Hodgetwins dissect a fictionalized Cracker Barrel stock crash triggered by CEO Julie Messino's alleged "woke" rebrand, which supposedly replaced the Uncle Herschel logo with modern decor. The segment satirically claims customers revolted against removing Confederate antiques and adding LGBTQ-friendly lighting, while the host dismisses Messino's defense of preserving the restaurant's soul as disingenuous influence from figures like Rachel Maddow. Ultimately, this absurd narrative highlights how polarized cultural wars can distort brand identity into a battleground for racial and political signaling. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Making Cracker Barrel Fresh00:13:01
Cracker Barrel has everybody nooses in knots right now.
I mean literally their crosses are burning.
Now I'm not sure who went into Canva and did this for them, but the people are up in arms.
They are thinking about seceding from the nation again.
You see how open and bright and spacious it is now?
Very live, laugh, love in here.
It's almost as if you won't be turned away because of your skin color, but you will be profiled while you're there.
Now they will still have their vintage candies like the Sugar Daddies and whatever this wife's only candy is.
And the people are so upset about this woke remodeling that they're acting as if they said we can place space and dominoes at the table.
Now I don't know about you, but I rather enjoyed having the Confederate antiques spread throughout the stores and that way they can stay away from our museums.
Now I'm not sure who Uncle Herschel is, but I know he wouldn't have liked a New York strip or anything.
He hated the North.
This fall menu they are launching is filled with more microaggressions than a corporate email.
Crackle Barrel, by the time Christmas gets here, you better have a candle that smells like racism or they will riot.
The Pale Pasty Pillagers are in an uproar about their cracker barrel this morning.
Yes, they are pissed because the new CEO is too woke.
She just started an alliance with the LGBTQ community and they're starting to redesign all the cracker barrels.
Amen that they removed their old crispy crunchity cracker off that barrel and threw it in the trash.
They said, put that white man and his barrel back where it came from or so help me.
Even Dookie Booty Jr. is pissed off.
He said, what the f ⁇ is wrong with Cracker Barrel?
They said it was built to look like is not welcome for black people and LGBTQ people.
And now y'all are trying to welcome the others.
Y'all be trying to welcome the others into our Jim Crow era cracker barrel.
They said we like it to look like there should be a whites only sign hanging up somewhere.
Now y'all trying to invite other people into our establishment and trying to take away our nostalgia.
They said we want to remember them days.
They don't like that when they walk in the new cracker barrel, they can't smell the racism in the air.
They want to, they miss that smell.
Y'all take.
What does racism smell like?
The smell of racism.
What does racism smell like?
Peach cobbler?
How peace pie?
Bacon?
Yeah, we got a new show for y'all.
Got a damn good show.
Before we get today's video, don't forget about our new giveaway that just launched.
Dosh Challenger Hellcat and 10,000 in cash.
To get in the window, it's going to my website, officialhawshwins.com.
Anything you purchase on the site, like my new nitric oxide boots or my Mifflin Blue, get you automatically in the wear.
You know what, man?
I think...
What's up with these bonnets, too?
Yeah, a lot of these black people.
Black people suffer from racial anxiety.
They see things that's not there.
I've walked into hundreds, well, not hundreds, tens of cracker barrels across the United States.
And I've never felt like I wasn't wanted there.
Taking away their smell.
They said, this our restaurant.
We don't know you.
You coming in here trying to change our shit.
Man, you put a white person on TikTok and pretending to be black, talking like a black person.
Yeah.
Yeah, lose that TikTok.
I know.
You get away with this on TikTok now.
Anti-white?
Shit, we don't like that.
Go back where you came from because woke is broke.
They said, put it back how it was.
They don't appreciate y'all coming, taking the old white man and his barrel off the logo.
And they would much appreciate it if you put it back and add a whites-only sign to it while you at it.
They said the only change that we needed was to add a whites-only sign and you could left it at that.
Here y'all go want to be woke.
They say a woke is broke.
Don't be mad at them because they're trying to make a comeback from 91.
Yeah, when they released those new policies that discriminated against the LGBTQ community and had them firing anybody who was LGBTQ.
Hey, we got any gay people?
Yeah, Susie is.
Hey, get rid of her.
Fire her right now.
Who said black guy?
He looks gay as hell.
I'm going to fire him just because he looks gay.
That never happened.
Yeah, they're trying to make a comeback with a new CEO and welcome the LGBTQ community back to their restaurants.
So stop hating.
After nearly 50 years, customers are now having to say bye-bye to the barrel on Cracker Barrel iconic logo.
