Pizza delivery in popular culture

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Pizza

History of pizza Pizza delivery Structural Variations Pizza · Calzone Stromboli Focaccia Ethnic Variations Greek pizza · Lahmacun Manakish · Mexican pizza Pissaladière · Sardenara Sicilian pizza Regional Variations New York-style pizza · Chicago-style pizza New Haven-style pizza California-style pizza St. Louis-style pizza Detroit-style pizza Hawaiian pizza Events World Pizza Championship Long Island Pizza Festival & Bake-Off Cutlery and Ingredients Pizza cutter · Mezzaluna Pizza cheese · Mozzarella Miscellaneous Variations Tomato pie · Pizza bagel Grilled pizza · Deep-fried pizza Garlic fingers · Garlic knots Sausage bread

The basic concept of pizza delivery has become part of popular culture to the extent that it is an occasional subject of pranks or parodies,^[1] even to the point of being the subject of such feature length films as Drivers Wanted and Fat Pizza: The Movie,^[2] as well as Pizza: The Movie.^[3] In the case of other films, use of pizza delivery has been regarded by critics as "overly integrated product placement".^[4]

1 In literature
2 In film
- 2.1 In pornographic films
- 2.2 In mainstream films
3 On television
4 In computer and video games
5 Other
6 References
7 External links

[edit] In literature

The focus of an extended passage in Douglas Adams' 1988 novel The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul was the lack of pizza delivery services in England at the time.

In Tom Wolfe's novel I Am Charlotte Simmons (2004), one of the characters works as a pizza delivery boy, and has a bad experience while delivering pizzas to the college basketball team.

Neal Stephenson's postcyberpunk novel Snow Crash (1992) gives a futuristic spin on pizza delivery: pizza drivers (including the novel's protagonist) work for the Mafia, and drivers have state-of-the-art training and technology, ensuring that everyone gets pizza delivered in thirty minutes or less... or else.

[edit] In film

[edit] In pornographic films

Since the 1970s, pizza delivery has been a recurring plot vehicle in pornographic films, where it is used to introduce men (or women) for random sexual encounters. Titles in this genre include Pizza Girls, We Deliver (1978); The Pizza Boy: He Delivers (1986); California Pizza Girls (1992); Hawaiian Pizza Punani (1993), Pizza Sluts (1995); Big Sausage Pizza (2003); Big Sausage Pizza 2 (2004); Fresh Hot Pizza Boy (2004); DD Pizza Girls (2004), and Pepperoni Tits (2006).

[edit] In mainstream films

Pizza delivery has served as major plot element of such films as Loverboy.^[5] Other examples of the phenomenon include:

In the 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the protagonist Jeff Spicoli (played by Sean Penn) is delivered a pizza during class.

The 1984 comedy Delivery Boys features a group of pizza delivery drivers who form a break dancing team during their off-hours.

In the 1989 Spike Lee film Do the Right Thing, Lee's character delivers pizza for Sal's Famous Pizzeria which, along with its owners and customers, is a prominent part of the movie.

In the 1990 film Home Alone, Macaulay Culkin's character utilizes voices from a movie playing on a VCR to welcome (and scare off) a pizza delivery driver, so as to avoid personally interacting with him and thus exposing the fact that he is home alone.

In the 1990 film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Michelangelo has a Domino's Pizza driver deliver his pizza through a sewer grate. Michelangelo refuses to pay an additional $3 due to its lateness. In its sequel, a young pizza delivery boy and martial artist befriends the titular characters after repeatedly delivering them pizzas and being saved by them from muggers.

In the 1998 film Taxi, there are innumerable "two-wheelers" aiding Samy Naceri in his adventures.

The character of Norm (a/k/a Tucker) in 1998's There's Something About Mary lies to Mary about his occupation. He tells her he is an architect; he is actually a pizza delivery driver, and saw her for the first time when delivering a pizza to her.

In the 2004 film Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker works as a pizza delivery man until he gets fired for failing to deliver pizzas on time.

Heather Boerner criticized The Haunting Hour Volume One: Don't Think About It (2007) for its over the top use of Papa John's Pizza. She wrote, "Not only is the pizza delivery guy included in more than half of the DVD, but the logo is present and the kids are shown munching ecstatically on the pizza at the end of the movie. They even say things like, 'What great pizza!' and something along the lines of 'That delivery guy sure was nice!' It's enough to make a commercial-conscious parent gag."^[6]

[edit] On television

A SpongeBob SquarePants episode ("Pizza Delivery") features the title character having to overcome obstacles in order to deliver a pizza to a customer, who then refuses to take it because he didn't get his drink.^[7]

In Trigger Happy TV, pizzas were delivered to a Wendy house in a busy London street, and had to be posted through the letter box slice by slice.

In "The Pizza Patrol", a short on Garfield and Friends, Garfield takes advantage of a pizza place which guarantees that its pizza is free if not delivered in less than thirty minutes. Eventually, a truce is made which allows Garfield to get free pizza for a year.

The main character in Futurama, Philip J. Fry, was a pizza delivery boy in the 20th century before he was cryogenically frozen and woke up in the 30th century.

In Drawn Together, the major plot of one episode ("Dirty Pranking No. 2") involves an extended and somewhat off-color pizza prank.

On Degrassi, Jimmy and Spinner call a pizza restaurant to place an order under their teacher's (Ms. Kwan) name, to get revenge on her for giving them detention.

In the pilot episode of the Doctor Who spinoff, Torchwood, Gwen Cooper attempts to infiltrate Torchwood Three by delivering a pizza to it, to the amusement of the agents working in the base.

In Pizza (TV series), an Australian comedy series, the show centers on the activities of Pauly and his fellow co-workers as they deliver pizzas for the Sydney-based small business of Fat Pizza, whose motto is "they're big and they're cheesy". In the suburbs of Sydney, the men have dealt with aliens, killer kangaroos, bikies, drug dealers and other evil forces. Despite all this, no one seems quite surprised at any of this happening, and they persist in the dead end job which pays AU $3.00 an hour.

On The Daily Show and more recently The Colbert Report, there is a recurring sketch involving Stephen Colbert and a pizza boy who enters with the line "Did anyone order a pizza?", followed by Colbert eating a slice of pizza in a suggestive fashion (and sometimes sharing it with others on the show, including Jon Stewart and Congressman Brad Sherman).

[edit] In computer and video games

Radikal Bikers is the satirical quintessence of the dangers posed by deliveries, where the only goal of the player is to avoid traffic, and deliver the pizza by bike as fast as possible, doing so sooner than the computer- or player controlled other contestant.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City has a "Pizza Delivery" mission in which the player rides around the city on a "pizza bike" delivering pizzas to pedestrians.

In February 2005, it was possible to order pizza while playing Everquest II. Players could enter a special command in the game to have pizza delivered to their door. This feature generated a lot of publicity, but the service has since ended.

In The Sims, characters may order pizza delivery. In The Sims 2, characters may order pizza delivery. If the character doesn't have enough money to pay for the pizza, one of their possessions is taken.

In the WarioWare series, the character Mona is a delivery girl for a pizza shop named "Mona Pizza."

In Spiderman 2 the game, players can go on a series of pizza delivery missions for Peter Parker's job.

[edit] Other

At a historic Minuteman Missile Site in South Dakota, the entrance to the underground Launch Control Center is sealed by a blast-proof door emblazoned with a painted spoof of Domino's Pizza's red, white, and blue pizza delivery box.^[8] The box is labeled "Minuteman II," and hand-lettered text on the door reads "World-wide delivery in 30 minutes or less, or your next one is free,"^[8] spoofing a former Domino's Pizza slogan.