hiding

Strong Bad Email #196

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"Why, I've got half a mind."

This article is about the Strong Bad Email. For the game, see Halloween Hide & Seek.

Strong Bad expounds on his Hide n' Seek experiences.

Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, The Cheat, Homestar Runner, Strong Sad (voice only), Strong Mad, Marzipan, Coach Z, Animatronic Strong Bad, Pom Pom, Grape-Nuts Robot (Easter egg)

Places: Computer Room, The Field, Bathroom of the Brothers Strong, Homestar Runner's House, The Bar

Computer: Lappy 486

Date: Monday, July 14, 2008

Running Time: 3:48

Page Title: Lappy 486

DVD: strongbad_email.exe Disc Six

Transcript

STRONG BAD: {singing} Junk it, and check it, send me an email and I'll wreck it!

subject: hide n seek

Dear Dude,
What is your awesome hiding place whenever you play
hide n' seek. I'm sure you can just stand somewhere and
noone can find you right.
Awesomely Yours,
Dude 1
Scarlet, MO

{Strong Bad reads the second sentence after "I'm sure you" with a monotonous rhythm. He also reads "noone" phonetically as "new-nee". After "right", he comments, "Hey man, Noone can find me wrong if she's good-looking enough." He then reads "Scarlet, MO" as "Scar, Let Moe".}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Well, as anyone that has a little brother or a Homestar Runner knows, hide n' seek can be oh so much more useful than just playing it.

{Cut to The Field, where Strong Bad is talking to The Cheat.}

STRONG BAD: ...prestigious monk, but I—

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {walking in from the right, interrupting} Hey, Strong Bad; hey, The Squeak. {both turn, and The Cheat scowls} I'm here to make all your dreams come true!

STRONG BAD: {annoyed} The Cheat and I are in the middle of a sentence here!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: What about fifteen cents? I'm here to make fifteen cents come true!

{Homestar Runner throws three coins on the ground next to Strong Bad.}

STRONG BAD: Hey Homestar, I've got an idea. Wanna play hide n' seek?

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Ooh, that's way better! I'll hide, and you seek! {runs off to the right}

STRONG BAD: Ugh. {turns back to The Cheat} Anyways, back to our sentence.

{Cut back to the Lappy.}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Pretty effective, huh? Of course there are some unpleasant side effects from playing these pleasant games of Hide n' Seek. Er, more like just Hide n'.

{Cut to the bathroom, which is quite dark. Strong Bad walks in from the right, appearing tired.}

STRONG BAD: Sleepy... sleepy pee—

{The lights come on, and Homestar Runner puts his head up from inside the bathtub; he has cinnamon on his face, and his shirt is torn, with the star hanging off.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {shouting} Ah, you found me!

STRONG BAD: {jumping in surprise and shouting} Aah! Homestar, what are you doing in here?!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Remember last spring when you asked if I wanted to play hide n' seek?

STRONG BAD: {confusedly scratching his head} But I've taken at least three baths since then...

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {appearing tired} Oh, I've been in here.

STRONG BAD: {jumping again} Aah!

{The scene fades out, with Strong Bad still in the air and Homestar Runner sinking into the bathtub.}

STRONG BAD: {voiceover} It works the other way, too.

{Cut to outside Homestar Runner's house, where Strong Bad and The Cheat are holding a rope next to a cage, beneath which are Fluffy Puff marshmallows and a glass of melonade.}

STRONG BAD: {strained, as the cage creaks} I don't understand! Where is he? He usually falls for this one by now.

THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}

STRONG BAD: Oh, man! Stupid clever hide n' seek ploy. This thing's gettin' heavy! Switch to the Strong Sad bait.

THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises, as he throws a barrister's wig on top of the other items}

STRONG SAD: {offscreen} Oh, parliament!

{Cut back to the Lappy.}

STRONG BAD: {typing} There was a time when I used to try to play actual games of Hide n' Seek. But it ain't easy with all the brain geniuses around here.

{Cut to The Field, where Strong Mad appears to be attempting to hide by turning his back to The Stick. Strong Bad stands in front.}

STRONG BAD: Uh... Strong Mad? Buddy? That's the same spot you hide in every time we play.

