Life
Nobody eats plain cheese pizza anymore. If you do, people look at you funny. We're constantly looking for the next craziest invention, which is the only thing that can explain pizza wedding bouquets, pizza boxes designed for eating in bed, and — wait for it — pizza bun hamburgers. These days, there's no shortage of creativity when it comes to coming up with new and bizarre ideas, but in truth, people have been thinking outside of the (pizza) box for years. Rewind a little bit, and there are probably a few things you totally forgot pizza brands did in the early 2000s. Rest assured we were as weird then as we are now.
Pizza looks nothing like the original dish consumed by ancient Italians, Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks, according to History.com. Back then, it was merely flatbread with toppings. Then, America was like, "Hold my beer," and we took things to a whole new level.
Since then, light flatbread drizzled in olive oil with a few basil leaves and maybe some garlic is a thing of the past. Now, it's a race to see who can come up with the most ridiculous pizza. Here are some of the strange and sometimes awkward things that happened to pizza back in the early 2000s.
1Domino's Oreo Pizza
I bet you forgot this was a thing. Domino's apparently needed to one-up itself, so they were all, "Hey, pizza for dinner not enough for you? No problemo. We came up with a pizza you can eat after you eat your pizza." And then we had this Oreo thing. Excessive? Probably. Do we care? Not really.
2Then They Created The *Cheesiest* Pizza
The Wisconsin 6 Cheese pizza, wrote Cleveland.com, was smothered in mozzarella, feta, provolone, cheddar, parmesan, and asiago cheeses, and my stomach hurts just typing this. I guess one type of cheese isn't enough? Or... five, for that matter? And to be clear, most of the cheese wasn't even from Wisconsin. The betrayal!
3Then, Papa John's Was All, "Aw, Heck No"
Not one to be outdone, Papa John's came up with their own over-the-top pie: the Double Bacon Six Cheese pizza. It was made with mozzarella, parmesan, romano, asiago, provolone, and fontina, says Eater, and it was topped with hickory-smoked bacon and Canadian bacon.
Your move, Domino's.
4Remember When Pizza Hut Gave Away More Than 1,000 Pizzas?
True story. In a press release, they once announced that in celebration of 1/1/11, they were going to give away 1,111 stuffed crust pizzas, which basically feels like they extended Christmas, because there is no gift better than free pizza.
5Pizza Fit For A Royal
According to Eater, Pizza Hut in the Middle East kicked things up a notch with their Crown Crust Pizza, which had meatballs and balls of Philadelphia cream cheese baked into the crust, because why not?
6The Domino's Breakfast Pizza
Let's be honest — we're all thinking the same thing: how come nobody ever put breakfast on pizza? Silly rabbit — they did. Domino's went and topped a pie with eggs, sausage, ham, onions, green pepper, mushrooms, and jalapeños, says Eater, and honestly, this is just getting inappropriate.
7That One Time Pizza Hut Almost Changed Its Name
The Telegraph reminds us that once upon a time, Pizza Hut almost became Pasta Hut in an effort to appear more healthy and focus on *fancier* dishes like tomato and mozzarella mezzaluna and prawn and crayfish arrabiata, which both sound awful. Obvi, the switch never happened. Nice try, Pizza Hut.
8Molten Chocolate Cake
Domino's isn't one to ever stop evolving, so they decided to spruce up their menu with a new dessert. It was the lava crunch cake, said Reuters, and you can still find it on their menu. Alright, I'm willing to overlook that whole Wisconsin cheese thing.
9The Cheesy Bites Pizza
In all its glorious dairy-crammed beauty, Pizza Hut's Cheesy Bites Pizza has actually made a comeback every summer since it was initially introduced. In case you didn't get enough cheese and bread from the pizza itself, the crust is on steroids and made from... more cheese and bread.