secret recipes

Strong Bad Email #124

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The horrible truth revealed!

Strong Bad reveals some secret family recipes.

Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, The Cheat, Coach Z, The King of Town, Marzipan, Homestar Runner

Places: Computer Room, The Field, King of Town's Castle, Marzipan's House

Computer: Lappy 486

Date: Monday, February 14, 2005

Running Time: 4:34

Page Title: Lappy 486

DVD: strongbad_email.exe Disc Four

Transcript

STRONG BAD: {singing} Email, na na, na na, na na, nanaNA...

subject: family recipes

Dear Strong Bad,
When we grow up we want to be chefs. We wanted to know
if you had any secret family recipes that you would want
to share with us so....we can make them!

-Melissa and Hillary (from NJ)

{Strong Bad reads "Dear Strong Bad" as "The usual" and "NJ" as "Nigeria"}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Well Mellie, Hillarious, being from Africa I'm sure you guys are used to eating, like, exotic fruits and nectars and, um, lions {clears screen, continues typing} so our recipes may seem a bit uncouth. {stops typing} Uncouth. {typing} Can something be just plain couth? I bet freakin' Strong Sad is plain couth. Anyways, Couthy, all our family recipes tend to center around the grossing out of or the making puke of friends and well-wishers.

{The camera cuts back to reveal The Cheat, who is lying on the computer desk and flinging floppy disks all over the place.}

STRONG BAD: The Cheat! Let's go try out Great Uncle Pawdabber's Pre-tend Ice Cream Showdown! {His legs kick to each syllable of Pre-tend Ice Cream Showdown.}

THE CHEAT: {Enthusiastic The Cheat noises}

{The Cheat stands up. The screen greys and the following text appears.}

NARRATOR: Strong Bad may or may not have an actual Great Uncle Pawdabber.

{Cut to the field. Coach Z is standing around holding a basketball.}

COACH Z: Man, what is this thing? {bounces the basketball once} A bounce thing?

{Strong Bad and The Cheat enter from the right. Strong Bad is holding what appears to be a bowl of ice cream with yellowish sprinkles, and The Cheat is wearing a towel around his waist.}

STRONG BAD: Oh man, The Cheat! Wow! Look at this! It's our best friend, Coach Z. Say there, Coach, would you like to try some of our free icèd-c-cream? It's got toasted coconut!

COACH Z: How could I refuse? {throws the basketball over his shoulder} I can't afford the money-cost variety!

{The basketball can be seen falling behind the trees in the background.}

{Coach Z takes the ice cream and starts pigging out on it.}

COACH Z: Oooh! Sweet mercy! {He eats some more.} This is orful! {He eats more.}

STRONG BAD: Aww, it's OK, Coach. You're the proud new eater of a healthy bowl of sour cream and The Cheat fur.

{Coach Z drops the bowl in shock. Strong Bad pulls away The Cheat's towel to reveal that he's been shaved from the waist down.}

THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}

COACH Z: {He starts making disgusted noises and coughing up fur while frightened.} Hoo! I think I'm going to puke my pants!

STRONG BAD: Ugh! Please don't elaborate on that.

COACH Z: {talking normally} Naw, it's easy. I do it all the time! Here, let me show ya's!

STRONG BAD: AUGH!

THE CHEAT: {Horrified The Cheat noises}

{Strong Bad and The Cheat run away as Coach Z continues talking.}

COACH Z: You take your pants...

{A recipe card appears on screen reading as follows.}

Recipe:
Great Uncle Pawdabber's Pre-tend
Ice Cream Showdown

Ingredients:
3 scoops (really) sour cream
1/2 of shaved The Cheat
1 bowl
1 languagely challenged vaguely coach type person

Instructions:
Mix ingredients until golden brown

STRONG BAD: {voiceover} For best results, dip The Cheat in egg wash before shaving or else he'll get those red shaving bumpies all over him. Ugh.

{Cut to the side of the King of Town's castle.}

STRONG BAD: {sotto voce} All right, we're mixing this next one up on them, The Cheat. I filled this old Speed Stick—

{He pulls out some underarm deodorant reading "X-treme Glacier."}

STRONG BAD: —with white chocolate and we'll totally gross out or make puke The King of Town when I start eatin' it in front of him!

