The Candy Corn Debate

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About

The Candy Corn Debate refers to the online discussion about whether or not the seasonal confection candy corn tastes good. Coinciding with Halloween, candy corn is often the subject of memes, with many expressing how they're disgusted by it or how they feel it's the worst candy ever made.

Origin

As candy corn was first produced in 1898,^[1] it's likely that this debate could have been argued offline since then. However, the first instance of the debate crossing into popular culture comes from comedian Lewis Black's Comedy Central Presents standup special.^[2] Airing on April 22nd, 2002, Black jokes about the taste of Candy Corn, stating that it was all produced in 1911. He says:

"The worst thing about Halloween is, of course, candy corn. It's unbelievable to me. Candy corn is the only candy in the history of America that's never been advertised. And there's a reason. All of the candy corn that was ever made was made in 1911. And so, since nobody eats that stuff, every year there's a ton of it left over. And the candy corn company sends the guys to the villages and they collect out of the dumpsters all the candy corn we've thrown away. They wash it!! They wash it!

"I'll never forget the first time my mother gave me candy corn. She said, "Here – Lewis, this is candy corn. It's corn that tastes like candy". [high-pitched sound] This tastes like crap! And every year since then, Halloween has returned and I, like an Alzheimer's patient, find myself in the room, and the room has a big table in it, and on the table is a bowl of candy corn. And I look at it as if I've never seen it before. "Candy corn", I think. "Corn that tastes like candy. I can't wait". Son of a *!!"

Spread

One year after Black's special aired, The Onion ^[5] published a satirical article entitled "Generic Candy Corn Will Give You AIDS," satirizing and hyperbolizing people's disdain for the confection.

On October 29th, 2008, the Baltimore Sun^[4] published a defense of Candy Corn. The following year, in October 2008, the food website Serious Eats^[3] published a pro and con stance on Candy Corn, becoming among the first available debates about the treat online.

Four years later, the discussion of Candy Corn began to significantly from 1% in 2011 to 35% in 2012, according to NewBase.^[6] The study also showed the public's thoughts on candy corn, placing the candy right between love and hate, proving its divisiveness.

On October 28th, 2013, BuzzFeed ^[7] published a video entitled "Why Candy Corn Is Actually The Best." The video received more than 330,000 views in four years (shown below, left).

On October 26th, 2016, chef and TV show host Gordon Ramsay appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Following his interview, the show aired a pre-record sketch of Ramsay trying to different Halloween treats. When he gets to candy corn, he says, "It's not candy, it's not corn, it's earwax shaped in the form of a rotten tooth." The video received more than 2 million views in one year (shown below, right).

The following year, Tumblr ^[7] posted a series of gifs of the opinions to which Tumblr user osunism responds, "Gordon Ramsey has settled the candy corn debate once and for all." The post (shown below) received more than 420,000 notes in one month.

National Candy Corn Day

National Candy Corn Day is a secular holiday observed annually on October 30th. The day celebrates the confection and its fans. While the origin of the holiday is unknown, the earliest available mention of the celebration was posted by the website Book of Joe on October 11th, 2004.^[8]

Beginning in 2009, people began posting about National Candy Corn Day on social media. The first known entry of the hashtag #nationalcandycornday was posted on October 28th, 2009 by Twitter^[9] user @tygaruppercut (shown below, left). They tweeted, "no one likes you candy corn.. revoke #nationalcandycornday (October 30th)."

The hashtag has since been used to debate whether or not people like candy corn (examples below, center and right). Several media outlets covered National Candy Corn Day, including Uproxx,^[10] TIME^[11] and more.