autobiography

Strong Bad Email #67

watch ← the show caper →

"...Milk and cookies shot out my nose!"

Dan from PA asks Strong Bad if he will write an autobiography on his life.

Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, The King of Town (Easter egg), Coach Z (Easter egg)

Places: Computer Room, Race Track (Easter egg)

Computer: Compy 386

Date: Monday, March 24, 2003

Running Time: 2:43

Page Title: Compy 386!

DVD: strongbad_email.exe Disc Two

Transcript

STRONG BAD: This email is brought to you by a grant from The Cheat {a logo of The Cheat appears, captioned "The Cheat since 1983"} and the support of Viewers Like You. {"Viewers Like You" appears}

{reading}

Hey Strong Bad!
Have you ever considered writing a
biography on your life? I think it
would be a very cool idea since
everyone likes you anyway. I mean,
no one wants to read about a boring
person, like Strong Sad, or anything
like that.

Dan, PA

{Strong Bad temporarily stops and says "That's true!" after reading "everyone likes you anyway," and reads "Dan, PA" as "Dan from Pennsylvania"}

STRONG BAD: Wait a minute... lemme check something... {runs spellchecka.exe; it says "0 spelling errors found!"} No way! {typing} No misspellings, a good idea, made fun of Strong Sad ... don't get me wrong, Dan, I mean, I wanna make fun of you but, uh, you've put together a solid email!

{While saying this, he types "No misspellings + good idea + made fun of dumpus = SOLID!!"}

STRONG BAD: I'm gonna print this thing out and save it for posterity. Maybe a little prosperity.

{He runs print_of_it.exe and the email prints out via The Paper. He tears it off and starts typing.}

STRONG BAD: Well, Dan, {stiltedly forced} you big, dumb moron. I've actually already begun work on my memoirs. It's a new books-on-tape series called "Words I Probably Said" by Strong Bad. {stops typing} Let's take a listen.

{Cut to the booOOMbox. There is a cassette tape in it with the title of Strong Bad's series and the words "Tape One." Strong Bad presses play.}

STRONG BAD ON TAPE: —and Reg had the ball at the top of the key, and I was all like, "I'm open! I'm open!" But somebody musta slipped him some drugs or something before the game because he didn't see me and he passed it to The Deke instead and The Deke SLAM-DUNKED IT! Oh, it was my greatest moment on the court! I was trying to high-five everyone in sight but there was a lot of commotion and excitement and...The Deke accidentally shoved me to the ground and called me a—

{Strong Bad hits fast-forward; the tape squeals.}

STRONG BAD: Oop! We'll skip on ahead here.

{Strong Bad lets go of the fast forward button, and the tape continues.}

STRONG BAD ON TAPE: —and she was a very, very special lady. And she loved me so much and had skinny blonde hair and was always hanging out at the beach, gazing at a photo of me... Too bad when she had to go to another planet for reasons too complex to elaborate on. I'll probably never see her again. And neither will any of you.

STRONG BAD: That was a true part! Let's skip ahead again.

{Strong Bad hits fast-forward again for a minute, then stops.}

STRONG BAD ON TAPE: —but The Cheat couldn't stop laughing and I didn't know what the big deal was until I saw the piece of paper...

{A piece of notebook paper is shown showing Strong Bad, Strong Mad and The Cheat, labeled "us", with an arrow pointing to lots of dollar signs, labeled "money".}

STRONG BAD ON TAPE: I just about lost it! Milk and cookies shot out of my nose! Oh! It was a great idea. And it just might work!

{Strong Bad leans into view.}

STRONG BAD: And it did work! All right, that's enough. You heard enough... of my secrets.

{Strong Bad seats himself back in front of the Compy}

STRONG BAD: {typing} So, you get the picture. I mean it's gonna be great. People will listen to it when they go on roadtrips. Maybe play it on their Walkman when they go jogging in the park. I mean, I bet it'll make people wanna run faster because of how good it is. That thing could double as one of those weightloss tapes. {stops typing} Okay. Take it away, The Paper! Preeeeeeeeowwwww... Come on. Preeeeeeowwwwweeee... What's the d—?

{The Paper comes down rather quickly}

STRONG BAD: Oh. Musta been a paper jam.

