Why You Should Never Bite Into Someone Else's Hamburger In Oklahoma

Every state in the U.S. has its own version of laws. There's different laws on gambling, buying alcohol, having a license to fish or hunt, and perhaps most bafflingly, laws on the food you eat. That's right — if you're a frequent traveler or even a homebody in your home state, you may have unknowingly broken more than a few of these downright absurd rules. In Virginia, Halloween is exclusively for kids 13 and under, according to Taste Of Home, so being a teenager and dressing up in a bedsheet ghost costume isn't just weird but also illegal. In Mississippi, a law prevents restrictions on food and drink portion sizes. It is jokingly named the Anti-Bloomberg Bill after health-focused New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's attacks on soda being served in 16-ounce cups (via CNN). If you're on a beach vacation in Ocean City, Maryland, and find yourself finishing off a hot dog while walking into the water, you're violating a state law against swimming while eating (via Patch).

Yet while most of these rules are funny at best and ridiculous at worst, there's one rule that seems to be focused more on common sense than any sort of obscure turn-of-the-century reasoning. In Oklahoma, if you think it's funny to snag a bite of your friend's food when they aren't looking, you won't be just looking at a pretty ticked-off pal — you'll also be breaking the law.  

According to Delish, the state of Oklahoma views the act of taking a bite out of another's hamburger not just as impolite, but as a criminal offense. To most of us, this isn't so much a state law as it is a widely accepted social rule. But why exactly would someone draft a law about this, to begin with? Was there a crime wave of people stealing each other's burgers in the old days of the Sooner State?

Per The National Pulse, it wasn't made to stop rude diners but to keep folks from scoring free meals. Bar owners who would sell hamburgers would notice that, rather than two customers purchasing one hamburger each, the customers would buy one burger and then share it between them. Dismayed that they were losing money, the owners convinced state legislators to pass a law outlawing "sharing" burgers. While officials claimed this was done in the name of health, many viewed it as an example of a backroom deal between government officials and wealthy business owners to protect profits. Although the reason for such an obscure law may be debatable, it's probably best for Oklahoma readers to buy two cheeseburgers when they're out with their friends ... just in case.