no loafing

Strong Bad Email #86

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"Get back to work!"

This article is about the Strong Bad Email. For the sign, see No Loafing Sign.

Ryan asks Strong Bad about the "No Loafing" sign in Strong Bad's house, and where it went. He puts up inspirational posters to get everybody working.

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

Places: Computer Room, Strong Sad's Room (Easter egg)

Computer: Compy 386

Date: Monday, October 6, 2003

Running Time: 1:54

Page Title: Compy 386!!

DVD: strongbad_email.exe Disc Three

Transcript

STRONG BAD: {singing} Driving down the strip in my cool cool car, checkin' all the emails out!

{reading}

Hey Strong Bad!

Whatever happened to that "No Loafing"
sign you used to have?

Ryan, CO

{Strong Bad reads "CO" as "Co... colo-colorado."}

STRONG BAD: Hey, great question, stupid! Here's an answer. {typing} The year was 1987, not a very good year for productivity. And as a result, productivity was down something-eight percent.

{A pie-chart, circa 1987, falls down displaying the productivity rating}

STRONG BAD: I realized things were gonna spiral out of control unless I gave them a little jumpstart. A sign that said—

{A picture of Strong Bad standing by the sign appears}

STRONG BAD: —"No Loafing" was the answer. {clears screen, continues typing} But that was a long time ago. I suppose ol' Loafy might be losing his edge. Maybe I should put up some of those inspirational posters and stuff to get things back in gear. You know, the kinds that have {stops typing} like {resumes typing} whales or sunsets or windsurfers on em. And they say stuff about determination and giving a care.

{Cut to the garage. Strong Bad walks in on Strong Mad and the Cheat sleeping under the "No Loafing" sign next to a beat-up muffler and a length of pipe. He has a bunch of posters under one arm.}

STRONG BAD: You guys are pathetic.

STRONG MAD: Dah?

STRONG BAD: Have you forgotten what got us here?

THE CHEAT: {questioning The Cheat noise}

STRONG BAD: No Loafing got us here!

THE CHEAT: {indifferent The Cheat noise}

STRONG BAD: Take a look at these bad boys and get back to work!

STRONG MAD: Dah!

{Strong Bad begins posting the posters. The first one is a picture of a whale's tail sticking out of the clouds and it is captioned "Remember the 'tivities: Creativity; Productivity; Activity; Get Back To Work."}

STRONG BAD: This one's got like some kinda whale...in space...

{He puts one up that has a picture of a windsurfer and the caption "Failure is not a four-letter word."}

STRONG BAD: And this one talks about cussing...

STRONG BAD: And this one's incredibly inspirational...

{He puts one up with a picture of a guy jumping out of the water and it's captioned "I HAVE FRIENDS! Keep working, little man"}

STRONG BAD: ...with the bursting waters...

{He puts up a framed picture of a dog captioned "The Cheat, watch your freakin' back, Squeaky."}

STRONG BAD: Here's one a-those hush puppies. They'll make you work for it.

{He places a wood-burning with a horse on it on the wall. It is captioned "The loneliest goat sees the last sunset last..."}

STRONG BAD: And this wood-burny thing's got some kinda old adage on it. About goats.

{Strong Mad instantly leaps up with a yell. The Cheat tosses him the pipe, which he uses to smash the muffler.}

STRONG BAD: Excellent! That-a way, boys! Chins up! Tifle down! And so on...

{Strong Bad walks back to his computer}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Well, whoever, I see I've gotten things back on track. Sounds like I deserve a three-hour lunch. I'ma head over to Bubs' for one of his 30-cent lunch specials.

{Strong Bad puts a sticky note on the screen reading "out to lunch, then appointment, then something else" and leaves. The Paper comes down.}

Easter Eggs

Out to lunch

• At the very end, click on "lunch specials" to see Bubs' lunch specials:
  • 2 buffalo wing bones (hot)
  • A cup of ice
  • A half-eaten candy bar
• At the end, click on the word "appointment" on the Post-It to see exactly what that appointment was.

{Cut to Strong Sad's room. Strong Sad is in bed.}

STRONG BAD: {jumping up and down on Strong Sad} I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.

STRONG SAD: {simultaneously} Ooh! Ooh! Ow! Ooh! Oh!

Fun Facts

Trivia

Ol' Loafy in the late-'80s.

• When the picture of Strong Bad pointing to the No Loafing sign in 1987 flashes up, the screen of the Tandy 400 reads:

Dear Strong Bad,
I like your wallpaper.

-Mendelev

The wallpaper shown is done in the style of a typical '80s home, complete with pears and two other angiosperm flowers.

• In an earlier version of this email, this spot contained the same screen seen in little animal right up until Strong Bad calls the Cheat over.
• The chart reads: Productivity 5%, Loafing 95%. Hence the sign.
• The YouTube description for this email is "Strong Bad increases productivity something-eight percent with the help of some motivational wall hangings."

Remarks

• Strong Bad's arms are too short to reach the tops of the posters as he puts them up.
• Instead of being in its original place above the computer desk, the no loafing sign is in the top left-hand corner.

Goofs

"Oh, check me out, it's my featureless head!"

