MatPat himself also debunked the "Frankenstein Pizza" myth. It turns out they also use very dull pizza cutters because they're not allowed to have sharp things around the kiddies.

Josh's channel is like visiting a good friend telling you all the fun things they learned today.

As someone who holds a master's degree and works in a restaurant, I appreciate you bringing up the fast food employees are talentless. I cannot tell you how many customers speak to me as if I couldn't graduate high school let alone accomplish the things that I have and it's honestly demeaning in a way that always gets to me.

I like how you spoke on behalf of fast food workers and restaurant workers overall. There is no shame for working in restaurants.

When it comes to the “secret menu items” I’ve heard that both managers and workers hate them due to it MASSIVELY slowing down business, and while I don’t work in fast food, I think that my experience as a cart pusher (since it’s also a minimum wage job) I’m willing to believe them. Edit:the dumb Chuck E Cheese rumor made me think of the FNAF fan game series called Dayshift At Freddy’s, which one of the jokes was that Fazbear Entertainment uses ingredients from the dumpster.

This might be weird to say, but your videos are so healing to my brain. You’re literally part of my self-care routine. My best friend actually chose to watch one of your videos to calm down after a panic attack. Keep making wholesome, calming videos, you’re literally helping people

I remember a story about a father taking his little daughter to starbucks and she wanted a mermaid drink because it was a secret menu item she might've saw online. If I remember right the workers couldn't make it unless they were told what ingredients and stuff to put in it. Forgot how the rest of the story went but I think she did get upset about it, reasonably so being a curious kid and all. I usually think "secret menu" is a fancier way of saying "custom orders", especially for places like Starbucks, it is still cool nonetheless if anyone sharing a secret menu item tells you what to ask to get you the drink or treat you want from it. Also, I thank you too for the explanation for "fast food jobs are for the...". I may not work fast food but front register at a pizza place requires serious patience and confidence. People who say such things about fast food workers clearly just don't know the troubles. Thank you to the hard workers. ❤

Thank you for covering #4. I am a recent graduate cum laude of the arts/history and have worked contract in my desired field before but due an incredibly small job market in my state, I’ve had to get a part-time job in food service. I’ve struggled with it mentally because I “did everything right” growing up and hearing the words of support means a lot.

Strider, one thing I really like is that you don’t care about people’s opinion and let them enjoy or believe what they want.

Fun fact: when I was working at Starbucks, corporate was starting the address how bad the “secret menu” situation had gotten. People would just ask for things like a “butter beer Frappuccino” and expect you to know what it was WITHOUT providing a recipe. Last I heard, they were trying to find a way to capitalize on their “secret menu” and allow people to order these by name off the app (but I don’t think they’ve gotten to that point yet).

This is going to sound weird but your channel and content is like a safe space to me. Thanks for everything you do, Josh!

I think the "we have the right to refuse service to anyone" signs might be a good idea anyway. It might get certain people to control their behavior.

As another person who's on the autism spectrum, it's so nice to see someone on KZfaq who also has it and gives us thoughtful, impressive, and entertaining videos. I'm an aspiring writer, novelist and proofreader but being on the autism spectrum makes me feel anxious when dealing with other people and various stimuli. I've worked at Macys during the holiday season and I'm thankful that I didn't have to deal with customers every day (I worked in the fulfillment department). I'm glad I'm not alone in trying to find work on the spectrum. Thank you so much Josh! You've made me feel better and do better just by being you! 💗💗💗 If you ever need proofreading or a babysitter for Boo (I prefer ghosts and animals over humans) feel free to let me know! 👍🏼

Honestly Boo should talk more. He’s getting really good at it!

Number 4 has been one of the most hurtful beliefs about the fast food industry and is one that was spread by College propaganda especially in the 90's and 00's and portrayed in media (such as saying that if you didn't went to college the only job your get is flippin burgers). That was until the recession hit and then covid, which led the public know that Fast Food AIN'T an easy job and even more with social media exposing rudeless cruel customers that further make the service job dangerous and stressful to work in. Myself having done years in Retail with high anxiety I can attest that is not a easy job and people should stop looking down on it as a job, and if they believe such classist nonsense then they should stop going to those places and leave the workers peace.

