27th Annual Barbecue Festival

Earlier this year, we profiled the 25th year of this Lexington, North Carolina, institution. Alas, our schedules are all out of sync, so we're still playing catch-up.

As in the '08 version, this one showcases pig employees, these two accomplished square dancers who are sweet on each other. He's a kitchen-pig with a paper hat, she's a waitress with a bow stapled to her head, and together they make sweet, America-flavored music.

It's important to understand that the pigs are not merely grateful victims. They are presented as authorities, speaking and acting on behalf of some putative restaurant.

When they do-si-do from behind the counter, they are saying—with every flirty glance and well placed trotter—that they exist to serve. To serve you your lunch on a tray, and to live out their subservience by being served.







Addendum: For the 26th annual festival, in 2009, they went with a countrified crooner, instead of café staff. Presumably, he's drawling about the gritty joys of being eaten.

Addendum 2: Somewhere between the 25th and the 26th festival, the organizers dropped the anniversary from the title and replaced it with annual. Is this meaningful? Meaningful? Now it has to be meaningful?!