Gizmodo’s January 20, 2023, slideshow turned the egg-price spike into a dozen jokes about scarcity, luxury and the familiar indignity of grocery sticker shock. The prices and “fresh” framing belong to that moment, not to today.
What the slideshow said about egg prices
Thomas Germain’s Gizmodo slideshow reported an average of $7.37 per dozen in California, citing the Washington Post, and a U.S. grocery average of $4.25 per dozen. Gizmodo described the national figure as a 120% year-over-year increase. These are historical figures reported in January 2023, not current price quotes.
In explaining the spike at the time, Gizmodo pointed to pandemic-era supply-chain and worker shortages, while describing avian flu as the larger contributor. That is the article’s account of the 2023 crisis, not a diagnosis of egg prices in 2026.
How the memes turn sticker shock into comedy
The slideshow’s joke engine is simple: treat an everyday carton as if it were a rare treasure, then mix in egg puns and familiar pop-culture references. A title such as “Eggs Are Forever” makes breakfast sound like a high-stakes franchise; “Tony Eggtana” turns a crime-film name into an egg pun; and “Book’em Danno” borrows a familiar catchphrase for the same purpose.
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Other captions lean into romance and melodrama. “You had me at ‘Sunny side up’” makes a breakfast order into a movie-style declaration, while “All I have in this world is my eggs and my word, and I don’t break ‘em for no one!” casts the carton as a gangster’s most valuable possession. The humor depends on the gap between an ordinary grocery staple and the extravagant language of wealth, danger and devotion.
The luxury joke—and its limits
At the height of the 2023 price spike, calling eggs a luxury good made the grocery bill itself the punchline. Germain capped the piece with, “You’re better off buying a living chicken.” In context, that is an absurdist joke about scarcity, not practical advice: the slideshow does not offer a cost comparison or recommend buying poultry.
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One slideshow item credits @_bythedozen__ and notes that the account had been posting egg and chicken content for almost a year as of January 2023. That detail gives the joke a social-media setting: the price surge made an existing niche feel newly topical.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the date matters
The slideshow captured a specific burst of public frustration in January 2023. Its memes remain readable as jokes about inflation and perceived scarcity, but its prices should not be used to describe the market now. The figures and context above are what Gizmodo reported then; they do not establish current prices or current causes.
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