# Dumb Lobster question **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 29, 2001, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-lobster-question/78702 "2001-08-29T14:42:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Amazing\_Magic-Gro\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e95f7d/32.png) [@Amazing\_Magic-Gro\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazing_Magic-Gro_Monster)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-lobster-question/78702/1 "2001-08-29T14:42:43Z")
Okay, okay. Dumb question, but it’s been bugging me. There’s some commercial for Scott[sup]TM[/sup] paper towels featuring a bunch of rogue chefs running around the country picking up spills. At one point they show a chef on a boat trying to coax a lobster to go back into the sea. The lobster just sits there, wiggling it’s gills. The problem: The lobster is red. Doesn’t the fact that the lobster is red mean that the lobster has been cooked? If so, why would they go to the trouble to animate a little twittering gill? ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-lobster-question/78702/2 "2001-08-29T14:44:56Z")
Yes, a red lobster is a cooked (steamed) lobster. They normally are brown. There used to be a Red Lobster Restaurant commercial that featured lobsters running away from the chef, and they were red, also. Someone goofed. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-lobster-question/78702/3 "2001-08-29T14:45:19Z")
Not dumb. In LobsterWorld red=dead ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-lobster-question/78702/4 "2001-08-29T14:45:39Z")
I suppose with commercials, sometimes we have to agree to suspend our disbelief. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-lobster-question/78702/5 "2001-08-29T14:47:08Z")
Because everybody “knows” that lobsters are red. If you put a blue-green lobster on screen, everybody’s going to be wondering “why the hell isn’t that lobster red,” rather than on the message of the commmercial, which is “use paper towels.” ---
**Author:** ![that\_darn\_cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/59ef9b/32.png) [@that\_darn\_cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/that_darn_cat)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-lobster-question/78702/6 "2001-08-29T14:47:28Z")
I’ve always wanted to buy a lobster from the supermarket, take it home and keep it in the aquarium. The lobtsers name? Lucky 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-lobster-question/78702/7 "2001-08-29T14:51:48Z")
[hijack] Ever seen that Simpsons where Homer buys the smallest lobster he can find and mothers it? He takes it for walks on the beach and such… I think his name was Pinchy. It got up to something like 50lbs or some damn thing. All was fine until he gave him too hot of a bath. All things in life worth doing have been done on the Simpsons… [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-lobster-question/78702/8 "2001-08-29T14:59:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Amazing Magic-Gro Monster \* > **\The problem: The lobster is red.\** Maybe it was a zombie lobster ? ---
**Author:** ![caveman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caveman/32/7242_2.png) [@caveman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caveman)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-lobster-question/78702/9 "2001-08-29T16:33:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by that\_darn\_cat \* > \*\*I’ve always wanted to buy a lobster from the supermarket, take it home and keep it in the aquarium. > > The lobtsers name? > … > Lucky 🙂 \*\* You and **cavewoman** both…I love them too (with garlic butter!) ---
**Author:** ![Peta\_Tzunami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b487fb/32.png) [@Peta\_Tzunami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peta_Tzunami)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-lobster-question/78702/10 "2001-08-29T17:42:30Z")
Generally, you are correct and the ad-team probably made the lobster red based on “most people believe lobsters are red.” That said, there are [some species of lobster](http://www.crewdog.net/lobsterpage/animalfact.html) which have been found to already be partly or completely red/orange (or other colors) versus the brown American Lobster species served in U.S. restaurants. In related news, just thought you’d find this tangent interesting: [Size matters to a lobster](http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1514000/1514630.stm); since lobsters continue to grow as they age, this is probably a pretty old lobster… ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-lobster-question/78702/11 "2001-08-29T18:05:07Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by that\_darn\_cat_ > I’ve always wanted to buy a lobster from the supermarket, take it home and keep it in the aquarium. > > The lobtsers name? > > … Lucky 🙂 I’ve always wanted to get a pair of live salmon and keep them in an aquarium. Their names? Ella and Rushdi, of course! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-lobster-question/78702/12 "2001-08-29T20:14:17Z")
Johnny, that was a good one. Took me a minute to get it, but it was cute. 🙂 Lobsters rock. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-lobster-question/78702/13 "2001-08-30T00:50:02Z")
**Zoggie** : Hee hee hee! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Slip\_Mahoney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@Slip\_Mahoney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slip_Mahoney)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-lobster-question/78702/14 "2001-08-30T01:19:34Z")
Lobsters, huh? Belonging to the same group as spiders, scorpions and insects. And Communism, for all I know. They come from the sea, so people think they’re okay to eat. I’ll bet if you saw one crawling out from behind the furnace you wouldn’t think of eating it. You’d probably get a big piece of kleenex, and into the toilet he’d go. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-lobster-question/78702/15 "2001-08-30T02:44:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by detop \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Amazing Magic-Gro Monster \* > > **\The problem: The lobster is red.\** > > Maybe it was a zombie lobster ? \*\* ZOMBIE LOBSTERS! NOOOOOO!!! (God I hate Zobies.) ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-lobster-question/78702/16 "2001-08-30T05:50:13Z")
Is this the opposite of a **smart lobster question?**