Furry Old Lobster Video

I can't see it because of a filter but I'm hoping somebody will spoil it for me. I always thought that was just a reference to how otters smash open clams. Am I unusually dense on this one and missing something?

No that's exactly what it is. I always wait for people to at least smile in recognition when that line comes around, but they rarely do. Oh, I know: it's not funny. Oh well...

Ah. Glad to see I wasn't missing out on something. I smile at that line. It brings back fond memories for me as I was raised by Sea Otters and still return to the sea annually to visit and frollic in the waves.

Hey, *I* got the joke about smashing open clams on their bellies with stones, and I think I might have smiled. But that's what you get for not being in the room.

Furry Old Lobster is one of my favorites! The "smash open..." line is the key to the whole song. Definitely the song when I concluded that you were a genius...because how else would you have come up with the concept for this song?

I get the "smash open" thing, but the whole song confuses me -- where did the idea that sea otters were lobsters come from in the first place? It smells like some kind of an inside joke that got turned into a cool song, but I missed the opening part of the joke. Can anyone fill me in?

Spiff, you require the complete world knowledge. Many things will become more clear after reading the works of pan-expert John Hodgman.

A reasonable question Spiff. This is from the deranged mind of John Hodgman - there is a section in his book on the history of the lobster in America. The short version is that the creature we originally called a lobster (a kind of sea otter) was destroyed by the import of the crustacean variety we are all familiar with today. I guess without that back story the song sounds a little nuts.

Nuts! It's genius, if you have complete world knowledge.

I knew it was one of those things where all the cool guys knew what was going on and I wasn't a cool guy (yet). Just to cement my persona as a complete noob, it's all from the fevered Hodgman brain, or is it based on some long-lost fact that I never learned anywhere?

Fevered brain. Though the genius of Hodgman is that sometimes the stuff he makes up is more true than the actual truth...

It's a joke? Just down the coast in Monterey, the place is still teeming with the furry old lobsters. They taste great! As a general rule, I don't eat endangered species, but they're just too darn tasty to pass up.*

I had one of the new furless ones with the claws this past weekend, and it's just not the same.

I haven't had one of those furry new lobstahs yet, though. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furry_lobster)

*NB: yes, I got the joke, and no, I don't eat otters... often.

By way of cementing a fine JoCo tradition, please note the image at 0:46 -- paw claps!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/sci_nat_enl_1141830109/img/1.jpg

Cross breeding between the furry old lobster and the evil crustacean?

Is there a specific species of Otter that this song is referring to? Such as the (supposed) extinct Stellar Sea Otter, or is it just referring to otters in New England in general? I wish they were around here still....I've never seen a live, wild otter...