theme song
From Homestar Runner Wiki
- This article is about the Strong Bad Email. For the short, see Theme Song Video.
| Strong Bad Email #155 |
|
Strong Bad explains why his email show doesn't have an official theme song.
Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, Strong Mad, Strong Sad, The Cheat, Homestar Runner, Trogdor, Senor Cardgage, Balding Man, Fightgar, Reynold, Powered by The Cheat Strong Mad
Places: Computer Room, Club Technochocolate, Strong Bad's Basement, Outer Space, Bubs' Concession Stand, The Desert.
Computer: Lappy 486
Date: August 7, 2006
Running Time: 3:57
Page Title: Lappy 486
Contents |
Transcript
STRONG BAD: {singing} When email comes to town, you know, you know, it's like a rainstorm... in your browser. {brings up the email}
subject: theme songDear Super Bad,
It bugs me how your email show doesn't have a theme song.
If it did have a theme song, your show would be a whole
lot cooler.
Jonathan Shaheen
Ontario, Canada
{Strong Bad says "you" instead of "it" for the second it. He pronouces "Shaheen" as "Shaheeeeen", and lens flares and a sound effect appear over the name. He pronounces the location as "on-ta-REE-oh, cah-nah-DAH" (as though with a Mexican accent)}
STRONG BAD: Oooh, a little south of the border flavor. {typing} Dear Supper Bag, It bugs me how your face doesn't have a not tons of acne. If it did have a not tons of acne, you would be a whole lot cooler.
{Strong Bad clears the screen.}
STRONG BAD: {typing} Look, you don't know what you're talking about, Shaheen {again, Strong Bad pronounces "Shaheen" as "Shaheeeen", and the Shaheen special effect appears over the word} Theme songs are just an excuse for showmakers to make less show. I'm sure viewership would triple if I had one of those crappy cartoon theme songs that bludgeons you over the head with the blunt end of the show's premise.
{Theme song music fades in over his last words. Cut to a smiling Strong Bad prancing in the basement.}
CRAPPY CARTOON THEME SONG: {singing}
Strong Bad is a wrestleman,
He's the email-checkinest guy in the land.
He checks real emails from the net,
He's got two brothers and The Cheat, his pet. The Cheat, his pet!
{"STRONG BAD" appears on the screen as the name is sung. Strong Bad types with boxing gloves on. Lappy flies into the screen, showing an email from punkkid87.}
Dear Strong Bad,
I love your Tragdor!
Draw him AGAIN!!!
-punkkid87
{Strong Mad and Strong Sad dance in the disco as they are announced. The Cheat slides into the screen and gets a close-up.}
There's nobody dumber than Homestar Runner
On The Strong Bad Email Show!
{Homestar Runner breaks through the computer desk with a sandwich of light bulbs, opens his mouth wide, revealing his large cartoon teeth, and bites into the sandwich. The title of the Strong Bad Email Show appears with Strong Bad's smiling face in front of a pink heart design.}
{The music ends. Cut back to Strong Bad sitting in front of the Lappy}
STRONG BAD: {typing} And the ratings have gone through the roof. And let's not forget the life-affirming pop-ballad type theme song. Probably sung by some variety of Neville.
{Fade to a scene with an unattended computer desk. The title "the Strong Bad Email Show" flies onto the screen. There are flowers on the desk and pictures of The Cheat, Strong Mad and Strong Bad on the wall. The characters are introduced with their pictures flying across the screen and their names appearing across them. Strong Bad shows a shadow Trogdor to The Cheat.}
POP BALLAD-TYPE THEME SONG: {singing}
You and me babe, livin' for dreams.
Life is for love, dreaming's for free.
Sitting on top of an old robot, sharing and caring it out.
Memory scrubbing {fades} you down...
{The music fades out and a clip montage starts, as Strong Bad's voiceover begins. Strong Bad is shown drinking a mix of coffee and a "COLDSON Lite" from a novelty drinking hat; he floats through space; he looks up from typing on his laptop and throws a stack of paper in the air.}
STRONG BAD: {voiceover} And of course the best clips they show are from the un-aired pilot that you'll never see.
