flashback

Strong Bad Email #100

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Puttin' their weight on it.

In the long-anticipated 100th email, Jon from NH asks Strong Bad how long he has known Homestar Runner. The answer is too big to be shown in anything but... WIDESCREEEEEEEEEEEEN!

Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, Homestar Runner, Tiny-Handed Strong Bad, Coach Z, The Homestar Runner (storybook), The Prince of Town, Strong Mad, Pom Pom, Bubs, Strong Sad, Marzipan, Mr. Bland, Señor, The Cheat, Limozeen (Easter egg), Senor Cardgage (Easter egg), Old-Timey Strong Bad (Easter egg), Modestly Hot Homsar (Silhouette, Easter egg)

Places: Computer Room, The Moon, The Sweet Sweet Rainbow Bridge, The Field, Marzipan's House (Easter egg), Telegraph Room (Easter egg), Basement of the Brothers Strong (Easter egg)

Computer: Compy 386

Date: Tuesday, March 16, 2004

Running Time: 5:01

Page Title: Compy 386!!

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

Transcript

STRONG BAD: {shouting} ONE TWO THREE FOUR—

{Strong Bad starts singing hard rock with instruments in the background, and the following words appear as they are said:}

STRONG BAD: EMAIL IS AWESOME {"AWESOME"}, EMAIL IS WEIRD {"WEiRD"}, EMAIL IS AWESOME {"AWESOME"} AND EMAIL IS WEIRD {"WEiRD"}! And I'll never forget the way it was, GRRRL {"grrrl"}...uh!

{Starts reading the email in his abandoned Mexican accent. The text is in the style of the Tandy, and it is in fact the very first email he ever did.}

Dear Strong Bad,

Do you take your wrestling mask and boxing
gloves off before you go to bed?

Sincerely,
Abdi LaRue
San Diego, CA

{Strong Bad starts to stutter when reading "before you go to".}

STRONG BAD: ...dajede... wait a minute! {hits Compy, the text fixes itself to be a new email} There we go!

{reading}

Hey there, Strong Bad!
I was wondering. How long have you
known Homestar? Is there some sort of
flashback that could describe how
and when you guys met?
Your Fan,
Jon, NH

{Instead of "New Hampshire," Strong Bad says "No Hamsters."}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Oh, I got flashbacks alright, Jon. I'm like, Discount Flashback Warehouse over here. But this particular flashback has way too much historical significance to be shown in anything but WIDESCREEEEEEEEEEEEN. Left side: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAH!

{As he says this with a resonating noise, the left side of the screen expands out. The camera then cuts out to a wide shot. Strong Bad stops typing and turns to his right.}

STRONG BAD: Right side: WOOOOOAHH—

{the right side of the screen starts to expand, then abruptly bounces out to its full extent, revealing Homestar.}

STRONG BAD: Wha-uh, what are you doin' over there?

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oh, I'm pretty much here every week. It's just that usually I'm behind the black.

STRONG BAD: Guess I should start... lookin' to the right more often.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: In fact, I think I might live here.

STRONG BAD: I don't think so. If you lived here, you'd have less non-broken bones. And more crushed spirits.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {leaning forward} Yes, sir.

STRONG BAD: Frame shift left! WOOOOOAAHHH!

{The screen starts shifting left to get Homestar out of the shot.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: See ya after the flashback!

{The screen shows a picture of Strong Bad on the moon with a tennis racket. The drawing is in the style of the original children's book, though the characters have limited animation. Strong Bad narrates the story but doesn't read everything—text that he doesn't read is included in this transcript in parentheses. Also, character voices are imitated and are denoted in brackets.}

STRONG BAD: {narrating} Strong Bad meets the Homestar Runner.

{The page turns to a picture of just Strong Bad.}

Everyone loves Strong Bad. He is an okay guy.

{The page turns to a picture of Strong Bad and Coach Z playing tennis on the moon.}

One day Strong Bad was finishing up a game of tennis on the moon with his pal, the Coach Z. He won 1,000,000 to 3. {Strong Bad} "You see, 3 is clearly a smaller number than a million," said Strong Bad. {Coach Z} "Ooooooh. Now I understand."

