"Menken described the film's following musical number, "Gaston", as a hilarious "drinking song sung by basically a group of Neanderthal level guys in praise of a complete lug-head", referring to Ashman's choice of song lyrics as humorous and "tongue in cheek".When it came time to write the film's large-scale "scintillating" musical number "Be Our Guest", Menken originally composed and provided Ashman with a simple melody that was initially intended for temporary use only, simply for the purpose of allowing his co-writer to start developing the song's lyrics.