How much fast food could you get for a dollar, back in the day? – Let’s talk about that. (cheerful music) Good Mythical Morning. – Mm, today we’re talking- – If I don’t dance for you, you don’t do that. – Inflation. – Don’t put a dollar down my shirt unless I dance for ya. – Ah, see, that’s a dance, kind of a wiggle. Today we’re talking inflation. In 2022 alone, the price of basic grocery items increased 12%. – What? – And have you noticed what’s happened in fast food prices? – Mm. – Even more, 13% price increase. – Yeah, and that makes you wonder how today’s fast food prices compare to prices from 10, 20, 30, even 40 years ago. I bet the difference is crazy. – Well, I bet it would make a great new game. It’s time for Inflation Tastin’. – Welcome to the Inflation Tastin’ Station Zone. – Yeah, we got a big freaking scale over here. – Woo! Finally, we got a scale! – Stevie, you want us to sit on it. – [Stevie] I would actually like if you could, as I’m telling you how this game works, if you could just interpretive dance each step, I do think that would be helpful for your own understanding- – Are you gonna put a dollar in my shirt? – [Stevie] Yes, afterwards I will put a dollar in your shirt. – Okay. – All right. – [Stevie] Okay, here’s how this game works. Each round, you will be presented with a specific year, a fast food menu item, and a dollar amount. You’ll work together to guess how many of those fast food menu items you could buy in that year for that amount, and make your guess by placing the corresponding amount of items onto the Inflation Station scale. If the scale settles in an even position, that means you nailed it, and you win three points. If not, that means you’re wrong. You’ll have up to three guesses per round, and points decrease with each guess. If you do not walk away with at least seven points, you’ll lose, and must blow up a large inflatable burger in Good Mythical More. Wow, I think we need to do every how it works just like that. – Well the problem is, I didn’t hear a word you said. – Yeah, yeah, yeah. (crew laughs) (groovy music) – [Stevie] Okay, guys, before we begin, do you remember, you were dancing really hard, but do you remember how I said you’ll have up to three guesses per round? – Yeah, I think I went… (crew chuckles) – [Stevie] Okay, that’s because you’re guaranteed two guesses in each round, but you must earn your third guess by correctly answering a trivia question about the year in question. – Okay. – Which is…? – [Stevie] You ready? So the year is 1973. Well currently it’s 2023, but the year for this round is 1973. – [Both] Okay. – [Stevie] Richard Nixon was president of the United States. – True. – [Stevie] Nixon especially loved two different foods, cottage cheese was one. – Me too! – [Stevie] What was the other? A, bologna sandwich, B, shrimp cocktail, or C, meatloaf. – Okay. – I immediately thought shrimp cocktail. – We did this on the show. – I remember this. – And the only thing I remember from that episode, that was even on the board, was shrimp cocktail. – Shrimp cocktail. Ha. – Shrimp cocktail. – Shrimp cocktail. – [Stevie] Is that your official answer? – [Both] Yes. – [Stevie] That is incorrect. – Dang it! – [Stevie] Guys, anytime I ask you if it’s your official answer, I don’t know if you’ve caught on at this point, but… – I would guess meatloaf now, but it’s too late. – [Stevie] Yeah, it’s meatloaf, but you only have two guesses this round. – It’s okay. It’s okay, dude. – Hey, we were on the same page, it was just the wrong one. – [Stevie] Well, to make you feel better, I would now like to introduce Bailiff Chase. – Oh, I feel better! – [Rhett] Oh… – Hey, all rise. – [Stevie] So… – Done. – Yeah. – [Stevie] Chase is going to add the weighted price box to the scale at the same time you add your food items. This’ll make sense. – This is gonna be fun. – [Stevie] So you can go ahead, yep, reveal your duve. In 2023, a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with cheese costs 5.99. – Good gullet. – [Stevie] But back in 1973, how many Quarter