Larry the Lobster

[1] Updates on the voting were given by other cast members over the course of the episode, in the span of whose 30 minutes viewers made nearly 500,000 calls, sending phone traffic soaring.

[2] On the following week's episode during NewsBreak, however, Eddie Murphy raised the subject of Larry the Lobster again, saying that he had received letters protesting the crustacean's treatment the previous week, including one that contained the racist barb "that man is sick, and I thought those people didn't like seafood.

"[3] In response to the letters, Murphy announced that Larry's stay of execution had been revoked, and then displayed a boiled lobster on a plate before proceeding to eat it, giving pieces to NewsBreak anchors Brian Doyle-Murray and Christine Ebersole.

Several allusions to the Larry the Lobster sketch were made—Mary Gross at one point said it was "time to boil the water"[4] when she saw that "Dump Andy" was in the lead.

[5] The spike in traffic perplexed AT&T employees, who eventually figured out that the program was responsible.