do over

Strong Bad Email #130

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"Oh, this is hilarious."

Strong Bad is given the opportunity to redo old emails. Homestar and The Cheat switch places.

Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, Homestar Runner, Strong Mad, Marzipan (Easter egg), The Cheat (Easter egg)

Places: Computer Room, The Field, Marzipan's House (Easter egg)

Computer: Lappy 486, Tandy 400

Date: Monday, May 16, 2005

Running Time: 4:24

Page Title: Lappy 486

DVD: strongbad_email.exe Disc Four

Transcript

STRONG BAD: {singing} Strong Bad Email! Makes money! Strong Bad Email! Gets paid!

subject: Just wondering...

Dear Strongbad,
What would you do different, if you could do it all over
again?

Crapfully yours,
Richie Z
Can-A-Duh

{Strong Bad says "Totally not gettin' old" in place of "Crapfully yours," and says each syllable of "Can-A-Duh" separately with a pause between each}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Wait, you're not related to Coach Z, are you, Richie? Or Coach Zed as you Canucks {pronounced Ca-nooks} call him. Whoa. Coach Zed. That's way cooler. I'm gonna start calling him that too and maybe he won't suck so bad! Thanks, Richie! Your pal, Sed Bed {Types as SB, clears screen} Alright, what would I do different? Well, while I've never actually made a mistake, there have been a few, let's call 'em "stnanks," that could be worthy of a do-over. It's no secret that one of my biggest stnanks was involving Ali and Ali's sister. If I had to do that over again, there's no way I'd mess it up. Here's just what I'd do:

{The "channel change" transition occurs as we cut to Strong Bad at the broken Tandy 400, and the first email from sisters is onscreen.}

Strong Bad,
My sister and me think you are so cool.
Do you have a girlfriend? There is two of us.
Yours,
Ali

STRONG BAD: Oh! There's two of them!

{He places a candle next to the computer, clears the screen, and starts typing to romantic music.}

STRONG BAD: Well, Ali. There's ONE of me, and I'd like to cordially invite myself over to your place tonight for dinner and afterdinner mints. After afterdinner mints, you and your sister, Ali Jr. I'll call her, can fight to the death over me. Wait. {music stops} No. Hold on. No, no dying. {He only types one "no."} Um, {music restarts} we should have an egg drop soup eating contest. {music comes to a scratching halt and he stammers} Hang on. I can't remember what happens next. {stops typing} The Cheat!

{Homestar Runner shuffles up on his knees. He's covered in yellow body paint and dressed in a yellow shirt, with The Cheat-esque spots. Attached to his head is a black tuft of hair to make him look like The Cheat.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Wibble wee woo woo!

STRONG BAD: Oh, this is hilarious. Homestar, where's The Cheat?

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Squeakicoo! I'm The Cheat!

STRONG BAD: Oh, really. Then what—

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {stands up} Surprise! Strong Bad, it's me! Homestar Runner! From school!

STRONG BAD: Ugh! I need The Cheat!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oh, okay. {gets down on his knees again} Meh.

STRONG BAD: That's not what I meant. Uh, I guess you'll have to do. Ahem. All right, The Cheat. I need you to help me with my award-winning rewrite of the Ali and Ali's sister email. There's two of them!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Skooko wibbo wee! You should serenade them! I can play the drum!

STRONG BAD: Yeah, that sounds about right. Let's go practice!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {jumping up} I can play the drum!

{Cut to The Field. Strong Bad sings into a microphone while Homestar bangs on a floor tom.}

STRONG BAD: {singing} Don't you know I have a {feedback noise} BIG OL' RED HEAD! And a fat little body! {shakes body} And I never change my cloooothes! {high pitched, resulting in another feedback noise} No, I never change my cloooothes!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Uh, Strong Bad? I think I'm falling for you.

{Little hearts bubble and pop over Homestar's head. Channel change back to the Lappy.}

STRONG BAD: {typing} No, no, no, no, no. That is not right at all. Making Homestar dressed as The Cheat fall in love with me is not what I had in mind! Whatever. Who cares? I didn't want to go to Sally's house anydangway! {clears screen} Anyways, what else? I always felt a little bad about kicking The Cheat in email 23. Let's try that one again!

