Pineapple Ruins Pizza

Well, at least it's not anchovies.

"'There is nothing wrong with pineapple on pizza!' Natsuki protested, rather vehemently. Everyone gave her a concerned, 'we're humoring you' smile, save Shizuru, who actually managed to smirk."

— Roll of the Dice

To make a Hawaiian pizza, all you need is two toppings: cooked ham and chunks of pineapple. Thing is, though, putting pineapple on a pizza can be controversial to some^note Which is 1/3 of people according to this 2017 online survey◊ from Time Magazine^note Pineapple pizza is much more popular in Asian countries due to the preference of sweet and savory/sour dishes in Asian cuisine. Pizza typically falls under the "savoury" side of food groups, so adding "sweet" to that flavouring by putting chunks of fruit on it that aren't tomatoes, peppers, or olives^note These three are considered "fruit" in a botanical sense. and might sound bad on paper. That said, pineapple is still a popular topping in pizzerias around the world, making it the Base-Breaking Character of pizza.

In pop culture, people who do or don't like pineapple pizza are on the front lines. Fans of pineapple on pizza get weird looks at best or outright vilified at worst. Dissidents, on the other hand, will range from picking the pineapple off, to politely declining, to choosing death by starvation as a preferable alternative. In general though, the way this trope is portrayed will vary depending on the preferences of the author.

Note that, despite the name, Hawaiian pizza is neither Hawaiian nor Italian in origin. It was invented by Greek-Canadian Sam Panopoulus in 1962, who got inspiration from combining Chinese sweet and sour cooking on American pizza, and despite being served in pizzerias for decades since, it didn't rise to prominence in media until The New '10s. Prior to this, anchovies were more commonplace as the popular scrappy pizza topping, especially in The '80s and The '90s.

Sub-Trope of Stock "Yuck!" and Hold the Unsolicited Ingredient. Compare Kids Hate Vegetables, Everyone Hates Fruit Cakes, Haggis Is Horrible, You're Drinking Breast Milk, Garlic Is Abhorrent, Foul Medicine, Disgusting Vegetarian Food.

---

Examples:

Comic Books

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin: Leonardo and Casey Jones' Last Stand against Baxter Stockman's Mousers has them cracking a few jokes about pizzas as they face their foes.
  Casey: Your turn to buy the pizza when we're through.
  Leo: Yep. But I pick the toppings. Ham, pineapple, and jalapeño.
  Casey: What is wrong with you?!

Comic Strips

• Garfield: The September 8, 2023 strip has Garfield consider breaking up with Arlene when she apparently admits to liking pineapple as a pizza topping.
  Arlene: Garfield, a lot of us like pineapple on pizza.
  Garfield: (covers ears) Lah! Lah! Lah! Lah!
• In one of Stan Kelly's editorial comics, he claims the recent eruption of Kilauea volcano was Divine Punishment for the invention of Hawaiian pizza.
• Nodwick: One strip that ran in Dragon Magazine features the crew trying to deal with a dragon by annoying it into leaving its cave rather than fighting it head-on. Artix used his crystal ball to "call" doomsday cultists who wanted donations, a lady selling magazine subscriptions, and finally an order of pineapple and anchovy pizzas. The dragon responded by eating the people and pizzas (Piffany and Nodwick were horrified that it ate the people, Yeagar was horrified that it ate pineapple and anchovies). The pizzas ended up giving the dragon such horrific indigestion that when it tried to breathe fire, it exploded.

