Would You Like Fries With That?
Tom Steele Answers The Tough Questions - The
McDonalds™ Analogy
Why guys don’t want to be friends with a girl who breaks up with them…
I know a girl who broke up with a guy and she told him she wanted to “still be friends.” He said, “No thanks.” She wondered why he couldn’t fall back to being just friends after they had a romantic relationship. I came up with the ”McDonalds Analogy” to try and explain it in a simple way that would help all women understand this tough question.
Imagine if you went to McDonalds a lot and ordered a Big Mac Combo meal. A Big Mac, Large Fries and a Coke. You really like this meal. One day, you pull up to the drivethrough and order the Big Mac Combo meal and the girl tells you, “I’m sorry - you can have the Big Mac and the Coke, but you can’t get fries with that anymore.” You think about this for a moment, and sure - the Big Mac is the centerpiece of the meal, but McDonalds has some really good fries and you like their fries with your meal. So you say, “I’ve been able to get fries with that before, why can’t I have fries with my Big Mac combo anymore?” The girls says, ”Well, I just think it is better if you only have the Big Mac and the Coke from here on out.”
At this point, a lot of guys are going to go to Wendy’s or BK and see if they can get fries with their combo at that drivethrough window. But there are some guys who REALLY like McDonalds Big Macs and they might think, “If I keep coming here and ordering the Big Mac and Coke, maybe she’ll change her mind and give me some fries with that later.” So they will keep on getting the combo without the fries until the deal breaker happens: One day that guy is going to order the Big Mac and Coke and then he’s going to pull up a little bit to pay, and someone else is going to pull up to the drivethrough speaker and order the “Big Mac Combo” and he is going to hear the girl say, “Would you like fries with that?”
That’s why guys don’t like to be friends with a girl who breaks up with them.
September 23rd, 2009 at 4:23 pm
HILARIOUS!!! And a perfect analogy!!!
September 23rd, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Much win. Much.
September 23rd, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Best ever analogy!!!!!
September 23rd, 2009 at 5:05 pm
I couldn’t have put it better myself.
September 23rd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
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September 23rd, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Great analogy. I have been in that situation before. She broke up with me at her apartment and I was grabbing all my stuff before heading out the door and she says, “What are you doing? Your taking all your stuff like you’re never going to see me again.” I just gave her a crazy look and left.
September 23rd, 2009 at 6:04 pm
You honestly think that guy isn’t going to get his fries elsewhere? Is McDonalds the only place in the world that has fries?!
September 23rd, 2009 at 6:18 pm
This is really juvenile. If you can’t be man enough to say that you’d miss the intimacy and need to use big stupid, boorish analogies and euphemisms, you deserve whatever treatment your conquest woman on the moment has in store for you.
September 23rd, 2009 at 6:25 pm
This analogy is exceedingly more convoluted than just explaining that regressing an intimate relationship back to friendship serves as a poignant reminder of all the things you can’t have that you used to have.
September 23rd, 2009 at 8:25 pm
That is incredibly funny…but with quite measure of truth to it. Situations like that (with the girl, not the fries) can be pretty painful.
September 23rd, 2009 at 8:47 pm
awesome job! i just saw this on reddit
September 24th, 2009 at 12:44 am
Awesome analogy. When I have a son he will hear the story of the Girl and the fries.
September 24th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Dude… dead on.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:56 am
I was expecting you to say “Because she’s a tramp!”
That’s why I don’t like to be friends with them, anyway.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:46 am
[...] Tom Steele Answers The Tough Questions – The McDonalds™ Analogy [...]
September 24th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
You are supposed to go get like 5 orders of huge fries at Wendy’s or BK then go back to McDonalds and say “Do you have something to go with all of these fries I got. I feel like I have waaay too many fries for one man to handle and I need something to help me eat them all. Say you dont happen to have a large coke?”
September 24th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
[...] Why guys don’t want to be friends with a girl who breaks up with them…tom-wfbc.itmblog.com [...]
September 24th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Perfect. I was wondering where it was going for a while, but then got to the bottom two lines and I thought “Oh, wow Perfect.”
September 24th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
A guy can’t go from being in a romantic relationship with a girl to just getting to talk with a girl. The whole point of putting up with conversation with a girl is to eventually get to have a romantic relationship with her.
September 24th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Preach to them my son.
September 25th, 2009 at 7:43 am
comment 8. is obviously a chick using the name DAVE to disguise herself….but yes great way to put it
September 25th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
You know, you could just order the combo and then buy the fries separately….
September 26th, 2009 at 12:50 am
I’m glad I read this before Sunday!
The strength of this analogy lies in reflecting on the reality that there are many other restaurants that sell combo meals!
But girls won’t like this because it compares them to fast food!
September 26th, 2009 at 10:59 am
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September 28th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Take each situation as it comes and react in accordance to what what makes you happy. That’s all anyone should do every time they’re in any possible situation.
This was funny, though.
September 29th, 2009 at 11:56 am
This is why America is fat. We more easily identify with food that relationships.
October 18th, 2009 at 12:07 am
I find the last bit confusing.
