Cheat Commandos...O's
From Homestar Runner Wiki
| Toon Category: Shorts |
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Time to Break...Fast! The Cheat Commandos look for the secret desert headquarters of Blue Laser. Some product placement ensues.
Cast (in order of appearance): Fightgar, Gunhaver, Silent Rip, Firebert, Blue Laser Commander, Blue Laser Minion, Crackotage, Ser-g-geant Marshie
Places: Secret Desert Headquarters, Blue Laser Commander's Nana's Backyard
Date: Monday, May 31, 2004
Running Time: 2:13
Page Title: Breakfast is Fundamental
DVD: Everything Else, Volume 2
Contents |
[edit] Transcript
{The cartoon starts with a military soundtrack and a desert landscape. A title comes up saying "TIME TO BREAK...FAST!" written by A. Chimendez. The commandos appear in the distance, climbing over a dune.}
FIGHTGAR: It's gotta be a hundred degrees out here and I'm running on empty!
GUNHAVER: Come on, Fightgar! Just a little further! {he pulls a paper from his jacket} The secret entrance to Blue Laser's secret desert headquarters has to be in this secret desert somewhere!
SILENT RIP: You'd think so, but are we even sure they have a desert hideout?
GUNHAVER: I think I remember hearing something about it on the...news...
{cut to Blue Laser's secret headquarters. He's watching the Commandos on a video feed.}
BLUE LASER COMMANDER: The Cheat Commandos will never find our desert headquarters, since we relocated to my nana's backyard!
{ominous music}
BLUE LASER MINION: The burgers are done, sir. {holds up a tray of burgers}
BLUE LASER COMMANDER: Fantastic!
{cut back to the desert with the commandos}
FIGHTGAR: Are we there yet? I'm tired.
GUNHAVER: Me too. We need some energy fast!
SILENT RIP: Look! It's that guy! That flies that plane!
{There is a fighter jet flying up above. Cut to an exterior shot of Crackotage in the cockpit)
CRACKOTAGE: Look out below, Geronimo! Hee hee ha ha!
{The jet drops a box of cereal on a parachute, and it descends to the commandos below.}
CHEAT COMMANDOS: We're saved!
GUNHAVER: Sugar-crunchy Cheat Commandos...O's Sugar Cereal! Part of this nutritious breakfast!
{Transition to a commercial for Cheat Commandos...O's.}
SPOKESMAN: New Cheat Commandos...O's...O'sy O's...sugar cereal, is a delicious part of this complete delicious breakfast!
{A box of Cheat Commandos...O's sits next to a glass of caramel candies, a mug of marshmallows, and a slice of chocolate fudge cake on a plate. There's a caption saying "Delicious Nutritious Breakfast!!!" with the word Nutritious crossed out. A subtitle states "Gallon of Ice Cream not pictured".}
SPOKESMAN: And take some vitamins, too!
{cut to Blue Laser's headquarters. He's yelling at his minions.}
BLUE LASER COMMANDER: Which one of you ate the last bratwurst?!
{The Cheat Commandos show up right behind him.}
GUNHAVER: Nice try, Blue Laser! This party is busted!
BLUE LASER COMMANDER: What the crap?!
FIGHTGAR, GUNHAVER & SILENT RIP: Sugar-crunchy Cheat Commandos...O's Sugar Cereal!
BLUE LASER COMMANDER: Well that's...just...great!
SILENT RIP: Cheat Commandos...O's...
FIGHTGAR, GUNHAVER & SILENT RIP: Rock, rock on!
BLUE LASER COMMANDER: I hate you!
{Fightgar, Gunhaver, and Silent Rip jump in surprise. The grill explodes behind him, and a couple of Blue Laser minions paradrop behind the fence. Cut to a commercial again.}
SPOKESMAN: And now, try Cheat Commandos...O's, with Fluffy Puff Marshmallows...O's.
{Back to the cartoon, Marshie flies up to Gunhaver wearing a soldier's hat.}
SER-G-GEANT MARSHIE: Ser-g-geant Marshie reporting for duty, sir!
GUNHAVER: Would somebody get this flying cottonball outta my face?
{Cut back to the scene with the cereal and the delicious (not nutritious) breakfast. The commandos walk on in the background, while the theme song plays.}
SINGERS: Cheat Commandos O's, ridiculous breakfast... buy all our playsets and toys!
[edit] Easter Eggs
- Click on the mug of marshmallows at the end to see a new action figure.
