Trogdor Was A Man

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Revision as of 12:30, 30 January 2020

"It was a terrible song of Trogdor."

A Powered by The Cheat video for a song from a '70s commercial for a board game.

Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, Trogdor, Peasants, The Red and Blue Knights, Strong Sad, The Cheat, The Dancing Brothers

Places: The Cheat's Computer Room, Peasantry

Date: Thursday, September 13, 2018

Running Time: 2:17

Page Title: Trogdor Musk - For Dragon Men

Transcript

{Open to a close-up of a person's red shirt, against a background fading from red to yellow. The shirt reads "WHEN THE Seventies", with "Seventies" written in a Coca-Cola-resembling font.}

POWERED BY THE CHEAT STRONG BAD: When the seventies, there was—

{The shirt morphs into a Trogdor!! The Board Game box against a black background. It reads "TRAGDAR". Trogdor is smiling and making the "OK" sign with his hand, with armpit hair and a wristband. The side of the box reads "CONTAINS: CONTENTS".}

POWERED BY THE CHEAT STRONG BAD: —a commercial for a board game.

{The board game box shakes and bursts open, with Trogdor, the Red and Blue Knights, two peasants, five tiles, a cottage base, and a burninated cottage roof flying out. The cottage roof stays in place for a moment, then moves with the rest a few seconds later.}

POWERED BY THE CHEAT STRONG BAD: It was a terrible song—

{A vinyl record rotates as it comes into view. The top has a logo for "Terrible SONGS RECORDS". At the bottom, it reads "-TROGDOR WAS A MAN-", and below it, "THE POW-UH SURGE". The side reads "SIDE A".}

POWERED BY THE CHEAT STRONG BAD: —of Trogdor. They made seven inches—

{Zoom out into Powered by The Cheat Strong Sad holding the record, against a blurry photographic house background. He closes his eyes and shakes his head, throwing the record over his shoulder.}

POWERED BY THE CHEAT STRONG BAD: —but even Strong Sad thought it was not ver—

{Cut to Strong Bad's head bouncing exaggeratedly on The Cheat's computer against a rainbow background. The Cheat is silhouetted in front of the computer, and the desk is brown instead of blue. The record flies into a CD slot on the side of the computer.}

POWERED BY THE CHEAT STRONG BAD: So The Cheat made a video. {turns toward the camera and stops bouncing} Does this {snickering} sound like Strong Bad at all?

{Cut to a silhouetted plug that reads "The Pow-uh Surge" against an electric green background. White text appears at the bottom:}

The Pow-uh Surge
"Trogdor was a man"
Terrible Songs Records
Dir:The Cheat

{Cut to a zooming shot of Peasantry}

SINGERS: Trogdor was a man.
Trogdor was a dragon man.

Trogdor was a man.
Trogdor was a dragon man.

And he was burninating, burninating, burninating the countryside!

Trogdor was a man. (S, more different S)
Trogdor was a dragon man. (S, more different S)

(S, more different S)
(Whispering things in the '70s)

And he was burninating, burninating, burninating the countryside!

Trogdor was a man. (Get consummate, get consummate)
Trogdor was a dragon man. (Get consummate, get consummate)

Get consummate, get consummate
Consummate V's

Maybe he was just a dragon.
Maybe he was just a dragon.
Maybe he was just a dragon.
Well, he was still Trogdor.

And the Trogdor comes in the NIGHT!

{Cut to The Cheat and Strong Bad at The Cheat's computer desk}

STRONG SAD: {turns toward The Cheat} I don't know, The Cheat. There are a lot of inaccuracies present.

THE CHEAT: {turns toward Strong Sad; The Cheat noises}

STRONG SAD: Well, for starters, Trogdor wasn't even around when the '70s. Strong Bad made him in the early 2000s. {emphasizes the "a" in "thousand"}

THE CHEAT: {lowers his eyebrows and turns back to his computer; The Cheat noises}

STRONG SAD: And what was going on with your depiction of me?

