Pixar’s Inside Out 2 is undeniably one of the biggest films of the summer. Unfortunately, even the billions in box office can’t make up for one major flaw, in my opinion: the vilification of broccoli.
Just like in the first film, young teen Riley despises broccoli. It’s the food that first triggered the emotion of Disgust when she was just a baby, and it continues as a running joke in the new film. When she thinks of a disgusting protein bar, her Stream of Consciousness (which in Inside out fashion… is a literal stream, of course) manifests a giant broccoli — which looks like a huge, unappealing piece of plastic toy food. Disgust wrinkles her nose at it, but emotions must leap and ride it to reach the end of Riley’s mind.
Image: Disney/Pixar
I get that Riley personally hates broccoli and everyone has different tastes. But Riley is a fictional character written by humans, and she is one of many fictional characters who hate broccoli. So I just want to know: why is broccoli the dirty dirty veggie in pop culture? Yes, young children are often picky about vegetables. And yes, young children often don’t get a chance to try vegetables in tasty meals, rather than as a side dish that is forced upon them. But broccoli is disproportionately portrayed as the dirty vegetable! Which causes children to turn their noses up at it, without really giving it a chance. Rude and downright wrong, because broccoli is delicious.
I’ve loved broccoli since I was a kid, and it always amazed me when characters in the shows and movies I watched hated it. Didn’t they ever roast broccoli in the oven at 425 degrees for 25 minutes, tossed with oil, salt, and garlic? It’s delicious and crunchy and just perfect! Broccoli stir-fried with soy sauce and a drizzle of sesame oil? Steamed with lemon and garlic? It adds a nice contrast to macaroni and cheese, a great way to add a little health to packaged ramen, and a great side dish for Chinese takeout. It’s tasty, nutritious, and very versatile.
Broccoli is one of my favorite vegetables, and I’m tired of seeing it unfairly vilified! Children on various American TV shows, such as Bart Simpson and the Powerpuff Girlsturn their noses up at broccoli. And while the characters sometimes get over it and decide they have to eat their vegetables to save the bad guy, it’s still interesting that the So often broccoli over other vegetables. As a kid, you were immediately considered uncool if you claimed to like broccoli — which I always found odd, since likes and dislikes aren’t supposed to be universal.
In fact, the intense childhood hatred of broccoli isn’t even present everywhere in the world; Blog posts from other countries ask Why this is something like that in America. The first broccoli gag in the first Inside out movie was localized, actually, because kids in Japan don’t find broccoli disgusting. It was replaced by green peppers (which I agree with, but mostly because I’m a little allergic to them raw). As Americans, we should all find a new vegetable as the universal disgusting one and revolutionize pop culture because broccoli is too damn good to be the dirty vegetable.
I nominate lettuce: it’s basically just crisp water. Everything lettuce does, spinach, cabbage or kale can do better.