Lunch Lady
Encyclopedia
Lunch lady is an American slang
term for a woman who cooks and serves food in a school
cafeteria
; the equivalent British English
term is "dinner lady". In Britain, a dinner lady also patrols the school playgrounds during the lunch breaks to maintain order amongst the children. Since the 1960s, lunch ladies have sometimes been caricatured as overweight, uncaring women with hairnet
s, rubber glove
s, glasses
and moles
.
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
term for a woman who cooks and serves food in a school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
cafeteria
Cafeteria
A cafeteria is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school; a school dining location is also referred to as a dining hall or canteen...
; the equivalent British English
British English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
term is "dinner lady". In Britain, a dinner lady also patrols the school playgrounds during the lunch breaks to maintain order amongst the children. Since the 1960s, lunch ladies have sometimes been caricatured as overweight, uncaring women with hairnet
Hairnet
A hairnet, or sometimes simply a net or caul, is a small, often elasticised, fine net worn over long hair to hold it in place. It is often worn by food service workers to prevent hair from contaminating the food...
s, rubber glove
Rubber glove
A rubber glove is a glove made out of rubber. Rubber gloves can be unsupported or supported . Its primary purpose is protection of the hands while performing tasks involving chemicals. Rubber gloves are worn during dishwashing to protect the hands from detergent and allow the use of hotter water...
s, glasses
Glasses
Glasses, also known as eyeglasses , spectacles or simply specs , are frames bearing lenses worn in front of the eyes. They are normally used for vision correction or eye protection. Safety glasses are a kind of eye protection against flying debris or against visible and near visible light or...
and moles
Nevus
Nevus is the medical term for sharply-circumscribed and chronic lesions of the skin. These lesions are commonly named birthmarks and moles. Nevi are benign by definition...
.
Lunch ladies in popular culture
- Although not a lunch lady, ChefChef (South Park)Jerome "Chef" McElroy is a fictional character on the Comedy Central series South Park. He was voiced by Isaac Hayes. A cafeteria worker at the local elementary school in the town of South Park, Colorado, Chef was generally portrayed as more level-headed than the other adult residents of the town...
(Issac Hayes) from South ParkSouth ParkSouth Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
is South Park Elementary's cafeteria chef. - DinnerladiesDinnerladiesDinnerladies is a British sitcom written, co-produced by and starring Victoria Wood. It ran on BBC One for 16 episodes from 1998 to 2000.-Plot:...
is a BritishUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
sitcomSituation comedyA situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
about dinner ladies, although set in an office complex rather than a school. - Lunchlady Doris is a lunch lady from The SimpsonsThe SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
. - Adam SandlerAdam SandlerAdam Richard Sandler is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, musician, and film producer.After becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member, Sandler went on to star in several Hollywood feature films that grossed over $100 million at the box office...
on Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
did a song called "Lunch Lady Land" and accompanying skit with Chris FarleyChris FarleyChristopher Crosby "Chris" Farley was an American comedian and actor. Farley was a member of Chicago's Second City Theatre and cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1995....
dressed up as a stereotypical lunch lady. The song appeared on Sandler's album They're All Gonna Laugh at You!They're All Gonna Laugh at You!They're All Gonna Laugh at You! is the debut album by American comedian Adam Sandler, released in 1993. The title comes from a repeated line in the "Oh Mom..." track that appears on the album, which is itself a parody of a scene in the film Carrie...
. - The Lunch Lady: A Documentary, directed by Leslie Mello, chronicles the story of Sharon Adl Doost, who garnered notoriety for her daily "menuMenuIn a restaurant, a menu is a presentation of food and beverage offerings. A menu may be a la carte – which guests use to choose from a list of options – or table d'hôte, in which case a pre-established sequence of courses is served....
hotlineHotlineIn telecommunication, a hotline is a point-to-point communications link in which a call is automatically directed to the preselected destination without any additional action by the user when the end instrument goes off-hook...
" recordings at the U.S. Geological Survey cafeteria. - The school lunch lady plays a key role in the plot of "EarshotEarshot (Buffy episode)"Earshot" is the 18th episode of season three of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Plot synopsis:On patrol, Buffy runs into two demons that she fights, and succeeds in killing one of them. While the other escapes, the blood from the demon she killed gets absorbed into the back of her...
", an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. - Rosa Petitjean is a fictional lunch lady of Kadic Junior High School in the FrenchFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
animatedAnimated cartoonAn animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
television series Code LyokoCode LyokoCode Lyoko is a French animated television series created by Thomas Romain and Tania Palumbo. The series centers on boarding school students Jeremie, Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd who travel to the virtual world of Lyoko to fight against multi-agent computer program XANA with Aelita, a being originally...
. - Edna is the highly unhygienic lunch lady for Bullworth Academy in the video game BullyBully (video game)Bully, also known as Canis Canem Edit for the PAL PlayStation 2 version, is an open world video game released by Rockstar Vancouver for the PlayStation 2 on 17 October 2006 in North America, and 25 October 2006 in the United Kingdom...
. She often coughs, sneezes, and blows cigarette smoke on any food she prepares, believing it "adds flavor." She also is unconcerned about the opinions of health inspectorHealth inspectorA health inspector is a public employee who investigates health hazards in a wide variety of locations, then will take action to mitigate or eliminate the hazards...
s. - The band The Darkness has a song named "Dinner Lady Arms" on their album One Way Ticket to Hell... And Back.
- "Lunch Lady Rose" is a psychic lunch lady in the NickelodeonNickelodeon (TV channel)Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
TV series Ned's Declassified School Survival GuideNed's Declassified School Survival GuideNed's Declassified School Survival Guide, commonly called Ned's Declassified for short, is an American live-action situation comedy on Nickelodeon that debuted in the channel's Sunday night TEENick scheduling block on September 12, 2004. The series' actual pilot episode aired on September 7, 2003...
. - Ms. Sara Macgrady, the lunch lady for Lakewood Elementary School in the TV show ArthurArthur (TV series)Arthur is an American/Canadian animated educational television series for children, created by Cookie Jar Group and WGBH for the Public Broadcasting Service...
. - Denise Martin, a contestant on Survivor: ChinaSurvivor: ChinaSurvivor: China is the fifteenth season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. The premiere aired September 20, 2007. Host Jeff Probst claimed the show was the first full American TV series to be filmed entirely within China...
. - In the NickelodeonNickelodeon (TV channel)Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
animated television series, Danny PhantomDanny PhantomDanny Phantom is an American animated television series created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon, produced by Billionfold Studios. The show was about a teenage half-ghost boy, who frequently saves his town and the world from ghost attacks, while attempting to keep his ghost half a secret...
, the first villain that appears is the Lunch Lady Ghost. She does not like any changes the cafeteria's meat-based menu and can also control food (namely meat), to the point of forming it around herself as a giant meat monster. - In the series Johnny TestJohnny TestJohnny Test is an American/Canadian animated television series. It premiered on Kids' WB, on The WB Television Network, on September 17, 2005. Five months later, it was introduced to Cartoon Network UK on January 12, 2006, first, as a sneak preview on Jungle Saturdays Block, and then on June 5,...
, one of Johnny's enemies is a lunch lady. - In the film "Scranna Nannas", by ACT 2 CAMACT 2 CAMACT 2 CAM is a production company and acting school based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.The company is notable for producing independent films with cast and crew of young people from 8 to 18 years old...
, the dinner ladies are sent to see a psychiatrist when they ask for a pay rise