A comedian received some heat upon stating what her definition of what a potluck is on TikTok. Katie (@katiekcomedy) shared a story in which she lambasted a person who decided to bring only a single pie of pizza to a potluck gathering that had 30 guests.
Katie couldn’t understand why this individual would only bring a single pie, which means that if everyone at the party wanted a slice of pizza, then a significant population of the guests would be left pizza-less. Katie said that the individual didn’t understand how potlucks work, which was met with criticism from other TikTokers who said that the person did nothing wrong and that Katie was, in fact, the one who wasn’t properly celebrating the true spirit of potluck-ism.
@katiekcomedy And if you bring one drink for youself and no one else, you’re ded 2 me. #rude #manners ♬ original sound – KatieKComedy
Katie says in the video, “I didn’t think as a person in my 30s that I would need to say this to other people in my 30s but here we are. I went to a potluck recently a potluck where you each bring something. Where you each bring a thing and then everyone can eat it but it’s enough for everyone to eat. There were about 30 people and someone brought one pizza. One pizza, with max 8 pieces of pizza. That’s not how a potluck works. That’s not how a potluck works. So then separately while that person ate their one pizza, I had to order 4 more pizzas so that everyone at the potluck could eat pizza. And if you’re the person thinking to yourself like what? There’s no problem with that. Then you are the problem and everyone at the potluck doesn’t like you.”
Judging from the responses viewers had to Katie’s video, however, it seems that there are people who have some very different ideas as to how a potluck works. There were some who argued that the entire point of a potluck is that it’s a collection of food and that individuals band together to bring in small portions of food so that collectively, there is enough food for everyone to eat.
“I’m in my 40’s and I thought a potluck meant everyone brings a little something. Then collectively there is enough food for everyone,” someone said.
Another supported the idea of not-normalizing-providing-full-servings-of-every-dish-at-a-potluck: “If there are 30 people everyone brought something. Why did you need to order 4 pizzas? How many people didn’t bring something that you had to order?”
Someone else simply said, “I think you are the one who doesn’t understand how potlucks work,” while another echoed that statement: “I don’t think you quite understand how potlucks work”
There was another commenter who also said that it would be wasteful to provide enough servings of every dish to the potluck: “But if everyone brings multiple things then there is entirely too much. You aren’t supposed to bring enough for all 40 people to eat.”
When asked by another TikTok user why she felt the need to order more pizzas, Katie explained: “Because everyone shit the bed and it was for a birthday so I didn’t want it to suck.”
Another commenter wrote: “I’m Mexican we do potlucks all the time, rule is you just bring however much you want. For 50 or for 10, whatever you have the time or resources for”
And then there were TikTokers who sided with the pizza guy in Katie’s story: “It’s the people that don’t bring anything that don’t know how potlucks work. Pizza guy nailed it” while someone else pledged their allegiance to the pizza purchaser: “I’m with the pizza person.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Katie via Instagram DM for further comment.
