The Tarnished History of Mac Tonight - An Unfortunate Symbol of Hate?
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- Опубліковано 14 лют 2024
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In the early to mid 1980's, during the burger wars, Wendy's, Burger King and McDonalds all realized they needed to shake thing up.
Wendy's had "Where's The Beef" and McDonalds, partly inspired by Max Headroom, introduced Mac Tonight, a singing moon-headed mascot intended to alert customers that anytime was the right time for McDonalds.
Mac Tonight blew up in popularity, rolled out nationally and went on to become a cult icon who was fondly remembered.
But the internet eventually got hold of him and tarnished all of that. This is the story of Mac Tonight.
SOURCES
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_Ton...
melmagazine.com/en-us/story/m...
mcdonalds.fandom.com/wiki/Mac...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_th...
web.archive.org/web/202107150...
/ mactonight
www.youtube.com/@MacTonight8/...
colmedyyt.wixsite.com/mac-ton...
mypetflamingo.bandcamp.com/tr...
mypetflamingo.bandcamp.com/tr...
gamejolt.com/games/Five-Night...
www.newspapers.com/image/8753...
www.newspapers.com/image/2365...
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There is still a McDonalds in Tysons Corner, VA with their Mac Tonight installation. I hope they never get rid of it
Been there. I know that one. 😂
Been there. Grew up in NoVa.
I must check this out.
Is there really?! Which one?
Pretty sure you’re mistaken. There was an animatronic at the Potomac Mills McDonald’s in Woodbridge, Virginia, but it was removed years ago. I live 10 minutes from Tyson’s Corner currently and if one of these McDonald’s still has a Mac Tonight, it would be breaking news to the entire world and I’d literally drive there now. 😂
“Tarnished history” and “Mac Tonight”… two phrases I never envisioned seeing together.
Not my Mac Tonight.
Sounds like more of a Vaatividya kind of thing than McDonalds.
Not really anyone knows about this tarnishing, unless you frequent weird hate groups like the host obviously does. 😂 Busted himself.
@@justin43098 wouldn't say he "outed himself" because the subject even has a Know Your Meme page dude, plus, Mac Tonight is nostalgic, so looking up info on Mac to only see it got taken over by racist 4chan trolls is inevitable and honestly, pretty sad because I like the original commerical to the point it makes me want a McDouble or Big Mac when I see it
@@justin43098I never heard about it either, but this info is all on Wikipedia which is probably the first stop for research on a topic like this. Apparently racist "Moon Man" memes were blocked by major corporations like AT&T and Google/UA-cam. I don't think you need to be in a hate group to hear about it.
Either way, it's a small footnote in the video and Mac Tonight's history, it's not like it was the focus of the entire video (although it was the focus of the title, but that's just bog standard clickbait).
My Grandma used to take me to a McDonald's in Buffalo that had a player piano with a Mac mannequin sitting at it. Good times
There was a huge McDonald's off international drive in Orlando Florida that had one of those in one of the Dining areas that was animatronic.
I REMEMBER THIS PLACE I THOUGHT IT WAS A FEVER DREAM
I think that's what a local place a few towns over had when I was a kid! I was curious about how common they were.
Producer Greg never said "Cut!", so technically this episode is still going
Some say that Dan is still talking with a backdrop of an adorable kitten and baby chick to this day
…uh, like a day later I guess
Yea. I'm still watching it.
Maybe he did, but it got ... _cut?_
On a scale of 1 to 10, I'm actually zero creeped. I always loved Mac Tonight, his commercials had a lovely dreamlike quality. But the 70s Hamburglar? I was freaking terrified of him as a kid.
Yeah even looking at it now I'm horrified by that gremlin.
I'm trying to remember the stuff that really got to me as a kid and it definitely wasn't anything like mac tonight.
Hamburgular? I always thought that stuff was hilarious because he was always foiled by Ronald and the Fry Guys.
Same. That Mac was Magic.
robble robble robble
You would have hated the nightmare I had once as a kid.
