mile
From Homestar Runner Wiki
Strong Bad Email #87
Strong Bad doesn't want to do an email this week, so The Cheat makes a Powered by The Cheat email for us instead. Strong Bad does cartwheels for a mile, and The Cheat is a millionaire!
Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, The Cheat, Bubs, Marzipan, Homestar Runner, Coach Z, The Poopsmith
Places: Computer Room, Strong Bad's Basement, Strongbadia, The Field
Computer: Compa (cartoon version of the Compy 386)
Date: October 13, 2003
Running Time: 2:25
Contents |
Transcript
{The computer room is empty. After a second, we see Strong Bad walk on-screen}
STRONG BAD: {singing} And I pretend that it's made of money--
{stops singing, notices camera}
STRONG BAD: {addressing viewer} Er... Oh! Um... Look, uh, I'm not doin' one this week. Yeah... not doin' one. So... bye.
{Strong Bad walks out of the room.}
STRONG BAD: {singing again} And I pretend that it's made of money...
{The Cheat enters and looks at the computer, then looks around for anyone. He then grins at the camera wickedly...}
Powered By The Cheat
{A new Flash cartoon begins. The cartoon is Powered By The Cheat, as evidenced by the more primitive graphic quality and the substandard, imitated voices.}
STRONG BAD: {singing} Eeeeeeeeeemail. Ooh, ah, email, ooh, ah—
{reading}
Dear Strong Bad,
Can you run a mile.
-Seb
The Lodge, MN
STRONG BAD {typing}: You'd better believe it, Seb, I can ride I can do cartwheels for a mile. Ready and one and set and go!
{Strong Bad cartwheels away from his desk. Cut to a shot of him cartwheeling through the TV room from left to right.}
TV ANNOUNCER: TV show featuring The Cheat in a Trans Am.
STRONG BAD: Here I go.
{The scene cuts to a lot with a bunch of buses that say Sköl}
STRONG BAD: Here I go again on my own.
{Strong Bad uses a ramp to jump over the buses. Bubs appears from behind a fence. He appears to have no lower body}
BUBS: Hey, Strong Bad, you jumped over some of my buses!
{"A new record!! 19 buses!!" appears in the air and we hear imitated crowd noises. Cut to Marzipan standing in the field}
MARZIPAN: Keep it up, Strong Bad. Keep up the pace!
STRONG BAD: Thanks for cheering me on.
{Scene cuts to a brick wall, standing in the middle of a field}
STRONG BAD: Halfway to go, I have to break through this brick wall!
{Strong Bad rolls forward and the wall doesn't give him any resistance. The bricks fall down and spell "HI". Cut to Homestar in the field holding a sign that says "I love cooties"}
HOMESTAR RUNNER: Kick it out, b-hand.
{Strong Bad stretches out his leg and trips Homestar. Cut to Strong Bad finishing his mile on an athletic track, with flashbulbs everywhere. It then cuts to Homestar, Marzipan, and Coach Z waiting for Strong Bad. Coach Z is pink}
COACH Z: Mr. Strong Bad, you won the mile. How did- what's your secret?
STRONG BAD: The Cheat.
{The Cheat parachutes in from the top of the frame, wearing a light blue tuxedo and sunglasses and holding a glass of champagne. Money is stuffed into his tuxedo pocket. He lands on the ground and raises up his glass. A thought bubble appears above Marzipan's head that reads "i ♥ that cheat."}
EVERYBODY: The Cheat is a millionaire! A parade for The Cheat!
{A parade goes by, featuring a The Cheat float that says "Dunkin' the Ch8t", a The Cheat hot air balloon, fireworks, and The Poopsmith pushing a broom at the end, then the scene cuts back to Strong Bad's computer.}
STRONG BAD {typing}: So yes, Jimmy-Jimmy, there have been parades honoring The Cheat, but don't let that from stopping you from organizing your own. He can be the Grand... Marshall. He's also available for proms and pizza parties. {Strong Bad actually types: So yes, Jimmy-Jimmy, there have been p's h-ing the C. B. d. l. t. f. s. y. f. o. y. o. He can be the Grand Marshall. He's a-so available for proms and pizza parties.}
STRONG BAD: So, okay folks, I gotta go to my next show. See you later nice time!
