11 Iconic Burgers From TV And Film

Though named after a German city, and with origins that can be traced back to ancient Mesopotamia, the hamburger has evolved into the quintessential All-American sandwich. It has carved out a varied role in pop culture, where it has been portrayed as a boringly benign menu option, a reward at the end of a hero's journey, a comic foil, and a villainous tool of corporate greed preying on American excess.

On the small screen, the humble hamburger has been cast as a supporting player in everything from cartoons to prestige TV. In film, it has played its part in both Academy Award-winning classics and low-brow, gross out comedies. It has been both the subject of deep-diving documentary think pieces and the punchline of recurring jokes on highly-rated network sitcoms. The hamburger has become one of America's great character actors, like Paul Giamatti, but with lettuce and tomato.

We've gone through our downloads and DVDs to find some of the most iconic burgers in television and film. From a menacing moment from Tarantino to a punchline for Amy Poehler, these are some of the burgers that have sizzled their way into the entertainment archives.

Tarantino's 1994 masterpiece, "Pulp Fiction," featured not one but two memorable hamburger scenes. There's an oft-quoted, humorous discussion about why a Quarter Pounder (McDonald's only burger that isn't cooked from frozen, by the way) isn't called a Quarter Pounder in France (spoiler: It's the metric system), and an intense scene where a hitman played by Samuel L. Jackson takes a huge bite from his soon-to-be victim's fast food order before delivering both an iconic monologue and a deadly hail of bullets.

In the latter, Jackson takes a big, messy bite of his ill-fated victim's Big Kahuna burger, from a new Hawaiian burger joint he's been wanting to try. The hitman sings its praises, asks for a sip of Sprite, and then gets down to business with both Bible verses and bullets.

Now a restaurateur himself, Jackson has transitioned from burgers to chicken. But unless the acclaimed actor becomes the next Colonel Sanders, he'll always be associated with that messy, menacing bite into a surfer burger that serves as a preamble to an act of violence that's just as shocking as it is casual.

In the popular drama, both Rory and Lorelai torment curmudgeonly diner owner Luke daily with their unending, yet endearing, high speed banter and unceasing references to obscure pop culture. Still, Luke is always there for his "Gilmore Girls," dutifully refilling their coffee cups, reloading their empty plates, and occasionally, getting in a zinger of his own.

In a Season One episode, Luke shows his soft underbelly when his will-they, won't-they crush Lorelai is disinvited from her parents' Christmas party. When Lorelai shows up at the diner in the throws of yet another family crisis, Luke shows Lorelai how much he cares by transforming her hamburger into a special Santa Burger, complete with olives for eyes and a hat squeezed from a ketchup bottle, which Lorelai finds equal parts lovable and disgusting.

It was a meaningful early moment between two characters that the audience desperately wanted to see together. Lorelai, despite responding with her typical humor and sarcasm, is obviously touched by the gesture. To man-of-few-words Luke, however, the Santa Burger was, "No big deal." Fans would have to wait four more seasons before the two finally came to their senses and became a couple.

The sign outside of Dante's Inferno, the roadside diner that our "Dumb & Dumber" heroes, Lloyd and Harry, find themselves in, advertises "The Hottest Food East of the Mississippi." In a memorable scene from the 1994 comedy, the two lovable losers (played by Jim Carey and Jeff Daniels) are goaded into trying the joint's Atomic Peppers. After doing their best to extinguish the heat, they decide to play a little prank on their lunch companion, a tough guy that has been sent to take them out.

When the hitman steps outside to make a phone call, Harry and Lloyd load up his burger with the peppers. When the hood returns and takes a bite, the intense spice is more than he can handle and he falls to the floor, clutching at his chest. He begs for his heart pills while Lloyd performs some very questionable CPR, but it's too late. Out of immediate danger, at least temporarily, the two bumbling protagonists resume their journey west, one hilarious meal closer to Colorado and the elusive yet dreamy Mary Samsonite.

