Only One Who Likes Spam

Onion infused water: Kid-tested, Lana-approved.

Wakko: Please, sir, can I have seconds?
Brain: Seconds!? Wait. You actually like this fetid calorie paste, urchin?
Wakko: I love it! This is a guy who eats a dump truck full of garbage in the intro, so maybe take my opinion with a grain of salt.

— Animaniacs (2020)

It's often said that everyone has different tastes. What one person finds delicious, another might find repulsive. But there are certain foods that are universally disliked and considered almost inedible. Keyword being "Almost".

They are the Only One Who Likes Spam. The ones with such... unique palates that they're able to consume, and even enjoy, food (often a Stock "Yuck!" or Foreign Queasine type) that everyone else finds disgusting. The food this character likes that everyone else hates may even be their Trademark Favorite Food.

This kind of character is often a Big Eater who isn't very picky, and often enjoys food from a Cordon Bleugh Chef, or is even able to stomach food of a Lethal Chef. See also Does Not Like Spam, Extreme Omnivore and Bizarre Taste in Food. Compare fellow child of Odd Reaction Out, Only One Finds It Fun, which is this trope applied to an activity rather than a food.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Played with in Hell Teacher Nube, in which Kyoko engages in a literal Cooking Duel against an oyster demon for Hiroshi's heart. The oyster demon is able to excrete bodily fluids that make the food taste more delicious to the person she loves (in this case, Hiroshi), and the more love the cook has for the person eating it, the more delicious it will taste. During the cook, the demon drops a bead of sweat on Kyoko's cooking, and because Kyoko's love for Hiroshi is much greater than the demon's love, Hiroshi finds the former's frankly disgusting dish more delicious, thus winning her the competition. When her other classmates try the dish, they all find it taste the terrible cooking it really is.
• Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire:
  • May's attempts to make Pokéblocks always end in disaster. Her first attempt produces light blue Pokéblocks that only Beautifly likes. Her second attempt, which she dubs "May's Purple Surprise," results in purple Pokéblocks that apparently taste like jet fuel and burning truck tires, but a wild Munchlax likes them.
  • In the Johto seasons, Misty tried filling in for Brock’s role of cook by making a soup recipe. However she ends up spilling massive amounts of ingredients into it to try and balance them out and, rather than dump the broth and start over, adds even more. It turns out so inedible that Ash, James, Meowth and Wobbuffet can’t even take a single bite. Jessie however loves the soup, claiming it to be the work of a genius. For hilarious bonus points they share the same VA in the dub version.
• During the Bakusai Tenketsu training arc of Ranma ½, we learn for the first time that Akane is probably the Trope Codifier for Lethal Chef. Then we learn that Ryoga can eat her cooking without any trouble.
• In Sk8 the Infinity, Miya maintains his health by eating protein bars and amino acids supplements, much to the surprise and disgust of Reki and Shadow. When Miya stealthily changed Reki's soft drink to a protein milk drink one time, Reki immediately spat it out.
• In Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, Sylvette Suede, who is otherwise a good cook, frequently serves a peculiar soup that most people describe as "disgusting and pukey". Only her brother Gauche likes it.
• In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Simon (along with his pet Boota) is not only the only person who can eat Nia's horrendous cooking without getting food poisoning, but he finds it delicious. This possibly says something about his resilience, and also foreshadows his and Nia's later relationship via the Through His Stomach trope.

Asian Animation

• BoBoiBoy: Yaya's cookies consist of normal and abnormal ingredients, and whoever eats them (cats included) either faints or remarks that they taste like sandpaper. However, there are a few exceptions:
  • Adu Du's Robot Buddy Probe enjoys Yaya's cookies, claiming that he genuinely enjoys the sandpaper taste.
  • The Extreme Omnivore alien Lahap eats toxic substances to shoot dangerous blasts from his mouth. Yaya's biscuits appear to be a more effective fuel for him than his own toxic liquids, and he asks for more of them.

Comic Books

• Asterix:
  • In "Asterix the Legionary", the Roman army's standard meal is a soup made with cheese, bacon and wheat all cooked together into mush which only Selectivemploymentax, the British conscript, likes (the Briton diet in Asterix consisting mostly of cabbage, overcooked meat in mint sauce, warm beer and a spot of hot water).
  • "Asterix in Corsica" has the infamous Corsican cheeses that only Corsicans enjoy (or rather, don't feel faint when near one).
• Green Arrow has a chili recipe which most of the Justice League find intolerably hot — except Batman, who just says it needs more crackers. (The actual recipe printed in the comic doesn't seem to be anywhere near the spice level suggested by the scene, though it's possible the phrase "to taste" in the recipe is doing some heavy lifting.)
• In the Mickey Mouse Comic Universe, Goofy's cousin Arizona Goof is very fond of a brand of licorice that apparently is loathed by everyone in the world except for him.
• Robin (1993): Tim's taste in pizza toppings is derided by his friends, family, and random fellow students at boarding school. He never has to share his beloved Canadian bacon, onions, and artichoke hearts.

