I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Would you like them on a boat, or would you like them with a goat?
I do not like Green Eggs and Ham. I do not like them, Sam I Am.
—Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham

The circus is in town! Or perhaps just the big Broadway play that everyone's been talking about recently. Or maybe it's just a big blockbuster movie. Whatever it is, the characters are all going to rush out to see it, perhaps on opening day.

However, there's always one character who thinks, no, knows that he/she is just going to absolutely hate it. Nevertheless, they're dragged to the event anyway... and lo and behold, they actually like it! In fact, most of the time, they'll become the biggest fan of whatever it is that they didn't want to see. Bonus points if the other characters, the ones so enthusiastic to see it in the first place, end up hating it.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a movie or a play... it can be anything. It can even be a food, such as, well...green eggs and ham.

Can happen in Real Life; see Hype Aversion.

Then again, it can more often lead to Hype Backlash. Or a Broken Aesop where the "you never know until you try" message comes out like The Complainer Is Always Wrong.

Not to be confused with Does Not Like Spam. Neither with Large Ham.

By the way, don't eat eggs and ham which are literally green. You'll probably get food poisoning.

Examples of I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham include:

Advertising

  • Done slightly differently in the old "Life Cereal" commercials where the other kids don't want to try the cereal, so they push it off on some kid named Mikey. Mikey, memetically, likes it.

Anime and Manga

  • Mahou Sensei Negima has an interesting variation in Chisame, who goes to extraordinary lengths not to accept the existence of magic, despite all the other characters telling her about how awesome it is. When she finally does get away from the madness, she realizes that her life is too boring, so she heads right back. And promptly starts complaining about it again.
  • In the New Doctor Slump, there's a couple of chained episodes which Arale, Katchan, Akane, and Peasuke visit King Nikochan's planet, where white radishes are the famous food. Peasuke, being very picky about what he eats, says he hate them, but after Akane forces him to eat one, he ends up loving them.
  • Played With in an episode of Lucky Star, when Tsukasa - who hates horror films - is taken to see Saw III by Kagami and Konata. Tsukasa comes out of the theater... still hating horror films.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS, this is the Fatal Flaw of many members of the Goha Corporation. Their goal is to eradicate the Rush Duel system, that the protagonist programmed into their own computers with an untraceable source code; to pursue this goal, they have to humor the Rush Duel Club by using the system themselves. Problem is... They start to have way too much fun using it.

Comic Books

  • A young Hellboy is adamant that "I don't like pamcakes!", but it turns out he loves them when he tries them. Cue demons in Hell lamenting that he is lost to them forever.

Film

  • In Shakespeare in Love, there's a Puritan preaching against theatre outside the Globe, but is swept inside by the crowd on the opening night of Romeo and Juliet, and by the end of the play is cheering louder than anyone.
  • The Dr. Seuss book is briefly referenced in The American President, when President Shepherd comments that his Secretary of State and longtime best friend A.J. constantly addresses him as Mr. President;

A.J.; Nice shot, Mr. President.
President Shepherd; Nice shot, Mr. President? You won't even call me 'Andrew' while we're playing pool?
A.J.; I will not do it playing pool, I will not do it in a school. I do not like green eggs and ham, I don not like them--
President Shepherd; At ease, A.J.!

Literature

  • Obviously, the title of the trope comes from the classic Dr. Seuss book, Green Eggs And Ham, in which one of the main characters is constantly badgered to try the strangely colored breakfast concoction. He balks at first, but when he finally tries it, he ends up loving it.
    • And... guess what happens in obscure Canadian band Moxy Früvous's version of the story, when the pestering Sam-I-Am is asked if he wants to share the verdant foodstuffs with the convinced protagonist? He's not keen on them.
  • Jonathan Swift once quoted "He was a bold man that first ate an oyster," and declined to explain it further, thinking it self explanatory.

Live-Action TV

  • An episode of The Cosby Show has Vanessa dismissing blues as "whiny music" until she actually goes with the family to a concert given by the episode's Special Guest.
  • Happened to Dick Solomon of 3rd Rock from the Sun with American football in "Fourth and Dick".
  • Happened to Red Forman of That '70s Show, when he is made to watch Star Wars and is impressed against his will by the first big explosion.
  • One episode of Taxi had a subplot where Reverend Jim was shocked that Alex hadn't seen E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial yet. Alex claims he simply doesn't like science fiction. He sees it to get Jim to quit pestering him, and afterward admits he liked it.
  • In Sports Night Dana gets tickets to see The Lion King on Broadway with her young nephew. She thinks it's going to be silly but returns and raves about how awesome it was.
    • Of course, since ABC was owned by Disney at the time, this could also count as a blatant example of Product Placement.
  • On Angel, Gunn is angry that Angel got them ballet tickets, instead of tickets to a hip-hop concert. He's almost weeping with joy by the first intermission. And it's not even a magical compulsion.
  • On Top Gear's American muscle car roadtrip, James May hates his Cadillac CTS-V and is less than thrilled about the detour the other two presenters want to make on a winding backroad in Nevada. He promptly changes his tune once he sends the car through a few tight corners.
  • An old Sesame Street skit has Ernie trying to play a rhyming game with Bert, who initially refuses...but then gets caught up in it, to the point where he wants to continue even after Ernie gets bored with it.
  • An episode of Just Shoot Me has Finch pestered into seeing a performance of King Lear. By the end he's weeping and begging the others not to look at him.
  • After reviewing The Soloist on The Rotten Tomatoes Show, Ellen Fox realizes this:

"Last week we were talking about seeing this movie and I thought I was going to hate it and you [Brett Erlich] were excited to see it. So it surprised both of us."

  • Londo Molari from Babylon 5 has a particularly notable example of this when he meets the comedy duo Reebo and Zooty (Played by Penn and Teller). Their ubiquity and popularity confuses and annoys him throughout the episode. However after meeting them in person he seems to become a devoted fan.

Music

  • Sandra Boynton's song, "(Don't Give Me That) Broccoli" from the Dog Train album.

I know I'm going to hate it! Uh, oh, I ate it!...yum.

I used to hate them, now they're all that I eat, oh yeah
Whee, I've often seen then whipped, but they just can't be beat
Now I'm gonna have to face it
I'm addicted to spuds
Might as well face it, I'm addicted to spuds

  • A common occurrence if a band has a New Sound Album, if an album has a different line up to the usual, or if they read a negative review by a biased critic is that the one person won't listen to it because they don't think they'll like it. A notable example is One Hot Minute by Red Hot Chili Peppers which is a good album that has only been avoided because it features Dave Navarro on guitar and has slightly more metal tracks than usual. Often these people are inherently biased towards the band's more frequent guitarist John Frusciante, and would probably praise the album had he played on it.
  • The song "Pink Fish", written by Alan Menken.
  • The Barenaked Ladies sang a partially rewritten rap song version of the original Dr. Seuss story in their first independent album.

Newspaper Comics

  • Peanuts: In one arc, Peppermint Patty was dragged to a classical concert expecting to hate it, only to find it beautiful. Then she turns to apologise to Marcie, who dragged her there...only to find that Marcie has fallen asleep.

Troping

  • A common plot involving real or made up Game Show Appearance episodes: one character will initially think a Game Show or lottery drawing is stupid, silly, and/or pointless and will generally become the one to get obsessed by it.

Video Games

  • Happens in Red Dead Redemption when John Marsten takes his son Jack hunting. Jack originally believes he wouldn't like it, but in the end is commenting on how much he enjoyed it.
  • In Super Robot Wars J, Domon Kasshu is apprehensive about watching Gekiganger 3. By the time they're done with it, he's so moved that he's crying.

Web Comics

  • Shanna Cochran of Fans! started out as a vocal critic of sci-fi/fantasy fandom, but she eventually became a fan herself. For much of the comic's run she tried to conceal this, fooling no one.
    • Justified, as Shanna's mother is insane and fandom was the point where she began detaching from reality. Shanna denies fandom because she's afraid she's going down the same road.

Web Original

  • Subverted in Homestar Runner, with the Strong Bad Email concert. Strong Bad ends the email with the words "And that's how sloshy became one of my favorite metal bands", only to have Strong Sad tell him that sloshy, a band whose only mentioned song is entitled We Don't Even Really Care About You, is not metal. After Strong Bad breaks a record over Strong Sad's head for "tricking" him, he says "And that's how sloshy became one of my least favorite bands".
  • Parodied in the YouTube Poop Green Eggs and Eggs, where the main character eats the titular foodstuff halfway through, then spends the rest of the video demanding sex from Sam-I-Am Chadwarden.

