myths & legends

Strong Bad Email #145

watch ← narrator pop-up →

Mysterious Myth... or Legendary Legend?

Strong Bad recounts the legendary myth of the Bear Holding a Shark.

Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, A Mighty Warrior (Easter egg), The Corn Army (Easter egg), Trogdor (Easter egg), Bear Holding a Shark, The Cheat, Bubs, Strong Sad, Homestar Runner, Coach Z (Easter egg)

Places: Computer Room, Strong Badia, Bubs' Concession Stand, The Woods

Computer: Lappy 486

Date: Monday, February 13, 2006

Running Time: 2:55

Page Title: Lappy 486

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

Transcript

STRONG BAD: {singing} I'm livin' the Strong Bad life, I take an email for my wife. I take an email for my wife. {brings up and reads the email}

subject: Hey Strongbad!

Hey Strongbad,
Does Strong Badia have any Mysterious Myths or
Legendary Legends?
Cephas
Cornwall, CA

{Strong Bad says "Strongbad" as "Two words. Two different words. That are not one word. That are 'Strong' and 'Bad'." and the name and location as "Cephas Cornwall of the Corn Army".}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Mysterious Myths or Legendary Legends? Isn't that a show on one of those channels up in the high hundreds? Ya know, like between the CG Dinosaur Channel and the Homes with Rollercoasters in Them Network? Well, if not, it should be! {makes a static-like sound} Come on! {makes it again, but this time the screen cuts to static} There we go.

{Cut to Strong Badia. Strong Bad carries a stick.}

STRONG BAD: Strong Badia. An idyllic fruit-opia. Rich in made-up stories and nottrueities. The nottrue-est of which...

{He prods The Tire with his stick. The Bear-Shark pops up. The Cheat runs by, panicked.}

THE CHEAT: {screams in The Cheat}

STRONG BAD: ...is the mighty bear holding a shark. {spooky jungle music starts} More than a mere security counter-measure, its origins lie in the skies above. {pronounced "a-boe-ve"}

{Cut to a starry sky. Constellations of the Strong Badia flag's snake, the guy with the big knife, a hand giving the "OK" symbol, a board with nails in it, General Tso's chicken, a fish with an afro, and a marathon runner sporting a Union Jack singlet, gradually appear as Strong Bad narrates.}

STRONG BAD: The stars tell us that two of the seven elemental spirits of Strong Badia, the fish wearing a 'fro wig and the British distance runner, combined forces to defeat the others.

{The runner holds out a hand to the fish just before all the constellations fight in a cloud of dust. In the end, the runner emerges holding the fish over his head.}

STRONG BAD: In paintball... or maybe Red Rover.

{Cut back to Strong Bad}

STRONG BAD: Then, through years of bad story-telling and the telephone game,

{Over the following, images of a satyr holding a fish, labeled "Wildernessman withst Sea-Beast", a moose with a chameleon in its antlers, and a bad drawing of the bear-shark on the fence appear.}

STRONG BAD: The mythic beast transformed into the bear holding a shark we know today. These ancient fence drawings show evidence of destroyed crops, stolen babies, and family bike-rides. {The screen pans over to show bad drawings of the same.} Or family pie-sitting contests. Bear-holding-a-shark fever gripped the nation.

{Cut to Bubs' Concession Stand, with various Bear-Shark merchandise.}

BUBS: {holding up an ice cream bar} We got Bear-holding-a-shark frozen delights, {looking at a pile of glasses near him} and these shot glasses are always popular with the kids. Oh, and my favorite: {reaches down and produces a necklace} these Bear-tooth-holding-a-shark-tooth necklaces!

STRONG BAD: {voiceover} Of course, not everyone caught the fever.

{Music starts and Bubs dances. Then, cut to Strong Sad. The screen reads "Bear Holding a Shark Skeptic".}

STRONG SAD: I'm sure it's just a weather balloon or a foreign exchange student. These strange beasts just aren't real!

{Cut back to Strong Bad}

STRONG BAD: ...said the elephant-footed ghost man. And then, one day, the Bear-holding-a-shark got the break all made-up creatures dream of. {Taps the Bear-Shark with his stick a couple times} {The screen becomes more and more blurry, and zooms further and further into Strong Bad, on each word:} Blurry photographic evidence.

