The Snack Is More Interesting

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A character enters what should be a serious situation for them, and yet seems completely bored with the events. Instead of giving the occasion his full attention, they seem more invested in the snack they rather conveniently happen to be eating.

Compare Autopsy Snack Time, Fruit of the Loon, Long Speech Tea Time (where an audience is bored) and Pass the Popcorn (where they're entertained by someone else's troubles). Often overlaps with Enemy Eats Your Lunch.

Examples of The Snack Is More Interesting include:

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

Film

  • In Star Trek, Kirk faces the Kobayashi Maru, but instead of reacting to the conditions of the test, he blows off everything as he gives the test a taste of its own medicine, munching on some mysterious apple he got out of nowhere the entire time. In his own words, "Don't worry about it".
  • In The Santa Clause, Scott spends a board meeting taking his time scooping a sundae dish clean.
  • In Django (the movie, not the software), eating food is given as a textbook example of douchecockery villainy. Watch and learn.
  • This occurs in Pulp Fiction while Jules and Vincent are putting on a hit. Man, Big Kahuna Burgers are tasty. Jules actually has the gall to start up a conversation over burgers, and eat the burger of the guy they all know he's going to kill.
  • In The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Denethor is more interested in eating his chicken and tomatoes than he is in Faramir's safety.
  • In the remake of Ocean's Eleven Brad Pitt decided to play his character this way; he's snacking on street food in just about every scene except the heist itself.
  • In Galaxy Quest, Fred is often seen with snack food, even in serious situations. (He was originally intended to be a stoner, but those references were taken out to make the movie PG, leaving a habit for snacking that's still pretty funny.)
    • They may never mention any pot use, but damn near everything about Fred's personality implies that he's a stoner.
  • Denied by Volstagg in Thor. Do not mistake his appetite for apathy!
  • In Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger vs. Space Sheriff Gavan the Movie, Basco enters battle with the Tokumei Sentai Gobusters, and, once he was losing, turns to his monkey pet Sally for help. Sally was so preoccupied with eating fruit Yellow Buster gave to him that Basco had to give up.


Literature

  • An Older Than Radio example: In Alexander Pushkin's novella Vystrel (The Shot), the narrator, a hussar called Silvio, describes a duel he once had. His vis-a-vis nonchalantly ate sweet cherries before the shootout, unnerving Silvio so deeply that he had to call off the duel before it started.

You seem to care nothing about your impeding death, preferring to have breakfast; I have no intention of interrupting it.

Live Action TV

  • Doctor Who: The Third Doctor, in the middle of a sword fight with The Master, calmly pins his opponent to the wall by holding his sword point to his throat, then calmly eats a sandwich as he remarks about how violent exercise makes him rather famished. During all this he's basically treating the Master like he's little more than an amusing distraction at best.
  • iCarly:
    • Sam gets a call from her friends telling her they're trapped in a teacher's house. She says something along the lines of "that sucks", picks up an apple and takes a bite.
    • Played Straight and Averted in the same scene with Sam in iSaved Your Life. Freddie's been hit by a truck, Sam runs into to tell Spencer, and he realizes she's not joking (because they are currently engaged in a paintball assassin game) when she throws away the pizza he was about to eat. Once she's done telling him, she starts eating a taco she bought at the scene of the accident.
  • Psych: Shawn Spencer does this from time to time.
    • One example involves Shawn bluffing his way on to a murder scene...in search of spices to add to the Mee Krob he conveniently has instead of looking for clues.
  • MacGyver: "Target MacGyver" has a scene where Mac builds a trap out of stuff he finds in the bad guys' kitchen; the first thing he finds is a bag of carrots, from which he carefully selects a single carrot that he then proceeds to not use in the trap in any way—but when the trap is ready, he picks up the carrot again and takes a bite of it Bugs Bunny style.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Xander, Willow and Anya annoy Riley by munching on a bag of chips, while he's trying to be stealthy when they're out patrolling with him after Buffy is laid up after being wounded by a vampire.


Theater

  • For some time, it was traditional for productions of As You Like It to have Audrey eating a turnip the whole time Touchstone is attempting to "woo" her.


Video Games

Western Animation

  • Bugs Bunny is frequently performing this, as a possible holdover from his days as a Screwy Squirrel. When asking "Eh... What's up, Doc?", he's often feigning caring, and is even asking and talking while chewing.
  • Invader Zim often features Gir doing this.
  • The Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "Frankie My Dear" has Prince Charming trying to woo Frankie and all the while she's just staring at him unphased while casually eating a slice of pizza.
  • In the Freakazoid! episode "Hero Boy", as the villain is bragging about his latest plan, Freak' is more interested in the sandwich a minion made him, derailing the monologue to ask more about it.
  • In the South Park episode "Volcano," geologist Randy Marsh discovers unusual seismic activity in the region. He exclaims "Oh my God! A volcano!" Then he takes a slurp of his coffee.
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