Corn

Dinner tonight brought back memories of a throwaway scene in WarGames (1983):  David's parent's are having dinner, which includes corn-on-the-cob. His father generously butters a piece of bread, then wraps the bread around his corn in order to butter that. Taking a bite:

Mr. Lightman: This corn is raw!  

Mrs. Lightman: I know, isn't it wonderful? It's so crisp! 

Mr. Lightman: Of course it's crisp! It's raw! 

Mrs. Lightman: No, it's terrific. You can just taste the Vitamin A and E in here. It's great. 

Mr. Lightman: Could we have pills and cook the corn?

It is not called-back or referred to in any way over the rest of the movie. It has nothing to do with war, games, nuclear weapons, hacking, defense strategy, Seattle, dinosaurs, decision-making, or anything else that the movie is about.  The parents have limited lines already, and this is probably the only dialogue involving the two of them at all. Why is it here?

Perhaps it is a last bit of humor before an increasingly bleak potential future is laid out.  It's not unusual in movies about disaffected teenagers to have a scene where the parents are depicted as exceptionally out-of-touch. This does make it easier to suspend disbelieve when those teenagers have to do much more than someone their age normally would. And it might not have been meant as anything more than that.

It does also make clearer the picture of a world where fads (in this case involving nutrition) are both commonplace and (too often) taken seriously.  One where new truths are created and old truths have to step aside to let them pass, if only temporarily.  Where nothing quite makes sense, not even if you are living in it. A world in a Second Turning, that is.