Pounders with cheese could you get for $15? – So it’s… it costs six dollars for a Quarter Pounder, and that’s not even the combo? Dang, son. – Okay. Now, you’re horrible with numbers, we already know this. – Well I’m not gonna just let you carry me. – But hold on. So I think, I’m gonna help establish a reference, and then you tell me how it feels, okay? Because when we were kids, you could get a cheeseburger at McDonald’s for less than a dollar. – Definitely. Definitely. – Okay? I think for like 89 cents, or something like that. – Yeah. – Now this is a Quarter Pounder, it’s more expensive, and it’s a full 10 years earlier than the memories that I’m having right now. – So like, 89 cent for a Quarter Pounder? – It’s definitely at least 15. – Right. So let’s- – But hold up, before we start stacking, how many more than 15 is it? – Well let’s just put 15 and then we can feel it. I mean, that’s a lot. Are you doing it, or are we doing it? – No, let’s swap places. – Okay. A one. A two, a three. 14. – 15. – 15. And then if we put that one there, it’s prettier. But we’re gonna add more, let’s just add one more. – Hold on, but that’s just- – And let’s make it like 90 cents. – You gotta think about what you’re guessing. I think that the answer is probably, I think they were probably 80 cents. So I think we should add three. So Chase puts that on at the same time that you put that on there. – Okay. Yes, yes, yes. Ooh, this, I’m telling you, it’s heavy. – Oh, yours is heavy? (crew chuckles) – Yeah, he doesn’t seem to be struggling. Well how am I gonna…? – Here. I’m gonna hold it steady for you. – This is the front. Oh! So… All right, here we go. – You’ve got room on the back. – No, no. It looks good. All right, here we go. I’m hovering, and then I’m gonna, okay. Three, two- – Hold on, hold on. – Hurry! You just have a box! – Hold on, it’s locked. You don’t have to let go, the scale’s gonna unlock at the same time. – Three, two, one. – Okay, so we didn’t go, they’re even, okay. This is not surprising. – Dude. What the crap? – Oh, this kinda math is hard without a phone. (crew chuckles) – Let’s just go by feel, you know? – But see, that- – I can tell how fast it went down, and I think we need to put two, four, six, eight more burgers on there. – Yeah, but what is the math on that? – That’s your job. I’m the feel guy. – So eight more burgers, 18 plus, that would be 26 burgers. So, I mean that’s, I think that’s probably about right, based on 60. – Five, four, three, two, one. No! That’s too much! – Okay. We should’ve done six more instead of eight more. But now we don’t get another guess, it just- – So it must’ve been 75 cents each. – Just to prove it… (Chase snorts) – [Stevie] So the answer was 21, because in 1973, Quarter Pounders with cheese cost just 70 cents. – Dang. We went from 80 to 60 instead of just going from 80 to 70. – And look at that beautiful menu. Who needs a screen when you got that? – I’ll tell you one thing we learned is that you can actually have a pretty good guess and still be wrong. We gotta get that trivia question right, ’cause we need that third guess badly. (groovy music) – [Stevie] All right, let’s try another trivia question, shall we? – Ready. – Okay. – [Stevie] Which Beatles album was released in 1967? A, A Hard Day’s Night, B, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, or C, Abbey Road? – No. – Okay, Link, we’re relying on you. – Well hold on… – I was gonna say Abbey Road. Is this before they kinda went to India and everything changed? Or is it right around the same time? – It’s gotta be Sgt. Pepper’s. – [Rhett] Okay, I’m trusting you on this. – Think it might be early, but that’s the middle one of the three. Sgt. Pepper’s. – [Stevie] That’s correct. – Yeah, look at that! – Okay, good. – [Stevie] Okay, you may reveal your items. Today, KFC’s large meal bucket with 16 pieces of chicken, four sides, and eight biscuits, goes for 49.99. – What? – $50! – [Stevie] But 1967, KFC had the bucket, which had 15 pieces of chicken- – Uh-oh. That’s gonna throw us off. – [Stevie] Six