In the dream there was sort of an 80's cartoon villain dynamic with Ronald having Hamburgler as his toady/whipping boy. Hamburgler 'Failed Ronald for the last time' so Ronald strangled him to death to the point where his tongue fell out.
I still remember when I met Mac Tonight back in the mid 80s... My dad took us to a company party at the army base, and there he was! THE Mac Tonight! I was just watching him interacting with the party-goers (I am quite shy), not believing he was actually here. Later on, he just comes up to me, does the universal "scratching records like a DJ" gesture at me before waving at me and leaving. I was in disbelief! That is one of those memories BURNED into my brain. Ironically, there was no McDonald's being served at the party, it was a bring your own dish shindig. I liked Mac Tonight enough, even though he was a bit...creepy to me in the commercials. We did have one of those little Mac Tonight race cars, too!
Freaking awesome!!!
Omg thats so cool i wish i could see him 😢
"Let's storm the beaches and go all the way." In regards to a soda commercial. The 80s had no chill.
We don't honor the veterans of The Cola Wars enough..
At the cola war memorial you can see the names of all the restraunts pepsi bought to force thier product into the market. If you see a bottlecap left behind, dont throw it away. It was someones last glass bottled beverage. 😢
funny how Mack the Knife original version just entered public domain and UA-cam still yanking stuff
Did I see 59 cent Big Macs in those adds? Those were the days.
Word
I saw 99 cents after 4 PM at 11:02. Certainly better than the $5.69 US price today, which is about double the effect of inflation. Standard inflation adjustment would make 99 cents in 1985 about $2.85 today.
I was thinking the same. It now costs about $15 to go to McDicks in Canada. This hundreds of percent inflation inflation over my life is depressing.
Yeah, those insanely low prices were the first thing I noticed, as well. Funnily enough, I worked at both McDonald's and Burger King as a teen, and I don't recall the prices ever being that low.
I grew up in Milwaukee and there was a MickyD's with a giant animatronic Mac that "played" a piano and intermittently sang a variety of songs. Of course this was back when the restaurant had a smoking section. Should have held on to a few of those ashtrays.
And he mentioned Sheboygan, Wisconsin in this!!
Somewhere in New york, Seth Meyers had a chill run down his spine
Hello fellow jackals
We Jackalin'!
I really hoped Dan would mention Corrections. At least we’ve got the comments section, the Jackal’s home and native land!
Jackals in the building🦊 The only reason I watched this is because of Seth😂
Somewhere, Seth Meyers is watching this video and is 1) trembling at the sight of Mac Tonight, and 2) Figuring out how he can get Dan on the show to discuss his love for New Hampshire without discussing Mac Tonight.
I first learned of Mac Tonight when Strong Bad dressed as him for Halloween one year.
Long live Strong Bad
Then he burned down Bub's stand.
@@invisi-bullexploration2374 Which, really, is exactly what Moon Man would do.
Who in the hell is strong bad,😂😂
@@tharealje2306 a character from the glory days of the web 🤣 on homestar runner
The Mac Tonight song has popped into my head regularly for the last 40 years.
I literally made the same comment! It's a great song! That melody is so damn catchy.
I still remember hearing "Mack The Knife" for the first time as a kid. I was confused when it started and as it went on I was stunned wondering why McDonalds used this song to inspire a mascot.
Because it rhymes.
Mac has now become Mac the Knife. Since losing his mascot job, he now lurks in alleys, sometimes with his best friend the Sneak King, and robs people at knife point so he can feed his love of Big Macs. If you hear piano music while walking down an alley...Just run! Never turn back or he'll remove his glasses and the last thing you'll see are the soulless orbs of the Moon Man!
Damn bro you should write horror script movies bc this gave me chills no lie 😮😅
i eat my hamburgers at night so i can so i can. . . .