THE CHEAT: {affirmative The Cheat noises}

{Cut to inside the castle. The King of Town is watching TV and eating the contents of an identical Speed Stick to the one Strong Bad has. He also has other various underarm deodorants and spray cans in a bowl next to him.}

TUXWORTH: You can't marry your guitar, Caleb!

CALEB: I can try!

{Strong Bad and The Cheat enter from the right.}

STRONG BAD: Hey Ole King Droll! Checka me out! I'm eatin'—oh. Never mind.

{The King of Town picks up a spray can and sprays it in his mouth, then resumes eating the Speed Stick}

STRONG BAD: Ugh, shoulda known...

{Strong Bad and The Cheat walk out.}

THE KING OF TOWN: No, wait, you guys! Come back! This stuff is strong enough for a man but tasty enough for a king! Don't you want to try any Forest Rush? Or Tundra Mist?

{A recipe card spins onscreen reading as follows}

Recipe:
Crazy Aunt Eulatherm's Deodorant
Doppelganger

Ingredients:
6 oz. white chocolate
1/2 of shaved The Cheat (for moral support)
1 kinda cleaned-out De-odor Cake

Instructions:
Mix ingredients. Preheat oven. Add hot sauce
if necessary

STRONG BAD: {voiceover} Yeah, how come deodorants and stuff are always named after biomes anyways?

{Cut to Marzipan's house. Marzipan is sitting on the couch reading The Latest News. Homestar walks in carrying one of Strong Bad's Pre-Tend Ice Cream Showdown bowls.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Hey, girlfriend, have you tried any of this free ice cream Strong Bad made?

MARZIPAN: {setting aside her paper, clearly amused} Homestar, didn't anyone tell you? That's, like, cottage cheese and The Cheat hair!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: WHAT!? {He does a spit take, producing some fur.} Strong Bad told me it was sour cream and The Cheat hair! Looks like this is a job for Stupid Uncle Egg's Goodtime Diaper Pie!

{Homestar walks offscreen to the left. The screen greys and the following text appears on it.}

NARRATOR: Homestar Runner definitely does not have a Stupid Uncle Egg.

{Cut to Strong Bad's computer room. A pinecone and bendy straw are in a bowl with a sign next to it reading "not A pimecone, diaper pie! i mean reg-ular pie." Strong Bad and The Cheat walk in. The Cheat is now wearing yellow sticky notes, some with black dots on them, to try to cover up his shaved area.}

STRONG BAD: No, it looks totally real. I swear, no one'll be able to tell! Oh, what's this?

{Strong Bad picks up the sign and reads it.}

STRONG BAD: "Not a pimecone." Well, he's got that right!

{Homestar pokes his head in from the right.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oh, look, it's my best friends Cheat and The Strong Bad! Hey, I heard you guys been eatin' some serious regular pie in here!

STRONG BAD: Uh, yeah, man! We've even got some left over if you want it.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Well if it's anywhere near as good as your free ice cream!

{Homestar puts the pine cone in his mouth and starts crunching it up. The Cheat and Strong Bad look at each other incredulously.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {with his mouth full} Well, so long, suckers!

STRONG BAD: {offscreen} It's like, even when we win, he wins.

{Cut back to Strong Bad at the Lappy}

STRONG BAD: {typing} There you go girls. Recipes for the ages. But if you really want to be chefs when you grow up, we've got a super-secret family recipe for cooking the C-H-E-blank-T. {types this as "C H E _ T"}

{The Cheat makes a very angry noise from offscreen and chucks a floppy disk reading "YOU JERK!" at Strong Bad's head.}

STRONG BAD: Ow! {typing} And of course that blank is for the letter K. The Chekt. My family's got a great recipe for cooking the Chekt. Yeah, yeah. {He only types one "yeah."} We're mostly from Bumdumbourge. It's near, uh, Totalslava. {In a vaguely European accent:} "Come down off that smokestack and eat your the Chekt!" my poopaw used to say. Ah, my dear poopaw, I miss you so.

{The Paper comes down}

STRONG BAD: {whispering} I think The Cheat bought it. Let me know if you want that recipe.

Easter Eggs

• At the end, click on "grow up" to hear a few seconds of the television program the King of Town was watching.

{Cut back to the King of Town's castle. The TV is still on.}

TUXWORTH: Caleb, that hamburger was mine!

CALEB: It's mine now!

