superhero name

Strong Bad Email #29

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"STINY! Get me a danish!"

Stiny asks why Strong Bad's name doesn't end in "man".

Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, Strong Badman, The Cheat

Places: Computer Room

Computer: Tandy 400

Date: Monday, May 27, 2002

Running Time: 1:08

Page Title: Tandy 400!!!

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

SBEmail Menu Description: Strong Bad introduces his superhero name 'Strong Badman'. Stiny! Get somebody a freakin danish!

Transcript

STRONG BAD: All these... emails... I don't understand.

Dear Strong bad:

Why is it that your superhero name does not end
in "man" just like Superman, Spiderman. etc, etc...

Your friend

Stiny

{Strong Bad reads the name as "Stiny?!"}

STRONG BAD: Umm... {typing} I don't think you're in a very good position to be criticizing people's names, STINY!! I mean, what kind of a name is Stiny anyways? It sounds like some supervillain's little sidekick, that he's always ordering around you know. {stops typing} Like, "STINY! GET ME A DANISH!!"

{An image with Strong Bad drawn as Strong Badman accompanies this.}

STRONG BAD: Or "STINY! WHO SPILLED COFFEE ALL OVER THE PLANS FOR MY DEATH RAY?!"

{Another image of Strong Badman accompanies this.}

STRONG BAD: Stiny... {clears screen, resumes typing} Naw, you know what? I'll change my name to Strong Badman if you agree to be my sidekick: Li'l Stiny. And you can wear a little mask and a little cape...

{The camera zooms back and we see The Cheat appear wearing a mask covering his eyes and a little cape.}

STRONG BAD: Hey The Cheat... Er, just doing an email.

THE CHEAT: {The Cheat sounds}

STRONG BAD: What? No! Of course you're still my sidekick!

THE CHEAT: {more The Cheat sounds, slightly annoyed}

STRONG BAD: Yeah, that cape looks great on you. Look, I was speaking hypothetically.

THE CHEAT: {irritated The Cheat sounds}

STRONG BAD: Oh come on, don't give me that!

THE CHEAT: {loud, angry, The Cheat sounds}

{The Cheat walks away angrily.}

STRONG BAD: Ah, The Cheat!

{A "Strong Badman" comic book appears on the screen with a picture of Strong Badman drawn on it (see above). On the bottom of the page, there's a blurb that reads "CLICK HERE TO EMAIL STRONG BAD!!"}

Fun Facts

Explanations

• A Danish pastry (or danish) is a sweet pastry which has become a specialty of Denmark and is popular throughout the industrialized world, although the form these pastries take is significantly different from country to country.

Trivia

Strong Badman's death ray plans

• For the first time, The Paper doesn't come down at the end of this email. Instead, the "CLICK HERE TO EMAIL STRONG BAD!!" is on the comic.
• This is the first appearance of the No Loafing Sign, although it looks different in this email.
• Strong Badman's death ray plans have "asdasdkuahs gfjdgd df956 4564-45" written in the corner, and a line pointing to it with the text "asrnue 4645 4".
  • The plans also say "Total Death Ray".
• In the list of superhero names, Spider-Man is misspelled as "Spiderman", which is a common mistake.
• The YouTube description for this email is "Strong Bad introduces his superhero name 'Strong Badman'. Stiny! Get somebody a freakin danish!"

Remarks

• Strong Bad's floppies don't have a name.
• Even though Strong Bad says that Strong Badman is a "supervillain", he gets his name on the comic. This is probably due to the fact that when Strong Bad Emails first started, Strong Bad was still considered the villain of the Homestar universe.
• Strong Bad leaves off a comma before "you know".
• In the Strong Badman frame that has him saying "STINY! Get me a Danish!!", his boots appear straight along with his tight pants (like Strong Bad wears his own boots); in the comic book cover though, the top parts of his boots appear folded down, like Captain America's boots.
• The comic's price is $1.25 USD/$8.00 CAD. Although the Canadian dollar is typically worth less than the US dollar, its historical low (coincidentally in 2002, the same year as this email) was 61.8 cents to the USD — a far cry from the 15.6 cents to one USD seen here.

Goofs

No contrast buttons

• When the camera zooms out to show The Cheat wearing the cape and mask, there are no contrast buttons on the Tandy 400, and the word "mask" is misspelled as "maks".

Real-World References

• Cheap as Free Comics has the same logo style as most early '90s Marvel comics, including a character in the top left corner, price and issue number, Comics Code Authority symbol, and a face (usually that of Spider-Man's) in the bottom left hand corner.
• "All these... emails... I don't understand," is a reference to the Elton John classic "Rocket Man" (another "-man" name), as performed by William Shatner at the 1978 Science Fiction Awards (as mentioned in the DVD commentary). One line of the song is, "All this science I don't understand..."

Fast Forward

• Strong Badman comics would be featured again in later emails.
• The Cheat's question about his costume is used later in the Easter egg in cheat talk.

DVD Version

• The contrast buttons goof is fixed.
• The DVD version features hidden creators' commentary. To access it, switch your DVD player's audio language selection while watching.

Commentary Transcript

(Commentary by: Mike Chapman, Matt Chapman)

MIKE: {mumbling} I don't understand...

MATT: That's a reference to Shatner performing "Rocket Man"—

MIKE: That's true.

MATT: —at the 1981 Science Fiction...

MIKE: Science Fiction Awards, yes.

MATT: Video Awards or whatever. Um, so this one, it was great. We, um... I remember, we finished this, we worked on it some at my Uncle John's house in Winamac, Indiana.

MIKE: Some at Grandpa's.

MATT: And we finished it up.

MIKE: Aunt Dean's old room.

MATT: In Aunt Dean's old room, and there was nothing there. We could wax the floor that day. So it's this room with this old, that old, like, 2 inch thick wallpaper. And, uh, with some pink print.

MIKE: Pink flowers, yeah.

MATT: Yeah. And, just, we brought a TV tray and finished it on this laptop that kept crashing Flash 5. It took us forever to finish it. And, uh, did we, I wonder if you have that picture somewhere, 'cause I remember you took a picture—

MIKE: Yeah, I think I do.

MATT: —'cause we were going to make it look like, the uh, say this is our office. Just this giant, empty old—old lady's room with me and Mike. The laptop. How about those white circles The Cheat has for eyes?

MIKE: Is that the first No Loafing sign?

MATT: Uh, maybe.

MIKE: I dunno.

MATT: I don't know if Processing—was Processing around yet?

MIKE: Uh, yeah.

MATT: 'Cause I think that's where it first appeared.

Fun Facts

• Matt's talk of processing is a reference to the Email Processing Room (where, incidentally, the No Loafing sign does not make an appearance, though there is a similar sign reading "GET BACK TO WORK!"). It also appeared after this email.
• William Shatner actually performed "Rocketman" at the 1978 Sci-Fi awards, not 1981.

External Links

• watch "superhero name"
• watch "superhero name" on YouTube
• watch "superhero name" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "superhero name"