Mr. Johnson always complains about Grover's service...

[Drtooth]

BTW, has anyone ever had a "Waiter Grover" of their own in real life? Years ago when i used to frequently eat at Denny's (combination of being superclose to home and supporting them for TMS campaign), i ALWAYS would get the same bad waiter no matter what time/shift i ate there or how many people were working there - even if i'd visit a different Denny's! I mean we're talking the kind of waiter that you would actually tell friends about and bring them with you to see for themselves that such a creature existed! It eventually became a running joke among my friends that whenever we got a bad waiter more than once we would always say in our best Mr. Johnson tone "Why is it no matter where I go I always get THAT waiter?"

Wow... That's gotta be rare then. I never heard anyone with that problem... and he was at different places too. Just a hilarious story and thanks for sharing.

Here's what I noticed. In the alphabet soup segment, it's really Mr. Johnson that gets the upper hand... I wonder what would have happened if it was the other way around all the time... Mr. Johnson being a tough customer that Grover tries to please, but can't, leaving Grover exerted.

In most waiter Grover sketches, Mr. Johnson often complains about Grover's service. But one thing that he seems to overlook is the fact that it seems to only take Grover a few seconds after ordering to bring his food to him. Think about it... He makes his order, Grover goes through the doors into the kitchen (often behind Mr. Johnson's table), Mr. Johnson may make a comment about Grover, and then Grover brings the food to him in maybe a minute or less. That's quite an accomplishment. Whenever I go to restaurants like this I usually have to wait maybe 5-10 minutes (or longer) for my food to be brought to me (regardless of whetehr I'm dining alone or with people). He should be thankful that Grover can at least serve food fast enough (maybe that's part of his Super-Grover powers).

I see what you're getting at, but that's pretty much television magic right there. These segments are allotted about a minute or so, of course it wouldn't take that long... sort of like how in a cartoon someone can mail something and get it 4 seconds later in the same scene, and not have to wait the weeks of processing. The joke wouldn't work if it had a realistic time line... especially if it happened in real time. If a Grover segment happened in real time, the episode would have been over before the check even came.

And as speedy as his service is, I'd hate to have a telephone sandwich or an orange burger.

 

[D'Snowth]

If a Grover segment happened in real time, the episode would have been over before the check even came.

Yes, thank you, I forgot to mention that, lol.

It's kind of like one-sided phone conversations on TV (save for Bob Newhart, zing), where it's like they immediately know who's calling, and there's only like two seconds inbetween responses, even when paraphrasing what the person on the other end takes longer than two seconds to repeat.

 

[minor muppetz]

Here's what I noticed. In the alphabet soup segment, it's really Mr. Johnson that gets the upper hand... I wonder what would have happened if it was the other way around all the time... Mr. Johnson being a tough customer that Grover tries to please, but can't, leaving Grover exerted.

He sort of also got the upper-hand in the picture menu sketch... He got his sandwhich to match the one in the picture when his lunch hour was over (I assume he meant the time he needed to get back to work on time), but he didn't seem to be upset at all over the fact that he didn't get his food in time to eat. And in the "first, next, last" sketch he would have probably gotten the food he ordered without Grover having to bring in everything if he didn't care about the order he got them in. And in that soup sketch he did get his spoon at the end, only to faint before he could be seen eating (I guess he ate after regaining conciousness).

 

[Crazy31088]

One of the reasons I like the Grover Waiter sketches so much is because I like the way Grover usually deals with his customer-bright and cheerful, even when the situation is difficult.

For about a year, I went to this pizza restaraunt near my house at least once a week. I tend to be over-patient with waiters, because I know their job must be difficult. And I tend to tip them a little bit more than some would think reasonable. Perhaps as a result, I often got waiters there (the ones who knew me) who acted much like Grover. They liked to stop and talk to me for a while, were interested in what books I was reading, and one of them even tried to give me my drinks for free, until I corrected him (I was afraid of getting him in trouble with the management, and thought he'd just made a mistake, not realizing he was trying to do me a favor).

But come to think of it, I don't think I've ever had a bad waiter experience. Not in my adult life of going to restaraunts by myself, anyway. I do remember when I was a kid going to restaraunts with my father and him getting occasionally angry with the service he was getting. "YOU'RE the customer," he insisted to me, "and the customer is ALWAYS right! Fight for your service if you have to." I've never quite been able to have the heart to do this myself because, as I said, I know the job must be tough, even for the Grovers of the world.

 

[minor muppetz]

Mr. Johnson always complains about Grover's service, but I wonder if it's really more the restarant's fault than Grover's. Grover is just the waiter, not the cook. It's not Grover's fault that the alphabet soup didn't have every letter at first, and I don't think it was Grover's idea for the fast food to be too fast (and that slow waiter didn't seem to be that slow... I think the slow food would have made it in less than an hour). I think in the doughnut shop sketch Grover pointed out that it wasn't Grover's shop and he didn't make the rules.

And it's clear that sometimes it is other people's fault as well. The sketch with rival waiter Pino shows that Grover's not the only waiter at Charlie's to give bad service, and in the service bell sketch when Mr. Johnson complained to the manager about the bell all the manager did was eat it, dismissing the customer's opinion that the bell was bad.