In the comics, Wonder Woman actually worked for a in-universe Taco Joint, called Taco Whiz. Not only did she take up the job, but she also became the first superhero to shed light on the importance of food service workers. She was glad to help out and feed the people of the community. She calls it a "dignified occupation" as she realizes that Taco Whiz is the place that most people go for cheap food they can afford. It was among Diana's favorite jobs and gave her a new sense of respect towards retail workers! While a fictional character, DC used Wonder Woman to show that being a fast food worker wasn't demeaning (Diana herself even earned minimum wage & she showed her friends that sometimes they need to mingle with regular people to truly understand the job they do as superheroes)!

As someone with three associates degrees & who used to work in customer service, I appreciate you addressing the myth about those in fast food being talentless. If I didn't have my wonderful current job I would probably still be working in customer service because I enjoyed helping people & it always made my day when a regular would come in or I'd get an understanding & kind customer. It also helped that I had co-workers willing to help me out. It's just with my medical conditions it was getting harder & harder to continue that job so I had a find another job and this one also paid more which also helped out to save for a move

The fast food industry can be a massive liar sometimes. Thank you for clearing that out, PhantomStrider.

As someone on the Autism Spectrum, working at a restaurant definitely helped me with my depression from trauma, although, as you mentioned, having too many people did bother me to the point of having to take a breath. Unfortunately, I have been fired, but I did manage to work for over a year. I haven't had a job since, but will consider to get one as I did just recently finish school as of writing this. Edit: I've got a new job and I've been working for a few weeks now. Fortunately, not only has it been a better job, but the other workers were much more considerate if I had any issues

as someone with adhd a learning disability, social anxiety and depression working can be difficult, finding a job that has reduced stress or lowering the chance of a panic attack means I was heavily limited at what jobs I could get, I currently work overnight unloading trucks and stocking shelves and out of all the jobs I've had over my life I have felt the least amount of stress from it dreading every day you go to work heavily weighs on the mind

A lot of these myths, while ridiculous, actually sometimes made me believe that they were true. Obviously I know better now but it's funny looking back at something like a waiter spitting in your food and thinking about how you used to believe that was true

I guess…basically the “Special Menu,” stuff are honestly random special requests if you really think about it. Someone wanted to try combining stuff and the worker was nice enough to do it and word spread

Another very good reason for the Chuck.E-Cheese pizza being so misshapen is that their pizza knifes are made specially so that a kid can't become a threat if he takes it, so they are incredibly weak. That can make it difficult to cut the pizza in a timely manner, so it's very easy to make a mistake

I've heard all of these except the mismatched pizza slices because I don't think ive actually experienced that before. Thanks for clearing so many of these up, especially about McDonald's. I worked in a restaurant for 6 1/2 years and nobody spit in the food, we just made fun of the customers for being dumb. Lol

I still can’t believe the Chuck E. Cheese pizza myth actually happened they could have avoided the whole thing by asking them not to slice the pizza simple as that💀

Yeah, the "doesn't rot" thing is something that's been around for a while, and not just the burger but also the fries and Mcnuggets. I know Morgan Spurlock did the experiment with French fries as a bonus feature on supersize me and the fries looked unchanged after months. A while ago I looked up the science of it and while I don't remember all of it I do know the salt shower the fries get is a part of it. Because I was an observant child that liked salt WAY too much, I became very familiar with different salts. McDonald's salt is actually much finer than standard table salt (or at least it was at one point), so it is a lot easier for it to stick to things and with the salt shower they receive after coming out of the fryer (watch it one time, it's not a light dusting), McDonald's fries basically have a full salt coat unlike pretty much every other French fry on the market, and salt immersion is like the thing that kept Egyptian mummies preserved for thousands of years. Add your lack of moisture thing and you have the reason for the lack of rot. "It doesn't rot, so it must still be just as good as fresh." Well no. I can't say for sure with the fast food, but for snack foods just because something isn't rotten doesn't mean it's still good. I have eaten 3 years past the sell by date chocolate bars and potato chips and while they weren't rotten or frankly all that bad looking or tasting (just a little stale), I felt ill for a few hours afterward. It wasn't just "I ate food my body wasn't used to" or "well duh it was expired" (I eat junk food that's a month or 2 past the sell by and it doesn't cause me problems), but there is a limit to what "it's not rotten" means for "safe to eat and not feel sick."