- {Drumming is heard in the background.)
- SPOKESMAN: Kids, get a free Ser-g-geant Marshie action figure! Just send in five dollars, twenty-five proofs of purchase, and five dollars shipping and handling!
[edit] Fun Facts
[edit] Explanations
- Parachutists traditionally yell "Geronimo!" when jumping from an airplane.
[edit] Trivia
- The Brothers Chaps initially forgot to change the title of the page (as with the original Cheat Commandos toon), which still read "Compy 386!!" for a while. This was quickly changed to say, "Breakfast is Fundamental".
- The "back" button at the end of this toon will always lead to Main Page 8.
- Marshie looks different in this toon than he normally does. Since Cheat Commandos was said to be a 1980s show, The Brothers Chaps decided to make Marshie look like an older design for this toon.
- It is finally discovered what our beheadphoned pal Crackotage does. This was left unclear with the cryptic "Master Locksmith, Perhaps?" on his action figure box. Now it is known that he's " ... that guy! That flies that plane!" Of course, he could still crack locks in his spare time.
- Ser-g-geant Marshie's action figure box has the following labels:
- A Marshmallow, Not a Cottonball!!
- Creepier than Most!
- A Green Helmet!!
- His First Initial is 'M'! (A reference to Meet Marshie, where Marshie introduces himself as "Capital M, and then 'arshie'!")
[edit] Remarks
- A Ser-G-Geant Marshie toy can be acquired by sending in ten dollars and twenty-five proofs of purchase. Assuming a typical cost of $2-3 a box, it would cost $60-85 to get the toy.
- Since the toy retails for $11.01, each box of cereal would have to cost 4¢ (3¢ if sales tax automatically rounds up or is more than 16.6%) before this would be a deal, with overall savings of one cent.
- A realistic approach to save money can only be done if the actual cost to make the cereal (including all sales tax) is the same 4¢ less than the retail price (plus sales tax).
- When the commandos are crossing behind the mug full of marshmallows, part of the table overlaps them.
[edit] Goofs
- The microphone attached to Silent Rip's helmet disappears momentarily after Crackotage drops the box of cereal.
- Silent Rip and Fightgar's mouths aren't moving when shouting, "WE'RE SAVED!!"
- When Gunhaver smacks the paper, he isn't touching it.
[edit] Inside References
- The episode "Time to break...fast!" is written by A. Chimendez.
- Cheat Commandos...O's are made by Cheap as Free Foodstuffs.
- The ridiculous breakfast is a live-action food set.
[edit] Real-World References
- Cheat Commandos...O's really aren't "O's", as Fightgar has noticed on the box. The cereal actually bears a striking resemblance to Cap'n Crunch, or possibly Corn Pops.
- "That guy who flies that plane!" may be a reference to the GI Joe comic book. When Hasbro released the Phantom X-19 Stealth Fighter, they named the pilot Ghostrider without checking the copyrights. Marvel already had a well established character of that name, so Hasbro was unable to use it in any publications. To circumvent this, the GI Joes in the comic could never remember his codename. Ghostrider never appeared in the cartoon for this reason.
- The plane that Crackotage is flying is almost identical to the US Navy's F-14 Tomcat.
- The primary GI Joe jet was the Skystriker, which was based on the F-14.
- The Ser-g-geant Marshie character refers to any number of crossovers between figures in pop culture and G.I. Joe (or other '80s cartoonmercials) that culminated in the creation of action figures, notably Sergeant Slaughter of the AWA/WWE and William "Refrigerator" Perry of the Chicago Bears. Both of these also started out as mail-order characters.
- The parachuting Blue Laser minions that appear after the grill explodes refers to the fact that no one ever actually died in a G.I. Joe cartoon, despite all the explosions and flying bullets. The enemies were always seen emerging bruised and shaken, but alive, from the wreckage.
- The "Breakfast is Fundamental" on the page title is a reference to "Reading is Fundamental", an organization that promotes literacy in schools.
- On the Cheat Commandos...O's box, Gunhaver, Fightgar, and Crackotage stand around the cereal bowl in a similar fashion as how Snap, Crackle, and Pop do on boxes of Rice Krispies.
- This is a parody of the numerous advertisements that included '80s cartoon characters peddling ridiculously sugary foodstuffs. G.I. Joe itself was guilty of this with Purina's G.I.Joe Action Stars.
- The bowl and mug are Corelle Ware. The pattern is called Butterfly Gold.
