A Folky Tale

"Isn't that great?"

Strong Sad relates the folky tale of Saddy Dumpington.

Cast (in order of appearance): Coach Z, Strong Sad, Saddy Dumpington, A Little Girl, The Squirrel, The Mayor, The Dancing Brothers, Mr. Cricket, Fox Joe, Weird Snake Joe, The Townsfolk, Bubs (Easter egg), Homsar (Easter egg)

Places: The Athletic Field, Folk Tale World, Bubs' Concession Stand (Easter egg)

Date: Monday, August 22, 2005

Running Time: 4:10

Page Title: Folky Tales

DVD:Everything Else, Volume 2

Transcript

{Open to a shot of Strong Sad and Coach Z standing in the Athletic Field, which has been painted to resemble a soccer field. A knotted rope is dangling from above.}

COACH Z: Come on, Strong Sad, I knows you can do it! Just cram a little oom-pah down your pants, and you'll be up that rope in no times!

STRONG SAD: Look, I'm willing to ignore that {winces} "oom-pah down my pants" {Coach Z nods} comment, {looks back at Coach Z} but I'm more concerned {looks up at the rope} with what that rope is attached to.

COACH Z: Never you mind! Just get to climbin'!

STRONG SAD: Coach Z, ropes are for dopes.

COACH Z: What's that jargle? Scripture? You quotin' Scripture?

STRONG SAD: No, it's a quote from Saddy Dumpington, the legendary folk hero I made up.

COACH Z: Sounds kinda like a terlet if ya ask me.

{Cut to the cover of a book entitled "The Folky Tale of Saddy Dumpington", with a picture of Saddy on it.}

STRONG SAD: {voiceover} Hark to the Folky Tale of Saddy Dumpington...

{The picture of Saddy on the cover turns around, and then turns back to his normal position. The cover slides off the screen, revealing a field with a young girl standing in it. Saddy Dumpington is walking over to her.}

STRONG SAD: ...who traveled the lands, spreading good cheer and smiles to all who would listen.

SADDY DUMPINGTON: I just saw a baby chick choke on a worm. They both died! Isn't that great?

{The girl starts crying. Cut to another area of the field, with a tree stump and squirrel in it.}

SADDY DUMPINGTON: Oh, I eat squirrels all the time. I made some soup out of the rest of your family just last night! Isn't that great?

{The squirrel starts crying. Cut to the field at sunset. Saddy is walking along.}

STRONG SAD: {voiceover} But he wasn't very good at spreading cheer or smiles, just sadness and misery.

{Cut to a town.}

SADDY DUMPINGTON: {playing his washboard} Fear not, townsfolk! Famine is no doubt right 'round the corner. And gross bugs and rats sleep in our beds! Isn't that great?!

{Cut to a shot of Saddy and the Mayor standing in the town square.}

STRONG SAD: {voiceover} So one day, the Mayor ordered—

COACH Z: {voiceover; interrupting} Oh, I know this part!

{The Mayor and Saddy look around in confusion}

COACH Z: {voiceover} Then the mayor ordered the very talented Dancing Brothers—

{A paper falls from the top of the frame, reading "THE DANCING BROTHERS". Saddy and the Mayor each walk off either side of the screen as the three Dancing Brothers slide to the center.}

COACH Z: {voiceover} —to perform at the annual "Rocks and Brown Grass" Festival!

{Motown-style music starts playing, and the brothers start dancing}

SINGERS: Gonna have a good time tonight, gonna have a good time tonight!

COACH Z: {voiceover} Look at 'em go!

COACH Z AND SINGERS: Gonna have a good time tonight, gonna have a real {Coach Z doesn't say "real"} good time toni—

{The music stops abruptly with a record scratch}

STRONG SAD: {voiceover} The Dancing Brothers' shoes broke and they stopped dancing immediately!

{The shoes break, and a cane drags the brothers off-screen. Saddy and the Mayor fly back onto the screen from the left. The Mayor is now angrily complaining in gibberish, while flailing his arms.}

STRONG SAD: {voiceover} The Mayor then ordered Saddy Dumpington to leave town and never speak to its citizens again.

