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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dark Jezter" data-source="post: 2137109" data-attributes="member: 1015">Discontinuity: Hamburger and WhopperIn a recent thread on how to introduce the Whopper to a person familiar only with the traditional hamburger, many posters recommended that it would be best to advise this person to approach the Whopper as an entirely new type of food. This struck me as eminently sensible advice. Yet, much to my surprise, many people were upset by this sage counsel -- they thought that it implied that the Whopper was 'not a hamburger'. Leaving aside the fact that this perceived 'insult' was nonexistent, I think that this advice was entirely correct -- the Whopper is a fundamentally different meal from any pre-whopper version of the hamburger (including the deluxe hamburger, the cheeseburger, the bacon cheeseburger, the Big Mac, the quarter pounder, the double quarter pounder, etc). Indeed, the sesame seed bun system of the Whopper appears to have been lifted wholesale from the Big Mac (replace the in-between bun with mayo and you have a Whopper), and IME eating a Whopper has a lot more in common with eating a Big Mac than a regular hamburger. That quibble aside, the red ripe tomatoes, crisp lettuce, creamy mayonnaise, ketchup, crunchy pickles, etc., all manifestly demonstrate radical breaks from earlier versions of the hamburger. In short, I think it is entirely appropriate -- and, more importantly, intellectually honest -- to point out that the Whopper is a fundamentally different type of food from the traditional hamburger. It is a different meal -- plain and simple. This is not necessarily a bad thing -- obviously lots of people (including most people who post here) prefer the Whopper over earlier versions of the hamburger. But to suggest otherwise is simply incorrect.(And don't give me any of that "the Whopper still has a ground beef patty..." rubbish. So did/do a lot of other sandwiches!) This is the truth. Accept it.  (Finally, this is not an 'sandwich war' claim. I happen to like regular hamburger more than the Whopper, but I would take the Whopper over a Big Mac any day... My point is an empirical one, not a normative one.)</blockquote>

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