Butter your Corn the WarGames Way

Sometimes a movie will teach you an unexpected, but useful lesson. In WarGames we learn about the dangers of poor computer security, but more importantly, we learn of a novel way to butter your corn.

The 1983 WarGames was important. It changed what many people thought of computers and even influenced Ronald Reagan. More importantly, it taught us all a very important lesson on how to butter corn.

I have never been a fan of the heat of summer, but the foods available during these months are some of my favorite. This year I have found myself obsessing over corn on the cob. I boil it for just a few minutes and then enjoy the sweet crisp crunch taste of summer. Usually with butter, salt, and pepper, although recently I have been using Everything But The Elote Seasoning Blend.

It is very easy to sprinkle stuff on corn, but it is really the butter that I want. I have tried lots of methods for applying butter to corn. I have rubbed it on using a stick like a fat delicious crayon. I have sprayed it on using a liquified butter product. I have even melted the butter and brushed it on with a BB brush. All of these methods work, but they are unsatisfying.

After a rewatch of WarGames, I decided to try the buttering method used in the film. For those who haven’t seen it, William Bogert who plays Mr. Lightman in the film amply butters a piece of bread and then uses that bread as a tool to butter the corn on the cob. The punchline of the scene is that the corn is raw.

I wondered if this little trick was written into the script or something done at the table by Bogert. It turns out it was in the original script. Here is what it says,

David’s father, MR. LIGHTMAN, a thin balding man, meticulously butters a piece of Wonder Bread and then proceeds to wrap it around an ear of corn, slowly rotating it to grease the cob evenly.

Its a great little detail and one that shows that David comes from a family of unconventional problem solvers.

I love bread, butter, and corn. So I gave it a shot. Using the softest white bread I could find, I applied room temperature butter to the bread and then proceeded to use the buttered bread like a cloth rubbing it around the corn, just like in the movie.

Then after things are nice and buttered up, I eat the slightly less buttery, but still delicious buttered bread, and follow it up with the corn. It works and I am very happy.