{At the end, a Powered-by-The-Cheat version of The Paper comes down with a sound effect that just sounds like some guy going "Kerrrriorrrr..."}
Easter Eggs
- Before The Cheat shows up, the diskette says "One on One". Within The Cheat's cartoon but before Strong Bad starts cartwheeling, you can click on it to see that it says "Out of this world". After Strong Bad gets back, you can click on it again to show "NITEMARE 3D".
- At the end of the email, click "proms" to see a polaroid of The Cheat with a sillouhette labelled "Your bod here" and a note scrawled at the bottom: "A Knight to Remember, June 3rd 2004."
- It had been rumored that was "scheduled for further release", meaning they might have made a cartoon about it. Unfortunately, the day passed without any update on H*R.com. Nevertheless, two days following, the Strong Bad Email cheatday was released.
- Also at the end, click "pizza parties" to see a logo for "Cheatsa Parties," featuring The Cheat taking a bite out of a large pizza.
- Press 'O' on your keyboard at the end to see a silhouette of Strong Bad doing cartwheels over a bunch of hills with a song playing in the background, which is a takeoff of Old Intro 2.
- If you use a decompiler or install a Flash Seek Bookmarklet, you can access some broken animation of dancing Homestar at the end after the cartwheeling easter egg.
Fun Facts
Explanations
- Strong Bad cartwheeling the mile (as opposed to just running it) was probably done so that The Cheat wouldn't have to animate anything, instead just rotating Strong Bad's standing frame a few hundred times.
Trivia
- When The Cheat shows up (after Strong Bad wins the mile) Marzipan has a thought bubble saying "I ♥ that Cheat." This is one of the few times that The Cheat is not referred to with a "The" preceeding his name, and is interesting because The Cheat himself made this cartoon.
- The buses Strong Bad cartwheeled over each said the dictionary pronunciation of "School". ("sköl" with an umlaut over the "O").
- Strong Bad cartwheels 65 times, 55 without the Easter egg.
- According to the DVD commentary, the email answered here was not received from a fan, but was invented by The Brothers Chaps. Except for this one, the first 100 emails answered by Strong Bad came from fans.
- This cartoon can be found either on the Strong Bad Email menu or the Powered by The Cheat menu.
- The sound effect played when Strong Bad cartwheels through the tape at the finish line is from The Cheat's cartoon in crazy cartoon, when Strong Bad kicked Homestar in the face nine times.
Remarks
- This PBTC cartoon highlights The Cheat's poor animation skills. To wit:
- When Coach Z says "what's your secret?" his head pops off a little bit.
- When you click on the floppy when Strong Bad is finishing the cartwheel, it says "Nitemare 3-D" and it's behind Strong Bad and the computer.
- The way "cheat" is spelled on the "Dunkin' the Ch8t" float is an example of Leetspeak and would actually be pronounced 'chaitt'.
- Before Strong Bad starts to do cartwheels for a mile, the text typed in his computer stays in position for a couple of frames or so.
- There is no patch on the couch.
- When Strong Bad leaves his desk and starts cartwheeling, his head passes behind the floppy disk on the desk, even though the object is in the background.
- Strong Bad's computer doesn't have a keyboard.
Real-World References
- "Seb" may be a reference to the British athlete Sebastian "Seb" Coe, a mid-distance runner who once held the world record in the mile.
- When the parade happens and The Poopsmith shows up behind it, it is a subtle reference to a segment of "Rocky and Bullwinkle" called "Peabody's Improbable History", where there were parades honoring Peabody with only one janitor cleaning up after it.
- Strong Bad says "Here I go again on my own" before going on the ramp over Bubs' 19 buses. This is the first line of the chorus of "Here I Go Again," an 80's standard by Whitesnake.
- The "song" being played during the parade is from Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES, played during the levels on airships.
