‘Try before you deny’: ‘Stranger Things’ star backs pineapple on pizza

Article content

The newest season of Stranger Things might have been its scariest yet. But thanks to Argyle (Eduardo Franco), one of the fourth season’s fan favourite characters, the series has taken a side on the debate of putting pineapple on pizza.

Article content

After Mike (Finn Wolfhard) deemed the idea “blasphemous,” Argyle, who works at Surfer Boy Pizza, said what everyone who has bitten into a delicious slice of Hawaiian has thought: “Oh, fruit on your pizza is gnarly, you say? Well, I say try before you deny.”

We should note, if you haven’t seen the fourth season finale, it’s love at first bite after Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) chows down on Argyle’s special pie (“It’s good,” she tells Mike. “Really good”).

In interview with the Sun, Franco said he didn’t even know that pineapple on pizza was such a controversial topic until recently.

“I genuinely didn’t know that was a thing until a few years ago. I grew up eating that all the time. It’s pineapple, ham and jalapeno, and people are freaking out? What’s wrong with that? Why aren’t people freaking out about anchovies on pizza?”

Article content

On TikTok, Franco’s “strong opinions about pizza” went viral.

“Points were made,” the official account for Little Caesars commented, with another person asking, “Why isn’t fish on pizza cancelled instead?”

Franco’s co-star Gaten Matarazzo (who plays Dustin on the show) admitted he too is a fan. “My grandfather (would say) I’m not allowed to put pineapple on pizza, but my favourite is pineapple, pepperoni, and bacon,” he told Yahoo! “Here’s the thing: I understand the hate. It’s a reasonable hate, but I want people to try it and not think about the fact that it’s pizza. Just put pineapple and bacon together with pepperoni — all three of them on a pie — and it’s pretty great.”

On Reddit, a skeptical diner confessed that Argyle had made them fall in love with the topping.

Article content

“IT’S FANTASTIC! A nice sweet/salty flavour that blends perfectly together.”

Other Redditors weighed in, with one positing that pineapple on pizza likely got a bad rap because it wasn’t properly drained before being added as a topping.

“The pineapple has to dry out considerably during the cooking process or the ingredients around it won’t cook,” one person wrote. “The few times I’ve tried pineapple pizza lately, you could tell they dumped a can of chopped pineapple into a bin and scooped it out, water and all, and put it on the pizza. It just wasn’t the right texture.”

But the Sun’s lifestyle editor Rita DeMontis is most definitely not on team pineapple.

“My Italian relatives would be rolling in their graves!” she says. “I’ve tried it, but it’s not for me.”

Article content

Likewise, Stanley Tucci, host of CNN’s Searching for Italy, a program that examines the culinary history of Italy, told the TODAY show that the idea of pineapple on pizza was “so repellent, were I to think of it, I might not survive.”

He then wondered, “Where does it come from? Like who’s the guy who said, ‘This is a good idea?’”

Well, Stanley, according to the BBC, the Hawaiian pizza never came from Hawaii, but was invented by a Greek immigrant to Canada named Sam Panopoulos back in 1962. Panopoulos, with his brothers, owned a restaurant in Chatham, Ont., where pineapple pizza was born.

And according to a 2019 Research Co. poll, 73% of Canadians say they would “definitely” or “probably” eat pizza with pineapple.

Hopefully we’ll get more culinary tips from Argyle in Stranger Things’ upcoming fifth season. Franco definitely has more thoughts about putting fish on pizza.

Article content

“I don’t know about eating canned anchovies or sardines on pizza,” Franco added during his impromptu rant in a video call with the Sun. “I don’t know about eating sardines, period. I don’t know if that’s a good thing. I just feel like that’s way more controversial and no one’s talking about that. Pineapple on pizza is crazy? Dude, you’re putting canned fish on pizza, that’s crazy.”

Stranger Things 4 is streaming now on Netflix

mdaniell@postmedia.com