Why People Are Eating McDonald's Chicken Nuggets Out Of A Cup
Juggling fast food in your lap while driving, and trying to get a chicken nugget with the perfect amount of sauce on it into your mouth without t-boning a car at the intersection or running up over the curb, is a dangerous idea. In fact, the Barnes Firm reports that, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, eating and drinking while driving makes you 80% more likely to get into a car accident. But since it's something that almost half of the drivers in a 2015 survey admitted to doing, they may look for solutions. For some, that apparently means eating McDonald's chicken nuggets out of a cup.
McDonald's chicken nuggets usually come in a hinged paperboard box. If people eat them while driving, they would have to somehow open the box, then balance it on their lap or another flat surface, hoping that nuggets don't go flying when it's time to hit the brakes. And let's not even think about the messiness of the dipping sauce situation. That's why some folks on TikTok are sharing that they've started ordering their McDonald's chicken nuggets in a plastic drinking cup. The cup fits right in the car's cupholder, so the driver knows just where to reach for their crispy fried nuggets, and it's way more stable tucked in there than the box of nuggets would be on someone's lap or the seat. (Of course, that could still lead to distracted driving.) As with all TikTok hacks, people weighed in with various considerations.
People questioned the cup idea
@hellthyjunkfood
A cup of McDonald's chicken nuggets in a cup holder might be more secure than the free-floating box, but does a cup actually make it easier to eat them? Some commenters weren't sold on the alleged convenience of putting the open sauce container in the cup with the nuggets. A person who worried that the sauce containers are too dirty to have them resting on the nuggets asked, "Do you know how many people touch those things of sauce?" But another commenter offered a solution: "put the sauce in the cup, close it, and then shake it." The nuggets would be coated in sauce, no dipping needed, without the sauce container touching the food.
There were other concerns, too. Some worried that they wouldn't be able to request nuggets in a cup if they were ordering in the McDonald's app, one person was worried that the plastic cup is worse for the environment than the paper box the nuggets usually come in, and another pointed out that McDonald's often charges people for cups that don't have beverages in them, meaning this hack could cost money. But as the California DMV points out, the safest move is to "allow yourself plenty of time to stop, rest from driving, and enjoy your meal" — no special hacks needed.