{The Cheat clicks and brings up the picture of Powered by The Cheat Strong Sad}

STRONG SAD: I have that creepy bony spine...

{The Cheat clicks every time before Powered by The Cheat Strong Sad speaks}

POWERED BY THE CHEAT STRONG SAD: The Lusitania is my favorite boat.

STRONG SAD: No way! Everybody knows I'm a Mauretania man.

THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}

{Zoom in to the screen}

POWERED BY THE CHEAT STRONG SAD: My boat is not your boat!

STRONG SAD: Ugh, stop that!

POWERED BY THE CHEAT STRONG SAD: This is gonna all be about boats now. {smiles with his tongue sticking out}

{Cut back to The Cheat and Strong Sad}

STRONG SAD: Oh, that's a terrible idea!

POWERED BY THE CHEAT STRONG SAD: My boat take—

STRONG SAD: {interrupts} That's it! I'm going to the chiropractor! {walks away} Got me all self-conscious!

POWERED BY THE CHEAT STRONG SAD: Don't you like boats?

{Zoom in to Powered by The Cheat Strong Sad's back. Three of the bone bumps wiggle and morph into the letters "end".}

Fun Facts

Trivia

"Well, this is a new computer."

• The Monosodium Dreams has been replaced by a newer computer parodying the newer Intel-based iMacs.
• This is the first Powered by The Cheat toon since Fish Eye Lens in October 2014, an almost-four-year gap.
• There is a photograph of a record store hidden in the Flash file. It was the first Google image result for "record store" as of the release of the short.
• This is the first time that Trogdor has been seen flying.
• "When the Seventies" is an example of deliberately poor English.
• The YouTube description for this video is "A Powered by The Cheat video for a song from a 70's commercial for a board game."

Remarks

• This toon is not shown in the TV Time Toons Menu. The Flash version was only linked to from the Main Page Messages, and is now a secret page.
• Strong Sad does not have a mouth in The Cheat's video, but he does in the animations at the end.
• "Dragon man" Trogdor lacks his usual wings.

Inside References

• This song is meant to be a '70s disco version of the Trogdor song, which originated in the Strong Bad Email dragon.
  • "S, more different S" and "consummate V's" are referenced, both of which are drawing techniques used by Strong Bad in dragon.
  • "Get consummate" was used in rock opera.
• This toon prominently features basketball and butt-dancing.
• The board game mentioned is Trogdor!! The Board Game.
  • The "Tragdar" on the box is a reference to Videlectrix One's pronunciation in the Trogdor!! The Board Game promotional video.
  • The song's background rhythm was heard in the promotional video, and later in a @StrongBadActual Tweet.
• The game box has the nondescript label "Contains: Contents".
• "The Pow-uh Surge" was previously discussed in the DVD commentary for road trip as being the musicians behind the Dancing Brothers' song, as well as "Jammin' Tunes".
• The Dancing Brothers previously appeared in A Folky Tale.
• Powered by The Cheat Strong Sad says "My boat take" and is subsequently interrupted. The same occurs twice with Strong Bad in environment.
• Strong Sad says "2000" the same way he said it in suntan.

Real-World References

• The scenes featuring two silhouetted Trogdor heads is a reference to a recurring segment of The Electric Company, a children's show that aired on PBS in the 1970s, in which two people would say part of a word to each other, with the letters coming out of their mouth in a similar fashion.
• The Lusitania was a British ocean liner and briefly the world's largest passenger ship. The ship was sunk on May 7, 1915 by a German U-boat 11 miles off the southern coast of Ireland.
• The Mauretania was an ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by Wigham Richardson & Swan Hunter for the British Cunard Line, and launched on the afternoon of September 20, 1906.

See Also

• The visuals that occur during the music video.

External Links

• watch "Trogdor Was A Man" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "Trogdor Was A Man"
• watch "Trogdor Was A Man" on YouTube
• forum thread re: "Trogdor Was A Man"