{The page turns to Strong Bad and Coach Z flying down a rainbow from the moon to earth.}

They flew on a sweet, sweet rainbow bridge back down to Free Country, USA.

{The page turns to Coach Z holding a towel and talking to Strong Bad.}

{Coach Z} "I'ma go shower up!" said the Coach Z. {Strong Bad} "Gross!" said Strong Bad. "Shut up!"

{The page turns to see Strong Bad walking toward a giant pink egg with yellow spots.}

Walking home, Strong Bad came upon a big ol' egg. "Waaaaaaaaagh!"

{The page turns to a closer view of Strong Bad and the egg.}

"I wonder what's inside," thought tiny-handed Strong Bad.

{The page turns to see Homestar behind the egg wearing a yellow shirt with a duck on it.}

{Homestar} "Hello! How do you like my egg, Mr. Strong Bad?" said a voice from behind. {Strong Bad} "Who the crap are you, Duckshirt?" asked No-shirt. {Homestar} "I'm The Homestar Runner!" said the duckshirt. "Some folk say I'm a terrific athlete."

{The page turns to a closer view of the scene.}

{Strong Bad} "Well I folk say you're a terrific liar!" (said Strong Bad.) "This is plainly my egg." {The Prince of Town} "What's all the commotion about?"

{The page zooms out, showing the Prince of Town looking at Strong Bad and Homestar.}

...said the svelt, young Prince of Town. "And who's this weirdo in the duckie shirt?" {Homestar} "I'm The Homestar Runner! Some folk say I'm a terrific (athlete!" said Duckshirt.) {Strong Bad} "Prancibald over here says this egg belongs to him, when I found it first."

{Zoom in to a closeup of the Prince of Town.}

{The Prince of Town} "We'll settle this with a ten-step footrace."

{The page turns to show a crowd of characters, including Mr. Bland and Señor from the original children's book. Everyone is watching Strong Bad and Homestar at the start line of a race.}

And so they all gathered for a ten-step footrace. The slim and trim young Prince of Town explained the rules.

{A piece of paper shows up reading: "Ten-step Footrace Official Rules. Rule One. Whoever goes the most distance in ten steps, will be the winner! Rule Two. No biting."}

{The Prince of Town} "Whoever goes the most distance in ten steps, will be the winner!"

{The page turns to see Strong Bad and Homestar at the line and Marzipan giving the startoff.}

{Marzipan} "Ready-and-set-and-go-now." {they start running, with Homestar counting} {Homestar} "One, two, three, four, five, six..." {Strong Bad takes tiny steps and is way behind} {Strong Bad} "Keep up the pace. Gotta break 4:40"

{The page turns to see silhouettes of everyone, and Homestar has reached the end.}

{Homestar} "Ten!"

{The Prince of Town} "And the Duckie-man is the winner. Loser gets the egg."

{The background music plays several confused notes, then the page turns to a closeup of Homestar, with Strong Bad and the egg in the background.}

{Homestar} "WHAAAAT??!!?&,:;%${}" {Strong Bad} "Hooray a-for me!!"

{The page turns to show Strong Mad holding the egg over his head while Strong Bad watches.}

And so Strong Mad helped to break open the egg. {Strong Mad tosses the egg}

{The page turns to show the egg broken, and with a bunch of fish sticks inside it.}

And out poured a lifetime supply of fishsticks. And a The Cheat!!!!

{The Cheat springs out of the egg, then the page turns to a closeup of The Cheat. The page turns again to see Strong Bad and The Cheat with the egg in the background.}

{Strong Bad} "Awesome! My very own a The Cheat!"

{The page turns again, showing everyone hanging out by a boombox.}

And so, The Cheat mashed play on an extremely expensive jambox with high-speed dubbing and everybody put their weight on it! {The Cheat plays a remix of the original intro music for H*R.com, and everyone dances.}

{Cut back to Strong Bad sitting at the stool, talking to Homestar, who's sitting on the floor listening to the tale.}

STRONG BAD: So that's pretty much how it all went down, huh?

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oh, yes. Read me another one! Another one!

STRONG BAD: Ohhhhh, very well. This one's called The Homestar Runner Gets Something Stuck In His Craw!