And I don't think it's Grover's fault that the restaurants are sometimes out of what he wants to order, though I do find it odd. It has been very rare for me to go to a restaurant when the restaurant is all out of what I ordered (though it has happened at least once, and if memory is correct the place wasn't really busy that day). I don't know how common it is in real life to restaurants to run out of certain food items (maybe it's more common in places like New York City). But there are quite a few sketches where the places Grover works at are either all out of almost everything, or Mr. Johnson order's the restaurants last supply of something. It's not the waiters fault that a restaurant is all out of food.

 

[D'Snowth]

Mr. Johnson always complains about Grover's service, but I wonder if it's really more the restarant's fault than Grover's. Grover is just the waiter, not the cook. It's not Grover's fault that the alphabet soup didn't have every letter at first, and I don't think it was Grover's idea for the fast food to be too fast (and that slow waiter didn't seem to be that slow... I think the slow food would have made it in less than an hour). I think in the doughnut shop sketch Grover pointed out that it wasn't Grover's shop and he didn't make the rules.

And it's clear that sometimes it is other people's fault as well. The sketch with rival waiter Pino shows that Grover's not the only waiter at Charlie's to give bad service, and in the service bell sketch when Mr. Johnson complained to the manager about the bell all the manager did was eat it, dismissing the customer's opinion that the bell was bad.

And I don't think it's Grover's fault that the restaurants are sometimes out of what he wants to order, though I do find it odd. It has been very rare for me to go to a restaurant when the restaurant is all out of what I ordered (though it has happened at least once, and if memory is correct the place wasn't really busy that day). I don't know how common it is in real life to restaurants to run out of certain food items (maybe it's more common in places like New York City). But there are quite a few sketches where the places Grover works at are either all out of almost everything, or Mr. Johnson order's the restaurants last supply of something. It's not the waiters fault that a restaurant is all out of food.

Interesting insight.

 

[Oscarfan]

And I don't think it's Grover's fault that the restaurants are sometimes out of what he wants to order, though I do find it odd. It has been very rare for me to go to a restaurant when the restaurant is all out of what I ordered (though it has happened at least once, and if memory is correct the place wasn't really busy that day). I don't know how common it is in real life to restaurants to run out of certain food items (maybe it's more common in places like New York City). But there are quite a few sketches where the places Grover works at are either all out of almost everything, or Mr. Johnson order's the restaurants last supply of something. It's not the waiters fault that a restaurant is all out of food.

However, whenever Mr. Johnson wants a certain food item, Grover usually prolongs the order (like in the Rhyming Day sketch) and thus, there are no more left.

And it is possible for a restaurant to go out of food. While out dining with friends, I ordered a pizza and was told they were out. I ranted the rest of the night, as they would've had to run out of cheese, sauce and dough, which they need for other things.

 

[minor muppetz]

And it is possible for a restaurant to go out of food. While out dining with friends, I ordered a pizza and was told they were out. I ranted the rest of the night, as they would've had to run out of cheese, sauce and dough, which they need for other things.

I didn't say it was impossible, I was just wondering if it's ever actually common.

As I said, there were quite a few instances where the restaurants were all out of Mr. Johnson's orders. Examples include:

• the sketch listed as "All Out of Food" on Old School Vol. 2... Obviously the place is out of most items due to being very busy... The only thing on the menu that the restaurant wasn't out of was milk.
• I haven't seen the Monsterpiece Theater sketch "Much Ado About Nothing", but I hear that the restaurant is out of everything in that sketch (which remidns me... it sure has been awhile since sesamestreet.org added any Monsterpeice Theater or waiter Grover sketches... I hope Sesame Workshop is reading this).
• The "russian restaurant" sketch, where the only thing left was a bowl of food Grover was saving for himself.
• the pizza delivery sketch, where Grover tells the customer that the pizza place didn't have any sausage or mushrooms to put on the pizza, and would have to wait two weeks.
• The sketch listed on the 40th anniversary set as "Most Important Meal", where the place is all out of eggs for Mr. Johnson's "eggs on toast" order... and by the time the chicken in the restaurant does lay an egg, she's eaten the last of the toast.
• In the waiter competiton sketch, Grover and Pino keep bringing in lots of different foods, but when they finallly listen to Mr. Johnson tell them what he wants, the restarant is all out of it (I think he should have settled for some of the food that was already brought to the table).

And instances where Mr. Johnson ordered the last of something the restaurant had includes...

• the mexican restaurant sketch, where each of his orders (at least up to numeral uno) is the last one, all ruined by Grover's dancing.
• the "fly in my soup" sketch, where Mr. Johnson ordered the last bowl of the soup he ordered, which was ruined by the fly.
• I already mentioned him ordering the last of the toast, eaten by a chicken.

 

[RedPiggy]

We ran out of stuff sometimes, particularly if we were busier than expected. There was that restaurant I saw on Kitchen Nightmares where they were out of like nearly all the menu.

 

[Gelfling Girl]

And it is possible for a restaurant to go out of food.

I know I've mentioned this before, but I was at Waffle House with my parents one day, and they ran out of waffles.