You can’t escape Food and Drink Fridays on PopWatch, but why would you want to? In honor of National Doughnut Day, we attempted to come up with some Great Moments in Doughnuts. Our hastily prepared list is as follows:
• Homer Simpson, obviously. (Though even on The Simpsons, Homer has some fierce competition in the doughnut-love department from Chief Wiggum, pictured.)
• Garth’s finest moments of Wayne’s World: the "Foxy" dance and the brutal stabbing of Mr. Donut Head. ("Who’s tryin’ to kill ya?" "I don’t know, but you better not.")
• Chris Rock’s bit in which he equates Krispy Kremes to crack. Provocative!
• The barely watchable "dog semen" scene from Van Wilder.
• Eddie Izzard’s routine about JFK’s botched "Ich bin ein Berliner" line, which, properly translated, means the president called himself a doughnut. (The comedian speculates that Kennedy’s German listeners must have assumed "I’m a f—in’ donut" was some kind of American slang.)
• John Belushi’s "Donut of Champions" SNL skit: ""I logged a lot of miles, and I downed a lot of donuts. Little chocolate donuts."
• The old Dunkin’ Donuts ads with Fred the Baker, and later withHerve Villechaize, that helped make "Time to make the doughnuts" anational catchphrase.
• That line in the Bangles’ "Walk Like an Egyptian": "All the copsin the doughnut shop say ‘WAY-OH, WAY-OH, ooh-WAY, ooh-ooh WAY-OH…"(Slezak’s suggestion, obvs)
• Tori Amos has a "Doughnut Song" that seems to mostly advocate pain and the prettiness of blood. Because it’s a Tori Amos song, duh.
• EW.com associate editor Steve Korn asks: "Does flying into Los Angeles or drivingout of the airport and seeing the big Randy’s Donuts doughnut count asa pop culture moment?" Sure! And thank you for spelling it "doughnut"in your e-mail. The embedded -ugh makes it so much more… well, akin to the heavy feeling of having eaten too many.
There are also some Not-So-Great Moments in Doughnuts, but they usually occur at my desk, like when all the icing sticks to my friggin’ coffee cup, or when half the icing inexplicably crumbles before I can get even one decent bite. (I bet Time Inc. will dig all the product placement in that second one!)
Which deep-fried moments are we missing? Happy holiday!
Comments (1-12) of 12 Add your comment
While Twin Peaks is usually noted for its pie referencing, there was quite a lot of jelly doughnut consumption, so I think it deserves to be on the list.
Holy Moly Donut Shop in “Friday After Next” with an F in the window and John Witherspoon asked “Gimme a bear claw, hold the flies”.
How about the following sketch, from the brilliant Mr Show with Bob and David:
hahahaha I’m impressed that both Tori AND the Bangles made it onto this list.
thanks for including Eddie Izzard’s hilarious JFK-Berlin-doughnut joke. that comedy show is still one of the all-time funniest things i’ve ever seen.
yeah but if you’re going to talk about the simpsons, it has to be the episode where homer’s head turns into a big donut and he starts eating it.
We had an olympics themed day at camp back when I was a councillor. The breakfast that morning – little chocolate donuts. They are the breakfast of champions.
I knew a cop in New York who had a gut just like this character. I don’t know how he ever chased anyone with all the equipment around his belt, and his huge frame.
In the mid 80s, there was a movie called The Couch Trip, it wasn’t all that great, but there was a funny donut moment in it. Walter Mathau played a mental patient, and at one point, he’s holding some jelly donuts with straws sticking out of them, and he says, “if anybody wants a donut without jelly, their ready.”
Good pick Margarita, I love David’s line “Notice I didn’t say “TV” because TV is a nickname and nicknames are for friends and television is no friend of mine” [weird little laugh]. That’s one of my favorite Mr. Show moments.
Not necessarily a classic moment in doughnut pop culture history, but memorable to me, was from Arrested Development, when they did a flashback showing Buster volunteering to be part of a THC experiment. They sent him to a carnival to induce nausea and then they show a picture of him trying to eat a giant plaster doughnut.
I can’t wait until National Frozen Banana Day.
Agreed with Ninedaves. That same episode featured Homer selling his soul for a donut, Ned Flanders as the devil, and an “ironic punishments department” of hell where Homer was force fed an entire room full of donuts.
During an ep of Andy Richter Controls the Universe, the secretary Wendy was undergoing a drug trial which affected her personality and made her voice deep and scary. She got in trouble for telling coworker Ted Stalin to “take it all b*tch” – she caught him taking only half a donut from the box.