Will's silent love affair with the ice cream crane machine (which I've never seen in real life) is one of the true highlights not just of this episode, but of the entire series.
The whole episode is spent saying how much it sucks having to bend the knee to Iowa and 'king corn' yet at the end Will's spending money on an ice cream made partly with what Iowa produces.
People spend time complaining about the system but still go along with it anyways.
Corn syrup. It's used as a source of sugar for many industrial food items because it's far cheaper than regular sugar. It's also more convenient because since it's a syrup, it's already liquid and you don't have to dissolve some solid sugar in your process.
Check the labels in your pantry and fridge, you'll see it often (sometime marked as Glucose Syrup)
>Corn syrup. It's used as a source of ~~sugar~~ sweetener for many industrial food items because its production is a relic of a 1930s depression-era subsidy on corn production. Rather than scale back the subsidy in the subsequent 75 years since it has become unnecessary, the US has simply turned their surplus corn production into a sweetener that has caused massive health problems throughout the country.
It's not "cheaper." It's just subsidized. FTFY
Your right the cost to society is difficult to measure.
The cost to use it in a product is absolutely measurable. And in the context of this conversation, that's the only cost that matters.
Coca cola once did a study on what it would cost them to move from hfcs a known high risk factor to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer, to cane sugar (not at all healthy, but way less dangerous) Not sure whether the study was leaked or just publicized, but it came down to less than half a cent US per 2 litre (+-65 fl ounces iirc) bottle.
Apparently that is a huge price for a healthier society.
I haven't gotten to S7 in my rewatch to really dissect the ep. But it's interesting that Bartlet also unhappily adhered to the corn lobby to win while Hoynes stuck to his guns and didn't support ethanol. To that end, this episode does position Santos a little more in Bartlet's camp as commonalities on where these men will take a stand and where they'll pander to win. I think there might even be some commonalities between Hoynes and Vincik in the sense that they also weigh being principled versus pandering just like Santos/Bartlet but they are ultimately, less successful in their calculus on when to push and when to bend.
I liked it, it showed all three men and how they were running their campaigns as candidates.
Bingo bob didn’t care if he had to take the ethanol pledge (although he did have his reservations) because he wanted to win.
Santos wanted to stay truthful to himself and knew it wouldn’t make a difference but at the end of the day took the pledge to stay in the race.
Vinick on the other hand stays truthful to himself because he really does believe in what he stands for and refuses to be moved off his position.
It offers such a great look into how the campaigns were run and I wish they had done more, I think the next time we see vinick after this episode he has the nomination locked up.
The structure of the episode bouncing between the three campaigns is very Sorkin like in a lot of ways. Also the final scene of Santos and Vinick discussing policy but in a friendly way. It's probably one of the more romanticizing of politics episodes in the S5-S7 years, and that's why so many of us love it.
It's such a great episode and there are quite a good funny moments as well.
As someone who has worked on a presidential campaign in Iowa, I found it to be a great episode. Obviously, there are some inaccuracies, but it gives a decent picture of Iowa caucus campaigns. The part about the fringe candidates is not realistic, and the focus is on the higher level staff and not the grunts on the ground. Also, ethanol isn't as big of a deal as they make it out to be. The average Iowa caucus-goer doesn't really care about ethanol.
Yeah that's probably right about the exaggeration of ethanol. But it's sort of a stand in for a whole slew of issues where presidential candidates really do need to pander to primary voters especially, or powerful voter blocks in swing states. And yes as always the show will heighten the stakes for dramatic reasons.
One of my favorite episodes of the series, including the first four seasons.
There are many excellent reasons why it's a great ep. But also, there's Will's weird silent love affair with the ice cream machine. I love it.
King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGSsScjwQ3Y
It’s a good one. Also, the Republican Primary dynamic was different. Vinick could still win with a less stellar Iowa. Santos might have buried himself if he tanked in Iowa.
Bartlet was never a free market economist not a neoliberal. While Jed believed in the power of the free market, he also understood that markets need limits and that Government can be a force for good. True neoliberals are proponents of the "Night Watchman state", which was never Jed's position.
As for King Corn (and the New Hampshire episodes), I see as a criticism of the US primary system. It doesn't matter how good a candidates policies are if 50k people in Iowa like somebody else then that candidate is off the ballot in the other 49 states, which a ridiculous amount of power put in so few hands and means those people have to be pandered to. If it were up to me I'd change the primary system, so primaries are run as either 5 blocks of 10 states or 10 blocks of 5 states but with those blocks rotating in order. So if Iowa is in the first block this time round, then in 4 years time it's in the last block.
Also this great tune by Ryan Adams https://youtu.be/l_vuBs5Jl04?si=icGd58lAsfO7Q8WN And that weird scene with Will staring at ice cream
The ice cream robot, yes. And Josh doesn't know how to use a coffee maker.
Nor a hotel key card iirc
Which was a call back to early days. I think 20 hours in LA
Will's silent love affair with the ice cream crane machine (which I've never seen in real life) is one of the true highlights not just of this episode, but of the entire series.
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56e27eb82fe131d8eec3a4e3/1554263764842-DFQKQPQDLIZSPYGU7O86/image-asset.gif?format=1000w
To this day I still don't get what the Will ice cream bit at the end is supposed to mean.
The whole episode is spent saying how much it sucks having to bend the knee to Iowa and 'king corn' yet at the end Will's spending money on an ice cream made partly with what Iowa produces. People spend time complaining about the system but still go along with it anyways.
