A photo of a mascot of a local fast food chain that was left unscathed after a mall fire earned buzz on international internet communities.
The photo showed an eerie sight where the Jollibee mascot stood amid the charred debris of the Gaisano Grand Mall in Antique.
Based on reports, the two-story mall went ablaze at 5:30 p.m. on June 17.
After two days, the Bureau of Fire Protection finally declared fire out at 12:15 p.m. on Saturday, June 19.
As the photos of the fire incident circulated online, one shot featuring an unlikely survivor caught the attention of social media users— a seemingly undamaged statue of Jollibee.
One Facebook user who posted it said: “Jollibee lang sakalam,” which translates to “Jollibee is strong.”
The photo immediately made rounds more than 2,700 times and earned over 2,100 reactions on the social networking site.
It likewise spawned different hilarious memes and reactions from local social media users.
Reactions
Local entertainment page myPGAG shared a meme of it on June 18.
The meme featured the headline of a news report, which read: “Popular fast-food restaurant’s mascot unscathed in mall fire.” It was juxtaposed with an edited photo of Queen Daenerys, a fictional character in the award-winning series “Game of Thrones,” wherein Jollibee’s face was placed over hers.
The mascot was also given a lengthy introduction in reference to the fictional queen’s introduction title in the show.
The post earned 9,000 shares and 18,000 reactions, most of which were laugh reactions.
The comments section was also filled with witty versions of the local smiling bee’s supposed titles.
“Jollibee, first of thy name, Queen of the Bees, lady of the seven fast food Chains, Queen of Binondo, Khaleesi of the Great Fried Chicken, The Unburnt, Breaker of Towels and the Killer of Clowns,” one user said.
“I am the bone of my chicken joy. Rice is my body and gravy is my blood. I have finished over a thousand chicken joys. Unknown to starvation nor known to fullness. Have withstood long lines to order many chicken. Yet those towels will never know anything. So as I pray, Unlimited Jollibee-Works!” another user wrote.
International attention
The funny photos eventually reached a subreddit community called r/lastweektonight, a forum for US-based talk show called “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.” A Reddit user posted it there on June 18.
Reddit users couldn’t help but admire the incident in jest.
“Does this mean we must now worship Jollibee as a deity?” one user quipped.
“Oh wow that’s menacing,” another user said.
“Remember when the Notre Dame was on fire and people were fussing about how the cross was unscathed?” another user wrote.
Hong Kong-based platform 9gag, home to memes, stories and edited videos around the world, eventually picked it up and wrote a write-up about the meme-worthy shot.
Under the comments section, 9gag users were also in awe of the image and expressed it in humorous remarks about Jollibee.
9gag also posted it on a Facebook post which read: “This is the sign.”
As of writing, the post was shared over 6,300 times and earned over 44,000 reactions on the platform.