History Main / PerfectionIsAddictive

* When Agatha first arrives in Mechanicsburg in ''WebComic/GirlGenius'', she ends up proving her heritage as the last descendant of the MadScientist line that once ruled the city to the current hereditary Seneschal by sipping a cup of coffee, and then proceeding to disassemble and reassemble the coffee machine in CaffeineBulletTime. The rebuilt machine apparently produces perfect coffee, which renders Vandemonde unable to appreciate lesser brews after he tastes the first cup.

-->-- ''Literature/TheLastBattle'' by Creator/CSLewis

Subtrope of TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow. Compare LotusEaterMachine.

* ''Manga/DragonBall'': [[UltimateLifeForm Cell]] has the word "Perfection" as his motto. Being an amalgamation of many of the strongest fighters in the series by their DNA, Cell aspires and boasts to be the strongest fighter in the galaxy. Having the DNA of [[{{AntiHero}} Vegeta]] and [[GalacticConquerer Frieza]] explains his arrogance. To further the point, his last words before being obliterated are "THIS CAN'T BE!! I AM PERFECTION!!!"

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'', Asuna's maxed-out cooking skill combined with the S-class ingredient Kirito brought her results in [[ImpossiblyDeliciousFood the best meal they ever ate]]. Since no food could possibly compare to that, everything else begins tasting like garbage to them, and Kirito screams in dismay that they "[[Literature/FlowersForAlgernon Flowers for Algernon'd]] [their] taste buds".
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* In ''Literature/TheSpiderwickChronicles'', people who've tasted faerie fruit have to live off it for the rest of their lives, because human food tastes utterly revolting in comparison.
* The fruit in Rossetti's "Literature/GoblinMarket" seems to be an example as well.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/GeorgeAndAzazel'' stories include one of a man who wished for his ex to sing perfectly for one night. The narrator claims that the woman herself never sang afterwards, but for the audience, they had it far worse. He, himself, cannot listen to any music now, and as for the guy whose idea it was, he has to walk around with earplugs.

* The LemonyNarrator describes this effect in ''Literature/TheLastBattle'', in regards to the fruit in Aslan's country. Unlike most examples of this trope, though, the characters eating it never have to return to their own worlds and eat normal food (having [[spoiler: died and gone to heaven]]) so the negative parts of the trope are avoided.

* Downplayed in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' Marshal once ate the perfect burger and claims all others taste like his grandpa's feet; however, he is shown being able to eat all other foods without any issues.
* Comprises an entire episode of ''Series/TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete'', as [[ItMakesSenseInContext the underwear inspector]] Young Pete befriended is such a [[ThePerfectionist perfectionist]] that everyone else in the neighborhood attempts to live up to his high standards. It's only broken when [[spoiler: he eats barbecue chicken so cleanly that he doesn't need a wet-nap - as that apparently defeats the entire ''point'' of eating barbecue chicken]].

* In ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' this is one of the ways that the Chaos God(dess) Slaanesh can cause people to fall to Chaos-- in particular, Space Marine Primarch Fulgrim of the Emperor's Children.
* ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'': The Glutton was once a chef who was abducted by Crumbcoat and Ganache, a pair of cooking-obsessed True Fae. After he escaped from Arcadia, he found that food in the mortal world was completely tasteless to him. Eventually he moved into the Hedge full-time, subsisting on what he could harvest from there, the closest he could get to Arcadian food.

* This is the reason that knots of rosary cord are [[CommonplaceRare so difficult to find]] in the Catholicism-inspired theocratic setting of ''VideoGame/{{Blasphemous}}''. One character from the lore was so skilled at making rosaries that the church officially decreed her rosaries to be the only ones worth using, and ordered all others destroyed. Since she's long dead, there aren't any new ones getting made.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', this is the reason the [[EatDirtCheap rock-eating]] Gorons are all starving to death despite living on a mountain entirely made of rock, and need Link to clear out the monsters from the nearby dungeon where they normally get their rocks for food. Apparently, those particular rocks are just so darn tasty that all other rocks have essentially become inedible garbage to them, and they'd ''rather'' starve than have to eat that crap.

