Professional skateboarder's elimination surprises fans of 'The Masked Singer'

So… a frog, a cat, a mouse, and elephant, a banana, and a taco walk into a bar. No, that’s not a joke. I couldn’t make this stuff up even if I tried. A new zoo revue, Group B, debuted on The Masked Singer this week (with, dare I say, much more Emmy-worthy costumes than the more casually dressed Group A), and one of them even sang a song by my favorite band, the Cure! No, the Kitty didn’t sing “The Lovecats,” or “All Cats are Grey.” The Banana didn’t sing “Bananafishbones.” And the Taco didn’t do “Hot Hot Hot!!!” It was the futuristic, prism-headed Elephant who sang “Friday I’m in Love.” But Wednesday I was sad, because the poor pop-singing pachyderm went home at the end of the night. It turned out the Elephant was… a Hawk. Tony Hawk, to be specific. The legendary pro skateboarder’s faux British accent was pretty impressive, I must say, as was his supercool costume (imagine if Deadmau5 was an elephant, like if his name was Deadelephent instead) and his post-punk song choice. (He explained that he picked it because he and his wife danced to a Cure tune at their wedding -- though that was a cover, by the L.A. band Cold Cave, of Disintegration’s “Plainsong.” Probably not as TV-friendly.) I would’ve loved to see what Tony do next (maybe some Depeche Mode, Joy Division, or Smiths?), but he admitted that he only had “one song left” in him, and he seemed pretty relieved to pack up his trunk and go. So perhaps this result was for the best. It’s certainly less likely to elicit the sort of online protest that surrounded Chaka “Miss Monster” Khan’s elimination last Wednesday, which was so controversial that host Nick Cannon actually felt the need to address it this week. But I know I will never forget the Elephant.