# The popularity of Ice Cream **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 21, 2015, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-popularity-of-ice-cream/710485 "2015-01-21T15:22:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-popularity-of-ice-cream/710485/21 "2015-01-21T20:27:31Z")
“strawberry” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=strawberry&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cstrawberry%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer So it seems Neapolitan ice cream decreased in popularity from WWII to the 1960s. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-popularity-of-ice-cream/710485/22 "2015-01-21T20:32:17Z")
“red” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=red&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cred%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer “blue” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=blue&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cblue%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer “green” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=green&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cgreen%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer “yellow” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=yellow&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cyellow%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer “orange” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=orange&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Corange%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer “pink” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=pink&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cpink%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer “purple” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=purple&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cpurple%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer “violet” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=violet&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cviolet%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer even “indigo” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=indigo&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cindigo%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer “white”!! > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=white&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cwhite%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer and “black”!! > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=black&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cblack%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-popularity-of-ice-cream/710485/23 "2015-01-21T20:34:53Z")
“rose” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=rose&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Crose%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer “daisy” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=daisy&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cdaisy%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer “daffofdil” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=daffodil&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cdaffodil%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer “tulip” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=tulip&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ctulip%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer But not “orchid”, which peaks between WWII and 1960. > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=orchid&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Corchid%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer Must be that Nero Wolfe effect. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-popularity-of-ice-cream/710485/24 "2015-01-21T20:40:14Z")
“circle” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=circle&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ccircle%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer “square” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=square&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Csquare%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer “triangle” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=triangle&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ctriangle%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer but not “rectangle” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=rectangle&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Crectangle%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer or “trapezoid” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=trapezoid&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ctrapezoid%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer or “ellipse” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=ellipse&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cellipse%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer or “pentagon” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=pentagon&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cpentagon%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer Not “cube” > **[Google Books Ngram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=cube&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ccube%3B%2Cc0)** > > Google Books Ngram Viewer and “sphere” actually increases — one of the few common things I’ve found that does ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-popularity-of-ice-cream/710485/25 "2015-01-22T18:25:22Z")
[You know you can graph more than one thing at a time. Easier to compare.](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=vanilla%2Cchocolate%2Cstrawberry&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1855&year_end=2005&corpus=15&smoothing=5&share=&direct_url=t4%3B%2Cvanilla%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bvanilla%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BVanilla%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BVANILLA%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Cchocolate%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bchocolate%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BChocolate%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BCHOCOLATE%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Cstrawberry%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bstrawberry%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BStrawberry%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BSTRAWBERRY%3B%2Cc0) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-popularity-of-ice-cream/710485/26 "2015-01-22T20:18:01Z")
I know, but I came upon these one by one. All of them (except those indicated) show obvious drops over the period of 1840-1960. It’s not data mining or cherry-picking. You can see that I look at the whole range of common colors and flavors, for instance. I think it must be an anomaly of the system – which sources are sampled, or how sampled, or something. But I cannot believe, for instance, that “Disney” and "Walt Disney doesn’t show a spike or a rise in the 1950s, considering not only the animated features, but also the opening of Disneyland and the airing of three important TV series. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-popularity-of-ice-cream/710485.md?page=1)