distantsounds, 8 months ago

Larson is layering a turn of the phrase: ‘crack the whip’…which means: to use power or authority to make a person or group work harder or behave in a disciplined way.

The dogs taking over control is part of the joke. Another part is if you look at the dogsled chain as a whip and were to ‘crack it’ like an actual whip, that would send the musher (authority figure) into the water…and thus breaking the chain of your oppressor.