An Italian man has left the internet in stitches after his reaction to trying deep-dish pizza in Chicago went viral on social media earlier this week.
The clip was shared on TikTok on Thursday by one of his friends, under the username @emmanoyesmaybe. In it, the Italian man, who is wearing a sweater tied around his neck, can be seen reacting to his friend's pizza prank, and it is every little bit as funny as you can imagine.
As his friend opens the pizza box, his excitement disappears. He can be heard repeatedly asking, "What is that?" with an expression of horror on his face. Although he's visibly heartbroken, the man still decides to give it a go and try it. However, he ends up dumping it all back in the box, shouting "disgusting," as he struggles to keep the pie down.
The hilarious clip comes with a caption that reads: "Our Italian friend is visiting us in Chicago so we ordered him a deep-dish pizza and now I can't breathe." It is followed by: "I think he liked it."
The Chicago History Museum says Chicago pizza first appeared in the fall of 1943 with the opening of Pizzeria Uno. It all happened when a restaurateur called Ric Riccardo became partnered with a liquor salesman Ike Sewell, and his wife, Florence, who had high-society connections in Chicago. They launched Pizzeria Uno, located a few blocks from the well-known Riccardo's, and eventually, it became so popular that they launched Pizzeria Due too.
This type of pizza is marked by three main characteristics, including enormous amounts of cheese and a thick, sweet-pastry shell crust; very high oven temperatures for baking; and long cooking times, about 50 to 60 minutes for a medium-sized pie. This allows customers time to consume many bottles of Chianti and Lambrusco while waiting.
The video quickly went viral on social media, getting viewers from across TikTok. It has so far received over 2.4 million views and more than 367,000 likes on the platform.
One user, Quitch, commented: "As a normal person the deep dish pizza doesn't look that good to me either." And michaelchuabeauty added: "He is *APPALLED*."
Aitch Zee wrote: "His Italian accent came out right after tasting that pizza." And jdimfk posted: "My husband from Florence loves Chicago pizza. Some Italians are less open to dishes that don't taste exactly like [home] though."
Newsweek reached out to @emmanoyesmaybe for comment via TikTok chat. We could not verify the details of the case.
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Maria Azzurra Volpe is a Newsweek Lifestyle Reporter based in London. Her focus is reporting on lifestyle and trends-related stories, ... Read more
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