Larry the Lobster (Saturday Night Live sketch)

Larry The Lobster was the subject of an April 10, 1982 comedy routine by Eddie Murphy on "Saturday Night Live". In an early example of interactive television, Murphy held Larry, a live lobster, aloft and declared that the show's audience would determine whether he lived or died.

Murphy then read two "900" phone numbers, one for those who wanted to spare Larry, and another for those who wanted to see him cooked. In the span of 30 minutes, viewers made nearly 500,000 calls, sending phone traffic soaring."Ms. Gauweiler Guards U.S. Phone Network From 'Idol' Threat," Dionne Searcey, "Wall Street Journal," April 27, 2006; Page A1]

The heavy phone use stood as a record, or near-record for many years. ["Thousands ring up 900 each day," Mark Lewyn, "USA Today," August 29, 1988. pg. 04.B] The spike in traffic perplexed AT&T employees, who eventually figured out that the program was responsible.

Though the phone network survived the spike, it was sufficiently threatening to operations that AT&T established communication with the television networks so that they could be warned of potentially disruptive future events; this system remains in use to this day.

Larry was initially spared by about 12,000 votes. 239,096 callers voted to save him and 227,452 voted for him to be boiled.

On the next week's episode, however, Eddie Murphy raised the subject of Larry the Lobster again, saying that he had received letters protesting the crustacean's treatment the previous week, including one that contained the racist barb "I didn't even know you people liked lobster." Murphy then displayed a boiled lobster on a plate, announced that Larry's stay of execution had been revoked, and ate it. [ [http://www.productivityshock.com/larry_the_lobster_and_murphys_law_of_democracy.htm Larry the Lobster and Murphy's Law of Democracy] ]

Larry is cited to this day in discussions of cruelty to animals ["Cutting Loose the Crustaceans; Whole Foods Stops Selling Live Lobsters," "Washington Post," June 17, 2006, page D1] and in rosters of famous animals. ["Famous fauna; Celebrity animals from Bubbles the Chimp to Mike the Headless Chicken," Erin Ryan, "The Idaho Statesman," October 3, 2006. THRIVE section, Pg. 12]

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