Western Animation

  • In an episode of Sam and Max Freelance Police, Sam & Max go after a guy named Kent Standit, who has banned their favorite snack, Glazed McGuffins. Following several contrived misadventures, they manage to force-feed it to him by literally throwing it down his throat. Shortly after he declares his fondness for McGuffins (and lampshades this trope), he tells Sam & Max that he will be going after another snack that the duo happen to love. Big mistake.
  • An episode of Rugrats had the characters going to the "Reptar on Ice" spectacular. Grandpa Lou was vehemently opposed to going, but once the show began, he was enthralled, and by the end, could only offer up this stunned observation: "Brilliance... sheer brilliance."
  • In SpongeBob SquarePants, Squidward vehemently refused to try a Krabby Patty, but when pressed by Spongebob, became a raving addict (though at first he tried to keep his obsession secret). "They'll go straight to your thighs! And then you'll blow up!"
  • Happens twice in Doug: in one episode his Grandma Opal convinces him to try sushi—he's horrified of the idea of eating raw fish—after reminding him of how as a baby he initially resisted ice cream only to love it, and he does indeed like the sushi; another episode finds him pressured into eating, and discovering he likes, the infamous dish of liver and onions.
  • Traditionally, and indeed as expressed in the opening theme song, Arnold would lament the necessity of the day's field trip in most, if not all episodes of The Magic School Bus.
    • Ironically, the one he missed (where they went through his digestive track) made him wish he'd gone with and swear to never miss another fieldtrip again...starting after the next one, when he found it was going to deal with dinosaurs.
  • Green Eggs and Ham is parodied in part of an episode of Histeria! in which Loud Kiddington tries to persuade former President George H.W. Bush to eat some broccoli. He does, and, contrary to the trope, he hates it. (It turns out, though, that Loud just wanted him to verify his distaste for it, because it provides an excuse for him and his friends to not eat it themselves.)
  • The Animaniacs short "The Warners and the Beanstalk" not only parodies the classic fairy-tale Jack and the Beanstalk, but also Green Eggs and Ham with the Warners trying to get the giant to try gold eggs and meat. It ends with the memorable exchange "Gold eggs and meat I do not hate!" "But now the cloud can't hold your weight", followed by the giant plummeting to Earth like a stone.
  • In Family Guy Peter gets dragged to a Chick Flick, and enjoys it so much he decides to make his own. Hilarity Ensues.
  • An episode of Hey Arnold! actually includes both a subversion and usage of the trope through and through. The girls around the school are all raving about a singer who's coming to town. Except for Helga and Phoebe. Helga isn't even into the singer and thinks he's stupid, while Phoebe is actually a closet fan. (A huge fan at that, she had posters of him all over her room) Then Phoebe and Helga win a chance to see him in concert and meet him afterwards. After meeting him as a person, Phoebe experiences Fan Disillusionment and starts to dislike him, while Helga meanwhile just loves him and thinks he's the greatest person ever, for the following reasons:
    • His accent is fake.
    • He can't play any of his instruments.
    • He doesn't write or even sing his own songs.
    • He's an A-Rank Jerkass. This part amazes Helga, who's one herself.
    • Despite all of the above, he's made enormous amounts of money and fame for himself, and she views this as "the perfect scam."
  • A minor version occurs in the Sushi Pack episode "The Yam Yakkers." Tako insists he isn't excited about Vince Face, the actor who plays Aquabot-boy, showing up for the new movie's premiere, as he's a fan of the character only. Yet when face-to-face with Vince, he can't help asking for an autograph, and Maguro is quick to remind him of what he said earlier.
  • In Frisky Dingo, rapper Ta'Quil becomes instantly hooked to NASCAR after watching his first race, sporting a racing jacket afterwards.
  • My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic has the episode "Read it and Weep", where Rainbow Dash realizes to her horror that she loves reading the Daring Do book Twilight gave her, especially after her earlier outburst about how books are only for eggheads. She then tries to hide her newfound obssession from her friends, which is quite hard to do when she experiences Just One More Page syndrome. Naturally, the Aesop of the episode was "I shouldn't knock something until I've tried it".
  • A mild example in one of the Jimmy Neutron shorts (before it became a full-blown series): Jimmy is very reluctant to try cream corn for supper, despite his mother reassuring him that it's good. So he scoops it into his Hypercube while his parents are busy talking. This backfires when his dad spots the cube, mistakes it for a brainteaser puzzle, and starts fiddling with it the until cream corn it was storing explodes all over the room. Some gets in his mouth and he comments in an offhand, pleasantly surprised tone, "Oh. That is good."
  • Gravity Falls: In the B-plot of "The Inconveniencing", Stan can't find the TV remote, and is too lazy to simply get up and change the channel. He's horrified to see that the movie about to come on is a "chick flick" called The Duchess Approves. One commercial break later, however, he's really loving the movie.
  • Rick and Morty; in "The Rickchurian Mortydate", Rick is, at first, dismissive of the game Morty is playing - Minecraft - but a scene later he's playing it himself and starting to like it.
  • In the animated special The Easter Bunny is Comin' to Town, the Bunny actually has a song that explains this Trope, which he uses to convince two city guards who are doubtful of trying anything new. (With a Shout-Out to Jonathan Swift which the target audience likely didn't get.). See it here at the 16:00 mark.
  • In She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Perfuma is a Granola Girl with a magical Green Thumb and a love of plant life. However in one episode that takes the heroines to a desert, she ends up having to reluctantly confess that one type of plant she cannot make herself like (and not for lack of trying) is cacti. Her powers have never worked on such plants due to their odd body structure (thick, very hard stems, and spines instead of leaves) and when she tried raising them the old fashioned way, they always died because she never figured out exactly how to water them. They'd either die from lack of water or from overwatering. However, when a crisis starts and every when is needed in battle, she realizes her powers work not only on leaves and stems, but on roots. And cacti have very strong roots…

Real Life

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