{Channel change to the non-broken Tandy 400, with the email from little animal on it.}

What would you do if a little animal came
up to you.

crapfully yours,
Ashley and Anthony

STRONG BAD: ...crapfully yours, Ashley and Anthony. {clears screen, types} Well, Ash and Ant, or Ley and Thony, or Shle and Ntho, or whatever you like to be called, if a little animal came up to me, I'd give him a pat on the head, a tuna-flavored treat, and some sage advice.

{Cut back to reveal Homestar—still in his The Cheat disguise—kneeling next to Strong Bad.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Meh, Strong Bad. Meh.

STRONG BAD: Oh, no way! This does not count! You are not gettin' any fish cookies outta me! But I will give you that sage advice and a {clears throat} "pat" on the head. {starts hitting Homestar with his keyboard} DON'T! EVER! DRESS! UP! As The CHEAT! AGAIN! PARSLEY! SAGE! RoseMARY! And THYME!

{Strong Mad walks up and glares menacingly at Strong Bad.}

STRONG MAD: DON'T HURT THE CHEAT!!!

STRONG BAD: No, big guy, that's not The Cheat. That's Homestar! From school!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Meedley mee! I'm The Cheat! {Strong Mad smiles for a moment.} I'm not from school! Moooooo!

STRONG BAD: {narrowing his eyes} Uh, The Cheat's not a cow, you know...

{Strong Mad grabs Strong Bad by the leg and holds him upside down.}

STRONG BAD: Whoa!

{Strong Mad starts shaking Strong Bad.}

STRONG MAD: THE CHEAT IS SO A COW!!!

{As he shakes Strong Bad, coins fall out and Homestar pecks them off the ground like a chicken.}

STRONG BAD: Strong Mad! Put me down! You're making a terrible stnank!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: It makes me all jangly inside! {shakes around as the coins rattle inside him}

{Channel change back to the Lappy.}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Alright, it's become abundantly clear that THIS is the email I should be redoing. Lappy, if you please.

{The text disappears as the computer displays "Do Over!!!" with an accompanying explosion effect.}

STRONG BAD: DO OVER!!!

{the original email comes back up, and Strong Bad types:}

STRONG BAD: {typing} What would I do differently Richie? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Well, except I might go back and taste out one of them Cheatcakes. {the scene cuts back to show the desk} Those things looked a-pretty good!

{Homestar leans in, still in disguise and carrying a bag that says "MOLDY BREAD, GUYS"}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Meeeeeeh?

STRONG BAD: No! Wait! Nothing! Never! I regret nothing!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {sadly leaving the screen} Meeeeeeh...

STRONG BAD: Phew!

{The Paper comes down. A few seconds later, Strong Bad taps the back of his head a few times, shaking out more coins, which land on the desk.}

Easter Eggs

"Can you pass the soy crisps?"

• Click on "Coach Zed" to see a drawing of Coach Zed, who looks like a mix between Coach Z and Snoopy's brother Spike. The picture matches the comic strip Peanuts in both drawing style and font.
• Click on the Floppy Disk Container at the end of the email to see The Cheat, who is disguised as Homestar Runner with kiss marks, and Marzipan together.

  MARZIPAN: Homestar, can you pass the soy crisps?

  THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises of emphatic agreement}

  {The Cheat hands Marzipan a bag labeled "Crisps, A-Soy!"}

Fun Facts

Explanations

• Zed is the pronunciation of the letter "Z" in most of the English-speaking world except the United States (where it is pronounced zee).
• "Canuck" is a nickname for a person from Canada.
• Egg Drop Soup is a Chinese dish made from chicken broth and beaten eggs.

Trivia

• This is another instance of Strong Bad checking more than one email.
• The label on the disk in the floppy disk container reads "marble craze".
• This is the only time The Brothers Chaps have produced a commentary before producing the email itself.

Remarks

• In sisters, Strong Bad's misfortune was due to a computer error, not any "stnank" he may have made.
• Homestar says that The Cheat is not from school, yet The Cheat appears in the Yearbook Character Page.
• The top shine in Homestar's eyes is also colored yellow when he is painted as The Cheat.
• In the redo of sisters, Strong Bad says the line "there's two of them" from the original email, it's in his old accent, but when he puts the candle up and starts redoing it, it switches back to his present accent.
• During both Tandy 400 email remakes, Strong Bad is shown in his modern form, as opposed to his earlier form during the actual era itself.

