A $1,396 Chicken Nugget Was the Among Us Merch Nobody Asked For

Somewhere in the great museum of internet decisions, between the dehydrated spaghetti monster and the banana taped to a wall, there is a glass case reserved for a McDonald's chicken nugget that looked like an Among Us crewmate. In 2021, this breaded little astronaut became a minor celebrity after a seller named Polizna put it on eBay for $1,396. The asking price was not a typo, a social experiment, or a cry for help—at least, not officially. It was a nugget. It was shaped like a space bean. And it was apparently art, if one stretches the definition of art until it squeaks.

The nugget came from one of McDonald's BTS-themed Happy Meals, which means the original owner paid no more than $3.29 for the entire meal. That is a mark-up of roughly 42,000 percent, or as economists call it, please stop. The seller initially asked for even more but trimmed the price after someone pointed out that postage and packaging were doing a lot of heavy lifting. To be fair, shipping a fragile piece of fried chicken with cultural ambitions cannot be cheap. To be unfair, it is still a piece of fried chicken with cultural ambitions.

For ordinary players, the story landed somewhere between hilarious and exhausting. The same era had next-gen consoles selling for absurd prices, Pokemon cards vanishing from stores, and grown adults sprinting toward Happy Meal boxes like they contained winning lottery tickets. A nugget shaped like a suspicious crewmate was not the strangest part. The strangest part was that nobody could confidently say it would not sell.

The listing is no longer active, which leaves two possibilities. Either someone paid nearly $1,400 for a McNugget with a silhouette, or the seller removed it and returned to a quieter life. The internet has never been good at providing closure. It prefers to provide screenshots, arguments, and a lingering sense that society may have taken a wrong turn somewhere near the drive-thru.

By 2026, the tale has aged like a Happy Meal left in a car: strange, greasy, and oddly memorable. The nugget did not fix supply chains, make consoles easier to find, or convince anyone that fried food belongs in a gallery. It simply became a symbol of collector culture at its most feverish. If a card, a console, a croissant, or a chicken nugget can be treated as an investment, then the market will eventually test the limits. The Among Us nugget was that test. It asked a simple question: would you pay $1,396 for a piece of chicken that looks like it might vote you out?

McDonald's Happy Meal chaos did not begin or end with this nugget. Earlier in 2021, scalpers grabbed Pokemon cards meant for the promotion before it had even begun, which led McDonald's to impose strict purchase limits when the cards reached the UK. In that climate, a crewmate-shaped nugget was less a snack and more a speculative asset with barbecue sauce. It was ridiculous, but it was also perfectly on brand for a moment when everyone seemed to be buying, selling, and hoarding something.

In 2026, the nugget is a cautionary comedy rather than a live auction. Its whereabouts are unknown. Its legacy is a reminder that the internet can turn anything into merchandise, including a lump of breaded poultry that happened to fall into the right shape. The Among Us crewmate may be sus, but the real impostor was the asking price all along.