Misused (titles crowner 6/16/14): Least Common Pizza Topping

I thought it was evident from the page, but okay...

• One Domino's Pizza commercial had some kids freaking out after being presented pizzas for lunch containing toppings like pineapple.

• In the British Sonic the Hedgehog novels, the Metropolis Zone rats like pizza with anchovies and olives, both of which the other characters find repugnant. [I leave it as an exercise for the reader why this is misuse, despite the mention of anchovies.]

• One of the footnotes in a Discworld novel states that there is no excuse for putting pineapple on pizza.

• Harry Dresden is offered tofu pizza at a film shoot in Blood Rites, which he insists is just wrong.

• Another club member, Dawn, likes broccoli on her pizza (Which actually is a standard topping in some places).

• In The Cannon Law, Frank Stone idly muses that if people invaded neighboring countries to bring them pizza and beer, war might be a more civilized affair — though the Geneva Convention would need to be re-written to forbid anchovies.

• The cast of Power Rangers Jungle Fury works in a pizzeria. Fran has the others try chocolate-covered anchovies as a joke dish at the end of one episode; only RJ likes them, but since he's the pizzeria's owner...
  • In Power Rangers Turbo, Divatox likes pizza, but has some odd tastes in toppings. One scene opens with a throwaway gag where she's on the phone apparently making an order, saying, "...yes, and one with extra flies." (In the rather notorious episode where she ended up with amnesia and working in a pizza place, she seemed to prefer jalapenos.)

• On Supernatural, there was a version involving not anchovies, but a vampire who was worried that he may have had unsolicited garlic put on his pizza. It Lampshaded the unrealisticness of someone who worries about unsolicited anchovies, garlic, or such toppings with the delivery guy's reaction: He impatiently asked, "Did you order any garlic? Then no, there isn't any."

• Not anchovies but still fits: Kramer from Seinfeld likes cucumbers on his pizza, which leads him to enter an argument with a restaurant owner (who was supposed to finance a pizzeria with him) over on if you can do such a thing.

• Alf once ordered a pizza with everything except beets. He specified clearly that he did not want beets.

And this is from the main trope page, mind you. The question this brings up is: is this trope, or is it not, "disgusting and/or unpopular pizza toppings"?

Honestly, it sounds like it needs to be hard-split between "ordering 'no anchovies' when they wouldn't be expected in the first place" and "pizza toppings you love but others hate".

edited 21st Mar '14 9:49:09 PM by Willbyr

So are we not expanding the trope to include non-anchovy toppings? Because that goes directly to the name issue.

I think the specific topping being anchovies is less important than the idea that they are specifying to leave something off even tho by default it would not be included because it is unpopular or uncommon. Shoot, IDK if it even has to be pizza, really, if someone orders a sub sandwich with no rubarb or something that would be the same trope, yeah?

The examples that are about weird toppings could be made into a trope about weird food additions and what they indicate about a character (like that they are quirky or something).

Basically what I am saying is we need to both expand AND narrow the trope in order make it an actual trope on not just a bunch of things about pizza toppings.

edited 21st Mar '14 4:09:22 PM by rexpensive

Hmm, I'm looking at the misuse I listed above, and I'm wondering whether the incorrect definition that most of them use is worthwhile. I'm inclined to say no, but I may be wrong.

I think there is a trope and a possible trope here.

The trope is "Character makes a point of specifying that something they're asking for be made without a particular element that wouldn't be added unless they asked for it in the first place" (Anchovies are not a default pizza topping, but they still feel they need to specify "No anchovies!" when they order their pizza.)

The possible trope is "People really hate anchovies on pizza".

What about mushrooms, pineapple, and rats?

What about them? "No mushrooms" and "No pineapple" generally come up when characters are discussing between themselves what to get, rather than when they're actually talking to the pizza place, ordering. I've never encountered any work where "No rats" came up at either time.

edited 22nd Mar '14 3:00:17 PM by Madrugada

I meant, do examples like the following belong in this trope, or are they even tropeable:

• One Domino's Pizza commercial had some kids freaking out after being presented pizzas for lunch containing toppings like pineapple.

