viz.

Here is an amusing/horrifying animation of the history of human conflicts (WWII to the present day), which uses the foods typically associated with the various countries involved to act out the conflicts. It’s called “Food Fight.”

Japan is pieces of sushi, the Arabs are represented by kebab and falafel, the Israelis are bagels and lox, the U.S. is hamburgers and chicken McNuggets, Russia is beef stroganoff, the Vietnamese are those yummy rice noodle wrapped spring rolls.

On one hand, to watch food stereotypes blowing each other up is pretty funny, as is trying to figure out which foods represent which countries. My favorite part is the representation of the Cold War where the hamburger and the beef stroganoff face off, the hamburger keeps adding more and more beef patties, the pile of beef stroganoff gets bigger and bigger, and then they resolve the conflict by just leaving.

However, because it’s a food fight, the mess left behind after they blow each other up can be disturbingly carnage-like, which this gives the whole thing a pretty somber undertone. I found the representation of when the U.S. dropped the atomic bombs on Japan disconcerting: those pieces of sushi were completely charred. And you can’t help but consider the real human beings that were charred after those incidents. The depictions of suicide bombings were also a bit hard to watch since we hear about them every day. The 5½ minute animation also highlights the fact that there has been a war occurring somewhere in the world pretty much continuously since WWII.

The use of food stereotypes highlights the absurdity of warfare while at the same time maintaining a focus on the seriousness of these situations. The foods make these events seem ridiculous, but only up to a point. Because these are real events that have been repeated again and again.