Comic Strips

• Prince Valiant: A notorious and feared commander of a pirate fleet has been plundering merchant ships, including those from Thule. The commander's secret base remains unknown until Valiant remembers that the man tried escargot (snails), and took an immediate liking to them. A careful mapping of snail shipments points Valiant to the North Atlantic island of Ouest, which proves to be the pirate commander's home base.

Fan Works

• This Backyardigans fanfiction has a Running Gag about Tyrone being the only one who likes celery and hummus (a snack used in the episode "Monster Detectives").
• In CATE Academy Group Chats, Topaz is the only student in the Fashion Tech class who likes pineapple on pizza, meanwhile Caitlin, Clover, and Erika all find it disgusting.
• Learning to Breathe Underwater: Amethyst is the only Crystal Gem who likes anchovy pizza.
  Steven: Did Amethyst get you an anchovy pizza?
  Lapis: Yes…?
  Steven: (sighs) Yup, good old Amethyst. Nobody else likes anchovy pizzas, so she orders them and gets to have all the leftovers to herself. She hides pieces all over her room.
• In the Harry Potter fanfiction Legend of the Accursed Fruitcake of Camlann, a magical cursed fruitcake spurned by Merlin and cursed by Morgana repeatedly pops up in Wizarding history, causing grief and trouble to whoever receives it. That is, until Malfoy hears about the cursed cake, gives it to Harry, and Ron happily devours the entire thing (which also has the effect of undoing all the curses it put on everyone).
• The Game Mod Stardew Valley Expanded, introduces the food item Grampleton Orange Chicken, which is hated by nearly every character except for Sophia, who loves it.

Film — Live-Action

• The Parent Trap (1998): Hallie and Annie bond in the isolation cabin over the fact that they are the only ones they know who eat Oreos with peanut butter, because most other people they've met find it disgusting. This is another clue that they are identical twins rather than just lookalikes, since identical twins often perceive certain genetically-disposed flavors the same way. ^note  Considering that Oreo now makes Peanut Butter Flavor Oreos, either societal tastes have changed since 1998 or the writers underestimated the appeal of Oreos with peanut butter. Either way, Accidentally-Correct Writing.

Literature

• A Bad Case of Stripes: The reason why Camilla is so self-conscious is that she's the only one among her friends who actually likes lima beans. She pretends to dislike them so that they'll accept her, which leads to her going through horrific transformations.
• Fudge: In Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Warren tries to make dinner, only to mess up, badly. Fudge is the only one who enjoys their dinner, and he's even upset when they throw it out.
• Lizard Music: Victor is the only member of his family who likes pizza with anchovies. He doesn't get to have it often because the rest of his family won't let him eat anchovy pizza in the same room as them, and his sister Leslie will freak out and claim she can taste anchovies in her pizza even if he goes elsewhere with his slices. He takes advantage of his family being out of town to order a pizza with double anchovies.
• The Machineries of Empire: It's a common Kel military joke that consuming ration bars voluntarily is a sign of mental distress. Cheris has a moderately infamous fondness for the squid-flavoured bars, one of the more "distinctive" flavours (and odours).
• Origami Yoda: Dwight loves Rib-B-Qs. In "The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett", when Rib-B-Qs are discontinued in the cafeteria, Dwight suggests that he and the rebels rally to get Rib-B-Qs back, only for the others to tell him that everyone else is glad to see them go.
• Septimus Heap: Septimus is the only one who likes Aunt Zelda's cooking, which includes boiled cabbage sandwiches, jellied eel stew, and haddock-and-banana pie.
• In A Song of Ice and Fire, the poorest parts of the city of King's Landing have a distinctive Soup of Poverty served in cheap taverns and potshops known as a "bowl of brown" for its distinct color. Anyone actually forced to eat it knows better than to ask what the scraps of meat inside is, and on a couple of occasions it's all but said that one way to get rid of an inconvenient body is to turn it over to the right butchers and let them chop up the body and turn it into bowls of brown. While on the run from Westeros, Tyrion meets a mercenary exile from Westeros who describes how he misses the bowl of brown that he used to eat as a boy, and wishes he could get the real thing again. Tyrion is suitably freaked out by this.

