BBC Sandwich Making Lunch Hack Twitter Reactions

Photographed by AnnaAlexia Basile.

This story was originally published on May 17, 2017.

This week is British Sandwich Week, which to us, sounds like a magical time full of freshly baked bread, thinly sliced deli meats, all kinds of different cheeses, and depending on who your personal preferences, globs and globs of mayonnaise. That is indeed part of it, but this year, the week started off with a bit of internet controversy when a BBC business reporter named Dougal Shaw published a video that recorded his recent lunchtime “experiment.” His experiment involved making sandwiches at work everyday for lunch instead of going out to buy a pre-packaged sandwich everyday like usual. And, as you can probably guess, Twitter spotted an issue with this immediately.

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The video opens with the words “My Lunch Hack” laid over several photos of different sandwiches, so viewers might expect that they’re about to be blessed with some life-changing advice. But, as many took to their social media accounts to point out: the pay off never comes. The narration starts and Dougal Shaw says, “The idea suddenly came to me when I went to buy my usual lunch on my work break. I could buy the same old sandwich or, instead… I realized all the ingredients are in the supermarket for me to construct my own one.” Now, his hack has people all over the the internet asking, "Have you been living under a rock?”

The video continues as Dougal Shaw conducts an experiment by making his own sandwiches every day for a whole week. Shaw explains that the method saves money. He also claims to be the envy of his colleagues when they saw his freshly made sandwiches. You can watch the whole video, here.

As you can imagine, after this video was posted to BBC's website, Twitter had comments, questions, and concerns. Many begged for clarification on whether this puzzling segment was meant to be satire, while others wondered if there was a different culture of lunch packing in the U.K. Still others were straight up pissed this man thought he was being clever by suggesting we make our own sandwiches. Here are a few of our favorite reactions:

THIS IS NOT A HACK OR AN EXPERIMENT, THIS IS CALLED MAKING A SANDWICH. THIS IS A MAN LEARNING TO MAKE SANDWICHES. https://t.co/ECkf1vBJRz
— Melinda Salisbury (@MESalisbury) May 16, 2017

Oh lord, when did this man stop living with his mum?

Journalist discovers lifehack of making his own sandwiches https://t.co/TmAnr9Svtu
— DadAndTwo (@DadAndTwo) May 16, 2017

Is this #satire @BBC ? https://t.co/yAzDi7jxGQ @MrNobre
— Canadaguy? (@JamesTPorter) May 17, 2017

This literal grownup adult man discovered the "life hack" of making his own sandwiches instead of buying them prepackaged pic.twitter.com/IzHwhHTAjm
— Anne Thériault (@anne_theriault) May 17, 2017

Did I really just watch a BBC reporter 'investigate' making your own sandwich's for a week. Talk about a social class divide.
— Haruhi (ill-favored) (@AllHailHaruhi) May 17, 2017

@PrisonPlanet It is a hack to make your own sandwich and save money. Another great hack is to make your own coffee and not waste money at Starbucks. @BBC
— Radioilluminati.com (@RadioIlluminati) May 17, 2017

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