• Harry Dresden is offered tofu pizza at a film shoot in Blood Rites, which he insists is just wrong.

• Another club member, Dawn, likes broccoli on her pizza (Which actually is a standard topping in some places).

Basically, "this pizza topping is yucky, and/or disgusts this character."

In my mind, this trope needs to be about specific ingredients. Examples of more general "I don't like this ingredient" ought to get a general, non-pizza non-anchovies specific trope.

That sounds like Does Not Like Spam but with pizza toppings.

(I don't have anything to say about Least Common Pizza Topping itself, other than "it sounds ludicrously specific, but actually seems to be a thing in fiction, so what do I know?")

edited 23rd Mar '14 6:13:37 AM by DoktorvonEurotrash

Igree with the good Doktor on "a character doesn't like a particular pizza topping". It may be a very specific subtrope of Doesnt Like Spam, but it's not Least Common Pizza Topping.

Are there any actual examples of someone directly telling the pizza place "no anchovies"? 'Cause every example of the trope I'm familiar with, it's where one person is ordering a pizza, and someone else tells that person "no anchovies".

The first would be something genuinely weird (most pizza places aren't gonna put anything besides cheese and sauce on a pizza unless you specifically ask for it), while the second just means that one character dislikes anchovies and wants to make sure the other character doesn't order any for the pizza they'll be sharing. The same thing can happen with any pizza topping, but anchovies probably get this treatment the most due to being a love-it-or-hate-it kind of thing.

Just going by the examples list on the page:

Film:
*Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has Michelangelo ordering a pizza near the beginning of the movie as Splinter talks about the "art of invisibility". As Splinter is finishing up his speech, Mikey is just about to finish the order, and he says, "Oh, but no anchovies, and I mean no anchovies. You put anchovies on this thing and you're in big trouble, okay?" right before Splinter throws a book at his head.

Lit:
In Amber Brown Is Not a Crayon, this is a Running Gag between Amber and Justin. They always ask for a pizza, "hold the anchovies," and then laugh at the mental image of the pizza boy holding an armful of anchovies.

Live action TV:
21 Jump Street episode "Gotta Finish the Riff" Reginald Brooks: [ordering pizza for his hostages] I want 10 with sausage, 10 with pepperonis. And no anchovies. I see one anchovy and I kill the librarian.

Other:
The Firesign Theatre: George Tirebiter tries to order "a pizza to go, and no anchovies" from a place called Nick's. Unfortunately for him, he's got the wrong Nick on the line.

And I know there are others that are specifically anchovie-related. If we change the trope definition to "character makes a point of saying "and no <X>!" when they order someting, and <X> is something that wouldn't be present at all without being specially asked for" there are more that don't use "anchovies".

edited 24th Mar '14 7:17:40 PM by Madrugada

I'm wondering if any of this requires a name change. I guess it depends on whether there's any definition tweaking and what it ends up being.

It's looking like "people tell a restaurant to leave a topping/ingredient off, when you wouldn't think that ingredient would normally be included" and "nobody wants anchovies on their pizza" should be seperate tropes, even if they do overlap a lot.

This. This is what's been bugging me about this trope all along: it feels more like two tropes merged together than one trope.

Also, "nobody likes anchovies on their pizza" would be just a form of Stock "Yuck!" (where anchovies are already listed, for the record).

edited 26th Mar '14 11:26:42 AM by DoktorvonEurotrash

Crowner time, perhaps? The most popular suggestion (and the one I personally agree with) is to keep the core of the trope, but remove the limit to anchovies, and purge the "yucky pizza topping" examples.

Would a rename be at all called for here, to avoid future "yucky pizza topping" examples?

Clock is set.

OK, fine, I'm going to propose that this trope definition be loosened up into a generalized "someone asks for something food-related to be excluded from a dish one wouldn't normally expect to be included in said dish" and clean out the examples that don't fit that definition.

The only question in my mind is whether to rename.

I support that redefinition.

As do I.

Is this enough consensus when added to previous commentary? Because if so, I want to implement, then start a single prop on whether to change the name.

my support as well

Yeah, this should apply to any exotic topping/ ingredient.