Believe it or not, I think this is sort of a sci-fi song that’s somewhat reminiscent of the original sci-fi tinged version of “First Kiss” (Severe Tire Damage). It might be stretching it, but it could even be a sequel to “First Kiss” told from the POV of a jealous rival that song’s main character.
The speaker is a waiter in the 1945 film “The Clock” (I’m not sure, but I think the character might be listed on IMDB as “Man Smoking Pipe” played by writer Robert Nathan).
In “Prevenge” the waiter comes from the future and is involved in some diabolical plot to interfere with the relationship of the couple he’s watching. The couples’ two-day courtship is a “freak show,” and silently seated beside them, the waiter has a front row seat to their would-be intimate dinner. Convinced that relationships like this are a sham (girls just making it up; boys just pushing their luck), the waiter is intent on taking preemptory revenge upon the couple. Rather than an actual waiter, he is an interloper from the future who has brought himself onto the scene in order to carry out some selfish plan that he expect will change the course of the couples’ (and possibly his own) future. His “ride” is a time machine that hasn’t been invented in the timeline of Alice and Joe, and he’s only posing as the restaurant’s waiter (would a waiter be allowed to take such an intrusive break?) in order to meddle.
The puzzling slang of his internal thoughts (fully moto / on the headfo = very MOTivated, sitting with his HEAD FOrward) are indicative of the “waiter’s” “future speak.” Additionally, he invites a character from the future, “The King of Comedy’s” Rupert Pupkin, to join in on the plot to subvert the couple’s “love-in.”
p.s. I think the speaker might actually be inviting the unnamed character seated behind Rupert Pupkin at the aforementioned Chinese restaurant, but lyrics such as this would be horrifyingly cumbersome:
Calling my friend, whose name I can’t mention because no one knows it, but who sat at a table in a restaurant next to Ms. Mayberry and Mr. Pupkin
To join us at the love-in…
Believe it or not, I think this is sort of a sci-fi song that’s somewhat reminiscent of the original sci-fi tinged version of “First Kiss” (Severe Tire Damage). It might be stretching it, but it could even be a sequel to “First Kiss” told from the POV of a jealous rival that song’s main character.
The speaker is a waiter in the 1945 film “The Clock” (I’m not sure, but I think the character might be listed on IMDB as “Man Smoking Pipe” played by writer Robert Nathan).
Background info: In “The Clock” Alice Mayberry (Judy Garland) and Joe Allen (Robert Walker) meet and decide to marry over the course of two days. On the second day, they try to have a romantic dinner at a New York café. However, a waiter sits down uncomfortably close to them and hovers over their every word while smoking a pipe. Similarly, in the film “The King of Comedy” Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) and Rita Keane (Diahnne Abbott) have dinner at a Chinese restaurant in New York. While Rupert is trying to pick up on Rita, a mysterious man in the background if trying to interfere by, I suppose, flirting with Rita and mocking Rupert. Neither characters’ motives are revealed in their respective films. I believe Flansburgh noticed the uncanny similarities between these two odd scenes and came with a scenario to explain the appearance of the waiter in “The Clock.”
In “Prevenge” the waiter comes from the future and is involved in some diabolical plot to interfere with the relationship of the couple he’s watching. The couples’ two-day courtship is a “freak show,” and silently seated beside them, the waiter has a front row seat to their would-be intimate dinner. Convinced that relationships like this are a sham (girls just making it up; boys just pushing their luck), the waiter is intent on taking preemptory revenge upon the couple. Rather than an actual waiter, he is an interloper from the future who has brought himself onto the scene in order to carry out some selfish plan that he expect will change the course of the couples’ (and possibly his own) future. His “ride” is a time machine that hasn’t been invented in the timeline of Alice and Joe, and he’s only posing as the restaurant’s waiter (would a waiter be allowed to take such an intrusive break?) in order to meddle.
The puzzling slang of his internal thoughts (fully moto / on the headfo = very MOTivated, sitting with his HEAD FOrward) are indicative of the “waiter’s” “future speak.” Additionally, he invites a character from the future, “The King of Comedy’s” Rupert Pupkin, to join in on the plot to subvert the couple’s “love-in.”
p.s. I think the speaker might actually be inviting the unnamed character seated behind Rupert Pupkin at the aforementioned Chinese restaurant, but lyrics such as this would be horrifyingly cumbersome:
Calling my friend, whose name I can’t mention because no one knows it, but who sat at a table in a restaurant next to Ms. Mayberry and Mr. Pupkin To join us at the love-in…