What can a short film do in five minutes? In The Clogging, writer/director Eric Larson takes an … er … deep dive into a horrific situation that is as deeply funny as it is uncomfortable.

The opening shot features the pixelated crotch of Paulie (Brian Park), a guy going number two at a house party. Paulie finishes up, flushes and – gasp – clogs the only toilet in the house.

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The horror sets in when Paulie realizes there’s no working plunger, someone is banging on the door to be let in next, and his phone is buzzing with party guests wondering what the heck he’s doing in there. The lights start to flicker, the music tenses up, and a possibly sentient rubber ducky in the bathtub has started to laugh at him. It’s a little surreal, frighteningly relatable for anyone who’s ever been in that situation, and extremely funny.

There’s not much to the short other than a very simple premise, but its executed well by Larson, Park and the whole crew involved. Larson is also credited as the editor, and his quick cuts between the sentient bits and bobs around the bathroom and Paulie’s expressions during those tense moments are what really … flush out … the comedy.

As a five-minute short, The Clogging is a heck of a lot of fun. It mines an extremely cringey situation for laughs, but it sure does it well.