• This email's loading screen is queued only to load itself, rather than the email as a whole. As a result, it never shows; Depending on the speed of the email loading, the viewer may instead get an image of Strong Bad's head without facial features in front of the Compy's disembodied screen as the other elements are being loaded.
• When the picture of Strong Bad in front of the Tandy comes up, the green lines on the Tandy are moving, even though it's supposed to be a photo.
• When Strong Mad takes hold of the pipe and his hand is up, he has five fingers. When his hand is down, he only has four.
• When Strong Bad puts up the poster with the bursting water, it is not covering the "NO LOAFING" sign; when the view zooms out, the poster seems to be covering the "NO LOAFING" sign.
• When Strong Bad turns around to leave the scene while Strong Mad is smashing the muffler, his legs disappear for a frame.

Inside References

• Strong Bad mentions the year 1987 for the second email in a row.
• Bubs's 30-cent lunch special ad features live-action food.

Real-World References

The Promise Ring

• The poster on Strong Sad's wall in the "appointment" Easter egg is of the emo band The Promise Ring.

Fast Forward

• Mendelev, the wallpaper-admirer, turns out to become a character in Peasant's Quest, much like Jhonka and Kerrek.
• The poster of the whale's tail that says "Remember the 'Tivities:" is used later in the Biz Cas Fri toons on Strong Bad's wall.
• Strong Bad would later try to get Bubs to give him a free lunch special in the Strong Bad Email of the same name.
• The No Loafing sign would get redesigned in redesign.
• Strong Mad and The Cheat smash a muffler with a pipe again in origins and Strong Bad is a Bad Guy.
• The "goats" sign and the "hush puppy" picture reappear in the Living Room of the Brothers Strong in Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People.
• The flowery wallpaper will return in imaginary.

DVD Version

• To see Bubs's lunch special Easter egg, select the hidden Strong Bad logo at the bottom left of the screen at the end of the video.
• To see Strong Bad's other appointment Easter egg, select the hidden Strong Bad logo at the bottom right of the screen at the end of the video. This Easter egg has been extended from the original version, making it more practical for DVD players that take a while to load the clip.
• 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)

MIKE: So, "No Loafing", the "no loafing" sign...

MATT: Yeah, we're trying to figure out when it first... where it came from, when we first used it.

MIKE: Yeah. Well, where it comes from is an old Batman episode. The uh... Joker, in the Joker's lair... in the background on the wall, there's just a sign {starts laughing} that says "no loafing".

MATT: {overlapping} Is that in... "Joker Goes to School"?

MIKE: Yeah. Yeah. It's, uh, behind the candy store; their secret hideout's behind the candy store, and, uh—

MATT: The Easy Living Candy Store.

MIKE: That's right. Um... so anyway, the no loafing sign is, uh...

MATT: ...another reference to {trails off, unintelligible}

MIKE: {interjecting} Ooh, that right there, that chart, I used to have this job where I made graphics just like that all the time, {faux-prideful} so that's why it was so well-shade—{quickly changing focus}Ooh! Oh, and I want to make that wallpaper.

MATT: And, tha— that, um, you'll notice, in that still photograph, the lines are moving on the—{chuckles} on the computer.

MIKE: What lines?

MATT: {overlapping} Still— The lines on the old computer...! The green lines! They're moving in the still photograph!

MIKE: {simultaneously} Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! I missed th— Oh!

MATT: Yeah. It's one of those "Harry Potter" photographs.

{Mike laughs}

MATT: A Muggle photograph. Er, non...non-Muggle.

MIKE: So this was fun to make. I liked— it was fun to make, uh, these posters and stuff.

MATT: Uh, them, that's a reference to the thesis movie I made in college {Mike laughs} where these no-goodniks are beating on a muffler with a— a lead pipe. {about the "Remember the 'Tivities" poster} So Mike made that one.

MIKE: That was fun to do. Whale's tails...

MATT: {about the "Failure" poster} That one's great.

MIKE: {as the "I have Friends" poster is unrolled} And look...

MIKE AND MATT: There's our friend Matt!

MATT: There's our friend Matt!

MIKE: {simultaneously} At the beach!

MATT: He's, uh, later, he has a vu— a voice, uh...

MIKE: Yes...

MATT: a voice... {searching for word}

MIKE: Appearance, yes.

MATT: {overlapping} that he does... Appearance, yeah. And, what email is that in?

MIKE: {overlapping} It's, uh, I don't know...

MATT: {Imitating the other Matt} "Mom!!" He says that.

MIKE: {muttering} Chins up, Str...

MATT: Look at him, he's really... givin' it the works there. {singing} Bup-ba-doo... That's another song that gets into our heads all the time.

MIKE: {overlapping} Yeah.

MIKE AND MATT: {singing} Bup-ba-doo, Bup-ba-dooo... pedda-puddah— {both start laughing}

MATT: I like Bubs's, uh... Oh, do we get—

MIKE: Hurry!—{cut off}

Fun Facts

• The Batman episode "The Joker Goes to School" has been referred to many times by the Brothers Chaps.
  • "Easy Living Candy Store" is one of the incorrect answers possible in the Homestar Quiz.
• In the Harry Potter series, which primarily takes place at a school of witchcraft and wizardry, magical photographs are seen to move or even react to their surroundings. Matt references the term "Muggle", which is used in the series to refer to people without magical abilities.
• Their friend Matt's voice appearance is on the TV show heard in sibbie. Despite claiming that the appearance is "later", "sibbie" actually comes ten emails before "no loafing", placing it on the prior DVD.
  • The Matt in question is most likely Matt Gribbon, who would later portray Mendelev and Dongolev in the Peasant's Quest Movie Trailer.

External Links

• watch "no loafing"
• watch "no loafing" on YouTube
• watch "no loafing" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "no loafing"