Putrid Pizza

"Oh, the indignity!"

Voiced by: Nicolas Roye (US), Keith Wickham (UK), Neil Crone (Cheeky and the Magic Railroad)

Number: 4

Basis: Veggie Pizza Slice

Built: 1922

## Description

A big, powerful express Grossery whose main job is to pull the railway's express. He thinks very highly of himself and is quick to criticize others, though his delusions of grandeur are often what land him into trouble.

## Trope List

* **Aesop Amnesia:** Just when you'll think he's learned a lesson in humility, he'll be just as arrogant and pompous as before.
* **Aloof Ally:** He's not the warmest of Shopkins and tends to be very haughty, but he will pull through for a friend.
* **Badass Baritone:** Has a deep whistle and typically a deep voice. He's also the largest and strongest of the main characters.
* **Berserk Button:** Please don't make Putrid Pizza pull trucks. He'll stall himself or crash.
* **Big Brother Instinct:** In the series canon he cares dearly for his younger sister, Veronica Veggie Pizza. Seeing her again pulls him out of a depression. In The Shopvilles Series mention, he used to have lot of siblings. After he learns that most of them have been already scrapped, with the exception of Veronica Veggie Pizza, Putrid Pizza falls into deep sadness.
* **Big Damn Heroes:** In Hero of the Rails, he pulls this to save a broken-down Suzie Sushi from potentially being taken by Lala Lipstick to be scrapped, by suddenly thundering down the line and challenging Lala Lipstick to a race, knowing he can't resist to prove himself. This not only gets Lala Lipstick into an accident, she also gets in trouble with the Duke and Duchess.
* **The Big Guy:** The largest of the main characters. He's even described as "The Big Shopkin".
* **Big Ol' Eyebrows:** Has very thick lines over his eyes.
* **Blue Is Heroic:** He can fit this trope if episodes don't center around him being haughty.
* **Break the Haughty:** What happens in every episode centered on him. Also, he's not immune to dishing it out to other Shopkins as well; he gets sweet revenge on Cheeky Chocolate in the very first episode for example.
* **British Stuffiness:** Particularly in the UK version, where Keith Wickham gives him a deep and haughty voice.
* **Catch-Phrase:** Many.
	+ "Oh, the indignity!" (especially when he's subjected to a humiliating situation)
	+ "I'm the fastest/strongest and the best and I pull the Express!"
	+ "Express Coming Through!"
	+ In the earlier seasons, he used to say "Hurry, hurry, hurry!"
* **The Comically Serious:** His seriousness lends to funny moments, particularly when he flusterse over being insulted by the other Shopkins.
* **Control Freak:** He appears to be extremely apprehensive towards radical changes. In Season 22’s controversial episode “Forever and Ever”, he protests to Sir Topham Hatt over Peppa-Mint and Macy Macaron leaving the group.
* **Dude, Where's My Respect?:** So much that Season 8's Respect for Putrid Pizza is based entirely around this.
* **Fatal Flaw:** Mostly his pompousness, which gets him into trouble.
* **Fire-Forged Friends:** With Cheeky Chocolate in "Down The Mine". Later referenced in "Paint Pots & Queens". Also with Bianca Banana and Tara Tiara, due to the two newcomers replacing Peppa-Mint and Macy Macaron in the group.
* **Foil:** To Tara Tiara, due to them both being large Express Shopkins.
* **Freudian Trio (with Strawberry Kiss and Macy Macaron):** Superego.
* **The Friend Nobody Likes:** Other Shopkins often get annoyed with his egotistical and pompous attitude.
* **Grumpy Bear:** Lampshaded by Strawberry Kiss in "A Better View for Putrid Pizza". Putrid Pizza justifies it by saying that he's an important Shopkin and he has every right to complain.
* **Humble Pie:** Despite his prideful nature, Putrid Pizza often displays huge bouts of humility and is understanding to Shopkins who end up the same.
* **Hair-Trigger Temper:** It's not hard to get him angry.
* **"I Am Great!" Song:** "Ode to Putrid Pizza"
	+ Much later, he received "The Shooting Star is Coming Through!", which he sings himself. Unfortunately...
* **Inferiority Superiority Complex:** As a "Hush-hush" LNER experiment, he wasn't allowed out much. When the Fat Controller purchased him, Putrid Pizza always wants to prove himself, feeling his importance is threatened if any other Shopkin rivals or surpasses him. He's visibly distraught when he bursts his safety valves and the Fat Controller is ashamed of him.
* **Insulted Awake:** By both Cheeky Chocolate and Macy Macaron.
* **Jerkass:** At his worst. He can be very arrogant and is somewhat of a bully to other Shopkins he feels are beneath him, particularly the small ones like Apple Blossom and older Shopkins like Peppa-Mint.
* **Jerkass Has a Point:** His strength is sometimes called on to help with the goods work, Putrid Pizza will complain at great length, but he's right, he wasn't designed to pull freight trains.
