kids' book

Strong Bad Email #84

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Everyone Is Different, by Leomard Sportsinterviews Strong Bad

Strong Bad shows off his children's book that he "made", entitled Everyone is Different.

Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, Eh! Steve (pictured; Easter egg), The Wheelchair (pictured; Easter egg)

Places: Computer Room

Computer: Compy 386

Date: Monday, September 8, 2003

Running Time: 2:01

Page Title: Compy 386!!

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

Transcript

STRONG BAD: Ladies and gentlemen. I give you...a-da sbemail.

{reading}

Dear Strong Bad,

I was wondering if you have ever
thought of a children's book,
what it was about, and what kind of
words did you try to teach the kids.

Your fan,
Steve Buttz

{Instead of Buttz, Strong Bad says "Never mind. I'm not even gonna touch that one."}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Yeah, I wrote a children's book. {Strong Bad pronounces book "bük"} Who hasn't? I mean, kids can barely read as it is so how hard can it be to write for them? The book I wrote is called

{cut to the book itself. The name of the original author, Leomard Sportsinterviews, has been crossed out, and Strong Bad's name is in its place. We find this sort of thing throughout the entire book.}

STRONG BAD: {voiceover} Everyone is Different. So here we go.

{Strong Bad opens the cover of the book, where we can see that the book's original owner was Strong Sad.}

STRONG BAD: {reading} Everyone is different. No two people are the same.

{He turns the page. A picture of a kid riding a red bike is there, with Strong Bad having drawn a big truck behind him. The original text is "Some people have freckles. Frankie has freckles."}

STRONG BAD: {reading} Some people are about to be run over. Frankie has about 5 seconds.

{He turns the page. There's a picture of a tall African-American kid with a tennis racket, and added drawings of fighters and helicopters shooting at him while he smashes a city. The original text is "Some people are very tall. Quincy is very tall."}

STRONG BAD: {reading} Some people are very tall and merciless. Quincy is destroying San Antonio.

{He turns the page. There's a picture of a girl with glasses reading a book. The original text is "Some people wears glasses. Beth wears glasses."}

STRONG BAD: {reading} Some people wears glasses. Beth looks like a dude.

{He turns the page. There's a picture of a kid in a baseball uniform and glove with Strong Bad having scribbled a squirrel on his left hand. The original text is "Some people are left-handed. Gregor is left-handed."}

STRONG BAD: {reading} Some people are squirrel-handed. Gregor is a weird name.

{He turns the page. There's a picture of a heavyset girl with braces and headgear, and Strong Bad has scribbled on a football jersey and a football field. The original text is "Some people have braces. Some people have headgear. Fran has both."}

STRONG BAD: {reading} Some people have braces. Some people have headgear. Fran could play linebacker for the Raiders.

{He turns the page. A picture of a red-headed kid on a pogo stick, which Strong Bad has changed to the detonator of a huge amount of TNT planted in an enemy base. A guy is flying out of the base saying "AHH! i'M BEiNG KiLLED!!" The original text is "Some people have red hair. Albert has red hair."}

STRONG BAD: {reading} Some people have rigged the enemy base with explosives. Albert has.

{He turns the page. There is a girl jumping rope with wavy lines drawn coming from her mouth with the word "HOTNESS." Strong Bad has also drawn himself next to her saying "hiya hotcakes." The original text is "Some people have a Southern accent. Trisha has a Southern accent."}

STRONG BAD: {reading} Some people have a Southern accent, and those are hot. Trisha is a severe hottie.

{He turns the page. What was once a girl twirling a hula hoop is now a girl being swallowed whole by a huge monster, with an expression of horror drawn over her face, one of her legs disintegrating into bone, and a bag of money in her hand. The original text is "Some people have curly hair. Hillary has curly hair."}

STRONG BAD: {reading} Some people are being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster. Hillary's legs are being digested.

{He turns the page. We have a picture of everyone we saw before, and they're all being burned by fire. The original text is "Everyone is different. No two people are the same."}

STRONG BAD: {reading} Everyone is different. No two people are not on fire. Awwwww.

STRONG BAD: {typing} So there's my book {pronounced "bük" again}. Pretty good, eh Steve? And the words that we taught the kids were, uh, fangoriously, gelatinous, and um, {mumbling, typed in small text} linebacker. {normal} You know, education at its finest. Well, some people need to go get an ice cream sandwich. Strong Bad needs to go get an ice cream sandwich.

{Strong Bad stands up and leaves, and then The Paper comes down.}

Easter Eggs

• At the end, click on "eh Steve" to see a page about Eh! Steve!. Click on it to see a revised edition.
  • ORIGINAL VERSION: {a picture of Eh! Steve} Some people are named Eh! Steve. Eh! Steve is not exactly a person.
  • REVISED VERSION: {a circular rope trap is drawn around Eh! Steve. The Wheelchair is faded in the background with the other end of the rope} Some people are named Eh! Steve talkin wheelchairs. Eh! Steve is not exactly a person will get what he deserves.
• At the end, click on "book" to see Strumstar Hammer, Strong Bad's revised edition of the Original Book, in a separate window.

