from work

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Revision as of 10:02, 10 April 2007

"Hey! How come your imagination's working?"

Strong Bad answers an email from work.

Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, Bubs, Strong Sad, Homestar Runner, Pom Pom

Places: The Office

Computer: Corpy NT6

Date: April 9, 2007

Running Time: 3:34

Page Title: Corpy NT6!

Transcript

{Close-up of the lower half of Strong Bad's face. He holds his hand over his mouth.}

STRONG BAD: {sotto voce} Shhh! Shut up, you guys! I'm checkin' email from work today, and I can't let The Man know what I'm up to!

{Cut to Strong Bad typing on a computer with a grey monitor that reads "Corpy NT6"}

STRONG BAD: {singing} Oh, tiptoe your fingers 'cross the keyboard for the quietest email you can check.

{A buzzer is heard. An error message with a picture of a hand blocking a basketball appears with the text "BLOCKED! Back to work, drone!" The box shakes when the buzzer plays.}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Oh, man. They got everything blocked now. Even those awesome pop-up insurance ads with the cool mini-games in 'em. I tasered that gnome like ten times! {stops typing} Good thing The Cheat hooked me up with this Cheatware!

{Strong Bad holds up a yellow 3.5" diskette with black spots; the label reads "Cheatware ver. 2.1" and has an ASCII-like* drawing of The Cheat. He puts it in the computer. The text "Grandmaw Edgar's Corporate Firewall Get-Arounder" appears on the screen with a picture of an old woman and a brick wall. The screen changes to an animation of the old woman pole vaulting over the wall into an envelope.}

STRONG BAD: Oh, nice work, pixel-Granny! Undermine those corporate oppressors on witcha bad self! {brings up email}

Dear Strong Bad,
If you could have any job in the whole
world, regardless of how much it pays, what
would you have?
From The Nitwon

{Strong Bad reads "The Nitwon" as "The Nittle One"}}

STRONG BAD: {typing} You ask like I haven't told you guys a million times... {drumroll sounds; Strong Bad clears screen} I'd be a 2nd 2nd Assistant Space Whale Scrubber! {"tada" sound effect; the words "Space Whale Scrubber" flash in many colors} Cause those are the ones that get to wear that glittery pantsuit and use a lazormop to scrub all the nudules and crudules off the whale's dorsal ridge! {Crickets chirp. Strong Bad looks around.} Umm, shouldn't we be seeing some of this by now?

BUBS: {offscreen} Baghh!

{Cut to view of Bubs standing behind Strong Bad, who is facing him}

BUBS: Sorry, Strong Bad! The suits had me install a firewall on your imagination! All that free thinking was wasting the company's cost money!

{Close up of Strong Bad's face}

STRONG BAD: Oh, that's it! I am totally never gonna quit this job but start complaining about it a little bit more!

{Back to view Strong Bad and Bubs}

BUBS: Well, I'd better get back to tasering that gnome! Err, I mean, upgrading the tasering that gnome! Server!

{return to view of Strong Bad in front of the Corpy}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Well, I guess I could try and describe it using work approved methods. {clears screen, brings up a blank graph} Let's see: {types, the words appear in red above the graph} Why 2nd 2nd Assistant Space-Whale Scrubber is My Dream Job. Twenty percent pantsuit {a green bar comes up from the bottom of the graph with "20%" written on it and "pantsuit" written under it}, seventeen percent space-whale proximity... {a shorter purple bar comes up with "17%" written on it and "space-whale proximity" written under it}

STRONG SAD: {offscreen} Hey, cube neighbor!

{Cut to Strong Sad looking at Strong Bad over the side of his cubicle}

STRONG SAD: My work staysh is asking me if I want to log off or log out. Which one do I choose?

STRONG BAD: Pffft! Stupid temp. You don't know the difference between logging off and logging out?

STRONG SAD: Well, no. Back when I was in charge of the schwa sound at dictionary.com they used to...

STRONG BAD: {interrupting} Look, just hold down escape, control, tab, alt, both shifts, num lock and the little squiggly until your screen turns blue. Then, stare at it until your shift ends.

STRONG SAD: Oh, thanks!

{Strong Sad Goes back down into his own cubicle. Cut back to Strong Bad in front of the Corpy.}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Okay. Back to the, back to the sbemail. Let's talk about dorsal ridges!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: You wanna know what—

{Cut to Homestar Runner behind Strong Bad}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: my dream job would be?