{Strong Mad leans out from behind "himself".}

STRONG MAD: {disappointed} DAWWW!

STRONG BAD: Whoa! Did you make a hiding spot out of you hiding in your usual hiding spot? To hide behind?

STRONG MAD: I STAYED UP ALL NIGHT!

STRONG BAD: And it was well worth your time.

{Cut to The Field at night, with a close-up of Strong Bad walking along, hands raised.}

STRONG BAD: {frustrated} All right, I give up! {calls out} Olly olly oxen free!

{Cut to a wider shot, showing Marzipan with a sign with a picture of an ox, reading "OXEN FREE!"}

MARZIPAN: {angrily} Yeah, Ollie, set those oxen free. {chanting} Oxen free! Oxen free!

STRONG BAD: {overlapping} Oh, put your sign away, we're just playing a game.

{Marzipan turns her sign around to show the other side, with the ox playing baseball and reading "PLAYING A GAME!". Strong Bad shakes his head.}

MARZIPAN: {chanting, still angrily} Playing a game! Playing a game!

{Cut to the computer room. Strong Bad is balancing motionless on one leg on a podium reading "STRONG BAD", with Coach Z standing to the left.}

COACH Z: Oh, check out this extremely attractive statue of Strong Bad!

STRONG BAD: {turning to Coach Z} No, stupid, you found me. I'm "it" now.

COACH Z: Oh, a back-sassin' animatronic Strong Bad!

STRONG BAD: Whoa, great idea! Coach Z, I think your depressing creepiness may have finally paid off! {runs off to the right}

COACH Z: {raising his arms triumphantly} It's all been worth it!

{Cut to The Field, with a close-up of Homestar Runner walking in from the left.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oh, there you are. I found you definitely found you Strong Bad.

{Cut to a wider shot, showing that he is talking to a crude animatronic Strong Bad, with a balloon head and rods moving the limbs. It stands on a soapbox with a speaker. The soapbox has the words "SIXTEEN FOR YOU" printed on it}

ANIMATRONIC STRONG BAD: Shut your mouth, wimp-cake!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Hey, don't sass back at me! {angrily} I found you fair, then square.

ANIMATRONIC STRONG BAD: Sit on a biscuit!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {still talking to the animatronic, as the real Strong Bad walks past in the background} Look, Strong Bad, I haven't been playing this game of hide n' seek for six weeks just to have you poor-sportsmanship all over the place now! Why, I've got half a mind.

{Beat, then cut back to the Lappy.}

STRONG BAD: {typing} I rest my case. Rest nothing. My case is in a coma! As for my awesome hiding place, these days I mainly use it to hide from Hide n' Seek. And Kick the Can, Capture the Flag, and don't forget the nebulous TV Tag. Yeah sorry. I'm taking this hiding place to the grave.

{Cut to The Bar, zooming out from a suit of armor. Pom Pom appears in the foreground, with an 'old one and a bowl of peanuts. While he looks away at the suit of armor, Strong Bad's arm pops out of Pom Pom and steals the 'old one; Pom Pom turns his head and shrugs.}

{Pom Pom looks up at New Paper as it comes down.}

Easter Eggs

A real stretch by Bev Sportsinterviews

• Click on Scarlet, MO at the beginning of the email to see the Beverly Sportsinterviews book titled Scar, Let Moe!
• At the end, click on the napkin to activate a conversation between Animatronic Strong Bad and Grape-Nuts Robot.

ANIMATRONIC STRONG BAD: Dad loves me more!

GRAPE-NUTS ROBOT: You're adopted.

Fun Facts

Explanations

• An animatronic is a puppet-like figure with robotics and/or electronics used to create the illusion that the figure is alive.
• Kick the can, Capture the flag and TV Tag are actual games.
• "Olly olly oxen free" is a phrase used in children's games, which is generally used to indicate that people who are hiding (in a game of hide and seek, for example) can safely come out into the open.

Trivia

• The summary for the Podstar Runner RSS feed reads, "Strong Bad discusses the fun and usefulness of playing Hide n' Seek."
• As of this email, Strong Bad has checked as many emails on the Lappy as he did on the Compy 386.

