Ellen DeGeneres is dangerously close to losing her Twitter record to a 16-year-old who “needs his nuggs.” After last week’s PSA with Bradley Cooper failed to slow down the teen’s momentum, she’s moved on to Plan B: bribery.
Can you blame her? She has every reason to fear Carter Wilkerson, who reached out to Wendy’s earlier this month asking how many retweets he needs to earn a year’s supply of chicken nuggets.
So far Wilkerson has tallied more than 3.1 million retweets — far short of the 18 million that Wendy’s told him he needs, but only a couple of hundred thousand short of DeGeneres’ famous Oscars selfie.
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She’s not going to go down without a fight, of course. First, she and Cooper called on fans to retweet the selfie and preserve her record. It was cute, but it’ll take a lot more than an Oscar-nominated actor to stop “Nugget Boy.”
So on Tuesday, DeGeneres had a one-on-one chat with Wilkerson and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“You’re hot on my heels. Why are you trying to sabotage my selfie?” DeGeneres asked Wilkerson.
“Honestly, I just want chicken nuggets,” Wilkerson answered. “I just have a love for the chicken nuggets.”
That may be, but DeGeneres has a love for her retweet record, and just wants to hold on to it.
“This is a cultural phenomenon that I have right there,” she argued as the selfie was displayed behind her. “Look at Lupita Nyong’o’s brother, who we don’t even know who he is, he’s in it. This is something you can’t break down.”
She doesn’t want to have some sort of Twitter rivalry with Wilkerson, though. On the contrary, she wants to be partners with him. She suggested they team up to encourage people to retweet both his chicken nuggets tweet and her Oscars selfie. It’s a win-win!
To convince Wilkerson to go along with the idea, she presented him with a new TV and a year’s supply of Ellen-brand underwear. (That’s way more useful than a year of chicken nuggets!)
Wilkerson happily accepted the swag — which comes with a string attached.
“If somehow you pass me, Carter, I will come to your house, I will take that TV back, I will take the underwear back, and do more,” she warned him.
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DeGeneres promised to give him an even bigger gift if he does achieve his goal of 18 million retweets —and leaves her record alone.
The interview ended with DeGeneres taking a selfie with the teen. Go ahead and retweet it — and her Oscars selfie, too.
Follow Shane Lou on Twitter.