Poke began in Ancient Hawaii as cut-off pieces of the day's catch, eaten raw as a snack with sea salt, ʻinamona (roasted kukui nut) and sometimes seasoned with blood from the gills. Fish was tightly controlled under the kapu system, which reserved deep-sea catches for chiefs. After the kapu system was abolished and fishing grounds reopened, Japanese and Chinese plantation workers in the 19th century brought soy sauce and sesame oil, which reshaped the dish. Tuna became central once Japanese longline fleets dominated Hawaiian waters in the 1920s and 1930s. In the early 1990s, local chefs developed a distinct Hawaiian fusion style, and Sam Choy's poke contest in 1992 turned the dish into a restaurant staple.

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.