The Masked Singer Season 8: The dream of the 90s was sadly crushed for both the Walrus and the Milkshake
On The Masked Singer’s “90s Night” on Sunday, host Nick Cannon cosplayed as Bobby “The Crab” Brown, as is his right, and Tag Team introduced each clue package with the chorus “Whoomp! There It Is!” Judge Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg dressed up for the occasion as Gwen Stefani from Tragic Kingdom. Even Danielle Fishel from Girl Meets World and Lance Bass from *NSYNC stopped by. This made Lance the third member of *NSYNC to participate in The Masked Singer after Chris “The Hummingbird” Kirkpatrick from this season and Joey “The Rabbit” Fatone from Season 1. Now, all we need is Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez to finish the set and put everything, well, in sync.
The Masked Singer did really embody the dream of the 1990s, and I’ve been enjoying the season’s dream themes in general. Earlier shows featured Andrew Lloyd Webber Night, TV Theme Song Night, and even Muppets Night. The new format for Season 8, which has included a nearly immediate double-elimination in every episode, has been more of a nightmare in my opinion. (See my in-depth rant on how the series’ excitement and suspense have been significantly diminished as a result of the format shift.) This week was no different, and at the end of the hour-long episode, two mystery singers were revealed.
Infuriated viewers on Twitter appeared to concur with the judges’ complaints that all three finalists actually deserved to remain in this show. But tragically, both the Walrus and the Milkshake had their 1990s dreams dashed. Jenny was the only judge to correctly identify the walrus as the aforementioned JC Chasez, while the other judges speculated that the tusk-like, slightly husky warbler might be another heartthrob like Scott Wolff, John Stamos, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Mario Lopez, or Scott Gordon-Levitt. The Walrus covered the Spin Doctors’ 1992 hit “Two Princes” in his own unique style. However, only Robin Thicke recognized Joey Lawrence from the Blossom series as the Walrus.
Despite the fact that judges Nicole Scherzinger and Ken Jeong believed The Milkshake was a legitimate hip-hop “superstar” like LL Cool J, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Nas, Ice Cube, or even T.I. after his swaggering performance of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s on It, neither the judges nor the studio audience voted for him. (If this had been T.I., I’m confident that Robin, a longtime “Blurred Lines” collaborator, would have swiftly figured that out.)
As a result, the fluffy flock known as the Lambs, who had been reigning for the previous week, continued to hold the title of queen. On Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic,” these pop stars in sheep’s clothing harmonized beautifully, which led Nicole to exclaim, “Oh my God, your vocals are wonderful! Up there, you sound like a record! I surmised last week that these musical muttons with chops were Wilson Phillips since it was clear from their girl-group singing alone.
We are aware that Chynna Phillips, Carnie Wilson, and Wendy Wilson grew up together in California and that the Lambs were “best friends” as children. We have also seen references to Beverly Hills and Venice in Southern California. These women have fame in their blood as the offspring of the Mamas and the Papas’ John and Michelle Phillips and the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson. We observed the word “famous” splashed on a pair of designer pants. We saw a diamond ring, probably as a nod to the movie Bridesmaids, which had a famous Wilson Phillips cameo.
The Lambs also boasted of having collaborated with Paul McCartney; in 2015, Wilson Phillips provided background vocals for McCartney’s song “FourFiveSeconds.” Wilson Phillips recorded Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way” in 2004, and other red flags were “dreaming,” “reality,” and a reference to either the Mamas and the Papas’ biggest success or Wilson Phillips’ own single “The Dream Is Still Alive” (Wilson Phillips starred in their own reality TV series, Still Holding On, in 2012, and Carnie has appeared on multiple reality shows).
I’m not making an irrational assumption when I imply that Wilson Phillips is behind the lambs. Can the Lambs survive for one more day and join the Season 8 Bracket in the semifinals of this season? Amber “The Harp” Riley is the current queen. Find out when they face off against two more fresh competitors the following week.