Live-Action TV

• Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Boyle loves cooking and eating exotic foods. He frequently brings strange cuisine into the workplace, and often describes the outrageous menus of his favorite restaurants. These meals often include meats from animals most would never want to try, and combinations of flavors that cannot possibly taste good together. Whenever the subject of food comes up, the rest of the squad makes sure he does not get the final say in what they eat.
• Friends: Joey is the only one in the group who can tolerate Rachel's accidental shepherd's-pie-and-trifle-combo. He eagerly takes other people's portions and is the only one actually able to eat more than one or two bites.
  Joey: What's not to like? Custard, good. Jam, good. Meat, good!
• Food Network had their traditional Holiday Baking Championship, where contestants have to make holiday desserts. And then they got to the dreaded fruitcake challenge. Upon hearing that they would have to make fruitcake (or at least fruitcake inspired desserts), all but one contestant groaned. The one who didn't perked up and went "Fruitcake? YUM!" She went on to win the whole competition.
• One episode of The Golden Girls has a joke where no one likes Rose's chipped beef except for her.
• In Laverne & Shirley, Laverne's favorite beverage is Pepsi and milk. Everyone else thinks it's disgusting.
• M*A*S*H:
  • While no one at the 4077th thinks Grape Nehi is outright disgusting, Radar is the only one who drinks it regularly. After he leaves, Igor notes they have a whole case just gathering dust because no one else wants it.
  • A straighter Radar example: He's the only one who doesn't complain about the mess tent's trashy food, and is often seen loading up seconds (or thirds).
• Orange Is the New Black: During a feud between the prison cliques, the kitchen staff serve oversalted food to the black inmates, which none of them can stand... except Suzanne, who claims she just pretends the salt is sugar.
• A common occurrence on Star Trek.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation:
    • In "Time Squared", Riker tries to cook omelets with some alien eggs. Worf is the only one who doesn't find them disgusting. Inverted in a Deleted Scene from the end of the episode — Riker makes it up to them with some Alaskan stew, which they all love... except for Worf, who grumbles that he would've preferred another omelet.
    • In "Birthright: Part I", the Enterprise stops at Deep Space 9, where Geordi gets pasta al fiorella for himself and Worf from the Replimat at the Promenade. Like the earlier episode, Geordi finds this unsatisfying, but Worf gladly wolfs his down.
    • On the flip side, Riker appears to be the only named human crewmember who actually likes Klingon food.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
    • The only character who likes yamok sauce is Garak. Justified; it's a Cardassian sauce and he's the only Cardassian on the station.
    • Starfleet field combat rations are designed to fit in a pocket-sized pouch and keep the body nourished for three days. They are not designed to taste good. A Running Gag is that the only person who actually likes them is O'Brien — and even he admits on one occasion that he wouldn't want to have to live off them for three weeks.

Print Media

• One issue of the official Moshi Monsters magazine involves Sprinkles baking some muffins and accidentally getting them wet. Most of the characters hate them, but Captain Buck loves them.

Puppet Shows

• Fraggle Rock: Boober has a recipe for Doozer Stick Stew. He's the only one who likes it, though, thinking it improves with age.
• The Puzzle Place: In the episode "Leon's Pizza," Jody's favorite pizza topping is anchovies, which all the other kids find disgusting.

Theatre

• A Very Potter Musical: Harry's the only person who likes Squirt (the citrus soft drink). Part of Voldemort and Quirrell's Evil Plan hinges on this; they turn the ladle used to serve the drink into a Portkey, and since Harry's the only one who will touch the stuff, he'll definitely be the one to grab it.
  Malfoy: Squirt? Ugh, never mind, I'll stay dehydrated.

Video Games

• Bug Fables: The berries used as currency in Bugaria were described as being very bitter and hard to chew, with no one being willing to stomach their horrible taste. The only exception is Diana, a miner ant who enjoys eating those berries and can be fed with a sum of berries to let her gain enough energy to break the boulder to open a new ant tunnel.
  Vi: Those berries don't even taste good...
  Leif: We don't think her taste would be the only weird thing here...
• In Rune Factory 5, Reinhard absolutely loves Failed Dishes, which are otherwise the product of the player engaging in some Lethal Chef-ery and which are so actively dangerous to consume that they can be actively weaponized. He apparently has a poor sense of taste.
• Stardew Valley: Sam is the only person in town that likes Joja-Cola, an item that is detested by everyone else and is even categorized as a 'trash' item, often found in trash cans or while fishing up trash.
• Story of Seasons (2014): Nearly everyone else in Oak Tree Town hates Grass Drink (the Japanese health drink aoijiu). However, foreign bachelor Nadi has it as his Trademark Favorite Food. (The other three that like it are the town chef, the town doctor, and the guy who eats almost anything.)
• Super Robot Wars Alpha: For the most part, Kusuha Mizuha's health drink tends not to go down that well with people (in multiple senses of the word). However, there are a few notable exceptions:
  • Arado Balanga in Super Robot Wars: Original Generation has stated he liked it, as did Ing Egret and Ventus later in the OG 'verse.
  • In the franchise-based games, the drink has had its admirers in none other than Heero Yuy in Alpha 2 and Van of the Dawn in 30.^note Though mind you, this is the same Van who dumps a boatload of condiments on everything he eats...

