On Wednesday, John Schnatter, the CEO of Papa John's pizza company, expressed dissatisfaction with the NFL and its handling of players who kneel during the national anthem, saying, “The NFL has hurt us by not resolving the current debacle to the players' and owners' satisfaction."
Many people had very little time for Schnatter's logic.
Papa John's blaming NFL players kneeling for pizza sales? LMAOOOO
And some found his reasoning downright laughable.
Papa John's out here makin their pizzas in Easy Bake Ovens but blame their lack of sales on black player's kneeling during the anthem. 🤔😣😂😂😂
People were both literally and figuratively not buying it.
Papa John's blames athletes kneeling for poor sales instead of the people kneeling in front of their toilets after eating his shit.
But because this is 2017, the conversation didn't end there. In fact, the social reaction from people weighing in on Schnatter's comments prompted DiGiorno Pizza to enter the fray, thus starting a feud of sorts.
On Thursday morning, the following subtweet was sent out from their official Twitter account:
And just so it was painfully clear who they were throwing shade at, DiGiorno followed its initial tweet with this one:
Naturally, people were here for the shade.
@DiGiornoPizza
The dig was quite "saucy."
@DiGiornoPizza Saucy shaaaaaade 🍕😂
It was a moment perfectly set up by Papa John's, and DiGiorno swooped.
@DiGiornoPizza THE SHADE! I LIVEEEEE
A bold move tbh.
@DiGiornoPizza Y'all WILD.
The unexpected diss was a hit.
@iamaytman @DiGiornoPizza I was not expecting shade from this corner of the internet but I'm here for it
But worry not, because Papa John's fired back, sending its own subtweet:
Papa John's updated its bio, writing one scathing line: "Frozen pizza = the pizza equivalent of a participation trophy."
Their response was met with...not much enthusiasm.
@PapaJohns
It seems that people had pretty much declared DiGiorno the winner in this whole ordeal.
@PapaJohns
Presumably, this wasn't the way they intended this to go.
@PapaJohns
As the kids say these days, Papa John's had taken an "L."
@PapaJohns
And folks were not mincing their words.
@PapaJohns "Shitty owner, Shitty excuses for poor sales. Papa John's"