"Ka-Ching!": Redditor Reveals Failed Sandwich Grift, Sparks Internet Debate
It's America in 2020, and for better or for worse, side hustles are everywhere. One anonymous Reddit poster is looking to make a buck in an unconventional way: selling intellectual sandwich property via binding legal contract to neighborhood delis.
On January 11, Twitter user @BathysphereHat posted screenshots from Reddit's popular AITA (Am I The Asshole?) series, which Reddit describes as "a place to finally find out if you were wrong in an argument." The AITA post in question has since been removed from its subreddit, but @BathysphereHat has the saga in full:
TL;DR an enterprising upstart wishes to sell their "delicious and innovative sandwich recipe" to delis for $50 a pop (?), then lead training sessions for deli employees on how to construct the sandwich (?!), then receive a 20% cut (????!!!!) of each sandwich sold. "I have approached 11 deli managers so far and every one so far has said no," the user laments, "and a few of them have even acted weird or even rude to me on the matter."
As @BathysphereHat and the internet at large are quick to point out, this might be nothing more than a fake post by a troll. But if that's the case, it's some spectacular trolling. There's just so much to dig into here. The recipe's $50 price tag, for example, is funny enough without the 20% commission kicker. And the Reddit poster also cites an ongoing tension with their friends, who now refuse to go to lunch with the OP, lest they be party to any nagging of the manager. Delightful little phrases are sprinkled throughout the post like garlic salt: "the themes present in the sandwich"; "all I am doing is trying to hustle"; "if they sold my sandwich their profits would grow measurably even after I take my cut." AITA often deals in phony posts, but if that's what's happening here, we commend the OP for taking AITA into some novel territory beyond the usual relationship queries.
Collectively mocking the Reddit post is one thing, but @BathysphereHat wanted to take things a step further. In 30+ follow-up tweets (each of which has thousands of likes), they share that they have reached out to the sandwich poster on Reddit, offering to pay $50 for the sandwich recipe in question.
As of Monday, Twitter still breathlessly awaits any updates from the sandwich genius. If this poster is merely a troll, will they respond to @BathysphereHat with an intentionally disgusting recipe? Or was the original post genuine, and with the OP try to get more than $50 out of the transaction? There's a lot of potential directions for this saga to go, and thousands upon thousands of rubberneckers can't wait to see where it lands.
Incidentally, we at The Takeout are particularly intrigued by @BathysphereHat's tangential thoughts about hot dogs: