PICTURES: Easter Peeps candy in TV, movies, pop culture

The Colbert Report: ‘Easter under attack’

In 2009, “The Colbert Report” had a segment called “Easter under attack: Peeps Display.” It told the story of a woman who was evicted after she refused to take down a Peeps display from her apartment door. The segment referred to Peeps as “the most delicious symbol of our salvation.” Her attorney says, “By declaring war on Peeps, they have declared war on Easter.”

On her show “Martha,” one of America’s leading craft and decorating experts called Peeps “one of the favorite of all candies” and fondly recalled eating them as a child. She and a guest showed her audience how to make an Easter centerpiece using purple and yellow Peeps chicks that Stewart said looks like “a purple sunflower with a yellow center.”

Late-night talk host Jimmy Kimmel in 2015 tried a new product, Peeps-flavored milk. Kimmel says the milk is clearly needed because, “In this busy, fast-paced world, who has time to chew their marshmallows?” After trying the milk, he declares, “It tastes like what I imagine it would taste like to be breast-fed by a mother clown.”

A clever YouTube video posted in 2009 parodies a trailer for the Alfred Hitchcock “The Birds” horror movie. The video edits large Peeps candy chicks into footage of the classic film. Peeps fly down to attack children and adults in the village. The clip says: “Alfred Peepcock Presents: The Peeps.” The video says Peeps are “the biggest marshmallow threat since the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.”

In a PSA segment on the late-night show “Conan,” a man in a uniform says, “This is an urgent message from the department of sanitation. We are facing a crisis brought on by improper disposal of a virtually inedible Easter candy. I’m talking of course about Peeps.” He warns that uneaten Peeps, which are non-biodegradable, accumulate in landfills and are washed down storm drains, resulting in harm to wildlife. It asks people to recycle their Peeps by using them to level tables, scrub pans, as a substitute for packing peanuts and for wall insulation. The long-term plan is to send them to space so man can colonize a new “Planet Peep.”

A competitive eater posted a YouTube video last year that showed him eating 200 Peeps chicks. It’s titled, appropriately: “Man Eats 200 Peeps in One Sitting (World Record).” The 200 Peeps, which are piled high in a large bowl, total 5,600 calories. Matt Stonie, known as “Megatoad,” finishes them in 14 minutes, 12 seconds.

Three women paid tribute to the Broadway smash hit “Hamilton” in a diarama last year. According to Mashable, they created a small version of the wood set from the show and dressed up bunny Peeps as the characters. They submitted it as an entry in the Washington Post’s popular annual Peeps diarama contest.

A 2014 commercial shows Santa Claus hopping around a house, with ornaments falling from the impact. He fills stockings with white sparkly Peeps and then collapses into a chair. “I don’t know how that Easter Bunny does it,” the exhausted Santa says. The narrator adds, “Now Peeps aren’t just for Easter. Discover candy cane Peeps.”

A strange 2007 poll by Just Born asked people what celebrity most resembles a Peep in “physique, colorful attire, or sweet nature/personality.” Twenty-two percent thought of comedian Will Ferrell.