Popcorn shows up in many forms of media. Sometimes, in TV shows and movies, it is often seen as
being popped directly off the cob, which doesn't happen in
Real Life.
This happens when you put an ear of corn over the fire. Once the fire gets hot enough, the corn becomes so hot that the kernels covering the cob immediately start popping, turning into instant popcorn.
In
Real Life, "popcorn on the cob" is possible, but only if the ear of corn has been sufficiently dried out prior to cooking. Otherwise (such as with a freshly picked ear of corn), heating it over a fire only results in, well, roast corn on the cob.
Contrast
Pass the Popcorn (which is where onlookers staring at something shocking and/or embarrassing have snacks handy for such an event).
Examples:
Advertising
- There was a car commercial in the mid-90's where the car being advertised drove past a cornfield and caused all the corn to start popping right off the stalk.
Film
- Happened in Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
- A scene in An American Tail: Fievel Goes West briefly showed an ear of corn being raised over the fire, then turn into a bunch of popcorn which Tiger promptly catches in his mouth.
- Ice Age actually did this with an acorn.
- Subverted in Megamind. In a flashback to their childhood, Metro Man uses his heat vision to quickly make some Jiffy Pop. Determined to outdo him, Megamind builds Minion's first set of Powered Armor and equips it with a laser to do the same, only he does it to a bucket of corn on the cob. This only succeeds in creating a small fire.
Literature
- In Sid Fleischman's McBroom's Wonderful One Acre Farm series, the weather becomes so hot that corn starts popping right off the stalks in the fields.
Newspaper Comics
- In one Zits strip, Jeremy uses the microwave to pop baby corn on the cob, which he then eats using a pair of tweezers.
Western Animation
