“Don’t yuck someone’s yum.”
I heard someone say this to another person yesterday.
I cringed.
I hate this phrase.
“Don’t yuck someone’s yum” means that you shouldn’t criticize or make fun of something that someone else enjoys. It’s often used to teach kids (and adults) to respect different tastes, preferences, or opinions—whether it’s food, hobbies, music, or anything else.
If someone loves pineapple on pizza, for example, and you say, “Ew, that’s disgusting!” — you’re yucking their yum.
Except you’re not. You’re simply stating your opinion. Describing a preference. I happen to love pineapple on pizza. I also hate myself for loving it because making fun of pineapple on pizza is way too easy.
But if you don’t like it and want to tell me so, who cares? It doesn’t bother me. In fact, it just means more pineapple pizza for me.
I hate pickles and mayonnaise. I think both are completely awful and disgusting. I don’t even like to be in the same room wth pickles and mayo.
If you’re dipping a pickle into mayonnaise and eating it, am I supposed to say nothing? Smile? Refrain from expressing an opinion?
Of course not, because that would make for a boring, stupid, beige world.
I’ve been told we don’t “yuck someone’s yum” because we don’t want to hurt their feelings, but what is the expectation then?
Are we really expected to move through this world pretending to like or at least be neutral to all things?
Am I really expected to watch someone dip a pickle into mayo and not say something?
I don’t think so. If my hatred for a food you like hurts your feelings, you need to find new feelings. You need to grow up. You need to recognize the simple truth of this world:
We are all different. Our tastes and preferences are different. We all contain a multitude of opinions, and it’s perfectly okay to express those opinions, even when they might be in opposition to the people around you.
I hate Steely Dan.
Elysha loves SteelyDan.
Am I really expected to simply bop my head to the music and smile when she plays that awful music?
I despise Donald Trump. Am I supposed to remain silent when someone tells me how great he’s been for our country?
I can’t stand the work of Virginia Woolf. If someone tells me that she is a literary genius, am I really supposed to remain silent? Nod in agreement?
I can’t stand Wes Anderson films. Should I tell my daughter, who loves his work, that his annoyingly symmetrical cinematography and obsession with yellow and brown are perfectly reasonable?
No. I can’t do it. And I don’t expect it either.
Feel free to yuck every single one of my yums.
Feel free to tell me how much you despise Bruce Springsteen and ice cream cake and Kurt Vonnegut and the New England Patriots.
When I’m enjoying a 7-11 hot dog, feel free to say, “Ew!”
When I’m heading to the golf course, feel free to shout, “Boring!”
When I’m going on and on about my love for my cats, by all means, tell me that cats are awful.
I don’t expect you to like what I like.
That expectation would be stupid.
And I’m not so thin-skinned that I can handle an opposing opinion without my feelings getting hurt.
Yuck all the yums you want. This is how the world works.
I yuck the idea that we can’t yuck someone’s yum.
It’s an idea even worse than Steely Dan.
