Peanut Brutal (peanut brittle joke)

Peanut brittle can be hard on teeth, causing many to call it “peanut brutal.” The “peanut brutal” joke was cited in 1947 and twice again in 1960 newspapers.
 
   
Wikipedia: Brittle (food)
Brittle is a type of confection consisting of flat broken pieces of hard sugar candy embedded with nuts such as pecans, almonds, or peanuts. It has many variations around the world, such as pasteli in Greece, croquant in France, gozinaki in Georgia, chikki in India and kotkoti in Bangladesh. In parts of the Middle East, brittle is made with pistachios, while many Asian countries use sesame seeds and peanuts. Peanut brittle is the most popular brittle recipe in the US. The term brittle first appears in print in 1892, though the candy itself has been around for much longer.
   
Google Books
American Farm Youth
Volumes 13-14
1947
Pg. 49:
Grandpa: “I’m sick from eating peanut brutal.”
F.F.A. Boy: “You mean ‘peanut brittle’.”
Grandpa: “No, it’s brittle if you have teeth — but if you haven’t, it’s brutal.”
 
9 January 1960, The Bee (Danville, VA), “The Beehive,” pg. 6, col. 5:
Alan Young—Darla let’s go in the house and make some peanut brutal.
Darla Hood—You mean peanut brittle.
Alan Young—The last batch you made was brutal.
 
4 August 1960, Greensboro (NC) Record, “Dinah Mite” comic strip, pg. A8, col. 1:
(Dinah Mite has make something in the kitchen, A boy with missing teeth warns another boy.—ed.)
“I oughta know. When she makes peanut brittle, I call it peanut brutal!”
   
7 August 1973, Wichita Falls (TX) Times, “Glenn Shelton’s Hired Hand,” pg. 15A, col. 1:
“I was eating some peanut brutal the other day and…”
“You mean peanut BRITTLE, don’t you?”
“No, when you’ve lost your uppers, it’s peanut brutal…”
I don’t know where he heard the joke but this one tears up my friend Jim.
 
Google Books
Haikus for Punsters
By Paul Treatman
Lincoln, NE: iUniverse
2006
Pg. 89:
Wild candy maker:
Marshmallows extremely hard,
The peanut brutal.
 
YouTube
Fat Albert - Peanut Brutal
William Presley
Uploaded on Feb 22, 2009
A clip from “Take Two - There Small”
 
Twitter
Sam McLean
‏@TheSamMcLean
I recently broke a tooth on some Christmas peanut brittle. I would like to argue false advertising and push for a renaming. Peanut Brutal.
3:05 PM - 23 Jan 2014
 
Twinsburg Bulletin (Kent, OH)
THE WAY IT WAS: MR. PEANUT, THE PEANUT GALLERY AND SOME OLD PEANUT JOKES
by John Straka Published: October 20, 2015 12:25PM
(...)
Peanut brittle is a very hard candy. You’re not supposed to bite it, but rather let it dissolve slowly in your mouth. There’s an old joke about the two men eating lunch in the company lunchroom. The first man tells the second one that his wife made him some peanut brutal. The other man says, “Don’t you mean peanut brittle?” The first man says, “Not the way my wife makes it!”