Shame these pizzas aren't real.note
Think about pizza. What kind of toppings would you put on it? Pepperoni, of course! In fictionland, especially in cartoons and video games, that's apparently the only choice you have, save for the occasional mushrooms or green bell pepper — but never not in addition to the pepperoni. It seems as if the general image of pepperoni on pizza is so entrenched in our expectations that generic background pizza always looks like pepperoni pizza.
A possible reason this is a thing is it's just easier to make art of pizza look like pizza by drawing pepperoni on it, as thanks to a beautiful little thing called the Maillard reactionnote , even a plain cheese pizza has reddish spots on it. Supporting this, while pepperoni pizza can be seen in live-action works, you're more likely to see something else simply because it is easy to identify a real life pizza as pizza regardless of the toppings.
The only other toppings that seem to be mentioned are anchovies, for a classic "hold the anchovies" joke, or starting in The New '10s, pineapple as toppings, owing to a common belief that the flavors of pineapple and pizza are a poor match for one another due to the moisture of it dampening the crust and the sweetness overtaking the other flavors of the mozzarella and other toppings (in fact, pineapple on pizza just might be the most popular unpopular opinion).
A Sub-Trope of Stock Food Depictions. Compare Cartoon Meat and Cartoon Cheese for tropes about the same concept for when meat and cheese are not on pizza. See also Hold the Unsolicited Ingredient for when anchovies or pineapple (or some other bizarre topping) are mentioned to specifically not be put on the pizza.
This trope is somewhat less ubiquitous in anime, where the red bits on pizza are about equally likely to be either pepperonis or chunks of tomato.
Side note: "Pepperoni" in Italy means bell peppers, which would disgust any Japanese Tourist. The closest thing to what is considered "pepperoni" pizza there is "pizza diavolo", which contains salami. Pepperoni itself is a salami.
Examples
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Advertising
- An animated spot for Alka-Seltzer around the late 60s featured a man having an argument with his stomach about what he eats.
Man: But I like pepperoni pizza.
Stomach: Do you like heartburn? Well, you're gonna get it every time you eat a pepperoni pizza.
Anime & Manga
- My-HiME episode 16, "Parade", the girls are doing a Karaoke Party to celebrate the creation of the HiME Force (HiME Sentai in the original Japanese), to protect each other from further Orphan attacks or more threats from The Searrs Foundation. Mikoto is seen eating a pizza with pepperoni and bell peppers.
- Pretty Cure only occasionally uses this trope, as their pizzas are more frequently topped with vegetables. This is likely done to set a good example to their young audience and defy the Kids Hate Vegetables trope.
- Averted in Episode 30 of HuGtto! Pretty Cure; the Cures visit Italy, and Ruru eats some margherita pizza, which is topped with lots of cheese, tomatoes, and basil.
- Averted in Episode 30 of Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure, where Chiyu gets a veggie lovers pizza for lunch, and the red topping is red pepper rather than pepperoni.
- Averted in Episode 36 of Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure: While visiting the Grand Ocean, Manatsu gets some pizza with tiny bits from the ocean, like shells and bits of seaweed.
- In Episode 24 of Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure, Yui eats some pizza topped with pepperoni, bell peppers, and mushrooms, all of which match the savoury food theme of the season.
Comic Strips
- Garfield: Whenever the titular character is shown eating pizza, it's always depicted as a pepperoni pizza, even if it has other toppings on it.
Film — Animation
- Averted in Free Birds. The pizza in the film given to the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving to replace turkey is cheese pizza, as having pepperoni on it would just be substituting one animal death with another.
- Sausage Party, an animated adult comedy about Anthropomorphic Food, has a pizza slice who happens to be pepperoni.
- Toy Story: At Pizza Planet, a voice says over a loudspeaker, "Before your space journey, reenergize yourself with a slice of pepperoni. Now boarding at Counter 3!"
- In the Novelization of Turning Red, Mei notes that, on the subject of pizza, pepperoni and cheese couldn't compare to her father's fried scallion pancakes.
Film — Live-Action
- The Goonies: Inverted. While the Goonies are hiding in the Fratellis' basement, Chunk is able to tell that they purchased a pepperoni pizza by smelling it.
Live-Action TV
- BattleBots: RIPperoni is a newcomer to World Championship VII, whose weapon is a hige spinning disk painted to resemble a pepperoni pizza.
- The Electric Company (2009) had Special Agent Jack Bowser, a bipedal blue dog inspired by Jack Bauer from 24. Jack Bowser would always be stuck in a factory of some sort (usually an Auto-Kitchen food factory) and would ask for the viewer's help in cracking the code to open the door before the place exploded. One such factory was making pizzas, all of which were topped with mushrooms and pepperoni.
Music
- The "Lies" brand pizza in the video for the Evanescence song "Everybody's Fool" is audibly and visibly identified as a pepperoni one, as seen here
in the opening sequence.
Puppet Shows
- Sesame Street: Instead of eating at Charlie's Restaurant, where Grover is always his waiter and tends to get the orders wrong, Fat Blue decides to have lunch at Pizzeria Dos—where, as the twin chefs explain, "you get two of everything." Order one slice of pizza, and you'll be served two slices; order one drink, and you'll be given two drinks. "I'd like a slice of pizza," says Fat Blue. Not only is he served two slices instead of just one, but both slices are topped with cheese, pepperoni, and nothing else.
Toys
- Transformers: BotBots: Duderoni transforms into a pepperoni pizza. Subverted with Brock Head, who transforms into a broccoli pizza.
Video Games
- Black Mesa: Every pizza found throughout the game is pepperoni-flavored. The menus posted in the facility's various cafeterias also list cheese and tomato pizza, although it's nowhere to be seen.