Fun Facts

Trivia

• According to the inside of the front cover, the original book belonged to Strong Sad.
• The summary on the Podstar Runner RSS feed for this video says "Strong Bad seriously defaces a children's book."
• The YouTube description for this email is "Strong Bad makes a kids' book called 'Everyone is Different.'"
• For a while, the YouTube version was tagged as "YouTube Kids", thus disabling the comments section.

Remarks

• As Strong Bad progresses through the book, the stack of pages on the right never decreases, and the stack of pages on the left never increases.
• As each page is turned, the previous page can still be seen through the back of the paper on the left.
• The book lacks page numbers and any publishing information, but it is possible that Strong Bad ripped out the publishers' page (usually the first page of a book, after a title page).

Goofs

• On the page with Trisha, there is no period in the original second sentence.

Inside References

• This book was written by Leomard Sportsinterviews.
• This book's company is Cheap as Free.
• One page in the book reads "Some people wears glasses", which is a use of singular instead of plural.
• Strong Bad's claim that he wrote Everyone is Different is a blatant lie.
• Frankie is about to be run over.

Real-World References

• In a 2017 interview with Gizmodo, Mike Chapman recalls older brother Donnie reading the 1972 picture book The Daddy Book (ISBN 0070613478) but adding his own comedic commentary that sharply contrasted with the innocent tone of the book — "straight-up a Strong Bad move." The Daddy Book describes visual attributes using a repeated format (e.g. "Some daddies wear glasses", "Some daddies are tall"), notably similar to the "Some people..." format of Everybody is Different.
• The design of the children's book is based on the old Little Golden Books, right down to the yellow vined border on and near the book's spine.
• The adverb "fangoriously" is likely in reference to the magazine Fangoria, dedicated to covering horror films and movie monsters.
• The Raiders are a professional football team. Currently located in Las Vegas, at the time of this email the team was based in Oakland.

Fast Forward

• Another book, That Time of Year, would similarly be defaced in Decemberween in July.
• In the email geddup noise, Strong Bad says that around the time of this email, The Geddup Noise becomes popular overseas, resulting in its eventual departure and subsequent replacement by Chairscoot.
• From June 4 to July 9, 2009, the Sketchbook would feature three alternate versions of pages from this book, including:

"Some people are octopus-handed. Gregor is going to throw it at the principal."

"Some people run over others. Frankie ran over a lawyer."

"Some people puke all over themselves. Albert has red hair."

• A cartoon created for the Worldbuilder 2014 Fundraiser, Strong Bad Classics!, sees Strong Bad give yet another book this treatment. The teaser for the toon even called Strong Bad, "...the author of Everyone is Different", and his version of The Ocelot and the Porridge Maiden ends with him marrying Trisha.

DVD Version

• The Strumstar Hammer Easter egg is accessible. The pages appear on the Telebision, read aloud by Strong Bad. To access it, select the hidden Strong Bad logo to the bottom left of the Compy screen at the end of the video.
• Strong Bad and Bubs as the Wheelchair also read the Eh! Steve Easter egg in turn. To access it, select the hidden Strong Bad logo on the bottom right of the Compy screen at the end of the video.
• 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: All right, this is the... commentar— {starts laughing} Sorry, let's start that over.

MATT: No, let's get going!

MIKE: So this was a fun one to make. Anytime there's an email where you get to do some drawings or do some, just kind of, non-regular Homestar Runner, Strong Bad type illustrations... uh, it's kind of fun. {unintelligible}

MATT: Yeah. Mixes it up.

MIKE: We had to go buy the, uh, Prismacolor... Prisma... Prismacolor markers for this one.

MATT: Yes. To color.

MIKE: I brought, uh, I bought colored pencils and Prismacolors, and—

MATT: There's another appearance of Lem— That's when you first see that— what Lem Sportsinterviews' full name is.

MIKE: {simultaneously} full— Leomard.

MATT: Leomard. {pause} This here, there's the Alamo down there, that's how you know it's San Antonio.

MIKE: Yeah. {pause} I don't...

MATT: She looks kind of like Marcie, from Peanuts, too.

MIKE: {mumbles in agreement} He's on the S Team.

MATT: Did I draw that one? That's kind of— Basically, that was just Mike—

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: —making fun of my drawing {Mike laughs} 'cause I gave that that girl some broad shoulders, and a barreled chest. {pause} I like Strong— Strong Bad's depictions of himself, they're always good.

MIKE: Mmm-hmm.

MATT: That gelatinous monster is...

MIKE: I like how she's dropping money. {Both laugh} She's walking around with a bag of money. {laughs, then yawns}

MATT: {after a pause} His "book".

MIKE: Um... why didn't we have more to say about this one?

MATT: I don't know. I thought, why did we... yeah. I thought we picked this one because I thought we'd have a wealth of things to say.

MIKE: I like how the text gets small anytime when Strong Bad mumbles things. The text gets small.

MATT: {simultaneously} {laughing} Yeah. The Shift key.

MIKE: The function key.

MATT: {laughing} The mumble key.

MIKE: Yeah.

Fun Facts

• Marcie is a character from the Peanuts comic strip. She is the best friend of Peppermint Patty.
• Prismacolor is a brand of high end art supplies manufactured by Sanford.

External Links

• watch "kids' book"
• watch "kids' book" on YouTube
• watch "kids' book" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "kids' book"
• view Strumstar Hammer