“I want to speak to a manger”: IHOP’s kids menu has millennials crashing out for a very specific reason

An IHOP menu is bringing millennials down after referring to the years of our childhood as “the late 1900s.”

IHOP’s 1990s insult

Recently, TikToker Britni, @britnixh91, shared a video she took while out to eat with her children at IHOP.

“I’ve been insulted by a menu,” she told viewers before highlighting the paper kids’ menu on the table. On it was a section that demonstrated how to draw a specific “S” symbol that will be familiar to millennials and Gen X.

@britnixh91 recognized it right away, sharing her amusement at something so blatantly “millennial-coded” on the menu—until she looked a little closer.

@britnixh91 #thelate1900s #millenials #ihop #breakfastvibes #fyp ♬ Reading Rainbow Theme Song – Steve Horelick

“Then you look over here and it says, ‘Fun fact: The S Thing was really popular in the late 1900s!” she read.

Look, technically, that’s correct. Many of us are familiar with the symbol from the 1990s, which is by definition “the late 1900s.” And perhaps whoever wrote the menu copy did so because that particular S actually rose to popularity during the 1980s, so it had two decades of strong recognizability, rather than just the 1990s.

Farewell to the 1900s

But the fact that IHOP is grouping the years of our childhood in with the era of the Great Depression under one big umbrella known as the 1900s feels disorienting, to say the least.

“I mean, I guess the 90s are the late 1900s, but like, why did they word it that way?” @noelledevitopurr commented, along with a crying emoji.

“I know an older Gen Z was behind this, I just can’t prove it,” @queenravengames joked.

“At first I was like ugh, another person being offended,” @coffeendrawing admitted, “but then I was like oh no *I’m* really offended now and I want to speak to a manager.”

Fellow millennials/Gen Xers also shared some other run-ins that made them realize enough time has passed since the ’80s and ’90s that it’s just treated as distant history now.

“Last summer I had a group of teenagers ask me ‘if I was born in the 1900s?’” @davemercado16 recalled. “Yeah…..I was, but damn.”

“Went into Spirit Halloween and saw that my era (’80s, ’90s) is now a costume,” @nefrodite_luvgoddess89 chimed in, while @puttingpuzzlestogether wrote, “My son came running in one day wanting to show me a REALLY OLD COIN he found. 1981. My birth year.”

The passage of time is always a lot to take in, but it sure does feel exacerbated on the internet sometimes. Or as one commenter succinctly put it: “I’m so tired of this app calling me old.”

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