[[folder:Web Original]]

* In ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'', Asuna with her [[TheMostDangerousVideoGame maxed-out cooking skill]] prepares ImpossiblyDeliciousFood for herself and Kirito. Later on when she makes some regular sandwiches, they realize in horror that [[SenseLossSadness they'll never be able to enjoy any other foods again]] and it persists even after they return to the real world.
* In the first major ''WebVideo/ImAMarvelAndImADC'' story arc, "After Hours", when Lex Luthor believes he's won, he muses that he'll never be able to top this and any further victories will be akin to "eating garbage". [[spoiler:It sets Superman up to quote, "[[Film/SupermanII That's funny...]] I've never seen ''garbage'' eat ''garbage'' before." as he gets up and breaks his hand, so, never came to it.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "Morty's Mind Blowers", Morty has a euphoric reaction after stepping on a floor that Rick has made truly, perfectly level. However, as soon as he steps off:
-->'''Morty:''' Oh... everything is crooked! Reality is poison! I wanna go back, I hate this! [[MadnessMantra Can't live like this, I can't live like this]]... ''LAMBS TO THE COSMIC SLAUGHTER!!!''
* One Treehouse of Horror episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has Homer accidentally cutting off his own finger, which lands on his barbecue grill. Out of curiosity, [[{{Autocannibalism}} he eats it]], and finds it's the best food he's ever had - to the point he can't bring himself to eat anything except his own flesh.

* In ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'', Asuna's maxed-out cooking skill combined with the S-class ingredient Kirito brought her results in [[ImpossiblyDeliciousFood the best meal they ever ate]]. Since no food could possibly compare to that, everything else begins tasting like garbage to them , and Kirito screams in dismay that they "[[Literature/FlowersForAlgernon Flowers for Algernon'd]] [their] taste buds".

* In ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'', Asuna with her [[TheMostDangerousVideoGame maxed-out cooking skill]] prepares the greatest meal one could ever experience for herself and Kirito. Later on when she makes some regular sandwiches, they realize in horror that [[SenseLossSadness they'll never be able to enjoy any other foods again]] and it persists even after they return to the real world.

->''"All I can say is that, compared with those fruits, the freshest grapefruit you've ever eaten was dull, and the juiciest orange was dry, and the most melting pear was hard and woody, and the sweetest wild strawberry was sour...If you had once eaten that fruit, all the nicest things in this world would taste like medicines after it."''

[[folder: Comic Books]]

* In ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'', Asuna's maxed-out cooking skill combined with the S-class ingredient Kirito brought her results in [[ImpossiblyDeliciousFood the best meal they ever ate]]. Since no food could possibly compare to that, everything else begins tasting like garbage to them.

* In ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' when SupremeChef Asuna prepares a meal using an S-class ingredient Kirito brings her, the result is so [[ImpossiblyDeliciousFood impossibly delicious]] that both Kirito and Asuna think normal food tastes like garbage in comparison afterwards, and Kirito screams in dismay that they "[[Literature/FlowersForAlgernon Flowers for Algernon'd]] [their] taste buds".

In cases where this is PlayedForLaughs, expect some [[BlackComedy black humor]], up to and including SuicideAsComedy. In other cases, the same situation might be PlayedForDrama.

* {{Speedrun}}s in general invoke this trope. Many speedrunners will practice for incredibly long times on a certain game (or even just a certain ''section'' of a game) trying to complete it as fast as possible. In livestreams the speedrunner will restart the entire game when they make even one mistake, and in some cases scream in anger and possibly RageQuit entirely.

When you experience something of the highest possible standards, like eating ImpossiblyDeliciousFood, the amount of happiness you feel is immeasurable. There are no pleasures in the world that could possibly compare to what you're feeling in that moment. Unfortunately, this tends to have the side effect of making everything else incredibly disappointing in comparison, often resulting in the inability to enjoy the things in life that you were once accustomed to. In the worst cases, those who go through this may end up [[GoMadFromTheRevelation going insane]] or committing suicide, either out of [[DrivenToSuicide despair]] or due to [[SeenItAllSuicide being done with life]].

* ''Manga/FoodWars'': This seems to be the case for those who have the God Tongue in the Nakiri family in regards to food. At the start of the series we see that Erina Nakiri's palate won't accept anything less than a dish she deems as "perfect" by her high standards, to the point she'll ''always'' find the exact flaws in any dish with a single taste. It's also combined with BlessedWithSuck given that it'll eventually cause those who possess it to be unable to enjoy food at all due to a SensoryOverload disorder that comes with it, like it happened to Erina's mother Mana.

* An episode of ''Series/CornerGas'' has several characters getting "bumped up to a new X bracket" on various foods, having tried a higher quality version than what they're used to and finding themselves unable to go back. They view this as a bad thing, since the higher quality version is also much more expensive (for example, Oscar and Emma get bumped up from a $7 bottle of wine to an $18 bottle of wine, over double the cost).

* One Treehouse of Horror episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has Homer accidentally cut off his own finger, which lands on his barbecue grill. Out of curiosity, [[{{Autocannibalism}} he eats it]], and finds it's the best food he's ever had - to the point he can't bring himself to eat anything except his own flesh.

* The ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' gives us [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-294 SCP-294]], a coffee machine that can dispense any type of liquid in existence. When someone uses it to order "the perfect drink" and consumes the resulting liquid, they committed suicide soon after, leaving behind a note saying, "I'm sorry, but at this point, everything's just one big letdown."