Today's theme: not having a theme

Happy Fireworks, everyone! Or at least everyone in the US, I suppose. I could go ahead and review that toon to be relevant, but there’s not much of a reason to. Instead, I’ll just keep on truckin’ through the SBEmails lined up ahead of us, plus the short toon that got clumped in with them. And it seems like the majority of these are rather solid and memorable emails, too. So let’s get crackin’ and start out with autobiography.

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail67.html

Despite Strong Bad calling this a solid email (and me also stating that two sentences ago), this is probably the worst of the bunch from today’s update. Which doesn’t mean this is a particularly bad email; it’s just not as good as the ones to follow it. Much like Marzipan’s Answering Machine (and early SBEmails where he never left the computer), the humor here is almost entirely audio-based, though there are a few visual gags included in this. So if you don’t like those toons, you’re probably not going to be a huge fan of this one. I do generally enjoy the Answering Machines, but I feel like this email falls a bit flat.

Out of the three excerpts of the autobiography we get to hear, I think the first (the basketball one) is probably the best, if only because it’s another instance of Strong Bad inadvertently admitting his shortcomings, which I always find amusing. And it also spawned the “Reg had the ball at the top of the key” running joke, which is … kind of inexplicable, honestly. There’s a lot of running gags in this series that make no sense, but this is a key example of one. Or an example of one at the top of the key, at least. I dunno. But yeah, that part was my favorite. The one about the girlfriend having to go to another planet wasn’t bad, but Strong Bad talking about imaginary girlfriends isn’t exactly a new concept.

The last bit just confuses me. I’m not sure which part of the scrap of paper was supposed to be funny enough to make milk and cookies shoot out of Strong Bad’s nose. It is kind of amusing, yes, but I don’t think I really get it. So they just wrote extra zeros on a one-dollar bill and were able to trick someone with it? Probably Homestar. But this is another instance of something happening off-screen that I wish we could actually see happen, and in this case, I think it would actually improve the joke instead of ruining it. And I think that Matt and Mike probably realized this later, because the next two toons actually focus on Strong Bad and The Cheat pulling off some sort of plot, or in this case, caper.

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail68.html

This one is undeniably a classic, even though (and possibly because) I have no idea what’s going on. So let’s step back and look at the facts. James (the email sender) mentions that Strong Bad and The Cheat haven’t been cooperating much lately, even though I don’t believe there’s any evidence of this being the case. Strong Bad has a flashback to an incident where they break into Homestar’s house to steal some jumbles (a kind of word puzzle), but The Cheat breaks a cow lamp and they get caught. Sometime after this incident, Strong Bad gets mad at The Cheat for screwing up the jumble caper, so they stop talking to each other for a while (again, allegedly. There hasn’t actually been a big gap in The Cheat’s appearances or anything like that, so I have no idea what James is referring to, unless he’s like me and just wanted to see the dollar bill scheme from the previous email). Strong Bad realizes he’s being petty and breaks into a song for absolutely no reason, and then they make up.

If that doesn’t count as a pulled-out-of-nowhere plot, I don’t know what does. But trust me, I’m not saying this is a bad thing. I like when things make no sense (usually – the dollar bill thing is an instance where I think it doesn’t work that well), and this email manages to work itself into bizarre enough situations where it turns out to be really funny. Cinnamon-faced Homestar is truly comedic gold as far as I’m concerned (if you didn’t stick around at the ending for his second appearance, rewatch the email), and the song from this email is one of the best on the website. And I just love how there’s really no reason for him to be singing it. Feeling guilty for abandoning The Cheat is one thing, but this is a song specifically about being glad that he’s not dead. And because I feel like I should point it out, the Wiki mentions that the song is rather similar to A Sign Of The Times by Petula Clark. After listening to it, I agree. And so now that these two buddies are reunited (from the argument that we never saw – I cannot stress this enough), they can pull off all sorts of new capers, such as the one seen in Lookin at a Thing in a Bag.

http://www.homestarrunner.com/whatsinthebag.html

You know, I think this one needs to be broken down a bit like the previous email, because it’s every bit as nonsensical, perhaps moreso. The way I see it, there’s two possible plots that took place here. Plot A: SB, SM, and TC pretend to look in bags in order to get Homestar curious and want to hang out with them. They then ask him to get some drinks, which he does because he thinks that then they’ll let him see what’s in the bag. He buys the drinks from Bubs (who is in on the plot), gives them to the guys, and then leaves. Bubs gets one of the drinks, and all is good.