Web Animation

• Lightbulb is the only Inanimate Insanity contestant who likes oatmeal raisin cookies, as all others loathe them (Tissues in particular believes them to be the cause of global warming).

Western Animation

• Animaniacs (2020): In "Wakkiver Twist", Wakko (as the title character of Oliver Twist) is the only child in the orphanage who enjoys his bowl of gruel, and he spends the rest of the story hungry for more.
• Archibald's Next Big Thing: In "The Four Flamingos", Archibald is the only one who enjoys beet juice, which everyone else in Crackridge think tastes gross.
• In the Arthur Christmas Special Arthur's Perfect Christmas, George brings a tin of lutefisk (dried and boiled fish), part of his Swedish family's holiday tradition, to school. Everyone pinches their noses and passes it around except for Buster, who happily eats a piece and then scarfs down another.
• Chowder: In "The Flibber-Flabber Diet", the titular Flibber-Flabber is a kind of green goop that Mung Daal, Truffles, and Schnitzel all find gross. Chowder, on the other hand, can't get enough of it, and sighs in disappointment when they don't have to eat any more of it.
• Codename: Kids Next Door:
  • When Sector V is attacked by Grandma Stuffum and her disgusting cooking, Numbah 2 gleefully devours it, whereas his teammates flee in terror. He is shown to have limits, as in Grandma Stuffum's debut episode he eventually did get full. Fortunately the hamsters returned from their vacation, who also turn out to like the food and finish the job.
  • Another episode shows that Numbuh 2 is the only kid in school who likes spinach and eats it willingly whereas the other kids are held prisoner by the Spinach Inquisition who only offer it to not eat it themselves.
  • On the villains' side, we have The Toilenator as the only one who willingly eats vegetables like asparagus.
• Futurama:
  • When Bender serves his first meal, almost everybody in the crew spits it out for being too salty, but Zoidberg has seconds (which worries him when he learns the food contains only less than 10% of the lethal dosage of sodium). Justified as the series would later establish Zoidberg to be constantly poor and hungry and an Extreme Omnivore.
  • In "A Fishful of Dollars", Fry becomes a multimillionaire thanks to compound interest on the dollar he had in his bank account before being cryogenically frozen, and buys the last can of anchovies in existence to serve to his friends on a pizza. Most of his friends end up choking and spitting the pizza out, with the only people to enjoy them being Fry himself (who admits "no one likes them at first, but they grow on you"), and Zoidberg (who is driven into a feeding frenzy by the salty fish aroma, and whose species drove anchovies to extinction in the first place).
  • In "Xmas Story", Bender serves the crew a dead parrot he found lying in the street. Everyone hates it except for Nibbler, who eats it all.
• Gravity Falls: In "Summerween", all the kids discuss how they hate what they call "loser candy", which consists of all the candy gotten during trick-or-treating that no one seems to like. After being attacked by the Summerween Trickster, the kids learn that he is made of "loser candy" and only desires to be enjoyed. Only Soos enjoys "loser candy", and eats the Summerween Trickster, which the monster tearfully appreciates as he dies.
• Infinity Train: Tulip Olsen enjoys eating raw onions like most people eat raw apples, which her best friend finds freakish. Deconstructed and reconstructed by Word of God — at a young age, Tulip's mother humored her request to let her eat a raw onion, figuring she wouldn't like it. Tulip didn't like it at first, but refused to admit it, and out of pure stubbornness, she acquired a taste for it over time.
• Jane and the Dragon: In one episode, Pepper, who's temporarily lost her sense of taste due to a tongue injury, makes some stew. Most characters think it tastes of swamp water, but Dragon enjoys it.
• Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous: When Ben provides the group with some celebratory carob (a chocolate substitute) bars and juice, he enjoys them while everyone else spits them out and Sammy describes them as tasting like dirt. To be fair, they were expecting actual chocolate, and Ben's been eating them his whole life, so it might just be an acquired taste.
• League of Super Evil: The episode "Hot Can-Tato" has Skullossus promoting a contest where the winner will earn a visit to his space station and a catered lunch if they manage to find a ticket in a can of his Skullosus Brand Synthetic Ham-Flavored Meat Product. It's actually all a plan Skullosus concocted to get rid of his supply as he mentions that the food is disgusting and came about from a bad investment suggested to him by one of his Skullmandoes. Only a single old lady mentions that she actually likes the stuff while everyone else comments about how gross-tasting it is.