So if you're hungry far from home, we'll eat Big Macs forever
Just Google arches on your phone, we'll eat Big Macs forever
And when the night is cold and dark, just look for, for golden light
No one can take away your fries
Drive by and we'll eat Macs forever
Eat Big Macs forever, oooh . . .
I worked at the Arches during this promotion. Still have the enamel pin they gave to the crew.
I worked at McDonald's in 1995, and they apparently still had them! Those enamel pins were great, and a fun reward.
I did too. And have been craving a McDLT off the grill for decades.
I also don't understand about that court case with the son of Bobby Darin. To me, Mac always felt like a Ray Charles stand in.
I've never heard of those things you mentioned about those memes, and frankly, I don't want to know about them. And, as for creepiness factor, he is a 1 on the charts for me, he was just too cool to me creepy.
A few years ago I managed to find the entirety of the Mac tonight happy meal toyset in a bin at booth at a con I went to, got them for pretty cheap price, so that was neat.
Mac Tonight, the diabolical bane of Seth Meyers. 😂
Yes, I'm watching this week's Corrections next.
Sid and Marty Kroft went after McDonald's because McDonald's asked them to pitch a McDonald's land concept. The Krofts came up with something that McDonald's rejected. Sometime later the Krofts saw that McDonald's went ahead and created a McDonald's land which was made up of a huge amount of the concepts the Krofts presented.
THAT makes a lot more sense.
1:09 Side note: I'm old enough to remember when the Fry Guys were the Goblins.
Wow. I had no idea about all that "moon man" stuff. I guess my time on the Internet isn't as poorly spent as I thought.
I only know of it cause some UA-camr I watch wore a Mac tonight vaporware T-Shirt not knowing about "Moon Man." Lot of comments calling him racist or comments being racist. Made me actually look into it As I had no idea about any of that. Sucks how one group can just ruin things and the media just gives it to them, like did you know a bowl cut is now a racist haircut ?
@@Gatorade69... Did not know about bowl cuts. Though I am now curious as to why.
@@goranisacson2502 Because of the shooter Dylann Roof who had a bowl cut, so it became a meme like Moon Man among supremacists groups.
Or just people with edgy humor.@@Gatorade69
@@Gatorade69 Are we that bothered? They can keep the bowl cut.
I always wear my Mac 2Night outfit on my first Tinder dates. I save my Burger King outfit for second dates but have yet to use it. I guess Mac 2Night is just too cool for those Tinder "ladies"
Try the fellahs. For the boys!
Based
How you didn't break saying "Singing Chickens" is impressive. Yes, Saint Pepsi Vaporwave has some jams 🔥
I had completely forgotten about Mac Tonight until a couple years ago when Seth Meyers starting referencing the character on his late night show. That reminded me I had a Happy Meal toy of Mac driving a car with one hand up in the air. I never knew he was portrayed by the awesome Doug Jones though. Good on you guys!
I loved these commercials. yeah, they were a bit weird, but I never thought they were *creepy*. years later, when I found out it was Doug Jones who had been the original actor in the ads, it made them even more delightful. :)
Man, I was just the right age when this hit to absolutely love Mac. I choose to believe that he is orbiting Mcdonaldland, shining his spooky light on all my childhood's beloved characters.
I remember Mac Tonight as a kid, even though it was clearly marketed towards their older demographic similar to Jack from Jack in the Box. That both were trying to rid their creepy clown mascots, since clowns were deemed as villains in horror movies from the 1980s. I remember my old McDonald’s had Mac Tonight animatronic on a piano in the corner of the dining area.
Buffalo?
I still cannot effing believe the intricacy of those giant props and sets in the Mac Tonight commercials.
I thought the Mac Tonight commercials was one of the best McD ads in the 90s. That was what got myself and all my friends to start eating the Big Macs.
I'm this old. I remember when Grimace was known as The Evil Grimace, trying to steal everybody's milkshakes.
I found him ever so slightly creepy when he first came out, but I was fascinated! I drew him a lot back then and still like to put him into art. Something about him is just so comforting to me now. (I loathe that some now associate him with hate.)
