The phenomenon of Hardee’s marketing strategy—selling hamburgers to young, straight men like every Budweiser sells beer, with buxom women and caricatures—compares quite nicely with the “food” its franchises thaw and serve to customers such as this 1,000 calorie patchwork monster. What’s awesome is the total depravity of the libertines and concern trolls who comment:

lele: who cares!!! if i want to eat a fatty burrito i can and i will enjoy it. you cant blame resturants for everything!!!!! we cant and wont all be size 2’s i am a proud 22 but i look good!! [You go, girl!]

rick: How can you fault a company for providing what the people want. What happened to personal responsibility? [I love how, between the two sentences, he negates the meaning of “personal responsibility.”]

LoC: It is not hardee’s fault that there is a demand for such an item, and honestly, it is a companies primary function to supply the demand that is on the market. What we really need to do is get the people to change and then the fast food industry will either change with it or die because the demand will be gone. [If one assumes that corporations’ primary functions are as first responders to the public’s whims, but the public’s whims are bad, then obviously the only way to change the corporations is to change the public. Pity the man who learns his assumptions are wrong!]

James: This is NOT irresponsibility on the part of Hardee’s. We live in a capitalistic free market economy. The responsibiilty factor lies with the parents who may feed this to their children or the person who does not take the time to understand what they are putting in their body. This nutritional information will be readily available on Hardee’s website and in their stores via printed info, so don’t blame Hardee’s, blame the fatties who can’t control themselves. Commies. [Because it needs to be said again: Commies.]

James: The the thing that is most important and seems to be missed in these comments is the fact that this burrito is amazingly delicious. [That’s exactly what needed to be said, thank you.]

Davey: It may be true that in America we have the freedom to sell and/or eat such items, but we also have the freedom to critisize companies for creating products that are clearly not healthful, and to critisize fat people for stuffing a disgusting 900 calorie pile of greasy crud into their gullets. Freedom of speech works both ways, and pressuring people to make changes in diet by making fun of them may be an effective tool in combating obesity. [Fat people are always motivated by ridicule.]

PS: Sure looks good to me. If it doesn’t look good to you, perhaps you can try a granola bar or a rice cake. [Binge or purge, PS, binge or purge.]

SunFunTanned: [Is brilliant!] Oh, Let them all eat, I love watching people just eat and get fatter and fatter! Eat the fat, let them enjoy 60 grams of fat! Leave all the sexy people for us good looking in shape people!

Andre: leave people and let them enjoy whatever they want. ADULTS need to learn to control themselves. Americans are not over weight because of what they eat they are over weight because they don’t do anything. 150+ channel TVs, internet, drive thrus, home deliveries, video games. Put PE back in schools and make it mandatory. “let the government restict” dumb ideal, why not give away more of our freedom? [I get a lot of my guidance from TV, too. For example, just this weekend I learned that babies born with birth defects are a menace to happiness. This I learned from Nip/Tuck.]

The comments go on from there, of course. I’m sure there’s some real gems, which you’re free to add to the comments if you have the patience to find them. Meanwhile, I submit to the Web designers of news sites such as MSNBC and CNN that they try harder to make their comments sections into black holes that permanently suck in all trolls. That will be a service to all of the Internet worth at least a couple of hundred dollars.

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