McDonald's Customer Orders Vanilla Cone, Unprepared for What Arrives
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
When a customer pulled up to a McDonald's drive-thru expecting a vanilla cone, they left with something different altogether—an ice cream cone of unusual proportions.
They took to Reddit under u/bleachsupporter on June 16 to share an image of the abnormally large ice cream cone, with their post earning over 90,000 upvotes and a flood of amused reactions to date.
The precise location of the McDonald's in Massachusetts remains unclear, with u/bleachsupporter telling Newsweek that they want to remain completely anonymous. But the mystery and absurdity of the oversized dessert appears to be part of the charm for viewers.
In the image, the Reddit user's hand holds an extraordinarily tall, soft-serve cone, with towering scoops of vanilla ice cream stacked well above the rim of the cup.
The image was accompanied by text that read: "Received this huge ice cream cone from McDonald's."
The post has been met with laughter and curiosity, igniting discussion over whether the event was the result of a rogue employee, a broken machine, or an inside joke among fast-food workers. The image had shown a dessert dramatically deviating from the typical McDonald's serving, yet presented without explanation—leaving much to speculation.
Online commenters chimed in with theories, anecdotes and opinions, with one writing: "When I worked at McDonald's, I'd give out random stacked cones like this. I was more impressed with my own ability, and some customer just got the end product of me being lucky with the swirls."
Another user speculated that "somebody likes" the Reddit user, while another simply joked: "The one day a year the ice cream machine is working."
A woman holds up a large ice cream cone from McDonalds.
A woman holds up a large ice cream cone from McDonalds.
u/bleachsupporter
The unexpected nature of the oversized cone—and the minimal text accompanying the image—seems to have amplified its appeal.
Many users shared that it reminded them of lighthearted pranks or spontaneous gestures by workers trying to inject some levity into their shifts.
"Sometimes we like to show off to our coworkers how big we can make them," one viewer claimed.
"I remember when I worked at [McDonald's] there were people who would go for the perfect 4.5 swirls and pride themselves on presentation," another said. "Others would make towers (with no shift manager on) and it sometimes ended up as a mess. Right before the machines did their auto shutdown was when that usually happened."
"Same here," another added. "Then I went into my college mess hall looking like a bad ass on the soft serve machine.
"The trick is a little push back upwards every layer."
Newsweek reached out to McDonald's for comment via email.
A closeup view of the exterior of a McDonalds in Kissimmee, Florida, on February 6, 2022.
A closeup view of the exterior of a McDonalds in Kissimmee, Florida, on February 6, 2022.
Getty Images
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