McDonald’s is one of the world’s largest fast-food chains. They also happen to serve some of the largest people in the world, but that may be just coincidence. Burger King is essentially the same thing, but they sell frozen Coke and have made their chicken nuggets shaped like lightning bolts and crowns, which was cool. Beside that, they are both just as good-tasting, and just as bad for your health.

Actually, there are a couple of differences. Burger King’s mascot is a … burger … king. McDonalds’ mascot is a clown named Ronald (because kids love energetic, overly enthusiastic clowns who try to fatten them up. See ‘Hansel & Gretel’ for more information). And the last major difference – only one of their Twitter accounts was hacked yesterday.

In what ABC News online is calling, “The Big Mac of Twitter hacks,” someone hacked Burger King’s official USA Twitter account, @BurgerKing, and changed it to reflect what almost every person in the world secretly thinks. They changed it to McDonald’s (because, again, they are the same thing).

The user name was changed to McDonald’s. The profile picture was changed to the McDonald’s golden arch. The banner picture was changed to an ad for Fish McBites, with the ironic slogan of, “Hurry, they won’t last!” The new user info reflected the change, stating that Burger King had gone under, and was now under ownership of McDonald’s. But, something smelled fishy to me. Besides the fish they serve.

I think it might have been when @BurgerKing tweeted, “#skinflutes,”  that I suspected something was up. Then, when they tweeted that all of their employees pop Percocet in the bathrooms, I became very suspicious. Then they tweeted about their new deal – a gram of bath salts for every Whopper purchased. And then my doubts vanished, and I was confident it was the real deal.

But, just to make sure, I took a quick trip to my local Burger King, not knowing this was the start of a Tolkien-style epic adventure. I will take you on this journey with me.

I approached the drive-thru window, and was greeted by an employee who said, “Welcome to Burger King, may I take your order?” After I complimented him for the correct choice of ‘may’ over ‘can’, I asked him if he had heard the news yet. He said no, and repeated his offer to take my order. I chuckled and responded, “Sir, this news I have for you is much more important than anything on your wonderfully colorful menu.”

I explained to the gentleman that his store has been taken over by McDonald’s, and that I would like to order a Big Mac, since they are now a McDonald’s restaurant. He shouted an expletive at me and sent me on my way. It’s okay. Everyone takes change differently. I continued to the next fast-food restaurant, a Taco Bell. As a journalist, I cannot help but to think of all of the angles to this business takeover, and a third party fast-food restaurant offers a new angle to explore.

I asked the woman at the window if she was worried that this new McPartnership is a threat to her beloved Taco Bell. She seemed confused, so I briefly explained to her the situation at hand. She responded, “No way! That’s so funny!” and grabbed her phone to tweet about it. If she only knew the treachery of this lie I unknowingly shared with her.

For the last stop on my modern version of Paul Revere’s Ride, I stopped at my local KFC. Holding back my question about Colonel Sanders’ military history, I approached the window and asked the man, “Have you heard the news about McDonald’s and Burger King?” He looked at me strangely. He leaned over, and said softly, “Dude, that’s a hack. That’s not a real thing.” I quickly looked up ‘McDonald’s Burger King Twitter hack’ on Google and found an article proving that this man was Kentucky Fried Correct.

Downtrodden, I felt like I owed this man some sort of genuine news, as a journalist. I asked him, “Have you heard about the bird?” and he responded, “Like, our chicken?” I laughed, shook my head, and looked down, gathering my thoughts for a moment. Then, I looked up at him and shouted, “EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT THE BIRD IS THE WORD!” and I ran home and wrote this story about my experience today.

To the person or persons who orchestrated this massive hack, I say bravo. You fooled me. Unfortunately, the Twitter account has since been shut down. But, much like Guy Fawkes’ gunpowder plot on the fifth of November, everyone will remember this day. February 18, the day that the world almost accepted the blatantly obvious fact that McDonald’s and Burger King are the same freakin’ thing.