{Strong Bad pulls out the aformentioned children's book. Compy beeps and turns blue with the caption "Congratulations! You have answered 100 emails." and pixelated fireworks.}

STRONG BAD: What the—Whoa! Would ya look at that! 100 emails. I had no idea! I lost count around 51. Well, I suppose I should do something to celebrate... uh... ooh! I'll say email 100 times! Email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email...

{As Strong Bad continues, The Paper comes down}

STRONG BAD: ...email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email eMAIL-a email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email-mail-nahduhluh email email email email e-meh-meh-meh-meh-mail email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email email-mail email email email email email email email EMAIL! {takes a big breath} Ooh. I'm pa—I'm parched. {wheezes} I need a glass of water.

{A pixelated glass of water appears onscreen.}

Easter Eggs

A children's book by Mike and Craig

• When Strong Bad pulls out the book "The Homestar Runner Gets Something Stuck In His Craw", click on it to get a closer look.

• After Strong Bad says "Email" 100 times, click on the following words:
  • "Congratulations!" for a message from Limozeen.

LIMOZEEN: Congratulations, Strong Bad, on your 100th email!

{slight pause}

LARRY: {startling the other bandmembers} WE'RE FROM THE BAND LIMOZEEN-UH!

PERRY: Uh, I think it says that at the top of the screen, Larry.

LARRY: WELL, I DIDN'T KNOW THAT-UH!

{The band members strike various poses and the frame freezes, as the central riff from "Because, It's Midnite" plays.}

• click on "you" to see Homestar deliver his message.

{Homestar is standing in the field, wearing the Duckie Shirt.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Happy hundredth birthday, Strong Bad!

• click on "have" to see a message from Marzipan.

{Marzipan is standing in her house near her answering machine.}

MARZIPAN: Whoo-hoo, Strong Bad, whoo-hoo. I've almost caught up with you. I only have 90 more answering machines to go.

• click on "answered" to see Senor Cardgage say some stuff.

{Senor Cardgage is standing in The Field near his bush.}

SENOR CARDGAGE: Many combolations, Elizagerth! {holds up a sign reading "combolations, elizagerth," and puts it back down, then produces a melty candy bar from behind his back} I hope you get all my... particles.

STRONG BAD: {off screen} Man, so cool!

• click on "100" to see Old-Timey Strong Bad making a telegram.

{Old-Timey Strong Bad is standing next to a telegraph machine. Half of his mustache has been ripped off, and he is holding an envelope that looks like it contains the missing half of the mustache. The "Loafing Not Permitted" sign hangs on the wall.}

OLD-TIMEY STRONG BAD: {operating the telegraph} Well done, my doppelgänger! Stop! By the time you read this telegrammaparcel, I'll be long dead! Stop! Therefore, I've enclosed half of my mustache herein. Stop! I bid you good tidings, and may you continue to flummox those less fortunate than you!

• Also, click in the 2 areas where the fireworks go off to see two other shorts.
  • Click the firework on the left to see a TV ad for Discount Flashback Warehouse.

{cut to Strong Bad's basement with the Television. Strong Bad's face appears on it}

STRONG BAD: {in a mumbling voice} Come on down to Discount Flashback Warehouse.

{Discount Flashback Warehouse text appears, then disappears. Cut back so the screen shows Strong Bad's body}

STRONG BAD: I've got this season. {He gestures to the left, where a screen from "different town", also featuring Modestly Hot Homsar, appears.} Last season. {He gestures to the right where a screen from "band names" appears.} Even stuff I've just made up! {The screenshots disappear and "just made up!!" appears as he says it.}

{Cuts to just his head again, next to text reading "These prices: $9 $6.53."}

STRONG BAD: How can I make these prices any lower?

{Cut to Strong Bad standing beneath yellow text that reads "Discount Flashback Warehouse".}

STRONG BAD: Just ask for me, the guy that works here {very quietly, trailing off} at the flashback place.

• Click the firework on the right to see what became of the lifetime supply of fishsticks.

{Cut to the field back in the flashback. The Prince of Town is standing near the broken-open egg.}

THE PRINCE OF TOWN: Will no one claim this lifetime supply of fishsticks?

