crazy cartoon

This article is about the Strong Bad Email. For the Powered By The Cheat short, see Crazy Cartoon.

Strong Bad Email #72

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"...And when I get mad, it'd play the demo."

Monkeydude asks Strong Bad to make a crazy cartoon.

Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, Sherlock, The Worm, Eh! Steve!, The Wheelchair, Casio Head Strong Bad, The Cheat, Homestar Runner, Coach Z

Places: Computer Room, Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Land, The Cheat's Computer Room, The Field

Computer: Compy 386

Date: Monday, May 5, 2003

Running Time: 2:39

Page Title: Compy 386!

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

Transcript

STRONG BAD: I'm intrigued by these... how you say... emails.

{Reading}

Hi strong bad!
I wanted to know what your craziest
cartoon would be like. Please make a
CRAZY cartoon.

Your awesome friend monkeydude

STRONG BAD: {typing} Look, I'm not your friend, monkey dude. In fact, I'm not even gonna call you monkeydude {he types "******" instead of "monkeydude"} again. I'ma call you Josh. {pause} So, a kah-razy cartoon huh, Josh? Crazy cartoons usually have titles that have nothing to do with the cartoon itself. {stops typing} You know, like...

{Cut to a weird cartoon landscape, where a cartoon logo appears.}

STRONG BAD: {voiceover} Sweet Cuppin' Cakes!

{The logo disappears.}

STRONG BAD: {voiceover} The main character would look like a mix between a cow and a helicopter.

{Sherlock flies in accompanied by helicopter noise.}

STRONG BAD: {voiceover} And his talking would be just these weird sounds, and no words.

{Sherlock makes incoherent mumbling sounds.}

STRONG BAD: {voiceover} And all the episodes would be about him trying to get a little worm out of the ground.

{A hole in the ground opens up and a worm peeks out. Sherlock lands on top of it.}

STRONG BAD: {voiceover} Oh! Oh! And at least once an episode, Eh! Steve! would show up to deliver his catchphrase!

{Eh! Steve! drops down from the top of the screen}

EH! STEVE!: Eh! Steve!

STRONG BAD: {voiceover} And Bubs would definitely be the voice of the wheelchair.

{Eh! Steve runs off and a badly drawn wheelchair pulls up}

THE WHEELCHAIR: I'll get you Eh! Steve, if it's the last thing I dooooo!

STRONG BAD: {voiceover} I'd be in there too, but my head would be an old keyboard, and when I get mad, it'd play the demo.

{Strong Bad with a keyboard head starts dancing around while the demo plays. Sherlock starts dancing along, and Eh! Steve! runs past, pursued by the wheelchair. Cut back to the Compy.}

STRONG BAD: {typing} So that's a pretty crazy cartoon huh, Josh? But I'm not much of an animator. Though I bet The Cheat makes some crazy cartoons. Let's see what he's cookin' up tonight. Today. Just right.

{Cut to The Cheat on Tangerine Dreams working on an animation. Strong Bad comes up to him.}

STRONG BAD: 'Sup, my man? What're you workin' on today?

{The Cheat makes noises, then starts up the animation. It is of very poor quality, in typical The Cheat style. "POWEREd by THE CHEAT" flashes on the screen. Cut to Strong Bad and Homestar Runner out at the field.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Hey, Strong Bad! I need to be kicked in the face.

STRONG BAD: I can do it! I will do it nine times.

{Strong Bad jumps up in the air and kicks Homestar in the face nine times, accompanied by vocal sound effects and figures counting from 1 to 9, which then disappear}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: This is the last—

STRONG BAD: Shut it up, y—Shut it up, you.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Shut it up, me.

{The Cheat runs on screen}

STRONG BAD: Here, The Cheat, have a trophy!

{Strong Bad tosses him a trophy}

THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Here, The Cheat, have another trophy!