Remarks

• Although the three coins Homestar throws are supposedly all nickels, they are not all the same size.
• The bathtub where Homestar hides has no visible faucet.
• The toilet in the Bathroom of the Brothers Strong is smaller than it was in unnatural.

Goofs

• In the Easter egg, Animatronic Strong Bad's head snaps suddenly back into place, even though it is a balloon.
  • Also in the very start of the Easter egg, the Grape-Nuts Robot briefly has audio bolts coming out of its speaker, even though it's not saying anything.
• When Strong Mad comes out of his hiding spot, part of the outline of his left shoulder is misaligned.

Fixed Goofs

We must protect the queen! I have three legs!

• Several times during the toon, all of Strong Bad's arm except one outline used to disappear.
  • This happened while he was talking to The Cheat in the Field, once while he was talking to Homestar in the bathtub, and twice while talking to Strong Mad at The Stick. In the first two instances, Strong Bad's right arm disappeared. His left arm disappeared in the last two.
• During the bathroom scene, Strong Bad's entire right arm was gone when he walked in and only appeared after the lights came on.
• When Homestar walked in and interrupted Strong Bad and The Cheat's "sentence", he appeared to have an extra leg sticking out of his shirt for two frames, in two different poses.
• New Paper used to come down outside of the toon's frame, overlapping the outer black border.

Inside References

• Homestar walking in on Strong Bad and The Cheat "in the middle of a sentence" is another instance of interrupted conversations.
• Strong Bad mentions Kick the Can as a game.
• When Homestar rises from the bathtub, he appears similar to how he did in hygiene, except he also has a cinnamon beard.
• The soapbox reads "sixteen for you".
• In the Easter egg, Animatronic Strong Bad makes a reference to his dad.
• The Cheat was previously referred to as "Squeak" in narrator, as one of the title characters in the film Lugnut & Squeak.
• Scar is wearing an eyepatch.
• This is another appearance of loose coins.
• Animatronic Strong Bad tells Homestar to "sit on a biscuit".

Real-World References

• The hairstyle of Moe on the cover of Scar, Let Moe! is patterned after the hairstyle of Moe from The Three Stooges.
• Strong Sad shouts "Parliament" upon seeing the barrister's wig, which was commonly worn by members of the House of Lords in the British Parliament.

Fast Forward

• The main characters would once again play Hide and Seek with humorous results in Halloween Hide & Seek.

DVD Version

• 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: Matt?

MATT: What is it, Mike?

MIKE: I have no idea what this email's about.

MATT: It's about hide and seek, Mike!

MIKE: All right, I know that, but I—

MATT: Scar, Let Moe! It has one of the best Easter eggs, {Mike laughs} maybe ever, on our webpage.

MIKE: Is that the "a real stretch" by— by Beverly Sportsinterviews?

MATT: Yeah! Uhh, we played a lot of— we had a great cul-de-sac we grew up in, where, like, there were like, three or four families with kids, and we'd, like, g—just do, like, we were in some, you know, '70s slasher movie and we'd all go out and—

MIKE: Ghost in the graveyard?

MATT: Yeah. Drop off.

MIKE: {simultaneously} S— sardines, drop off, yeah...

MATT: Kick the can.

MIKE: Throwing rocks at bats.

MATT: Yeah. Throwing chunks of tinfoil up in the air to confuse the bats. {Mike laughs}

MIKE: Cooking eggs on the hot sewer cap. Remember that?

MATT: No.

MIKE: The manhole cover?

MATT: Yeah!

MIKE: We tried to cook an egg on it...

MATT: {simultaneously} Did you do that? Did it ever... did it work?

MIKE: {simultaneously} Uh... it was— I think it was mainly Karen and Jenny, trying to do it, but I was there.

MATT: Did it work?

MIKE: I don't think so.

MATT: Ah? Were they gonna eat it?

MIKE: I think so, yeah, they tried to fry an egg.

MATT: {skeptically} But were— they were gonna eat it off of the manhole cover?