Goofs

• The Tandy's contrast buttons are still damaged when "little animal" is first being done-over, even though the Tandy is supposed to be undamaged. When the camera zooms away, the problem fixes itself.
• When Strong Bad redoes the Tandy-era emails, the star logo is further left than in the original and "contrast" is written in a different font.
• Clicking the Floppy Disk Container before Strong Bad throws the change all over his desk causes the change to already be there after cutting back.

Inside References

• Strong Bad receives the signature Crapfully Yours yet again.
• "Stnank" was a made-up animal that wasn't used in the email animal, but was seen in the Sketchbook.
• The onomatopoeia "Meedley mee" is a reference to the hot lixx played by Strong Bad in guitar.
• Strong Bad wanting to taste a Cheatcake is a reference to stupid stuff, in which The Cheat offers him a platter of said confection only to have it be rejected by Strong Bad.
• Strong Bad saying "Those things looked a-pretty good!" is a reference to monument, where he says almost the same thing about Technochocolate.
• The explosion used as the background for the "Do Over!!!" message is the same one used in the Theme Song Video when Strong Bad's slot car jumps the railing and crashes onto the table.
• This is another reference to Kicking The Cheat.
• The lip prints on The Cheat are the same ones as used in video games.
• Strong Bad mentions thyme, albeit referring to the herb as opposed to a substitute for "time".
• There is another reference to Homestar's bread obsession.
• This is another appearance of loose coins.

Real-World References

• Crisps, A-Soy! is a reference to Chips Ahoy! brand cookies and to the many soy products whose names contain puns on the word "soy" (such as "Soy Good" soy milk).
• Strong Bad's cry of "PARSLEY! SAGE! RoseMARY! And THYME!" is a reference to the lyrics of "Scarborough Fair", a 17th century English ballad. The song was repopularized in the 1960s by folk-rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, with the line also used as the title of one of their albums.
• The hearts that bubble around Homestar's head are the same ones that appeared when the word "love" was typed using the chat program Hello.

Fast Forward

• Marzipan and The Cheat go on another date in Date Nite; the candle and romantic music from Strong Bad's redo of sisters also reappear there.
• In Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, the romantic tune heard in this email is used as the music on the main floor of the House of the Brothers Strong in Homestar Ruiner.

• Also, in Strong Badia the Free, Strong Bad may "knight" Coach Z as "Coach Zed, Lord High Protector of Butt-Pattery".

YouTube Version

• The YouTube description for this email is "Strong Bad tries to do-over a few previous emails. It works perfectly. Nothing goes wrong at all."
  • This description is a blatant lie.
• The Easter egg with The Cheat and Marzipan plays automatically.

DVD Version

• The DVD version features hidden creators' commentary. To access it, switch the DVD player's audio language selection while watching.

Commentary Transcript

(Commentary by: Mike Chapman, Matt Chapman)

MIKE: All right, so we're doing the commentary for email 130 right now, but guess what, Matt?

MATT: What, what's that, Mike?

MIKE: We haven't even made that email yet!

MATT: Uh oh, how're we gonna do the commentary?

MIKE: I don't know let's just start talking and, uh, we'll see it works for commentary.

MATT: Strong Bad's making fun of somebody's name—

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: —or reading the email probably right now. Oh, let's see, oh he's got a dumb name and he misspelled something!

MIKE: It might be called "do over" or "junk codger".

MATT: Really.

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: Wow, those both sound pretty intrigue-wing.

MIKE: Yeah, maybe we'll see.

MATT: How long, how do we know how long to go on for?

MIKE: We'll just go for a few minutes here and see, uh... Oh look, aah, {laughs} look what, what happened there! {Nothing actually happened.}

MATT: That was pretty good!

MIKE: That was, uh, that was my idea, definitely it was the funniest part of the email and uh, I thought to do it, out of my own head.

MATT: Oh really, and what happened, Mike, in this part of the email that hasn't been—

MIKE: Well, I haven't written it yet, Matt!

MATT: Um,—

MIKE: But I know it was good!

MATT: —this one is definitely going to be an awesome email.

MIKE: Yeah, it's gonna... we're saving up.

MATT: All our... our tickets.

MIKE: {laughs} Yes. Um, so this, uh — Strong Sad, uh, doesn't appear in this email.

MATT: Oh, making some executive decisions are we?

MIKE: Well, his voice might be in it.

MATT: Okay, his vo—{laughing} all right, well. We're gonna successfully write this email just by talking about it.

MIKE: That's a good idea.

MATT: Yeah.

MIKE: Uh, so let's pretend it's called "do over".

