The Iconic ‘I Love Lucy’ Episode That Nearly Broke Lucille Ball’s Nose
They might not realize it, but even the most brainrotted of kids these days know about the “Job Switching” episode of I Love Lucy. Modern TV shows with audiences as diverse as Family Guy and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (so, the annoying guy in your office and the other annoying guy in your office) have paid homage to the scene of Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz frantically attempting to keep up with the conveyer belt in their extremely temporary roles as candy wrappers. There are probably babies whose first sight was Lucille Ball’s chocolate-covered face.
Hey, laughter is a great painkiller.
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In an episode full of them, one of the biggest laughs is when Lucy gets distracted by a fly, which lands on a dour veteran candy-maker’s face. When Lucy tries to catch the fly, she accidentally slaps her coworker with a chocolate-covered hand, inciting her victim to scoop up a handful of chocolate and slap her back. You’d think the chocolate-slapper, whose real name was Amanda Milligan, was a comedy master, but she was actually a real-life candy dipper Desi Arnaz happened to encounter at an L.A. farmer’s market. He thought her comically sullen demeanor made her perfect for the part despite her complete lack of interest in television — she told Arnaz she’d never seen his show because her preferred program, professional wrestling, aired at the same time. If she’d been more interested in narrative entertainment, she’d recognize that as foreshadowing.
When the time came to film the chocolate slap, Ball was actually concerned that Milligan seemed reluctant to slap such a powerful person in rehearsals. Once the cameras started rolling, however, everything changed. Maybe it was the indignity of being attacked with chocolate that caused her violent instincts to take over. Maybe she simply prayed to the gods of wrestling for guidance. Whatever the case, when she needed to hit Ball in the candy hole, she did it so hard that Ball initially believed she’d broken her nose.
In a move uncharacteristic of the exacting mogul, who was usually loath to leave any room for surprises, she continued on with the scene, possibly because she knew it was the best take she was going to get, but possibly because she didn’t wanna get hit again by this candy-dipping Hulk.
If Milligan had any remorse, she didn’t show it. After filming wrapped and Ball asked her how she felt about her moment in the spotlight, Milligan told her, “I’ve never been so bored in my life.” And with that, she disappeared into the fog, never to be seen again but hopefully to master her superhuman slapping powers, should she ever be called upon to use them again.