Plot B: Bubs is actually the one who pays for the drinks (or gives them away for free – as Strong Bad puts it, he “donates the drinks to our cause”), and the entire plot with Homestar and the bags is pretty much just to waste his time and make him look stupid. To be fair, we do never actually see Homestar pay for the drinks, so this is quite possible. So which one is true? Eh, I don’t mind not knowing, actually. Once again, the fact that the toon doesn’t make much sense doesn’t really hold it back. I still find it to be really funny, and that’s all that matters.

And then this is the part where I point out a bunch of other stuff. First, the thing that Bubs was doing – allow me to quote Mike from the DVD commentary here: “I was in New York and there was some guy hawking, watches or something on the street saying ‘checkitoutcheckitoutcheckitout’, we came by the same place about three hours later and he was still saying ‘checkitoutcheckitoutcheckitout’.” Awesome. Also, “More like, you get me a drink!” is another Homestar quote that I use in everyday life. And yes, I do still use that exact wording even if someone tells me to do something other than get them a drink. And finally, this is another “Not Quite Strong Bad Email”, because much like Arcade Game, when this toon first released, there was a sticky note on the Compy that linked to the toon. Why does this matter? It doesn’t. I think they did that because fans were checking the Email menu more often than the actual homepage, so this was a way to get more people to see the new toon. But as a final statement for this toon, I’d consider it one of my personal favorites. And so is the next email – personal favorites.

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail69.html

While I’ve been writing these posts, I’ve often wondered if I actually do have a favorite email. There’s a lot of really funny ones that I enjoy every time I watch them, but I’ve never been able to decide on a specific one. But you know what, I think this is my favorite, and I’m not just saying that because of the name of it. Until I find another one that makes me say otherwise, this is my favorite email. Why? Because the entire thing is hilarious, why else? Even the intro is amazing, and it’s non-stop rapid-fire jokes from then on. Matt Chapman agrees with me too (or at least did during the Flashforward 2006 conference, his opinion might have changed since then).

Short of just listing the things that make this funny, I don’t know if there’s much I can say about this email. So I’ll just mention the parts that I thought were the best. The Marshmallow’s Last Stand-style part was probably the highlight of it for me. How can you not laugh at “I like-a to say, HOLY CRAP!” “Oh nooo, it’s a Stwong Baaaad!”? I don’t even know WHY it’s funny, it just is. Of course, the soy sauce bits are a close second though. And I like how those were apparently two different emails. There’s some good stuff at the end of the email too, be sure to check both of the clickable Easter eggs multiple times, and hit the Q button for good measure.

Apparently this email has somewhat of a history for confusing fans. It’s been pointed out in interviews and the DVD commentary that they keep getting questions asking where the other emails shown in this clip show are, and so the website FAQ specifically had to mention that they were fake. I thought it was pretty obvious, but it wouldn’t be the first time someone failed to understand a joke. It does raise a question though – did any of this stuff actually happen in-universe? The Grape-Nuts Robot does make appearances later on, but that could just be because Strong Bad thought it was a good idea and then asked Bubs to make it later on. Oh, and I feel obligated to point out that Coach Z originally said “I’m a white guy with a knife!” during the stone bridge scene, and then it was changed. And speaking of people with a big white face…

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail70.html

I think my brain is broken. I went from overanalyzing caper and Lookin at a Thing in a Bag to spouting out what was funny about personal favorites without providing anything insightful, and I think the drastic change is preventing me from saying anything about this email. Or maybe there’s just not that much to say about it, that’s possible too. It pretty much all comes down to one joke, and that’s Strong Bad completely missing the obvious. You do have to wonder if he legitimately forgot about Strong Sad, or if he just refused to do anything nice for him. Well ok, you don’t HAVE to wonder that, but I’m trying to be analytical here, and I’m having a hard time.