{Cut to Homestar Runner}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Now, I'm a little fuzzy on the details. But I was in the woods, walking my dog, Pom Pom. All of a sudden, he started growlin' and poopin' all over the place {chuckles}. And that's when I saw it.

{Static, then cut to a very fuzzy video reel of the Bear-Shark walking through the woods.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {voiceover} A very. Scary. Monsterm'n.

{More spooky jungle music}

STRONG BAD: {voiceover} Now that we've seen all the evidence, it's up to you to decide: {the following words appear on the screen} Mysterious Myth? Or Legendary Legend?

{More spooky jungle music. Cut back to the Lappy.}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Join us next week when we examine startling new evidence in the Biscuitdoughhandsman conspiracy.

{Yet more spooky jungle music. The Paper comes down.}

Easter Eggs

Walking with Trogdor

Who actually made all those fence drawings...

• After Strong Bad says "Corn Army", click on CA in the email to see a Teen Girl Squad frame of A Mighty Warrior taking on the Corn Army.

A MIGHTY WARRIOR: The corn army is no match for A Mighty Warrior!

• Click on "CG Dinosaur Channel" to see Trogdor walk on the screen, advertising "Walking with Trogdor".
• By viewing the Flash file, when the "ancient fence drawings" are going by, the following text is written in juvenile handwriting outside of the viewing area:

by st^rong
bab
agɘ 5

• Click on "startling" at the end to see a scene with Strong Bad and Bubs.

{Cut to Bubs' Concession Stand}

STRONG BAD: {holding one of the Bear-Shark ice cream bars} So this is supposed to be the bear holding a shark? Looks more like... Morgan Freeman.

BUBS: Oh, right! That's what it is! Now gimme twenty extra bucks for that Shawshank style.

• Also at the end, click on "Biscuitdoughhandsman" to see Coach Z reporting an incident.

{Cut to Coach Z, standing in silhouette in front of a dark background. A caption appears reading "This guy's voice has been digitally altered again"}

COACH Z: {with voice digitally altered} So there I was, minding my own creepy business, when I found this severed hand in the lacker room! {He holds up a biscuit with a bite taken out.}

Fun Facts

Explanations

• "CG" is short for "Computer graphics".
• The telephone game is a game for children where a message is whispered from one participant to another, along a group, causing the message to be increasingly distorted as time progresses.

Trivia

• The T-shirt in Bubs' Concession Stand reads: "My baby got stole by the bear holding a shark!"
  • On March 27, 2006, a real-life version of this T-shirt was introduced in the Store.
• Without Easter eggs factored into length, this is the shortest Lappy email, at 2:55.
• The YouTube description for this email is "Strong Bad tells the legendary legend of the Bear Holding a Shark."

Remarks

• The location given in the star chart, 118 degrees north and 28 degrees west, is impossible as on Earth, 118 degrees north does not exist in star chart notation.
• Cephas is a Hellenization of Kepha, a Hebrew name which is the rough equivalent of the Greek Petros, usually anglicized to Peter in English translations. The name is properly pronounced "KAY-fus". Strong Bad pronounces this name "CEE-Fus", a common anglicization.
• Although Strong Bad calls the Bear Holding a Shark by that name in this email, he also called it a "bear-shark" in date.
• The "Bear-Tooth holding a Shark-Tooth" necklace Bubs offers for sale is made with bear claws, not bear teeth. Actual bear teeth are much smaller and closely resemble dog teeth.
• Although Strong Bad berates the email's author for combining two words into one ("Strongbad"), he includes the word "rollercoasters" in his reply. "Roller coaster" consists of two separate words.

Goofs

Biscuitdoughhandsman sticks again!

• When Strong Bad is introducing Strong Badia for the first time, his right arm is briefly missing.
• If the Trogdor Easter egg and Corn Army Easter egg are active when the static appears, they will appear over the static and disappear once the scene changes to Strong Badia.
• In the Coach Z Easter egg, when he holds out the biscuit, a little part of biscuit can be seen through the end of his hand.