{A trophy falls out of Homestar's mouth and The Cheat catches it. Strong Bad kicks Homestar in the face.}

STRONG BAD: I was saving that one for about two seconds ago.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Perfect. Timing.

{A pink Coach Z drops down from the sky, trophy in hand}

COACH Z: Here, The Chort, have a trophy!

STRONG BAD AND HOMESTAR RUNNER: Three trophies for The Cheat!
COACH Z: {simultaneously} Three trophies for The Chort!

{Eh! Steve! shows up}

EH! STEVE!: Eh... Steve...

{The cartoon pans out to a badly drawn cartoon of Strong Bad and The Cheat watching the toon}

STRONG BAD: The Cheat, this is the greatest cartoon in the whole world! Have a trophy!

{Strong Bad gives The Cheat a trophy}

THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}

{Zoom out again to the actual Strong Bad and The Cheat.}

STRONG BAD: Hey, I didn't do that! Did I?

THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}

STRONG BAD: I mean, it was good. I liked the way you worked in Eh! Steve, but I don't think it deserved a trophy. I don't even think it deserved a pizza! Maybe a pizza trophy.

{The Paper comes down. "Click here to e-mail Strong Bad" is written in badly-formed letters.}

Easter Eggs

• At the end, click on Eh! Steve! on The Cheat's screen to see him again.

{Eh! Steve! drops in and stands in front of the scene.}

EH! STEVE!: Eh! Steve!

{Eh! Steve jumps upwards and leaves the scene.}

• Also at the end, click on The Cheat's CD-ROM drive to get some Sweet Cuppin' Cakes buddy icons.

Fun Facts

Trivia

• This is the first appearance of the main cast of Sweet Cuppin' Cakes.
• There's a badnik in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 who is also named Monkeydude.
• The YouTube description for this email is "Strong Bad makes a crazy cartoon for Monkeydude. Sweet Cuppin' Cakes and Eh! Steve! are born! And then The Cheat makes one of his terrible cartoons even! This sbemail has it ALL!"

Goofs

• The shading on Sherlock's back legs disappears when his mouth stops moving.
• When Strong Bad first appears in Sweet Cuppin' Cakes, before he starts dancing, his legs are in front of his body.
• The sky in The Cheat's cartoon protrudes outside the computer's screen after Coach Z gives The Cheat a trophy.

Inside References

• Strong Bad saying that The Cheat's cartoon "didn't even deserve a pizza" is a reference to Everybody to the Limit, where Strong Bad (impressed with The Cheat's cartoon) said he'd buy him a pizza.
• A number of items emerge from hammerspace.

Real-World References

• The demo that is played by Casio Head Strong Bad is the actual demo from a Casio VL-Tone keyboard. The tune is known as Yama no Ongakuka (which means "The Mountain Musicians" in Japanese), but is often incorrectly claimed to play "Unterlanders Heimweh" (which means "Homesickness of the Lowlander" in German), and for many years, was the only song used in Casio keyboard one-button-select demos.
  • This song might later be the inspiration for The Cheatcakes song in the Easter egg for stupid stuff.
• The Flash interface is shown on The Cheat's computer when he is working on his cartoon.
• The idea of Sherlock spending all of his time trying to catch a worm might be a throwback to the comic strip "U.S. Acres", which was also featured as a segment of the TV series Garfield and Friends. In it, one of the running gags involved Booker the chick trying to catch a worm that always seemed to be smarter than he was.
• The surreal nature of Sweet Cuppin' Cakes may be a reference to the 1938 Warner Brothers short Porky in Wackyland, which is also the inspiration for the character Gogo Dodo from Tiny Toon Adventures.

Fast Forward

• The clouds in the Powered by The Cheat cartoon are reused in mile.
• The Powered by The Cheat section of this email would later be released as its own toon in the "Powered by The Cheat" category of the TV Time Toons Menu.
• The phrase "I can do it, I will do it nine times" is said again in the email virus by The Ugly One, albeit slightly misquoted. Also in the email fan club, Strong Sad appears as "Twelve-Times-a-Day Man" with the slogan, "I can do it! I can do it twelve times!"
• The pizza trophy mentioned at the end appears in the music video Trudgemank.