Say what you will, but the raps are rockin and the DooM wad is fun as hell, as well as fried as hell.
My mother liked Mac Tonight. She'd sing the song and everything.
I appreciate the kitten when talking about the hatemongers.
🎶 "When the clock strikes
Half past 6, babe
Time to head for
Golden lights."
It's good time, for the great taste... DINNAH!
At McDonald’s… it’s Mac Tonight!
Come-on-make-it-Mac-Tonight 🎺 🎺 🎺
Doug Jones is the unseen hero of masked cinema. Seeing the clips from the commercials used, I'm amazed at how much of an impression these ads had on me when I was so young. I remember all of the clips shown vividly.
I am so glad you mentioned Saint Pepsi
It's funny and ironic that McDonalds sells Coca-Cola. I got a laugh out of the painting of Mac holding a pepsi in one hand and Mcdonalds fries in the other lol
“Where’s the beef?” has been living in my head for 40 years.
MacHeath was a bad dude and this song is all about murders and stuff but Darin made it sound so friggin swaggy and cool.
I have a Mac Tonight picture signed by Doug Jones, the man under the Moon Head. He was a nice guy, and that character looked great. It's a shame about the behind the scenes drama.
I find it so hard to believe that it could actually be *that* Doug Jones, and yet at the same time I don't
If he's such a nice guy, why did Mac Tonight say all those horrible racist things? /s
@@rjramrodsame happened to Pepe the frog. But I think the creator sued them at least.
@@TravelsTTG how would he sue an entire group of trolls?
@@tartrazine5that wasn’t Mac Tonight or Doug Jones. That was Moon Man, a racist parody that people online used to appropriate Mac Tonight’s image and associated it with racism
it would have been so suhweet if Mac, Ronald and Cozmo could make a comeback together.
I actually learned about the Moonman thing because I was a fan of St. Pepsi. UA-cam ended up taking down Late Night Delight since it had Mac Tonight on the cover, so I tried to figure out what was going on. Pretty sad rabbit hole I went down trying to just listen to some Vaporwave.
It was quite enjoyable to hear Dan go off on the racists for what they did.
@@brettwood1351 cry more Moonman hater.
@@brettwood1351 The hell? They posted racist joke memes. Lighten up. You make it sound like 4 chan personally kicked your dog.
@@GusOfTheDorks The hell? They posted a comment on youtube. Lighten up. You make it sound like brettwood1351 personally kicked your dog.
Thus proving that the only thing worse than racists is fucking UA-cam
McDonald’s should bring back Mac Tonight as a jazz club. It could be an experiment like that Starbucks-like CosMc’s cafe.
Yeah a guy with a moon head is weird, but is it any weirder than a red box with human teeth?
Mac Tonight is not a guy with a moon head. He is the moon, specifically the crescent moon in anthropomorphic form. These types of characters are popular in pop culture. The claymation California Raisins are another example of anthropomorphic characters being used to promote well-known brand names.
@@1977TA Got it. It's not a guy with a moon head, it's the moon with a guy's body. And it's being used to promote a product, which is something companies do sometimes. Thanks for explaining it for us.
@@snowangelnc😅😅 with a body
In the mid-nineties, I worked at a McDonalds that had a life-sized Mac Tonight statue in front of the window by the restaurant's front counter. The statue remained there until the restaurant was rebuilt in the mid-2000's.
Dan being classy at explaining the darker side of the internet, way to go buddy
One day, that Mac Tonight animatronic will break free and save America!
From the Star Warriors and the brownies!
"Or at the very least, you're just not a f***ing a**hole." I wish I could like this video twice.
I can at least like your comment too.
I'll like both your comments too! @@brettwood1351
Doug Jones is an absolute legend.
Appreciate the Saint Pepsi acknowledgment.
Nobody's ever pulled into a McDonald's Drive-thru late at night, and crooned "It's Mac Toniiiiiiite...?"
Just me?
