Now, that's not entirely accurate, Jug... you're forgetting spongies, crumblies, and creamies!
Piece of cake! ...ooh, I could go for some cake. Or some ice cream...or some ice cream cake!
— Coop, Megas XLR
Most media is created to appeal to the lowest common denominator with the idea that a broad appeal will generate more viewers and thus more revenue.
As such, many works try to appeal to the common individual by portraying our heroes/heroines, and their allies and friends, as closer to the everyman than not, even if they have superpowers or are involved in international, supernatural, or interstellar hijinks.
One way to do this is to show the Plucky Comic Relief, Butt-Monkey, Big Fun, or similar characters eating the average junk food that everyone else eats. This also allows for a main character or proper hero to show that the lifestyle choices might not be the healthiest, though usually without severe consequences to our comedic character.
While this can overlap with Trademark Favorite Food, it doesn't necessarily have to. A character might prefer one type of food but is just as open to any others that are offered up.
Male characters are more likely to enjoy wholesale junk food, as Women Are Wiser, so female characters are just as likely to at least make a token effort to have a salad now and then, or enjoy fruit or wholesome fare. That said, a female character might allow herself something sweet and decadent once in a while, showing that she's health-conscious but not snooty. Also, comedic characters, be they male or female, tend not to plan ahead, so grabbing a quick snack or a pre-made meal or fast food seems to be an easy way of dealing with an immediate need for someone who isn't likely to prepare whole meals. That being said, there are female characters who will give in to their love of junk without hesitation or concern for appearing "feminine".
Males are more likely to be Big Eaters as well, meaning they're far less likely to be picky about what they eat, as well. Though one does not need to be a Big Eater to prefer junk food.
An effective way to hurt this character, lure them into a trap, or otherwise get them in trouble is using Sweets of Temptation.
There's also possible justification if the character is a Lethal Chef, and keeping them out of the kitchen, any kitchen, is in everyone's best interests and safety. Fast food and instant fare become more likely in such situations if no one else is good at cooking.
It also allows for various episodes to offer moral lessons on proper diet offered up by The Hero or The Mentor, though Aesop Amnesia is likely to be in full effect by the next episode.
In some situations, the character themselves may not be the source of comedy, but their love of sweets and junk food may well be. This is particularly true for comedic situations like self-inflicted Weight Woe.
For the purposes of this trope, junk food will count as anything prepackaged or bought at a fast food restaurant or food stand. Examples should note the types of food that the character is known to enjoy, as well as the comedic nature of the character(s).
Has nothing to do with The Joker.
Compare Food Songs Are Funny.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- BanG Dream!: Afterglow has two members who love junk food, Himari, and Moca. Moca, who tends to eat and sleep, never gains weight, and jokes that she sends the extra calories to Himari. And in one episode of Garupa Pico, Himari, after partying with her friends, can only scream when she steps on the scale.
- Dagashi Kashi is built on Japanese junk food and candy, with Hotaru Shidare as our guide. She's a Cloud Cuckoolander who thinks nothing of being seen naked by the male characters of the cast and with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the "dagashi" aka snack foods that Kokunatsu's family sells. She once caused herself a mouth ulcer by drinking copious amounts of a sweet drink made from a powder mix and succeeded in making it worse by continuing to do so when stopping would have helped.
- Lucky Star: Inverted with Kagami; despite being the sarcastic Straight Man most of the time, she's still the source of her own Weight Woe and suffers frequent jabs for it, as while she frequently chides Konata for her childish behavior involving games, anime, or her lackadaisical study habits, Kagami is almost always seen snacking on something in her spare time (usually Pocky). On one occasion, Konata offered her a bunch of chocolate wafer snacks she had, because she'd bought them to get the toy prize inside while caring nothing for the snack. Kagami chides her on that, saying "Leave it to you to pass up a perfectly good snack for a cheap toy."
- Pretty Cure:
- Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star: Saki, the most fun-loving and goofy of the main characters, loves ice cream and chocolate.
- KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode zigzags this; the silly Cures, Ichika, Himari, and Aoi, love sweets, but so do the more serious Yukari, Akira, and Ciel.