DVD Version

• The buddy icons Easter egg is disabled for obvious reasons.
• 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: Hi, I'm Mike.

MATT: Hi, my name's Matt C.

MIKE: We're gonna make the commentary on this Strong Bad Email... {pause} Is, uh... I don't know what I'm talking about.

MATT: Monkeydude, uh, you're thinking of Monkey D.

MIKE: Yeah, okay, Monkey D came from, was those post—

MATT: {overlapping} It was first—

MIKE: cards, yeah.

MATT: Yeah, it was from the postcards and those just, we just made it up.

MIKE: Right.

MATT: And then, this guy's name is Monkeydude, which could also be construed as Monkey D. See?

MIKE: 'S true.

MATT: So, what else? There was—we had some other names, I remember, there was Sweet Cuppin' Cakes, and there was like some kinda Grandma—

MIKE: {overlapping} I think it was Grandma, Grandma's Soup or something.

MATT: Yeah.

MIKE: That guy's name is Sherlock.

MATT: {chuckling} Yeah.

MIKE: Cow-copter, his real name is Sherlock, but it's never been revealed other than the files on our computer saved as "Sherlock".

MATT: Yeah. And, of course, Eh! Steve came from a doodle on a, during—we were having a meeting, and I doodled him on a paper—

MIKE: And the wheelchair, Matt just, like, as a joke, just drew this wheelchair real fast and was like, {false excited} "Mike, I got the wheelchair done." And I was like, {false serious} I was all like, "We should keep it just like that."

MATT: Yeah. And of course, that's the Casio VL tone, which, um, we have right here.

MIKE: Where is it? It's right there, we're holding it in our hands, but you probably can't—

MATT: {overlapping} Listen, Mitch, could you—There's no batteries in it, so but this is—

{sound of fingers across the plastic keys}

MIKE: This is what it sounds like when you hit it against Matt's head.

{four light taps}

MATT: You hear that? That's the—That's it, I swear. Um...

MIKE: And here's my chance to, uh, shine here in a second.

MATT: Yeah, Mike does—

MIKE: {overlapping} As—As I voice The Cheat's bad cartoons.

MATT: Yeah.

MIKE: Here I go. {over PbTC Homestar} That's me. {mumbled, then synched with cartoon as PbTC Strong Bad} I can do it! I will do it nine times. {mimics sound of PbTC Strong Bad kicking PbTC Homestar in the face three times}

MATT: Now Mike, what if I sat here and just did my voice during my voice—

MIKE: {overlapping} Hey, this is my one thing! I just wanna double—I gonna, ghe, double my own voices. {synched with cartoon as PbTC Strong Bad} Here The Cheat, have a trophy. {synched with cartoon as PbTC Homestar} Here The Cheat, have another trophy.

MATT: {laughs} Are you really just gonna do that throughout?

MIKE: Well... I like the pink Coach Z, though.

MATT: Yeah, the pink Coach Z is great, those clouds are, um, are awesome...

{pause}

{both snicker at PbTC Eh! Steve}

MIKE: But the best part is, uh, coming up here. {short pause} Wait...

MATT: What are you talking about?

MIKE: Oh, no, it's the mile one, with the parade...?

MATT: Yeah.

MIKE: I was thinkin—

MATT: {overlapping} We'll do that one later.

MIKE: Okay. Can I still talk about the parade?

MATT: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MIKE: I like the Poopsmith cleaning up there at the end of the parade.

MATT: {hurried stuttering} wel—no—I—bu—

External Links

• watch "crazy cartoon"
• watch "crazy cartoon" on YouTube
• watch "crazy cartoon" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "crazy cartoon"
• view the Sweet Cuppin' Cakes buddy icons