McDonald's burger themed on satanic figure pranks internet around April Fools

Internet users were pranked this week by a picture of a McDonald’s burger themed around a satanic figure called Baphomet, which many thought was real.

The fast food chain is not releasing any such meal, but it spread like wildfire around April Fools and people were about to boycott the chain. Here’s why the figure is so problematic.

Fake McDonald’s Baphomet Burger

The picture first appeared on Twitter/X on March 27, and shows a black burger box with the word “Baphomet” written on the front.

It depicts a burger with a dark black bun and orange fire inside, and the menu item comes with a Baphomet toy. The black and red figure has devil horns, demonic eyes, a red beard and black wings, and is standing on a fiery podium.

“New McDonald’s Happy Meal Your kids will love it,” the caption says – but the fake picture was made using artificial intelligence. The poster confirmed this in the caption, writing “It’s just an AI joke,” but that didn’t stop it from causing a real stir.

Another image of a Baphomet Happy Meal with a childish picture of the mythical figure and the devil’s number “666” is also circling, but that’s fake too.

Who is Baphomet?

Baphomet is a mythological creature with a goat head, horns and wings that has long been associated with satanism.

As explained by Britannia, the first known mention was in a 1098 letter written by Anselm of Ribemont describing the Siege of Antioch during the First Crusade. He said that the Turks “called loudly upon Baphomet,” and most scholars believe this referred to Muhammad, the founder of Islam.

More than 200 years later, a group of devout Christians in the medieval era called the Templars were accused of worshipping Baphomet. In 1307, Philip IV of France had every Templar in France arrested for supposedly showing adoration for the deity.

Various occult and mystical writers then began writing about Baphomet, and it has now become a popular symbol of evil.

Why McDonald’s would never make it

McDonald’s would never release a meal themed around Baphomet due to its associations with demonism and satanism. Baphomet is sometimes described as a symbol of balance, but most commonly purported to be a deity or demon.

That stems from an image drawn by French occultist Éliphas Lévi in his 1861 book Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual, which shows Baphomet as a “Sabbatic Goat”. This is the depiction that’s well known today, a winged, human figure with the head and feet of a goat.

He has a five-pointed star on his head, a popular symbol of Satanism, which is known as the “Sigil of Baphomet”. In the image, Baphomet also has devil horns and is pointing two fingers in the air, which is another association with the devil.

In 2015, the Satanic Temple in Detroit put up a statue of Baphomet and hundreds of Satanists gathered to see it unveiled. A Satanist is a person who worships Satan, also known as the devil, the human personification of evil.