I sang the Big Mac ingredients jingle over the McDonald’s speaker when I worked there which was during the Mac Tonight era.
I found out that Doug Jones was the man in the suit only last year. Blew my mind 🤯
Wouldn't the original German "Mac the Knife" from 1928 be public domain as of 2023? Why would youtube care?
I'm 42 but like countless things from my childhood I remember these ads as if they were yesterday. The song has been a lifelong earworm too. I had no clue Doug Jones played the character until now.
I’m glad you didn’t shy away from the unpleasant part of the story. The scumbags need to be called out everywhere they stick there unwanted finger.
Seth you are a beacon of light in this dark world.
Called out for what? Have you listened to rap music today? Parody of itself.
@@dansmith16what’s rap got to do with it?
Because that is what Moon Man does. Only not as predictable as modern rap.@@SethLooks
@@dansmith16so your stance is that it’s ok for racists to co-opt Mac because rap music?
thanks for calling out the racist 4chan bullshit stuff and also mentioning his eternal glory as a vaporwave mascot. proud to have you in new england!
Can we have an entire video of Dan letting his feelings about shitbags on the internet out while cute animals play together? Because I would absolutely watch that. ❤
This was a wild ride. Doug Jones? Mac being a hate mascot and lovingly adopted by the synthwave community? An adorable kitten and chick? Wasn't expecting this when I clicked this week's video!
Thank you for including the entire commercial in this. There are a few things that I haven't much recent exposure to but hold to deep core memories in me and Mac Tonight is definitely one of them
"Flaccid fart factories" is my new favorite alliterative insult.
i vaguely remember Mac from my childhood. i was so young i was terrified of him lol nowadays i look back on him fondly.
Wow, great research. People usually leave Steve Neil out. I remember being at his house and seeing the molds for Mac.
I loved this. Amazing stuff. Didn't know about some of the wilder aspects of this video. You're videos are always entertaining and fun.
Burgers for $.99 after 4pm!!?? No wonder people miss the 80's.😂😂😂
For real, even with inflation that's still only around $3 today
The best part was the free sunglasses, which after you scraped off the logo, were a decent pair of cheap sunglasses.
We had a McDonalds in WI that was called 'Solid Gold McDonalds" One of the few that was open 24 hours. The walls were full of 50s/60s nostalgia and there was a life-size Mac tonight. I don't remember if he was animatronic though, I don't think so. Hasn't been open 24 hours for years though and I'm pretty sure all of the nostalgia / character has been removed.
So that lawsuit sounds weird because if they're trying to argue gestures as in the dancing and showmanship on the piano, dance is something that can't, LEGALLY, be trademarked. I'm not one to support corporations but this sounds like a case that could have been easily dismissed. All this on top of the fact that Darin didn't even own the dang song's lyrics.
Also happy with the editorial stance about the people that did those memes. I realize that's a low bar to take a stance against bigotry but gosh darn has this bar been lowered to the point that even that reminder is needed
Mac belongs to the people, once again.
Thank you for calling out the 4Chan trolls for the assholes that they are.
I love the irony of going from working on The Stuff to doing a commercial advertisement for McDonald's.
They did What to Mac in 2019?!
How? How can you turn Mac Tonight into a "racist symbol"?🤦♂️
The true power of human ignorance just keeps finding new ways to make me die a little inside.
Fun video though, I totally had some of Mac's figures growing up, they were amongst my favorite fastfood toys.
😄👍
I got super excited when i saw this episode, im all for McDonald's history, also i love the Ds McDonald's employee training Music.
Good for you, man! Tell it like it is when it comes to hateful scumbags on the internet. YOU ROCK!
Moonman Moonman cant you see?
Bwahahahahaha
Im sure being called assholes really hurt the feelings of the people who regularly sling the hard R for fun.
My parents' fridge still have a couple of (now worn) Mac Tonight magnets we got when that campaign was going on.
Please do the Hot and Cold history of the McDLT burger next lol
Seconded!!!