- Wagnaria!!: Wagnaria's manager, Kyoko, is a lazy bum and former delinquent who ran a gang. Customer service isn't her forte nor is any task one expects of a manager. When she isn't scarfing down parfaits made for her by Yachiyo, she's often seen leaning back against one of the counters munching on potato chips, usually leaving crumbs behind, to the consternation of Souta Takanashi, who once had to be restrained to keep from going after her with a broom.
Comic Books
- Jughead of Archie Comics is a Big Eater that borders on being an Extreme Omnivore as there is very little he won't eat, but his absolute favorites are fast food and carnival eats with hamburgers being his Trademark Favorite Food. He's also his friend group's main Deadpan Snarker, as well as being a clever slacker who is known to irritate his teachers by being a bit of a oddball who does well at school without obviously trying.
- Secret Wars (2015): Miles reveals that he has pockets in his costume in which he stores snacks, justifying it by pointing out he's a growing teen boy, when he offers a burger to a starving Molecule Man. Peter asks when and how Miles got the burger. Miles says it was from before his Earth was destroyed. Peter says that makes it an eight-year and eight-week-old burger. Miles says the eight years in stasis probably don't count. Peter counters by pointing out that it's still an eight-week-old burger and Molecule Man probably would be better off not eating it. But it's too late. Molecule Man scarfs it down. This leads to a moment that is both Heartwarming and Funny, as when Molecule Man helps restore the universe, Miles's mother is alive again, implying that his habit of stowing junk food on his person and Owen Reese's gratitude saved his Mom's life.
- Web Warriors: Gwen's preference for taco stands and corn dogs gets a lecture from Maddie for saying she can't keep eating like that and still keep up her career as a crime fighter. Gwen, however, pays her no mind and only raves about the fact that the dimension they've found themselves in serves qamar al deen at their taco stands. Gwen tends to be the more comical member of the team, being a relative newbie to the crime-fighting gig as well as having frequent hallucinations of Spider-Ham in her own home dimension.
Films — Animated
- Big Hero 6: Promotional materials state that Fred, who is the team's Plucky Comic Relief, loves Tacos al pastor and Honey Lemon's brownies.
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Peter B. Parker, Spider-Man for Earth 616, is shown eating leftover pizza in his apartment when he gets snatched by the dimensional rift and has a "hearty burger breakfast" while discussing their plan with Miles. He's also overweight for a spider-person, though still capable in his own right. His Butt-Monkey status on the team is firmly established when Miles causes him to be knocked unconscious on his counterpart's gravestone, webbed to a moving train, and then banged, bruised, and beaten by various obstacles through the city.
Films — Live-Action
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990): In addition to large amounts of the Turtles' Trademark Favorite Food, pizza, the only other food mentioned in the film is a bag of pork rinds being shared by Michelangelo and Donatello. In fact, the scene where they consume them is when they're watching the arguing between Leonardo and Raphael as if they were watching a TV program.
Literature
- My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!: Catarina Claes, who has the fan nickname of "Bakarina" note , LOVES sweets. To the point where she is noted to have picked up a cookie off the floor declaring "Three-second rule", and often tries to scheme to take sweets home from fancy parties she's invited to. It also gives Maria a slight advantage over the others interested in Catarina, as she can make the sorts of sweets Catarina loves, and asks her to try out new creations for her. Not that her other would-be suitors are blind to the possibilities. Prince Geordo once invited her to come back to his room by telling her "I have some unusual treats for you." Thankfully for her virtue and reputation, her brother Keith invites himself to come along to chaperone.
- Neil Gaiman's retelling of Norse Mythology paints Thor as a lover of junk in "Freya's Strange Wedding", as Thor, disguised as Freya, eats an entire tray of pastries and "fancies" at a wedding party, to the consternation of the other women there. Loki, by comparison, takes a dainty bite of a single offering. In Gaiman's retelling, Thor is characterized as Dumb Muscle, though no less strong or dangerous for that.
