We're all still reeling from one skit on SNL this weekend, "Lobster No. 1."
In this skit, a young man joins his friend at a diner. Standard business: The two men have carved gang signs into the baby-changing station attached to the restroom. (Welcome to New York.) The gruff waiter chuckles at one man's wish to replace the fries with the salad; he calls this order "vagina-style." But then something bizarre happens to shoot us out of our Ordinary World. The other young man wants to order the lobster.
This is Maurice getting kidnapped in "Beauty and the Beast"; it's Simba losing his father in "The Lion King." We are plunged into unfamiliar waters. (John Mulaney, an observational comic, has crafted an Enchanted World out of something no one has ever used before--the quandary of the lobster option on a diner menu. "They don't want you to order seafood! Look, they put the word SEAFOOD in quotation marks!" ...You can imagine Seinfeld doing something with this. "Do you ever notice--do you ever look at the diner menu and think, hey, who in his right mind would ever order the lobster?")
Mulaney's stroke of genius is to take his premise to the extreme. The thought of having lobster in a diner is so upsetting, it actually triggers a mid-scale "Les Miserables" revival, right in the middle of the diner. Ordering lobster is so absurd, in this context, it's on par with having actual singing crustaceans, and an actual pro-lobster barricade, similar to something you might see in Paris in the 1800s. OK. The lobster fights for his life. "Who's this guy? Why won't you keep me from that pot? And give our BLT a shot?" The young diner patron is unmoved. An astute writer, Mulaney understands he must up the stakes. So he borrows a scenario--an actual scenario--from Disney's "Beauty and the Beast." There, Belle offers to endure captivity in her father's place. Here, "Clawsette," or Kate McKinnon, says that she will die to save her father. "Boiled, steamed or fried, I'll join the lobsters in the sky." We are truly unsettled here.
Unmoved, the diner patron requires us to up the stakes even more. Clawsette can't win the argument. But a full chorus can. The entire diner staff appears behind a tall stack of chairs, wood scraps, and detritus. "Do you hear the lobster scream? When the churning in your bowels matches the burning of his shell....Lobsters! You don't eat them! In diners!!!" Stunned by the crescendo, the young man relents. There will be no lobster entree. Let's have veal instead. A perfect button: The relieved masses rejoice at the thought of slaughtering a baby cow. And: fade to black.
This is a joy to watch simply because Mulaney is having fun and permitting himself to go uncensored. He has burrowed deep into his own weird soul. We can all see that. But I'd like to offer one more thought. Typically, on "SNL," you'd get a skit about the awkwardness of having lobster in a diner, and there would be some long, tense silences, some mild giggles, and then the scene would putter out. Or: You WOULD get a big musical parody, but the subject would be something topical, such as James Comey's new book, or Trump's Stormy Daniels issue. But to marry the "Les Miz" scenario with something as pedestrian as a diner stand-off: THAT, to me, is the greatness of the skit. THAT is something you do not see every day. Or even every Saturday night. My gratitude to John Mulaney. He has inspired many weirdo writers all over the country, in four brisk minutes. No question!
https://www.eater.com/2018/4/15/17239784/snl-diner-lobster-john-mulaney-les-miserables
In this skit, a young man joins his friend at a diner. Standard business: The two men have carved gang signs into the baby-changing station attached to the restroom. (Welcome to New York.) The gruff waiter chuckles at one man's wish to replace the fries with the salad; he calls this order "vagina-style." But then something bizarre happens to shoot us out of our Ordinary World. The other young man wants to order the lobster.
This is Maurice getting kidnapped in "Beauty and the Beast"; it's Simba losing his father in "The Lion King." We are plunged into unfamiliar waters. (John Mulaney, an observational comic, has crafted an Enchanted World out of something no one has ever used before--the quandary of the lobster option on a diner menu. "They don't want you to order seafood! Look, they put the word SEAFOOD in quotation marks!" ...You can imagine Seinfeld doing something with this. "Do you ever notice--do you ever look at the diner menu and think, hey, who in his right mind would ever order the lobster?")
Mulaney's stroke of genius is to take his premise to the extreme. The thought of having lobster in a diner is so upsetting, it actually triggers a mid-scale "Les Miserables" revival, right in the middle of the diner. Ordering lobster is so absurd, in this context, it's on par with having actual singing crustaceans, and an actual pro-lobster barricade, similar to something you might see in Paris in the 1800s. OK. The lobster fights for his life. "Who's this guy? Why won't you keep me from that pot? And give our BLT a shot?" The young diner patron is unmoved. An astute writer, Mulaney understands he must up the stakes. So he borrows a scenario--an actual scenario--from Disney's "Beauty and the Beast." There, Belle offers to endure captivity in her father's place. Here, "Clawsette," or Kate McKinnon, says that she will die to save her father. "Boiled, steamed or fried, I'll join the lobsters in the sky." We are truly unsettled here.
Unmoved, the diner patron requires us to up the stakes even more. Clawsette can't win the argument. But a full chorus can. The entire diner staff appears behind a tall stack of chairs, wood scraps, and detritus. "Do you hear the lobster scream? When the churning in your bowels matches the burning of his shell....Lobsters! You don't eat them! In diners!!!" Stunned by the crescendo, the young man relents. There will be no lobster entree. Let's have veal instead. A perfect button: The relieved masses rejoice at the thought of slaughtering a baby cow. And: fade to black.
This is a joy to watch simply because Mulaney is having fun and permitting himself to go uncensored. He has burrowed deep into his own weird soul. We can all see that. But I'd like to offer one more thought. Typically, on "SNL," you'd get a skit about the awkwardness of having lobster in a diner, and there would be some long, tense silences, some mild giggles, and then the scene would putter out. Or: You WOULD get a big musical parody, but the subject would be something topical, such as James Comey's new book, or Trump's Stormy Daniels issue. But to marry the "Les Miz" scenario with something as pedestrian as a diner stand-off: THAT, to me, is the greatness of the skit. THAT is something you do not see every day. Or even every Saturday night. My gratitude to John Mulaney. He has inspired many weirdo writers all over the country, in four brisk minutes. No question!
https://www.eater.com/2018/4/15/17239784/snl-diner-lobster-john-mulaney-les-miserables
Brilliant! Both.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joel!
ReplyDelete