Mile

Old Toon Category: Powered by The Cheat

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"The Cheat is a millionaire!"

Strong Bad doesn't want to do an email this week, so The Cheat makes one instead, Powered by The Cheat style. Strong Bad does cartwheels for a mile, and The Cheat is a millionaire!

Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, The Cheat, Bubs, Marzipan, Homestar Runner, Coach Z, The Poopsmith

Places: Computer Room, Basement of the Brothers Strong, Strong Badia, The Field

Computer: Compa (cartoon version of the Compy 386)

Date: Monday, October 13, 2003

Running Time: 2:27

Page Title: Compy 386!!

DVD:strongbad email.exe Disc Three, Sbemails' 50 Greatest Hits DVD

Transcript

{The computer room is empty. After a second, Strong Bad walks on-screen}

STRONG BAD: {singing} And I pretend that it's made of money-

{stops singing, notices camera}

STRONG BAD: {addressing viewer} Er... Oh! Um... Look, uh, I'm not doin' one this week. Yeah... not doin' one. So... bye.

{Strong Bad walks out of the room.}

STRONG BAD: {singing again} And I pretend that it's made of money...

{The Cheat enters and looks at the computer, then looks around. He then grins at the camera...}

Powered by The Cheat

{A new Flash cartoon begins. The cartoon is Powered By The Cheat, as evidenced by the more primitive graphic quality and the substandard, imitated voices.}

STRONG BAD: {singing} Eeeeeeeeeeemail. Ooh, ah, email, ooh, ah—

{reading}

>Dear Strong Bad,
>
>Can you run a mile.
>
>-Seb
>The Lodge, MN

STRONG BAD: {typing} You'd better believe it, Seb, I can ride I can do cartwheels for a mile. {stops typing} Ready and one and set and go!

{Strong Bad cartwheels away from his desk. Cut to a shot of him cartwheeling through the TV room from left to right.}

TV ANNOUNCER: TV show featuring The Cheat in a Trans Am.

STRONG BAD: Here I go.

{The scene cuts to Strong Badia with a bunch of buses that say Sköl}

STRONG BAD: Here I go again on my own.

{Strong Bad uses a ramp to jump over the buses. Bubs appears from behind a fence. He appears to have no lower body}

BUBS: Hey, Strong Bad, you jumped over some of my buses!

{"A new record!! 19 buses!!" appears in the air and imitation crowd noises can be heard. Cut to Marzipan standing in the field}

MARZIPAN: Keep it up, Strong Bad. Keep up the pace!

{Strong Bad stops}

STRONG BAD: Thanks for cheering me on.

{Scene cuts to a brick wall, standing in the middle of a field}

STRONG BAD: Halfway to go, I have to break through this brick wall!

{Strong Bad continues forward anyway, the wall not causing him any resistance. The bricks explode upon impact, then fall down and spell "HI". Cut to Homestar in the field holding a sign that says "I♥cooties"}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Kick it out, Beehan.

{Strong Bad stretches out his leg and trips Homestar. Cut to Strong Bad finishing his mile on an athletic track, with flashbulbs everywhere. It then cuts to Homestar, Marzipan, and Coach Z waiting for Strong Bad at the finish line. Coach Z's usually green suit is instead pink.}

COACH Z: Mr. Strong Bad, you won the mile. How did— what's your secret?

STRONG BAD: The Cheat.

{The Cheat parachutes in from the top of the frame, wearing a light blue tuxedo and sunglasses and holding a glass of champagne. Money is stuffed into his tuxedo pocket. He lands on the ground and raises up his glass. A thought bubble appears above Marzipan's head that reads "i♥that cheat."}

EVERYBODY: The Cheat is a millionaire! A parade for The Cheat!

{A parade goes by, featuring a The Cheat float that says "Dunkin' the Ch8t", a The Cheat hot air balloon and The Poopsmith pushing a broom, ending with fireworks, then the scene cuts back to Strong Bad's computer room.}

STRONG BAD: {typing} So yes, Jimmy-Jimmy, there have been parades honoring The Cheat, but don't let that from stopping you from organizing your own. He can be the Grand... Marshal. He's also available for proms and pizza parties.

{Strong Bad actually types: So yes, Jimmy-Jimmy, there have been p's h-ing the C. B. d. l. t. f. s. y. f. o. y. o. He can be the Grand Marshall. He's a-so available for proms and pizza parties.}

STRONG BAD: So, okay folks, I gotta go to my next show. See you later nice time!