SADDY DUMPINGTON: But, Mr. Mayor, sometimes, dogs get so hungry, they eat their own tails! Isn't that—

{The mayor, now very angry, kicks Saddy. Cut to a hill far outside of the town.}

SADDY DUMPINGTON: —greeeeeeaaaaattt!

{Saddy flies out of the town and falls tenderly on the hill. Fade to a forest. Saddy is walking through it.}

STRONG SAD: {voiceover} So Saddy Dumpington walked through the forest, befriending all manner of critters 'long the way.

{Saddy picks up a cricket.}

SADDY DUMPINGTON: Cheer up, Mr. Cricket. You have no central nervous system, so it won't hurt when I yank your legs off! Isn't that great?

{Cut to another area of the woods, where Saddy is talking to a fox.}

SADDY DUMPINGTON: Hello, Fox Joe!

COACH Z: {voiceover; interrupting} Have you met my good friends, The Dancing Brothers?

{Saddy looks around. The piece of paper falls from the top of the screen again, and The Dancing Brothers fall into the frame, dancing.}

COACH Z: {voiceover} "Glenn", "Martbell", and the "Killer Dynamo"! {music begins playing.}

SINGERS: Gonna have a good time tonight! Gonna have a good time toni—

{Again, the music scratches to a halt. The Dancing Brothers look dejected}

STRONG SAD: {voiceover} No! The Dancing Brothers are allergic to foxes, and they sneeze themselves into comas!

{The Brothers start sneezing}

COACH Z: {voiceover} Oh, jeez, that's harsh!

{Cut to a pond. Saddy is nearby. A fish jumps and splashes in the pond.}

STRONG SAD: {voiceover} Then one day, ol' Dumps here got a message from town.

{An arrow with a message attached flies into a tree. Cut to a close-up of the letter. As the message is spoken, the words appear on the page.}

>Saddy,
>We haven't stopped laughing
>since you left. No one can get any
>work done. We need you to come
>say something miserable and
>depressing so we can have our
>lives back.
>Talk atcha later,
The Townsfolk

SADDY DUMPINGTON: Something miserable and depressing? I've never thought of such a thing.

{An odd-looking purple snake with a tuft of hair on its head slithers toward Saddy.}

SADDY DUMPINGTON: Um... would weird snakes be considered depressing?

{cut to an evening shot of the field. Saddy is silhouetted against the background and appears to be wearing an odd tail.}

STRONG SAD: {voiceover} So he strolled into town, dressed as a weird snake.

{Cut to the town. A frowning Saddy Dumpington is wearing a costume reminiscent of the weird snake he found by the pond. All the townsfolk are laughing.}

SADDY DUMPINGTON: I'm a weird, weird snake, everyone. My name is Weird Snake Joe! Isn't that miserable and depressing?

STRONG SAD: {voiceover} But instead of getting depressed, everyone laughed even harder until they passed out for the rest of their lives.

{The townsfolk all collapse, and one person falls from above the frame. Cut back to the Athletic Field, the rope and Coach Z still present.}

STRONG SAD: And that brings me to this rope. I'm gonna pass out if I have to climb this rope.

COACH Z: Man, Strong Sad, that's a real load right there. A real load! That kind of thing might work on Coach X, or Coach Y, {loudly} but you're dealing with Coach dang Z! Now get up that rope!

{Strong Sad moans and passes out}

COACH Z: Oh, jeez! I killed the Elephant Man!! Oh, this is bad! This is rrrl bad, man! What would the Dancin' Brothers do in a sitch'ation like this?

{Coach Z thinks for a moment and then starts dancing and singing}

COACH Z: Oh, gonna have a good time tonight! Gonna have a good time tonight! {dances off the screen.} Gonna have a good time...

{Strong Sad opens his eyes and turns his head toward the camera}

STRONG SAD: {grinning slightly} Works every time!

SINGERS: {along with the music that starts playing} Gonna have a real good, good, good, good, good time tonight!