• At the end, click on "C H E _ T" to see The Cheat reading a book entitled "So You Want to Cook a Wrestleman?", with a picture of The Cheat putting a lid on a pot with Strong Bad in it.
• At the end, click on the left "poopaw" to hear the narrator's disclaimer about Strong Bad's poopaw.

{The screen greys and the following text appears.}

NARRATOR: I, uh, I don't even know what a poopaw is.

• At the end, click on "the Chekt" to see another recipe.

From the Kitchen of Poopaw
Chicken-fried the CHEKT

Ingredients:
3 or 7 medium sized the Chekts
2 salt
40 pancakes

Instructions:
Get down off smokestack. Then cook that
ugly thing.

{"Bumdumbourge '96" appears as a watermark on the recipe card.}

Fun Facts

Explanations

• A biome is a major regional group of distinctive plant and animal communities well adapted to that region's physical environment (for example, Tundra, Forest, etc.).
• "Couth" means "possessing a high degree of sophistication" or "refined" (indeed, many depictions of Strong Sad). However, it is rarely used and considered a back-formation of the normally unpaired word "uncouth", itself derived from an old-English word meaning strange or uncommon.

Trivia

• By zooming in on the Lappy's screen when The Cheat is throwing floppy disks around, it reveals some different words on the screen (not all of it is visible due to Strong Bad's head blocking the screen):

so our recipes may seem a bit uncouth. Can something be
just plain couth? I bet freakin' Strong Sad is plain couth.
I wouldn't put that past him. Not that you could put
anything past that guy. Y'know on account of he's so fat.
And maybe standing in a really narrow alleyway of some

around the grossing out of or the making puke of friends
and well-wishers.

• Marzipan's newspaper from Strong Bad is in Jail Cartoon repeats the following paragraph eight times to fill up the pages.

The Latest News

It's all true. All the
rumors are true. The
crime is on the rise
in our very own
town. Trust me on
this one. I know
what I'm talking
about. No, wait. I
don't. I make stuff
up sometimes.
That's cool though,
right? Good. I'll
keep doing it then.
It's a lot easy than
fact checking. That
stuff can be
annoying.

• The label on the disk in the floppy disk container reads "battle chess". The floppy disk that The Cheat throws at Strong Bad reads "you JERK!".
• This is the first appearance of deodorant.
• The YouTube description for this email is "SB tricks people into eating gross stuff. The Cheat gets a haircut. What's not to love?"

Remarks

• The way Marzipan is sitting is evidence against the theory that Marzipan's lower body is skirt-shaped.
• Strong Bad refers to a place called "Totalslava". "Slava" means "fame" or "glory" in multiple Slavic languages such as Czech (sláva) and Russian (слава).
• This is the first time Homestar has a "one-eyebrow-up-one-eyebrow-down" expression, which is not seen again until a modified and more stylized version appears in Flash is Dead!.
• When Coach Z bounces the basketball, it sounds as if it's bouncing on cement or asphalt.
• The recipe card says to use a "1 kinda cleaned-out De-odor Cake". Strong Bad uses "X-treme Glacier".

Goofs

• When Strong Bad reads the "pimecone" card, the computer screen is almost blank except for "and well-wishers." written in the same area where Strong Bad typed it before.
• In Marzipan's newspaper, the word "easy" should be "easier".
• During the "I'm gonna puke my pants!" scene, Strong Bad's mouth is partly off his head.
• During the "So You Want to Cook a Wrestleman?" Easter egg, the scribbling on the post-it note closest to the ground flickers slightly during the animation.
• When Strong Bad gives Coach Z the "ice cream", his right (viewer's left) eye seems slightly too small, even with distance.

Glitches

• After Homestar spits the "ice cream" out of his mouth and turns back towards Marzipan, a white box appears on the shadow of the right (viewers' left) side of his face for one frame.

Inside References

• The newspaper Marzipan is reading is the exact same one (down to the repeating text) she was reading in Strong Bad is in Jail Cartoon.
• The book in the Easter egg is titled "So You Want to Cook a Wrestleman", a word that has described Strong Bad previously.
• Coach Z cannot afford the money-cost variety of ice cream.
  • Not being able to afford ice cream and continuing to eat The Cheat's hair after declaring it awful are some of Coach Z's Problems.
• The towel that The Cheat is wearing appears to be either the same as, or very similar to, the one worn by Homestar in Main Page 14.
• The use of the '96 on the card is quite possibly a reference to the year that the original Homestar Runner book was created, during the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta, Georgia.
• The narrator's voice is the same voice that originally announced Strong Bad's test sentence in the email radio.
• The bowl of sour cream and The Cheat fur is another example of a concoction.
• This is another mention of eggs and pants.
• Much of this email involves the consumption of non-food items.
• Strong Bad attempts to give a recipe for chicken-cooked The Cheat.

