William Hanson has shared advice online on how to eat cereal. Photo / William Hanson
William Hanson has shared advice online on how to eat cereal. Photo / William Hanson
You’ve probably been eating cereal wrong your whole life – if you believe what etiquette coach William Hanson has to say.
Put cereal and milk into a bowl, then go at it with a spoon?
Wrong, you cereal offender.
Well, at least that’s what Hanson believes.
“Here’s how to eatbreakfast cereal. First of all, add your milk of choice and then, with a spoon held in your dominant hand and the fork in your non-dominant hand, you will eat.”
However, the viewers mostly disagreed with the etiquette coach.
“I can’t tell if this is rage bait or not,” was the most liked comment.
Rage bait, which was the 2025 Oxford Word of the Year, is content deliberately designed to evoke anger or outrage to increase online engagement.
“At this point I’m convinced he’s just trolling us, because there’s no way this is for real,” said a commenter.
There may be some truth to this. As an etiquette coach, Hanson is usually very particular about words and actions, however, in the video, Hanson called his cereal “corned” flakes rather than corn flakes.
Corned is reserved for brined beef (otherwise called salt beef). The name came about because of the large rough grains of salt used to prepare the meat that were so big they resembled pieces of corn.
Another etiquette coach Jo Hayes said Hanson went too far.
“God bless William Hanson. I love this man and, as a general rule, align with his approach to modern etiquette standards.
“However, on whether this is typical, the answer is, no,” Hayes told Metro UK.
“I have literally never seen anyone eat cereal with a spoon and fork and I have attended many a hotel breakfast dining room, and many a formal corporate and business breakfasts.
