Discreet Dining Disposal

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A character is given food he/she doesn't like or doesn't want to eat for some reason. To avoid consuming it, the character may give the food to the dog to eat or try to throw it in the trash. Sometimes, the dog may outright reject the food, indicating how bad the food is.

See also Discreet Drink Disposal for liquids and That Poor Plant for results.

Examples of Discreet Dining Disposal include:

Film

Live Action TV

  • Occurs in the Seinfeld episode where Jerry doesn't like the mutton that his girlfriend serves. He spits it into a napkin and puts it in the pocket of his coat.
  • There's an episode of That's So Raven which involves this. The father, who is a chef, recreates a family recipe and the B plot of the episode involves Corey and Eddie finding different ways to dispose of it.
  • A variation on Babylon 5. John Sheridan tried to impress Ambassador Delenn by cooking a recipe from her home world. She takes a bite, declares it to be delicious, and then asks him about a painting on the wall behind Sheridan. As soon as he turns around to look at it, she grabs the salt and pepper shakers and frantically shakes them over her food before he can turn back around.
  • The Mr. Bean Film example above comes directly from the series.
  • In the thanksgiving episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, as the family settles down to dinner, Nicky is seen discarding his vegetables... with Carlton doing the same thing.
  • In Power Rangers Samurai, the other rangers occasionally have to do this with Mia's cooking.

Literature

  • In the epilogue to Polgara The Sorceress, Prince Geran considers stashing his spinach in his pockets for later disposal.
  • Molly's mom tells her about doing this as a child when Molly is being stubborn about not eating her vegetables.

Newspaper Comics

  • Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes would come up with creative ways of getting rid of his dinner; in one strip, he shovels it onto his father's plate when he isn't looking.

Western Animation

  • The episode of Futurama where Bender became a cook, and the crew does this.
  • Used in Rugrats in the episode where Suzie gets an easy-bake oven and makes...something with it. She gives the things to the babies and they hate it, so they discreetly get rid of it in various ways.
  • Stewie tries to pull this in Family Guy, but fails when Brian puts the broccoli back on his plate.
  • American Dad: Stan develops an eating problem and disposes of food by hiding it in his clothes or in his enormous mouth (he has a huge chin area).
  • Doug couldn't tolerate the strict prune diet from his Babysitter From Hell.

Real Life

  • During the period of alcohol Prohibition in the US (1920-1933), one of the most effective teams of revenue agents (the guys tasked with enforcing Prohibition) was that of Isidore Einstein and Moe Smith ("Izzy and Moe"), who got up to all kinds of hijinks in the course of doing their job. Eventually, word got out that Izzy kept kosher...so the proprietor of the establishment they were investigating undercover tried to get him to eat a ham sandwich. Moe contrived a distraction, allowing Izzy to quietly dispose of the ham and eat the rest of the sandwich, allowing them to make the bust.