Real-World References

• "Speed Stick" is an actual brand of underarm deodorant.
• "Old King Droll" is possibly a play on the nursery rhyme "Old King Cole".
• The King of Town's quip about the deodorants being "strong enough for a man" is a reference to "Secret" brand deodorant ads, whose slogan used to be "Strong enough for a man, but made for a woman."

Fast Forward

• The television show watched by the King appears again in Bug In Mouth Disease. In that toon, the name of the show is revealed to be Caleb Rentpayer.
• In the email rock opera, Strong Bad types "It's only a msyyer pd tun/ blegfr teh chekts" due to The Cheat throwing roses onto the keyboard.
• The tune of the Easter egg involving The Cheat reading the book is again used as the intro song to record book.
• In Poker Night at the Inventory, Strong Bad says "Grr...gimme back my chippies! Come back to poopaw!" Also, after Tycho describes his disturbing fascination for hedgehogs and snaps out of it saying "I'm sorry. You were saying?", Strong Bad says "Oh, nothing. Just puking in my pants."
• Pine cones are also referred to as "pimecones" and eaten in Mr. Poofers Must Die.

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, Strong Bad, Ryan Sterritt, Jonathan Howe)

MIKE: Uh oh. Strong Bad's here.

STRONG BAD: Oh, it's true, you guys. Who's gonna tolerate it?

RYAN: It's gonna—It's chronicling one of your greatest pranks yet.

STRONG BAD: That's right. You guys were around for this. Huh? Were you?

RYAN: We watched it all on TVD.

STRONG BAD: Oh, me too.

MIKE: Really the only good thing about this email is the introduction of "Caleb Rentpayer."

STRONG BAD: {angrily} What? Why you gonna... jock me like that?

RYAN: I disagree, Mike.

STRONG BAD: —Downplay my accomplishments. Look, I just accused those girls of eating lions. {Mike laughs} That's great! I think there's just— The abbreviation "NJ" means Nigeria. {Mike laughs} That is comedy at its finest.

MIKE: That's pretty funny.

STRONG BAD: Yeah. Ryan!

MIKE: Uhh, that's pretty good right there; the making puke of.

STRONG BAD: Exactly.

MIKE: Kinda switch up the word—

STRONG BAD: Look! What's The Cheat doing, man?

JONATHAN: What's the game of the day, Ryan?

STRONG BAD: He's tossing my stuff all over.

RYAN: Battle Chess.

JONATHAN: Battle Chess.

RYAN: Pawdabber.

MIKE: Oh, this is good.

STRONG BAD: That guy is clueless.

MIKE: {overlapping} He doesn't even know what a basketball is.

STRONG BAD: I was gonna start calling him "Z" cause he does not— He's not a coach of anything.

JONATHAN: I should have guessed what was gonna happen with the towel around him, but—

MIKE: Did you not know?

JONATHAN: No, it just... caught me off guard.

MIKE: I knew.

JONATHAN: I asked you about it too, I think, when I first watched it. Why does The Cheat have a towel around him? {Mike chuckles} And then you find out!

MIKE: I had made a shaved The Cheat several weeks prior just— I think just to have. I just—

STRONG BAD: It's nice to have a shaved The Cheat lying around.

JONATHAN: Ohhh hooo ohh...

STRONG BAD: Ohh. And the fact that when Coach Z coughs up you see the little hairs come out. Oh, puke my pants. That's—

JONATHAN: That's from Ryan!

MIKE: That's right.

STRONG BAD: Ryan Sterritt made that up. Ryan? Talk about it.

MIKE: Yet another example of us stealing—

STRONG BAD: At least—

MIKE: —from our friends.

STRONG BAD: At least you pay this guy.

MIKE: That's true.

STRONG BAD: Ryan, give 'em— Tell 'em how, where it came from.

RYAN: Uh...I did it once {Everyone laughs} and it kind of grossed me out. So, it became a recurring joke.

