Baddest of the Bands

From Homestar Runner Wiki

"Are you ready to be musically, sonically, and if all goes according to plan, PHYSICALLY assaulted?!!"

Baddest of the Bands is the third episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. It has been rated E10+ by the ESRB for Crude Humor, Mild Cartoon Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes and Use of Alcohol. Story written by Mike Stemmle and The Brothers Chaps.

When Strong Bad's beloved Fun Machine goes up in smoke, he must organize and win his own Battle Royale of the Bands to afford the costly repairs. But he's up against some stiff competition! Can he rock the stage and win the big cash prize, or will he be drowned out by the competition?

A brief trailer for the game is included in Strong Badia the Free and on the Telltale Games website.

Cast: Strong Bad, Homestar Runner, Strong Mad, Strong Sad, The Cheat, Coach Z, Bubs, Marzipan, Pom Pom, The King of Town, Homsar, Limozeen, Von Blaubloods, Pazquel, Marshie, Biscuitdoughhandsman, Jibblies Painting, Drive-Thru Whale

Date: Monday, October 27, 2008

DVD: SBCG4AP Collector's DVD

[edit] Preview Transcript

"Hmm, tough crowd."

{The screen shows "On the next episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People" and cuts to a closeup of Strong Bad's face as he holds a microphone, while microphone feedback is heard}

STRONG BAD: {yelling into the microphone} Alllllll right, expensive ticket holders!

{Cut to The Cheat on a set of drums, then back to Strong Bad}

STRONG BAD: Are you ready to be musically, sonically...

{Cut to Strong Mad playing a bass guitar}

STRONG BAD: ...and if all goes according to plan...

{Cut back to Strong Bad}

STRONG BAD: ...PHYSICALLY assaulted?!!

{Cut out to see that Strong Bad's band was seen atop Bubs' Concession Stand. The music stops suddenly; only a howling wind is heard in the background. Homestar watches from the ground}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Boooo!

{Cut to a shot of Strong Bad}

STRONG BAD: Hmm, tough crowd.

{Cut to a gray background, showing the word BADDEST written in AC/DC-type font. Strong Bad's boxing glove-clad hand is then seen adding a strip of red label tape to the bottom of the word displaying the remainder of the title, OF THE BANDS, on it. Then the usual message, "Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People — New episode every month!", is featured. Cut to The Brick Wall, and Bubs, The Cheat and Coach Z standing in front of it. Bubs and Coach Z each kick The Cheat back and forth between them.}

COACH Z: {rapping}
My name is Coach Z,
And Bubs is my cohort.
Put on your Cheat kickers,
And let's kick-a The Chort!

[edit] Screenshots

Limozeen's Hot Babelien Odyssey	Club Technochocolate	Inside Marzipan's house	The locker room	Strong Bad with "celebrity judges"
DÖI	Cool Tapes	PomStar	Two-O-Duo

[edit] Inventory

• "3 O'Clock Twist"
• Aerosol Cheese Spray
• Alarm
• Album Cover Photo
• Bat Hutch
• Billy Club
• Bleach
• Bleach Photo
• Bleached Bats
• Bucket of Butter
• BMW Lighter
• Cool Tapes Entry Form
• "DeButt"
• Defaced Album
• Defaced Coloring Book
• "Doin' The Wigglie"
• Entry Forms
• Fake Sword
• "Food Related Love"
• Fun Machine
• German Helmet
• Glossy Photo
• Hangar Antenna
• "Hugo Left Me Miserable"
• Instant Camera
• "Left Shift-Alt-Delete"
• Letter
• Limozeen Coloring Book
• Limozeen Contest Flyer
• Lobster
• Pomstar Entry Form
• Poodonkis
• "Roll with the Punches"
• Security Jacket
• Signed Glossy
• "Slide to the Right, Y'all Bridesmaids"
• Squealin' Larry Limozeen Microphone
• Starfish
• Stencil
• Taranchula Black Metal Detector (now with shovel attachment)
• Toilet Paper
• Whale Photo
• Zen Rock

[edit] Ranks

1. Folk Filker
2. Scat Oboist
3. Wooden Fish Enthusiast
4. Electric Slide Kazooer
5. Contra Bassist
6. Spandex Screamer
7. Big Hair Wailer
8. Three-Necked Axeman
9. Nordic Percussion Lord
10. Spikey Rock Deity
11. Impossibly Rocked Out

