A teen's tweet asking for free Wendy's chicken nuggets just surpassed Ellen DeGeneres' record for the most retweets of all time (WEN)

pulse

May 9, 2017 2:58 PM

A tweet about Wendy's nuggets officially became the most retweeted tweet of all time, beating Ellen DeGeneres' record.

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There's a new most retweeted tweet of all time — and it's all about Wendy's chicken nuggets.

On Tuesday, Carter Wilkerson officially became the author of the tweet with the most retweets in Twitter history — more than 3,433,000 — taking the crown from the previous record-holder, Ellen DeGeneres, who got more than 3,430,000 retweets on a star-studded selfie at the Oscars.

On April 5, the 16-year-old asked Wendy's how many retweets he would need to get free chicken nuggets for a year.

The fast-food chain said it would take 18 million retweets.

Wilkerson's tweet — "HELP ME PLEASE. A MAN NEEDS HIS NUGGS" — quickly went viral as people attempted to help the teen reach the seemingly impossible goal.

In less than a week, it had been retweeted nearly 2.5 million times.

Google got in on the action with a nugget-inspired Google Doodle. Twitter created a #NuggsForCarter emoji. And Wendy's pledged to donate $100,000 to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption if Wilkerson's tweet broke the record.

The number of retweets of Wilkerson's nugget tweet has surpassed that of DeGeneres' tweet from the 2014 Oscars.

DeGeneres seems to have embraced the mock competition. In mid-April, she invited the teen to appear on her show and gave him a TV and a "year's supply of Ellen underwear," gifts she jokingly said she would rescind if Wilkerson's tweet surpassed hers in retweets.

While Wilkerson now has the most retweeted tweet of all time, he is still short of Wendy's demand for 18 million. However, the fast-food chain congratulated the teen on Tuesday, tweeting: "That's good for the nuggets, and $100k to @DTFA. Consider it done."

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