Fast food cook SpongeBob SquarePants spends his workdays flipping burgers at The Krusty Krab. The underwater restaurant's most popular item is a vegetarian burger called the Krabby Patty. Although the exact makeup of the patty itself is purposely kept a secret, it does come with all of the same fixings as most land-based burgers: lettuce, tomato, and cheese. And diners are free to gussy up their Krabby Patty with an assortment of underwater vegetation, something we landlubbers are missing out on. 

In one memorable episode, SpongeBob makes a "female" version of the Krusty Krab's signature offering, complete with lettuce hair, tomato eyes, and dimples made of ketchup. He takes his creation home to his pineapple under the sea and swoons over her, even singing her a love song that he wrote to express his feelings. He keeps his amore, which he cleverly names "Patty," around long enough that it begins to decay. Soon, sadly, our hero finds himself in sort of an undersea Sophie's Choice situation: does he eat his true love, or does he let her rot into disgusting oblivion?

If you wanted to try a Krabby Patty for yourself (and maybe make your own love connection!), you're too late. Wendy's did sell Krabby Patties as a special promotion in the fall of 2024, but not since then. So if you want one, you'll have to use your imagination — or learn to scuba dive. 

In "Better Off Dead," a cult favorite straight out of the 80's, John Cusack's imagination runs wild at his boring fast job. After taking a gig at Pig Burger, Cusack's NorCal high school student character, Lane Meyer, passes the time by dreaming up wild scenarios involving his barely-edible burger creations.

After his boss teaches him the right way to make their signature burger (including telling him to "Wash your hands on your own time!"), Lane imagines himself as a Dr. Frankenstein-like mad scientist bringing his meaty creations to life. In a rollicking animated sequence set to Van Halen's "Everybody Wants Some!!," an anthropomorphized Pig Burger rocks out on electric guitar, dances with a lady friend, and generally just has a blast being a burger.

It's the kind of dead end, low-paying job that lots of American teenagers have to endure, and Lane muddles through the best he can. But seriously, can someone (maybe the Health Department) please talk to that boss about proper hygiene and food safety mistakes to avoid?  

Welcome to Good Burger, Home of the Good Burger!

"All That," Nickelodeon's millennial sketch comedy series for kids, squeezed the fast food industry for zany hijinks and juvenile humor in these sketches that recurred over the show's first five seasons. The sketches, which starred Kel Mitchell and Keenan Thompson as good-natured burger flippers at the eponymous fast food restaurant, spawned two movies and, in 2019, a revival-slash-reboot.

The Good Burger itself is mostly nondescript until the first movie, when enterprising Ed, played by Mitchell, develops and adds his own "secret sauce" to the burger. Despite attempts at sabotage by operatives from rival chain Mondo Burger, our heroes bumble their way into running a successful restaurant, all while maintaining their friendship. Keenan Thompson traded in his apron and paper hat for a record-setting run on "Saturday Night Live" in 2003, but he still made time to fry up some burgers, reprising his role in 2023's "Good Burger 2."     

"The Big Bang Theory" ran for 12 seasons on CBS, and star Jim Parsons won four primetime Emmy awards for his portrayal of neuro-divergent theoretical physicist Sheldon Cooper. In one memorable episode from the sitcom's first season, appropriately titled "The Hamburger Postulate," the brilliant yet set firmly in his ways Sheldon is forced to order a burger that isn't from his preferred fast food restaurant, Bob's Big Boy, but from The Cheesecake Factory location where his roommate's crush, Penny, works as a waitress.

Not only does Sheldon want a Big Boy Burger, he wants it just how he has it every Tuesday: a Barbecue Bacon Cheeseburger with the barbecue sauce, bacon, and cheese on the side. Of course, The Cheesecake Factory isn't Bob's Big Boy, so Sheldon is forced to do something he hates: try something new. 

Maybe Dr. Cooper prefers Bob's Big Boy for its historical significance (the chain is credited with introducing the two-patty double cheeseburger to the masses), but more likely, its just the familiarity of routine that Sheldon craves. After some coaxing from the gang, Sheldon gives The Cheesecake Factory burger a shot, and surprisingly enough, it's a hit. At the end of the episode, he even tells a not-so-amused Penny that he now plains to eat there every Tuesday night. 