Fan Works

• In CATE Academy Group Chats, the Fashion Tech group chat is shown to all dislike pineapple on their pizza, with the exception of Topaz, who likes the mix of sweet and savoury.
• Halloween Unspectacular: In "Feeling Presidential" from the eighth collection, it's noted that the most notable thing to come out of Ms. Fowl's tenure as president was her appointing Sheen to the Supreme Court, as he was instrumental in settling the great pineapple-on-pizza debate (the final consensus being that it was acceptable).
• Legendarily Popular: When "Newtwo" turns out to like Pinap berries on pizza, that's taken as proof that she's definitely not a clone of the original Mewtwo.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Various fan arts show this on a couple of occasions:
  • There are memes, originally spread by artist Jargon Scott, of drawing Princess Cadance as a pizza delivery pony or otherwise obsessed with pizza. Naturally, she's gonna have opinions on pizza toppings. In this picture, she "accidentally" dumps an entire pineapple pizza in the trash, rather than deliver it to the customer. And in this comic, she reacts with dismay to Queen Chrysalis adding pineapple to a pizza — although the fact it's a whole pineapple, unpeeled and uncut, probably has something to do with it.
  • Another meme involves Starlight Glimmer being a huge fan of pineapple pizza — apparently operating on the logic that a controversial character is a perfect fit for a controversial pizza topping. In this comic, she defends pineapple pizza and tries to get Twilight to try some, and winds up in a cardboard box prison for her crimes against pizza. And in this picture, she torments an anonymous human by adding pineapple to his pizza.
  • And combining the two above memes, there's this odd comic, where Princess Cadance trolls Starlight Glimmer by transforming her ice cream cone into pizza. Starlight then counter-trolls by transforming the pizza toppings into ham and pineapple.
• Pineapple On Pizza: The South Park fanfic is about Kyle's mom ordering a pizza for everyone, and Stan is shocked when he sees that it is pineapple pizza.
• Roll of the Dice: During a session of Dungeons & Dragons with several of the HiME, it is revealed that Natsuki likes pineapple on her pizza. It's quite telling that not even Mikoto will touch it willingly.
• In the Punch-Out!! fanfic Shining and Sweet chapter "Dragged Into Drugs", when Von Kaiser orders a pizza, his stepdaughter insists that they don't have pineapple on it.
• One of Zeurel's Vinesauce fan animations is based on a moment from Joel's first Tekken 7 stream where he and another player fight as custom characters based on Skeletor and He-Man, respectively, with Joel whiffing a custom attack that uses a giant pizza as a throwable weapon. Zeurel's video translates this to Skeletor attempting to torture He-Man via a Hawaiian pizza, only for it to backfire when it turns out that He-Man enjoys it.
• In This Bites!, the Teenage Deugon Warrior Squad all enjoy pizza as their Trademark Favorite Food. Each of them has a pizza topping they dislike. Raphey's topping of revulsion is pineapple.

Films — Animated

• Inside Out: This is referenced when Riley and her mother try to get pizza and they end up at a pizza shop that uses broccoli as a pizza topping. Since Riley hates broccoli, Anger proclaims that San Francisco "ruined pizza".
  Anger: First the Hawaiians, and now you.
• Nimona: While Nimona, disguised as a little child, tries to kidnap the squire Diego as part of her and Ballister's plan to get evidence of his innocence, he throws many objects at Nimona's face, none of which even fazes her until a slice of pineapple pizza hits her, disgusting her.
• Ratchet & Clank: Life of Pie: When Qwark starts eating the inhabitants of the Pizza Verse, he recoils when their leader, a pineapple named King Toppings, confronts him, stating how no one likes pineapple on pizza.

Literature

• A subtle variation in Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People. George Beard and Harold Hutchins' Evil Counterparts, George Hutchins and Harold Beard, explain in their origin comic that they had their universe's Captain Underpants, Captain Blunderpants, steal them a pizza (which is apparently the worst crime in the world), but then ask where the pineapple is. Cue Blunderpants stealing them a single pineapple and slicing it onto their pizza.
• Coraline: One of Coraline's pet peeves is the food prepared by her father, because he always experiments with weird recipes, which she refuses to eat. After defeating the Other Mother and getting her parents back, her father makes a pizza for dinner with meatballs, green pepper, and pineapple. Having learned to accept her parents as they are, Coraline eats her slice of pizza — minus the pineapple pieces.
• Fred And Anthony: Anthony, the best friend of Fred, has pineapple as his least favorite pizza topping.
• The Last Continent: A lengthy footnote about how it is possible to get edible (even delicious) examples of the most unappealing varieties of fast food ends by adding one exception: "Even so, there is no excuse for putting pineapple on a pizza."
• There Is No Epic Loot Here, Only Puns: Defied by Kemy, a priestess of truth, who denounces several petty falsehoods like the idea that open flip-flops are a crime against fashion.
  Kemy: And this brings me to another sacred truth of the land! Hatred to tropical fruit on dough circles! It is okay to enjoy them!

