narrator
From Homestar Runner Wiki
| Strong Bad Email #144 |
|
Strong Bad dramatically narrates other people's lives.
Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, Strong Badman (Easter egg), Grossman (Easter egg) Strong Sad, Bubs, Coach Z, Homestar Runner, Marzipan, Homsar, The Poopsmith, The Cheat, Strong Mad, Nebulon (Easter egg), Alien Cow Marzipan (Easter egg)
Places: Computer Room, Strong Sad's Room, Bubs' Concession Stand, Marzipan's House, The Field, King of Town's Castle, Strong Mad's Room, Bathroom of the Brothers Strong, Basement of the Brothers Strong, Laundry Room of the Brothers Strong, The Moon (Easter egg)
Computer: Lappy 486
Date: Monday, February 6, 2006
Running Time: 3:01
Page Title: Lappy 486
DVD: strongbad_email.exe Disc Five
Contents |
[edit] Transcript
STRONG BAD: {singing} I met this email on a north-bound train. We had some dinner, then we danced in the rain. {Presses enter.}
subject: narrationHave you ever been the narrator for a movie?
Grant Gossman from Minnesota.
{Strong Bad says "Minnesota" slightly slower than the rest.}
STRONG BAD: {typing} No Grossman, I have not. But you know what's way better than narrating movies? Narrating peoples' pathetic everyday lives like they're movie trailers. Ready? Let's try it!
{Cut to Strong Sad's room. Strong Sad is sitting at his table eating a small pie. Strong Bad leans in through the doorway, smiling.}
STRONG BAD: {dramatically} Meet Strong Sad.
STRONG SAD: What? Who are you talking to?
STRONG BAD: All he ever wanted was to eat his grody ethnic food in peace.
STRONG SAD: Hey man, this is a rogan josh pot pie!
STRONG BAD: Until one day, fate threw him a curveball.
{A small blue octopus flies across the screen, hits Strong Sad in the face with a slap and sticks to him.}
STRONG SAD: OW!
STRONG BAD: Lump of Dump Pictures proudly presents:
{Cut to logo splash. Words appear as Strong Bad says them.}
STRONG BAD: "Whined & Dined". In the game of life, may the best man {slight pause} whine. {grumbles}
{Cut to Bubs' Concession Stand. Coach Z is talking to Bubs. Strong Bad quickly peers out around the corner of the stand. All the while, dramatic music with drums is heard.}
STRONG BAD: In a post-apocalyptic world where {cut to a closeup of Strong Bad} weird old men survive on boring conversations...
{Cut to wide shot outside the stand.}
BUBS: I suppose we could talk about my napkin friend for another couple hours. {holds up a napkin}
{Cut back to Strong Bad.}
STRONG BAD: ...a line will be drawn.
{Cut to the inside of the stand.}
COACH Z: YOUR napkin?! Well, it's got my snot balls on it!
{Cut back to Strong Bad.}
STRONG BAD: A hero will rise.
{Cut back to outside the stand.}
BUBS: Man, you don't even have a nose!
{Cut back to Strong Bad.}
STRONG BAD: And an empire will fall.
{Cut back to outside the stand. Bubs slams the metal gate to his concession stand shut, revealing "4actor Z" graffiti}
STRONG BAD: Factor Z!
{Cut to Marzipan's House. Marzipan and Homestar are inside; Homestar is wearing an apron and a strange chef's hat. Strong Bad peeks in from the left, smiling again.}
STRONG BAD: They were a couple in love.
MARZIPAN: Homestar, you look like a dork with that on.
STRONG BAD: Until a dorky chef's hat threatened to tear them apart.
{Close-up of Homestar's head. Homestar shakes his head, making the hat's 'googly eyes' jiggle.}
HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oh, yeah? Well maybe you look like some type of enormous... alien... cow!
