Lily Collins' joke about a legendary Chicago pizza joint cut deep (dish).
On Oct. 7, Lou Malnati's Pizzeria, an iconic franchise within The Windy City and Illinois, defended itself on Instagram after Lily took a jab at it during the first episode of Netflix's "Emily in Paris."
The show follows Emily as she moved from Chicago to Paris for work. One early scene shows a French colleague describing Chicago-style deep-dish pizza as "quiche made of cement." Emily replies, "Oh, no, you must have gone to Lou Malnati's."
A crusty Lou wasn't about to take that, as it posted a shot of Lily to its Instagram page, even photoshopping a piece of Lou's pie on a plate in front of her.
"Emily in Paris thinks Lou's sucks. We disagree," the post said. "Try it for yourself. Hate it? #movetoParis 🍕."
The joint continued to slice into the show and Lily's character, posting a picture of fresh pizza embedded with the words, "Hey Emily… jealous?"
Marc Malnati seemed to take offense to the joke.
"We've been serving Chicago's favorite Deep Dish since 1971. When Netflix' Emily in Paris writers chose to take a shot at Chicagoans and our pizza to try to get a laugh, it felt heartless and not humorous in the midst of Covid-19," he said in a statement. "Thank you to all our fans who have shown so much love and support!"
Capitalizing on the moment, the pizza franchise, which has over 50 locations, even said it was giving $5 off a pizza package to say "merci," which means thank you in French.
Fans of Lou's defended the local restaurant chain, too — some people said they weren't going to watch the fictional show anymore. Others even called for a boycott.
"No idea who Emily is but I won't be watching this show. Malnati's is delicious," one fan said.
Another added, "Ordered last night for the 234,000th time in my 17 years of life and I can assure you… it doesn't suck!"
Fictional show. Real life anger.