Chicken or tuna? Jessica Simpson poked fun at her 2003 “Chicken of the Sea” mishap after Subway was accused of using “anything but tuna” in their tuna salad sandwiches earlier this month.
The chain fired back on Friday, January 29, after a lawsuit was filed against the company on January 21, claiming there is no tuna in the item in question. According to the lawsuit, based on independent testing, “the filling in the products has no scintilla of tuna at all,” USA Today reported.
Subway denied the claims, saying, “There simply is no truth to the allegations in the complaint that was filed in California. Subway delivers 100 percent cooked tuna to its restaurants, which is mixed with mayonnaise and used in freshly made sandwiches, wraps and salads that are served to and enjoyed by our guests.”
Simpson, 40, jokingly had Subway’s back on Friday, tweeting, “It’s OK @SUBWAY. It IS confusing,” alongside a video of the Today show’s coverage of the story.
The designer’s comment came 17 years after she infamously questioned whether she was eating chicken or tuna after putting Chicken of the Sea tuna in a bowl during an October 2003 episode of her and ex-husband Nick Lachey’s MTV series, Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica.
“Is this chicken what I have, or is this fish? I know it’s tuna, but it says chicken … by the sea?” Simpson asked Lachey, 47, at the time.
The former 98 Degrees singer, who split from Simpson in 2006, looked dumfounded as he tried to explain that it was the brand name of tuna. “A lot of people eat tuna, and a lot of people eat chicken, so it’s like the ‘Chicken of the Sea,’” he said.
The cringe-worthy moment haunted the “I Wanna Love You Forever” singer for a while, but Simpson now owns the iconic scene, often joking about it on social media.
The Dukes of Hazzard star, who appeared on Newlyweds from 2003 to 2006, shared a meme of a chicken swimming in the ocean in November 2016, reviving the TV moment.
“Maybe Jessica Simpson was on to something?” the text read alongside the photo, to which Simpson wrote, “#Chickenofthesea.”
The following year, the mother of three, who shares Maxwell, 8, Ace, 7, and Birdie, 22 months, with husband Eric Johnson, recalled the hilarious mishap after Whole Foods made headlines for accidentally stocking tuna in chicken salad products.
“Whole Foods Discovered Its Chicken Salad Actually Had Tuna,” the story’s headline read in July 2017, which Simpson shared via Instagram.
She then quipped: “It happens to the best of us @WholeFoods.”