Why did we not lead with this?
It comes as a part of the restaurant change rebrand that has a lot of fans up in arms.
Fox Business's Jeff Flott joins us from outside of Cracker Barrel in New Jersey.
Hey, Jeff.
Hley, you know, when you get to be my age, you really don't want things to change.
And I've probably, full disclosure, eaten at more Cracker Barrel restaurants than any other restaurant in America over the course of my life.
But yeah, the old man's going away.
You know, I never even noticed it.
I know.
I never even looked at the logo that much.
I didn't notice it was a white guy in a cracker.
I mean, but it's fine.
Yeah.
That's why you go to that store.
You want that atmosphere.
Old country feel.
Yeah, you want that environment.
You want that atmosphere.
Right, right.
They're changing the logo.
Maybe you see it.
Enjoy it now.
The old man.
I don't know if he's going to his great reward in heaven or what, but they are changing the logo.
Well, sometimes, in fairness, you do need a brand refresh.
What people love about...
That's a refreshing brand.
They refreshing the brand.
Like Dollar General's.
Yeah, that new logo is too corporate.
It doesn't have that maw and par feel to it.
That's a corporate logo.
And that's what separates Cracker Barrel from the Denny's, from the IHOPS.
It's got that maw and parfield, that old country store, that old country vibe.
That logo sucks compared to the old one.
He don't even look racist.
He's like he's a nice guy.
Like you walk by, you'd be like, hey, boy.
Hey, I got some food in here.
The missus can cook a good apple pie.
Yeah, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that logo.
The problem is, is that logo feels too white.
And the CEO doesn't want to come out and say that.
But that's why the changing thing, this store feels too white to them.
Another white woman, another white progressive woman.
Hey, Kevin, but white, white works.
He's damn right.
If you ever went to a place that just felt too black, who's going there?
You might get shot.
You can never go too white.
Yeah.
About Cracker Barrel is that old country charm.
You know, the old crime implements on the wall, the old signs on the wall.
Well, they're updating.
I like that.
When you sit in there, I'll be looking at that.
Damn.
Look at that old sign.
Look at the old person on it.
You know what I used to do?
I used to take pictures and Google everything to learn the history of the pictures.
Oh, yeah.
And I was fascinated with that.
And I didn't find anything racist or remotely racist about anything that was up on the wall.
They're just old relics of the past.
They didn't have people in nooses hanging from a tree.
And to be honest with you, I think we've got some pictures of what that looks like.
That is not Cracker Barrel.
They put some tennis rockets.
And to be honest with you, I think we've got some pictures of what that looks like.
Y'all got some tennis rockets up there?
Yeah, you know what that looks like?
It looks gay to me.
You might as well put a glory hole on the wall.
Shut up, Kevin.
It does.
Sunglasses?
Yeah, what's up with the tennis rackets?
That's the LGBTQ colors right there.
Yeah, I'm sure that's why that's in there.
They haven't learned their lesson yet.
These people on the left totally haven't learned their lesson.
Democrats don't have the capacity to see what they're doing.
It's actually not a bad thing.
When you get old, also, you can't see as well.
So white walls actually help you see the food a little bit better, which may or may not be a good thing when you're ingesting large amounts of biscuits and gravy and all the other stuff.
The CEO of Cracker Barrel says, hey, we're not changing what Cracker Barrel is.
We're just trying to make it a little fresher and newer.
Here's how the...
You're changing it.
If you change the logo, you're changing what the company stands.
You're changing what the company looks like.
Yeah, and pretty soon they're going to change what the food looks like.
Yes, CEO puts it.
Now, with big changes at a restaurant chain that is an American staple, Cracker Barrel is renovating its locations, but many loyal customers say the change is removing what makes the restaurant such a great dining experience and taking to social media to voice their complaints.
Well, join us now exclusively to talk about this is the CEO of Cracker Barrel, Julie Messino.
Julie, thank you so much.
Oh, look at that.
Look at the booth.
I've never seen a Cracker Barrel like this.
Is that the upgrade?
Because I haven't seen any Cracker Barrel look like that.
Yeah.
For joining us here on GMA.
I want you to tell us about the redesign of Cracker Barrel and some of your response to the criticism.
Yeah.
Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me.
It's great to be here.
And if I can't, I want to give a quick shout out to the 70,000 team members who bring their Cracker Barrel brand to life for our guests every single day.
So to the remodels.
I think what's important is that we are listening to our guests.
We're doing this all for them.
What they've said.
You did not ask your guests if they wanted these changes.
You did not.