- Spice and Wolf: Holo is a noted Big Eater (being an elephant-sized dire wolf in the form of a teen girl probably has something to do with that), and her Trademark Favorite Food, apples, wouldn't seem to fall into this trope. However, Holo doesn't just love apples. She drinks enough for ten sailors, and sweet treats, like a sweet glazed bread or peaches pickled in honey, or the thought of apple pie will have her salivating immediately and demanding Lawrence wrap up whatever business he is engaged in so that she can have some of whatever regional treat has just come to her attention.
Live-Action TV
- The Big Bang Theory: For a group with a high degree of intellect, the main cast of the show had some rather unhealthy eating preferences.
- The group has a "Pizza Night", with pizza chains to be determined by Sheldon approved committee.
- Sheldon's mother Mary Cooper claimed that the key ingredient to good cooking and Through His Stomach was not "love", but rather "lard". "He'll die by forty, but his love will be true."
- Having witnessed a moment of one of his friends chatting with their significant other during a marathon gaming session, Sheldon claimed it was the most sickening thing he'd ever encountered, and noted that this was coming from a man drinking Kool-Aid through a piece of Red Vine licorice.
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine:
- Jake Peralta, the Bunny-Ears Lawyer of the Nine-Nine, has a terrible diet that is commented on by multiple characters. He once ate gummi bears wrapped in a fruit roll-up for breakfast and has been known to pour orange soda in his cereal.
- Hitchcock and Scully, the Insufferable Imbecile Those Two Guys, are constantly eating, mainly junk food like potato chips, chicken wings, and meatball subs. They once admitted to eating cake for dinner, as well.
- Doctor Who: No matter which incarnation, The Doctor always seems to have a sweet tooth. This might have something to do with him/her being a Kid-Appeal Character in the early days. The more comical the Doctor, the more pronounced the sweet tooth.
- The 4th Doctor loved Jelly Babies and sometimes used them as a Secret Test of Character (as villains almost always turned them down).
- The 11th Doctor loved Jammie Dodgers.
- The 12th Doctor is so jaded and such an old hand at saving the universe, he starts taking snacks with him on his world-saving missions, such as in "The Return of Doctor Mysterio", when he brought a hamburger with him to stake out the Harmony Shoal.
- The 13th Doctor loved custard cream biscuits, something shared with her actress Jodie Whitaker.
- House of Anubis:
- Alfie, the house's resident Class Clown, is also known as a Big Eater obsessed with sugary, fatty foods. Everyone is well aware of his love of chocolate cake, even to the point of the villains trying to exploit that craving to further their plans. He once chose Trudy's cookies over a Sibuna meeting, to the amusement and irritation of his friends. He's even known for attempting to smuggle sweets when people aren't looking.
- Eddie in season 2 is introduced as a rebellious bad boy and jokester who provides much of the season's comic relief. He's also a messy chef and eater who creates massive stacks of pancakes, creates a sandwich stuffed with spaghetti Bolognese, and downs whipped cream directly from the canister.
- Leverage:
- In "The Tap Out Job", Sophie, the Grifter of the Team, initially protests the rustic fare they're being offered at their hotel, like chicken-fried steak ("Meat should never be an adjective."), and balks at Parker's offer of a pork rind "How do you peel a pig?" But by the end of the episode, she finds she actually likes them.
- Hardison, the team's hacker, and frequent Butt-Monkey, loves his orange soda and gummy frogs, which he's often seen consuming from his place hacking in his van to the point that when he buys a microbrewery, he tries to create a beer that mimics the flavor of the orange soda. He loves it. The others? Not so much. He also used a gummy frog once to trick a fingerprint pad and had to sacrifice some of his orange soda to provide a bottle for Nate to power a vintage car with cooking oil.
- "The Gold Job" has Parker, the chief of the team, introduced to Voodoo Donuts, and she takes a bite of every one to determine which one she likes most.
- Hurley, a recurring character, was somewhere between Big Fun and Fat Bastard. He saw a charity doing good work and determined to help them...by stealing their money, investing it, growing it, and returning it to them tenfold. But his initial act, stealing it, got him targeted by the Leverage team. They learned that among his many, many addictions, he was obsessed with tacos, an addiction Nate literally feeds to get info out of the guy.
