KFC Grilled Chicken Giveaway: "You'll Get What We Give You!"

One of our more enterprising family members got a couple of those KFC coupons for free Kentucky Grilled Chicken on Wednesday, and talked me into heading over to a local KFC for the Oprah grilled chicken giveaway. I had seen a number of reports on the giveaway, ranging from near food riots to fairly efficient service and didn't have much to do, so I said, sure I'll go. Having viewed countless KFC ads for their new grilled chicken product I was pretty curious.

As we approached the store, cars were wrapped around the drive-thru. When we entered, there was no sign of commerce. Patrons were standing around quietly loitering. No one was at the cash register.  No orders were being taken. No chicken was being delivered. Everyone had a coupon. And there was no smoke and no one grilling chicken. As we stood in the line debating whether to leave or stay, we found out that the loiterers were waiting for food to be delivered, and the people in line were waiting for orders to be taken.

Every so often a man who surely trained with Seinfeld's soup nazi,  would come out and yell things: "No gravy for the mashed potatoes!" "People at the back of the line, they may end the promotion before we get to you!" and the best one of all, "You'll take what we give you!" Having seen similar routines on Saturday night live, we decided to wait it out and enjoy the live theatre which was improv at its best. One woman wangled her way to the front of the queue by shouting out "Hey, if I get a whole bucket and pay for it can I be first?" A couple of customers came in who just wanted to buy fried chicken. While plenty was visible, since no orders were being taken, after a few minutes in line they just gave up and left.

Finally, after an hour of comedy, we got our chicken. Not only was it quite tasty, the potatoes had gravy!  How chicken gets grilled without a grill remained a mystery, but our free KFC grilled chicken was the best entertainment in town.