The case against popcorn
Monday, August 11, 2008
"Its smell is all-pervasive, it makes huge amounts of mess, and it distracts and annoys people intensely." So says Nicolas Kent, artistic director of the Tricycle cinema in London, quoted in today's Daily Mail.
No, he's not talking about smoking. He's talking about popcorn. "Popcorn is horrible stuff and I won't have it anywhere near my cinema," he says.
Meanwhile Picturehouse Cinemas - the UK's largest art house cinema chain - is going to introduce "popcorn-free screenings". I quite like popcorn (I had some on Saturday night, at home, watching the DVD of Notes On A Scandal), but any cinema that chooses to ban it has my support.
It's not just the cost that I object to. (The mark-up on a £4 bucket of cinema popcorn is said to be as much as 10,000 per cent.). It's the smell and the mess when some idiot - usually but not always a child - drops his carton on the floor or down the back of my seat (which he's been kicking for the past 30 minutes).
I don't want a blanket ban on popcorn in cinemas. Let those who want to eat it while they're watching a film do so - at the local multiplex, for example. What I want is choice. And for the owners of private cinemas to be allowed to set their own policy on popcorn.
Sound familiar?
Reader Comments (4)
As a smoker I have not been to the cinema for years and have no intention of going. However, no doubt some smokers do still go and as they are unable to smoke they no doubt munch popcorn, crisps, chocolates, etc as that is what most smokerd do when denied a smoke! It is not so much the nicotine that they miss as the hand to mouth habit.
While I do agree that the smell of popcorn in the cinema is awful I would never ask for it to be banned, are you forgetting that it was talk like this that started the smoking ban off and look where that got us. All thats needed is for some neurotic group to take this up and before you know it there would be an all out ban with the rusultant job losses etc. After all one is never more than 2 hours in a cinema whereas one is inhaling ghastly polution 24/7 that nothing can ever be done about.
Arent we all getting very intolerent these days.
It's a wonder that our lovely Government hasn't banned popcorn. Popcorn is one of the main causes of children choking to death and also has salt or sugar added.
Oxford Times has this story and allows comments.