[edit] Fast Forward
- Green Helmets would become the expendable units of the Cheat Commando force in Let us give TANKS!.
- The cereal box and the Marshie figure later appeared in the Strong Bad Email specially marked. The phrase is changed to "These STILL aren't O's!" and the upper right hand corner reads "NOT NEW!".
- There is also a Blue Laser cereal in said email called "Blue Laser Blasts".
- On September 15, 2011, Matt Chapman posted a picture of the prop box of Cheat Commandos...O's, showing that it was actually a modified box of Post Blueberry Morning (as pointed out in the DVD commentary).
[edit] YouTube Version
- The YouTube description for this toon is "No cartoon series made to sell toys would be complete without its own sugar crunchy breakfast cereal!"
- Between the end of the toon and the Sergeant Marshie Easter egg, there is a false autoplay image for "Strong Bad's Folding Chair Dungeon (All 2.47 Episodes)".
- This makes it the first toon released before the introduction of false YouTube thumbnails to have one in the YouTube version.
[edit] DVD Version
- The DVD version features creators' commentary. To access it, switch your DVD player's audio language selection while watching.
[edit] Commentary Transcript
(Commentary by: Matt Chapman, Mike Chapman)
MATT: A. Chimendez, the work he's done, the work he has contributed to the medium of animated cartoons, about cereals and toys...
MIKE: It's huge! They can't— Enough can't be said!
MATT: I really like this song. I remember being particularly proud of the song that's in the background right now. Which I think I call— I think the track is called "Written by A. Chimendez". I think I decided that's the name of it. A. Chimendez is tremendez. I'll tell you that right now.
{Mike laughs}
MIKE: So where do you think that camera is that just filmed...?
MATT: One of the Blue Laser henchman is dressed up like a cactus.
{Mike laughs}
MATT: He's just obviously holding a video camera on his shoulder, I think, filming Gunhaver. I remember that bothering me as a kid, even. I was being like, "Wait, so how does Cobra— how can Cobra see inside G.I. Joe's secret hideout? Like, why don't they see the guy that's holding the camera? And plus it would cut angles. Like they'd have like a whole six-camera setup inside of G.I. Joe Headquarters that Cobra is doing a live production of.
{Mike laughs as Matt speaks}
MIKE: So, uh... for this, we made a real box of the Cheat Commandos...O's cereal.
MATT: Right. We printed out that graphic and stuck it to a box of Blueberry Morning cereal from General Mills.
MIKE: Yeah.
MATT: Mike Mills' cereal company.
MIKE: And I drank a glass of caramels that morning, too.
MATT: {laughing} You did not!
MIKE: It was a "glass of caramels" morning, too—
MATT: No.
MIKE: In addition to the blueberry morning.
MATT: Oooh... bust-ad. I— listen, if you can— you can't really hear. Fightgar says "Cea-we-al".
MIKE: {attempting Fightgar's voice} Cea-we-al.
MATT: {in Fightgar's voice} Cereal! Woo.
MIKE: {attempting Fightgar's voice}Cea-we... {in normal voice} I can do it too! {attempting Fightgar's voice} Cea-we-al
MATT: Good. I can do it better. That explosion has since been replaced with a fantastic explosion in the Cheat Commandos layabout!
MIKE: Look at Ser-g-geant Marshie.
MATT: He is way creepier in this. I didn't think it was possible, but he's—
MIKE: That little tongue thing he does!
{Both make unintelligible Marshie screaming noises}
MATT: {in Marshie's voice} I won't get you down easy!
{slight pause}
MATT: Marshie never gets me down easy, Mike.
{Mike laughs}
[edit] Fun Facts
- As suggested in this commentary, the background music would be released under the title "Written by A. Chimendez" on Volume 1 of the Homestar Runner Original Soundtrack in 2020.
- Mike Mills is the bass player for R.E.M.
- Blueberry Morning was a real cereal, but it was a product of Post Cereals and not General Mills as was stated in the commentary. In late 2011, over seven years after the release of this cartoon, Matt Chapman posted on his now-defunct Twitter account "@ronginald" a picture of the expired Blueberry Morning (see also Fast Forward).
[edit] External Links
- watch "Cheat Commandos...O's"
- watch "Cheat Commandos...O's" on YouTube
- watch "Cheat Commandos...O's" on the old Flash site
- view the Flash file for "Cheat Commandos...O's"
- forum thread re: "Cheat Commandos...O's"
