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Strong Bad Email #78

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"Dang. This thing's like... the never-ending soda."

Strong Bad gets the week off while Homestar fills in. Homestar discusses the finer points of frying computer parts with carbonated beverages.

Cast (in order of appearance): Homestar Runner, Coach Z, Strong Sad, The Cheat

Places: Computer Room, The Field

Computer: Compy 386

Date: Monday, June 30, 2003

Running Time: 2:13

Page Title: Compy 386!!

DVD: strongbad_email.exe Disc Two

Transcript

{Open to Compy 386; Strong Bad is absent. Homestar Runner strolls in and sits down at the computer.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Hello, class. Strong Bad could not be here today, so I will be filling in. My name is {slowly} Homestar Runner.

{He writes his name on the screen with a piece of chalk, then erases it.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Everyone please take out paper and a number 2 pencil, and we'll begin.

{Homestar types 'run "sb_enail.com" ', rather than the usual "strongbad_email.exe", to run the email program, and strangely enough, it works.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Lesson one:

{reading}

hi Strong Bad,
have you ever made anything out of anything?
bye
Dan from FL

{After reading "Strong Bad," Homestar angrily regards the screen and says, "Um, I do believe I just told you my name is Homestar Runner. But I'll let it slide this time." He then continues reading and pronounces "FL" as the letters "F" and "L".}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {typing} FL? {again as "F" and "L"} Far-off Lands? Foreign Leadership Camp? Fish Lake? {stops typing} Oh, I got it. He's from Fish Lake. {clears screen, resumes typing} Well, Jerome, I once made a birthday present for Marzipan out of some of my old CD's I didn't like anymore and placed them in a decorative bag. {stops typing, clears screen} And then {resumes typing} I once made breakfast out of cold pizza and half and half. Oh! And one time I made a whole set of coasters out of—

{cut to some glasses of melonade sitting on game cartridges}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {voiceover} —some old Sega tapes. And I made a pair of shoes—

{Cut to Coach Z and Strong Sad out in the field talking. Strong Sad has a Foreign Leadership Camp '91 T-shirt on. Homestar walks on wearing shoeboxes for shoes.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {continues in voiceover} —out of a pair of shoeboxes.

COACH Z: Whoa, those are some fresh kicks there, Homestar!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Thanks, I know! {walks off}

COACH Z: So anyways, Reg had the ball at the top o' the key.

{Cut back to the Compy}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {typing} But this week, I will instruct you on how to make a wet computer out of Strong Bad's computer.

{The Cheat walks on in a red outfit, but is instantly knocked offscreen when Homestar stands up.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: First, you need a 2-liter bottle of Mountain Dew. {produces a bottle of Mountain Dew from behind his back} Then get Strong Bad's computer. Apply liberally.

{Homestar starts pouring Mountain Dew on Strong Bad's keyboard; the liquid overflows onto the floor, which gradually forms a dark puddle on the carpet. Suddenly, a ringing noise is heard.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oops, we're out of time.

STRONG SAD: {offscreen} That's just my egg-timer!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Class dismissed! {glaring at the screen angrily} Except for you, Jerome!

{The Paper comes down. Homestar twitches a little. The Mountain Dew continues to be poured onto Strong Bad's keyboard. After about 13 seconds, Homestar resumes talking.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Dang. This thing's like... the never-ending soda. {sings} Never-ending so-oda! A-a-a, a-a-a, a-a-a...

{The sound fades out, but the soda continues pouring from the bottle indefinitely.}

Easter Eggs

Home of this fish

• Click on the words "Fish Lake" to see a postcard from there.
• To see the CD collection Homestar gave Marzipan, click on "CD." The CD covers are labeled "Really Slow Old People Music", "Pretty Slow Old People Music", and "Very Slow Old People Music".

Fun Facts

Explanations

• .com is one of the filename extensions for DOS programs (a slightly different format from the .exe used by the usual strongbad_email.exe).
• On a basic QWERTY keyboard, the "M" key is to the right of the "N" key, which is probably the reason Homestar typed "enail" instead of "email".

