I’m 50 and got it. That wascally wabbitwas the first thing that went through my mind in seeing “hossenfeffer”.
I’m 28 and I get it. The thing is I’m not sure why I get it.
I remeber watching it when I was very young, but the cartoon seemed older than the cartoons I watched at that time. Maybe it was a re-run or maybe someone had it on tape.
I wondered that too. And I can’t recall any WB cartoon where Bugs hides the Easter eggs.
Yeah, I got the joke. That’s a clever one, too. I’m 22. I practically grew up on the source material for that joke.
Are beans generally served with hassenpfeffer? 
- Recognized the source of the line immediately, but like others don’t really see the connection to being closed on Easter.
- Piece of cake.
Almost 41 and I got it.
OK, OP checking in again. I guess I was a little surprised, as I personally thought the reference in the sign was somewhat obscure and (let’s be honest) a little old for most kids today (not to mention a chain restaurant, but Chipotle does position itself as “hipster”, so who knows?).
Guess I’m glad that the same stuff which rotted my brain as a kid is still going strong with a whole new generation of innocents…
For completeness’ sake, I checked on the sign again today at lunch. It’s in the usual “Chipotle” style (if you’ve been to the restaurant you know what I mean), so I’m pretty sure it’s chain-wide, not just this particular location. Full text:
As a few noted on this thread, “hasenpfeffer” is the correct spelling; the sign misspelled it. And as many noted, it’s not much of a joke, though it did make me smile…
I saw this today at Chipotle, and it gave me a little chuckle. Particularly since last night a friend and I looked up hasenpfeffer to make sure I was correct about its meaning (peppered rabbit).
The “joke” of the sign was that it initially suggests (just with that line & the picture) that they would be serving rabbit burritos on Easter. It went on to talk about what they’d be doing on easter instead of being open (dying burritos bright colors, putting plastic grass in the burrito baskets, holding their annual burrito hunt) and essentially say they were sorry their customers would be missing out on all the fun.
I chuckled.
Were you aware that Chipotle is a division of McDonald’s? Not so hip, now, huh? 
Umm, cite?
Nothing that I can find indicates any relationship to McDonalds other than they are both fat food providers.
They were; McDonald’s made an initial minority investment in 1997, which by 2005 had grown to 92% of the company’s net worth. This is likely what caused the chain to grow so rapidly from a few stores in Denver to over 500 today.
After Chipotle filed for an IPO, McDonald’s sold it’s stock and offered a discounted buy-in of Chipotle shares to its own shareholders. McDonalds was fully divested of Chipotle by the fall of 2006.
I get the reference, and I’m 36.
I frequently refer to this “source” as you put it, in other cooking contexts e.g., “Every day the same thing… Variety…”, in referring to my children’s neverending desire to eat just pizza or hamburgers despite my decent ability to make roast pork ribs, various kinds of steak, grilled or pan fried fish, rotisserie chicken, etc., etc.
I do however fail to see the tie-in to being closed for Easter.
For a better reference in the same vein, but more on-topic, I would have gone with a Humphrey Bogart figure mopping his brow with a handkerchief and saying, “Baby will just have to have a ham sandwich”.
I don’t really think there is a tie-in other than the Easter Bunny being a famous rabbit- just like…
I got the reference, and I remember that as being one of the stupider WB cartoons (along with the Speedy vs Slyvesters).
Next time how about referencing one of the funny ones?
“This time we didn’t forget the gravy!”
Speedy Gonzales’s natural enemy was Sylvester. Do you not like Speedy in general (no problem with that), or are you confusing them with the cartoons produced after the Warners studio closed its doors where he was pitted inexplicably against Daffy Duck?
(By the '60s, the Warner cartoons definitely were running out of steam. I haven’t seen Shiskabugs in years, but Dumb Patrol, one of Bugs’s last cartoons, is quite possibly one of the unfunniest cartoons ever with only one good closing gag.)
Wadaya mean, rotted your brain? We’re not talking about Tom and Jerry, let alone Caspar the Friendly Ghost, we’re talking aout Bugs Bunny!.
A brain unrotted by Bugs Bunny is a brain not worth having.
No - I’d just prefer to keep that memory repressed (thank you!)
The dumb ones we agree to loathe were written for TV and aimed soley at kids; the earlier ones for theater viewing threw in some dark humor for the adults, (which some of us kids enjoyed preternaturally):
“This should grind ther bones nicely!”
Actually, cartoons were produced theatrically for Warner Bros. until 1969, mainly at the DePatie-Freling studios, although Warners did resurrect its animation studio shorly before production halted.