little questions

Strong Bad Email #43

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"Hey, send me some of those Swedish fish. Ooh! And Swedish meatballs."

Strong Bad receives a very clear and concise email from Viklas, and responds in kind.

Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, Swedish Flag (Easter egg), Strong Badian Flag (Easter egg)

Places: Computer Room

Computer: Compy 386

Date: Monday, September 23, 2002

Running Time: 1:13

Page Title: COMPY 386

DVD: strongbad_email.exe Disc One

SBEmail Menu Description: Strong Bad answers questions from a Swedish fan.

Transcript

STRONG BAD: {singing} All the ladies want to know, who's checkin' that email? Was it Strong Bad?

{reading}

Dear, Strong Bad!
Here is some little questions:
1. Has you some time play football?
2. How did you seen out when you was a
baby?
3. How did you think you came's to
seen out when you are wery old?

Viklas
Sweden

{Strong Bad does not read the numerals in the email.}

STRONG BAD: Oh really? {holding back laughter} Never would have guessed you weren't from around here. Lessee here, what's the best way to answer this one...

{begins typing, with subtitles included. Synthesized European music starts playing.}

STRONG BAD: For Viklas. Hi? {Sup Viklas.}

1. Prehaps! I'm've was to make football often times. {I love football. It's the best.} Play? Know. {Oh, wait. Are you asking about soccer?} Best football results twice again. {I hate soccer. It's the worst.}

2. Every age I have seen out as a baby. {I was one hot baby.} I think I has the solution: {All the girl babies were like...} width times height. {"check out that hot baby."}

3. As a wery old, I can fathom the scene to be with me. {I didn't know what you were talking about here.} Looking always as I ever did. {Hey, send me some of those Swedish fish.} It was not came's. {Ooh! And Swedish meatballs!} He borrowed mine. {That would be awesome.}

{music stops}

STRONG BAD: Okay, Viklas, I hope that answers your questions. I think we're on the same page. Unfortunately, yours has a big F on it.

—Stark Dålig

{Viklas's email appears as an essay with red marks and a big F on it. The Paper comes down.}

Easter Eggs

• At the end, when the essay appears, click on the word "Sweden" for an animation in the style of a political cartoon, which shows a flag of Strong Badia shaking hands with a Swedish flag over two piles of fish and meatballs, with the caption "Strong Badia Welcomes Swedish Goods". The synthesizer music plays.
• Click on the Swedish flag in the first Easter egg to see the Swedish flag doing a dance, with the appropriate caption, "The Swedish Flag Does A Dance". Click again to return the the previous Easter egg.
  • This Easter egg also returns to the previous one automatically when the music loops back.

Fun Facts

Viklas's Corrected Essay

You can do better than this.

(45) F

Dear(,) Strong Bad!
Here (is) some little questions:
1. (Has) you some<->time play football?
2. How (did) you (seen out) ^what? when you (was) a
baby?

3. How did you think you came(')s^/huh? to
(seen out) when you (are) (we)ry old?

sp

Viklas
Sweden

Viklas,
You can do
better than
this. See me
after class.

Explanations

• "Stark Dålig" (pronounced something like "Stork Duhleeg") is a rough translation of "Strong Bad" into Swedish.
  • "Dålig" means "bad" as in "poor quality". A more accurate Swedish translation of Strong Bad's name would be "Stark Elak".
• Strong Bad is uncertain what sport Viklas is referring to as "football". This is because American football has very little international popularity, and the sport referred to as "soccer" in the United States (and, therefore, in Free Country, USA) is known as "football" in most European countries.
• "Width times height" is the formula for finding the area of a rectangle.
• The word "very" is spelled as "wery" because in Swedish, the letter W is pronounced like the English letter V.
• Some of the odd English phrases in the letter are really word-for-word translations of Swedish phrases.
  • "Seen out" is a literal translation of the Swedish expression "såg ut," which means "looked" (as in "appeared").
  • "Came's to seen out" is more or less word-for-word for "kommer att se ut", which is more appropriately rendered as "will look" in English.

Trivia

• The YouTube description for this email is "Strong Bad answers questions from Sweden."

Goofs

• The Swedish flag in the Easter egg has two right arms when shaking the hand of the Strong Badian flag.

Remarks

• The "back" button in the Easter egg has a Swedish/pan-European makeover (bäçk), which would be pronounced something like "besk." (The letter ç is not used in written Swedish.)
• At the end of the email, Viklas got five points off for every mistake on his paper, and therefore got a 45%.
• Viklas is not a common Swedish name.
• Contrary to what this email may suggest, Sweden actually has a very high degree of English proficiency compared to other non-Anglophone countries. It's possible that Viklas was still in the process of learning English when writing this email.

Inside References

• "I think I has the solution" is a reference to one of Homestar's lines from In Search of the Yello Dello.

Real-World References

• Swedish Fish are a popular variety of gummy candy which originated in Sweden and were developed specifically for the North American market.
• The music that plays in the Easter egg is nearly identical to the opening of the VeggieTales theme song.

Fast Forward

• The synthesizer music would later be added to Dancin' Bubs.
• Viklas would be seen as a card in a poker game in an Easter egg in pom pom.
• Strong Bad as a baby would eventually be shown in record book and high school, he got mistaken for "a wery old" in looking old, and he has played a bit of football (the American kind) with Senor Cardgage in Senorial Day.

DVD Version

• The two Easter eggs are now separate from each other, though still accessible. For the dancing Swedish flag, select the hidden Strong Bad head at the bottom left of the Compy 386's screen, while for Strong Badia accepting Swedish goods, select the hidden Strong Bad head at the bottom of the graded paper.

External Links

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