{Strong Bad walks off-screen. A Powered-by-The-Cheat version of The Paper comes down with a Powered-by-The-Cheat sound effect that sounds like "Kerrrriorrrr..."}

Easter Eggs

"A Knight to Remember"

• Within The Cheat's cartoon, when Strong Bad first starts cartwheeling, click on the floppy disk to see that it says "out of this world". After Strong Bad gets back, click on it again to show "NITEMARE 3-D".
• At the end of the email, click "proms" to see a Polaroid of The Cheat with a silhouette labeled "Your bod here" and a note scrawled at the bottom: "A Knight to Remember, June 3rd 2004."
• Also at the end, click "pizza parties" to see a logo for "Cheatsa Parties", featuring The Cheat taking a bite out of a large pizza.
• Press 'O' on your keyboard at the end to see a silhouette of Strong Bad doing cartwheels over a bunch of hills with music playing in the background, which is actually a takeoff of Old Intro 2.
• Using a decompiler, a Flash Seek Bookmarklet, or the Greasemonkey script, broken animation of a headless dancing Homestar at the end after the cartwheeling Easter egg can be accessed. [/w/images/4/4e/headlessdance.gif view gif]
  • This animation was finally used in Easter Eggs in the emails pizza joint and slumber party.

Fun Facts

Explanations

• Strong Bad cartwheeling the mile (as opposed to running it like "Seb" had originally asked) was probably done so that The Cheat would not have to animate anything; instead, he could just rotate Strong Bad's standing frame a few dozen times. Nevertheless, in a couple of the frames, Strong Bad's legs are in noticeably different positions.

Trivia

• In the "real" portion of the email, the Floppy Disk Container reads "One on One".
• When The Cheat shows up after Strong Bad wins the mile, Marzipan has a thought bubble reading "I ♥ that Cheat". This is one of the few times that The Cheat is not referred to with a "The" preceding his name. This instance is particularly interesting because The Cheat himself made this cartoon.
• Strong Bad cartwheels 55 times, plus another 10 in the Easter egg.
• According to the DVD commentary and the FAQ, the email answered here was not received from a fan, but was invented by The Brothers Chaps. Except for this one, every email answered by Strong Bad came from real fans.
• Prior to the post-Flash site update, this cartoon could be found either on the Strong Bad Email menu or the Powered by The Cheat menu.
• The sound effect played when Strong Bad cartwheels through the tape at the finish line is from The Cheat's cartoon in crazy cartoon, when Strong Bad kicked Homestar in the face nine times.
• A high school band, in addition to performing the CGNU Fight Song as a Quote of the Week on February 9, 2006, reference this email in the opening ("Ready and one and set and go!") and closing ("Well, there you have it Jimmy Jimmy") remarks.
• The summary for the Podstar Runner RSS feed read, "The Cheat animates his own dang Strong Bad Email. In other news, The Cheat is a millionaire."
• Homestar tells Strong Bad to kick it out.
• Instead of the usual "strongbad_email.exe", PBtC Strong Bad types in "run strongbad_email.exe", a combination of the Tandy 400 email checking program (run "strongbad's_email") and the usual strongbad_email.exe.
• The YouTube description for this email is "SB takes the week off so the Cheat takes a crack at making his own poorly animated email cartoon."

Remarks

• In the email:
  • When you click on the floppy when Strong Bad is finishing the cartwheel, it says "Nitemare 3-D" and it's behind Strong Bad and the computer.
  • Strong Bad's computer says 'Compa' as opposed to 'Compy 386'.
  • When the view zooms out from the Compa, before Strong Bad starts to do cartwheels for a mile, the text typed in his computer stays large for 4 frames.
  • There is no patch on the couch.
  • When Strong Bad leaves his desk and starts cartwheeling, his head passes behind the floppy disk on the desk, even though the object is in the background.
  • Strong Bad's computer doesn't have a keyboard.
  • When Bubs is talking, he has no noticable legs.
• The way "cheat" is spelled on the "Dunkin' the Ch8t" float is an example of Leetspeak and would actually be pronounced 'chate'.
• When you access the broken headless Homestar dancing animation, part of his right leg is disconnected while dancing.

Real-World References

• "Seb" may be a reference to the British athlete Sebastian "Seb" Coe, a mid-distance runner who once held the world record in the mile.
• The parade followed by The Poopsmith sweeping up after it is a reference to a segment of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show called Peabody's Improbable History, where there were parades honoring Peabody with only one janitor cleaning up after it.
• As revealed at PAX East 2018, Strong Bad jumping over the buses was a reference to the Atari game Stunt Cycle.
• Strong Bad says "Here I go again on my own" before going on the ramp over Bubs's 19 buses. This is the first line of the chorus of "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake. This song's music video starts out with a girl doing a cartwheel across two cars.
• The rhythmic part of the "song" being played during the parade is from Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES, played during the airship, tank, and watership levels. The fireworks at the end of the parade are very similar in sound to the cannons and exploding Bob-ombs that densely populate these levels.
• The line "TV show featuring The Cheat in a Trans Am" almost certainly refers to the TV series Knight Rider.
• When The Cheat parachutes in after Strong Bad has won the mile, he is wearing a Gucci parachute.

Fast Forward

• Bubs's line, "Some of my buses", is used again on Main Page 22.
• "Cheatsa Parties" are used again in pizza joint.
• "Ch8t" would be used as the name of The Cheat's Xeriouxly Forxe version.
• Bubs's "Some of my buses" line is referenced again in the Disk 4 of 12 - World Games Easter egg, when Powered by The Cheat Bubs congratulates the skater on jumping "some of my barrels".

