For a decade, Samsung's best joke about Apple was that it didn't even have a foldable phone. Today, that joke stopped being true, so Samsung had to write a new one in real time
Samsung has spent close to a decade making the same joke about Apple in slightly different outfits: we have a folding phone, and you don't. Today, Apple went and took that joke away from them by actually releasing one. Samsung didn't sit with that for even an hour. It just wrote a new joke, live, in front of everyone.
Here's how today's moment fits into a rivalry that's honestly been going for longer than some of the phones involved have been on sale.
1. Today: "Reheated leftovers" for Apple's first foldable
Minutes after Apple revealed the iPhone Duo during its "Surprise and Shine" event, Samsung Mobile's official account started live-tweeting commentary on the whole thing, taking aim at both the iPhone 18 Pro's design and the new foldable itself. "Let us know when you're done reheating our leftovers," the account posted, which is about as clean a one-liner as corporate social media gets.
Samsung takes shots at Apple on X after Apple announced its first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo.
“Let us know when you’re done reheating our leftovers” pic.twitter.com/TjeJaNMCyf
— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) September 10, 2026
2. Today, continued: Duolingo somehow gets dragged in too
Samsung wasn't done. Someone on the team noticed Apple's new "Surprise and Shine" branding had a bit of an owl-mascot energy to it, and posted a mock apology straight to Duolingo: "I'm so sorry, @DuoLingo. They copied us too #Solidarity." Duolingo's own social team played along, and within a couple of hours a phone launch had somehow turned into a three-way bit involving a language app.
Samsung is having a mental breakdown right now pic.twitter.com/eB0f14fGOJ
— Apple Design (@TheAppleDesign) September 9, 2026
Was there range? No.
Was it exciting? No.
Did it happen? Yes.#ItsTimeToSwitch
— Samsung Mobile US (@SamsungMobileUS) September 9, 2026
3. The Galaxy S II ads that mocked people queuing outside Apple Stores
Long before any of this lived on Twitter, Samsung was already doing this on television. Ads for the Galaxy S II poked fun at the long lines forming outside Apple Stores every time a new iPhone dropped. One exchange has stuck around in people's memories for years: an iPhone owner insists he can't switch to Samsung because he's creative, and his friend just cuts him down flat, "Dude, you're a barista."
We would never crush creativity. #UnCrush pic.twitter.com/qvlUqbRlnE
— Samsung Mobile US (@SamsungMobileUS) May 15, 2024
4. The "Ingenious" campaign, starring an Apple Genius who never wins
This one deserves its own mention because of how it was built. Samsung ran a whole ad series around a fictional Apple Store "Genius" trying to sell customers on the iPhone X, only for shoppers to point out, politely but repeatedly, that Samsung's current flagship already did the same things and then some. Letting the joke come from the customer instead of Samsung's own script is honestly the smarter move, and it's part of why people still bring the campaign up years later.
5. "10 years of inferior iPhones"
To mark a full decade since the original iPhone launched, Samsung ran an ad that didn't bother being subtle about its argument: ten years, and Apple was still catching up to features Samsung already treated as standard.
| The rivalry, at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Today's joke | "Reheated leftovers" aimed at the iPhone Duo |
| Longest-running joke | Apple lacking a foldable phone, a bit Samsung ran for years |
| Most elaborate campaign | The "Ingenious" Apple Genius ad series |
| Oldest documented jab | Galaxy S II ads mocking Apple Store queues |
| Today's surprise guest | Duolingo, pulled into the joke by Samsung itself |
6. The Galaxy S22 Ultra and Z Flip4 ad that got its timing exactly right
Samsung didn't wait for Apple's own launch event to land this one. Right before it, an ad went out listing off Galaxy S22 Ultra and Z Flip4 features that Samsung already knew the next iPhone had no answer for, timed specifically so it would be sitting in people's minds the moment Apple actually took the stage.
7. The original foldable dig, years before "reheated leftovers" existed
Before today's line, Samsung had already run a video reminding iPhone users, bluntly, that folding phones existed, they just weren't made by Apple. It's genuinely the exact joke that expired today, the moment Apple's own version became a real, sellable product instead of a punchline about something they didn't have.
8. Fans running off with the joke long after Samsung posted it
Neither brand controls where these jokes go once they're out. Today's "reheated leftovers" line alone had spawned a wave of fan-made replies, screenshots and edits within a couple of hours, following the same pattern Samsung's jabs have followed for years: post it, and let the internet do the rest of the work for free.
9. When marketing writers started treating the feud as an actual case study
At some point, this stopped being just online noise and started getting written up the way people write about Coke versus Pepsi, or Burger King versus McDonald's. The comparison holds up better than you'd think: Samsung doesn't have Apple's marketing budget, so leaning on being the quicker, sharper-tongued one is the only realistic way to actually win a round of this.
10. So what happens to the joke now that it's actually true?
That's the part nobody's answered yet. Samsung's best, most reliable material for the better part of a decade rested entirely on a gap that closed today. Whether "reheated leftovers" ends up sticking around the way the old foldable joke did, or whether Samsung needs something sharper once people actually get their hands on the iPhone Duo, depends on one thing nobody can fake: whether the product itself gives them anything real to work with.