{Prince of Town does an over-the-top look left and right. This is the dance he did when The Cheat mashed play on the expensive jambox during the flashback.}

Fun Facts

Explanations

• To "stick in one's craw" is an idiom referring to a behavior or act that one can not tolerate. It originated as a literal statement, such as a stone being stuck in the craw of a bird; the stone is impossible to swallow, or tolerate.
• High-speed dubbing is a feature of many dual-cassette boomboxes that enables the user to copy one cassette tape to another at a higher speed than normal playback speed, albeit with less accuracy.
• A "doppelgänger" is commonly known as a "copy" of someone.
• The widescreen is 750×400 pixels, a perfect 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Normal toons are 550×400, or 1.375:1.

Trivia

Homestar with sandals and a (green) duckie shirt

• At 5 minutes and 1 second in length, this was the longest Strong Bad Email when it was released, and it is the longest Compy 386-era email.
• The DVD commentary for this episode reveals several interesting facts—originally, it would have been animated in the normal style, and would have told a different story, until the Brothers Chaps decided to re-write it halfway through. Originally, story elements included Strong Bad wearing a star shirt, and Marzipan attempting to do something about Homestar's awful fashion sense (his duckie shirt, and also in this version, a pair of sandals). She gets him a star shirt, and Strong Bad rips his own shirt off in protest, which is why nowadays, Strong Bad almost never wears a shirt.
• The email was assigned the URL of "http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemailahundred.html", breaking the convention of the previous ninety-nine. This was done because of Sbemail 100 Fakeout.
• The label on the disk in the floppy disk container reads "Cave Quest".
• This is the first time a character has mentioned Free Country, USA.
• Strong Bad actually says the word "email" exactly 100 times.
• This is the debut of live action in the Homestar Runner universe.
• Old-Timey Strong Bad appearing with half a mustache was inspired by a waiter The Brothers Chaps once encountered who sported the same odd facial hair style, as revealed in the Flashforward Interview.
• The YouTube description for this email is "Strong Bad answers his 100th email in WIDESCREEEEEEEEEEEEN! Reveals the secret origins of Duck Shirt Homestar and The Cheat!"

Remarks

• It is debatable whether the story in the book really "happened", since Strong Bad could be making it up. Homestar verifies the tale, but this may just be typical, dense Homestar behavior.
• Though the style of the artwork and the voice acting for most of the characters resembled closely that of the classic Homestar cartoons, Strong Bad in the flashback, for some reason, sounds nothing like the real Strong Bad from Marshmallow's Last Stand-era cartoons. Old Strong Bad's manner of speaking was very loud and dramatic (almost overacted), and he had a strong Mexican accent. Tiny Handed Strong Bad in the flashback is just the opposite, speaking in a monotonic, mumbling fashion.
• When he reads the Tandy email, his accent is more like it is in the old cartoons (most notably, he pronounces "you" as "joo" a few times).
• Strong Bad walks ten steps before he even crosses the starting line.
• Strong Bad couldn't have lost count at Email #51, because in Email #91, the intro is "Coming in at number 91, it's, EMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIL!" Email 51 follows the last milestone email, in which Strong Bad celebrates checking his 50th email.
  • Also, he knew that it was the 100th email because he confronted users trying to find the email before it was finished in Sbemail 100 Fakeout.
• Though the Compy says Strong Bad had answered 100 emails, that's not entirely true. He answered two in 50 emails (as well as one answered by Homestar), two more in 2 emails (3 more if the email answered while the clip was in fast forward is counted), and he (sort of) answered more than one in huttah! (although he didn't answer any in mile, while Homestar answered one in anything). Depending on one's definition of "answering" an email, Strong Bad read extras in spring cleaning (although they were promptly deleted). In sisters, he accidentally deleted one email, then responded to and accidentally saved a second. If each toon is counted as an email, then he still answered in excess of 103 emails, since the three bonus emails on the DVD are presumably pre-100th. In addition, there is a "preview email" in the TV Time Toons Menu and never before seen emails in personal favorites, but these could just be false history. So really, at the time of the hundredth email, Strong Bad actually has answered more than 100 emails. The hundredth email was actually answered somewhere between Emails 81-94.
  • In addition, he answered about half the emails on the Tandy 400, so unless he transferred the memory somehow, the Compy should not have been able to know.
• Mary, in the Limozeen Easter egg, is wearing a Strong Bad baseball cap.
• The Old-Timey Strong Bad Easter egg contradicts That a Ghost, in which Old-Timey Strong Bad's mustache is depicted as having a skeletal structure. The Easter egg shows it as hair.
• At times, the legs on the left-hand side of Strong Bad's desk rest on an uncarpetted area; however, in this email they are resting on carpet.
• Homestar sits down on the floor, but he does not seem to have a bottom, as his legs bend up into his shirt.
  • This was also seen in extra plug and 79 Seconds Left.
• In the Easter egg, before she starts speaking, Marzipan's mouth looks like her third design's mouth. Once she begins talking, it becomes the current style mouth again.
• The characters who didn't appear in the original book take their designs from the museum sketchbook; they include Marzipan, Strong Mad, Strong Sad, and Bubs.
• Although Strong Bad calls the Prince of Town "young", he still has a white beard and grey mustache.
• Strong Bad should have said "fewer non-broken bones", not "less".