Live-Action TV

• Becker: In one episode, Becker was treating a homeless man who was rewriting the bible to add in some extra commandments he thought god had missed. One of them was "Thou shall not put pineapple on pizza".
• Chopped: One special was themed around pizza, with all four chefs being pizza chefs from various parts of the country. One chef who would end up as the episode's winner repeatedly mentioned how he was willing to cook with just about anything other than pineapple. Take a wild guess what appeared in the dessert basket. Predictably, the chef spent almost the whole round complaining about both it and the vegan pepperoni he also had to use.
• The Good Place:
  • In "Most Improved Player", the various Demons from the Bad Place prank Michael by ordering dozens of Hawaiian pizzas — "the worst pizza" — and leaving them in Michael's office.
  • In "Rhonda, Diana, Jake, and Trent", Hawaiian pizza is used as one of the confections at a Bad Place party in the Museum of Low-Grade Crappiness.
  • In Version 2 of Michael's neighborhood in "Everything Is Great!", all of the restaurants that were Frozen Yogurt places in the first season are replaced with pizza parlors that only serve Hawaiian pizza.
• Hawaii Five-0: Among his many other complaints about Hawaii, Detective Danny "Danno" Willams mentions the pizza as one of the worst.
  Danno: I don't care where we are. Pizza and pineapple do not belong in the same air space.
• Stranger Things: In "The Piggyback", Argyle bakes a pizza for the kids and puts pineapple on it. Eleven is initially confused but likes the flavor once she gives it a try. On the other hand, Mike is disgusted at the idea and complains about it even as Eleven tries to get him to eat it.
• The Umbrella Academy: In the episode "Oblivion", Klaus and Luther find themselves watching strange documentaries on TV while eating pizza, though Klaus is clearly annoyed by the fact that the pizza is Hawaiian. He spends most of this scene picking the pineapple chunks off his slices and throwing them away. The twist is that the two of them are dead, courtesy of the big betrayal in the previous episode; while Luther is shocked once he realizes that he's dead, Klaus (no stranger to the hereafter) knew it from the very beginning, and is just irritated by the fact that he's ended up in an afterlife where Hawaiian pizza exists.

Magazines

• An April Fools' Day article in Dragon had D&D stats for monstrous versions of gaming snacks (the idea being that if you accidentally dropped them between the minutures, the DM would roll with it). The pizza slice has various toppings that it can use as weapons, but the 10% that have pineapple just instantly cause the characters to panic and flee ("as well they should" according to the article).

Music

• The song "Pizza Homicide" by Samurai Pizza Cats (not that one) has a chorus all about how pineapple is a sin to put on pizza. In the music video, a couple orders a pineapple pizza over the phone. The pizza chef gets so angry that he slams down the phone, sending the couple a demonically-possessed pizza and an evil pineapple to attack them. The lyrics also say such things like "no pineapples on my pizza, grease and meat is all I need" and threatening to chop anyone who orders it into tiny pieces.

Radio

• In Episode 6 of the 2024 season of Round Britain Quiz, the Scotland team are given a question in which all the clues are cryptic references to pizza toppings. While they identify the link and most of the clues fairly quickly, they're struggling to remember what cop show had the catchphrase "Book 'em, Danno!" or how it relates to pizza. Until quizmaster Kirsty Lang says it's her least favourite topping, at which point they instantly realise it's Hawaii Five-O.