Trivia

• This is the only email in which Strong Bad does not appear.
• This is the first appearance of Mountain Dew. It had been previously mentioned, but not seen, in techno.
• The label on the disk in the floppy disk container reads "7th guest".
• The YouTube description for this email is "The Homestar Runner sits in and guest-checks one of Strong Bad's beloved emails! Can you believe it?"

Remarks

• Fish Lake is the name of a township in Minnesota and a small town in Indiana. It is also the name of a large number of lakes in North America.
• When poured onto the keyboard, the Mountain Dew appears to be a green liquid. In real life, Mountain Dew is yellow; it just comes in a green bottle.
• When Homestar misspells Strong Bad's email command on the computer, it works. However, Strong Bad misspelled it in funny and received a "not found" error.
• Homestar accessed Strong Bad's email on his first try. Previously, he made several wrong attempts to delete an email which resulted in a Flagrant System Error on the Compy.
• Homestar pulls the Mountain Dew bottle from Hammerspace.

Goofs

• When Homestar writes on the Compy's screen, the chalk and eraser have no reflections.
• While Homestar is introducing himself, in one frame his reflection's mouth is open but the top of his underbite appears closed.
• When Strong Sad is wearing the "Foreign Leadership Camp '91" shirt, his belly button has disappeared.
• When Homestar clears the screen after typing "Fish Lake", the "a>" prompt escapes from the top of the Compy screen.
• Homestar's reflection remains the same when the monitor's contrast is adjusted. This is strange, as it adjusts correctly in a previous email (2 emails).
• The first time Homestar says "Strong Bad", it is spoken without his usual speech impediment. The impediment returns for the rest of the email, however.
• In the scene where Homestar starts pouring Mountain Dew on the Compy's keyboard, the contrast knob is missing.

Inside References

• The names of the "Sega tapes" are actually the following Videlectrix games: Pigs on Head, Shploitz!, and QWERTY. The one that visibly says just "Space" could be "Spaceshipper", also a Videlectrix game.
• Coach Z's line, "Reg had the ball at the top of the key," is a direct quote from Strong Bad's autobiography tape.
• Far Off Lands is a reference to In Search of the Yello Dello, where Homestar, Strong Sad, and Pom Pom travel through this area.
• This is another mention of pizza.
• One of the shoe boxes on Homestar's feet is from Freshley's.

Real-World References

Sgt. Cheater

• "Never-ending Soda" is a parody of the theme song to the 1984 fantasy movie The NeverEnding Story.
• The Cheat is wearing George Harrison's costume from The Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
• The "Sega Tapes" are actually the cartridges used by the Sega Genesis console.
  • "Tape" is a misnomer derived from the game cartridges from Sega's previous console, the Master System. The Master System's ROM cartridges superficially resembled cassette tapes, despite using chips rather than magnetic tape to store data.

Fast Forward

• Jerome later pops up as a misbehaving kid on the Strong Bad Sings and Other Type Hits version of the Strong Badia National Anthem.
• When The Cheat's head explodes in couch patch, Homestar asks whether he had ever poured Mountain Dew over the Compy.
• The Freshley's shoebox Homestar wears reappears in the email time capsule. It is also seen briefly in the email original, as the base of the toothpick sculpture.
• In retirement, Homestar pours Mountain Dew into the Tandy 400. Strong Bad adds denture tablets, causing it to explode.
• In a flashback from the paper, The Paper prevents Homestar from pouring Mountain Dew on the Lappy 486.
  • In an Easter egg from the same email, Homestar sings another parody of the song from The Neverending Story.
    • Also in the paper, Homestar repeats Coach Z's line "Reg had the ball at the top o' the key," but instead says, "Homestar has the ball at the top of the key."
• Sega tapes are mentioned again in Teen Girl Squad Issue 8, and later in more armies.
• In winter pool, Strong Sad's egg timer is used to show when the pool full of gelatin is finished.
• In email thunder, Strong Bad pours Mountain Dew on Homestar's computer, the Happy 8600, quoting Homestar's "apply liberally" line while imitating Homestar's accent.
• Homestar would eventually answer more emails in the form of Hremails.

