The Internet Is Obsessed With This Bizarre Dunkin' Sign

The world has gone wild for pumpkin, and it's only August! The evidence is everywhere: Dairy Queen's Pumpkin Cookie Butter shake, pumpkin spice whiskey, and, of course, Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte. And now, a mysterious sign has popped up at a Dunkin' shop in Portland, Maine, that has caught the attention of both passersby and social media. The sign simply reads: "Uh Oh Spicy! Pumpkin! Hahahaha Pumpkin Tasty" (via Boston Globe). Thanks to social media, the sign's message — and confusion — spread like wildfire.

The Globe reports that Jesenia Santana took a photo of the sign and posted it to Facebook on Monday, commenting, "Forest ave dunkin has some weird energy right now." By Wednesday, the photo had been shared more than 8,000 times, and the photo was tweeted more than 36,000 times. Dunkin' retweeted a photo of the sign, asking, "Could pumpkin save 2020??" The inspiration behind the sign, however, was not what most people expected.

While theories circulated around the Internet regarding what could have happened to inspire such an odd sign, the answer ended up being quite simple. It turns out that a meme was the inspiration behind the viral Dunkin' sign, according to the Globe. When Adam Taddia, an 18-year-old employee, was offered the chance to put whatever he wanted on the sign, he told the Globe that he was feeling goofy. 

Taddia says that he was referencing the meme, "Uh Oh! Stinky," when he climbed the ladder and changed the wording on the sign. According to Yahoo!, the meme is a play on an odd video from 2016, involving a flatulent ape. Taddia was asked to remove the messaging, according to Twitter. The sign now reads, "Pumpkin is Back," according to the Globe. Several fans of the "Uh Oh Spicy" sign have tweeted support for bringing it back, but there's been no sign of its return.