Email Processing Room
From Homestar Runner Wiki
The Email Processing Room is the nexus of all Strong Bad's e-mail processing. It is linked to through the animated GIF of a mouse on Strong Bad's Website.
Page Title: MEN AT WORK
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Processing Details
The Cheat types on an old computer (probably an Apple II, by the shape of the computer case and the monitor on top) and prints out a potential email candidate. Strong Mad grabs the printout, puts on reading glasses, and reads the email briefly. He then chews up the paper, spits it into a cylinder, and sends it via pneumatic tube to Strong Bad. Strong Bad just laughs at the paper and rips it into tiny pieces, and the cycle repeats.
Noted Inconsistency
Behind Strong Mad three signs that say, "PRiDE," "DETAiL," and "ETHiCS" can be seen. They include a link to the former website of "The Rumor." (The site has since expired and been turned into a weight loss advertisement page.) In an early FAQ, requests for links from Homestar Runner were rejected on the grounds that the Brothers Chaps' policy has always been "absolutely no advertising," including links to other sites. This has been corrected in the later FAQ; it now says that they "link to a couple sites here and there but only when it's appropriate."
The Rumor
"The Rumor" eventually became DumpyUSA, a website run by Brent McNeal and Adam Sterritt, who are friends of Matt Chapman and Craig Zobel. Adam is the brother of Ryan Sterritt, and all are Homestar Runner creators and contributors. The "PRiDE," "DETAiL," and "ETHiCS" signs in the cartoon refer to corresponding signs posted in Rumor South headquarters, i.e. Adam's bedroom.
The new site included a photo page of Matt and Adam's blog with archives.
Fun Facts
- Back in the Tandy era, sending Strong Bad an email would get an automated response that linked to the Email Processing Room page.
- The response explains the order of events in an acronym. The email gets "R.E.D. The Cheat Reads it, Strong Mad Eats it, and I Deletes it."
- The printer shown here is the printer Strong Bad uses at the end of emails, as shown in the paper.
- The Flash file for the Email Processing Room can be found by exploring strongbad_email.exe Disc Two in a computer's DVD-ROM drive.
- A Flash decompiler reveals Strong Bad's fourth design (seen in A Jumping Jack Contest) is being used.
- The Cheat typing, Strong Bad typing, Strong Mad spitting, Strong Mad chewing, and pretty much everything else in this clip are movie clips, as they still do these actions when the toon is paused.
Goofs
- Strong Mad appears to "grow" another arm out of his right arm the second and third time he lifts it.
- There is also a layering problem the second time he lowers his arm. He places the cylinder into the tube, then his fist moves in front of the table and disappears.
- When Strong Bad takes the chewed-up e-mail out of the cylinder, he doesn't unscrew the lid, but he takes the note out through the tube.
- Just before Strong Mad sends the cylinder down the tube, the lid closes itself.
- There is a little gray line that goes through The Cheat's computer.
- The printer is missing a manual feed roller on the side facing the audience. (Usually a small and stout cylindrical object jutting out from the printer, used to feed the paper into the printer manually.)
