麻豆社

Ariel, the mermaid in this 1989 animated Disney classic, discovers a fork in a sunken vessel and considers it one of her most precious treasures.

Scuttle, a gull who claims to be an expert on all things human, identifies the object as a ‘dinglehopper’ and explains it’s used to comb hair, which causes a bit of embarrassment at a dinner party later on.

There’s an important lesson here. Never take cutlery advice from a seabird.

Surely one of the most iconic fork moments in cinema occurs during the early phase of this British classic when, after 60 hours of sleeplessness thanks to a variety of toxic substances, Richard E Grant’s Withnail attempts to do the washing up.

Faced with a wretched sink full of filth and excessive waves of paranoia, the perceived detection of a rat or other living entity clambering up the plughole is met with a lusty cry of ‘FORK IT!’. Though he appears to be holding a comb at the time.

Spoiler alert: Nothing gets forked.

One of these was The Blue Raja (played by Simpsons mainstay Hank Azaria) who had the ability to hurl cutlery at any villain that came into range. His speciality was forks, though his accuracy was suspect and dining items tended to end up in the backsides of his allies.

Before Holy Grail and Life of Brian generated plaudits and controversy in equal measure, the Monty Python team's first foray into film was this sketch compilation from 1971.

With re-filmed items taken from the first two series of the British comedy staple, it was intended to break the team in the American market.

It didn’t. But it did contain the Dirty Fork sketch, where Graham Chapman’s polite request for cleaner cutlery ends in despair, horror, murder and some postmodern breaking of the fourth wall.

It’s a question as old as the ages. What about sporks? It’s a tricky area. But we’re feeling generous and so we’ll give sporks their due.

Disney has dipped into the spork well fairly extensively in recent years. WALL-E discovers a spork while he’s left to clean up the deserted, rubbish-strewn Earth. But does he file it with his collection of spoons or forks? You’ll have to watch the film to find out.

And in the brand new Toy Story 4 we meet a character called Forky, who is actually a spork who doesn’t believe he’s a toy. Lots of identity problems there then.

Gregory Peck’s character is suffering from amnesia and also seems to have a distinct dislike for forks, specifically straight lines drawn by a fork on a white tablecloth.

But surely no one could dislike forks that much? Of course not! Turns out it’s all to do with snow and skiing and murder. But not forks. Forks are fine.

Pretty Woman, the beloved 1990 rom-com, features not only some great fork action but an important etiquette lesson.

Down on her luck lady of the night Julia Roberts is accompanying slick businessman Richard Gere on various social engagements, but fears she’s a little low-class to be a suitable companion.

She’s given a quick lesson in dinner table manners and the right fork to use for the right course. If in doubt, count the tines! A very important lesson that can apply to many, many things in life.

Never has mashed potato been so lovingly sculpted and been so symbolically significant.

Steven Spielberg’s 1977 alien meet-cute epic features an iconic scene where Richard Dreyfuss builds a pretty accurate representation of the flying saucer landing site from soggy spuds.

But what does he use to render this invaluable plot point? A fork of course!

Some remember the spaceship descending and the five note tune used to communicate with the aliens. We remember the fork.