from work
From Homestar Runner Wiki
| Strong Bad Email #169 |
|
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!
Contents |
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 computer makes a whirring sound and the text "Grandmaw Edgar's Corporate Firewall Get-Arounder" appears on the screen with a picture of an old woman and a brick wall. Music plays. The screen changes to an animation of the old woman pole vaulting over the wall into an envelope. The words "Running..." appears at the top and changes to "Done and done." as the animation finishes. A loading bar at the bottom progresses from yellow to red.}
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! {he thumps the desk with his fist four times}
{Back to view Strong Bad and Bubs}
BUBS: Well, I'd better get back to tasering that gnome! Err, I mean, upgrading the taser in 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. Let's see: {clears screen, brings up a blank graph. Continues typing, the words appear in red above the graph} Why 2nd 2nd Assistant Space-Whale Scrubber is My Dream Job. {an image of a space-whale appears in the background} 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 {starts drumming his fingers} 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, {an oversized toothbrush appears next to Homestar, who uses it to paint clounds in the sky} painting the clouds with an oversized novelty toothbrush!
STRONG BAD: Hey! How come your imagination's working?
{Homestar stops painting clouds. 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; An annoyed 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 downtrodden look} Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. Right away, sir. Hallelujah, sir. {Pom Pom begins to bounce 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.~.<"}
TEMP LOG OFF/OUT ERROR
gonna work here again!
{The Paper comes down. After about 7 seconds, Strong Bad continues:}
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
- 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, though it is occasionally used (incorrectly) to refer to a proxy server, often used at workplaces and schools to restrict access to non-work related websites.
- A temp is a short-term (or temporary) worker.
- A blog, or "weblog", is a journal-like user generated website.
- 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).
- Strong Bad's log off/log out key sequence is a parody of the key sequence used to unlock Windows NT work stations, Ctrl+Alt+Delete.
- A taser is an electroshock gun or stun gun, a weapon used for subduing a person by administering an electric shock. It is described as non-lethal (officially "less-lethal", meaning it is not intended to kill, and usually does not kill, but does on rare occasions). It is a weapon used by police officers, army personnel, and by individuals. They are not meant to do any permanent damage to a person, only to stun them temporarily.
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. However, the Cheatware disk is a 3.5" one.
- The sound could also be replicating the sound made by the Commodore Amiga A500 floppy drive.
- 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.
- The Dullard comic Easter egg can still be accessed through Strong Bad's head.
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.
Glitches
- The gnome-tasering game's score system is only meant to hold five digits, and hitting 100,000+ will result in the last digit getting cut off.
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.
- Homestar saying he'll have the DNA evidence on Pom Pom's desk by five is a reference to the first Dullard comic.
Real-World References
- 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 a 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.
- 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.
- Dictionary.com is an online dictionary.
- Pom Pom being called "the big cheese" and carrying a bike through the office may be a reference to The Office's Josh Porter, a managerial character who has also been seen carrying a bike through his office.
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"
