I was a small child when I first learned it was possible to dislike candy corn. I specifically remember a song called I Don’t like Candy Corn during commercials between my October TV programming. The song is catchy, albeit filled with an incorrect opinion.
Knowing this is a heated debate, I took it upon myself to interview a friend of mine who is on the opposite side of the argument. Now, I will expose her: Jude Hunter is a candy corn hater. But, I did learn a few things about her life, and about corn.
HC: Tell me a little bit about yourself.
JH: My name is Jude Hunter. I’m a sophomore communications major. I’m involved in Greek Life. I’m an Honor Scholar and a Media Fellow. I work for a TV station and a radio station. I’m part of the First-Year Mentor program, I’m a tour guide, and I work as a lifeguard. And I am an avid candy corn hater.
HC: I see. Now, tell me a little bit about your upbringing.
JH: My dad’s a farmer. My mom’s a teacher. I grew up with real corn. My dad’s a grain and hog farmer, so we have pigs, cows, and beans. I grew up in the middle of nowhere, Indiana. Warren County, Williamsport, to be exact.
HC: Tell me about your experience with Halloween.
JH: We always did the “dress up and go trick-or-treating,” kinda thing, but besides that, we were never huge Halloween celebrators. We were more fall celebrators, I would say. We did carve pumpkins, go to a pumpkin patch–
HC: Did you apple-bob?
JH: We did apple-bob. I’ve been apple bobbing and made my own candy apples, caramel apples, all that kinda stuff. We love fall, we love the season, but we were never like “skeleton, vampire” Halloween celebrators. Usually, I dressed up as something from a book or academic-related because my mom was that kind of person. We were never huge Halloween celebrators. We were fall celebrators. And, Thanksgiving celebrators.
HC: Not autumn?
JH: Not autumn. Fall.
HC: What is your favorite Halloween costume you’ve ever worn?
JH: There was a year I dressed up as Thomas Edison and I walked around with a lightbulb I had made. It was made of these bougie legos that I had attached batteries to. I made a makeshift light bulb out of those, and I carried it around, dressed as Thomas Edison. I was like eight.
HC: Tell me about your first experience with candy corn.
JH: My first experience with candy corn was probably in some sort of mixture -you know when they have M&Ms, candy corn, peanuts – that kind of mixture? I’m guessing that was it. I’m also guessing it was at some sort of church function. Guarantee: it was in a big pumpkin bowl, and I put it on a plate. And I just remember thinking it tasted like wax. Like terribly flavored wax. And I still hold that opinion.
HC: I see. Do you remember when you had your first disagreement about candy corn?
JH: I don’t think it became controversial until at least high school. That would be the first time that someone was like, “You don’t like candy corn?” And I was like, “Yeah, candy corn’s gross.” And it hurt their feelings. Until high school, nobody cared.
HC: To that person, and to all the other candy corn lovers of the world, what do you have to say?
JH: I will say, the only thing I appreciate about candy corn is that it is anatomically correct. Besides the fact that it is huge, obviously, in comparison to real corn. Real corn is majority red-orange in the middle. And I feel like most people don’t realize that. When they draw corn, they make it yellow. It’s yellow on the outside, but it is red-orange in the middle area. That’s real — that’s what corn looks like. That is my only shoutout for candy corn: they did it correctly. Besides that, it’s disgusting, and you’re just faking it if you think it tastes good.