In the raunchy 2004 comedy, "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle," two slackers get stoned, crave those little White Castle belly bombs, and end up tangling with the cops, a loose cheetah, their failing love lives, and their life choices. Happens to all of us, right? 

As the original fast food restaurant, one might think that the corporate bosses at White Castle, or at least its PR execs, would do everything in their power to keep from being associated with a film that's not only R-rated, but also contains specific warnings for intense language, drug use, and graphic nudity. And there definitely were many boardroom discussions. In the end, the White Castle higher-ups gave the okay, happy that their employees were portrayed in a positive light and hoping to generate some buzz among the youth culture that was the film's intended audience. 

In the end, their gamble paid off: White Castle's sales grew by more than thirty percent in the week following the movie's release, and sales saw another boost when the DVD came out. In fact, White Castle's brass was so happy with the results, they signed up for two sequels, each just as raunchy as the original.

Burger joint owner Bob Belcher will do almost anything to keep his restaurant afloat in "Bob's Burgers." His main competition is literally right across the street in the form of a busy pasta restaurant run by Bob's nemesis, the dastardly (to Bob, anyway) Jimmy Pesto. In an effort to both keep his regulars coming in and attract new customers, Bob and his family create and serve up some creative, limited-time-only "Burger of the Day" specials. 

These burgers and their pun-happy names are the source of big laughs for the audience, if not big business for the Belchers. Some of the burger names are PG, like the snap peas-topped "Rest in Peas Burger" and the cheesy "Roquefort Files Burger." Others are more adult, like the controversial "Foot Feta-ish Burger," called such because it comes with feta cheese. Bob can thank his young daughter, Louise, for that one, as well as most of the other raunchy ones, like the "Butterface Burger" and the "Top Butt Burger."  Compete with that, Jimmy Pesto! 

There are lots of memorable, and hilarious, moments involving food over the course of "Parks and Recreation's" seven seasons. From Ron Swanson's over-the-top consumption of bacon to Leslie Knope's love of waffles, mealtime in the Pawnee Parks Department is always entertaining for viewers.

The fictional regional fast food chain Paunch Burger, first introduced in a Season 5 episode titled "Soda Tax," is certainly played for laughs, but it's also used as not-so-subtle social commentary. In an effort to combat Pawnee's rising obesity rates, the city council proposes a Bloomberg-style soda tax. Council Member Knope confronts Paunch Burger's owners over their mountainous portion sizes and their misleading menus. For instance, the chain offers "Diet Water Zero Lite," which Leslie discovers contains about 300 calories. Ron, her boss at the Parks Department, is initially unhappy, given that his favorite meal is Paunch Burger's  "Number 2," a double-bacon deluxe burger served with chili fries. Also upset at the proposed tax: the fast food workers who are threatened with layoffs if it's implemented.

After a typically hilarious town hall ("If we tax soda, what's next? Income?"), and a talk with Ron about following her convictions, Leslie casts her vote in favor of the tax. But she knows there's still work to do: After all, Pawnee's motto remains "First in Friendship, Fourth in Obesity."  

People have loved burgers for a long time, as far back as the Stone Age, it seems. In "The Flintstones," the venerable Hanna-Barbera cartoon that aired in prime time from 1960 through 1966, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble got their fast food fix from BrontoBurgers. Besides their namesake burgers, the restaurant also dished out quick-serve classics like Bronto-Dogs and old-fashioned milkshakes, all with a distinctly prehistoric vibe.

Although BrontoBurgers only appeared once during "The Flintstone's" original six-year run, it was featured more prominently in the spin-off series "The Peebles and Bamm-Bamm Show," which featured the youngest members of the Flintstone and Rubble clans as teenagers. BrontoBurgers made for a rockin' teen hangout, kind of like The Peach Pit but with way more dinosaur puns.

Alas, "The Peebles and Bamm-Bamm Show" was short lived, running on Saturday mornings for only one season before going the way of the dodo. BrontoBurgers did turn up in a couple of other blink-and-you-miss-it Flintstone offshoots, but now, that page right out of history has mostly been forgotten.