Remember the guy who drank beer out of a hot dog straw last year? Oh, you tried to forget about it? Well, sorry to break it to you, but one of America’s largest hot dog producers isn’t going to let you.
On Aug. 22, Oscar Mayer announced it was commemorating a “key moment in hot dog history” by introducing its own version of the hot dog straw. Will wonders never cease?
Just as a reminder, on Aug. 22, 2022, film director Nicolas Heller (aka New York Nico) shared a now-viral Instagram video of a man at a Yankees-Mets game in NYC poking a hole in a hot dog — with a perfectly good straw, mind you — only to use that beefy contraption to drink his beer.
Now, one year, over 400,000 Instagram likes and 9.4 billion views on TikTok’s #hotdogstraw hashtag later, Oscar Mayer is giving curious cats and peculiar puppies the opportunity to use a sippable glizzy for themselves.
“The video sparked nationwide shock and awe that one would use a hot dog as a straw, let alone as a vessel to enjoy an ice-cold beer,” Oscar Mayer wrote in a press release.
Oscar Mayer is using a replica of its signature wiener to create its Hot Dog Straw, mirroring the same size and color of a cooked hot dog. The Hot Dog Straw is made using food-safe and soft silicone to replicate the actual feel — but not taste, thankfully — of a true Oscar Mayer hot dog.
The Hot Dog Straw is now available for pre-order nationwide on a dedicated page on the Oscar Mayer website, while supplies last. And, yes, there seems to be demand for the peculiar product, because when we tried to pre-order it for ourselves, we were met with this message: “SORRY! We have run out of stock for the day. Please come back and try again tomorrow. Thank you!”
Oscar Mayer and Heller even brought back the man in the original viral video for the announcement in an Instagram video posted to both accounts.
According to 2021 data by the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, 57% of people think that beer is an ideal drink to pair with a hot dog. No word on how many of them would go this far to combine the two, but it’s safe to say the figure would be less. This, Oscar Mayer notes, it’s an easy shortcut.
“While the viral ‘Hot Dog Straw’ divided the internet, we salute the brave man who paved the way to enjoy his hot dog as he wishes,” said Kelsey Rice, Oscar Mayer’s associate director, in a press release. “Taking inspiration from a classic Oscar Mayer dog, the silicone Hot Dog Straw is designed for optimal sipping, and we hope it brings a friendly reminder that we don’t need to take enjoying a delicious hot dog seriously. Some things are just meant to be fun.”
If you’re wondering who the man is who inspired it all, creating a culinary innovation no one — and we mean no one — asked for, well, you’re not alone. Although not confirmed outright, commenters at the time singled out fashion editorial director Jian DeLeon as the inventor of the original hot dog straw.
DeLeon himself also cheekily acknowledged this — without explicitly confirming it — on social media a day after the infamous incident.
“It could literally be anyone of us,” reads the caption on a screenshot from Tim Robinson’s sketch comedy show “I Think You Should Leave,” in which a man dressed as a hot dog is the obvious culprit of an accident involving a hot dog-shaped vehicle, that DeLeon tweeted.