- M*A*S*H: As Hawkeye notes, every last one of them would love to be out of the Army, but Corporal Klinger will stop at nothing to get out. From crossdressing on a regular basis, sending photos of himself in drag to superior officers at HQ, attempting to eat a Jeep, and dressing himself in heavy furs in triple-digit weather, Klinger is determined to get home to Toledo. When he meets a patient who is also from Toledo, the two of them bond over memories of the place, one of which is time spent at Tony Packo's Hungarian Hot Dogs.note When the patient gets sent home for his injuries, he sends Klinger a care package from home; a crate of Tony Packo's hot dogs on dry ice, with all the fixings available.
- Odd Squad: Otto, known to be a Cloudcuckoolander, has quite an appetite as well as a sweet tooth for donuts in particular. "Oscar and the Oscarbots" has him being upset about being dragged away from the Donut Room by a frantic Oscar (and him getting excited about the Cake Room when he's informed of its existence), while "Hold the Door" has him wanting to take Ori to the Donut Room instead of the Lab with the counterargument that "donuts are a good foundation for life!"
- Odd Squad: Mobile Unit: Cheerful Omar is often seen eating quite a bit of junk food. "It's Not Easy Being Chill" has him and Orpita building a large tower of nachos, and "Raising the Bar" shows him and Oswald downing numerous pies in one sitting.
- Rizzoli & Isles: Jane Rizzoli, Boston City Police Detective, by comparison to her more metropolitan friend Maura Isles, eats low-brow food and prefers beer over wine. When helping Maura prepare for a fancy dinner she protests, "We didn't eat cock au van, we ate Cocoa Puffs!" By comparison, her former partner Korsack is on a health kick in one episode and is eating "healthy" snacks, but starts experiencing pains. Maura has to inform him he can't snack on them the same way he does potato chips as he's eaten a whole day's worth of fiber in one sitting.
Puppet Shows
- Sesame Street: Ernie is a Cloud Cuckoolander who is shown enjoying various confectionery like chocolate ice cream, cake, and an ice cream soda. Bert, who has a Plain Palate for the most part, preferring foods like oatmeal and seltzer water, often plays the straight man to him.
Theatre
- A Very Potter Musical: Exaggerated with Ron, who even in a parody show where everyone is comedic is still considered the comic relief of the trio, and who is seen eating Muggle snacks every time he is onstage, including a giant Hersheys bar and Double Stuff Oreos. At one point, he arrives at Dumbledore's office in a huff because he was rushed, doesn't have a snack, and was missing Wizards of Waverly Place, so the pianist behind him breaks the fourth wall and hands him a package of Twizzlers, which Ron attributes to the magic of Hogwarts.
Video Games
- Living Books: In the adaptation of Dr. Seuss's ABC, Sammy Slick, the boy who made himself sick drinking six sodas, is portrayed as a bit of a goofball. If you click on him, he will make silly faces, stand on one hand, etc.
Web Animation
- Happy Tree Friends: Nutty is a silly, hyperactive green squirrel obsessed with sweets and candy. Since he lives in a Sadist Show, he will frequently injure or kill himself trying to get even a little bit of candy, which is played for Black Comedy.
Web Comics
- Hetalia: Axis Powers: America is a Manchild who represents both flavors of Eagleland at varying times who loves junk food, especially cheeseburgers. He does worry about his weight from time to time, and will diet from time to time, but his physique never changes, and some of the others believe he's gaining muscle, somehow.
Western Animation
- Daria: Daria and Jane are both Deadpan Snarkers whose wry comments provide most of the humor for the show. When they're not in school or at home, they tend to hang out at the local pizzeria. In "Arts and Crass" the excessive grease in the pizza inspired the theme of their contribution to the school's art contest. And in "The Pinch Sitter", after being subjected to the saccharine sweet Gupty children who insist that "raisins are nature's candy" and "Hitler ate sugar", Daria begs Jane over the phone, "Bring junk food!"
- Futurama: Philip J. Fry, who lacks a lot in the way of common sense but is friendly and sociable, mostly eats junk food such as sweets and potato chips. In fact, he has a huge addiction to Slurm Cola, even after he learns that it's made from the behind of a large wormlike creature.
