Adding Chocolate Candy to Your Movie Popcorn: Great Idea or GTFOH?

It started with a simple question: one candy for a movie, go. It ended with a live poll, three phone calls, a referendum on napkins and a man in El Paso putting jalapenos in his popcorn.

The picks came fast around the studio. Peanut M&M's. Reese's Pieces. Goobers. Raisinets. Then came the real fault line. Does the candy go in the popcorn?

Rich is firmly in the yes camp. He takes his Raisinets and puts them in the popcorn. "It's called next level," came the defense. Chocolate and peanut butter go together, the logic went, so mixing Reese's Pieces or Goobers into the bag is just the next step.

The other side wanted none of it. "I got a palate for popcorn and then I got a palate for chocolate," one dissenter said. Separate palates. The response from the mixing side was pure exasperation. "Separate palates? It's all in your mouth."

So the show did what it does with a dispute like this and put it to the people with a poll on its social feeds. Chocolate candy in your popcorn, yes or no?

**Billy has questions**

The first caller, Billy, zeroed in on Rich specifically. Was he doing this in public theaters? "Where else would I be doing it, Billy?" Rich asked. Billy's concern was practical. Warm popcorn plus chocolate equals melting. "What are you doing with your hands?"

"Well, there's something called a napkin, Billy," Rich said. "I don't know if you're aware of it."

It turned out Billy's alarm had roots. He is a dad with a 5-year-old and a 9-year-old, and the thought of chocolate in popcorn sent him reaching for imaginary wet wipes. "I hear chocolate and popcorn and my mind immediately starts throwing up red flags," he said. Rich sympathized, then held his ground. "I'm an adult, which means I have a full free reign to do what I wish," he said. Those Raisinets are going in the popcorn. And it's not like the popcorn is so red hot that it's going to melt them anyway.

Then the verdict started rolling in. Suzy chimed in in real time with a dig, "Rich brings a napkin into the movie theater," followed by the old Steve Harvey head shake. The poll, already in triple digits, came back 18 percent absolutely, 82 percent no.

The order came to close the poll, along with the declaration that the people voting didn't really matter. There was even talk of going to a movie that night just to do it and annoy everyone, before the admission that there's nothing worth seeing.

**Where the line actually is**

Even the mixers have limits. Throwing Skittles into popcorn was declared "another level of animal" and "an affront." Then someone offered ranch powder, which got a "What?" before the reminder that theaters literally sell popcorn powder now.

Rich also had chocolate-covered cranberries from Aunt Leah's Candy Shop on hand, with plans to send some to Ian as a thank-you for coming on, since he had been wearing his Nantucket hat. According to Liz, the bag had been opened by James McAvoy's people the day before. They ate a bunch and left the rest. The case for putting them in popcorn was made. The separate-palate camp stayed unmoved.

The conversation drifted into a popcorn machine for the studio and the hazards of food smells in a shared workplace. Burnt microwave popcorn in a college dorm. Fish microwaved for lunch, which the room agreed should get someone thrown out of the building. A fish container opened on a plane. And someone who cannot stand the smell of tomato juice.

**The callers take Rich's side**

Victor in Naperville, Illinois called in on the WeatherTech fan line as a fellow Raisinets guy who brings them into the theater. He has no choice, he explained, because he is a diabetic and has to bring sugar-free ones the theater doesn't sell. He could appreciate wanting separate palates, but sweet and salty is "a classic combination of all time." Cracker Jack. Garrett's Gourmet Popcorn. Chocolate-covered pretzels.

"Even a diabetic is saying you're wrong," came the summary. Cracker Jack's "buy me some peanuts" with separate palates doesn't have the same ring to it.

Manny in El Paso declared it "popcorn gate 2026" and went with the blue box of Goobers. Does he throw it in the popcorn? Absolutely. There is a reason theaters sell kids' packs with candy and popcorn, he argued, because they know kids will throw it in there. "So technically, we're actually kids at heart." Down at the Cinemark Palace, he added, they throw jalapenos in their popcorn. His goddaughter goes with pickle juice. "Popcorn, candy, mix it all together, baby."

Somebody wondered whether Manny thought he was dialing into Hot Ones instead of the show.

The final poll update read 84 percent hell no. The world, as someone put it, is upside down.

Which summed up the whole segment. As one voice in the studio put it, isn't it amazing the things the show talks about without any idea it was going to, and how everybody else reacts?