Oh my God, I didn't realize this was a McDonald's commercial but I remember some kind of singing Moon from my childhood. And yeah, I was like a toddler. I thought I imagined it
Lol.
Re: new coke. I've heard the theory that Coca-Cola knew they were switching from cane sugar to high fructose corn syrup and knew that consumers would absolutely hate it so they decided on the crazy idea to intentionally make a terrible replacement and once that hit the market hard enough to get blowback, introduce "classic" Coca-Cola. Since the real Coca-Cola was unavailable for comparison, "classic" Coca-Cola was welcomed with fervor.
Thank you for the kitten video; it made hearing that dark history section a lot easier to take.
Brilliant episode, brilliant research, brilliant presentation. Great job Dan and all involved!
Damn, those quick visual jokes can be hard to catch 😅
I truly hate how Mac Tonight has been used, but I take solace in the vaporwave community adopting him and the love he’s received with that
How about what the doom mod community did with him?
Hell yeah, I will always associate him with Saint Pepsi and vaporwave* before I ever associate him with those, as Dan correctly put it, “fucking assholes”
*not that I wouldn’t associate him with his original context, being old enough to have been there for it
I was born in 1988 so I was way too little to remember the Mac Tonite commercials, but my mom had adored him and had a collection of the happy meal toys. At about age 3 I was playing with one of them one day but I kept referring to him as “Mr Moon”. From that day on until her passing in 2014, she continued to call him Mr Moon. ❤️❤️❤️ I didn’t even know his real name until I was almost in my twenties! 😄
I’ll always think of my mom every time I see him. 💜
7:03 That's the good stuff, right there.
Dad that’s Mac tonight!
What's in the Box? What's in the Boxxxx??!!!
🏜😵👱🏻♀️📦👀🕵🏾♂️😳 🥺👨🏼💼🙇🏻😌🏜🚁
Holy crap I remember this !!!!! Very Awesome to be covering this guys!!
I loved this character, I got a hot wheels recently at the flea market with him on it. My son plays with it :)
Crossing streams. Nice 80s movie easter egg.
Not tarnished.
Great episode! The original Mac Tonight song has lived in my head since I heard it in the 80s. I just love the delivery on "Dinner!"😂
Mac Tonight moon head always reminds me of Kinski from the horror movie Nightbreed
Came here to post the same thing. He’s terrifying
This guy creeped me out every time I went to mickey d's aa a kid. There was a big ass poster of him that was holographic
Nobody show Seth this
The Tarnished history of Animal Flubs.
Good to see some fellow jackals in the comments🦊🦊
One of the best renditions of Mac the Knife was Dee Snider. I definitely recommend it
i love this channel ❤
I can remember taking my children to see the animatronic Mac at a McDs in Highland, IN early 2000s (maybe 2006?).....they don't remember, but I do.
Never creeped out by Mac in the 80s.......the Showbiz creatures in the other hand were horrible!
It's sad that RWers have to take soo many good things and ruin it with their rhetoric.
🕶The Moon telling us what to eat!🌛🍔🍟🎹
I remember begging my mom to take me to wendys instead of McDonalds because Mac Tonight scared me. I think I was 2-3, it's one of my earliest memories. Dang
I'd love a 20-minute episode about how New Coke was created solely to allow them to replace sugar in original Coke with corn syrup and tell everyone it is just like it was before. But of course, I was one of the about 30 people who loved New Coke. But that's why everyone still raves about the Mexican version of Coke-Cola. It still has sugar in it.
I don't know if I ever had real-sugar Coke as a kid, but as an adult I find cane sugar Coke to be too sweet.
Thankfully they don't cover ridiculous conspiracy theories.
@@Belgand You do realize I said conspiracy theory as a joke, right? Short of Coke coming out and admitting it, everyone who studies things knows that was why they did it. Did they think New Coke would fail? Maybe, maybe not. However, it was sugar before New Coke and corn syrup after New Coke so you do the math.