Video Games

• The government's dislike of pineapple pizza is implied in Cyberpunk 2077, with one of the NCPD's wanted posters being for an Animals ganger named Mauler, wanted for "Illegal use of pineapple or pineapple-adjacent products", citing a "Pizza Desecration Act". Which is made even funnier by the fact that "Tofu'd Tuna and Pineapple Pizza" is a commonly-found food item.
• A Date with Death: On Night 4, you play a game of "twenty questions", with one of them being your opinion of pineapple on pizza. Grim likes it; whether you agree with him or not depends on which option you pick.
• Dream Daddy: On your first date with Robert, you stop by a pizza place for a bite to eat, where he reveals that he likes pineapple on pizza. You can disagree with him, but it negatively affects your score for the date.
• Emerald Wasp: Archie says he won't judge Leon for being gay, bi, asexual, or any sexuality... but he will judge Leon if he likes pineapple on pizza. If Leon does say he likes it, Archie is disgusted, and it actually increases Archie's death count, which will lead to one of the bad endings if it gets too high.
  Leon: What's so wrong about pineapple on pizza?! It's just a flavor...
  Archie: You don't get it, man. You can't just put pineapple on pizza and call it a meal!
• Guardian Tales: One of the Cursed Artifacts found in the KAMA-Zone is the Pie from Hell, which is just a slice of pizza with pineapple chunks on it.
• Averted in Overwatch. Per Word of God, all of the playable characters like pineapple on pizza, even the Omnics, who can't eat food at all.
• In Perfect Match, Hayden (the main character's partner) and Steve (the main character's cousin Nadia's boyfriend) get into an argument about pineapples on pizza. Steve loves Hawaiian pizza, while Hayden hates it and can't fathom anyone liking it. However, Hayden apparently changed their mind by the finale.
• Pineapple On Pizza by Majorariatto, which has "Can a video game convey a flavor?" as its Tagline. The description compares eating a pizza to holding a party in your mouth, stating that the game is about finding a way to ruin it. At first glance, it seems to be the case of Never Trust a Title, being a Tropical Island Adventure instead... up until you jump into an active volcano, causing it to erupt and destroy everything around it. The Wham Shot afterwards reveals that the island now looks like a Hawaiian pizza, with the volcano representing a slice of pineapple. The original version featured in Majorariatto Museum as a hidden bonus game made the message even clearer, as the line with a text greeting player changes into "You had to ruin it." In short, the game compares pineapple on pizza to a tragic event that cost many innocent lives.
• Surprisingly averted in Pizza Tower; for a game all about making pizza jokes, it actually remains perfectly respectful of Hawaiian pizza, to the point of having pineapples as collectible ingredients. Heck, one of the Toppins is even a pineapple.
• Psychonauts 2: In Cassie's mind, Raz encounters a paper knight being in conflict with the paper dragon, the former calling the latter an evil beast that must be vanquished (though making no actual move to attack him), while the dragon just wants to be left alone. Raz tries to defuse the situation by trying to ask what they have in common. Initially, it works, as it turns out that they both love pizza, but when the dragon reveals that he likes pizza with pineapples and ham on one side (and half maidens and cheese on another), the knight reacts in horror and immediately goes back to declaring that the dragon is an evil fiend that must be slain.
• Averted in RuneScape — out of the four kinds of pizza the player can make (plain, meat, anchovy, and pineapple), pineapple pizza heals the most health (and is one of the highest-healing foods in the game), with anchovy pizza healing the second-most health among the pizzas.
• Splatoon: In the first game, the European versions had a Splatfest (an online competition where players pick one of two sides to join and face players on the other side) themed around pineapples on pizza, with the sides being Team Delicious (likes pineapples on pizza) and Team Disgusting (dislikes pineapples on pizza). Team Disgusting won that Splatfest and the character who represented that side (Marie) has a chance of mentioning her dislike of the topping whenever she's spoken to in future entries.
• World's End Club: In a flashback, the Go-Getters are sharing a barbecue when Vanilla proclaims about the lack of marshmallows, which she describes is the equivalent of a pizza needing pineapples. Both Chuko and Jennu are quick to disagree with her on that subject.

