Peeps are an inside joke for this Phoenix comedian. But they also represent a family bond

As Easter approaches, so too does the renewed debate about Peeps — the popular-yet-much-maligned marshmallow candy that some people love and others love to hate.

Count Phoenix comedian Anwar Newton among those with mixed feelings about Peeps.

As you may recall, he told a story on The Show a while back about his brother’s tradition of giving him Peeps for Christmas.

For an Easter reconsideration of the controversial confection, The Show recently invited Newton back to the studio.

Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ

Full conversation

ANWAR NEWTON: It's not an unfamiliar feeling to have these cravings for certain foods that you don't actually go for. For me, that's been with Butterfinger candy. So you never hear anybody eat those. Candy corn. I love eating those. People hate that — pineapple on pizza, too.

And the craving came out of my brain and out my mouth to a family member. And obviously they took that as their life's mission from that point on to just go get me these Peeps.

DINGMAN: Right, right. And this family member was your brother?

NEWTON: My brother.

DINGMAN: Who is how much older than you?

NEWTON: Oh, geez, I've never even thought of that. Maybe a decade older. ... Yeah. Around there.

DINGMAN: So this annoying inside joke that it seems like he sort of imposed on you ... became also kind of a stand-in for your connection with him in this interesting way. Is that fair to say?

NEWTON: Yeah. My brother and his wife and his children, he has two sons and a daughter. For a long stretch of time, I was around them for the holidays. I moved out to where they lived in Nevada around my college years, and I spent a lot of holidays with them.

And I didn't have a great memory of the holidays. We were very poor growing up. A lot of time was spent like not getting Christmas presents and having our mom promise us that birthdays would be the one that we go really crazy for. And I think that resonates with a lot of people who grew up under the poverty line.

When I started to live around my brother and his family, he also had that upbringing. And so he really went out of his way to provide Christmas when he was able to, which was all the time when he was older. So, naturally I just really idolized him for being able to do that and not being in the same position our parents were in when it came to the holidays.

DINGMAN: So he would always give you Peeps for Christmas. But then there came a point, if I'm not mistaken, where he then moved away. Or maybe you moved away and the Peeps thing stopped. ... When that happened, do you feel like you kept the association with the candy? Like if you would go to a store around Christmas or Easter, there's Peeps for all seasons.

NEWTON: Peeps for all seasons.

DINGMAN: Did they still make you think about him when you would see them?

NEWTON: Absolutely. I think that every time I see Peeps in stores, I think about my brother. That's very weird to think about because I've never thought about that till you've put that in front of me. Like, when I'm in the store around this time, you know, Easter, I see the Peeps, and I think about my brother immediately.

I think about the holidays spent with him. I think about the years that have passed. The passage of time is really big. Like, it's really a signifier of how long the tradition's been going and just how far we've come as siblings.

Anwar Newton

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DINGMAN: So the question I kind of wanted to put to you about this is, you know, Peeps in my mind fall into a category, and you were naming some of these things, right? Like Butterfingers, candy corn. I think of them as, like, instant regret foods.

Like, you know, you put them in your mouth and, like, there's a split second where you're like, that's the flavor I wanted. And you're like, oh, no.

NEWTON: Right, right. Yeah. It's usually just for a moment. I'm also just like, I don't know why I do this, but I love things that people hate. I know there was a point where a friend group, my closest friend group, actually, we would go to Chili's ironically. We would go to Chili's ironically.

And I remember one time I was with my brother, and he was gonna drop me off at Chili's where my friends were. We were gonna go see a movie after we had made this big, ironic day where we're gonna eat Chili's and go see the worst movie at the movie theater because of our love of things everyone hated.

DINGMAN: Do you remember the movie?

NEWTON: It was the Charlize Theron "Aeon Flux" movie, I think it was called. It was, like, the worst one. We were like, we're gonna go watch this, and we're gonna spend a good amount of money. We're gonna make a day of it.
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.. And I remember on the ride over, I remember telling my brother this. I'm like, oh, we're gonna go see the worst movie, and we're gonna go to the worst restaurant. And this is all ironic. And my brother said to me, he's like, "At what point is it no longer ironic? And you're just a guy in his mid-30s who goes to Chili's."

And it stopped me in my tracks. And I went, whoa. [LAUGHS] I went, whoa. And that whole day I was thinking about it, I was like, I guess I do kinda like Chili's. ... I was like, I like coming here. I like being here with my friends. It's the neighborhood bar and grill.

And I had to like step away from the irony. And I remember telling myself, I'm like: You're not better than Chili's. And I think that's the feeling you're approaching this restaurant with. And a lot of these things that you've deemed as lesser than that you're gonna dabble in, you think you're better than them. And it's funny that you're lowering yourself to enjoy them.

And I had to check my ego. And I was like, you're not better than any of these things. In fact, these things are remarkable. And so I always kind of — that's internalized. Whenever I go like, I want some Peeps. It's like, let's go enjoy a modern marvel.

DINGMAN: Well, the thing that — thank you for sharing that. The thing that makes me think about is one of my other favorite lines from when you did the story about this is you talked about how sometimes at those Christmases where your brother would give you Peeps, there was a part of you that was like, can you just give me the money that you spent on this?

And at one point you said, there's like a cellphone bill's worth of peeps under this tree. Which is really funny. But the thing it made me think about when you said that is, yeah, there's a version of that Christmas where he says to you, "Hey, how about if instead of a Christmas gift this year, I'll help you out with your cellphone bill?"

Which is also very loving. But that's not the same as touching this idea that you referenced at the beginning about like, remember how when we were kids, Christmas wasn't always what we wanted it to be? This is a way of saying, now it is.

NEWTON: Yeah, yeah. I think when we have those moments together, siblings, it is. There's that internal, I guess, emotional checkpoint for us to reflect on what this always looked like for us. And we've lost siblings and our mother has passed. And so it, it's actually gotten like really emotional in a very silly way.

The last Christmas he gave me Peeps, I, like started crying. It became really deep. And I'm kind of getting emotional now because I think about how much love him.