hot rolls, and a pint of gravy. How many orders of the bucket could you get for $55? – $55. This is a lot harder than the burger thing. Okay, Link. I believe that what we can do, is we can use what we learned from the last round to think about how inflation impacted the McDonald’s prices, going back to 1973, and now we’re in 1967? – [Stevie] Seven. – [Link] 67. – Okay, so we went from six dollars, all the way down to 70 cents. So it’s almost like, you know, like a 90% reduction, right? Down to that. And then we’re gonna go another 10 years? So if a six dollar thing became a seven dollar thing… A 70 cents thing. Maybe it would be like a 60 cent thing, so it would be like taking a tenth of the price. So then we basically would say, if it was $50, let’s just say it’s basically the same thing, the pint of gravy, we don’t know, 15, we would go from $50 to five dollars. So we’re gonna say that these are about five dollars apiece, and then we gotta do 55 of ’em, we’re gonna do 11 of ’em. It’s that simple. – That’s exactly what I was thinking. One! Nine 10, 11. And I just smushed all the chicken. – Oh, what’s that, Chase? You thought we were gonna need a calculator? (laughs arrogantly) – Order in my court. That was rude, I was trying to help you. – Yeah, man. Don’t shoot the sheriff. – “Don’t shoot the sheriff.” Go that way, go that way. – Gimme a warning. – And don’t be alarmed, the reason there’s no chicken in these is because there’s weights inside of them. Don’t tell anybody, but there’s weights! – All right, I’m ready, Chase. Three… – Bailiff Chase. – Two, Bailiff Chase, one. Oh! Not enough, dude! Cheaper than five dollars. – Okay, so, if it was four dollars, then we would need to add one more, right? – You got it? – Okay, bring it back over. It dropped pretty fast, so… – Yeah, it did. – I think I might need this calculator. – You’re welcome. – What if we go all the way, what if it was 14? What if they were like three dollars and 90 cents? And actually, I’m doing this backwards, ’cause I could take the original number. I went to engineering school. 55 divided by three dollars and 90 cents three dollars and 90 cents equals 14.1. – Yeah, yeah, yeah. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. So what’s the dollar amount per bucket? – 3.89. – 3.89. That’s it. – That feels great, right? – Yeah. Sgt. Pepper’s, man. – Feels great. – And I’m Bailiff Chase. – All right, here we go. I’m gonna throw this under here, and then I’m gonna push it, and then I’ma do this, and then I’ma do that, and then I’ma pick it up, and then I’ma hold it, and then I’ma go three, two, one. Is that… is that it? – [Stevie] That’s it. – Yeah! (Rhett and Link chant excitedly) – [Stevie] Yeah, you got that, 14 was the answer, but the bucket cost 3.75 in 1967. 3.75, compared to like 50 bucks now. – [Rhett] Man, you could get so much chicken back then, you’d just be chicken for days. – Were the rolls sweet, or just rolls? – And a pint of gravy? What did you put it on? The chicken? Because they didn’t have taters. (groovy music) – We wanna remind you to go to Sporked.com. We help you save some money over there when you go to the grocery store. We got some tips for ya. Articles from Jordan on hacks for saving cash at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, and a roundup of the best Great Value foods at Walmart. Sporked.com. – Yes! – [Stevie] Okay. We all know Neil Armstrong’s first words when he walked on the moon in 1969. – “I’m first! Hahahahaha! Ha, suckers!” That was it. – [Stevie] Yes. What was the second thing he said? A, “I wish all you back home could see what I see,” B, “I sure hope my mama is watching this,” or C, “The surface is fine and powdery.” – Ooh. It’s not the mom thing. I don’t think, ’cause the first one and the last one… I think he did say both. Somebody said both of those things. – There’s just too much jubilation to be going into science mode of like fine and powdery. – What you just said makes the first thing unlikely. – Well then I’m switching to Mom, then. – He said “My mama”? “I hope