Goofs

• When Strong Bad says, "Keep up the pace, gotta break 4:40", there is no period at the end of the sentence.
• When Strong Mad breaks the egg, it cracks open, but nothing appears to be inside. In the next frame, "the lifetime supply of fishsticks" suddenly appears inside the egg.
• When Homestar says, "Read me another one. Another one!", the outline on his head moves.
• At the very end of the email, changing the contrast on the Compy does not affect the outline of the glass of water on the screen.
• "Svelt", as it is spelled in the book, is actually spelled as "svelte".
• The bows of Senor Cardgage's glasses are missing.
• When the Limozeen Easter egg is playing, it is still possible to press the other Easter eggs, making them play in the background.
• In the Limozeen Easter egg, Gary and Mary do not seem to be in sync with Larry during their congratulation and start reacting to Larry's line "We're from the band Limozeen!" before he even begins to say it.
  • This is due to the fact that all four members of Limozeen are being portrayed by Matt Chapman, and despite using computer effects to overlay the footage of each member, Gary and Mary's timing was not completely perfect when they were recorded.
• When Marzipan is saying congratulations, a small section of her hair is not filled in.
• In the Ruffle version, the cartoon is smaller than usual, to preserve its widescreen glory.

Glitches

"Oh, I'm pretty much here every week. It's just that usually my head is behind the shirt."

• When Strong Bad shifts the screen left, the carpet appears to slide to the right, moving without the stool and the table.
• When Homestar looks down in sadness (before Strong Bad shifts himself to the left to start the flashback), the lining for his head pops out of his shirt.

Inside References

• The word "WEiRD" appearing at the beginning of the email is another instance of lowercase i's.
• Strong Bad first uses "grrl" (seen here as "grrrl") in i she be. The word is also used in the Teen Girl Squad menu and The House That Gave Sucky Treats.
• Homestar's comment about being behind the black is a fourth wall break.
• Old-style Coach Z and Bubs are from "Where My Hat Is At?".
• This marks another instance of Homestar Runner being referred to as prancy.
• Present in the flashback are Mr. Bland and Señor, who hadn't been seen since Marshmallow's Last Stand.
• This is another mention of mashing.
• The TV in the Discount Flashback Warehouse egg is from the old Telebision Toons Menu.
• The two emails in the Discount Flashback Warehouse egg are different town and band names.
• Senor Cardgage's use of the word "combolations" is a reference to the ending credits in japanese cartoon.
• In the Senor Cardgage Easter egg, Strong Bad says, "Man, so cool!" He previously said this in relation to Cardgage in kind of cool.
• In her Easter egg, Marzipan refers to her answering machine feature on the site.
  • At the time this email was released, there were 10 answering machine versions.
• Coach Z goes to "shower up".
• Strong Bad pulls "The Homestar Runner Gets Something Stuck in His Craw" out of hammerspace.
• The melty candy bar Senor Cardgage holds up near the end is a Zagnut bar.