MATT: Okay.

MIKE: He's doing, he's redoing an email that he's already done.

MATT: One, or multiple ones?

MIKE: Let's say he just does parts of multiple ones.

MATT: Okay. {With uncannily accurate timing.} Uh oh, here comes Homestar!

MIKE: Aah wait wait, here it is!

{both laugh exaggeratedly}

MATT: That's the part, man.

MIKE: Oh man, that gets my goose every time.

MATT: {laughs} Eww. Um, so which, so which ones is he going to do over, like old-old emails—

MIKE: Some old-old ones.

MATT: —like "tape leg"?

MIKE: Like... Why would he touch that one?

MATT: I mean that era. Of course, "tape leg" is off-limits.

MIKE: Yeah. Some in that era, maybe some—

MATT: Summon that era?

MIKE: Summon. I, I call upon thee to summon that era. No I think, uh, "invisibility", maybe, has some potential.

MATT: But that one's great!

MIKE: Oh I know, but it's just got a, you know, it's just maybe got a—

MATT: Go another direction?

MIKE: —maybe got one other thing. Maybe he wanted to do something else.

MATT: I hope that floating box of Swiss Cake Rolls comes back, 'cause I love those. That's my favorite part.

MIKE: Maybe, maybe the "invisibility" one, the "do over" one, he should just, uh, in the "invisibility" email just wanna hang out with the, uh, floating box, {laughing} floating box of Swiss Cake Rolls.

MATT: {overlapping} Act like it's not being carried by, uh—

MIKE: Right, by him.

MATT: —an invisible version of him?

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: That'd be good.

MIKE: And he and the, uh, {laughing} floating box of Swiss Cake Rolls, just gonna wreak havoc.

MATT: It'd be kinda like the, uh, Wagon Fulla Pancakes.

MIKE: Yeah. It'd be better than that. Funnier than that. That's {unintelligible}.

MATT: You didn't think it was very funny, huh?

MIKE: {makes a long noise indicating "not really"}

MATT: It was your idea if I remember correctly—

MIKE: —It was a good one!—

MATT: —to do the wagon full of pancakes.

MIKE: It's the second-funniest email ever written next to email 130.

MATT: {laughs}

MIKE: How long we've been goin' here, 'bout three minutes?

MATT: Ah, we got a ways.

MIKE: We got a little while, {stammers} use your own format.

MATT: Yeah.

MIKE: Let's go for another minute yet, definitely.

MATT: Um, so I remember when we were a kid, this part. It was from when we were kids. {This part has nothing to do with when he was a kid.}

MIKE: {holding in laughter} Yeah, that, that elementary school teacher we had.

MATT: Yeah, and there was this, this kid at school, too, who would do that thing, and we probably made a movie about it. Uh, me and Neil.

MIKE: And then {someone} died. I kicked him in the head.

MATT: Yeah, so we were going to put something sort of like that in a cartoon.

MIKE: Oh, and that was in our basement.

MATT: {laughing to himself}

MIKE: We used to do that... Sister Julie was not pleased when that happened.

MATT: That's right.

MIKE: Um...

MATT: What else you got, Mike?

MIKE: We got about twenty seconds here, Matt. What are your parting words? This is the last commentary on the DVD. This is the last chance you've got — Make it matter. That's my new motto: "Make it matter." What's yours?

MATT: Uh, my new motto is... "Matters...Matterson".

MIKE: Good one. I'll give you one more chance.

MATT: Wah wah wahhh! {the "you lose" noise}

MIKE: That's a good one.

MATT: That's my motto.

MIKE: "Wah wah wah"?

MATT: Uh-huh.

MIKE: And what was mine?

MATT: Bump bump ba bummm!

MIKE: Make it matter. {laughs}

{The commentary is a little shorter than the email, so the toon's audio takes over.}

Fun Facts

• "Junk Codger" was one of the placeholder email titles briefly seen during strongbad_email.exe Disc One's menu-zooming animation. The phrase was also written on Eustice Pietimer's gravestone in That A Ghost; in that toon's commentary, Matt Chapman explains the phrase's DVD origins, and Mike mentions wanting to make that email someday.
• A running joke is that the email tape-leg is considered one of the worst emails ever.
• Matt's motto "Wah wah wah" is spoken by Homestar in the toon Cool Things.

External Links

• watch "do over"
• watch "do over" on YouTube
• watch "do over" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "do over"
• forum thread re: "do over"