The Cheat Theme Song

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"Who's the dude that moves to the beat?"

A song by The Skate Party. Music video directed by The Cheat.

Cast (in order of appearance): The Cheat, Strong Bad, Homestar Runner, Pikachu

Places: The Cheat's Computer Room

Date: Monday, February 25, 2002

Running Time: 1:20

Page Title: The Cheat Theme Song

DVD: Everything Else, Volume 1

Transcript

Who's always givin' Strong Bad a hand?
The Cheat! The Cheat!

Who's always messin' up Homestar's plans?
The Cheat! The Cheat!

Who's gonna start a rock and roll band?
The Cheat! The Cheat!

Who's {Homestar Talker voice} Making - Out - With - Marzipan!
The Cheat! The Cheat!

(The Cheat, The Cheat is in the house!)

Who's the man that looks like The Cheat?
The Cheat! The Cheat!

{In falsetto} Who's the one with the yellow feet?
The Cheat! The Cheat!

Who's the dude that moves to the beat?
The Cheat! The Cheat!

Who's the guy from 21 Jump Street?
Not The Cheat! Not The Cheat!

The Cheat!
The Cheat!

{Music ends; cut to Strong Bad, Homestar Runner, and The Cheat in front of Tangerine Dreams.}

THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}

STRONG BAD: Um, I dunno, The Cheat, I don't think it was very good... at all. Like, the song was kinda catchy but the visuals were lacking... at best.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: This is the best video game I've ever played.

Easter Eggs

• At the end, clicking on "The Skate Party" at the bottom left hand corner links to The Skate Party's website. (The site is no longer available, but is archived here.)

Fun Facts

Trivia

• The YouTube description for this toon is "The Cheat learns Flash to make an animated video for his own theme song by The Skate Party."
• This toon marks the debut of Powered by The Cheat.

Inside References

• "Making out with Marzipan" was once part of the secret key phrase from the game Homestar Talker.
• Homestar mentions this is the best video game he's ever played.
• The Cheat's feet are mentioned, although he lacks visible legs.

Real-World References

• 21 Jump Street was a TV series that ran from 1987 to 1992, starring Johnny Depp in an early role.
• The Cheat, drawn as one single animated line, may be a reference to La Linea, an animated television series featuring a character similarly drawn out of a single infinite line.
  • This animation style was also an inspiration for the music videos for "Bla Bla Bla" and "The Riddle" by Gigi D'Agostino.
• The line "Who's gonna start a rock and roll band?" is accompanied by a "The Cheat" symbol that looks like the logo for the band Van Halen.
• The silhouetted face singing the line "The Cheat is in the house" is reminiscent of the music video for "One More Time" by Daft Punk. The vocals in "One More Time" are heavily Auto-Tuned, similar to the singing of "The Cheat is in the house".
• When the line "Who's the guy who looks like The Cheat?" is played, Pikachu appears on the screen.

Fast Forward

• In the email "band names", Strong Bad sings his email song to the tune of this song.
• The Cheat once again showed affections for Marzipan in Date Nite.
• This song was the basis of its old-timey counterpart, Ballad of the Sneak.
• In Cool Things, The Cheat forms a band with Strong Mad and Marzipan called Cool Tapes.
• The Cheat is implied to have made out with Marzipan in "do over", albeit Marzipan believing he's Homestar at the time.

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, Matt Chapman)

MIKE: So, here is the debut of The Cheat's Flash animation style, right?

MATT: That's right, Mike!

MIKE: And this song was made by these two guys that just emailed us, Jesse and Josh, who we've, uh, since met.

MATT: Yeah, they're nice boys.

MIKE: They're nice boys. Where're they from, Nashville?

{pause}

MATT: Yes.

MIKE: I think, Tennessee, somewhere?

MATT: I believe so. Sorry, guys!

MIKE: {simultaneously} Anyway, so, they made this song, and uh, it was good, and we liked it. And lots of people thought it was us. Even our sister, like, really thought it was us, even after we put the Skate Party up there, they... "This is you, right"?

MATT: Yeah. Which is a testament to how, you know, it just matched out sensibilities so well! {pause} Umm... what else? I remember you made this in, like, a few hours! I— I was— I went to work; you had sort of messed around with it; I went to work at, like, eleven, of course, and then by, like, four, I think you were done.

MIKE: It'd be nice if we could do updates like that these days!

MATT: {laughs} Yeah, I agree.{pause} Umm, and I think we— did we even decide that it was The Cheat that made it until we kind of thought like, "Oh, we should make it at the end!" Like, I don't think we set out— I think it was set out to be kind of weird and bad.

MIKE: T— Bad Flash video?

MATT: Yeah. {pause} This is the debut of The Cheat's iMac, too, right— or no, was that— that email come first; I don't remember.

MIKE: {simultaneously} Yeah, I'm not sure.

MATT: Yeah.

MIKE: Tangerine, Matt.

MATT: {simultaneously} Tanqueray. Ta—

MIKE: {simultaneously} Tanqueray and Tab. Ernie McCracken.

Fun Facts

• The email i she be, released two weeks before this toon, was indeed the debut of Tangerine Dreams.
• Ernie McCracken is a professional bowler (played by Bill Murray) from the 1996 comedy film Kingpin.
  • "Tanqueray and Tab" refers to McCracken's drink of choice in the film. Tanqueray is a brand of gin, while Tab is a diet cola soft drink produced by Coca-Cola.

See Also

• The visuals that occur during the film.

External Links

• watch "The Cheat Theme Song"
• watch "The Cheat Theme Song" on YouTube
• watch "The Cheat Theme Song" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "The Cheat Theme Song"
• Download "The Cheat Theme Song" (.MP3 file in .ZIP archive)