RegencyCore?"

A fashion and design aesthetic popular among some members of Gens Z and A, RegencyCore springs from the popularity of the fantasy-regency era look of the Netflix show Bridgerton. It draws inspiration from the opulent style of the British Regency era of the early 1800s, but adds a fantasy element of pastel colors and gold accents.

RegencyCore is becoming a whole lifestyle. There are how-to RegencyCore decorating videos on TikTok, tea parties are becoming popular, people are rocking corsets and opera gloves, and some have even taken up archaic hobbies like tablescaping and writing letters, complete with quill pens and sealing wax.

Viral video of the week: The McDonald's CEO tastes his company's new burger

Last week, CEO of McDonald's, CEO Chris Kempczinski, set off a worldwide viral trend by posting this video:

In an effort to promote the company's new hamburger, the Big Arch (a hamburger that's big), Kempczinski says, "I love this product," "I don't even know how to attack it," and reassures viewers, "I'm going to eat this for my lunch, just so you know."

"I am unharmed, and consuming this product of my own free will," Kempczinski does not say. But he does take the tiniest bite anyone has ever taken of a hamburger and concludes, "It's a delicious product," while looking like this:

It raises so many question. Why does it look a deleted scene from Fear Factor? Why is there a cut right after he bites into the product, so we can't verify that he even ate it? Is Chris Kempczinski actually an alien?

People noticed and started sharing the video to dunk on him. Instagram won't give you view counts, but the video is up to 225.3K likes with over 30,000 comments.

Other burger chain CEOs responded with videos that seem to be saying, "I'm not an alien sent to Earth to study the culinary habits of hu-mans." But these efforts from millionaires to out "regular guy" another millionaire are weird too, in more subtle ways.

Here's Burger King's President Tom Curtis.

Wendy’s President Pete Suerken took things a step further by posting a video of himself grilling a Baconator (a hamburger with bacon on it), then taking a huge bite, but he posted the video on LinkedIn, which is its own kind of weird.

Jack in the Box made a parody video, but its spokes-mascot's mouth is painted, so he didn't eat the burger either.

A&W Canada made a parody that's sort of funny, but points are deducted because that guy is an actor, not the actual CEO, and when was the last time anyone ate at A&W?

The original video raises an interesting question: what if McDonald's did it on purpose? Even though everyone is calling Kempczinski "McNibbles," maybe he's cool with that if it means extra sales. If it had been a halfway normal video, no one would have shared it but according to Marketwatch, the video has been viewed over 70 million times in some form or another, and it going viral is worth about $18.4 million in brand value to McDonald's. If it was on purpose, it was brilliant, but I don't buy it.

I don't think it's intentional because Kempczinski's Instagram is filled with tasting videos that are only about 8% less awkward than this one, and ironic self-deprecation has never been McDonald's bag—that's more of a Wendy's thing. I also can't imagine the marketing person telling the CEO, "The point of the video is that you don't like the hamburger so much, you can barely bring yourself to eat it," and expecting to keep their jobs.