Michael Wermuth, Jr. - Today I'm going to write about my top ten favorite "Waiter Grover" segments. Hopefully your favorites will be on the menu -- err, I mean list.
Mr. Johnson goes to Charlie's outdoor restaurant on a very windy day, where the wind blows the customer's food away. Unfortunately, it doesn't blow the bill away (and apparently he has to pay even though he didn't get to eat his food).
An early segment from before Mr. Johnson would be as grumpy as he would be known for. Mr. Johnson orders a sandwich exactly like the one pictured on the menu, making Grover go back until it is exactly like the one pictured. And when it's finally as it should be, Mr. Johnson's lunch hour is over. Interestingly, he does not get mad that he missed lunch, and doesn't even get a to-go box. He just calmly gets up as if missing lunch wasn't a big deal.
Grover works at a Spanish restaurant, where he is required to sing and dance as he serves the food. However, whenever he sings and dances, he ends up spilling the food. One funny thing is when Mr. Johnson suggests he sit the food down before dancing, Grover sits the food onto the floor as opposed to the table.
One of the few segments where Grover's restaurant customer is not Mr. Johnson, but the similar-looking Simon Soundman (who at one point implies that they are brothers). Simon asks for a chicken sandwich, but due to the way he talks, he makes the chicken sound instead of saying "Chicken sandwich," leading Grover to bring in different kidns of sandwiches, including an elephant sandwich (which is just a toy elephant), a guitar sandwich, and a telephone sandwich. The fact that the restaurant would actually serve guitar and telephone sandwiches is funny.
Mr. Johnson orders coffee, soup, and pie, and wants them all in the same order. Grover keeps getting the order mixed up, until Mr. Johnson says he wants everything else before the pie, causing Grover to actually bring everything else on the menu to the table at once. Of course Grover could have just brought all of his customers orders at once and Johnson could have eaten in the order he wanted.
Mr. Johnson orders a cheeseburger and french fries, but instead of writing it down, Grover has his own method for remembering: Make a poem out of his customers orders. With the rhyme "Round and tasty on a bun/pickles, french fries/yum, yum, yum!" Grover brings his customer a grapefruit on bread. It is then time for the waiter's lunch break, and for some reason Grover gets the idea to order a hamburger and fries.
4. Spaghetti
Grover works at an Italian restaurant, where Mr. Johnson orders spaghetti. Unfortunately, Grover only brings out one piece, then two, then one again, before bringing in too much, spilling it on his customer. This segment is really funny, I like the set used for this restaurant, and all that spaghetti looks so tasty.
It's Charlie's birthday, and in honor of his birthday, the restaurant only serves items that begin with the "CH" sound. Mr. Johnson ends up ordering a cheeseburger with chocolate ice cream, and this time Grover gets his order right and brought in right away, but before Mr. Johnson can enjoy his meal, the table gets taken away, as table does not begin with "CH." One neat thing about this segment is it's perhaps the only one where the outside of the restaurant is shown.
2. Rival Waiter
Mr. Johnson actually gets a different waiter, Pino, but then Grover shows up and they argue over who is supposed to serve at Mr. Johnson's table. Mr. Johnson actually doesn't care who his waiter is, and they cooperate to bring in food, bringing in nearly everything until Mr. Johnson has them listen to what he wants. Unfortunately, the restaurant happens to be out of what he wants. He probably should have just picked some of the many food items that had been brought to the table.
One of the all-time classic waiter Grover segments, Mr. Johnson orders a hamburger, and he gets two choices: The little hamburger and the big hamburger. Since the little hamburger is too small, he chooses the big one, refusing to listen to Grover's warning about the big one. And a giant hamburger crashes through the door and onto the table. The giant hamburger makes this one the most hilarious of the waiter Grover segments.
Well, that's my list. Now if you excuse me, I have to go out to eat (hopefully no blue monsters will be serving me).
The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, muppetmindset@gmail.com