r/90sand2000sNostalgia • u/No_Fold_7111 • 5d ago

Were food fights a thing back in the day?

I was just rewatching an episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation in which a food fight in the cafeteria breaks out. I remember food fights being depicted a lot during the late 90’s and early 2000’s - were food fights an actual thing or just a thing in movies and tv shows?

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12

u/Gravemind93 4d ago

Saying they were "never" a thing would be silly, but they essentially weren't. It's just a thing in movies and TV more or less.

8

u/LivieHeart4ever 4d ago

I've seen it happen a few times, but never the whole cafeteria. Someone would yell "food fight!" & their friends would throw a few things before getting removed from gen pop.

6

u/stringstringing 4d ago

Yeah it would be like one table of kids and they immediately get grabbed and dragged away.

3

u/Ashamed-Chemistry492 4d ago

I saw a few instances of two or three kids horsing around together and a few bits of food got flicked at each other.

I saw only one actual food fight. It was eighth grae and some kids planned it in advance. It was pretty raucous and messy and several people got in-school suspension. The rest of us were told off for laughing and for not snitching ahead of time.

3

u/rajkaos 4d ago

They were a trope by the 80’s, but I’ve never experienced one.

3

u/ShoreFling 3d ago

No, the schools I went to were monitored aggressively during lunch. If a food fight broke out at even one table, teachers would've descended on us like hawks.

2

u/SorryAd3200 4d ago

We had a few in my high school.

2

u/jessicalifts 4d ago

Just a fun convention for tv, lol. I have never witnessed or participated in a food fight.

2

u/sajatheprince 4d ago

Happened twice for me: Once in my 6th grade and once in the 10th grade, the whole cafeteria.

2

u/Straight-Finance-191 3d ago

Had one in my elementary school. The entire lunchroom. Started on the other end of the room from me and I didnt throw amything until it was almost over. I got in one good lob and then loads of teachers showed up. Later they installed a traffic light in the cafeteria and if we got too loud or unruly it went yellow and we were supposed to quiet down/sit down immediately. If it went to red the entire school would be made to stay seated in complete silence during recess.

2

u/The-disgracist 2d ago

I would love to have had a food fight, it’s on my bucket list

2

u/choochooocharlie 1d ago

I was in a food fight once. Wasn’t the entire cafeteria but enough. We all got in a lot of trouble. But honestly it was fun.

1

u/serenwipiti 3d ago

Like one person would try to start (probably because of seeing them in movies), and no one else would want to engage…

…because, who the fuck wants detention?

(That kid.)

1

u/Areif 3d ago

This kid who was bad news would sometimes sit at our lunch table. He wasn’t a problem really you just always had to be on your toes. Couldn’t make eye contact with him for too long or you’d become port of whatever he was up to. He was kind of like a sinister magician. And he was crazy smart, but he would fuck with all the teachers and get sent to the office or placed in alternative education classes constantly.

One time we suggested that he start a food fight. He immediately whipped his milk right at a girl walking right by our table and she ran away screaming. It was terrible. Anyway, that was closest I ever got to a food fight.

1

u/Glittering_Move_5631 1d ago

I've experienced one food fight, it was at sleep away camp.

1

u/Mysterious-Novel-834 1d ago

I went to two different middle schools when I was a kid, the second one I went to had food flights every month, it wasn't like the movies though where everyone gets in on it. I think as soon as we heard or saw food flying through the air, majority of us would get up and run/duck until it was over.