The Coconut Lodge

The thing is, Vince, you and I… we move in different circles now. Oh come on, Howard, I’m really bored. It’s an elite club, you know. We talk about issues, heavyweight concepts, jazz.

For this one, we’ll do it a bit about face and go for the inspiration first. Given that The Coconut Lodge is a bit of an exclusive club, I set about researching private members’ clubs in that there London. Honestly, it didn’t take long. There’s loads to choose from, but I knew I would settle on the Marx Brothers. Now, you’re clearly not going to be as much of a cosmopolitan player as I am*, so have probably never been in there like what I have done. One time I went there was a quiz hosted by Jessica Stevenson / Hynes on. I was supposedly the ‘youth element’ of the quiz team. I was 31 at the time. The highlight of said quiz was a sitcom quote round – given that you’re currently here, you would assume that I aced that round. Well, she performed it all in a succession of indecipherable voices, so hardly anybody got any points (though I remember I did get ‘totally Mexico!’ From Nathan Barley). Funny but also annoying.

Anyway, that’s where the design is from. I’ve switched out their duck for Milky Joe’s actual face. I did initially go with palm trees in an attempt to not be too literal, but then tried the face and it looked horrifying so naturally went with it. I didn’t really like the blue on white of theirs, so went with some green to reflect the famous green awning from outside the premises.

The episode is up there with the more mental of Booshes. Which kind of says a lot. They bag an invite to attend the Pie Face Showcase in America, though opt to travel by boat. Obviously they nuts it up (by giving the captain a mullet haircut) and are made to walk the plank. Ending up on a desert island, they eventually lose their minds and invent an entire community of animated coconut people. It’s initially reminiscent of Wilson the volleyball, as the coconut creatures are passive and controlled by Vince and Howard, but by the end move of their own volition. Even to the point of chasing down the pair in a bamboo police car, somehow.

The Coconut Lodge itself is set up by Howard and Milky Joe. It’s awfully exclusive and Vince is refused membership. So he invents his own coconut people and it all spirals from there.

*This is obviously not true. My friend Sophy used to work for them, so we used to get in as her guests. Needless to say, I usually felt out of place. Almost like I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.