On my first day of Pastry School, we were asked "How many of you bought a car today? Bought a house? Went to space?" Not many people raised their hands, if any. And then we were asked "How many of you ate today?" Nearly everyone raises their hand. "That's called job security." Food service is a necessary job. Not saying the other jobs aren't, but you don't exactly buy a car every day. You eat every day. My prospective career in pastry didn't really work out but I 100% respect a food service worker far more than I respect most people in higher paying jobs, because they have to deal with hungry people and hungry people are cranky and mean. And some people are just cranky and mean in general. Food service workers deal with way more than they should, especially considering they perform a service that people would absolutely not be able to live without.

My first job as a dishwasher was run by a guy that let his grand kids pee in the pickles and he served them. The movie called Waiting actually happens in a lot of restaurants.

I find it funny how all of these have no research, and I can tell a few of them are based on stereotypes, mainly MSG and dogmeat!

In my own personal experience, you can blame the education system for the fast food worker stereotype as well as other "low skilled jobs" like retail and sanitation. Personally I was constantly hit with "go to college to become a professional so you don't have to be a laborer" messaging as were many of my peers, and I believe that's why there is a labor shortage in those "low skill" fields, and a labor surplus in the "high skill fields" (I know people with "real" college degrees like physical therapy and counseling that can't get jobs in their field of study and I think it's because everyone was told "get a degree, it'll unlock the world for you and you'll make a lot of money"). Granted, this is only in like a 30 mile radius with a sample size of 100 or so people, but no one has told me my theory is wrong yet.

So... Here's an interesting thing I've learned about conspiracies: "The more people need to be part on that conspiracy to trick people, the more likely the conspiracy in question is false" So next time when someone will accuse a big corporation of keeping a big secret, think about that.

the shane shade is absolutely killing me my goddddd 💀 bro just straight dogged on him for 4 minutes

PhantomStrider is very healthy for the mind and body, and is very good to look at. Absolutely great guy

Dude I love your videos. This truly is the wholesome side of youtube... while talking about cow eyes and spitting in food. As a former long term pizza worker myself I can confirm: no spitting, no jigsaw pizzas. One small correction: getting negative side effects just by expecting them is the nocebo effect.

12:17 "Squishy made entirely of SYRUP!" came to mind.

As a former employee of a pizza place, I can confirm that it can be difficult to slice a pizza into perfect uniform slices..

Its so nice to hear an optimistic look on something like the food industry and to get a wide range of information on topics like these!

I appreciate the way Strider tries to avoid mentioning controversial individuals such as Mr Shane D here! Good job Josh stay respectable!

The hilarious thing about the pig fat thing is, once someone told that to me, clearly hoping my reaction would be like "🤮OH MY GOD! That's disgusting! I'm gonna be sick. I'm never eating those again!" when my response was just "so? We eat animal fat in other foods all the time. What's the big deal if that's all soft serves are? If they made animal fat taste that good, I say that's to be praised. It's not going to make me stop eating it". They stared at me in shock, it apparently never having crossed their mind that I might not care. Even though it isn't true, even if pig fat WERE what soft serves were made of, I'd still eat them, because it's no different from ordering anything else from McDonald's menu. It's all got animal fat some way or another, so the ice cream being fat too isn't a huge game changer or anything 🤷‍♀️

PhantomStrider is so warm-hearted. It's such a contrast to most of the things on the internet

i’m surprised the myth about McDonald’s ice cream was not about their availability. Seriously feels like most of the time they could’ve save cost by not even putting in the machine.