Inside References

• The ancient fence drawings include another appearance of pie and a whale.
• A Mighty Warrior first appeared in Teen Girl Squad Issue 10, and has mentioned corn each time he has appeared.
• Biscuitdoughhandsman first appeared in Strong Bad is in Jail Cartoon.
  • In the email pizzaz he was also the subject of the "next episode".
• The scene with constellations representing Strong Badia's Seven Elemental Spirits features the Strong Badian flag's snake, the big knife guy and his knife, and General Tso's Chicken, which all had connections to Strong Badia in the past; the wood with nails has also appeared in Strong Badia as a part of the flagpole.
• The fish constellation's 'fro wig also appeared in monument.
• Coach Z's voice was digitally altered before in couch patch.
• The Bear Holding a Shark first appeared in date – in that email, The Cheat touched The Tire, received an electric shock, and then was scared off by the bear-shark. In this email, Strong Bad touches the Tire with a pointer and avoids the shock, and The Cheat is once again scared away by the bear-shark.
• The "Bear Holding A Shark" ice cream bar is similar in style to the ice cream bars of Homestar Runner, Pom Pom and Strong Bad, as seen in the Museum Sketchbook.
• "Strong Bab" is a reference to Strong Sad's Secret Styles, in which Strong Sad's birthday card was signed the same way by Lil' Strong Bad.
• Homestar Runner's pronunciation of "monsterman," as one word with the last syllable unaccented, is another example of "man" pronounced as "m'n".
• The cottage and Trogdor sprite used in the "Walking with Trogdor" Easter egg come from the game TROGDOR!.
• One of the fence drawings appears to be a thatched-roof cottage being burninated.
• Once again Homestar refers to Pom Pom as his dog. He was previously called that in Pumpkin Carve-nival. Though this time, he means it more literally.
• One of the fence drawings can be seen smoking.
• In the Easter egg, Bubs demands "twenty extra bucks for that Shawshank style."
• Coach Z finds a biscuit in the "lacker" room.

Real-World References

• "Walking with Trogdor" is a reference to the TV special Walking with Dinosaurs, which features CGI recreations of dinosaurs presented in the style of nature documentaries.
  • The "Walking with Trogdor" Easter egg is a reference to the trend of television networks to advertise for upcoming shows by displaying short video clips along the bottom of the screen during the broadcast of another show.
• The British Long Distance Runner is a reference to Steve Cram, a British middle-distance runner of the 1980s, as revealed in the DVD commentary.
• "Bear Holding a Shark Week" is a reference to the Discovery Channel's Shark Week programming block.
• One of the fence drawings is a TIE fighter from Star Wars.
• "Shawshank style" is in reference to the 1994 movie The Shawshank Redemption in which Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman plays a convict.
• Strong Bad's myth show is a reference to In Search of... and similar shows and documentaries that investigate paranormal phenomena such as monster sightings and alien abductions, and often include interviews with people who claim to have encountered such things.
• The blurry video footage of the bear holding a shark is a reference to the famous Patterson–Gimlin film, an recording of an alleged Bigfoot moving through a forest.
  • A notable detail about Homestar's footage is that the bear-shark's feet are white and have blue soles, suggesting that the footage is simply a person wearing a costume. Similar criticisms have been leveraged at the Patterson-Gimlin footage.
• Fruitopia is a fruit drink manufactured by The Coca-Cola Company.
• Strong Sad's mention of a weather balloon refers to the 1947 UFO incident in Roswell, New Mexico. Government officials identified strange debris as a weather balloon, which was later alleged to be a cover-up. Since then, weather balloons have become a typical rationalization of UFO sightings.
• The "Homes with Rollercoasters in Them Network" is likely a reference to the many home improvement shows that exist on channels like TLC and the Discovery Channel, in which rooms are redecorated to fit a specific theme. Such shows include Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Monster House.
• Strong Bad's remark about babies getting stolen, and the "My Baby Got Stole" T-shirt in Bubs' Concession Stand, are possible references to the Azaria Chamberlain disappearance in Australia in 1980 (of "a dingo took my baby" fame).

DVD Version

• The Mighty Warrior and Walking With Trogdor Easter eggs are both viewable by pushing the angle button on the DVD remote.
• 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, Karen Wagner)

MATT: Once again we have our sister, Karen, to help us out.

MIKE: Hi, Karen.

KAREN: I want to tell you that after this email came out, I got tons of requests for a bear holding a shark shirt.

MATT: And guess what! We— We sh— We never made one! {Karen laughs}

MIKE: We never made one.

MATT: That's a missed opportunity.