STRONG BAD: Puke my pants. Why not?

RYAN: {overlapping} Something I do not want to do.

STRONG BAD: So this was based on a prank that Matt had when he was a kid. He always wanted to play was wash out an old speed stick, fill it with white chocolate, and then gross some kids out in the locker room after gym class.

JONATHAN: We talked briefly about adding a randomizer to the names of the deodorants—

MIKE: Oh, right.

JONATHAN: But we never got around to—

STRONG BAD: Mike made a bunch of sweet, sweet deodorant names.

MIKE: It was fun coming up with—

STRONG BAD: other biomes.

MIKE: {laughs} Deodorant names.

JONATHAN: Like those band namer things. You know, you pick like four prefixes and four words like "mountain" and "glaciers".

STRONG BAD: That's true. I don't have a Crazy Aunt Eulatherm, honestly.

MIKE: Really?

STRONG BAD: Yeah.

MIKE: Ahhh. Doesn't surprise me. I don't know if I believe very much of what you say.

STRONG BAD: Look! That's a rare shot of Marzipan sitting down.

MIKE: That's true.

RYAN: Can we zoom in on that paper?

STRONG BAD: Uh, it says the same thing over and over again, doesn't it, Mike?

MIKE: {overlapping} Yeah. And it says the same thing from the Strong Bad is in Jail Cartoon.

STRONG BAD: Yeah. Marzipan needs to get a new subscription. {Mike laughs} She's such a recycler that she just reads the same paper that she got so many years ago.

RYAN: Uhh—

STRONG BAD: That looks great. Mike, remember when you made your wife a post-it note dress?

MIKE: I did. She—

STRONG BAD: She didn't want to wear—

RYAN: She was very excited, wasn't she?

MIKE: It's still in my closet. {laughter} Not hers.

STRONG BAD: It wasn't very flattering. It kinda look like a—

MIKE: {overlapping} It looked just like a potato sack—

STRONG BAD: Yeah.

RYAN: Uhh—

MIKE: made out of post-it notes.

STRONG BAD: It's true.

RYAN: {overlapping} It's the thought that—

MIKE: Right. Remember the thought?

RYAN: The girls don't remember the thought.

MIKE: They don't. They just want—

STRONG BAD: Dudes. Dudes do.

MIKE: a good looking dress.

JONATHAN: {overlapping} That was foleyed by, um... I almost ate the chips and I got reprimanded for eating the chips that were left over—

STRONG BAD: Oh, that's right because I had to... and Mike and Matt had to—

MIKE: {overlapping} We had Mo—We had some Moe's Nacho Chips and saved them.

STRONG BAD: {theme park tour guide-styled monotone voice} Welcome to Moe's.

MIKE: {deep voice, slow} Moe's.

STRONG BAD: He's always the really {monotone voice again} depressed guy. At the end. {normal voice} Or they just go "Mohhhhh". {pause} What did that one say? That disk?

MIKE: I don't know what that one said.

STRONG BAD: Somebody slow it back down. Play it again, Ryan—

MIKE: Call us up, let us know.

RYAN: {imitates rewind noise of a tape} There you go.

STRONG BAD: What did it say?

RYAN: {overlapping} Good game... boys.

MIKE: {laughs} Good game, boys.

STRONG BAD: OK.

RYAN: I think it was an action game?

STRONG BAD: Totalslava. You guys?

MIKE: {laughing to himself} Poopaw.

STRONG BAD: So did this mean that I am— I have Euro—Eastern-European roots?

MIKE: {quickly} Yes.

{After The Paper comes down, there is a pause}

MATT: Oh, it's not over.

RYAN: We get tricked every time.

STRONG BAD: {overlapping} That's right, guys. Every time 'cause {begins to whisper; diminuendo} we don't remember cartoons after we're finished making them!

Fun Facts

• Strong Bad talks about calling Coach Z just Z since he doesn't coach anything. This was mentioned in an early characters page.
• Moe's is an Atlanta-based Tex-Mex fast food chain popular in the southeastern United States. One of their hallmarks is that the kitchen staff call out "Welcome to Moe's!" whenever someone enters.

External Links

• watch "secret recipes"
• watch "secret recipes" on YouTube
• watch "secret recipes" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "secret recipes"
• forum thread re: "secret recipes"