Popular Culture
The image of enlisted soldiers peeling potatoes in an installation's kitchen was once associated with the popular culture image of KP duty due to its frequent appearance in mid-twentieth century movies and comic strips about life in the service for Americans. Irving Berlin's Yip Yip Yaphank, 1918, musical review contains the song "Kitchen Police (Poor Little Me)."
Al Pacino, as Col. Frank Slade in "Scent of a Woman" tells his co-star, Chris O'Donnell who plays Charlie Simms, that he is going to pull KP duty because Charlie tries to mock him during their first encounter.
Snoopy is sometimes put on KP by his squadron leader when he loses too many Sopwith Camels in his fantasies as World War I Flying ace Roy Brown. In the marvel universe Captain America is often put on KP duty in his early comics.
In the 1981 movie Stripes, Sgt. Hulka (Warren Oates) puts his platoon on KP duty for two weekends after Pvt. John Winger (Bill Murray) refuses to admit that he left the base without permission. There is also a scene in the extended cut of the movie showing Pvts. Russell Ziskey (Harold Ramis) and Dewey "Ox" Oxburger (John Candy) performing KP duty, having to move large garbage barrels out of the kitchen.
Read more about this topic: KP Duty
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