People Noticed an Oddly Delicious Addition to Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook Name Change Announcement

By Daniel S. Levine

Mark Zuckerberg's announcement that Facebook, Inc. is being rebranded Meta, Inc. was met with plenty of jokes and memes on the web. While Zuckerberg was going on about his Facebook facelift in the midst of ongoing negative publicity for the company, others noticed a curiously strange and delicious object in the background. There was a bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue sauce behind him. What would a billionaire like Zuckerberg be doing with a BBQ sauce we can all buy at our local grocery store? It turns out Zuckerberg has a long past with Sweet Baby Ray's.

The first person who noticed the Sweet Baby Ray's bottle appears to be BuzzFeed tech reporter Katie Notopoulos. She shared a picture from Zuckerberg's announcement and circled the bottle, just above his head. Her post went viral on Twitter, even leading to "Sweet Baby Ray's" trending on Facebook's rival. For many this seemed to be a random thing for Zuckerberg to put in the studio or office where he filmed the announcement.

However, during a legendary Facebook Live session in 2018, Zuckerberg shared his love of meats, as Ceros chronicled. The live stream featured 10 references to Sweet Baby Ray's. In the immediate aftermath of the event, Facebook users were mystified by Zuckerberg's incredible monotone delivery, his inability to look straight at the camera, and repeatedly saying "meats." One YouTuber even put together an edit of the stream to highlight all 13 times Zuckerberg said "meats."

The name "meta" is supposed to be a reference to the "metaverse," a term describing a future internet where virtual spaces take over. This will be the internet's "next frontier," as Zuckerberg said. "Facebook is one of the most-used products in the history of the world. It is an iconic social media brand, but increasingly, it just doesn't encompass everything we do," he explained. "I want to anchor our work and our identity in what we are building towards." Scroll on to see the best jokes about the Sweet Baby Ray's appearance.

'Gotta put something on his smoked meats'

"Gotta put something on his smoked meats," one person wrote.

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'This sauce is great on anything' including bookshelves

"This sauce is great on anything. Chicken. Burgers. Bookshelves," writer Aaron Wiener wrote.

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'Meta is an anagram of Meat'

"Not to ruin Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook moment or anything but how long did he think it would take for someone to realize that Meta is an anagram of Meat? The Sweet Baby Rays leadership role remains filled," one Twitter user wrote.

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'I refuse to believe Mark Zuckerberg eats Sweet Baby Rays'

"I refuse to believe Mark Zuckerberg eats Sweet Baby Rays. He looks like someone who thinks ketchup is too spicy. If he's trying to show he's an 'everyman,' per usual, he's failed hysterically," another Twitter user wrote.

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'He's trying to be a human'

"Sweet Baby Rays is good. He's trying to be a human. He doesn't know it goes on the food," comedian Tim Dillon wrote.

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'Dude [is] definitely an android'

"Dude definitely an android… why tf he got sweet baby rays on his bookshelf.. unless he eating Baby back books," one person wrote.

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