POP BALLAD-TYPE THEME SONG: {singing}
Memory scrubbing you down! {fade out}
{The final shot shows Strong Bad in a tank before the clip montage fades out to "created by Lem Sportsinterviews".}
STRONG BAD: {voiceover} And just when you think you finally get to start watching some of the actual show, now you get to watch a commercial!
{Cut to real-life hands holding coins and peanuts. "$BUTT" is stamped on the screen, and then a Cakkalate brand calculator displays "BUTT X 2". Cut to the CGNU online e-niversity: "website Coming Soon(ish)". A set of college flags is shown, and then a hand clicking a mouse button demonstrates how easy it is to get degrees.}
COMMERCIAL GUY 1: {voiceover} Do you make butt at your current job? Do you want to make twice butt? A shady online degree is just four clicks away at CGNU online e-niversity. Most colleges take four years to complete. At CGNU, one year equals one click.
{Cut to Senor Cardgage in front of some boxes. His degrees are displayed on the screen as he moves his hand down.}
SENOR CARDGAGE: I got fourteen degrees while on my lunch take. Now I can legally prescribe marriages in the state of Kansattica.
COMMERCIAL GUY 1: {voiceover} Enroll now, and join the e-niversity e-volution e-day. Uh, well, today. That last one didn't quite work out.
{The slogan is displayed over an "(On)line CGNU e-NIVERSITY" medal, as the commercial guy #1 says it.}
{Cut to a Powered By The Cheat-style intertitle showing Strong Bad chasing his laptop.}
ANNOUNCER 1: {voiceover} We'll be right back with more Strong Bad Emails.
{Cut to balding man standing in front of a newspaper background.}
COMMERCIAL GUY 2: {voiceover} Do you wanna cut your own arm off?
BALDING MAN: Huuuuaaaahuuuh...
{Cut back to Strong Bad typing on his computer.}
STRONG BAD: {typing} Now, don't worry. Just in case you were hoping to get gipped out of another minute of actual show, you get to hear the jazzy instrumental version over the end credits!
{Cut to Strong Bad talking into a microphone in front of Bubs' concession stand at night. End credits are shown over the scene. A jazzy instrumental version of the pop ballad theme song is played.}
STRONG BAD: {voiceover} And on the off-chance that you actually wanted to hear the theme song... we've taken care of that, too.
{A program preview moves into the screen and squeezes the Strong Bad Email Show end credits into the left third of the screen. The music is faded significantly. As the announcer announces Three is 4 Tonite, the logo and the faces of the four main characters are shown. The graphics for the Cheat Commandos show Reynold being taped to a rocket and Fightgar checking the tape.}
ANNOUNCER 2: {voiceover} Coming up later on Three is 4 Tonite: join Mandy, Brandy, Andy, and Scurge, as they learn how to give a care. But first: they're tiny, they're toony, they're all a little loony. It's the Cheat Commandos.
STRONG BAD: {typing} You see, Shaheen? {The Shaheen special effect appears} You're basically asking me to dedicate 2 minutes of my 3 to 5 minute email show, to what is essentially a commercial for something you're already watching! And besides, I give you people a new sbemail song every freakin' week. Allow me to leave you with the old standard 'When Email Comes to Town, You Know, You Know, It's Like a Rainstorm... In Your Browser.' {stops typing and starts singing} When email comes to town, you know, you know, it's like a rainstorm... in your browser.
{The Paper comes down.}
{Funky theme song music is played and credits scroll by, while the Powered by The Cheat show preview squeezes into the screen.}
ANNOUNCER 3: {voiceover} {chuckles} Next up on Powered By The Cheat: Strong Mad gets his own talk show. And his first guest is hilarity!
{Powered by The Cheat Strong Mad sits behind a late night talk show host desk in front of a skyline, and the guest with a The Cheat face with glasses jumps up from his seat and bounces in front of the camera.}
Easter Eggs
- Click on the talk show guest's gold tooth at the end of the email to see the Shaheen special effect.
Fun Facts
Explanations
- In the commercial for CGNU e-Niversity, the slogan "Banner ad valorum" is a play on the Latin phrase "ad valorem" meaning "according to an object's value." It is most frequently used in describing an ad valorem tax.