my mama’s watching”? – What was it? “I hope she’s watching”? – [Stevie] “I sure hope my mama is watching this.” – [Rhett] I don’t know, man. I thought it was gonna be “The surface is powdery,” man. – [Link] You think it’s fine and powdery. – ‘Cause he’s like “Shouldn’t I say something about the surface?” – Too early for that. The second thing out of his mouth? – [Rhett] Okay, mama. – We think it’s mama. – [Stevie] Is that your official answer? – No, fine and powdery. – Nope, fine and powdery. – You’re learning. – [Stevie] “The surface is fine and powdery.” – Yes! – Good, good. – Thank you, Stevie. – Well, I bet his mom was really hurt. – [Stevie] You know what? I don’t want any comments in the comment section about me helping my boys out. I just asked them if it was their official answer. – They’ll be happy. As long as you don’t choose favorites, they’re happy. – [Stevie] Sure. Okay, reveal! Today, a small Wendy’s Frosty goes for 2.49. In 1969, how many Wendy’s Frostys could you get for two dollars? – Oh, Link, okay, we can do this. We can do this, because we have a calculator, and we have the inflation rate from 1967 and from 1963, let’s figure it out real quick, just be quiet for one second ’cause I gotta think about what we did. So in the first round it was… – If I’m gonna be quiet, I don’t feel like a contributor. – So it’s six dollars (dramatic music) divided by 70 cents is what they ended up being, right? Equals 8.6 times, so things had increased by 8.6 in 1973, you just keep 8.6, and Chase, you also keep 8.6, ’cause he forgets things. Okay. 8.6 in 1873. And then, in 1967, we went from $55 divided by, what, it was 3.75, equals 14.6. So it’s 14 point, oh, this isn’t gonna work. – 18.6. – It changed that much? So it was, did I do this wrong? 10.6 is the number that we’re looking for, and what was the original price? What is the price now? – 2.50. – They were 23 cents. – All right, so if it’s 25 cents, then that would be eight of these. – I have a calculator. You don’t say… – [Link] Okay. – Hold on! Don’t do anything yet. – Too late. – Well how many’d you put on there? – 8.6. – How many did you put on there? – 8.6. Six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 12. – Okay, see how this works. We have three guesses. I think it should be nine of them. – [Link] ‘Kay, here we go. Three, two, one, go! – Yeah, okay, so… – And one of ’em just fell off, which wasn’t cheating, but that does help us, that even when that one goes off, didn’t make a dent in anything. – Yeah, so it’s gonna be eight or nine. So take ’em off. – [Link] Which is like what, 20 cents apiece? – Yeah, if they’re 23 cents apiece, it would basically be nine. – Right, so we’re getting rid of these. Six, seven eight, nine. – We have an extra guess. Yeah, let’s go with nine. Let’s go with what the math actually tells us, man. The math is telling us it’s nine. – Here we go. – [Rhett] It might be eight. – Three, two, one, go. – Oh, gosh. – Come on. Come on! – Maybe there’s only six. – [Link] Six would be… – 33 cents apiece. – That’s a nice number. 33 in 69. – Maybe it was a good year for Frostys. And maybe they just, maybe chocolate was in short supply that year. – Here we go. This is our final answer, our final attempt. In three, two, one, go. – Dang! – Come back, come back, come back, come back, come back! – Okay. We’ve been foiled. We’ve been foiled, Stevie. – [Stevie] The answer is five cups, because a Wendy’s Frosty in 1969 cost 39 cents. – That’s kinda steep. You know, right from the start, Dave’s like, he’s ramping up those prices on the Frosty. – Let’s think about what we’ve learned for a second, though. We’ve learned that different products do not inflate at the same rate, because there’s other things that influence prices. – It’s exactly what I was thinking. (Rhett sighs) (groovy music) – [Stevie] Okay, so this is the final round, which means at this point, you’re just kinda playing for pride. – Agh! – We hate math. – [Stevie] But, you know I like helping you out, so, if you can get it exactly right on your first