Web Animation

• Fazbear and Friends: Purple Guy has Freddy hire his "son" (the Amalgamation) to work at the restaurant, and it does a good job for the most part... until all the pizzas have pineapple on them, which makes all the kids cry.
• GoAnimate: In Caillou Goes to Italy and Orders Pineapple Pizza/Executed/Grounded, Caillou says that they should get pineapple on pizza. Boris yells at him for such a suggestion and claims that it's an "insult to pizza". When Caillou goes to an Italian restaurant to prove him wrong, Mario is infuriated and has two men shoot him dead.
• hololive: A running gag is Subaru Oozora declaring "I approve! Justice!" when asked about pineapple on pizza. When up against Hololive members who dislike it (e.g. Aki Rosenthal), she'll even use it in taunts, such as, "I'm gonna make you eat pineapple pizza!" Now in animated form.
• Overly Sarcastic Productions: In "History Summarized: Hawai'i", Blue says that not only is putting pineapples on pizza an atrocity to nature but calling it "Hawaiian pizza" is a slap to the face due to the icky history concerning the pineapple industry in Hawai'i.
• SMG4's Mario Bloopers:
  • In "Mario Waits For Pizza", Bowser hosts a party and orders pizza, asking everyone what toppings they want. SMG4 himself asks for pineapple, prompting looks from everyone. Bowser then orders the pizza and reluctantly orders SMG4 a pineapple pizza.
  Bowser: (on the phone ordering pizza) Yes, a meatlovers, a vegetarian, a spaghetti and... pineapple... no, it's not for me...Yes, he does have a mental disability.
  • In "Mario Opens a Pizza Shop", Mario defeats Pepperman by shoving a pineapple pizza in his mouth. Pepperman declares that it "tastes like shit" before exploding.
  • During the escape in "War of the Fat Italians 2023", SMG4 tries to fool Mario by claiming he and SMG3 are pizza delivery guys and giving him a pizza box. Mario buys it until he looks inside and sees that the pizza has pineapple on it. Noticeably, SMG4 got this pizza from a trash can.

Web Comics

• Little Nuns: The July 2, 2022 post shows the Clumsy Nun (the one with blonde hair) attempting to put a giant pineapple ring on her pizza, with the rest of the clergy and flock of ducks appropriately reacting with disgust. Ironically, the two nuns on the upper right don't seem to mind it that much and are shown to be proud of her doing so, and some Hypocritical Humor is involved with the Froggy Nun on the left whose slice of pizza contains a more bizarre mix of toppings such as a banana, broccoli, and presumably chocolate or barbecue sauce.
• This Polandball strip, which is a list of the worst crimes against humanity... and putting pineapple on pizza at the end.
• Scandinavia and the World: In this strip, Denmark and Norway are disgusted to find pineapple on their pizza, and then even more disgusted when Sweden proudly states his preference to use banana instead.
• Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal (2022): Ziggy Pig attacks Lucky the Pizza Dog's reputation by sneaking pineapples on Pizza Dog Pizza's deliveries. It's so horrifying that people turn green and throw up when they discover the added topping.
  "Mom and dad, why don't you love me?"

Web Original

• Arnolds Pizza Shop: An impression of an answering machine in a pizza shop operated by Arnold Schwarzenegger that went viral includes the line "If you want something crazy like pineapple, I'll kill you."
• An old Polish-language copypasta inverts the trope, claiming that pineapple on pizza is the greatest thing ever, and all the "polacks" that disagree have ruined their taste buds with cheap cigarettes and vodka. It goes as far as to claim that Japanese parents are testing their daughters' potential partners by serving them pineapple pizza, and if he turns it down, he's certainly from a pathological household.

Web Videos

• Jimmy Davis' DK Rap Youtube Poop, The Decayer App, ends with the narrator saying that “Pineapple’s great, but it sucks on pizza.”
• Dragon Ball Z Abridged: In this Dragon Ball Super abridged short, Beerus shows disgust with Goku's entire race when he learns that Hawaiian pizza includes pineapple.
  Beerus: It's an abomination, and I now believe Zamasu did nothing wrong. Why would you put sweet and juicy fruit on top of a salty, delicious pizza?
• Games Done Quick: During the Pokémon X and Y run in AGDQ2020, the couch commentators discuss pineapple on pizza, which devolves into a sillier discussion on pineapples in general. It ends when a staff member hands the couch an actual pineapple, which stays with them for the rest of the run.
• Game Grumps: In the "Battle Kid" episode, Arin makes up a story about his friend Mark accidentally ordering him nine pizzas, which Arin is willing to eat until he sees that they're pineapple and ham, as Arin (in this story at least) claims he dislikes ham and is allergic to pineapple.
• If Everything Was Like Among Us: This was brought up in the Halloween Episode when Elijah finds a pizza with candy corn on it. The group reacts with disgust while also bringing up that pineapple on pizza is no better. Sebastian is implied to be on this side, while Judah and later on Micah are implied to be pro-pineapple.
• Spoofed in "Pizza con Piña" (by the makers of Destripando La Historia), which depicts pineapple and pizza as Star-Crossed Lovers.
  They say it isn't something natural/"Don't mix sweet and salty"
• Analog Control: While playing CarnEvil, MJTR at one point hypothesizes the haunted food vendors of the titular Circus of Fear probably sell pineapple-topped pizza exclusively. Phoenix, a fan of the topping, objects to this as slander. Subverted as MJTR states he doesn't so much hate pineapple on pizza as he hates pineapple, period.