{Strong Sad pretends to go back into unconsciousness. The screen darkens, and "end." appears, accompanied by Saddy Dumpington's head.}

Easter Eggs

• Click on the rope at the end to see what is really holding it up.

{Homsar is upside down at the top of the screen. He has the rope in his mouth.} HOMSAR: {tries to talk with his mouth full, but his words are unintelligible; meanwhile, his hat floats in a rectangular path off his head and comes back}

• Click on Strong Sad's head at the end to see a scene with Bubs at his Concession Stand.

{Cut to Bubs at his concession stand.} BUBS: {on the phone} What? No! Of course you can't come here! You need to get out of town, man! Lay low for a while! Yeah, all right, all right, you is my dog, too. Now get movin'! COACH Z: {popping in from the top of the stand} Who was that? BUBS: Ah, that was just Homestar. Now keep outta sight! COACH Z: {makes a panicked noise and hides again}

Fun Facts

Explanations

• Vertebrates possess a central nervous system consisting of the brain and spinal cord. Invertebrates (including insects like crickets) possess a nervous system, but do not have a spinal cord.

Trivia

• This is the first toon that features members of the main cast but in which neither Homestar Runner nor Strong Bad make an appearance, though Bubs was talking to Homestar on the phone.
• The paper texture is made using a low-opacity bitmap overlay that covers the entire window. The drawings themselves are not bitmaps.
• The YouTube description for this toon is "Strong Sad tells the tale of Saddy Dumpington."

Remarks

• Strong Sad says that "Ropes are for dopes" is a quote from the legendary folk hero he made up, but neither ropes nor dopes are mentioned in the story itself, or the blog entry where Saddy Dumpington first appeared.
• In the scene where the townsfolk laugh until they pass out, the man in the front left looks identical to the man in the back right, only mirrored. Once everyone passes out, a man falls from above who looks identical to the person in the back left.
• While the Dancing Brothers' shoes broke completely off, the shoes were still pulled away along with the Brothers.

Goofs

Look closely...

• When Strong Sad falls down at the end of the toon, the shape created and overlaid on the background to show his indention in the grass does not quite match the background. The green and the white are both slightly brighter, and the seam in the white circle doesn't line up.
• As was corrected in the DVD commentary, crickets do indeed have a central nervous system. [1]
• The lines next to Strong Sad's hand don't line up perfectly. This is most visible when zooming in on the flash file.

Inside References

• Saddy Dumpington was introduced in Strong Sad's Lament.
• Coach Z thinks he killed Strong Sad and calls him elephant man in the process.
• Homestar apparently calls Bubs his dog during their phone conversation.

Real-World References

• The "Rocks and Brown Grass" Festival is probably a pun on the musical genres "rock" and "bluegrass," though it may also be a reference to the GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance.
• Coach Z calling Strong Sad the Elephant Man is a reference to Joseph Merrick (1862–1890), a person from the late 19th century known for being deformed as a result of either Proteus syndrome or Neurofibromatosis.
• The name of the second Dancing Brother, Martbell, may be a reference to Marty Beller, the drummer for They Might Be Giants.

Fast Forward

• The Dancing Brothers would return in Trogdor Was Dragon Man.

DVD Version

• At toon's end, the "end" phrase with Saddy's head next to it is missing.
• The DVD version features creators' commentary. To access it, switch your DVD player's audio language selection while watching.

Commentary Transcript

MATT: Did you ever have to climb up the rope in gym class, Mike?

MIKE: I never did.

MATT: Yeah, I feel like I missed out.

MIKE: I feel like that was invented for, uh, TV shows about high school.

MATT: {Laughs} Never, never actually occurred in any...

MIKE: Just the Wonder Years, and Saved by the Bell.

MATT: I think you're right.

MIKE: Um, I always thought it would be cool if there was a— a rope tied to the moon, that was just hanging down, floating, you know, ten feet or so above the Earth. I think it'd be a good— You could climb it up... Climb it up? Climb it up!

MATT: {almost simultaneously} You could climb it up!

MIKE: You know, it'd just be sort of a, you know like that four states place where you can go and put your hands in one of each of, or, you know. Four states at one time.