MARZIPAN: {sharp offended gasp}
STRONG BAD: {as music begins to play} This summer,—
{Cut to the field, where Homsar is levitating on his stomach while his hat rises}
STRONG BAD: —this holiday season,—
{Cut to the side of The King of Town's castle. The Poopsmith is shoveling whatsit in the background. Slow zoom in on him}
STRONG BAD: —this Arbor Day, some smelly French studio invites YOU {points at camera} to sit through a four hour film with no dialogue and no plot. "Whatsit {slight pause} All About"
{Title appears on the screen with the subtitle "Whatzeet All Aboot?" Cut to Strong Mad's room. Strong Mad and The Cheat are playing Battleship. Piano music begins as Strong Bad appears in the center}
STRONG BAD: Two unlikely partners...
STRONG MAD: I ATE MY BATTLESHIP!
STRONG BAD: ...one brain between them.
THE CHEAT: {shrugs and sighs}
STRONG BAD: From the creators of "I'm Surprised Strong Mad Hasn't Eaten The Cheat by Now"
STRONG MAD: {upset} Awww!
STRONG BAD: get ready to—
{The words fly on screen as he says them.}
STRONG BAD: —LUG... IT... AROUND.
{Title appears at top of screen.}
STRONG BAD: "Lugnut {gestures toward Strong Mad, who grins} & Squeak" {pats The Cheat on the head}
THE CHEAT: {makes a The Cheat noise}
{Cut to bathroom. We are just behind Strong Sad as he brushes his teeth. We can see his reflection in the mirror. Strong Bad pops up just over his shoulder.}
STRONG BAD: For hundreds of years it has {flickers lights on and off} haunted mankind.
{Cut to The Basement. Strong Sad is watching TV. Strong Bad is standing off to the side.}
STRONG BAD: From the master of teenagers-on-a-camping-trip-esque horror. {flickers lights again and leaves them off}
STRONG SAD: Are you gonna throw a dead goose at me or something?
STRONG BAD: Comes the remake no one has been waiting for: {another title splash} "Things That Go Dump in The Night".
{Cut to the laundry room. Strong Sad opens the dryer. Cut to a view of Strong Sad from inside it. A dead Canada goose flies out and Strong Sad screams as it knocks him over. The screen immediately goes black except for the words "Your goose is cooked."}
{Cut back to the Lappy.}
STRONG BAD: {typing} The critics agree! "A triumph!" "A cinematic breakfast snack of some kind!" "It {very slight pause} sure was a movie!" {quickly} Now playing in select cities. {rapidly, in the manner of a disclaimer} This Strong Bad Email has been rated P for The Poopsmith and a graphic scene of The Paper.
{The Paper comes down.}
[edit] Easter Eggs
- Click on "Grossman" after Strong Bad types it to see a Strong Badman comic book cover illustrating him.
- Click on "critics" at the end of the email to see a scene with Strong Bad and Strong Sad.
- STRONG SAD: {still with the blue octopus on his face} Look, all I'm saying is it felt more like a change-up than a curveball.
- STRONG BAD: What are you, the SBEmail police now? This is like three weeks in a row!
- Click on "rated P" at the end to see a Powered by The Cheat scene featuring Marzipan as an "enormous alien cow" with Nebulon on The Moon.
- MARZIPAN ALIEN: {in a Powered by The Cheat-style voice} You know, Nebulon, I've always admired your styles.
- {Nebulon makes a sad face and slides away.}
[edit] Fun Facts
[edit] Explanations
- Rogan josh is a tomato/red pepper based lamb curry dish, created in Northern India. It is normally served over rice, not in a pot pie.
- The "change-up" and "curveball" Strong Sad mentions in the Easter egg are both pitches in baseball. There is a double meaning, however. While he was probably speaking literally of the octopus being thrown at him, both phrases can also refer to unexpected twists of fate, as in Strong Bad's narration.
[edit] Trivia
- The Strong Badman Easter egg was not in the email at first, but was added later on in the day.
- This email contains an instance of Strong Bad Smiling.
[edit] Remarks
- Strong Bad emphasizes the word "gross" when he says the name "Gossman" as "Grossman". A "gross" is a term for 144 of anything, and this is the 144th email.
- Strong Bad refers to Bubs and Coach Z as "old men" in this toon. Their ages relative to the other characters are rarely mentioned, although Coach Z called himself an "old man" in caffeine.
