Denny’s responds to tweetstorm over sausage mascotDenny’s responds to tweetstorm over sausage mascot

Denny’s hat-wearing sausage mascot is being grilled on social media this week for bearing a striking resemblance to infamous South Park character, Mr. Hankey.

Sausage, as he’s been called by Denny’s Corp. since 2014, is a member of the Grand Slams, a group of animated breakfast foods that appear in Denny’s commercials.

But the notion that Sausage looked more like human waste than a breakfast staple has spread quickly across social media over the past week, prompting a reaction on Twitter from the company Wednesday.

“Sausage has been an important part of the family since then, along with his counterparts ‘Egg,’ ‘Pancake’ and ‘Bacon,’” John Dillon, chief marketing officer at Denny’s Corp., said in an email Thursday.

Dillon said that Sausage “looks exactly how a breakfast sausage should look,” adding that there are no plans to change the character’s appearance, and that the company won’t stop Sausage from “enjoying his 15 minutes of fame.”

Dillon responded to the controversy on Twitter as well, posting that he’s “Proud of every single one of our @DennysDiner team.”

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