MATT: Right.

MIKE: It'd be sort of like that, sort of. Uh—

MATT: Just a novelty, you're tugging on this rope that's tied to the moon.

MIKE: Yeah, it's like "Yay, I'm... pulling the moon!"

MATT: "I got the moon by a string!"

MIKE: Yeah. So let's talk about this, uh, cartoon now.

MATT: Yeah, you kinda wasted a lot of time there, telling us about your moon job.

MIKE: Uh, let's, let's keep going. Uh, I like the watercolor style of this cartoon. That was sort of what made it fun to do.

MATT: Yeah, it turned out good, I, I thought.

MIKE: It was all done in Flash, and uh, we just— we sort of came up with some little technique to make it look watercolor-y and washy.

MATT: Right. It's, uh— it's based on an obscure entry in the obscure Strong Sad Journal that is, uh, an Easter Egg on the site that seems to still get pretty frequent traffic despite the fact that we rarely update it.

MIKE: Yeah, every two years we go through, like a month where we update it every week, and then we forget about it for two years.

MATT: So one day he, uh— he was comparing himself to Johnny Appleseed, or something, I can't remember exactly what the post is. But there was a picture of, uh... of Saddy Dumpington.

{long pause until Saddy is kicked over the horizon by the Mayor}

MATT: Ohhh, it's just like Brainy Smurf. {imitating Brainy Smurf} "Papa Smurf always says... Ooohhhhhhh!"

MIKE: That's a very nice-lookin' forest. I'd like to walk through that sun-dabbled forest passage.

MATT: That's true. This is untrue too, the— the— crickets do have a central nervous system, Mike, and he's going to feel it when he tears his legs off.

MATT: We recently, uh, made another song by whatever band it is that ma— sings "Gonna Have A Good Time Tonight" called "Jammin' Tunes".

MIKE: I don't think it's the Dancing Brothers, though.

MATT: No, I don't think—

MIKE: They're just— Yeah.

MATT: They just perform to the music of... whatever.

MIKE: That, yeah. What do you think they're called?

MATT: Umm...

MIKE: "The" ... something.

MATT: Yeah.

MIKE: "The System".

MATT: Ooh, that's a good one. "The Singular Something"?

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: I, uh...

{long pause}

MATT: I like the kind of Southern twang that Saddy Dumpington has, it's just Strong Sad, but a little more up-beat, less drawl, but then he has a little bit of a... a twangy-twang.

MATT: That is a weird snake, Mike.

MIKE: Weird s— Snakes usually don't have buck teeth, and are usually a little more pointy than that. He probably couldn't pierce much flesh with his...

MATT: What do you think of that guy with the block-head in the background that was slapping his knee? He's got a weird— it's like his head just looks like a little Lego... one of the little Lego snaps.

MIKE: Uh huh.

MATT: Why did we book-end it with the, uh... I mean, we easily could've just made it be...

MIKE: "The Saddy Dumpington Tale"?

MATT: Right. With no... 'cause it's pretty arbitrary with Strong Sad, it's all just so he can get out of climbing the rope... is really why he did it.

MIKE: It also makes it— allow us to make Coach Z sing the Dancing Brothers song.

MATT: Yeah, and do that little hoppy dance.

MIKE: I think that was one of the Mike Animation Specials right there.

MATT: That was a good one. It was way better than the usual specials. {pause} He's dead.

Fun Facts

• The Wonder Years and Saved by the Bell are two shows featuring the everyday experiences of high school students.
• The "four states place" Mike refers to is Four Corners, the only point in the United States where four states touch.
• Brainy Smurf is a character from the The Smurfs who often annoyed the other characters with his know-it-all ways, which frequently lead to him being thrown or kicked over the horizon in a similar fashion to Saddy in this toon.
• "Lego snaps" is a reference to the distinctive Minifigures included with LEGO sets.

External Links

• watch "A Folky Tale"
• watch "A Folky Tale" on YouTube
• watch "A Folky Tale" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "A Folky Tale"
• forum thread re: "A Folky Tale"