Asking another customer if they would like fries, in this analogy would be the same as going out with another guy. Right?
So this is why you can’t be friends with your ex anymore? Because they want to go on with their lives? You should be doing the same thing! Move to another store!
All the above is coming from a guy who still loves his ex and somethimes would like to be with her again, but hasnt even spoken to her in years and has moved on.
October 24th, 2009 at 1:10 am
ehh.. amazing..
October 25th, 2009 at 4:14 am
Wow, both to you and all the people praising this. Your analogy says that a guy would only be friends with a girl post-breakup because he hopes to one day go out with her again. Does nothing about this seem wrong to you?
October 25th, 2009 at 10:39 am
I stay home and make my own fries. KNOW WHAT I’M SAYIN? KNOW WHAT I’M SAYIN?
October 25th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
Very true.
October 26th, 2009 at 2:50 am
I don’t get it. Why can’t men be friends with their ex’s? I am still good friends with my ex-wife and stay overnight at her flat when I am in her city - more fun and cheaper than a hotel and we just have a good time talking.
October 26th, 2009 at 8:08 am
Julian, I gather you are a woman.
Ashamed must be, too.
If a woman decides I’m not the man for her, fine. I can still be “friendly” with her, but what is the point in being “just friends”? She is a distraction from women who want me and when the next one comes around one or both will be jealous.
“Just friends” is a lose, lose deal.
October 28th, 2009 at 6:05 am
If you have the full meal for say 20 or so years, you’ll do not want the fries anyway!
October 28th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
That’s why I don’t go to McDonald’s
Wendy’s FTW
October 29th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
you’re a genius dude
October 29th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Ross you are an idiot
October 30th, 2009 at 11:55 am
What if you still get the fries but so does everyone else who wants it? Then what?!!?!
October 30th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
BK fries taste better anyways.
October 31st, 2009 at 6:28 pm
I am sure that there are a few “special” guys who are willing to be “just friends” with a girl with whom they were previously intimate. I’m not one of them. Neither are most guys. There’s nothing “wrong” with us. We’re just guys who are in touch with how we feel (isn’t that what girls are always crying for?) and our feelings tell us to make a complete break. I’ve been through these scenarios in my life more than once (I’m over 50 years old), and the “just friends” thing doesn’t work, no matter how much I wish it did. As soon as I find out that my “fries” are going to another customer… I’m gone.
October 31st, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Probably time to stop eating at fast food restaurants if you want to hang on to a girl, just sayin!
October 31st, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Lighten up morons, why do so many people take this so seriously, YES IT IS POSSIBLE to be friends with your ex!!! that doesn’t change the fact that lots of people AREN’T friends with their ex’s or that this is funny.
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Got guilted into being “friends” for a while after a breakup, and I guess I could say I tolerated her. Wasn’t really fun hanging out or anything, just a waste of time. Why settle for just that Burger and a coke when there are plenty of other places willing to give you the whole combo (for even less then McDonalds)? The fries are always more golden on the other side.
November 3rd, 2009 at 2:33 am
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November 4th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
I haven’t heard my view point on this. If a guy can be just friends with a girl that has broken off with him then that means they didnt have much of a relationship to begin with. If he says no to ‘just friends’ that means she was important and meaningful to him and it would be too painful to hear about or see her with another. End of story.
November 5th, 2009 at 4:02 am
i make my own fries at home :/
November 10th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
haha, love it. Not quite genius, but definitely brilliant
November 12th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
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November 13th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
seriously awesome analogy, i got guilt-ed into being just friends with my ex. It was tolerable for a short time, but in all seriousness, one those fries were headed over to someone else it sucked and i was out of there as fast as possible. and now those fries aren’t looking as good as the now available ones.
November 14th, 2009 at 12:58 am
To all those people that are questioning this analogy, that is, asking why guys can’t be friends with ex’s, I answer that guys can be friends with ex’s, and that this analogy isn’t denying that. What this analogy is denying is that guy’s can’t be friends with ex’s straight after the breakup, for reasons thus: [enter McDonald's analogy here]
November 16th, 2009 at 2:33 am
not a good analogy.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
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November 18th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
I can see where the OP is coming from, but it’s sad that so many people view relationships selfishly, as in “what can this person do for me?”
Successful friendships are based on trust and mutual respect, and romantic relationships are an extension of that.
I do agree that it’s often impossible to remain “just friends” with an ex, because it might be that the feelings you had for them never went away. But breaking off a friendship immediately is just fucking immature.
If a woman wants to be “just friends” with you, it means she doesn’t want to hurt you which means she still cares about you. The mature thing to do is fall back into your old friendship. If she starts dating someone else, feel happy for her, even if it hurts you.
November 18th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
I love this analogy!!
I am a girl and also it works both ways! If a guy ends it and suggests friendship it isn’t always the easiest option for the girl esp if your really close!
Love the MacDonalds theme though.
November 21st, 2009 at 5:39 pm
This is brilliant. Burgers without fries are worthless. But I can always enjoy a few fries without a burger
November 30th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
I like my fries with ketchup
What does that mean?