Thank you for adding back the ghost saying "YAH." Seriously, I don't know if it was just the videos I watched or if it's something you've been doing for a while, but I was really sad to see him go.

"If they're seen on camera" That's a pretty big if, especially with workers who know where the blind spots are.

As someone who worked at McDonald's, I can confirm orders would on a rare occasion be messed with if a customer was rude. It wasn't anything sinister, but short changing on fries or intentionally ignoring a special request.

This video was wonderful. Thank you Strider for all the insight and information relating to fast food. I would like to share my favorite story about when I worked at a local Burger King. One day I got hungry. So I took a burger that was sitting in the hot waiting area, kneeled right in front of the drive through and ate it. No one saw not even the camera's. I bought a meal later and charged myself for 2 sandwiches to make up for it. I still thinks it's funny how no one at all saw me.

I love it when they refer to some jobs as "unskilled labor." No such thing. Ever go to a brand-new restaurant and found it a bit lacking? That's because the workers have yet to obtain the skills necessary to work there. Go to that same restaurant a month later and it runs quite well.

I am so glad you fully explained the legal ramifications of tampering with food and how unlikely anyone would think to do it. To be fair, films like “Waiting” have parodied this, but some will obviously take this seriously. As a former fast food employee, I can say with certainly that not once ever did anyone at my store tamper with food, and I personally believed that if I saw anyone do it, I’d take action on behalf of the consumer, because I don’t care how annoying or unsavory someone is being, none of it warrants tampering with their food, regardless of legal ramifications.

23:50 This is actually the Nacebo Effect, the Placebo Effect is when someone gets something that doesn't do anything, but they believe it has positive effects. The Nacebo Effect is the same principle but with a belief there will be negative effects. CGP Grey has a good video on this called "This Video Will Hurt". (Can't link it because KZfaq comments as per usual.)

I never spit in anyone's food, threaten to, cussed out customers, insulted customers to they're faces, threw some food & stuff. Never spit in anyone's food. Like when I was a manager at Wendy's someone called & complained on my shift & they were going to call the next day & talk to the store manager & I said I don't give a "F" I'm off tomorrow

I really miss the days of the top 5 best and worst Episodes of different TV Shows

@19:50 I really appreciate this. I'm also on the spectrum and I was diagnosed only about 10 years ago. I've worked in retail and fast food and these are not easy jobs, even for the average individual I believe, and for me it was almost like lighting my nerves on fire at times. And @22:00 just perfectly summed up, couldn't have said it better myself.

I think your are one of the best KZfaqrs ever, you need 1 million subscribers you’re best!❤

“I’m serving billions and I can’t be beat! You’re a bin full of lettuce facing da feet! Using Cheetos dude? Get your recipes together man, I had the same fries since I was Willord Scott the weatherman!” Ronald McDonald

Watching a PhantomStrider video is like learning some fun facts from a friend or sharing his thoughts on something that interests you.

You were really personal in this video, and I thank you, so much. You're so sweet and so relatable. Thank you for opening up to us. Also, Hi Nin! Always happy to hear you!

Working in fast food or in a full service restaurant is not for young or untalented people. Before Covid, I went into a diner around the corner to pick up something to go, and while I was waiting, there was a new hire learning how to carry multiple dishes at once. She basically had to carry these heavy plates with a 1 finger each, it looked brutal. I have pretty small and dainty hands for my size, I'm not sure I could ever do that. If you're a waiter, you're gonna be running around constantly, dealing with garbage customers, carrying tons of food on hot plates, etc. If you work in fast food, you could be slaving over a hot grill, dealing with the same garbage customers, cleaning the dining area, prepping food, etc. I worked in a pita restaurant for like 5 months when I was younger, there was always something to do so it's tiring work. Every job needs someone to do it. If you like to get food from restaurants, people need to do those jobs in order for that to happen, so they should be treated well by you and compensated well by their employer. If you think that certain jobs aren't worthy of paying a living wage, then you're in favor of poverty which is quite horrible of you.

The taco bell bowl minus the dairy products is a go-to healthy fast food option for me, too. Though, sometimes it's hard to resist the cheese and sour cream. Even with them, I still don't think it's that unhealthy.

