This sandwich-slicing hack is dividing the internet, but it’s kind of genius

A man’s sandwich-cutting ingenuity has reignited a debate on what is truly the best way to cut a sandwich.

On Saturday, April 27, X user Ryan Duff was first inspired to go against the whole grain, so to speak, when he changed up the way he cut his lunch.

“You guys, I think I finally perfected the art of grilled cheese. This is a game changer!” he wrote, sharing an image of his sandwich cut into three distinct pieces maximizing pointy edges.

The cut is in the shape of a Y, which “Hoda and Jenna” guest host, Willie Geist, might find satisfying.

“The 3-way cut is superior. It provides the correct ratio of bite to crust in any given piece,” Duff wrote in a follow-up post. “2 way and 4 way— square or diagonal, cannot compete. I am willing to die on this hill.”

As recently as April 21, Duff was cutting his sandwiches down the middle. But since starting with the Y-cut just one week later, it’s still appearing on his plate. On April 29, he shared another attempt, adding that “Mondays are for grilled cheese.”

“The 3-way cut is going to take off! Just wait!” Duff replied to a user who poked fun at his technique. Turns out, he couldn’t have been more right about that.

On May 1, Duff posted his latest sandwich masterpiece.

“Practice makes perfect. 🫶,” wrote Duff — he went the ham and cheese route.

This time, his post went viral. It generated more than 19.1 million views, thousands of likes and reposts as well as hundreds of comments lauding his technique.

“i like it. well done,” wrote one X user.

“I’m going to start cutting all my sandwiches this way,” posted another, while someone else added, “I hate it and I also love it. What have you done!?”

“I cut my sandwich like this today and I’ll be honest you really did something here,” wrote another X user.

Duff’s sandwich also made its way to Instagram, where it received more than 171,800 likes and hundreds of comments.

“3 corner pieces originating from the middle. That is optimum cheese melting point,” wrote one Instagram user. “You dropped this 👑.”

“This slicing brought a tear to my eye. Perfection!” added another.

Someone else said, “This would make me feel like I’m eating 3 full sandwiches. This is the future.”

Still, some people aren't getting on bard. One X user even wrote, “Stop choosing violence.”

Duff is riding high on helping to popularize what he is now calling, “the Duff Cut” as per his bio on X and believes he invented it. Though, TODAY.com wasn’t able to verify when a Y cut was first used for sandwiches.

“I would say I came up with the idea myself,” Duff tells TODAY.com over X direct message. “It all started when a friend jokingly dared me to cut a sandwich into 3 and break sandwich-cutting norms.”

He says he took inspiration from an iconic piece of fictional technology: the flux capacitor in “Back to the Future.” Duff says he had the design in mind when slicing into his sandwich, taking on adventure much like Marty McFly (played by Michael J. Fox).

“To my knowledge I have never seen anyone else cut a sandwich this way,” he says.

But there is some evidence the cut has been around since before Duff left his mark.

Back in 2023, as another sandwich-cutting debate was heating up on TikTok, creator @alittleoflolo mentioned cutting a sandwich “like a Y” based on recommendations from commenters. She then executed the cut in a subsequent video.

As for why Duff thinks this particular cutting technique is superior, he says it’s “science.”

“If you look at a traditional sandwich cut, either diagonal or straight, you attack the middle of the slice at an angle perpendicular to your face,” Duff explains. “The three slice method gives you 3 convex middle bites where less food gets on your face.”

He then offered an explanation that was a bit less technical: “Think of it like this... it’s like eating a piece of pizza versus eating corn on the cob.”

And, well, you can’t argue with that.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com