KAREN: I had to order it... three times.

MATT: There's a nice— There's a series of, uh, Teen Girl Squad Easter eggs in Strong Bad Emails. This is one of them. I think there's been, you know, maybe a handful... where the Easter egg is some, like, a scene from a Teen Girl Squad.

MIKE: Mm-hmm.

MATT: Like the death metal guys.

MIKE: What is this one?

MATT: The Cephas— The corn army! It's the samurai.

MIKE: Oh, yeah!

MATT: "Corn is no match for a mighty warrior."

MIKE: Oh, that's right.

KAREN: It's, "Corn is no place for a mighty warrior."

MATT: Well, right, but his— but when he's talking to the corn army I believe he says—

KAREN: Oh, okay.

MATT: —the corn army is no match.

{Karen laughs as Strong Bad begins to talk about the bear holding a shark}

MATT: {reacting to the tones played in the background} What's that— I think that's "goblins". Is that "goblins"? That sound?

MIKE: Oh, on the keyboard?

MATT: {overlapping Mike} On our keyboard, I think that sound is called "goblins".

KAREN: {laughs} Okay, now... Mike?

MIKE: Yeah?

KAREN: Who is the... British distance runner?

MIKE: It's Steve Cram, I think.

MATT: Nice!

MIKE: There was Steve Cram, Steve Ovett, and Sebastian Coe. They ruled, uh, early-'80s distance running—

KAREN: Or—

MIKE: —middle distance...

KAREN: —Seb Coe, as he was called.

MIKE: {overlapping Karen} Seb Coe, yeah.

{pause}

MATT: Where do you think that, uh—

KAREN: Moose with an iguana.

MATT: —What church has a stained glass moose holding a chameleon?

MIKE: {overlapping Matt} I don't know, but I want to go there.

KAREN: Oh, I thought it was an iguana.

MATT: So there's the baby— My baby got stole, right there.

KAREN: Yep.

MATT: And there's a little bit of a— of a Star Wars battle with TIE fighters.

KAREN: {overlapping Matt} Is that girl holding the whale supposed to be me?

MATT: I don't think so.

MIKE: What? Do you hold whales?

KAREN: Oh, I also got requests... I also got requests for the shot glasses. {pause until Bubs holds up the necklace} I died laughing the first time I heard that.

MATT: {reacting to the beat played as Bubs dances} Oh, oh!

KAREN: What sound is that on your keyboard?

MATT: Uh.. That's, uh...

MIKE: Tang... sango? Samba?

MATT: {simultaneously with Mike} Samba? Yeah.

MIKE: Yeah, samba. Yeah.

{pause}

KAREN: Oh—

MATT: Bear holding a shark week. That's very popular on—

KAREN: Took me a couple of times watchin' it before I actually noticed that in the background.

MIKE: I think Shark Week started that whole thing.

MATT: I just saw on the news the other day— There was aerial footage of the coast of Florida, of just probably stock footage of sharks swimming, and it was like, "If you're in Florida, why you might wanna— not wanna go in the water, next!" And it was just like, "Oh! There are sharks in the ocean! Still!"

MIKE: Look! It's the Patterson footage!

MATT: Patterson-Gim— Gimwood.

MIKE: {overlapping Matt} Gimli?

MATT: Gimli? I can't remember.

KAREN: It's actually... that thing? And you just...

MATT: No, no, no. That's a, uh... a... photograph of some woods that I then put Homestar in and made it all blurry.

MIKE: That's just the name of that, uh...

MATT: Bigfoot.

MIKE: That Bigfoot footage.

KAREN: Oh, I see.

MIKE: The famous Bigfoot footage.

{pause}

MATT: {singing} Goblins! Goblins!

{Karen laughs}

Fun Facts

• The Brothers Chaps did later release a Bear Holding a Shark T-shirt.
• Steve Cram, Steve Ovett, and Sebastian Coe are British Olympic runners.
• The Patterson–Gimlin film is the name of the purported Bigfoot footage the brothers attempt to remember the name of.
  • Gimli is a character from Lord of the Rings, a dwarf who joins the Fellowship of the Ring.

External Links

• watch "myths & legends"
• watch "myths & legends" on YouTube
• watch "myths & legends" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "myths & legends"
• forum thread re: "myths & legends"