CABIN BOY

I don't want to go into this 1994 film release in TOO MUCH DETAIL, as I'm SURE you can all understand.  But the most important character in this sorry tale, CHOCKI THE SHARK GUY, does bear mentioning.  He's played by Russ Tamblyn, an actor we all know for his immortal turns in movies like War of the Gargantuas and The Haunting.

In a word:  POOR CHOCKI!  He roams an area of the ocean known to Naked Ape sailors as HELL'S BUCKET, making friends with whoever he comes across, and he's SO MISUNDERSTOOD.  The sailors seem terrified of him, even DISGUSTED, although he's QUITE FRIENDLY, even to the title character, who's an insufferable twerp.  He's CLEARLY an operative with a special task: the Shaved Monkeys call it  GATEKEEPING.  I use the human term for the usual reasons -- to prevent too many fish words slipping into human consciousness BEFORE THEY CAN HANDLE THEM.

In this movie, Chocki's only friend is Nathanial Mayweather -- the title character, played by Chris Elliot (pictured above, SNEERING AT A FISH).  AT LEAST EVERYONE THINKS THEY'RE FRIENDS.  Here's the secret message in this movie:  WE DON'T WANT CABIN BOY AROUND US UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.  When our grinning, gladhanding half-Shark operative, Chocki, saves the cabin boy of the Filthy Whore again and again from a watery grave -- it's because FISH WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH HIM.

Why do all the other guys on board the FH make it through the movie with him?  They're absolutely disgusted by Chocki, the product of an affair between a human sailor and a Shark recruiting operative.  (Tiger Shark, by the look of things.  A rubber Tiger Shark.)  They simply don't get the concept, let alone the beauty, of Piscatorial Love, making them worthless as recruits, even though they do retain their usefulness to us in other ways -- their life's work is to bring fish and humans together, AND WHAT COULD BE WRONG WITH THAT?  NOTHING.   That's why he lets them go on living.  They see Chocki, not only as unnatural, but as weird and unpredictable.  They interpret his actions in this story as a sign that he has a soft spot, as they put it, for their cabin boy.  NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH, OF COURSE.

I did come away from this movie wondering what was up with the Shark's tooth necklace Chocki wears in every scene.  Shaved Monkeys wear them as a protective charm against man-eating Sharks.  So...?