Last month, the Daily Buzz Live wrote a fake story about McDonald’s plan to remove the Big Mac from its menu in 2015. Of course the news traveled quickly over social media, and McDonald’s had to spend a lot of time dispelling the rumor.

(I’ll eat a Big Mac about once a year. Its odd construction always pushes the patties forward, so that by the time you’re done eating them, you have a ring of buns left.)

For the few days that I thought the news was true, I felt conflicted. In the carb-conscious society in which we live, it makes sense to eliminate a sandwich with three slices of bread. At the same time, the Big Mac is the iconic sandwich of McDonald’s and a part of American culture. Let’s take a look:

In 1988, McDonald’s wrote a song that listed all the menu items. It was actually a big promotion, as I recall. The Big Mac is the first menu item listed, and the now-removed McDLT was second. In case you don’t remember it, here’s a YouTube video:

I also was thinking, what would Don Gorske do? In case you’re not familiar, the resident of Fond du Lac, Wis., has eaten more than 27,000 Big Macs in his life (as of Feb. 2014), averaging about 1-2 per day. He does keep a freezer full of Big Macs just in case he can’t get out. Would Don have bought hundreds at one time to stock up for a few years?

Photo by Roadsidepictures

Let’s not forget the mascots from McDonaldland. Ronald McDonald, the Hamburglar and Grimace were better-known characters; others included Mayor McCheese, Birdie the Early Bird, Captain Crook, the Professor, the Fry Kids and of course, Officer Big Mac. I fondly remember playing in the Officer Big Mac jail on playgrounds.

The Big Mac has a place in economics, too. Have you ever heard of the Big Mac Index? It’s published annually by The Economist to measure purchasing power between currencies. For example, in 2012, $50 could buy you 21 Big Macs in Malaysia compared to 11 in the United States.

Lastly, here are the lines from one of many famous scenes in the movie “Pulp Fiction” (ellipses represent moving forward in the conversation):

Jules: (In Paris), they don’t call it a “Quarter Pounder with Cheese?”
…
Vincent: They call it a “Royale with Cheese.”
…
Jules: What do they call a Big Mac?
Vincent: A Big Mac’s a Big Mac, but they call it “Le Big Mac.”
Jules: [in mock French accent] “Le Big Mac.” What do they call a Whopper?
Vincent: I don’t know, I didn’t go in a Burger King.