DVD Version

• For whatever reason, there is no option to use the angle button, and therefore the Floppy Disk Easter eggs have been disabled. This is one of the only emails on the set that does not have the angle option available. They are included on the Sbemail's 50 Greatest Hits DVD, however.
• To view The Cheat pizza party Easter egg, select the hidden Strong Bad logo at the bottom left of the screen at the end of the video.
• To view The Cheat prom night Easter egg, select the hidden Strong Bad logo at the bottom center of the screen at the end of the video.
• To view the Strong Bad cartwheeling Easter egg, select the hidden Strong Bad logo at the bottom right of the screen at the end of the video.
• The DVD version features hidden creators' commentary. To access it, switch your DVD player's audio language selection while watching.

Commentary Transcript

(Commentary by: Matt Chapman, Mike Chapman)

MATT: I like that song, I'd like to hear that whole song.

MIKE: I wonder what he's pretending is made of money.

MATT: I know, maybe that's the chorus, and it just goes through, like, a bunch of different things.

MIKE: Oh, like, uh—

MATT: {singing} A can of beans. Pretend that it's made of money! Unh! A guitar! Unh! Unh! And I pretend that it's made of money!

MIKE: That's...a good song.

MATT: That's clearly not how he's singing it, but maybe...

MIKE: Look, One-On-One. The original One-on-One was, of course, uh, Dr. J and Larry Bird.

MATT: Mm-hmm.

MIKE: It's a good game!

MATT: {simultaneously} Great game! So here's The Cheat, his big de-butt. Well, I guess in crazy cartoon, he does it. Here's when he really makes a-

MIKE: {simultaneously} Yeah, or something. The Compa!

MATT: This is one of the only made-up Strong Bad emails, right?

MIKE: Yeah, we made that up. It's true. The only one.

MATT: Yeah. We figured The Cheat's doing it; he's not gonna care about that sort of stuff.

MIKE: Yeah.

{pause}

MIKE: The vocal work on this, uh, particular episode is fantastic.

MATT: Oh, really, Mike?

MIKE: You did a great job on this one, Matt!

MATT: Oh. I didn't do this one—

MIKE: {simultaneously} Oh, wait, I did the voices. Okay, wait, listen to my Bubs impression, that's just pretty much my Fat Albert impression. {Imitating Powered by The Cheat Bubs} Hey! Hey, Rudy!

MATT: That's a good one. That Marzipan is... horrifying. I like her teeth. {Mike laughs} I remember w... um...

MIKE: What's that, Matt?

MATT: Dan from Carmel, Indiana really loved that one, I remember.

MIKE: Oh.

MATT: I remember in band, we talked to him a lot.

MATT: Uh, Beehan was a guy that ran with our- OUR older brother, Donnie, around the track. I remember my Mom always yelling, "Kick it out, Beehan!"

MIKE: I like the, uh, the Gucci parachute.

MATT: Yeah, it's amazing. And it's just got some loose cash.

{Mike and Matt laugh}

MIKE: Dunkin' The Cheat!

MATT: DunkinTheCh8t is somebody's screename on one of the Homestar Runner forums I saw. {unintelligible}

MIKE: {simultaneously} Oh, really? This is my favorite part. Here we go... here comes The Poopsmith, cleanin' up! Weet! Weet! Weet! Just like that little guy at the end of, uh... Rocky and Bullwinkle. Or that guy in between the commercials of the Carol Burnett Shows. Or the bloopers and outtakes.

{Mike and Matt start singing a song}

MATT: I like that.

MIKE: He starts using, uhh... punctuations.

MATT: Punct- Abbreviations.

MIKE: "Also" is the best because that's actually longer than if he just used an "l".

MATT: Yeah. That's a reference to—

MIKE: Andy Cooper—

MATT: Guitar lessons with Andy Cooper.

MIKE: Tap that?

MATT: Looks good.

MIKE: Mm-hmm.

MATT: Tapping on the G-Chord, B-Minor.

Fun Facts

• Fat Albert, played by comedian Bill Cosby, was the main character of the cartoon series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.
• The Carol Burnett Show was a sketch comedy series in the 1970s; the opening and closing credits of the show featured an animated caricature of Carol Burnett, dressed as a cleaning woman and mopping a backstage area.
• "Or the bloopers and outtakes" is a reference to NBC's TV Bloopers and Practical Jokes, hosted by Dick Clark and intermittently co-hosted by Ed McMahon. The opening and closing sequence of the show, as well as many of the bumpers, featured an animated janitor, drawn by Sergio Aragones, performing a variety of tasks comedically.
• "Dan from Carmel, Indiana" interviewed Matt Chapman in 2003 and said that he loved the part where Strong Bad breaks through the brick wall.

External Links

• watch "mile"
• watch "mile" on YouTube
• watch "mile" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "mile"