• The Loud House: Lana Loud, being a lover of everything gross, also enjoys gross food. As seen in the page image from the episode "Health Kicked", when she and her siblings try onion-infused water, she's the only one who doesn't spit it out in disgust.
• Monsters vs. Aliens (2013): Susan Murphy/Ginormica, in the series, enjoys turkey tetrazzini, a disgusting, greenish substance that even her fellow monsters can barely look at, let alone eat.^note For the curious, tetrazzini is a pasta-based casserole dish that has no set recipe, but is often similar to a cheesier form of chicken/turkey a la king, and generally isn't especially gross.
• Muppet Babies (2018): In "Kermit Gets the Grumpies", Kermit is in a bad mood, and not even Summer's snow cones are making him feel better. Gonzo suggests adding mayonnaise-covered sardines to his snow cone, and everyone else is squicked out.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Applebuck Season", a sleep deprived Applejack mishears the ingredients for a muffin recipe, leading to the creation of muffins with worms, lemon juice, potato chips, and no flour. Spike is the only one who likes them. Justified as they give everybody else food poisoning.
• Octonauts: Above & Beyond: In "The Monster Digger", Paani happily eats some patties he made himself. He then says they're made of fruits, seeds, and dried bugs. Tunip, Tweak, and Peso all cringe at that last part, but Paani himself doesn't seem to mind.
• PAW Patrol: Cap'n Turbot often enjoys (or makes) some kind of strange food like squid jerky while everyone else cringes in disgust.
• The Proud Family: While we've never seen him actually eat them, Peebo has stated several times on the show that he likes Proud Snacks, which are universally despised by everyone else.^note Even people who actually like the taste of Proud Snacks (besides Peebo) end up getting sick soon after.
• Rugrats: In "Tommy's First Birthday", the kids finally get ahold of some dog food. They eat it and start reacting in disgust, except for Phil, who keeps digging in.
• The Simpsons: In "The Joy Of Sect", the Movementarians try to break Homer's will by giving him gruel. However, it doesn't break him, as he helps himself to everybody else's uneaten portions, too.
  Recruiter #1: Why isn't our low-protein gruel wearing down his resistance like all the others?
  Recruiter #2: It doesn't wear down your resistance if you eat a whole month's supply! He even ate mine!
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • Subverted in "Plankton's Regular". Plankton seemingly finally gets a regular customer who actually likes his chum, where as everyone else in Bikini Bottom can't stand the stuff. At the end of the episode, however, it's revealed that Plankton's computer wife, Karen, had been paying the customer to pretend to enjoy his chum.
  • In some episodes, specifically "Free Samples", Patrick is the only one who actually enjoys eating Plankton's chum.
• Steven Universe: In "Drop Beat Dad", Marty uses his son's show to advertise Guacola, an avocado-flavored soda with the consistency of guacamole. When he throws free samples into the crowd, everyone is disgusted by the taste, except Onion, who drinks it, pauses, and then finishes the whole thing.
• Teen Titans (2003):
  • Terra is the only human being to enjoy Starfire's alien meals.
  • When Raven tries to cook for her friends in Season 4, it's so disgusting that none of them can eat it... except Starfire, who likes it a lot as it reminds her of the meals from her planet.
  • In the first episode, Mammoth is seen gleefully devouring the spoiled food in the Titan's refrigerator. Starfire later laments that someone has eaten "all of our blue furry food!"
• Total Drama: Most of the campers find the food Chef Hatchet serves them to be disgusting. Brick the military cadet, on the other hand, actually enjoys Chef's food.
• Trolls: The Beat Goes On!:
  • In the episode "Fluffleberry Quest", the Snack Pack go on a mission to restore the lost Fluffleberry cake recipe made by Branch's grandmother. Once the recipe is restored, the Snack Pack decide to try a Fluffleberry cake for themselves, but they think that it has a missing ingredient once they find it to have a bad taste. They go on another trip in order to find the supposed missing ingredient, only to be told by Branch that it was used to make the dish and the cake's recipe was actually correct. He takes a slice of the cake for himself, which gets the rest of the Snack Pack disgusted.
  • Most Trolls are shown to generally dislike Fluffleberry. Aside from Branch, the only other Troll who's known to like it is Nova Swift, who was seen drinking a Fluffleberry latte.

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