- Due to most of the Five Nights at Freddy's games taking place at one of a line of children's pizzerias, we see a fair amount of pizza illustrations and occasional actual pizza. Most of the time, such as the pizza-themed wall hangings in the first game, they are, of course, pepperoni. However, the Bait-and-Switch intro of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator does allow you to add all sorts of toppings to your pizza, not just pepperoni. Additionally, the "Pizza Party" level of Five Nights At Freddys VR Help Wanted has a segment where the game asks if the player would prefer cheese or pepperoni pizza. Which pizza appears at the end of the level depends on the player's choice. Not like you'd be able to enjoy it for too long, though.
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: Not only are all the pizzas CJ can get at Well-Stacked Pizza pepperoni, the restaurant's logo and radar icon depict a slice of pepperoni pizza. As with Black Mesa, looking at their menu reveals alternate toppings.
- Roblox: "Work at a Pizza Place", despite being a game about making pizza, only features pepperoni and sausage as topping options.
- RollerCoasterTycoon: Food stands in this series prominently display the item being sold. In case of the pizzeria, there is a giant slice of pizza as a sign, of course, containing pepperoni.
- Scribblenauts: Just like all the food being depicted by its stock appearance, pizza is no exception. The pizza in the game contains red dots, with some smaller green dots visible as well.
- The Sims: In most of the games, if a Sim orders a pizza, the pizza will appear to have pepperoni on it when it arrives. This is taken further by The Sims 3, where if a vegetarian Sim attempts to eat pizza, they'll become sick, presumably due to the pepperoni. This gets averted in The Sims 4, with the ability to order multiple types of pizza, which each have different appearances to reflect the toppings. Each game also provides an In-Universe example, as the delivery staff's uniform and/or pizza box will include a cartoonish graphic of a pizza including the traditional red spots.
- In Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, the pizza Dante has on his desk and attempts to eat when demons break into his office has very prominent pepperoni slices on it. Doubled down in his character profile, which states his favorite food is pizza and his favorite topping is pepperoni.
- Majority of pizzas in Pizza Tower are depicted as cheese and pepperoni pizzas.
Web Animation
- Expect the type of pizza that is walking around in Object Shows to be pepperoni.
- Brawl of the Objects:
- In the end, a couple of the contestants are seen having a pizza party, with all of the pizzas topped only with cheese and pepperoni.
- Pizza is a contestant in the series. He is depicted with only cheese and pepperoni on him.
- While not named accordingly, Adventures from Burger Brawl is a pepperoni pizza that constantly dies every episode.
- There's a debuter and contestant that's, of course, a pepperoni pizza called Pizza in Object Filler and Object Land.
- Brawl of the Objects:
Web Original
- Most emoji depictions of pizza embody this trope.
- Neopets: While Pizzaroo sells multiple pizzas with odd toppings, the item simply called "Pizza" is a single slice of pepperoni.
Web Video
- Don't Hug Me I'm Scared: Fittingly for the "kids' TV show gone wrong" theme, the pizza featured in "Episode 5" is pepperoni.
Western Animation
- The Amazing World of Gumball, a show where everything is anthropomorphic, has a family of pepperoni pizzas.
- Rufus orders a pizza in the Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures episode "The Birth of Rock and Roll, or: Too Hip For the Womb." It's not clear what type he ordered, but he wanted it with no anchovies. It was delivered to him...with anchovies.
- Any pizza in Family Guy has pepperoni.
- In The Loud House, whenever pizza is seen, it's always pepperoni.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: The episode "Pinkie Pride" features a pizza topped with big, red tomato slices—so it looks at first glance like your standard pepperoni pizza, but still fits into the ponies' (mostly) vegetarian diet.
- An interstitial on The Pink Panther has Pink in his "Super Pink" outfit in flight delivering pizzas. The first order is to an ecologist in the Arctic Circle whose order—tomato with green peppers—arrives frozen solid. The second is to a shiek in the Gobi desert—it melts. The third—plain with ants—is ordered by the Aardvark. When it arrives, the ant has eaten it.
- Punky Brewster and her crew are having a pepperoni pizza, the pepperonis making Glomer sneeze. Each time he sneezes, he has growth spurts. Punky winds up entering him as a parade float against Margaux's float (of herself, of course). Punky and Margaux are declared co-winners and their prize is...a cold pepperoni pizza.
- Scooby-Doo: Whenever the gang eats pizza, it's always pepperoni.
- Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright has Shaggy and Scooby going to town on an extremely large pizza (they had to move tables because the one they were sitting at was smaller than the pizza); it's covered in pepperoni.
- In any The Simpsons episode where pizza is shown, it's always pepperoni. Later seasons, however, show more variety of pizza along with the usual pepperoni.
- In the South Park episode "Bass to Mouth", the pizzas at the pizza party are pepperoni.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: "Pizza Delivery" features SpongeBob and Squidward delivering the Krusty Krab Pizza (really just Krabby Patties morphed together to look like a pizza), which contains pepperonis and mushrooms.
- Pizza is the main cast's Trademark Favorite Food in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but it is always pepperoni pizza that they are shown eating.
- Teen Titans: The Titans' Trademark Favorite Food, pizza, is always shown as pepperoni pizza. There's even one episode where a pizza is referred to as cheese but clearly has pepperoni on it.
- Total Drama: When Bridgette is seen eating pizza, it's an obvious pepperoni pizza, even though Bridgette has been repeatedly stated to be vegan.
- In What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown!, when Snoopy is shown baking pizza, it's topped with pepperoni.