Real-World References

• "Put your weight on it!" is a famous line from the movie Disco Godfather.
• The guitar Gary is holding in the Limozeen egg is an Epiphone Evolution (previously seen in Puppet Time), a variation on the more popular Gibson Explorer shape. Perry is playing is a Fender Jazz Bass.

Fast Forward

• Prancibald appears as a trading card name in trading cards.
• The duckie shirt makes an appearance in several other cartoons, starting with your funeral.
• Widescreen would later be used in virus.
• The Homestar Runner Gets Something Stuck In His Craw is eventually read to Homestar.
• The Limozeen Easter egg is reused and dubbed over with different music for the 200th email, email thunder.

DVD Version

• All the Easter eggs can be viewed at the end of the video by selecting the hidden Strong Bad logos located in the following locations:
  • The top left corner icon launches Marzipan's greeting
  • The top right corner icon launches a commercial for Discount Flashback Warehouse
  • The middle left side icon launches Old Timey Strong Bad's greeting
  • The center screen icon on the graphic of the glass of water launches Limozeen's greeting
  • The middle right side icon launches Homestar's greeting
  • The bottom left corner icon launches Senor Cardgage's greeting
  • The bottom right corner icon launches a scene of the young King of Town
• The Limozeen video is now in fullscreen and much higher quality.
  • In addition, use the DVD player's angle Button while watching the Limozeen clip to change the clip's background image. There are three separate backgrounds in all.
• The email is presented letterboxed (black bars at the top and bottom) to maintain the widescreen ratio, so it may appear smaller in comparison to other cartoons on the DVD.
  • It also appears slightly vertically stretched, so it rather resembles a 1.7:1 (16:9) aspect ratio.
• The DVD version features hidden creators' commentary. To access it, switch the DVD player's audio language selection while watching.

Commentary Transcript

(Commentary by: Matt Chapman, Mike Chapman)

MATT: The guitar just fell on the floor.

MIKE: {laughs} Ooh, I like this, uh, part. The song—

MATT: {simultaneously} Yeah, we should make a full song of that. And I'll never forget the way it was, Mike. I thought—I wanted it to be, like, a sort of nostalgic punk rock song, you know, 'cause, what if we decided after doing a hundred, we weren't going to make anymore Strong Bad Emails? So I wanted it to kinda be like that.

MIKE: We decided to do more.

MATT: Yeah.

MIKE: At least twelve more as of this commen—as of the time of this commentary.

MATT: Yeah. So Abdi LaRue, uh, was our first, uh, the first email.

MIKE: Mmm, that's true.

MATT: Was he just a fan that we tal—that just emailed a lot early—in the early days?

MIKE: {simultaneously} Yeah. Yup.

MATT: Or—he or she, we don't really—do we know the gender of Abdi LaRue? I always assumed it was a guy.

MIKE: Yeah...?

MATT: Abdi, if you—

MIKE: {simultaneously} I don't know any other Abdis, so—

MATT: {laughs} It's true. So this—we—a lot of—lot of gimmicks sort of in this one, visually. Uh, the widescreen thing...

MIKE: The song at the beginning. Cave Quest there—

MATT: {interrupting} That—That—

MIKE: Home—

MATT: Of course...

MIKE: White character.

MATT: A game Mike and I made, Cave Quest.

MIKE: On the Apple II...

MATT: C+

MIKE: C++

MATT: Yeah. Low-res graphics text interface—

MIKE: {simultaneously} He threw a spear, at this dinosaur—

MATT: He threw a rock at one—

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: —to knock the spear out of the little dinosaur's mouth.

MIKE: Ohhh. And it showed the animation of the rock falling against the, uh—across the screen.

MATT: Yeah.

MIKE: So this is done in the style of the original children's book, uh, that Craig Zobel, and I—myself made in 1996. Um, so these were the original—That drawing of Coach Z was done, like a couple of years later.

MATT: Yeah. I like that little, like, that little lip, the little flair on the "Z" that used to exist—

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: Because like—'Cause he was originally going to have hair like that, didn't he?

MIKE: Yeah, he had like—

MATT: On like some early drawings you did—

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: —where it has a little "Z" hair sort of.

MATT: I like the way he walks, though. It looks good, Mike.

MIKE: Thanks, man.

