Hear Us Out

October 7, 2024 9:43 AM

Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer of The Lonely Island (previously) return to make a proposal...

Sushi Glory Hole

posted by Catblack (11 comments total)

During some of the years 2008-2012 some friends and I had a camp at Burning Man called the Snack Food Glory Hole.

The way it worked is the Barker would go out on the street and scare up "business" by shouting appealing things at passers by. Stuff like "Fresh delicious snacks, served through a hole!" "Get your food from a hole! Just like mom used to make, when you were in the box!", "Hey, you, with the kneepads! It's your lucky day!" and "If you do not eat food you will die!". Then the people would talk to the Heirophant, who would chat with the patrons and check in on allergies or if they're vegan or whatever (we did have an epi-pen on hand, but never had to use it). Behind the wall some highly talented Snack Technicians would lovingly frankenstein together a custom snack out of the contents of the snacklebox (e.g., a brownie with a sour skittle shoved up it. Or maybe cheez-its covered in country time lemonade mix. Or something with tapenade? Our promise was "80% delicious, 90% interesting, 100% food".) Finally the Snacker would deploy the snack with a spoon or gloved hand through the hole.

Sometimes people would try to figure out what they'd just eaten, and if it looked like they were good at it or enjoyed it, we invited them back for the Snack-Off at the end of the week. About 15 people showed up, and they tried to identify a bunch of weird stuff, and whoever did the best was declared the Winner and Champignon, and got a crown made from a cheez-it box.

During evenings, we would occasionally have the Snack Fluid Happy Hour, and when we were closed we plugged the hole with a giant cork.

We might be the only glory hole to ever be inspected and certified by the Washoe County Board of Health, though I don't know how to get the data to know for sure.

The last time we were there I brought a tally counter, and it turned out we served snacks to a few percent of the total population of Burning Man (falsely assuming no repeats), which IMO is a pretty big success. Some people from Minnesota asked if we minded if they took the idea and brought it to CONvergance sci fi con and we didn't, so they did.

Anyway one upshot of this is we still stay abreast of snack food glory hole related news (which I will tell you involves a lot of "false positives" from headlines searches). In the email thread about this video, one member of our camp writes:

Huh. Andy Samberg was also involved in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, who made a (more oblique) reference to SFGH ten years ago. I wonder if he or someone in his orbit got snacked by us!

🤷
posted by aubilenon at 10:38 AM on October 7 [65 favorites]

I heard them out. It was worth it for Colin Jost's eager expression.
posted by Lenie Clarke at 10:40 AM on October 7

A variation on the theme with Peter Dinklage.
posted by fight or flight at 10:55 AM on October 7 [1 favorite]

OK yes, but can we also talk about new cast member Jane Wickline's song on Weekend Update?
posted by thisiscolossal at 11:01 AM on October 7 [14 favorites]

I like that because it is so meta because that is totally what the writing room is like all the time but then this one time they actually did not leave and heard them out and the result is this.
posted by Don Pepino at 11:21 AM on October 7 [1 favorite]

I did hear them out. But I regretted it.
posted by merriment at 2:13 PM on October 7

It was worth it for Colin Jost's eager expression.

Sorry to be That Guy, but Colin’s not in this video, it was Mikey Day who stumbled into the wrong(?) stall.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 2:39 PM on October 7

aubilenon, your story is better than the sketch.
posted by Marky at 2:40 PM on October 7 [1 favorite]

Sorry to be That Guy, but Colin’s not in this video, it was Mikey Day who stumbled into the wrong(?) stall.

Not the first white guy I've confused with another white guy in a bathroom. But fair point.
posted by Lenie Clarke at 6:42 PM on October 7 [5 favorites]

Mod note: [We've added aubilenon's (100%!) interesting comment to the sidebar and Best Of blog!]
posted by taz (staff) at 2:20 AM on October 8 [2 favorites]

Partway through the video, when they're distributing flyers outdoors, there's an easel with a sign on it. The typeface on the sign on the easel in that old light Garamond-y Apple typeface sets the time period so effectively. Marvelous.
posted by brainwane at 8:45 AM on October 8 [1 favorite]