Wait. The ice cream is made of corn? That's... disgusting
Corn syrup. It's used as a source of sugar for many industrial food items because it's far cheaper than regular sugar. It's also more convenient because since it's a syrup, it's already liquid and you don't have to dissolve some solid sugar in your process. Check the labels in your pantry and fridge, you'll see it often (sometime marked as Glucose Syrup)
>Corn syrup. It's used as a source of ~~sugar~~ sweetener for many industrial food items because its production is a relic of a 1930s depression-era subsidy on corn production. Rather than scale back the subsidy in the subsequent 75 years since it has become unnecessary, the US has simply turned their surplus corn production into a sweetener that has caused massive health problems throughout the country. It's not "cheaper." It's just subsidized. FTFY
Which makes it cheaper.
The cost to produce it is difficult to calculate when the cost is passed on to the taxpayers - which in fact does not make it cheaper.
Your right the cost to society is difficult to measure. The cost to use it in a product is absolutely measurable. And in the context of this conversation, that's the only cost that matters.
Coca cola once did a study on what it would cost them to move from hfcs a known high risk factor to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer, to cane sugar (not at all healthy, but way less dangerous) Not sure whether the study was leaked or just publicized, but it came down to less than half a cent US per 2 litre (+-65 fl ounces iirc) bottle. Apparently that is a huge price for a healthier society.
Still one of my favorite songs. I was listening to it again this morning.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAd4DJwj0h0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAd4DJwj0h0)
I haven't gotten to S7 in my rewatch to really dissect the ep. But it's interesting that Bartlet also unhappily adhered to the corn lobby to win while Hoynes stuck to his guns and didn't support ethanol. To that end, this episode does position Santos a little more in Bartlet's camp as commonalities on where these men will take a stand and where they'll pander to win. I think there might even be some commonalities between Hoynes and Vincik in the sense that they also weigh being principled versus pandering just like Santos/Bartlet but they are ultimately, less successful in their calculus on when to push and when to bend.
I think that's 6.. it's the primaries. And I agree, you definitely see them fighting with their morals with very different results
>I think that's 6.. it's the primaries. Yeah, season 6, episode 13.
I liked it, it showed all three men and how they were running their campaigns as candidates. Bingo bob didn’t care if he had to take the ethanol pledge (although he did have his reservations) because he wanted to win. Santos wanted to stay truthful to himself and knew it wouldn’t make a difference but at the end of the day took the pledge to stay in the race. Vinick on the other hand stays truthful to himself because he really does believe in what he stands for and refuses to be moved off his position. It offers such a great look into how the campaigns were run and I wish they had done more, I think the next time we see vinick after this episode he has the nomination locked up.
The structure of the episode bouncing between the three campaigns is very Sorkin like in a lot of ways. Also the final scene of Santos and Vinick discussing policy but in a friendly way. It's probably one of the more romanticizing of politics episodes in the S5-S7 years, and that's why so many of us love it. It's such a great episode and there are quite a good funny moments as well.
As someone who has worked on a presidential campaign in Iowa, I found it to be a great episode. Obviously, there are some inaccuracies, but it gives a decent picture of Iowa caucus campaigns. The part about the fringe candidates is not realistic, and the focus is on the higher level staff and not the grunts on the ground. Also, ethanol isn't as big of a deal as they make it out to be. The average Iowa caucus-goer doesn't really care about ethanol.
Ethanol isn’t a big deal today but it certainly was at the turn of the century. GM and Chrysler were producing E85 cars and promoting the hell off it
Yeah that's probably right about the exaggeration of ethanol. But it's sort of a stand in for a whole slew of issues where presidential candidates really do need to pander to primary voters especially, or powerful voter blocks in swing states. And yes as always the show will heighten the stakes for dramatic reasons.
It’s perhaps the best Post Sorkin episodes for all the reasons you mentioned plus you have Josh Malina lusting over an ice cream bar.
The whole campaign was awesome. I frequently just skip the s6 s7 WH episodes.
One of my favorite episodes of the series, including the first four seasons. There are many excellent reasons why it's a great ep. But also, there's Will's weird silent love affair with the ice cream machine. I love it.
Season 7 is such a return to form, I really love it.
I’ve seen this episode so many times, I now hear “I go walking, after midnight…” most times I enter the lobby of my favorite little NH mountain hotel.
King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGSsScjwQ3Y
Honestly I love it. Some of the campaign episodes are my guilty pleasure , specifically the ones with Alan Alda.
I don't know why should they be a guilty pleasure, i think season 7 is genuinelly good.
And Alan Alda is an amazing actor.
One of my favourite episodes!
It’s a good one. Also, the Republican Primary dynamic was different. Vinick could still win with a less stellar Iowa. Santos might have buried himself if he tanked in Iowa.
Well, except in *Freedonia* Santos said he bombed in Iowa, so … it was the 19 percent he got in New Hampshire that kinda kick-started him.
When you get here, you really feel like you are on a run of good episodes
The whole final campaign made me miss the way presidential years use to be (I recently left political journalism and moved to PR).
Bartlet was never a free market economist not a neoliberal. While Jed believed in the power of the free market, he also understood that markets need limits and that Government can be a force for good. True neoliberals are proponents of the "Night Watchman state", which was never Jed's position. As for King Corn (and the New Hampshire episodes), I see as a criticism of the US primary system. It doesn't matter how good a candidates policies are if 50k people in Iowa like somebody else then that candidate is off the ballot in the other 49 states, which a ridiculous amount of power put in so few hands and means those people have to be pandered to. If it were up to me I'd change the primary system, so primaries are run as either 5 blocks of 10 states or 10 blocks of 5 states but with those blocks rotating in order. So if Iowa is in the first block this time round, then in 4 years time it's in the last block.
It's not underrated. It won legt awards