Actually - i worked in restaurant as a waiter for 2 years. I don't know if that is a cultural thing or something else (talking about my country where i live in), but almost all of my friends working at restaurants or fast food chains spat or considered even once spiting to someone drink or food. If there were disliked boss or menager pleasing any worker for food or drink - it is always served with hint of someone spits.

My passive aggressive way at getting back at rude customers was putting extra ice in their drinks so they don't get nearly as much soda as they wanted.

As someone who works fast food, I’ve had people ask for “secret menu items”…most of the time I have no idea what they are talking about.

I lived in a town called Lufkin TX and we had a few chinese or japenense restaurants found with skinned cats and dogs in the freezer, however it was never proven it was being fed to customers and in (i believe two of the cases) it was for "personal" use or atleast thats what they said. It didnt help the rumor in that area, at all..

as a mcdonald's employee, you're correct on a lot of the myths there, and trust me if I could get away with it I would enforce a secret menu lol Edit: yeah While it's not the most glamorous job, but I like it because I was in a toxic work environment in my last job and the other staff and workmakes were absolutely KIND to me

Probably my favorite thing about these fast food videos is that I can watch them while eating. Even if what I’m eating is usually the polar opposite of fast food, it still adds to the experience.

Imagine being that guy that walks up to the counter at McDonald’s and says “Can I get a McGangbang?”

As a Scottish man, your dig at Haggis made me laugh. Nice job.

The spitting in food thing happens a lot from my experience the cameras really aren't checked often in a lot of restaurants. Im going too say depends on were you go and how rude you are. Not as bad as being rude in a waffle house

A good chunk of these McDonald's rumors I have never heard of, except for the ice cream machine and occasionally customers ask if it's working

as someone on the spectrum and who ALSO has depression and anxiety ...THANK YOU for speaking out about why it's tough to get and KEEP a job, let alone a FULL TIME job. I'm 30 and have NEVER been able to handle a full time job. Hell, one 8 hour a day at a job that makes me stand literally makes my legs SCREAM at me so I feel liek I'm about to collapse, and my adhd goes haywire with boredome or, for faster jobs, gets overloaded by too rapid of a pace. it's NOT easy and I hate that it's "normal" the whole world is "normal" and as such, the world isn't designed for people like us to...exist, let alone live or survive.

Strider I’ve been following you for years and I absolutely love you latest content especially. I always get a smile on my face when I see the notification you uploaded a video. Thank you for working so hard for us, your videos are the best.

I always enjoy watching your videos, always well spoken and positive. It's very refreshing in the sea of loud and controversial youtube.

As someone who is on the spectrum and in college, I like working at McDonald's to help pay the bills. And I am no where close to talentless, I get positive comments for my voice acting on the drive thru and anything I get paper and do a simple sketch. McDonald's is just a stepping stone to becoming an animator/artist, and thankfully I am at one with a working ice cream machine.

When I worked in a restaurant a lady sent her steak back for not being well done the chief threw it to the floor rubbed it around with his foot and slapped it into the grill and gave it back to her, yes this happened in the United States around 2010. You have a lot of faith in people which is admirable

To be fair I think MatPat disbunked the pizza myth 18:20

You just radiate so much positivity and energy in these videos, they're a great pick-me-up after a long day!

we love you!! i smile every time i see an new upload from you! i love learning from you your like when you have that one teacher you really enjoy seeing and learning from!

I first heard about secret menus in college or like right before it, and one of my friends said "yeah, you can probably find it in a college town like this [where the employees are collegw kids and they'll think its fun to do]." I also heard that since Taco Bell is like just 6 base ingredients, the "secret menu" is just things that aren't listed anymore but still have all the ingredients in the back (like if there was a promotional taco made with quesadilla chicken instead of the beef that bbn is no longer listed, you can probably still order it and the receipt will say the item).

always a good day when Strider uploads. Your vids are always chill and put a smile on my face, keep up the good work!

