Mosley Music Group, together with Blackground and Interscope Records, serviced the song to contemporary hit radio on December 1, 2009, in the United States, as the third single from Shock Value II.

The song's accompanying music video, directed by Bryan Barber, features Timbaland and Timberlake surrounded by women, which they attempt to seduce while dressed in fast-food restaurant themed costumes.

[1] Justin Timberlake, Attitude and Jim Beanz, notable collaborators with Timbaland, also assisted in the writing of the song.

"[2] Timbaland stated that the song resembles a "2010 version" of Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot", produced by The Neptunes.

Ben Norman of About.com praised it as a "fantastic fast food euphamism" [sic] and as an example of Timbaland's ability to craft "top-notch pop".

[4] Calling it a "radio smash", Luke Gibson of HipHop DX in his review of the single commented on the noticeable chemistry between Timbaland and Timberlake and deemed it will "have bodies moving".

[6] In his review of the album, David Balls of Digital Spy called "Carry Out" and "Meet in Tha Middle", "pretty irresistible".

[10] Henry Yanney of Soul Culture labeled it a safe collaboration, noting it as a revival of Timbaland and Timberlake's "successful chemistry".

[11] Robert Copsey, in the review of the single itself, found the recording to be lacking in creativity, leaving him to comment that "'Carry Out' is one of Timbaland's least shocking efforts to date".

[12] Jon Parales of The New York Times said the song and "Morning After Dark" were less effective than the collaboration by Timberlake and Nelly Furtado on "Give It to Me" (Shock Value, 2007) and called the food-to-sex metaphor "unamusing".

[13] Andy Kellman of Allmusic called "Carry Out" the dirtiest track on the album and noted that the two artists aimed for a contemporary form of The Lonely Island's "Dick in a Box" (Incredibad, 2009), on which Timberlake was featured.

[14] Brian Linder of IGN commented that the production on the song is tight, but panned the single for its food-sex metaphors, calling it "unforgivably stupid" and " such a joke that we half expected Andy Samberg to show up with his dick in a happy meal box," making reference to "Dick in a Box", which premiered on Saturday Night Live in 2006.

[15] Jesse Cataldo of Slant Magazine called the collaboration and "Say Something" "admirable turns" on the album, but commented that they are "forced to operate with unenviably tepid production."

Cataldo concludes, writing, "The overall laziness of that facet is even more inexcusable coming from one of the most renowned producers of the last decade.

"[16] Hugh Montgomery of The Observer noted it as one of the album's best tracks but called it "merely passable" and said it was " weighed down by [Timbaland's] own leaden rapping and with nothing new to add to the familiar, futurist R&B formula.

[23] In the United Kingdom, the song entered at number ninety-seven on the UK Singles Chart and rose sixty-eight places to twenty-nine in the following week.

[31] The video begins with sequences of several women dancing in underwear in front of light sing saying "Drive In" and "Hot Cakes".