- Kim Possible: Kim and Ron Stoppable , globetrotting teen crimefighters, both enjoy eating at Bueno Nacho, a fast-food Mexican restaurant. Ron, the lovable sidekick turned Love Interest, has also been known to pig out on school cafeteria pizza because, as he notes, "Cheese on cardboard is still cheese." Kim will at least make it a point to order a salad. This even leads to a Very Special Episode, where exposure to toxic chemicals causes Ron's bad eating tendencies to turn him into a large orange hulk-like monster.
- Megas XLR: Coop's preference for food might best be described as "Yes, please." Coop is also the Big Fun of the series. He spends all of one episode desperately searching for a mega slush, even as he battles a self-repairing and replicating robot, has been known to win hot dog-eating contests, and still been hungry for cake afterwards, which was interrupted by a group of sentai-styled heroes who think he's the "Bad Guy" ("Coop doesn't get full he just gets less hungry") enjoys wrapping bacon around Philly cheesesteaks and eats ham wrapped in pizza. In fact, his Arch Nemesis, Gorath, consumes a Philly cheesesteak in front of him to torture him, though given Gorath's expression, it was just as torturous for him to consume it as it is for Coop to watch.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter and known to break a fourth wall or two, has a Sweet Tooth and is often seen eating large amounts of candy and dessert.
- Princess Celestia, who manages to be something of a prankster despite her queenly persona, has a similar fondness for cake and sweets.
- Discord makes liberal use of sweets when he turns Equestria into a World of Weirdness, complete with cotton candy clouds that rain chocolate milk. When it comes to actually eating, though, he prefers to drink the glass and throw the milk away (which then explodes), and has on at least one occasion eaten a bowl of paper for a snack.
- The Real Ghostbusters: Slimer will eat almost anything, but he seems to have a preference for things like soda, cakes, pizza, and potato chips, and is introduced having eaten four large boxes of custom chocolates that the guys had brought to the firehouse as a gift for Janine.
- Scooby-Doo: Shaggy and Scooby are Big Eaters who will eat most things that won't eat them first. Though Shaggy and Scooby do eat healthy food as well, they have a soft spot for sweets, though it varies by incarnation.
- In Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, they are shown eating blockbuster pizzas, will dip corn on the cob in chocolate sauce, and are frequently shown hanging out at a malt shop.
- What's New, Scooby-Doo?: During the 2000s, Casey Kasem returned to the role of Shaggy after a falling out over the use of the character in Burger King ads, on the stipulation that Shaggy would now be a vegetarian. This meant he ate "healthier" fare, though still not averse to junk food like ice cream.
- Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Shaggy and Scooby actually balk at the vegetarian offerings at a college, a switch from when Casey Kasem was voicing Shaggy.
- Steven Universe: Steven Quartz Universe eats ice cream for breakfast and is big on "chaps" (which are the show's equivalent to potato chips). His unhealthy diet gets averted later on as he eventually tries to eat more healthily.
- The Simpsons: Homer Simpson is a Bumbling Dad and a Butt-Monkey who's also quite rotund. In "Krusty Gets Busted", he's shown at the Kwik-E-Mart getting excited over the newly stocked "Triple Chocolate" ice cream. In "Bart's Friend Falls In Love", he drools over a commercial for a cheeseburger with a bun slathered in "rich creamery butter.". In the "Treehouse Of Horror IV" segment "The Devil And Homer Simpson", he sells his soul for a donut, and his Ironic Hell has him being force-fed all the donuts in the world... only for him to demand more when he'd eaten all of them! And in the "Treehouse Of Horror V" segment "Time And Punishment", he flees from an otherwise utopic world where he's wealthy, his hated sisters-in-law are dead, and his children are polite and well-behaved because he was told there was no such thing as donuts in that world... and if he'd just waited a few seconds, that problem would have been resolved as well.
- Total Drama: Ditzy comic relief character Zee has soda as his Trademark Favorite Food, even drinking it for breakfast. In his second season, he's sponsored by a soda brand and constantly drinks it to avoid spilling an important secret to Priya.