My favorite part of this – actually, hold that thought, I remembered the awesome Easter egg. Click on The Cheat’s picture for a nice little medical diagram. You don’t get very long to look at it, so either take a screenshot or look on the Wiki. But anyway, my favorite part of this is probably either the fact that Strong Bad doesn’t have a specific apology for The Poopsmith other than “sorry I threw that first cake at Strong Sad”, or the fact that he put beans on it. And then in an additional Easter egg at the end, a bunch of other crap gets piled on top of it. I want some General Tso’s chicken now. But I can’t eat yet, I still need to write about two more emails. Or at least 2 emails.

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail71.html

For all the times I’ve griped about it not being funny when Strong Bad pretends that he’s a ladies’ man, I have to admit, this is a major exception. This email doesn’t focus on any one specific thing and do it really well, but it does have a lot of smaller things that add up to a pretty funny result. The “I’ll answer two emails this week. [pause] Number two:” bit was handled perfectly, and maybe I’m just weird, but I found it hilarious when Strong Bad said “About 70 or 50 fine women”. You could tell from the inflection that he kind of dropped his expectations a bit partway through the sentence, pretty much admitting that maybe he’s not THAT awesome, but still awesome enough for 50 to show up. I dunno, it was just a funny line.

The main highlight of this one (aside from the little logo that keeps popping up, what with its funky little tune and whatnot) is the sequence of events that happens in fast-forward. There’s a lot of quick little blink-and-you’ll-miss-it gags in there, one of which actually comes into play in another …[counts] 79 emails. And no, I’m not talking about the Pigs on Head LCD game that eventually got released. Oh, and there’s a sombrero too, which are always awesome. The 2003 Ladies’ Choice Awards (dun da-na-nun da-nun *tssh*) were funny in their own right too, mainly Strong Sad’s sarcasm. And I actually didn’t even think about it until just now, but both of the emails received here were completely inconsequential in regards to that event. I like when that happens.

Ok, I lied. The real highlight of this email is actually the Easter egg at the end. Just the name alone is awesome – Uncle Strong Bad’s Flavor Taste Style Chewing Powders. “Whisk away the worries!” I don’t care if it had nothing to do with the rest of the email, that’s the best part now. It’s not like the rest of the email had any kind of consistent narrative to it anyway. That seems to be a bit of a running theme today – the theme of not having a theme. I think I know what the title for this post is going to be now. Thank you, Uncle Strong Bad, for saving me 20 minutes of trying to think of something clever.

And so now all I have to do is write some final statement about how the next post is going to include this and that, and then copy the whole thing into Notepad, paste it into the blogspot editor thing, re-add the italics, and put in the pictures and hyperlinks. Oh, and add the alt text for the images where I choose a funny quote from the email, even though I don’t know how to actually access that text while viewing the blog. It certainly isn’t the mouseover text, because that just shows the name of the toon. This is something else, and I don’t know how to get to it. Someone please tell me.



Also, by request, it would be very helpful if people helped vote for Moore, Oklahoma in this contest held by Coca-Cola. I got a message on Youtube about a week ago asking for me to mention this in a video, and, like a complete jackass, I failed to do this. But there is still time left for the contest. Moore was hit by a really bad tornado recently and the winner of this contest gets $100,000, which would help pay for repairing the damage caused. All you have to do is register for the site and vote for Veteran's Memorial Park in Moore, Oklahoma. I just did it myself and it only took about two minutes, so there's no excuse for being lazy.