History Main / PeelingPotatoes

[-[[caption-width-right:320:[[MemeticMutation Cackadok and hart, thats smart!]][[labelnote:*]]It's actually "Hope you don't feel hurt, big boy!"[[/labelnote]] Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!]]-]

* Mrs. Puff does this at the end of a ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode after she replaced herself with a potato for SpongeBob's driving test.

** In the Finnish Army, peeling potatoes is called ''perunateatteri'' ("potato theatre") or ''pottis'' and it is considered a convenient, if a tad restricting, break of the army chores and a good chance to socialize with the supply units and eat well. Sometimes a soldier assigned to the task may not only peel, but ''sculpt'', the potatoes - much to the amusement to anyone either preparing the meal or eating it.

* Alluded to in ''LightNovel/InfiniteStratos.'' In the first season OVA, while the girls are preparing dinner, Laura is given the potato peeling duties. She does so by chopping her combat knife clean through the center. Her dialogue also indicates she's done this before. She's the only one of the main characters who has been in the military.

* An example not involving potatoes, but the other unpleasant aspects of K.P. duty. Following one of Lou's usual screw-ups in ''[[Creator/AbbottAndCostello Buck Privates]]'', the DrillSergeantNasty tells him that he's going to make him an admiral. Lou says he didn't know the army had admirals, and the sergeant assures him he is going to be in charge of all of the army's vessels. Cut to Lou on K.P., washing a gigantic stack of dirty pots.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'': In "The Biggest Trouble Ever", Miss Finster forces T.J. and company to peel potatoes as punishment for accidentally destroying the statue of the town's founder.

* Warrant Officer Oreldo in ''Anime/PumpkinScissors'' is ''very good'' at peeling potatoes, and references this trope as the reason why.

* Warrant Officer Oreldo in ''Anime/PumpkinScissors'' is ''very good'' at peeling potatoes, and references this trope as the reason why.
* A nonmilitary but definitely punishment version: one of the ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' OVA episodes had Ryoko, Ayeka, and Mihoshi doing this as their share of repairing the extensive damage to a hot spring resort, with varying results. Ryoko did a hack job on hers with questionable accuracy, Ayeka primly carved each millimetre of skin with painstaking deliberation and took way too long, and Mihoshi outstripped both easily (and boasted about it).
* In the second season of ''Anime/StrikeWitches'', Gertrud gets sentenced to this for violating orders.

* Alluded to in ''LightNovel/InfiniteStratos.'' In the first season OVA, while the girls are preparing dinner, Laura is given the potato peeling duties. She does so by chopping her combat knife clean through the center. Her dialogue also indicates she's done this before. She's the only one of the main characters who has been in the military.

* Seen in the French-Belgian comic series ''ComicBook/LesTuniquesBleues''.

* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'': A standard facet of life in a Roman camp. Despite, y'know, being set ''before'' the discovery of the potato, or even the New World.
* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': In a ''Scrooge [=McDuck=]'' story, Donald and his nephews were stuck in a ship, condemned to peel potatoes until the return to Duckburg... and to make things worse, with a counting parrot that started to see how many were there!

* ComicBook/GreenLantern: It happened to Alan Scott when he was in the army. Unable to explain his absence without blowing his secret identity, he was assigned potato peeling as a punishment. Fortunately for Alan, his sidekick Doiby Dickles was able to take over the peeling when Alan needed to become Green Lantern again.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Used as a punishment in ''Film/{{Tigerland}}'' for Army draftees during the Vietnam War.
* Babydoll and Rocket converse while peeling potatoes in one scene of ''Film/SuckerPunch''; Babydoll is so distracted we see she's "peeled" the same strip of potato over and over, leaving a large hollow in it.

* Done by the DrillSergeantNasty to the trainees in the Creator/KimNewman novella ''Literature/TeddyBearsPicnic''. In a particular sadistic twist, he changes his mind and then orders the recruits to glue the skins back on.