MIKE: Well, no, they had a tin, they had a— a pie tin on top of the manhole cover and heated that up.

MATT: {overlapping} Oh, well, that's the problem probably.

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: You know, sleepy pees, those are the worst.

MIKE: {chuckles}

MATT: Look, it's John, from the "hygiene"... {Mike laughs} ar— area.

MIKE: He's even in worse shape. I don't think he used to have the rip in his shirt, did he?

MATT: Yeah.

{pause} {both laugh}

MATT: Whoa, they're both frozen in stape. Did I make a lot of this? I think I made a lot of this stuff.

MIKE: Yeah, you...

MATT: Maybe you were out of town.

MIKE: Probably.

MATT: That's why we don't remember it.

{pause until The Cheat throws the wig under the cage}

MIKE: {yawning} I do remember...

{both laugh at Strong Sad's line}

MATT: Ohh! Strong Sad can't resist a powdered wig!

MIKE: {simultaneously} {unintelligible} knows all about that.

MATT: My great— what did they say? On those, when you watch on C-SPAN, and like, when they talk at p— in parliament. And, uh, they're arguing, and they s'all— say, like, my great— my very great good friend.

MIKE: {laughs} Some title...

MATT: They're like— they have... funny titles, for... my honourable great good friend, {imitating an English accent} Constable Kindelbottom!

MIKE: {laughs}

{pause}

MATT: That was a really good prop he made. It fooled me.

MIKE: {overlapping} It was a good hiding place, it was just a little bit...

{pause}

MATT: Olly olly oxen free.

MIKE: Or olly olly— Didn't we try to look up what the origin of "Olly olly oxen free"—

MATT: Yes.

MIKE: Versus "Ollie Ollie in come free", versus...

MATT: Yeah.

MIKE: ...some variation of it. {pause} Look at that pose of Coach Z.

MATT: Yeah.

MIKE: He's got kinda a little bit of a bent neck.

MATT: I think I made that. I made that specificially for this scene, Mike.

MIKE: The shadow on his— that's supposed to be underneath his "Z" does not contour to underneath his "Z".

MATT: Oh, sure it does.

{pause}

MATT: Umm... {pause} So how come Strong Bad is able to make this, like— that's a pretty good animatronic, I— Strong Bad! Like, I couldn't make that.

MIKE: Nnno?

MATT: With the speaker on it.

MIKE: Mm-hmm.

MATT: But, like, there's plenty of other times when Strong Bad just needs to do some very simple thing in order to... make one of his schemes happen, and he can't... he can't accomplish that.

MIKE: {yawning} But we had... Ooh, sleepy. {laughs}

MATT: Good job, Mike. Interesting commentary.

MIKE: {simultaneously} Yeah, yawn in the middle of the commentary. Bubs helped him.

MATT: Okay.

MIKE: Obviously.

MATT: Yeah? Like the Grate-Nuts Robot?

MIKE: {laughing} The Grate-Nuts Robot.

MATT: Uh-huh.

MIKE: D'you say it that way since we're on commentary and we can't use—

MATT: Yeah, we can't use spec—

MIKE: Trademarked w—uh, terms?

MATT: Tyerms? Uh... Marvin O'Gravel Balloon-face? Nice suit of armour you've got there, Pom Pom.

MIKE: Oh, he's hidden in there. He's hidden— {gasps}

MATT: {sports commentator voice} No he's not! He got inside of Pom Pom! How did he do that?

MIKE: There was a kick—

MATT: {imitating a dramatic sting with a drum fill at the end} Wow, wow, woooooooow!

MIKE: {quietly} Oh, drums.

Fun Facts

• Ghost in the graveyard and sardines are variants of hide and seek.
• Mike mentions Karen Wagner.
• C-SPAN is a channel that televises United States political events, as well as some noteworthy events from other countries. The program Matt is referring to is the Prime Minister's Questions, a weekly political event occurring in the United Kingdom, which can be seen on C-SPAN in the United States.
• Marvin O'Gravel Balloon-face is from the Dr. Seuss poem Too Many Daves.

External Links

• watch "hiding"
• watch "hiding" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "hiding"
• forum thread re: "hiding"