ghosts

Strong Bad Email #48

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"Ooh, lookit that! Little...bad graphics ghost."

This article is about the Strong Bad Email. For the concept of ghosts in general, see Ghosts.

Strong Bad gives the ol' kingdom a thorough ghost check.

Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, The Cheat, General Tso's Chicken, Bad Graphics Ghost, Strong Sad (Easter egg)

Places: Computer Room, Strong Badia, Outer Space (Easter egg)

Computer: Compy 386

Date: Thursday, October 31, 2002

Running Time: 1:57

Page Title: COMPY 386

DVD: strongbad_email.exe Disc One

Transcript

STRONG BAD: Boy, is it ever Monday!

{reading}

Yo yo, Strong Bad!

Are there any ghosts in Strongbadia?

Your Favorite Cowboys,
Josh, John & Doug
Nashville, TN

STRONG BAD: Whoa. Took all three of ya to come up with that one, huh? You're some bright young men! {typing} You know boys, cowboys, I've never really given the ol' kingdom a thorough ghost check. {calling out} The Cheat! {The Cheat zips right up to Strong Bad} Meet me in the Strong Bad Cave!

THE CHEAT: {quizzical The Cheat noise}

STRONG BAD: Erm, well...meet me in the closet and, uh...we'll put on some costumes.

{An old Batman-style transition appears, with the eye portion of Strong Bad's facemask used as a logo to designate a scene change.}

MIKE: {imitates the music that plays during old Batman-style transitions}

{Strong Bad and The Cheat walk out into Strong Badia at night, both dressed in Ghostbusters II T-shirts. Strong Bad has fake ears, while The Cheat has an afro.}

STRONG BAD: Okay, The Cheat, let's just turn on my ghost-detecting equipment here...see if we can't get any readings.

{Strong Bad turns on a flashlight and points it at the stop sign.}

STRONG BAD: Hey Sign! You haunted? {He turns it to Tire} What about you, Tire? Any ghosts? {He turns it to a box of Chinese food} Chinese food! You a ghost?

{The top of the box of Chinese food opens up with a green mist escaping. The Cheat makes a screaming noise in a panic.}

STRONG BAD: {in horror} IT'S THE GHOST OF GENERAL TSO! {He shines the flashlight on the Chinese food} Oh wait. It's just grody and rotten. {He shines the flashlight on The Cheat. The Cheat raises his arms} The Cheat, will you please freaking clean up after yourself? Oh well, looks like Strong Badia is ghost-free, proud to be.

{The ghost of the Tandy 400 appears behind him}

STRONG BAD: Oh! Uh... My old computer! Umm... What's up, man? Sure is one... spooky sound you're making there...

{A bad graphics ghost materializes on the Tandy screen}

STRONG BAD: Ooh, lookit that! Little...bad graphics ghost. {whimpers quietly} Hey, little guy... Look, old computer. Sorry I threw you out and everything but, uh...The Cheat, um...Chea-Chea-Cheat's got soccer practice, so uh... Did you remember your cleats, The Cheat? THROW THAT CHINESE FOOD AT HIM!

{The Cheat does, and they run off. The ghost computer flies away in hot pursuit. Cut back to the Compy. The Paper comes down, and the Bad Graphics Ghost appears on the Compy's screen}

Easter Eggs

The Master of Time and Space

• At the end, the pixels of the "bad graphics ghost" disappear when the mouse cursor is rolled over them. Each pixel will fade back in after a few seconds.
  • If all of the pixels have vanished at the same time (which can be done easily by clicking in the Flash window and holding down the tab key), the computer will read "You killed the bad graphics ghost. Now Strong Sad will sing you a scary song." The scene changes to Strong Sad standing in front of a black starfield:

    STRONG SAD: {singing}

    Have you seen the ghost of John?

    Long white bones with the skin all go-o-o-one!

    Whoo! whoooo! whooo!

    Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin ooonnnn...?

    {stops singing and looks around} Whoa, check it out. It's like I'm the master of time and space in here.

Fun Facts

Explanations

• Strong Bad comments, "Boy, is it ever Monday!" because this was released late, on a Thursday.

Trivia

• This is the first time the disk in the floppy disk container reads something. It reads "tongue of the fatman".
• The YouTube description for this email is "Strong Bad goes hunting for ghosts in Strong Badia and runs into the pixel-y spirit of his old computer!"