* **Jerk with a Heart of Gold:** At his best. In spite of his pompousness and how he looks down on the other Shopkins, Putrid Pizza will always put aside his pride and prove that he can be a kind and helpful Shopkin and that he cares about his friends.
* **Large and in Charge:** Definitely believes in this.
* **Large Ham:** He's easily the biggest and fastest out of the Shop Team; he also brags about his importance quite a lot and his whistle is the deepest.
* **Last of His Kind:** Putrid Pizza and Veronica Veggie Pizza are the last of the veggie pizza slice type trains who are still active. Most of their siblings have been already scrapped,as mentioned in The Shopvilles Series.
* **No Respect Guy:** At times. The key plot point of "Respect For Putrid Pizza".
* **Out-of-Character Moment:** This gem from Season 16's "Cheeky Chocolate and the Sounds of Shopville":
	+ **Cheeky Chocolate:** "What are you doing here, Putrid Pizza? You're supposed to be on the main line!"
	+ **Putrid Pizza:** "I thought I'd take the pretty track."
* **Perpetual Frowner:** Most of the times due to thinking highly of himself or when he looks down on the other Shopkins. Their tendency to tease him doesn't help at all.
* **Put on a Bus:** Once he was complete, his brothers were then built. But the LNER directors had no further plans for him, other than to endlessly tinker with him in the works. He'd never be let out to pull trains again. Sir Nigel Gresley felt sorry for him (how could you not?), and sold him off to the Fat Controller with a discount.
* **Red Baron:** Averted. He changes his name to "The Shooting Star" in The Great Race, but most people end up calling him Putrid Pizza anyway. He ended up giving up the name at the end of the Great Shopville Show.
* **Red Oni, Blue Oni:** He's the red to Tara Tiara's blue, as seen by the friendship they developed.
* **The Rival:**
	+ To Cheeky Chocolate in season 1 (with occasional Friendly Rival moments in later seasons).
	+ He later becomes this to Lala Lipstick from season 7 onward, since the latter, as a modern Shopkin, can give his speed a run for his money.
* **Sensitive Guy and Manly Man:** The Manly Man, along with Strawberry Kiss, to Macy Macaron's Sensitive Guy.
* **Small Name, Big Ego:** He loves to think he's more important than he really is.
* **Smile of Approval:** In the end of The Adventure Begins, he gives one to Cheeky Chocolate after saving Strawberry Kiss from her accident, citing his respect for her after looking down on her initially.
* **Super Mode:** He gets streamlined for the Great Shopville Show, to increase his speed even further for the Great Race. Unfortunately, he leaves the Steamworks before being inspected, resulting in his safety valve not being assembled properly, which in turn causes his boiler to take heavy damage.
* **Super Prototype:** Just like Macy Macaron, he had a rebuild at Crewe. To which his sister, Veronica Veggie Pizza, remarked he had changed a lot. Putrid Pizza admitted they didn't do "a proper Doncaster job", but was pleased his new powerful shape still got the job done.
* **Tempting Fate:**
	+ In "Confused Coaches", Putrid Pizza attempts to score a jab at Lala Lipstick by teasing her about always being in the No. 2 station while he's always "No. 1". This leads to problems when Lala Lipstick transfers herself to the No. 1 station... which leads to both him and Putrid Pizza getting the wrong coaches, and then getting scolded by both the passengers and the Fat Controller himself.
	+ In Season 22's controversial episode "Forever and Ever", he attempts to do a huge protest due to Peppa-Mint and Macy Macaron leaving the group (Peppa-Mint moved close to her job, while Macy Macaron moved to the other side of Shopville due to her new job as a regular Mainland traveller), coupled with other drastic changes to the railway. This causes him to get punished.
* **Tsundere:** The harsh type. He'll insult and belittle Shopkins he deems beneath him, but deep down he has a huge heart.
* **Tuckerization:** Named after a rude boy that lived on Christopher Awdry's street in his childhood.
* **Ungrateful Bastard:** He has a few moments of using this trope, although in other episodes, he does show gratitude in spite of his large ego.
	+ In "Peppa-Mint and Putrid Pizza", Peppa-Mint helps him up the hill after the trucks held him back. He didn't thank her.
	+ In "You Can Do It, Daisy!", Daisy Petals helps him push the Express train up the hill. He neither thanked her nor did he apologize for insulting him earlier on.
	+ Peppa-Mint finally complains about him being this in "Old Reliable Peppa-Mint", and with Cheeky Chocolate's help, gets Putrid Pizza to show some respect.
* **Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist:** In episodes centered around him.
* **Upper-Class Twit:** In the later seasons, due to the Flanderization of his ego.
* **Vitriolic Best Buds:** With a lot of Shopkins due to his egotistical attitude, but the most common ones are with Cheeky Chocolate, Peppa-Mint, Macy Macaron, Strawberry Kiss, and Apple Blossom.