Social Media Is Lighting Up Over Popeyes' Nod To Rihanna

The Super Bowl is one of the biggest nights in food and sports, especially for the football lovers who will actually get to watch their teams play, but that's not all. The culmination of the NFL season is also a big night for pop culture fanatics thanks to the starstudded halftime show that seems to become even more of a spectacle every year, and, if we were to take a guess, the performance that will take place during Super Bowl LVII next year on Sunday, February 12 will probably follow suit. "Why?" you ask? Because the event will be headlined by none other than Rihanna, who has been absent from the stage for over three years (via Concert Archives).

After TMZ revealed that the NFL and Roc Nation were apparently in talks with the "Umbrella" singer to perform, Rihanna confirmed her participation with an internet-breaking Instagram photo of her holding a football with the NFL logo printed on it. The snap, which also happened to mark the Grammy winner's return to the social media platform after a four-month hiatus, has amassed over 6 million likes as of this writing and 146,000-plus comments. "I've never been more excited about football in my life," wrote "RuPaul's Drag Race" alum Yvie Oddly, while singer Lizzo simply commented, "Screaming." Additionally, Rihanna's post also spawned a hilarious parody from a famous fast food chicken chain that has the internet in stitches.

As if Popeyes' legendary chicken sandwich tweet in 2019 didn't already prove how well the fried chicken chain can navigate social media, its parody of Rihanna's Super Bowl LVII halftime show announcement almost certainly did the job. Not long after the makeup mogul confirmed her performance on Instagram, Popeyes came in with its own version of the photo that saw a similarly tattooed hand clutching one of its famous chicken sandwiches. "Period," the post was captioned, which was another ode to Rihanna's post that was captioned with just the punctuation mark.

Just as some foodies love that chicken from Popeyes, fans of the Louisiana-based fast food eatery were thrilled by its nod to Rihanna on social media over the weekend. As of this writing, The chain's Twitter post has amassed more than 60,000 likes on Twitter as of this writing, while its Instagram post has racked up more than 6,100 likes. "This is genus fr," Instagram user @didoulane wrote. Another called the post "hilarious." Others, meanwhile, called for the chain's social media team to be rewarded for its most recent work. "Whoever runs y'all's social needs a raise! #period," wrote user @mckenzie_roland, to which user @mluiza14g responded, "couldn't agree more."