Privileges

"...and thanks for all the privaleges... I guess."

Strong Bad upgrades The Cheat's privileges, and the little guy ends up in a crisper drawer.

Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, The Cheat, Strong Sad, Homestar Runner, Bubs (Easter Egg)

Places: Computer Room, Basement of the Brothers Strong

Computer: Compy 386

Date: Monday, May 26, 2003

Running Time: 2:23

Page Title: Compy 386!!

DVD:strongbad email.exe Disc Two

Transcript

STRONG BAD: {singing} Ohh-ho-oh ohh EEEEEMAIL ME GIRL! {stops singing} Unh! Once times! Twice times!

{reading}

>Dear strongbad,
>did you ever think about letting the
>cheat have some other privaleges
>since he helps you so much.
>
>from your friend crazyclemens

{He pronounces "privaleges" as "pree-vah-lah-gess". He also says "strongbad" and "crazyclemens" quickly, since they're run together.}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Privileges eh, C.C.? It does seem like The Cheat is overdue. Let's see, the last time I upgraded his privileges was when I reinstated his bathroom privileges. {replaces period with semicolon}; which he had previously abused. Let's see when he's due for an upgrade.

{Cut to wide shot of Strong Bad sitting at the Compy. He turns to the left and shouts.}

STRONG BAD: {calling out} Ohhh, The Cheat!

{The Cheat walks up behind him.}

STRONG BAD: Ohh, The Che—

THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}

STRONG BAD: WHOA! {Strong Bad is startled and falls forward off of his stool flat on his face.}

STRONG BAD: {winces} Jeez, The Cheat! Can't sneak up on a brother like that...

{Strong Bad gets up and turns to face The Cheat.}

STRONG BAD: ...Lemme see your Strong Bad Rewards Score Card.

{The Cheat holds up a yellow business card. The camera zooms in and we can read the card.}

       Strong Bad Rewards
          Score Card

                 member name:
                   T. Cheat
                  ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

"Save up points to curry my favor!"

{At the bottom of the card we can see that four of the five points have been punched already.}

STRONG BAD: Ooh! You only need one more point to become a Medallion Gold Plus Club member!

THE CHEAT: {extremely excited The Cheat noises}

{The Cheat zips off. Drill noises are heard.}

STRONG SAD: {offscreen} {Drill} Ow! {Drill} Both my face and hands! {Drill}

{The Cheat comes back}

STRONG BAD: Bwahahaha! That's definitely worth a point.

{The Cheat hands him the score card, and Strong Bad punches out the last hole.}

STRONG BAD: All right! Now let's see what new privileges await you!

{Strong Bad clears the screen and types run "medalliongoldplus.txt". The screen clears and lists the privileges for the Medallion Gold Plus Club:}

>Medallion Gold + Club Privileges
>* Crisper Drawer Use(not for sleeping)
* Dominion over Pizza Toppings
* Mute Button on TV Remote
* Limited Use of Beamer Lighter
* Ghost-write issue of TGS
* Strong Mad Bath
* Friday Night Study Session
* Saturday Segwayday
* Strong Bad Math
* Use of Duct Tape
* Braces
* Uno

STRONG BAD: Oh yeah, look at some of these! The crisper drawer, I know you've been wanting to get in there! Ooh, and the mute button! You could do plenty with that! These are way better than the rewards Bubs gives out for selling his magazine subscriptions! "Oh, save up points to win a tropical vacation!" What a scam that was.

{Cut to wide shot of Strong Bad sitting at the Compy, but The Cheat has already left.}

STRONG BAD: So what are you gonna do with your newfound powers, The Ch—

{Strong Bad turns his head to discover that The Cheat has left.}

STRONG BAD: Whuh? The Cheat?

{Cut to the basement. The Cheat is lying in the crisper drawer in front of the TV, muting and unmuting it. The TV is playing ominous music and a man is talking.}

MAN ON TV: ...think that truck is alive— {muted} {unmuted} —truck that tried to kill me— {muted}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {offscreen} Bing-bong!

THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}

{Homestar enters from the left carrying a pizza box as The Cheat unmutes the TV again.}

MAN ON TV: ...probably think I'm crazy, but that truck— {muted}

{While Homestar talks, The Cheat continues to mute and unmute the TV}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Hey, The Cheat! Bubs asked me to bring you this pizza you ordered. It's a large, thin crust, with mushrooms and Pop-Tarts.

MAN ON TV: —like I've lost my mind, because that truck—{muted}

THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Okay!

{Homestar drops the pizza on the couch as The Cheat unmutes the TV again.}

MAN ON TV: ...chasing me as if it were trying to kill— {muted}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Soooo... {produces some magazines} you wanna buy some magazine subscriptions?

THE CHEAT: {dismissive The Cheat noises}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Aw, c'mon! Help me out! I'm trying to go to Acapulco.

{The Cheat unmutes the TV again.}

MAN ON TV: ...think that truck might be trying to kill me!

{A screeching and crashing noise is heard on the TV before The Cheat mutes it again. Strong Bad pokes his head in from the right.}

STRONG BAD: Well, C.C., The Cheat ended up in a crisper drawer. So until next week, so long, and thanks for all the privaleges... I guess...

{The Paper comes down.}

Easter Eggs

The Hardest Chord Ever

• Clicking the word "abused" when Strong Bad said it originally restarted the toon. It may have been a placeholder for an unactivated Easter egg.
• Click on the pizza box any time after Homestar throws it on the couch to see a detailed top of it. It says, "Bubs' Old Pizza 'It's-A Really Old'."
• Click on the Fretmagic magazines after The Paper comes down to see Gary Palaroncini (from Limozeen) demonstrate the "Hardest Chord Ever", which of course requires eleven fingers to play (and, presumably, another free hand to strum). Looking closely, seven of the eleven fingers are used to depress strings, and some of the strings must be depressed in multiple places behind the fretted point (which alters the pitch by only a few cents). Thus, a shortcut chord could actually be played using only four fingers. Assuming the guitar is in standard tuning, the chord demonstrated is structured around an open fifth, with a flat 7 and a major 4 in the bass. The actual chord is an A5b7/D.