Western Animation

• Amphibia: In the episode "Hop Luck", Anne explains pizza to the Plantars and Sprig wonders how good pineapple would be on it, only for Anne to shoot it down immediately.
  Anne: Don't you dare talk about pineapple on my pizza. Ever.
• Craig of the Creek: J.P. expresses his defense of pineapple on pizza, saying it balances out salty with sweet, but Craig dismisses it as "nasty". When the Green Poncho is asked for his opinion, he sides with J.P. for the same reason. Craig shows bewilderment as if he doesn't even know who he's talking to anymore.
• DC Super Hero Girls (2019):
  • In the short "#SofaSoGood", Barbara and Karen run into a man carrying pizzas while trying to take a seemingly abandoned couch to their lair, with Barbara quipping that she and Karen did the guy a favor by making him drop the pizzas because the pizzas have pineapple on them. Later, a rat tries to steal one of the pizzas after it falls off the couch, but rejects it after Barbara yells that it has pineapples on it.
  • Wonder Woman states that pineapple shouldn't be on pizza in "#TheMinus".
• Family Guy: One Cutaway Gag features Peter delivering a pizza with the same mindset as one would have delivering a baby and expresses regret for the owners, as one half of the pizza has pineapple toppings.
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: In the short, "Give Pizza a Chance", all the food in the refrigerator spoils when Bloo leaves the door open, so Frankie gets Wilt to order pizza. When Bloo finds out that pineapple is one of the available toppings, he gets Wilt to order 520 pineapple pizzas. When the cost of the pizzas is beyond Frankie's budget, Bloo tackles the pizza man and gets Eduardo to sit on him for thirty minutes to get free pizzas. When time is up, Bloo tastes one of the pineapple pizzas only to find out he dislikes pineapple, then asks who ordered it.
• Futurama: In the episode "A Clockwork Origin", the Planet Express crew end up trapped in a cave after fleeing self-evolving robots. They decide to eat the pizza the Professor got them as payment for helping him move in order to keep their strength up, only to toss it all aside when they see that they're all Hawaiian.
• Generator Rex: In "Mixed Signals", Rex starts to have visions that make strange machines sprout from his body. When he is examined at Providence, he says he would like to eat pineapple pizza and Bobo sees that as proof that Rex went crazy. It happens the visions were sent by Cesar, Rex's long-lost brother, and his love for pineapple pizza is part of his eccentric personality.
• The Loud House: During "In The Mick of Time" when Chunk hands over a pizza to Mick's security guard along with a whole pineapple as an "extra topping".
  Security Guard: (bluntly) You need to leave.
• Peppa Pig: Played for Laughs. In the episode "Pizza! Pizza!", George is stated to like pineapple as a topping on his pizza. Daddy Pig acts horrified by this, claiming that There Should Be a Law against pineapple on pizza. Everyone laughs about this and moves on, while the narrator clarifies to the preschool audience that pineapple on pizza isn't actually illegal.
• Postman Pat: Subverted in one episode. When Pat first sees a pizza with pineapple on it, he says, "Pineapple?! On a pizza?!", but he actually enjoys it when he tastes it.
• Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Pizza is the turtles' Trademark Favorite Food, but when considering what to order in the episode "Minotaur Maze", Leonardo says "definitely not Hawaiian".
• Total DramaRama: The kids accidentally bring a pizza to life, and complications ensue when he wants to be eaten. To prevent anyone from being able to eat him, they throw canned pineapple at him, which works, much to his dismay. Luckily(?), Chef eats him anyway, much to the kids' horror.

---