* As MildlyMilitary as [[Literature/XWingSeries Wraith Squadron]] could be, even they have punishment detail. The very first time all of the members of the new squadron were together at once, while Wedge was listing off their respective specialties, Face Loran decided to interrupt.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''
** In ''Literature/FeetOfClay'', Nobby thinks to himself that anyone who responds to "Who likes good food?" in the military is going to be volunteered for KP duty, as part of an internal monologue as to why you should ''never'' volunteer for anything.
** In ''Mrs Bradshaw's Handbook'', Sto Lat MilitaryAcademy teaches the sons of gentlefolk to be officers. In keeping with the [[OfficerAndAGentleman class of recruit]], punishment details include julienning potatoes (as well as polishing oyster knives and waltz drills).
* In Creator/SpikeMilligan's war memoirs, he mentions entertaining himself during these duties by peeling the potatoes down to the size of peas... which made no difference, because they cooked the peel as well.
* In ''Literature/TenSixtySixAndAllThat'', Simmel/Lambert/Wormkin (the text varies) is made an escullion as a punishment for his attempted (and largely incomprehensible) rebellion. In an illustration, he is shown peeling something that looks like a potato.
* ''Literature/BetweenPlanets''. The protagonist isn't allowed to join the Venusian guerillas unless he has useful skills. He says he's a good shot with a handgun, can speak the language of the native Venusians... and [[TheTriple knows how to wash lots of dishes]] (because he was working at a GreasySpoon until then). His officer quips that the last is indeed a useful skill for a soldier.
* In ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat Gets Drafted'', the Rat mentions that in the modern spacefaring military Kitchen Patrol is considered so degrading that it is forbidden to assign it as a [[PunishmentDetail punishment]] and, therefore, [[DrillSergeantNasty it is always assigned as a punishment]]. When subjected to it himself he snaps, and when he comes to he's nearly killed the chef.
* In ''The Bio of a Space Tyrant'' series by Creator/PiersAnthony, the protagonist on joining Jupiter's military thinks that they've surely developed technology to [[AutoKitchen automate kitchens]] over the past few centuries, and concludes that the military keeps Kitchen Patrol (along with polishing boots and brass despite the existence of permashine in the civilian community) just to make the recruits miserable.

* Rimmer and Lister were forced to do this in an episode of ''Series/RedDwarf'' after ticking their captain off. Only they have the bluntest knives it's possible to find, and a mountain of potatoes that fills an entire cargo bay. So Lister has the "great" idea of getting out of having to peel the potatoes by having a special virus eat the potato skins. Unfortunately for the duo, [[TheNudifier the virus also eats clothes]]. [[FromBadToWorse And it spreads on contact.]]

* Series/GomerPyleUSMC does this a lot. Unlike many other examples, he has next to no issues with the task.

* On ''Series/MadMen'', when the Drapers take in Betty's semi-senile WWI veteran father, Don comes home one day to find he's peeled all the potatoes in the house thinking he was on KP duty.

* Series/SaturdayNightLive's parody of "The Navy: It's Not Just A Job, It's An Adventure" ad campaign features this.

* While the actual event didn't happen in game, in ''[[VideoGame/WingCommanderTheKilrathiSaga Wing Commander II]]'', three of the survivors of the ''Tiger's Claw'' reminisce about a prank committed by a pilot from the first game who didn't live to the second that landed him doing this for a week.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/RenAndStimpy'' BootCampEpisode "In the Army", this is done straight the first time, the second time has them scraping potato-peelers over watermelons, and the third time has them scraping potato-peelers over nuclear bombs.
---> '''Stimpy:''' I think the [[DrillSergeantNasty Sarge]] likes ''you'' best, Ren, because he gave you the most potatoes to peel!
* The ending of the classic Disney cartoon ''WesternAnimation/SteamboatWillie'' has Captain Pete punish Mickey for slacking on the job by making him peel potatoes.

* In a Mister Know-It-All segment in ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'', Bullwinkle demonstrates how to escape from Devil's Island prison. When Boris the warden forced him to peel potatoes, Bullwinkle decided to jump into a sack and await being shipped off the island. Unfortunately for him, potato soup was for dinner.
-->'''Boris''': ''(Looking into pot of potato soup)'' Whoever peeled these spuds did crummy job!
-->'''Bullwinkle''': ''(Popping out of the pot)'' I was doing the best I can!
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'' saw Mung and his titular apprentice in servitude to [[TheRival Endive]] in exchange for an exotic fruit necklace. Their final task was to peel "growtatoes", which are just like normal potatoes, except they grow exponentially until fully peeled and threatened to crush the two chefs.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' features Kit being forced by Colonel Spigot to peel ''turnips'' for rebelling at a Thembrian flying camp. Spigot is forced to take the task up after his bumbling is exposed.