Easter Eggs

• When Strong Bad's cassette tape case appears, click on it to show the tapes inside: "Words I Probably Said" tapes one, one, three, and "SHAQ-FU". Click on it again to see the back of the box:

Here's what they're
probably saying about
"Words I Probably Said"

"Hootie Hoo!"
-Ike Turner

"Hootie Hoo!"
-Ike Turner

"A nice, smooooth
drive."
-Ike Turner

"Hootie Hoo!"
-Tex Arcana

• When Strong Bad talks about "The Deke," click on the speaker to see a The Deke trading card.
• When the sketch of the Strong Brothers' big idea comes up, click on it to see the back. It's a drawing of a one dollar bill with extra 0s, and reads "add 'zeros' to one dollar bill" and "*doesn't work on right side".
• At the very end, click on "weightloss tapes" to see how effective the tapes just might be.

{Cut to what appears to be a track in the field. Coach Z is standing nearby looking at a stopwatch, while The King of Town slowly jogs by wearing a jogging suit, headband, and a Walkman. Strong Bad's voice can be faintly heard from the tape in the background.}

THE KING OF TOWN: Keep movin'! Work off the weight! This is a new beginning for the KoT! Oof!

COACH Z: This is a dark day for track and field.

Fun Facts

Trivia

• According to the front cover of the tape series box, Strong Bad probably said the following words:
  • bow-legged
  • cell phone
  • cold ones
  • COMPY
  • crazy go nuts
  • red or white?
  • scriggidy
  • successfully
  • total
  • trade secrets
• The YouTube description for this email is "Listen to some excerpts from Strong Bad's books-on-tape autobiography."

Remarks

• Oddly enough, two of the three tapes in the box and the one in the player are all labeled Tape One. The other is labeled Tape Three.
• "print_of_it.exe" is the first of Strong Bad programs other than "strongbad_email.exe" that incorporate an underscore.
• The King of Town's tapeplayer reads "Sports Use".
• This is another instance of Coach Z's on/off accent. He pronounces "field" correctly here, but says it as "ferald" in Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 1.0 and dictionary.
• Strong Bad does not imitate the paper correctly. Its sound is on a C-sharp, but he does it on a B-flat.

Goofs

• While the radio is onscreen and the tape box is open, Strong Bad's gloves go under the box even though his head goes in front of it.
• Even though Strong Bad fast forwards the tape, the spools of the cassette do not move faster.
• The printing sound is extended a second too long.
• When the drawing comes up, the vertical line extends beyond the paper. This is more noticeable when it is flipped over.
• In the Easter egg, the King of Town does not move his mustache when he talks.

Glitches

• After Strong Bad takes the printed email, the line "No misspellings + good idea + made" shifts to the left as it scrolls up the screen of the Compy 386.

Inside References

• The girl with skinny blonde hair is possibly a reference to the song "Circles", which features a skinny blonde girl, and to theme party (which is where "Circles" originated).
• The radio that plays the autobiography looks like the radio that Strong Bad listens to at the swimming pool in A Jumping Jack Contest.
• Strong Bad mentions high fives.
• The Deke's trading card is part of the Biscuit Gravy series.

Real-World References

• Strong Bad's intro ("This email is brought to you by a grant from The Cheat and the support of Viewers Like You") comes from the start of most Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television programs. Often, the grant is from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
• The tape labeled "SHAQ-FU" refers to Shaq-Fu: Da Return, a hip hop album by Shaquille O'Neal.
  • Presumably this tape was already in the boom box, and Strong Bad temporarily placed it in the case while listening to the autobiography.
• "Hootie Hoo" is the name of a song by the band Outkast.
• Ike Turner was a musician and bandleader, best known for his work in the '60s and '70s with his then-wife Tina Turner.
• Tex Arcana is probably a play off the town of Texarkana, a town divided by the Texas/Arkansas border.
• The King of Town's Walkman resembles a Sony Sports Walkman portable AM/FM radio and cassette player.

Fast Forward

• "Preeeeow" is used again many times as the onomatopoeia for The Paper's sound effect.
• "Reg having the ball at the top of the key" and variations thereof became a running gag.
• Words I Probably Said later appears among the many items sold in garage sale.
• Strong Bad later fabricates another story about a girl leaving him to go to another planet in senior prom.
• Strong Bad would later print out an email again in email thunder.

DVD Version

• All the audio tape Easter eggs are accessible by using the DVD player's angle button.
• To access the King of Town exercise Easter egg, click on the hidden Strong Bad logo at the bottom left of the Compy screen when the video ends.

External Links

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