You're doing this because there's a part of you that feels that this is this store, this atmosphere, and Cracker Barrel is too white.
If you want to make it more too old-fashioned, LGBTQ friendly.
She wants to make that restaurant look progressive.
Yeah.
You said is they love the new seating.
We're adding in booths, making the chairs more comfortable.
I'm cool with that.
The seating and stuff like that.
But keep those old pictures on the wall.
Keep that country feel to your restaurant.
But like you're walking into a time machine when you walk into Cracker Barrel.
Yeah, that's what I always liked about that restaurant.
Yeah.
Putting in new lighting, brightening up the paint color.
But what's important is things that people love about that is not Crocker Barrel.
No.
Nope.
Cracker Barrel, the soul of Cracker Barrel, is not changing.
The rocking chairs are still there.
The fireplace is there.
The peg game, all the things that make Cracker Barrel Cracker Barrel, the vintage decor, it's still there and it's working.
The results affirm that we're headed in the right direction.
And this is part of a multi-year transformation of the chain.
What else can the customers expect to change?
Yeah, well, remember, the heart and soul of Cracker Barrel is going to stay the same.
And so today we're actually launching a new campaign called All the More, which really highlights how people feel about Cracker Barrel.
It's bigger than just a meal.
We've got a retail shop.
You're going to get great country hospitality with our scratch-made food in our restaurants.
And that's really what this campaign celebrates.
What the hell is this?
Feels like a converse look.
Yeah, it feels more like a bar.
What's those bars?
I forget the name of them, but it doesn't feel like that country feel.
It feels like a bar, like a sports bar.
Yeah, it just doesn't look like Crocker Barrel at all.
I mean, if you'd have kept all the old nostalgic pictures, stuff like that, those old relics from the past.
She said she was keeping them.
That doesn't look like it.
Yeah.
So we've enlisted a little bit of help from a guy named Jordan Davis.
Maybe you've heard of him.
He's got a new single and album out, and he's in our ad and is the voice of it as well.
And it really, again, just highlights those things that make Cracker Barrel Cracker Barrel.
Is the food changing?
The food.
Well, here's what I'll say about that.
Innovation has proven to be really great at Cracker Barrel.
People are loving our new menu items.
We're reinvigorating our dinner menu.
We've got a new herb-roasted chicken that is so delicious that launches today.
It's like the chicken you would make, Michael, if you were at home making a chicken.
Juicy, crisps.
Shoot, talk with your eyes open.
Yes, it's the chicken that cook at the home at the eyes with your eyes closed.
And a nice little sauce that comes with it.
But we're also doing some things that our guests love, like bringing back Uncle Herschel's favorite.
It's back today in all of our restaurants.
So the things that you love at Cracker Barrel are still going to be there.
If it doesn't feel like Cracker Barrel, then people's going to boycott.
Yeah.
I already know.
People are going to boycott us.
Nah.
They're going to take one look at her.
It's like, yep.
Yeah, they got away with it with Aunt Yamama.
That was just, that's just a test.
Now they're going to start removing everybody, all races of people from brands.
Modernizing Without Losing Nostalgia00:01:29
That's why they removed it because it feels too white to them.
Hey, what I know.
You met a CEO?
Yeah, she probably went to some Ivy League school.
She's probably really smart, y'all.
Those glasses are a red flag for me.
Rose Eldon wears them.
Rachel Maddow wears them.
Keith Oberman.
Keith Oberman.
Rachel Matt.
Did I say Rachel Maddow?
No.
Rachel Maddow.
Stephen Colbert.
Stephen Colbert.
All of them wear those glasses.
I haven't seen Mark Cuban wearing those glasses.
Those big dark-brimmed glasses.
Yeah, it's just a red flag.
And then look, you get a person, a CEO, wearing these glasses.
What she wants to do, she wants to change everything.
She wants to make everything more modern.
Yeah.
Which is fine, depending on the brand, but Cracker Barrel, that is their brand.
Relics, nostalgia, from Blast from the Past, that's their brand.
And you're trying to do away with all of that.
They could have done all of that, you know, and made it more modern.
Like the church could be a little bit more comfortable.
Yeah.
You know, but it's got to keep that country feel better.
They got the same chairs, but they're totally changing everything.
Yeah.
You're going to boycott.
If you're boycotting, I'm boycotting.
Let's see how far they take it.
All right.
You see how far they take it.
Yeah.
Yeah, because I like that feeling.
If they put Black Lives Matter up on the wall, yeah.
Yeah, you didn't get it.
If I go in there and it feels like a gay bar, I'm boycotted.