try, I’ll let you win the game. – Uh-huh. – I agree. – [Stevie] But because it’s fun anyway, let’s do the trivia question for that third try. – Oh, that’s not this. All right, we’re ready. – [Stevie] What was the number one selling Christmas toy in 1964? – 64? – Christmas toy, 1964. – [Stevie] A, Barbie, B, G.I. Joe, or C, the game of Operation. – 64? – I think Barbie was more popular than G.I. Joe. – I think Barbie is, I would say it’s the answer. – Barbie. – [Stevie] Incorrect, the answer was G.I. Joe. I couldn’t give you the official answer thing, ’cause I already have given you the- – You’ve given us too much, Stevie! You’ve been too generous! – What we got here? – [Stevie] In 2023, a crunchy taco from Taco Bell costs $1.79. But in 1964, how many Taco Bell tacos could you get for six dollars? – Hoo. Now, okay. You want me to start doing the math? – No, no, no, no. I think our math has proven to be not great, and our guesses about rates of inflation, so I think we should go with our gut. – I love this. – We count three two one, we say the price that we have in our heads, we take the average, that’s our answer. – All right, so we’re gonna say the price of a taco. All right. – Ready? – Yep. – Three, two, one, 15 cents! – Five cents. All right, so we’re settling on 10 cents a taco. – So you think we’re gonna put 60 tacos up there? – I think we are. Are there even 60 here? – Well, let’s find out. ‘Cause I think five cents is too low. – Well help me out. I’m building an outer container. – 46, yeah, we can’t do your answer. – 48. – And then 50, so, do we go, just cancel out your answer for a second. I hate to do that to you. – Bring out more tacos, guys! Obviously we’re right. (crewmember laughs) – So let’s do 40. Because I’m saying 15 cents. – So after all that, we’re just using your answer, ’cause we ran out? – Yeah. Let’s just do 40. How many are on there? – [Link] All right, 50. – [Rhett] Take 10 off. – Four, eight, 10. All right. Have it your way. – It’s not Burger King. – This is for the win. This is for the win. Boop boop boop. All right, three, two, one, go. No! They were more expensive? – Okay, so, if they were 20 cents, there’d be 30. It’s gotta be a round number, right? So take 10 off. – Two, four, six, eight, 10. – Okay. So we’re saying they’re 20 cents apiece, we’re going with 30 total. – Yes, we are saying that. Three, two, one, go go go go go go. – Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. – Go go go go go go go, oh! (breath whooshes) – So we’re a little bit off. – Nope. – [Stevie] Mm-hm. – All right. – [Rhett] Okay. – [Stevie] Just a little bit. Why don’t you leave it there and… – Oh, no, don’t. We need more. We need more. Boy. Boy, oh boy. (crew laughs) It’s a tough team. (crew laughs) It’s a tough team setup we got today. – [Stevie] No, no, I was saying… Mkay, all right. – When it rains, it pours. – Okay, we’re gonna leave this on there. And we’re just gonna talk. – So I mean, we could do one more. – [Stevie] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So 31 is the correct answer, in 1964 all tacos cost 19 cents each. – 19 cents. – It’s not five cents. – [Stevie] No. And unfortunately, I’m sorry, you did not win, but the Mythical Beasts get to watch you blow up an inflatable burger in Good Mythical More. – Great. – Thanks for liking, commenting, and subscribing. – You know what time it is. – Hey, Rhett and Link, I’m James, a trucker, and I’m hanging out in Richmond, Virginia. And I just hung up my new blanket. And it’s time to spin the Wheel of Mythicality. – I thought he was here for a second. – It’s like he’s trucking, but he’s on our set. – Yeah. – I love that. – Click the top link to watch us discover some failed fast food items in Good Mythical More. – And to find out where the Wheel of Mythicality’s gonna land. – [Rhett] The Sporked team knows how to save money at the grocery store. Head over to Sporked.com to read Jordan’s secrets for hacking Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, and check out the Sporked ranking of the best Great Value foods.