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So, I was reading the New York Times this morning and saw an article labeled "The Broccoli Test."
"This cannot," I thought, "be about what I want it to be about."
It wasn't--it was about healthcare reform--but I tweet it and mcwonthelottery IMed me.
"What did you hope that article would be about? I'm kind of afraid to ask."
I was shocked that she'd never encountered The Broccoli Test in fandom before and dug up a definition. I tweeted that I had to explain it to her and was inundated with half a dozen more tweets asking what it was.
Come on, guys, really? I can't be that fandom!old!
Oh my god, but I totally am. 16 years in fandom. Crap.
So, for the uninitiated, here's the definition of The Broccoli Test, as taken from Fanlore:
The Broccoli Test is a shorthand term for some characters' almost psychic understanding of each other. The term came out of a humorous real-life situation. Sandy Herrold and her friend Charlotte were in a grocery store together, at opposite ends of the produce section. Both were heavily into The Professionals at the time. Sandy tried to communicate to that she should pick up some broccoli without shouting across the store at her. No amount of pantomiming and mouthing of the words could get the point across to Charlotte, so Sandy told her later, "Doyle would have known Bodie wanted him to pick up some broccoli with just a raise of his eyebrow!"
It's a test about wordless communication. Can your OTP tell each other entire stories in just a glance? Or are they more the comical misunderstanding type?
It spawned into a Twitter conversation (and a continued IM with Becca) wherein the following was decided:
mcwonthelottery: i feel like charles just cheats on the broccoli test. that's not fair
all of a sudden erik's just bought a broccoli farm and doesn't know why
pocky_slash: They do a lot of eyefucking, though.
So I'd imagine that they could pull off the broccoli without the powers.
Except tht Charles assumes Erik wants it for dinner and Erik assumes Charles wants it to make into a weapon or something.
harmonyangel: My favorite broccoli test is Scott and Logan. Logan KNOWS Scott wants broccoli, but he gets pizza rolls to piss him off.
such_heights: I'm imagining the Doctor and River. River would get it instantly but then buy something else instead anyway. The Ponds, meanwhile, would be kind of terrible at it but have really elaborate hand gestures.
I would also add that my other favorite XMFC pairing, Alex and Darwin, would pass this easily given they have two wordless discussions in the movie despite knowing each other for either a few days or a few months, depending on your interpretation of the fucked up timeline of the movie. Of course, this is all dependent on Alex actually knowing the names of vegetables, so they might fail for that alone XD
So, let's have a good, old fashioned Broccoli Test discussion, fandom, while I work on the nine million things I need to work on. It will entertain me as I attempt to design things in Microsoft Word! Which of your pairings would pass? Which would fail?
ENTERTAIN ME, I BEG YOU.
"This cannot," I thought, "be about what I want it to be about."
It wasn't--it was about healthcare reform--but I tweet it and mcwonthelottery IMed me.
"What did you hope that article would be about? I'm kind of afraid to ask."
I was shocked that she'd never encountered The Broccoli Test in fandom before and dug up a definition. I tweeted that I had to explain it to her and was inundated with half a dozen more tweets asking what it was.
Come on, guys, really? I can't be that fandom!old!
Oh my god, but I totally am. 16 years in fandom. Crap.
So, for the uninitiated, here's the definition of The Broccoli Test, as taken from Fanlore:
The Broccoli Test is a shorthand term for some characters' almost psychic understanding of each other. The term came out of a humorous real-life situation. Sandy Herrold and her friend Charlotte were in a grocery store together, at opposite ends of the produce section. Both were heavily into The Professionals at the time. Sandy tried to communicate to that she should pick up some broccoli without shouting across the store at her. No amount of pantomiming and mouthing of the words could get the point across to Charlotte, so Sandy told her later, "Doyle would have known Bodie wanted him to pick up some broccoli with just a raise of his eyebrow!"
It's a test about wordless communication. Can your OTP tell each other entire stories in just a glance? Or are they more the comical misunderstanding type?
It spawned into a Twitter conversation (and a continued IM with Becca) wherein the following was decided:
mcwonthelottery: i feel like charles just cheats on the broccoli test. that's not fair
all of a sudden erik's just bought a broccoli farm and doesn't know why
pocky_slash: They do a lot of eyefucking, though.
So I'd imagine that they could pull off the broccoli without the powers.
Except tht Charles assumes Erik wants it for dinner and Erik assumes Charles wants it to make into a weapon or something.
harmonyangel: My favorite broccoli test is Scott and Logan. Logan KNOWS Scott wants broccoli, but he gets pizza rolls to piss him off.
such_heights: I'm imagining the Doctor and River. River would get it instantly but then buy something else instead anyway. The Ponds, meanwhile, would be kind of terrible at it but have really elaborate hand gestures.
I would also add that my other favorite XMFC pairing, Alex and Darwin, would pass this easily given they have two wordless discussions in the movie despite knowing each other for either a few days or a few months, depending on your interpretation of the fucked up timeline of the movie. Of course, this is all dependent on Alex actually knowing the names of vegetables, so they might fail for that alone XD
So, let's have a good, old fashioned Broccoli Test discussion, fandom, while I work on the nine million things I need to work on. It will entertain me as I attempt to design things in Microsoft Word! Which of your pairings would pass? Which would fail?
ENTERTAIN ME, I BEG YOU.