* Alluded to in ''LightNovel/InfiniteStratos.'' In the first season OVA, while the girls are preparing dinner, Laura is given the potato peeling duties. She does so by [[KnifeNut chopping her combat knife clean through the center.]] Her dialogue also indicates she's done this before. She's the only one of the main characters who has been in the military.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]

[[folder:{{Anime}}]]

* A standard facet of life in a Roman camp in ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}''. Despite, y'know, being set ''before'' the discovery of the potato, or even the New World.
* In a [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Scrooge McDuck]] story, Donald and his nephews were stuck in a ship, condemned to peel potatoes until the return to Duckburg... and to make things worse, with a counting parrot that started to see how many were there!
* [[ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse Floyd Gottfredson]]'s ''The Pirate Submarine''.
* Happened to Alan Scott, the GoldenAge ComicBook/GreenLantern, when he was in the army. Unable to explain his absence without blowing his secret identity, he was assigned potato peeling as a punishment. Fortunately for Alan, his sidekick Doiby Dickles was able to take over the peeling when Alan needed to become Green Lantern again.
* In one issue of ''[[ComicBook/TheSimpsons Simpsons Comics]]'', Grampa tells one of his many war stories. In this one, he spent a great deal of his military service peeling potatoes. He was so good at it that he became a war hero.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* ComicStrip/BeetleBailey, of course, haqs this happen to him quite often.
-->'''Plato:''' Did you know that if it wasn't for the Potato Famine, UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy would never have become president?\\
'''Beetle:''' Plato, only you could think of that at a time like this.
[[/folder]]

* Automated potato-peeling machines were around as far back as World War II. The U.S.S. Kidd (a destroyer-class ship now berthed as a museum in Baton Rouge) has a sign in the kitchen/mess detailing the function of the machine, which worked much like a rock tumbler and lent it the nickname "Marble Maker" after what would happen to potatoes what were left in the peeler for too long.

* ''Literature/TheGreatBrain'' series has this happen several times.

[-[[caption-width-right:320:[[{{Mondegreen}} Cackadok and hart, thats smart!]][[labelnote:*]]It's actually "Hope you don't feel hurt, big boy!"[[/labelnote]] Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!]]-]

* In ''The Bio of a Space Tyrant'' series by Creator/PiersAnthony, the protagonist on joining Jupiter's military thinks that they've had the technology to automate kitchens for some time now, and concludes that the military keeps Kitchen Patrol (along with polishing boots and brass despite the existence of permashine in the civilian community) just to make the recruits miserable.

* Snuffy Smith was not the model soldier. He tended to have an attitude problem, and was MildlyMilitary at best. That said, when the plane he was serving as a gunner on was badly damaged and engulfed in flames, he stayed aboard to tend to a wounded crewmate and fight the fires (and shoot at the Germans, who were still attacking them), for which he became the first person in the history of the Air Force to receive the Medal of Honor other than posthumously. However, when it came time to actually award him the medal, it took a bit of time to find him. He was on kitchen patrol -- in the time it took to prepare the ceremony, he had gotten in trouble for sleeping through a briefing. Although the task in question was not peeling potatoes, he did peel potatoes for the newspapers.

* In the 1994 Creator/PaulyShore vehicle ''In The Army Now'', Shore's character, Bones, is constantly ordered to do push ups every time he screws in boot camp. When Bones and his friends are deployed to a war zone, he screws up in front of his commanding officer, who orders him to do some push ups. When Bones easily does the push ups, he's then sentenced to peeling potatoes every time he screws up. When he and his friends run afoul of a [[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous Special Forces Squad,]] one of the commandos throws some food at Bones, misses, and smears their Commander, who sentences him to peeling potatoes.
* ''The Sad Sack'' (with one Creator/JerryLewis) ended this way, as a punishment for [[ImprobableAimingSkills putting one bullet through two full glasses!]]. His SneezeOfDoom causes an avalanche of the spuds behind him.

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': While Agatha is still newish to the circus she is set to [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050223 peeling vegetables with Embi.]]