Fruitcake: Encyclopedia II - Fruitcake - Fruitcake in popular culture

Fruitcake - Fruitcake in popular culture

The fruitcake has become one of the most ridiculed desserts and the butt of many jokes centered on its heaviness and long shelf life.

Former Tonight Show host Johnny Carson joked that there really is only one fruitcake in the world. It is passed from family to family -- a joke also frequently attributed to the writer Calvin Trillin, who denies being the source. Trillin says he was just passing along a theory he "had heard from someone in Denver". He continues, "There is nothing dangerous about fruitcakes as long as people send them along without eating them." The Fruitcake Lady makes appearances with current host Jay Leno and offers her "fruitcake" opinions.

For the last nine years about 500 people have shown up in Manitou Springs, Colorado each January for the Great Fruitcake Toss. "We encourage the use of recycled fruitcakes", says Leslie Lewis of the Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce. The all-time Great Fruitcake Toss record is 420 feet.

Fruitcakes have been banned on airplanes. Due to their density, it is possible for a weapon baked inside the cake to avoid detection.

Fruitcake is also used, especially in the United Kingdom, as insulting slang for a 'crazy person' (e.g. "he's a complete fruitcake"). It is derived from the expression "nutty as a fruitcake", which was first recorded in 1935. It is also sometimes used as insulting slang for a homosexual male.

Fruitcake has even infiltrated the popular music scene as a name for several underground bands including Fruitcake and Fruitcake-Superbeing.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Fruitcake in popular culture", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki