The Nerdery Movie Night #247: Whitney and Pepperoni Pizza Popcorn

We agree (obvs) that Whitney Houston was dealt a dirty hand, and we try our fifth pepperoni pizza popcorn recipe.

Pepperoni Pizza Popcorn

Dave: I’m a child of the 80s and like many closeted gay kids at the time, I loved loved loved Whitney Houston. In the pre-internet age, I was too young and too sheltered to understand all the ways that her life was shaped by misogyny, racism, and maybe homophobia. I just loved her voice, and I still do. Houston is a key player in American song and, despite any difficulties, needs to be remembered as such. I cried so many times during this movie from a mix of nostalgia and deep sadness at the way her life turned out. Houston came of age in the tabloid era but didn’t live to see the now-modern Internet age, which would have made her encounter with superstardom even more difficult. While this movie falters a bit from trying to tie all of Whitney’s contradictions into a neat package, it’s still incredibly affecting, especially if you’re old enough to remember her meteoric rise and fall. (️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2)

Mommy bloggers, this is a challenge: can you create pizza-based or Italianesque recipes that aren’t all based on pepperoni pizza? We’ve had so many pepperoni pizza popcorns, and they’ve all been varying levels of mediocre, though this one ticked more boxes than many: it’s greasy, salty, and cheesy without being soggy. Still, Joe had to edit the recipe’s instructions and amounts as he went because they were bonkers and also might have set off our building’s fire alarms. With the fire alarms averted, this was smoky and delicious, but didn’t quite clear the “would I make it for company?” hurdle, even if we did devour the bowl well before Whitney’s marriage started to go off the rails (️️️️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Joe: For a person my age, this was a very difficult documentary to watch. Whitney Houston was a touchstone in pop music for almost every moment of my young life. Her debut came out when I was in third grade, and memories of dancing to the remixes of "Heartbreak Hotel", "It's Not Right, But It's Ok", and "My Love Is Your Love" in the gay clubs in the late 90s still brings an warmth to my heart. Both the beautiful and the tragic moments of her life are stitched together compellingly in Whitney, and it's absolutely gut-wrenching to see how her demons caught up to her. Hearing her voice in live footage, so pure in the days before auto-tune, is truly something to behold. I doubt our world will ever again be graced with a talent of her caliber. At the risk of being exploitative, I wish the documentary had been a little more explicit with some details, but as an "oral history", it was largely successful overall. (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

This is the fifth iteration of pepperoni popcorn. For purists, here's one, two, three, and four.) This past week, two friends sent me this recipe on Instagram, so I decided to give it a shot. Like all TikTok videos, the recipe is a bunch of quick cuts and fancy camera tricks that don't show the actual work - like the fact that the minimal amount of oil produced by sautéing the pepperoni does not produce enough oil to cook to kernels. The measurements for the toppings was also insane: 1/2 cup of popcorn does not warrant 2 full cups of parmesan cheese. Luckily, I've made enough popcorn to know that these proportions were insane and adjusted accordingly. I also had to re-pop the popcorn after the "pepperoni oil" kernels burned spectacularly within the first minute. Even if everything had gone well, I'd still think this popcorn is, as the kids today say, "mid". But Jesus Fucking Christ, this made me hate TikTok even more than I already do, and I hate it with a truly fiery "old man shouting at clouds" passion. (⭐️⭐️1/2)

Popcorn from: fucking TikTok

Whitney on IMDB.