DVD Version

• The Fish Lake and "Old People Music" CD eggs are still viewable using the angle button on the DVD remote.
• The DVD version features hidden audio commentary. To access it, switch the DVD player's audio language selection while watching.

Commentary Transcript

(Commentary by: Strong Bad, Mike Chapman)

STRONG BAD: Oh, this one is a travesty.

MIKE: But you're not even in this email, Strong Bad.

STRONG BAD: I know, I mean, it- which... automatically makes it a travesty.

MIKE: It's your arch-nemesis, Homestar Runner, at your computer. {unintelligible} to watch.

STRONG BAD: {simultaneously} I know, it's hard, aww, look the way he's treating the Compy, like how could you do that to it? Oh.

MIKE: At least he erased it.

STRONG BAD: Yeah, but th-there was... he screwed up the monitor, there was smudgies on it for a while. I had to buy those special clothies.

MIKE: Yeah.

STRONG BAD: Maybe, y-you know.

MIKE: I got some special clothies.

{Strong Bad makes a sound effect}

STRONG BAD: That's the sound they make when—

MIKE: Not mine...

STRONG BAD: —you're rubbing it down.

MIKE: Uh, okay, so where were you when, uh, Home— when this was going on?

STRONG BAD: Uh, I mean, I think.

MIKE: I mean Monday mornings, you know, Monday mornings.

STRONG BAD: Yeah, but I...

MIKE: Wait!

STRONG BAD: Uh—

MIKE: You listen to me. {Strong Bad chuckles nervously} You're supposed to check your email Monday morning, sometimes Monday afternoon, occasionally Tuesday morning.

STRONG BAD: One or two times Wednesday.

MIKE: Right, so where were you? Why...what- what happened to you?

STRONG BAD: This was one of those Wednesday times.

MIKE: What? But you didn't—

STRONG BAD: Planning on doing it on a Wednesday.

MIKE: Oh, Homestar just—

STRONG BAD: Shanghaied.

MIKE: Okay.

STRONG BAD: I got, look at all those Sega tapes.

MIKE: Are those yours?

STRONG BAD: Those are my Sega tapes.

MIKE: I figured they were.

STRONG BAD: Homestar never got- figured out- how to work the Genesis.

MIKE: Are those Freshley shoes that you wear? Your wrestling boots?

STRONG BAD: Oh man, Freshley's... are aptly named.

{Mike laughs}

MIKE: Yeah?

STRONG BAD: About the freshest shoes you can imagine.

MIKE: Okay.

STRONG BAD: They're freshly made. {Mike laughs} Oh, The Cheat, that was, see The Cheat was coming over, we were- that was practice that day. 'Cause we were gonna...

MIKE: Why was he dressed up like somebody from Sergeant Pepper's?

STRONG BAD: Cause we were gonna do our Beatles cover band for that Wednesday email...

MIKE: Okay.

STRONG BAD: ...and then it got... shanghaied.

MIKE: Look at, look at what's going on here.

STRONG BAD: Yeah, this I have a hard time looking at too. Look at all that wasted soda.

MIKE: So you don't care about your keyboard? {unintelligible}

STRONG BAD: Oh, that keyboard was disgusting anyway, man. Have you ever turned your keyboard upside down and like shook it? There was like, I had a rat one time fall out of my keyboard.

MIKE: Oh, really?

STRONG BAD: Yeah.

MIKE: I should do that, I haven't done that in a while.

STRONG BAD: You should be careful. ...Get this guy out of here!

MIKE: I think it's almost over.

STRONG BAD: I mean look at him!

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