- In the final credits, the credits for "Best Grip" and "Key Boy" are reversed versions of standard film credits best boy and key grip.
Trivia
- This is the first time we see Homestar's teeth.
- This is another email in which we can see Strong Mad Smiling, this time in the background of the second theme song.
- The floppy disk container reads "california games".
- In the first theme song, Strong Bad is seen typing on the Compy 386 keyboard, seen previously in fingers.
- The credits during the second theme song read:
- starring strong bad
- strong mad
- and the cheat baxter-birney
- produced by Levert Burtmore
- casting by Tess Ballthrow
- executive producer Smarmy Cafe
- created by Lem Sportsinterviews
- The navigation buttons in the web browser showing the CGNU online e-niversity read, from left to right:
- This Way
- That Way
- No way
- A Dog
- The college pennants (read clockwise from the top) are:
- I Love Most Colleges! (White against a blue background)
- Shower (White against an orange background with a baseball cap next to the text)
- Biscuit Gravy University (White against a purple background with a biscuit outlined by lavender in the background)
- TWO STRIPS!! (Brown against a yellow background with two strips of bacon beneath the text)
- FROGS!! (White on green with a white frog outlined to the left of the text)
- Homestar's Knees Tech (Pale yellow against a maroon background)
- STATE U (Black outlined white against a red background)
- The degrees available from CGNU online e-niversity (or at least the ones Senor Cardgage earned on his "lunch take") are:
- Business Administration
- Business Abomination
- Mousepad Engineer
- Infotainment Technology
- e-Cutting Ones
- The Lighter Side of Sports
- Matt's Communications
- Business Wheeling
- Insider Trading
- Computer Graphs
- Bidness Dealing
- Caps Lock Technician
- Escrow Understandment
- Marriage Apothecary
- The credits in the middle of the email read:
- co-created by strong bad and cherry greg
- based upon the comedy stylings of little strong bad
- teleplay by Sir Dolph Hauldhagen
- theme song by a Neville of some sort
- closing theme song by a Marsalis or two
- this has been a cheap as free production
- The credits at the end of the email read:
- Written by Geoff Rondleman
- Directed by Hot Tub T
- Produced by A. Chimendez
- Key Boy Tim "Timmers" Ballthrow
- Best Grip Not Lem Sportsinterviews
- Playa Hata Stu Scott
- Script Supervisor Sid Hoffrenchman
- This show was filmed in front of a live studio audience.
- Soundtrack available as Cheap as Free Records
- The website for CGNU (http://www.cgnuonline-eniversity.edu/) does not exist, as only actual educational institutions can register .edu addresses. However, a fan has registered http://www.cgnuonline-eniversity.com/, and recreated the page seen in the email; the list of degrees can be found by clicking on the exclamation point after "website Coming Soon(ish)"
Remarks
- "BUTT X 2" is the display on the calculator held upside down. It is not possible for most calculators to display "U" and "T" upside down (the typed numbers would have to be similar to a lowercase "N" and two "L"s back to back).
- "We'll be right back with more Strong Bad Email" is most likely voiced by Missy Palmer, as it bears a resemblance to Marzipan's voice.
- During the Crappy Cartoon theme song, the "Trogdor" email on the Lappy is displayed with the font from the Compy 386, instead of the Lappy's current font.
- The four men showed on Three is 4 Tonite all have the same faces but different hair styles that were apparently added on to the original photo.
- Even though he is the Cheat's best friend, this is the first time Strong Mad is mentioned in a Powered By The Cheat.
Goofs
- There is no punctuation mark after Strong Bad types "Shaheen!" for the first time.
- During the scene in the end credits with Strong Bad telling jokes, his mouth disappears for one frame.
- Strong Bad's head pokes into the Powered By The Cheat preview when the preview squeezes into the screen.
- When Strong Bad's portrait fades in and out of the screen during the ballad theme song, parts of his mask can be seen through his forehead diamond. (This is caused when two non-merged Flash objects are faded at the same time, indicating Strong Bad's diamond is actually a separate object to his mask.)
Inside References
- Once again, Strong Bad is called a wrestleman.
- In the theme song we see a close-up on how Strong Bad types with boxing gloves.
