‘Why it sound like a roller coaster?’: Viral TikTok exposes how Sonic onion rings get made

A video sharing the process of making Sonic onion rings has gained 4 million views on TikTok.

TikToker @TrueMenaceNate recorded himself making the onion rings at the Sonic location he works at. They begin as naked onion rings that are then fed through a batterer, which coats them in a liquid mixture before running them through a dry breadcrumb mixture. Although the video does not show the next step, they are presumably frozen and stored before being fried.

Some commenters claim to be current or former Sonic employees, and say that the machine doing all the breading work for the young man “must be new,” because they have always hand-breaded them.

“I hate that I spent five years doing it by hand,” one commenter wrote. “I did an entire bag of onions and wanted to off myself. I was the GM.”

Others shared that they had learned how to use this kind of breading machine from watching The Simple Life, featuring Nicole Ricci and Paris Hilton. Hilton and Ricci’s many attempts at the jobs held by regular people apparently included battering onion rings, at one point.

“Paris Hilton showed me how to do this,” one commenter wrote.

This video is part of a recent trend of employees sharing or “exposing” how their company makes various fan-favorite menu items, such as the Panera Papaya Green Tea, or movie theater nachos. With commenters requesting to see how additional items are made, the trend may continue indefinitely.

The Daily Dot has reached out to @TrueMenaceNate via TikTok DM, as well as to Sonic for comment.