Remarks

• The Tandy 400 is apparently obsolete and can only display images of poor graphics, and yet it was able to clearly show a screenshot from Hairstyle Runner in homestar hair.
• The Chinese food isn't present when Strong Bad and The Cheat first walk into Strong Badia.
• Strong Bad pronounces "General Tso" like "General Tau", when it should be pronounced as "General So".
• When a pixel of the Bad Graphics Ghost starts to fade back, it doesn't count as a pixel until the fading is finished. In other words, it can still be "killed" if the pixels are fading back.
• The wrong font was used for the word "contrast" on the Tandy 400.
• If the contrast on the Compy is adjusted, it will return to normal when the scene cuts to the wider shot of Strong Bad calling for The Cheat.

Goofs

• The Tandy's ghost still has the scorch marks and duct tape, but the cracks on the screen have disappeared completely.
• As Strong Bad and The Cheat enter Strong Badia, the logo on Strong Bad's shirt is reversed; it flips back to match The Cheat's once Strong Bad starts talking.
• As Strong Bad concludes that there are "no ghosts in Strong Badia", the brightness of his body from the neck down is at full, while his head is set at the proper brightness. This is corrected once the camera angle changes.

Inside References

• Strong Bad's old computer blew up in gimmicks and was eventually replaced with the Compy in invisibility.

Real-World References

• The printings on Strong Bad's and The Cheat's shirts are the logo for the movie Ghostbusters II.
• This email contains some direct references to the old Batman TV series from the 1960s, both in Strong Bad telling The Cheat to "meet [him] in the Strong Bad Cave" and the scene transition between Strong Bad's computer room and Strong Badia.
• Strong Sad sings, with some instability of key, The Ghost of John, a folk song popular in music education curricula.
• General Tso's Chicken is a popular dish in Chinese restaurants in the U.S., despite being a classic example of American Chinese cuisine (foods that are purportedly Chinese but were invented in America for western consumers).

Fast Forward

• The outer space background is reused in One Two, One Two.
• The Tandy returns in spectral form along with the Compy at the end of retirement. However, unlike in this email, it is in its unbroken form.

DVD Version

• The blocks of the Bad Graphics Ghost don't have to be selected to kill it; the hidden Strong Bad icon in the lower left corner of the Compy 386 screen is all that has to be selected.
• Reverb was added to Strong Sad's song and dialogue.
• The DVD version features hidden creators' commentary. To access it, switch the DVD player's audio language selection while watching.

Commentary Transcript

(Commentary by: Matt Chapman, Mike Chapman)

{Strong Bad is heard in the background saying, "Boy, is it ever Monday."}

MATT: That—

MIKE: Uh, I think we put it up on Wednesday that time.

MATT: Yeah, because Monday we did... the, uh, Halloween cartoon, which was the Pumpkin Carve-nival—or maybe that was Tuesday—I don't even know...

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: ...but yeah. So this is, uh, it's only—it's weird, the only themed, like, to a time of the year, Strong Bad Emails are both Halloween ones. There's the halloweener one and this one.

MIKE: That's true—well, the flag day one.

MATT: That's true, that was on Flag Day, wasn't it?

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: That's of course a reference to the old Batman TV show.

MIKE: Spider-Man.

MATT: What? That was Batman.

MIKE: Scrapeman. Scrape-on-the-knee-man. Uh, I like doing Strong Badia and the, uh blue... for night.

MATT: (simultaneously} Yeah, this was, uh... this was good, we've got masking—

MIKE: {simultaneously} Yeah, there's like three masks right there.

MATT: Yeah, that's the good...

MIKE: Remember when the toons menu used to be an old Chinese menu?

MATT: I do.

MIKE: —Chinese restaurant menu? That was the dragon that we used on that menu.

MATT: I like that they're both wearing Ghostbusters II outfits. {Mike laughs} Jamey, my friend Jamey, still has a Ghostbusters II shirt, I think. Jamey's the guy that first said the words "Homestar Runner" all together. I like—all these sound effects are just me going {blows to make wind sound} and {pssswishyswish sound}

MIKE: You're so talented.

MATT: Yeah, listen to how much more talented I am than Mike. {powacahoowachoo sound}

MIKE: {powankydoowow musical sound}

MATT: This is supposed to sound like a laser.

MIKE: {simultaneously} This is a laser. {pee-oww musical sound}

MATT: Hey, I do— Watch; listen. {fweeowwoosh} Here it comes again. It's going to come back in. Ooh. {blows to make ghost sound}

External Links

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