"POP” PIZZA

Pizza is nowadays one of the most popular and appreciated dishes worldwide. Imported to the US by Italian immigrants in the 1950’s, its popularity spread rapidly to all continents and soon it became a part of each country’s culinary fabric, thanks to its versatility and condiments variety that easily adapt to local ingredients. In the last fifty years pizza took such a relevant role in everyone’s culinary habits that it became one of the fundamental elements of pop culture worldwide, from contemporary art and movies to fashion and social media.

Pizza in Pop Culture

Pizza has an interesting place in pop culture, holding a prominent spot in movies and tv shows, since it represents the perfect definition of comfort food in every age and situation. It starts making appearances in the 1980’s in mainstream media like animated shows (remember Michelangelo’s weird topping combinations in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?) and major movie productions; iconic scenes like Tony Manero’s double stacked pizza in Saturday Night Fever, Star Wars parody monster Pizza The Hut in Spaceballs or Kevin McCallister eating pizza in a limo in Home Alone 2 will forever hold a special place in the public’s heart.

Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister iAn Home Alone 2, 1990

John Travolta as Tony Manero in "Saturday Night Fever", 1977

In the animation world, Matt Groening makes various references to pizza in all of his creations: Fry, from Futurama, is a pizza delivery guy before travelling to the future and Homer Simpson is shown munching on a slice of pizza multiple times throughout the series, and once even a few minutes after being born. In more recent times, Disney Pixar decided to take on a graphic design challenge in the making of the best-selling animated movie Inside Out and modified the toppings on the pizza slices depending on the taste habits of different countries where the movies would be distributed (in Europe the most disgusting pizza is represented by broccoli pizza, while in Japan it’s green peppers pizza).

Scene from "The Simpsons", by Matt Groening

Pizza is also heavily featured in tv series, both in light-hearted comedies and dramas. From Friends to The Office US or Breaking Bad, pizza accompanies the protagonists in their journey through everyday life, appearing in the background or with dedicated special episodes.

Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc in "Friends", 1995

Bryan Cranston as Walter White in "Breaking Bad", 2008

Pizza is also an evergreen presence in video games: you can order take out in The Sims series, Nuclear Throne dedicated an entire secret level to pizza as an homage to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the same pizza chain appears throughout many of the GTA games and Mario Party 9 features a mini game revolving around pizza. Even the characters from Silent Hill 2 find some time to have a slice of pizza, despite living in a city teeming with monsters!

Scene from a GTA game