How to Eat Fried Worms: They Tease You Because They Like You. With gay subtexts and Luke Benward grown up

When I was bullied as a kid, my parents said "They tease you because they like you."  No, they assault you because they hate you.

Before about 1980, bullying -- physical or verbal assault -- was considered an inescapable part of life. Parents and teachers thought that intervention would turn the victim into a "sissy," so they did nothing, except maybe punish you for "tattling." 

Bullying still appears in tv shows and movies aimed at children, who are told, over and over, that you can end it by "standing up for yourself."   In Dear Santa (2024), a kid with dyslexia stands up to bully Gavin Munn (and wins the Girl of His Dreams) with a little help from Satan.

Thomas Rockwell's 1973 novel How to Eat Fried Worms does not involve bullying.  Billy bets his friend Adam that he can eat 15 worms, one a day for 15 days. If he wins, Adam will give him $50 for a new minibike.  Everyone is perfectly friendly throughout.  

And, coincidently, there is no Girl for Billy to win.

But the 2006 movie version is all about bullying.  New kid in school Billy (Luke Benward) becomes the target of raging bully Joe (Adam Hicks) and his cronies.   They prank him with a thermos full of worms, and then force him into a bet: eat 15 worms on Saturday (all at once?).  The loser has to come to school with the remaining worms in his pants.

Billy succeeds in eating most of the worms, causing Joe's cronies to defect to his side, leaving Joe humiliated and alone.  Then we discover that Joe himself is a victim, savagely bullied by his older brother Nigel.  Billy and his new gang defend Joe from Nigel.

One of the worms didn't get eaten -- it was accidentally put into an omelet that another character ate.  So they both technically lost the contest.  The last scene shows Billy and Joe both entering the school with worms in their pants, their arms around each other, now friends.

Plus Billy impresses the Girl of His Dreams.  Of course they had to throw that in as a final heterosexist dig.

But at least there are three gay -subtext moments.

More after the break

1. Adam Hicks plays Joe as a wounded, almost a tragic figure, who is attracted to Billy but doesn't know how to go about expressing it  "They tease you because they like you."

2. He doesn't display any heterosexual interest. 

3. Joe and Billy smile at each other, one of those smiles that stays with you forever, like Sean and Rich (Kurt Russell, Patrick Dawson) in The Secret of Boyne Castle.  

Adam went on to the equally memorable gay-subtext series Zeke and Luther (2009-2012) and Pair of Kings (2012-2013) on the Disney Channel.

Luke Benward, not so much: his characters win The Girl of Their Dreams in Mostly Ghostly (2008) and Girl vs. Monster (2012).  But at least he's given us an adult video.

See also: Luke Benward: Fried worms, Disney movies, Christian music, gay friends, an adult video, and a n*de Cameron Monaghan

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