I'm personally a big fan of the Starbucks secret menu. When I am not ordering online, I just give the batista an index card with the recipe written on it. As someone who doesn't like ordering complicated orders verbally, it makes things easier for me, and hopefully the batista.

I love this channel so much! I always learn all sorts of cool things!

The msg is so wild because it’s just a harmless thing that makes food taste amazing.

#8: Holy cow yes. Whenever I see a story where someone says they can refuse service to people, I try to comment this. Bussiness that are open to general public cannot refuse service to the general public, except on specific cases (like a person being a threat to the safety of others), so there may be cases where someone refusing is ok, but on some stories they refuse service to people for any number of other reasons, which may be ilegal.

Hell yeah, new video.

Food Theory also covered the Chuck E Cheese pizza myth. They ordered several pizzas DURING COVID when it would have been impossible for them to recycle the pizza since they were only doing take out at the time and they got plenty of odd/misshapen slices. Then they asked the staff about it and got some reasonable answers.

i actually believed #1 before, but now it makes so much sense as to why their smaller burgers don't get moldy. i've been loving your fast food vids, i love learning about this stuff and i even have a growing vintage mcdonald's collection.

I heard of the spitting in food one but it never happened to me. I am pretty sure no one does that. Especially for the health protocols the restaurant has in place

Could you do more Crappypasta videos? It's really funny.

14:56 You made a FNaF Reference and expected me to not notice? Chuck-E-Cheese Purple colored Guy Freddy Fazbear's Pizza William Afton

An example of not serving a customer or kicking a customer out is something my mom told me, she said that when my youngest sister was a baby she was crying and one of the staff kicked them out cuz she was crying and my mom said that manager gave her a free meal or something like that after they left a bad review, sure babies crying are annoying and staff and the customers have every right to be annoyed but that doesn’t give the staff the right to kick someone out just for a crying baby cuz you can’t really expect them to not go anywhere or to leave once their baby starts crying cuz they still need to go places or want to enjoy themselves,so they have to have thick skin to not do those things, sure it may be annoying but it’s only mild annoyance for most people which isn’t a reason to kick someone out, sure technically they can but their manager will most likely not be happy about it and have cameras so they know exactly who did it

My mom was a waitress and she had a man who was so rude the entire waitress staff spit in his dessert, he never knew, and said it was delicious, she went on to be a waitress for like 10 more years, she only did it once thankfully but I can assure you that does happen rarely

Thanks to the likes of Binging With Babish, Omnivorous Adam, Joshua Weismann, and even Uncle Roger, MSG is making a comeback and its myth has lost a lot of steam. I even have a jar of the stuff myself

I absolutely love your videos. You always seem like such a genuine and kind person.

Friend, you are on of teh few listicle channels I am still subbed to. I love your content, objective discourse, friendly and engaging demeanor and your fun topics👍👍Respect from Nigeria.

It's also important to note that the MSG and dog meat myths are often rooted in racism, most often sinophobia specifically, and perpetuated by either genuinely racist people or those with unintentional racist biases due to how they were raised. In the US, sinophobia runs rampant(see: people blaming China, or worse, all Chinese people for problems when it's more nuanced than blaming a country or entire nationality on an issue that may not have even originated in the country in question) with people either not stopping to realize that they're being racist, or doing so on purpose.

Please Do Top 6 Worst Arabic Cartoons!

Josh, I love the background music you chose for the end of your vid! From a SB game I used to play all the time: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman for PS2/Gamecube! I loved playing that so much! Beat it several times! You rock! 🤩

Love your videos and positivity, I love your realistic look at things. Watching all these food videos makes me hungry. Keep up the great work and have a great day.

for the chuck-e-cheese one there should be a minimum of eight or six slices and twelve or ten slices only if requested, that way the pizza pies won't be looking so janky when they get to your table!!

Hey Strider, Ray Kroc wasn't the real founder of McDonald's, he actually stole it from the 2 brother's that owned it. If you want to know more about the story, I recommend you to watch The Founder

You work well on these videos! Good PhantomStrider!

I love the lighthearted nature of your videos