The Gordon Ramsay 'Idiot Sandwich' Meme Isn't What You Think

Gordon Ramsay is perhaps best known on the internet for his furious outbursts on the TV shows "Hell's Kitchen" and "Kitchen Nightmares." This celebrity chef's almost-comical moments of rage have provided the internet with a seemingly endless source of meme content.

Screenshots from various moments on his shows now circle the internet with hilarious captions like "This crab is so undercooked, it's singing 'Under The Sea'" (via ScoopWhoop). Of course, many of these use some pretty foul language that would perhaps make Ramsay proud – You know, if he could be proud of anything we do. (We kid, we kid.)

Now, even though all of these memes are screenshots from actual moments on Ramsay's shows, we know he didn't actually say a lot of these hilarious things — but fan-created. Unfortunately, the beloved 'idiot sandwich' meme that the internet loved was not an actual moment on "Hell's Kitchen" either. However, it did happen in real life — just not in the way you'd expect. 

At first glance, the 'idiot sandwich' meme looks like just another instance of Ramsay insulting the efforts of a chef on his show. He holds a slice of Wonder bread to either side of her face and calls her an idiot sandwich. Pretty harsh, yeah?

Let's back up a bit for context. According to Know Your Meme, Ramsay appeared on "The Late Late Show with James Cordon" back in 2015. Along with Julie Chen, Ramsay and Cordon put together a skit entitled "Hell's Cafeteria." During the skit, Chen made a really sad-looking sandwich, prompting the explosion from Ramsay.

And so the 'idiot sandwich' meme was born. The skit has since racked up over 12 million views on YouTube, with many people commenting that they were there solely for the sandwich bit. Several others commented that they had actually thought the 'idiot sandwich' meme came from one of Ramsay's shows. Regardless of where the meme originated, it's the perfect reaction GIF for so many occasions.