MATT: So this whole email, we got very far into this email and then completely rewrote it.

MIKE: Yeah, if you watch the, um, Making of the 100th Email time-lapse which is on this DVD in the Bonus Features section—

MATT: Three disc set, Strong Bad Emails DVD!

MIKE: That's right. But anyway, if you watch, you can see me making graphics if you look closely of, like, Strong—of Homestar wearing sandals.

MATT: Yeah, he's got the duckshirt on, but it's like regular graphics. It's—

MIKE: {simultaneously} It's using the regular style, yeah. It's before we decided to do—and you can see, like, in the second day of that time-lapse, Matt's looking—like writing, and that's, like, pretty much rewriting the whole thing.

MATT: Yeah.

MIKE: Um, there was lots of stuff about his duckshirt, like, originally, Marzipan gives him his star shirt.

MATT: Right. Er, we're gonna g—we kinda—we kinda overdid the origin of things.

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: Like, we were gonna be, like, explaining—

MIKE: Because Strong Bad had a star shirt on, too, and he tore it off because he didn't want to wear one—

MATT: Yeah.

MIKE: —because Homestar had one too—

MATT: And he had never put a shirt on since then.

MIKE: {simultaneously} And that was why— that was why Strong Bad never wore a shirt.

MATT: {laughs} That's a good Marzipan mouth. {imitating Strong Bad} Augh!

MIKE: Do it, Strong Bad, do it!

MATT: Um...

MIKE: That old silhouette—The yellow silhouetted thing is a... a... staple of the Dennis the Menace comics. Usually, the—

MATT: {laughs} That's right!

MIKE: Usually the third frame is the yellow silhouette.

MATT: {laughs} It's true.

MIKE: I love that.

MATT: And so in the Easter egg, the fishsticks do sort of explain why the King of Town is—is fat—

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: —and got this lifestyle.

MIKE: Look at that old Bubs! Lookin' good!

MATT: That's of course, uh, on the left side is, uh, Mr. Bland—

MIKE: —doing cartwheels. Then on the right is Senor—Señor.

MATT: Señor Havin' A Little Trouble is his full name. That Strong Mad is great. And Strong Sad too, is—got little stubs for arms. I like how this is like—Homestar's so excited. {Mike laughs} He's sat down and is like crowded around the campfire. We should make that.

MIKE: Yeah. So, are we gonna do the commentary of him saying "email" a hundred times?

MATT: Yeah, we should talk over it anyway.

MIKE: Yeah, what should we talk about? Maybe um...

MATT: Anything else about this email? This hundredth email? It was kind of a—

MIKE: It took three days to make—

MATT: Yeah, it was defin—

MIKE: {simultaneously} Took a long time to make.

MATT: It's one of the longest ones. One of the biggest file size-wise.

MIKE: Yeah. Um—

MATT: What did w—Oh, we had just met for the first time Jonathan Howe, the guy that h—programs all our games for us. We had just met him in person for the first time. He came down to visit, and then he left on... Monday morning? Or Sunday?

MIKE: Yeah, I think Monday morning.

MATT: Oh, no no, he left Sunday morning—

MIKE: Oh yeah.

MATT: —and then we started working—

MIKE: This was Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and we put this up Tuesday night.

MATT: But we didn't decide to make the hundredth email; we had been kind of putting it off because we knew we had to make it a big deal. And so we didn't do it until, like, uh, we decided it that day, basically, right? On that Sunday, that we were like, "Ah, let's just do it," like we were going to maybe do some other update or do—or try and put it off, and we just decided to pull the trigger on it or we'd always be putting it off.

MIKE: There. We're done.

{pause}

MATT: Lemonade stand.

Fun Facts

• Judging by Mike's comment, this commentary was recorded between the releases of old comics and pizzazz, roughly two months before the release of the DVD.
• Dennis the Menace is a long-running comic strip featuring the adventures of a mischievous young boy.
• "Lemonade Stand" probably refers to the Apple II game, which featured a graphic similar to the glass of water.

See Also

• Original Book
• Main Page 20

External Links

• watch "flashback"
• watch "flashback" on YouTube
• watch "flashback" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "flashback"
• view the Flash file for the Limozeen Easter egg