Okay, Carlos is not quite making sense, but is it so bad that Tina is face-palming over it?
I wasn’t familiar with the idea of a special “Cornish Lobster” and thought maybe the joke was that Carlos was inventing it, on analogy to “Cornish game hen”. And if a customer ordered a roast chicken, say, and was served a Cornish hen, it would indeed be surprisingly small, and the cook or waitstaff might want to claim it is a prized variety. But it still wouldn’t fit the menu if sold by weight..
Here, however, is “An Introduction to Cornish Lobster” – claiming “Cornish lobster really are the king of the shellfish. During the season, they are delivered daily to us from a select lobster pot fleet, who catch these critters in pots dotted around the rocky Cornish coastline. A beautifully delicate, subtle-sweet flavour which is unlike anything you’ve ever tasted, our lobsters are a supreme choice to treat your taste buds.”
But still, what is Carlos thinking? That the delicacy should override the weight? And is that what Tina is cringing about? (Of course the customer is still steamed.)
Late-breaking P.S. — Just saw news flash that Red Lobster restaurants company is filing for bankruptcy. But I don’t think there is an intended allusion.
Comics I Don't Understand 
I’m sure the allusion is to Cornish game hens, but you’re right that that does nothing to address the issue.
I know this is a stretch, but maybe it’s a lobster that cost 3 British pounds.
Bob’s currency solution @2 was my initial impression, too, but £3 is less than $4, and that wouldn’t pay for more than a very small fraction of an edible lobster, so I think Powers’ reference @1 to “Cornish game hens” must be the correct idea.
P.S. Even if we know (as does Tina) that “Cornish” is not an adequate explanation, the gag is precisely that the chef does believe it. Tina’s face palm is her confirmation that the chef is being an idiot. Ha, ha: that’s all the humor you get here.
Kilby sez: ” I think Powers’ reference @1 to “Cornish game hens” must be the correct idea”
Yesss… but Powers was explicitly referring back to the post, which brought up Cornish game hens. Also, both Powers and the original post, while seeing some reason to consider Cornish game hens, both say it doesn’t really clear up how Carlos’s note about the Cornish lobster would be an answer to the customer’s complaint over the weight.
Ah! Glad to see your clarification that we (and Tina) do know that “Cornish” is not a good explanation. Naturally, I hadn’t seen this yet when I was writing my comment belaboring the point.
Well, the strip did one thing at least–it reminded me of Kliban’s “Cornish game clams” story.
@ Deety (6) – The perpetual tinkering by the idiots at wordpress has rendered all but one of my trusty Mac PCs incompatible with CIDU, so all these comments were tapped into an iPhone. Clumsy, error-prone, and very slow.
I’m sure it’s a Cornish game hen reference, the idea being that those are tiny and overpriced. The fact that weight is weight is, of course, the problem with the “joke”.
“the customer is still steamed“
Heh heh heh!
I don’t think the weight/cornish hen thing is a problem with the joke. It _is_ the joke. Yes, it’s a bad explanation, which is why we have a face-palm from Tina. The chef is trying to “baffle them with BS”.
And I forgot markdown doesn’t work anymore. Mentally substitute It is the joke.
Huh. When I copied the phrase, in the markdown worked. Oh WordPress, you are something.
Yeah, Red Lobster fell prey to a marauding private equity gang (Golden Gate Capital, in this case).
I’ve always wondered what kinds of games Cornish hens played…
Jen Sorensen recently featured Red Lobster in an editorial cartoon:
@ Brian (12) – The primary reason that I find WP’s tinkering especially irritating is that the CIDU interface now behaves differently on different machines. For instance, on the Mac I am using right now, I have the normal comment entry form, and can use (some) HTML, but I also have to avoid triggering markdown by mistake. If I switch to our most recent iPad, I have to use the block entry options, but I don’t need to worry about markdown. The old system (before WP started all this data entry and login nonsense) was easier to use and more consistent.
Tina’s Groove ended years ago (Wikipedia says 2017), so unless she has started it again, this would be a rerun. So no Red Lobster-bankruptcy influence.
I don’t think Carlos believes his line. He is just improvising in a likely-futile attempt to appease the customer.
Is Tina’s reaction over the top? This is a comic. Over-the-top reactions are standard fare in comics, probably because it is difficult to illustrate more subtle reactions.
@ jajizi (17) – Good catch. The copyright date (in the gutter between the first and second panels) says “©2009”.
Right. I used to follow Tina’s Groove, in the local paper and online. I recall when it ended. There was a long meta ending sequence, where Tina quit the restaurant but also the comic strip.
Tina’s Groove ended years ago (Wikipedia says 2017), so unless she has started it again, this would be a rerun. So no Red Lobster-bankruptcy influence.
Yes, sure. The P.S. in the post about Red Lobster was not meant to suggest any influence, just a coincidental association to current events. Thanks for the prompt to clarify that!
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