Top 10 Weirdest McDonald's Commercials

It’s surreal to think that the 45th President of the United States was in a McDonald’s commercial way back when. What makes this even more unbelievable... is that he starred alongside Grimace. Donald Trump is completely blown away upon learning that McDonald’s only charges $1 for a Big N’ Tasty. And Grimace is apparently the mastermind behind this amazing deal, although even he seems unclear on how exactly McDonald’s pulled it off. Nevertheless, Trump is eager to join forces with the purple monster. Maybe he’ll offer Grimace a position in his administration. Let’s be honest, weirder things have happened.

This commercial opens with a family sitting at a fancy dinner table in formal attire, which is ironic considering they’re eating fast food. Seriously, how many grown men do you know that eat Micky D’s while wearing a white collar and vest? Then out of nowhere, a kid emerges with a boombox playing DJ Casper’s “Cha Cha Slide.” The hip-hop kid dips some apple slices while simultaneously dancing along to the music. The family isn’t sure what to make of this at first, but dad eventually gets into it. It might be random, but this ad is undeniably funky, encouraging us all to play with our food.

Some McDonald’s commercials feel like mini episodes of “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” They’re wacky, colorful, and literally anything can be a character. For example, this commercial centers on sentient wastebaskets. It begins with Ronald McDonald reminding us to feed the hungry trashcans your wrappers, cups, and bags. The bowtie wearing bins then spring to life and sing an empowering jingle about wastebasket awareness. As if that’s not weird enough, McDonald’s also gave out wastebasket toys around the same time this commercial came out. Yeah, because that’s what every kid wants to play with… trash bins! Still, it’s hard to fault an advertisement that encourages proper waste disposal and gets its message across in a creative way.

Many villains have visited the psychedelic McDonaldland over the years... but Captain Crook is definitely among the strangest. Making his debut in 1971, this reoccurring character looked a lot like Captain Hook… except with googly eyes and an expressionless face. In this especially bizarre commercial, Captain Crook arms himself with a wooden sword and tiny canon. The diabolical pirate won’t let Ronald and little Jimmy cross the bridge unless they fork over some apple pies, and so Ronald devises an elaborate ruse to best the pirate. He supplies Crook with a phony apple pie treasure map, sending him on a wild goose chase. Yep, it’s just another day in McDonaldland.

The Professor is another obscure McDonald’s character that hit the scene in the early 70s. In this zany commercial, the Professor shows off his latest invention, the dinner gong. Of course this isn’t the most innovative invention, since gongs have been around for a few millennia. On top of that, his dinner gong still has a few bugs to work out. Ronald and the Professor even enlist Mayor McCheese for help. Once they finally get the gong working, they treat themselves to a meal at McDonald’s and go out on a cheesy pun. By the way, are we the only ones that find it disturbing Mayor McCheese is eating at a restaurant that sells hamburgers?

Hailing from Turkey, this commercial imagines what the world would be like if the Turks had created several inventions first. They cover everything, from the first fire, to man’s first walk on the moon, to the first robot. Finally, they imagine a world where the Turks made the first hamburger. In a nutshell, you’d get the MaxBurger, a spicy Turkish delight. We have a feeling that you probably need to be Turkish to understand all the jokes here. Even if some of the humor throws you for a loop, though, it’s hard not to laugh at just how odd this commercial is.

As a tie-in for “Sonic Heroes,” McDonald’s released several handheld electronic games with Happy Meals. Just as the games were pretty cheap, the same can be said about this abnormal commercial. Just look at how lifeless the animation is. It’s like they started rendering some early test animation and then gave up halfway through. Rouge the Bat isn’t even wearing any clothes. Maybe this would’ve been acceptable during the 90s, but this ad came out in the early 2000s! This is definitely one of Sonic the Hedgehog’s most awkward moments, which is saying a lot given some of his recent games.

Sporting red hair, Hungarian model Agota Varga stars in this Japanese commercial for the Tomato McGrand. Her costumes, which were designed by Yohji Yamamoto, clearly resemble Ronald McDonald’s wardrobe. Do we even need to explain why this is weird on so many levels? Ronald McDonald has got to be the least sexual being in existence. The idea of the character inspiring a hot female equivalent is simply mind-boggling. As a result, this commercial isn’t as stimulating as the advertisers likely intended it to be. Let’s just hope this doesn’t become a trend at cosplay conventions. Happy Meals aren’t sexy… and that’s just the way we like them.

Commercials featuring Ronald McDonald rarely make sense, but this particular one raises numerous questions. Looking at a photo album, Ronald reminisces about losing his first tooth. He naturally leaves it under his pillow for the tooth fairy, who kind of looks like Berta from “Two and a Half Men.” The following morning, Ronald doesn’t find money, but does find a pair of red clown shoes. Why does she leave him shoes? What’s the connection between teeth and footwear? We don’t know, but Ronald has collected enough shoes to last a lifetime. Oh, and did we mention the shoes are living creatures that Ronald keeps prisoner in his closet? And we thought the wastebaskets had a bleak existence.

Created to help increase business around dinnertime, this outlandish character came complete with a crescent moon head and a crooner persona. This sunglasses wearing oddball could often be found playing his piano on clouds, singing a variation of Bobby Darin’s classic interpretation of “Mack the Knife.” In fact, Mac tonight shared so much in common with Darin, that McDonald’s faced a lawsuit from his estate. These ads were trippy to say the least, but that’s largely why they continue to stick with us. Plus, this was a breakthrough role of sorts for performer Doug Jones, who went on to appear in multiple Guillermo del Toro movies. Isn’t that weird?