- The email shown in the first theme song asks Strong Bad to draw Trogdor again.
- The name of the email author who wants Strong Bad to draw Trogdor refers to the year 1987.
- Homestar Runner was first obsessed with light bulbs (or globes) in long pants.
- The flowers in the pot in the second theme song are from Summer Short Shorts.
- Strong Bad is drinking Coldson Lite from his hat.
- The email show is produced by Levert Burtmore.
- The tank has the Strong Badia emblem on it.
- "BUTT X 2" is shown on a Cakkalate-brand calculator, which was introduced in technology.
- Crazy Go Nuts University is offering online degrees.
- "Homestar's Knees Tech" is mentioned in mascot.
- One of the courses Senor Cardgage took was "e-Cutting Ones" – "Cutting Ones" was offered in CGNU.
- "Escrow" is one of the services offered by Senor Cardgage Mortgage.
- The Balding Man is in the same scene as he was in Senor Mortgage.
- According to the credits, "The Strong Bad Email Show" is based on the comedy stylings of Little Strong Bad, a reference to stand-up.
- The teleplay was written by Sir Dolph Hauldhagen, from other days.
- According to the final end credits, the show was written by Geoff Rondleman, previously mentioned in Biz Cas Fri 1.
- The script supervisor was "Sid Hoffrenchman", a reference to Homestar's "Sid" Game in date.
- Strong Mad's having his own show was previously suggested in the facts.
- Also similarly referenced in this email to the facts is a "We'll Be Right Back..." commercial card, but with Strong Bad instead of Homestar.
- The "Number Five Action Cool" logo, in the lower right hand corner at the end of the email, and the "Incredibly Local News", are references to local news.
- In the end credits, it lists the director as Hot Tub T, a reference to dangeresque 3.
- The pose Strong Bad makes in front of the heart screen was also made in the email modeling
Real-World References
- The heart background shown at the end of the first theme song is very similar to the one found at the end of each episode of The Powerpuff Girls.
- "They're tiny, they're toony, they're all a little loony" is a paraphrase of the first line of the theme song to Tiny Toon Adventures.
- In the second theme song, there are several successive references to late-'80s television shows:
- The succession of picture frames was a common element of several shows.
- The lyrics closely resemble the second verse from the theme song from Growing Pains.
- "The Cheat Baxter-Birney" is a reference to Meredith Baxter (formerly Meredith Baxter Birney, from Family Ties).
- Strong Bad's flinging the papers into the air as he types may be a reference to Stephen J. Cannell's closing logo.
- The font and style of "created by Lem Sportsinterviews" (yellow Cooper Black letters on a completely black background) is a reference to the closing credits of Cheers.
- Strong Bad in front of the side brick wall of Bubs' Concession Stand in the closing credits refers to Jerry Seinfeld's ending stand-up comedy segment of episodes of Seinfeld. The credit "based on the comedy stylings of Little Strong Bad" also refers to this and other programs starring comics.
- "Probably sung by some variety of Neville" refers to The Neville Brothers, a group of soul singers. The most famous Neville brother, Aaron Neville, has a distinctive vibrato that has inspired many parodies throughout pop culture.
- "Closing theme song by a Marsalis or two" refers to the Marsalis family of jazz musicians.
- The Lighter Side of Sports, a long-running, syndicated TV show, is one of Senor Cardgage's degrees.
- MAD Magazine also contained a comic strip called "The Lighter Side Of..." written by Dave Berg.
- The line "Do you want to cut your own arm off?" may refer to an Adjustable Rate Mortgage or A.R.M.
- The style of the web browser used in the CGNU e-Niversity ad strongly resembles Internet Explorer for Macintosh.
- Stuart Scott, mentioned in the end credits, is a reporter for ESPN. "Playa hata", his title, refers to one of his oft-used phrases on air.
- The line "Check back after the bowl games" on CGNU's website is a reference to bowl games in American college football.
Fast Forward
- The August 18, 2006 Quote Of The Week was an extended version of the intro song with the funky closing theme as an instrumental accompaniment.
External Links
- watch "theme song"
- watch "theme song" on the old Flash site
- view the Flash file for "theme song"
- forum thread re: "theme song"
