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Why does fictional food always look so tasty? We’ve spent years obsessing over how good the donuts look in The Simpsons or those epic sandwiches in Scooby-Doo, but there is one elusive food item we’ve wanted to try for more than 20 years. The Krabby Patty from SpongeBob SquarePants has haunted our tastebuds since 1999. With Wendy’s supposedly coming out with their own version of the iconic burger in the coming weeks, we were initially excited to try it – until we realized they missed a few very important details.

A memo circulating around the web seems to detail exactly what the fast-food chain has planned for its upcoming celebration of SpongeBob’s 25th anniversary. One of the items for sale is the iconic Krabby Patty, or at least their take on it. The Wendy’s Krabby Patty consists of a “premium cheeseburger” and “fresh produce and a secret Krabby Patty Sauce.” Which can describe a lot of things, but it doesn’t describe a Krabby Patty.

The ingredients of the famous Krabby Patty are pretty clear – two buns, with the patty, lettuce, cheese, onion, tomatoes, ketchup, mustard, and pickles between them (in that order). The Season 1 episode 'Pickles' makes this pretty explicitly clear. No mention of any “special sauce” anywhere in the recipe. And that is even before we get to the fact Wendy’s is using a beef burger when the Krabby Patty is actually vegetarian.

What’s that? Didn’t know the Krabby Patty you’ve been drooling over for decades contains no actual beef? It’s true! SpongeBob producer Vincent Waller confirmed as much back in 2017. While the actual ingredients of the Krabby Patty are still a closely guarded secret, Waller has said, “The one thing I can tell you that [series creator] Steve Hillenburg has let slip is there is absolutely no meat in the Krabby Patty. There is no animal product in there.” 

The really silly thing about this whole thing is that Wendy’s could totally do a convincing Krabby Patty; their Classic Single with Cheese is basically the same thing. Just swap out the beef patty for a veggie one - which is already on their menu - and it's already pretty close. Why get something so wrong when it would have been easy to just ask a SpongeBob fan about it? Do they think we wouldn’t notice? This is the Internet, Wendy’s. Of course we noticed and we’re not amused.

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