Sharing a meal has always been a great way to celebrate an occasion, relax after a tiring day at work, improve your mood and mental health, bond over a movie or sporting event, and generally get to know people better and make memories with them.
Everyone loves pizza, whether it’s a simple Margherita, a decadent stuffed crust, a vegetarian extravaganza, an uber-popular pepperoni, a controversial Hawaiian, or a Supreme smothered in toppings. And that goes for TV characters, too!
Read on to discover whether you and your favourite character share the same tastes in one of the world’s most popular meals.
Homer Simpson
Everybody’s favourite cartoon dad, Homer Simpson, is renowned for his love of food, and that includes pizza. The universally popular dish has been mentioned in over 100 episodes of the satirical cartoon portrayal of American family life. Homer refers to hot pizza as ‘the food of kings’ in S1 Ep9 and sings a song called ‘I Love Pizza’ in an episode entitled ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Criticize Dinner?’ in S11. The TV icon’s favourite is Chicago deep-dish pizza – in S27 Ep21, he stated, “I prefer Chicago deep dish because I like Italian better than Chinese.” [i]
As we all know, Homer doesn’t like to share his food, but if a Chicago deep dish is also your favourite, maybe you could raise a slice to Homer next time you indulge!
Shaggy and Scooby-Doo
Shaggy and Scooby-Doo are well known for their huge appetites and love nothing better than tucking into pizza and Scooby snacks whilst solving mysteries and unmasking villains. One episode is even called ‘Scooby and Shaggy Vs the Chicago Pizza’. In various other episodes, Shaggy and his furry friend devour every kind of pie imaginable, from chocolate pizza to liquorice pizza, pizza topped with spider webs, snails, and tadpole tails, pizza with a side of pickles, pizza with chilli peppers, pizza with sausage, pepperoni, chocolate sauce, and vanilla ice cream, and even a triple extra-large pizza with peanut butter, pickles, potato chips, and Scooby Snacks. Safe to say – these guys really do love pizza, no matter what form it comes in![ii]
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo are the four characters that make up the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the popular animated TV series of the same name. The crime-fighting quartet, who live in the sewers below New York, share a love for pizza and even had a song called ‘Pizza Power’.
Of the four, Michelangelo has the most radical taste in pizza, although the others aren’t far behind. The superheroes regularly experiment with interesting topping combinations, such as pepperoni and marshmallow, peanut butter and clams, jellybeans and sausage, shredded coconut and sweet pickle, and pickled herring and caramel fudge.
Because the Ninja Turtles have a known weakness for pizza, many episodes involve the arch-villain attempting to destroy them by using pizza as a weapon against them.[iii]
Friends
During its decade-long run from 1994 to 2004, pizza regularly appeared on the American sitcom Friends. Joey Tribbiani, an Italian-American and the show’s biggest foodie, even created his own infamous masterpiece, known as ‘The Joey Special’ – basically two pizzas put together to make a double-decker.
In one memorable episode where Ross and Rachel have just broken up, Rachel orders a pizza that she knows Ross won’t like in an attempt to get back at him. She requests extra anchovies, going as far as to stipulate that they be chopped up and added to the sauce so that he can’t easily pick them off the top.
The Big Bang Theory
The characters in The Big Bang Theory are so enamoured with pizza that they have a night dedicated to the much-loved delicacy: ‘Thursday night is pizza night’! Dr Sheldon Cooper’s favourite is sausage, mushrooms, and olives, which he lovingly calls ‘a circle made of triangles served in a square box’ – you can’t argue with genius![iv]
These iconic TV moments demonstrate that pizza is not only one of the best-loved foods across the globe but also a cornerstone of modern culture. Who doesn’t love savouring a slice of pizza perfection with friends and family? Pizza, in all its cheesy, comforting glory, is, after all, the ultimate comfort food and is meant to be shared and enjoyed with others.
[i] https://zeitgeist77.wordpress.com/2016/12/02/every-simpsons-everfeaturing-pizza/
[ii] https://scoobydoo.fandom.com/wiki/Pizza
[iii] https://turtlepedia.fandom.com/wiki/Pizza
[iv] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6674468/characters/nm1433588