- Interestingly, although Strong Bad refers to Bubs as an old man in this email and in isp, he also called him "kid" in cheatday.
- When Bubs is the Thnikkaman, he refers to everyone except Coach Z as "kid."
- Coach Z tells Bubs that the napkin has his snotballs on it, which is odd since Coach Z appears to lack a nose, as Bubs then notes.
- When Strong Bad is narrating for "THiNGS THAT GO DUMP iN THE NiGHT", he flips the lights on and off in the basement, making us think that there is a light switch just "behind the black" on the left. However, in Homestar Presents: Presents, no light switch was seen.
[edit] Goofs
- During the Lugnut and Squeak scene, the Battleship images on the playing boards are slightly disproportionate when the camera zooms in on Strong Bad.
- When The Poopsmith is shoveling his pile of whatsit, the whatsit on his shovel disappears before dropping to the ground.
[edit] Glitches
- When Marzipan's angry expression is used, blinking causes her outline to be intruded.
[edit] Inside References
- Strong Bad's email intro mentions meeting someone on a train, and then dancing in the rain.
- Strong Mad's role as Lugnut is likely a reference to his Yearbook Character Page, which described him as a "big lug".
- Strong Bad's line about boring conversations between Bubs and Coach Z is another Yearbook Character Page reference, while their argument over who owns the napkin is a reference to the Easter egg rap from cheatday, specifically Bubs's line (to Coach Z) "But don't you steal my napkins."
- When Strong Bad says "three weeks in a row", he is referring to the previous 2 emails: technology, in which Strong Sad corrected Strong Bad for calling a floppy disk a "hard disk", and secret identity, when Hyperactive Strong Sad corrected Homestar's mispronunciation of "pseudonym". All three of these corrections occurred during Easter eggs.
- Even though Alien Cow Marzipan says she likes his style (unlike Strong Bad and 1-Up), Nebulon mopes away just as he did in New Boots.
- Matt Chapman remarked in the Inkhole Interview and New Boots DVD Commentary that this move is his favorite part of any toon.
- The movie title "THiNGS THAT GO DUMP iN THE NiGHT" is another appearance of lowercase i's.
- There is another reference to pie.
- Homestar's dorky chef's hat is another instance of a googly-eyed object.
- "4actor Z" is another example of Leetspeak.
- "Lugnut & Squeak" is from the creators of "I'm Surprised Strong Mad Hasn't Eaten The Cheat by Now".
- Strong Mad claims to have eaten his battleship.
- The first film starring Strong Sad is produced by "Lump of Dump Pictures", and the second one has "dump" in the title.
[edit] Real-World References
- "Ready? Let's try it!" is what Pee-wee Herman typically says in Pee-wee's Playhouse when getting the viewing audience to do their first scream along with the day's secret word.
- The game Strong Mad and The Cheat are playing is Battleship. Strong Mad's line "I ate my battleship!" is a take off from the old Battleship commercials, where one player would cry at the end "You sank my battleship!"
- The "battleship" icon depicted on the game is a silhouette of the Civil War-era Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia.
- "Teenagers on a camping trip" likely refers to horror movies such as Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp, which primarily featured such characters.
- Strong Bad's trailer for "Factor Z" is in the style of prolific voiceover man Don LaFontaine, who was responsible for almost 5,000 U.S. movie trailers, and for popularizing the phrases "in a world" and "a hero will rise."
[edit] Fast Forward
- Homestar's chef hat makes another appearance in Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People.
- Strong Bad again refers to Strong Mad and The Cheat as Lugnut and Squeak in Strong Badia the Free.
- The music during the second Strong Sad movie appears again in an Easter egg in your funeral and in independent.
- In Doomy Tales of the Macabre, Strong Mad actually does eat The Cheat, and Strong Bad states that Strong Mad eats The Cheat four times a day.
[edit] See Also
[edit] DVD Version
- The DVD version features hidden creators' commentary. To access it, switch the DVD player's audio language selection while watching.