STRONG BAD: No. I mean, no. I mean, no.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: I'd be the guy—

{Cut to a shot of blue sky with clouds}

HOMESTAR RUNNER:—that flies around {Homestar Runner falls onto and starts riding a large flying goldfish} on that big plastic goldfish, painting the clouds with an oversized novelty toothbrush!

STRONG BAD: Hey! How come your imagination's working?

{Cut back to Homestar Runner and Strong Bad}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oh, I got admin privileges! It helps when you're best friends with the Big Cheese!

{Zoom out; Pom Pom is behind Homestar with sunglasses above his eyes and carrying a bicycle with the text "[...]IG CHEESE"}

POM POM: {bubble noises}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Agh! {jumps, turns around} The Big Cheese!

POM POM: {bubble noises}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {bends over with a sad look} Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. Right away, sir. Hallelujah, sir. {Pom Pom begins to walk away, with Homestar shuffling behind him} I'll have that DNA evidence on your desk by five.

{Back to Strong Bad in front of the Corpy}

STRONG BAD: Nevermind, Nitwit. Checking sbemails at the office is not worth the trouble. I dunno how all those bloggers do it. Oh well. I guess I'd better get back to woik.

{Screen clears; a message appears saying "Would you like to:"; there are two buttons, one that says "Log off", one that says "Log out"}.

STRONG BAD: {mumbles, typing noises} 'Scape... tab... squiggly... {with each type, a word appears onscreen: "esc.ctrl.tab.alt.shift.shift.numlock.~.<"}

'{Compy 386 startup/Flagrant System Error sound; blue screen with the words "TEMP LOG OFF/OUT ERROR" and "Oh you are SOOOO not gonna work here again!" comes up. The Paper comes down.}

{After about 7 seconds}

STRONG BAD: Oh, gonna be a long one. I haven't even taken my first sit-in-the-men's-room-and-play-Tetris-for-an-hour break yet.

Easter Eggs

Low rates and percent signs

• Click on the Dullard comic when Strong Sad appears from the cubicle behind it.
• Click on "work" at the end after Strong Bad's comment in order to play "Taser the Gnome For Low Rates."

Fun Facts

Explanations

• A firewall is meant to protect a computer from unwanted connections.
• A temp is a short-term worker.
• A blog, or "weblog", is a journal-like user generated website.
• The Man is a term from the '60s used to describe authority figures. It is often associated with a negative connotation, as '60s movements which used the term tended to resist the influence of individuals who could be considered "The Man."
• "Insurance games" is a reference to online advertisements from companies, like LowerMyBills.com and FreePay, that feature Flash-based games which lead to the company's website when played.
• The screen turning blue is a reference to the Blue Screen of Death, a Windows system error screen.
• A schwa is an unstressed, neutral vowel sound, represented by an ə (an upside down e).
• The squiggly (~) is known as the tilde.
• "Corpy" is a portmanteau of corporation and Compy.
• The dorsal ridge is a raised line or hump on the back of some whales (in place of a dorsal fin).

Remarks

• The sound made by the computer when the Cheatware disk is put in is the noise made by many old 5.25" floppy drives. This was also heard in Peasant's Quest Preview, Peasant's Quest, and Thy Dungeonman 3.
• The tune to the opening email song that this email has is similar to that of trading cards.
• Several fluorescent lights can be seen in the Corpy's reflection.
• The ASCII-like image of The Cheat is not possible to make with ASCII. Parenthesis are used sideways, and the characters do not align correctly with a fixed width font.

Goofs

• The Dullard comic is not visibly attached to the wall in any way, as the thumbtack does not actually go through the comic.
• The reflections of the lights above Strong Bad's cubicle overlap the reflection of his head, which should not be possible since his head would block any light coming from that direction.

Inside References

• This is the fifth email running to mention DNA Evidence.
• Strong Sad previously said "staysh" in Missing Lappy.
• This is another program of the Edgar family.
• Using a lazormop to scrub all the nudules and crudules off the space whale's dorsal ridge is another example of Lasers.
• One of the items in Bubs's tool belt is a permanent marker.
• Bubs spoke of The Man in Cool Things.

Real-World References

• Dictionary.com is an actual online dictionary.
• Products advertised in the Taser the Gnome easter egg are a Microsoft Xbox, a Fifth Generation iPod, and a PlayStation Portable (PSP), all common "prizes" for playing the game ads which the Gnome Tasering game is parodying.
• Tetris is an extremely well-known and often imitated video game created by Alexey Pajitnov, and has been ported to several video game consoles.
• The "Corpy NT6" is a reference to Windows Vista, which is Windows NT version 6.

External Links

• watch "from work"
• watch "from work" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "from work"
• forum thread re: "from work"