>The Hardest Chord Ever
>
>Staten Island fretmaster Gary Palaroncini discovered
>the 'hardest chord ever' last week in his basement studio.
>Palaroncini had been in hot pursuit of the chord for the
>better part of 6 years. "I finally got it!" said Palaroncini.
>The chord is a combination of a diminished 9th and a
>demonished 10th. "This chord is going to land me a
>sweet record deal
>with Shrapnel and
>hopefully some
>fine honies, too.
>The chord was
>perfected on a
>Ibanez G800-XV.
>Palaroncini's mom
>is reportedly very
>proud.

• After activating the Fretmagic magazines Easter egg, click on The Cheat's hand to get him to torch them. {The Cheat pulls out the BMW lighter and burns Homestar's magazines.} HOMESTAR RUNNER: Ooh, three points. {Strong Bad pokes his head in again} STRONG BAD: Ooooh, and another point for you, The Cheat.

Fun Facts

Trivia

• The label on the disk in the floppy disk container reads "space shipper".
• The YouTube description for this email is "The Cheat cashes in his customer rewards card in this Strong Bad email cartoon!"

Remarks

"Save up points to curry my favor!"

• The hole punches on the scorecard are in the shape of Strong Bad's boxing gloves.
• The Cheat makes use of the first four of his new privileges in this toon: the crisper drawer, the mute button, pizza toppings (mushrooms and Pop-Tarts), and the BMW Lighter (to torch Homestar's magazines).
• The "Hardest Chord Ever", as explained by the Fretmagic article, technically doesn't exist. "Demonished 10th" is meaningless made-up musical jargon, although there is a such thing as a diminished 9th chord (which is enharmonically equivalent to an octave). It would also take a total of 4 hands to make and play this chord. The picture also shows 11 fingers used to make the chord.
• "Strong Mad Bath" and "Strong Bad Math" is an example of spoonerism.
• This is another instance of The Cheat Smiling.

Goofs

• Strong Bad and the stool are knocked to the ground, yet even though he never picks it up, he is still able to sit on it when checking The Cheat's new privileges.
• When Homestar walks in to deliver the pizza, his shirt changes color.
• The quote in the article The Hardest Chord Ever about how it landed Palaroncini a sweet record deal doesn't have a closing quote mark.
• Strong Bad should have replaced the period with a comma instead of a semicolon.

Inside References

• Strong Bad says the word twice.
• One of The Cheat's privileges allows The Cheat to ghost-write an issue of Teen Girl Squad.
• The Cheat is allowed the use of duct tape as one of his privileges.

Real-World References

• "So long, and thanks for all the privileges" is a reference to "So long, and thanks for all the fish", a phrase (and book of the same name) from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams.
• "The Flying Vee" is a reference to Gibson's Flying V guitar. Gibson designed it in 1958, along with the Explorer, in an attempt to doff its conservative image. However, it worked too well, as it sold poorly at that time. It wasn't until the late 1960s and '70s, and especially the advent of heavy metal, that the Flying V gained renewed popularity. The "V" is commonly associated with players such as Kirk Hammett of Metallica and KK Downing of Judas Priest. It is also available to be played in most of the titles of the popular rhythm-action game series, Guitar Hero.
• Ibanez (mentioned in the "Hardest Chord" Easter egg) is a real guitar maker whose guitars are popular in heavy metal circles; however, it doesn't appear that they've ever made any model called "G800-XV."
• "Saturday Segwayday" is a reference to the Segway scooter, a self-balancing scooter touted to revolutionize human transport. Investors expected hundreds of thousands of units to be sold, generating billions of dollars in sales in the first year. In reality, the Segway sold around only 10,000 units in its first few years and is still trying to overcome an identity crisis.
• Shrapnel Records is an actual label that specializes in virtuoso guitar instrumentalists such as Tony MacAlpine, Vinnie Moore, Greg Howe and Jason Becker.
• A point system of sales incentives, with little or no cash remuneration, is commonly offered to children, both in school fundraisers (where magazines are a common product) and, formerly, through such businesses as the Olympic Sales Club. However, the prizes are generally much smaller than vacation packages.
• "Medallion Gold Plus Member" is reminiscent of the Gold Medallion membership level in SkyMiles, the frequent flyer club of Delta Air Lines, headquartered in the Brothers Chaps' hometown of Atlanta.
• Uno is a card game played with a specially printed deck, now developed by Mattel.

Fast Forward

• The TV show watched by The Cheat is watched by Strong Bad in Cool Things.
• The Cheat uses the BMW lighter (one of the privileges he earns in this email) to torch Homestar's Daisy Dukes in long pants.
• The picture of "the hardest chord ever" reappeared in rock opera and the 2010 Calendar.
• A 3D-rendered model of the Cheat in his drawer is used in all strongbad email.exe discs except for Disc 6.

DVD Version

The following describes how to access the Easter eggs after the video ends:

• To access the Hardest Chord Easter egg, click on the hidden Strong Bad logo just above the magazines.
• To access the Bubs' pizza box Easter egg, click on the hidden Strong Bad logo just above the pizza box. The box can also been seen by toggling the Angle during the video.
• To access The Cheat setting fire to the magazine Easter egg, click on the hidden Strong Bad logo on the TV. The magazines come back after The Cheat torches them.

External Links

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