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this is a video about pineapples.

2019-10-30 · explainer · John · 3:40 · watch on YouTube

Topic: History & curiosities (also: Projects) · mode: Explainer · tags: calendar ritual, self promotion, on location

While hand-delivering Pizzamas merch around Indianapolis, John explains how pineapples were once a luxury of 18th-century European and North American elites, grown by colonized and enslaved people through the Columbian Exchange, and suggests those elites would ask why we don't put pineapple on everything.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Delivering Pizzamas merch in Indianapolis; local versus Singapore shipping costs

  • ★★ John is personally delivering Pizzamas merch to buyers who live in Indianapolis, for efficiency's sake. — 00:00:00 · Pizzamas, Indianapolis
  • ★★ John says shipping a T-shirt within Indianapolis costs about $4.50, but shipping one from Indianapolis to Singapore costs about $5.50. — 00:00:00 · Indianapolis
  • ★★ John says this is partly because international shipping rates are set by a secret cabal independent of actual transportation costs. (playful) — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Pineapple pizza's origin and 'peak Anthropocene'; haircut and first delivery

  • ★★★ Summarizing his Anthropocene Reviewed episode, John says pineapple pizza was invented in 1962 in Canada by a Greek immigrant inspired by Chinese cuisine to put a South American food on an Italian dish. — 00:00:29 · Canada, The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast), United States

  • ★★★ Whatever its taste, John calls pineapple pizza peak Anthropocene: some contain ingredients from three or four continents and have seen more of the world than he ever will. — 00:00:29

    “it is peak Anthropocene”

00:00:58 — Pineapples as an elite status symbol, the Columbian Exchange, royal and presidential pineapple fans, and why not pineapple on everything

  • ★★★ John says rich people worshipped pineapples a couple hundred years ago: regular access was the 18th-century rich person's version of owning a space exploration startup. (playful) — 00:00:58
  • ★★★ John says pineapples fill old still lifes because rich people bragged about them; a single pineapple in the US or Europe could cost the equivalent of $10,000 today. — 00:00:58 · United States, Europe
  • ★★ John says pineapples became such a symbol of wealth that they were embroidered onto footstools, sculpted onto silver tables and built atop buildings. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ John says pineapples were costly because they need tropical climates; their story is the Columbian Exchange: almost all eaten in Europe in the 16th-18th centuries were grown by colonized or enslaved people. — 00:01:27 · Europe
  • ★★ John says almost all the wealth generated by the pineapple trade ended up with colonizers. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John says pineapples were eventually grown in Europe, never in quantity; his favorite pineapple painting shows English gardener John Rose giving King Charles II the first pineapple grown in England. — 00:01:56 · England, Europe
  • ★★ John says Louis XV of France and Catherine the Great of Russia loved pineapples. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John says King Ferdinand of Spain was purportedly the first person to taste a pineapple on European soil, in 1496. (hedged) — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John says George Washington was a big pineapple fan; he left the North American mainland only once, visiting Barbados at 19, where he tasted many new foods including avocados. — 00:02:26 · United States
  • ★ George Washington (quoted): John quotes Washington: of all the new foods, none pleased his taste as did the pine(apple). — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ John suggests rich visitors from 18th-century Europe or North America would ask not why we put pineapple on pizza, but why we don't put it on everything. (hypothetical) — 00:02:55 · Europe, United States
  • ★★ Pineapples are now $3 at the grocery store any day, John says; an 18th-century rich person would wonder how we resist gorging on those prickly sweet miracles. (playful) — 00:02:55

00:03:24 — Anthropocene Reviewed link, pineapple pins only at DFTBA.com during Pizzamas, sign-off

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Hawaiian pizza · pineapple

Also: People: Catherine the Great · Charles II of England · Ferdinand II of Aragon · George Washington · John Rose · Louis XV

Projects: DFTBA Records · Pizzamas · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast)

Organizations: Universal Postal Union

Concepts: Anthropocene · colonialism · slavery

Places: Barbados · Canada · England · Europe · Indianapolis · Singapore · South America · United States

Events: Columbian exchange

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