- Also, after the parade, there are six fireworks in the sky, similar in sound and appearance to the ones that appear after completing a level with a 1, 3, or 6 at the end of your remaining time in the Super Mario Bros. game for the NES.
- The line "TV show featuring The Cheat in a Trans Am" almost certainly refers to the TV series "Knight Rider".
- When The Cheat parachutes in after Strong Bad has won the mile he is wearing a Gucci parachute.
Fast Forward
- Bubs' line, "Some of my buses", is used again on Main Page 22.
DVD Version
- For whatever reason, there is no option to use the angle button, and therefore the Floppy Disk Easter eggs have been disabled. This is one of the only emails on the set that does not have the angle option available when it should be.
- The hills Easter egg is now accessible like a normal Easter egg.
The DVD version features hidden creators' commentary. To access it, switch your DVD player's audio language selection while watching.
Commentary Transcript
(Commentary by: Matt Chapman, Mike Chapman)
MATT: I like that song, I'd like to hear that whole song.
MIKE: I wonder what he's pretending is made of money.
MATT: I know, maybe that's just the chorus, and goes through a bunch of different things.
MIKE: Oh, like, uh—
MATT: {singing} can of beans. Pretend that it's made of money! Unh! A guitar! Unh! Unh! And I pretend that it's made of money!
MIKE: That's...a good song.
MATT: That's clearly not how he's singing it, but maybe...
MIKE: Look, One-On-One. The original One-on-One was, of course, uh, Dr. J and Larry Bird. Good game!
MATT: Great game! So here's The Cheat, his big de-butt. Well, I guess in crazy cartoon, he does it.
MIKE: Yeah, or something. The Compa!
MATT: This is one of the only made-up Strong Bad emails, right?
MIKE: Yeah, we made that up. The only one.
MATT: Yeah. We figured that The Cheat's doing it, so he's not gonna care about that sort of stuff.
MIKE: Yeah.
{pause}
MIKE: The vocal work on this, uh, particular episode is fantastic.
MATT: Oh, really, Mike?
MIKE: You did a great job on this one, Matt!
MATT: Oh. I didn't do this one—
MIKE: Oh, wait, I did the voices. Okay, listen to my Bubs impression, which is pretty much my Fat Albert Impression. {Imitating Powered by The Cheat Bubs} Hey, Hey, Rudy!
MATT: That's a good one. That Marzipan is... horrifying. I like her teeth. {Mike Laughs} I remember... um...
MIKE: What's that, Matt?
MATT: Dan from Carmel, Indiana really loved that one, I remember. I remember in band, we talked to him a lot.
MIKE: Oh.
MATT: Uh, B-Hand was a guy that ran with our older brother, Donnie, at track. I remember my Mom always yelling, "Kick it out, B-Hand!"
MIKE: I like the, uh, the Gucci parachute.
MATT: Yeah, it's amazing. And he's just got some loose cash.
{Mike and Matt laugh}
MIKE: Dunkin' The Cheat!
MATT: DunkinTheCh8t is somebody's screename on one of the Homestar Runner forums I saw
MIKE: Oh, really? This is my favorite part right here. Here it comes... here comes The Poopsmith, cleanin' up! Weet! Weet! Weet! Just like that little guy at the end of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Or that guy in between the commercials of the Carol Burnett Shows. Or the bloopers and outtakes.
{Mike and Matt start singing a song}
MATT: I like that.
MIKE: He just start using punctuations
MATT: Abbreviations.
MIKE: Abbreviations. "Also" is the best because that's actually longer than if he just used an "l".
MATT: Yeah. That's a reference to
MIKE: Andy Cooper
MATT: Guitar lessons with Andy Cooper.
MIKE: Tap that?
MATT: Looks good.
MIKE: Mm-hmm.
MATT: Tapping on the G-Chord, B-Minor.
Fun Facts
- Fat Albert, played by comedian Bill Cosby, was the main character of the cartoon series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.
- The Carol Burnett Show was a sketch comedy series in the 1970's.