[edit] Commentary Transcript
(Commentary by: Mike Chapman, Matt Chapman)
MATT: {laughing at Strong Bad's song} I don't remember that one at all, Mike.
MIKE: I don't either, Matt.
MATT: It sounds like the {speaking in the song's rhythm} "If You Like Piña Coladas" song. {Mike laughs} It reminds me of that.
MIKE: So, I think this email, I had to check on— narrator sometimes confuses me, as to whether or not it's "narrator" or "narrarator".
MATT: No, it's narrator.
MIKE: Yeah.
MATT: I always think of— uh, in A Clockwork Orange he refers to himself as his— as "your humble narrator", so—
MIKE: Ahh—
MATT: — and I always feel like, okay, "narrator". Cause clearly—
MIKE: Uh...
{pause}
MATT: I think that would be really good. A Rogan Josh pot pie.
MIKE: You should make one.
{pause}
MATT: Where do you think Strong Bad got that squid, Mike?
MIKE: {after pause, sounding bored} I don't know... the farmer's market maybe? {Matt laughs} You can get some gross stuff at the farmer's market.
MATT: {resigned} Probably...
{pause}
MATT: Do you ever do this, Mike? Narrate real life— like it's a movie trailer?
MIKE: Yeah. {narration voice} In a— email commentary that was pretty boring ...{Matt laughs} Two brothers talk about dumb stuff.
MATT: O-okay!
MIKE: Yeah.
MATT: ...that's pretty good.
MIKE: You try!
MATT: {interrupting} What's that called though?
MIKE: Oh—
MATT: What do you call—
MIKE: —the movie?
MATT: Yeah.
MIKE: Slow...
MATT: {laughs}
MIKE: ...Guys
MATT: {laughs harder}
MIKE: But "guise" is G-U-I-S-E.
MATT: Okay... I like that.
MIKE: Yeah, it's a play on— {overlapping} It's a play on words.
MATT: Like we're wearing disguises?
MIKE: Maybe.
MATT: Umm.. That's a great hat. I wish I could have that hat.
MIKE: Uh, I can make that for you for Christmas next year.
MATT: Yeah? What about the cow l— I want the cow lamp and I want the— {sees Homsar floating} What? {both laugh} Homsar defying gravities.
{long pause}
MATT: Say some things. Was that the Canadian, uh, subtitles there?
MIKE: "Whatzeet?"
MATT: "Whatzeet all aboot"
{pause}
MIKE: Look, they're really playing Battleship. Not Jengaship.
MATT: Mike and I work, and we play Battleship all the time, because we sit, eh, facing each other, with our laptops open.
MIKE: {overlapping} —with our laptops! That's true.
MATT: So it looks like—
MIKE: We should— we should get our laptops, uh, custom— what do you call those?
MATT: {overlapping} A mod? A case mod.
MIKE: Case mods.
MIKE: We should get case mods for our laptops to look like Battleship.
MATT: Red and blue Battleships, that's a great idea!
MIKE: A little sticker paper, maybe!
MATT: We could totally get on Gizmodo... with that— with that mess. {pause} Ooo, look at that effect, I like that flickering... nighttime lights.
{pause}
MATT: Scary music. {fake screams}
MIKE: {laughs}That part does scare me everytime.
MATT: It does! It's the harsh, guitar noise.
MIKE: Yeah, I think it's the sound, more than anything else.
MATT: {rushes to say something} Wha— Uh, oh, uh—
[edit] Fun Facts
- The song mentioned is "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" by Rupert Holmes, which was a number one Billboard Hit in 1979. Its chorus famously begins with "If you like piña coladas..."
- The movie A Clockwork Orange features voice-over narration from main character Alex DeLarge.
- Gizmodo is a website devoted to technology and science fiction. At the time of this email, "case mods" (custom PCs with elaborate or creatively-designed housing) were frequently featured posts.
- "Jengaship" was first referenced in Where's The Cheat?, as a game that Homsar thought he and Strong Sad were playing. They actually were playing Connect Four.
[edit] External Links
- watch "narrator"
- watch "narrator" on the old Flash site
- view the Flash file for "narrator"
- forum thread re: "narrator"
