It’s great when a comedy can also say something about society, and how one innocuous comment can set off a chain of events that could have been entirely avoided if things were just handled a little differently.

MELONS, directed and written by Matt MacDonald, tells the story (in a jaunty fifteen-ish minutes) of Nigel (played by Brian Huskey), a manager at a grocery store who makes the mistake of commenting on a woman’s melons…nope, not THOSE melons, inviting the ire of the customer behind her, who is actually the “villain” of the story who believes himself to be standing up for the woman, while playing out every misogynist trope in the book in the process.

While it’s always good to stand up for others and fight social injustices when we see them, this is a classic case of “mind your own business”. As the situation gets blown out of proportion, Nigel faces the full brunt of the online mob.

Nigel’s refusal to stand up for himself doesn’t help his situation much either. The longer he stays silent, the more the narrative turns against him, even getting him fired by his boss (comedy legend Martin Mull).

I won’t ruin the quick turn at the end, but the movie does a fantastic job of showing how small infractions can ruin people’s lives, go viral worldwide, and create chaos in a very short amount of time. In that short time, people assume the worst, and expect the worst from people, further leading to an “us vs them” mentality.

The movie is shot well, the performances are spot on (as is the casting), and the pacing is tight. Everything about MELONS just works.