[edit] Fun Facts

[edit] Explanations

• When asked "what's the word?" after Strong Bad has sabotaged both the Cool Tapes and the Two-O-Duo, The Cheat replies (in cheat-speak) "Schadenfreude." Schadenfreude is pleasure derived from another's misfortune.
• Filk is folk music with a fantasy or science fiction theme, and is often based on parodies of well known songs.
• Strong Bad uses forced perspective to make Poodonkis look larger than the Gremlin.
• Oil spills on land are typically taken care of by spreading an absorbent substance like sand or a specially made product over them, then sweeping it away. Lighting it on fire is occasionally used, though generally only in small spills on water.
• Marzipan's Zen garden is a Japanese rock garden.
• A matzah ball is a Jewish dumpling made from ground matzo (unleavened bread) and typically used in soups.
• Marzipan's "pepper taser" is probably just pepper spray.
• A forty is normally a forty-ounce bottle of beer.
• Strong Bad refers to the photo of Limozeen by the non-polluted pond as lacking a certain "je ne say wha?". This is a play on "je ne sais quoi", a French term (literally "I don't know what") which refers to a quality that's desirable but cannot be easily identified.
• The I-97 is an interstate highway that lies entirely within Anne Arundel County, Maryland. It is the shortest Interstate with a two-digit number, and the only Interstate that is entirely within a single county.
• Ambergris is a waxy grey substance found in the digestive system of sperm whales, and was formerly used in the manufacture of perfume.
• As explained in the 2009 OMG Nintendo interview, WiiWare file size limits meant that Limozeen could not be depicted as video — hence their cardboard portrayal.

[edit] Trivia

• Two of the emails sent to Strong Bad are from Mike S. and Mark Darin. Assuming the former name is Mike Stemmle, both were Telltale Games staff members at the time of the game's production.
• This is the only episode of SBCG4AP in which The Poopsmith does not physically appear, and is the first in which Senor Cardgage appears, though not physically.
• This is the first SBCG4AP episode that does not begin with Strong Bad checking his email.

[edit] Remarks

• Coach Z pronounces "Cheat" correctly, and then incorrectly.
• This is the first episode of SBCG4AP for the included Teen Girl Squad not to be created via the player's input.
• The nailed-shut door in Marzipan's house initially appeared in Quality Time with Cardboard Homestar, where it was just a closet. Here, it is declared to lead to the kitchen.
• One of the Awesomeness points in Strong Badia the Free involved setting the clothes on Strong Bad's bed on fire. In this episode, however, attempting to do so will have him remark that they're not flammable.
• Marzipan gets upset about the pollution of the pond, but litters thrice by crumpling up what Strong Bad shows her and tossing it away.
• The game had an official website at baddestofthebands.com, which went offline sometime after 2013. The site featured profiles of the bands and a printable promotional flyer.
• In this episode, Strong Bad claims to not know how to work the dryer, yet in Strong Badia the Free, he gets a pair of pants from the dryer, claiming he put them in the dryer to shrink them to his size.
• This episode has several portmanteaus: rockumentary (from "rock" and "documentary"), Rock-dezvous (from "rock" and "rendezvous"), chocoholism (from "chocolate" and "alcoholism"), Tour-Bus-mozeen {from "tour bus" and "Limozeen").
• According to Strong Sad, Marzipan keeps The Cheat and Strong Mad in Cool Tapes by letting them each write one song per album. This is probably a reference to George Harrison and Ringo Starr's status in The Beatles. A song by Strong Mad can be heard by playing Doin' the Wigglie twice at the Club during extended play.
• Technically, since "ply" is a count of the number of layers in toilet paper, half-ply toilet paper would not be possible. It is, however, a reference to the nonabsorbent single-ply toilet paper typically found in public and sport-location restrooms. Seven-ply toilet paper would probably be so thick as to be unusable.
• Larry Palaroncini is the only Limozeen band member to speak throughout the whole game.
• The live lobster that appears during the game's final events is bright red. However, in the real world, lobsters only become bright red after being cooked.
• If Strong Bad talks to Marzipan or Coach Z after sabotaging Pomstar, Homestar will repeat the whale even if the antenna isn't pointed towards him.

[edit] Goofs

• Only some of the songs include subtitles.
• Strong Bad misspells his own name as "Strongbad" several times when answering the in-game emails.
• Using the turntable in Extended Play would result in the usual response from Pom Pom and Homestar, even though the latter is absent from the scene.
• When controlling Homsar, the user can change both the pitch and volume of the theremin, but a single antenna theremin (like Homsar's) can only detect pitch.
• Despite what Strong Bad usually says when trying to use the Taranchula Black Metal Detector indoors, he can use it without a hitch at Coach Z's when he's not there.
• There are a lot of subtitle mistakes, such as:
  • Strong Bad's comments during Limozeen's Hot Babelien Odyssey misspell "Nebulon" as "Nebuloid".
  • Pom Pom is always hyphenated, and Two-O-Duo is always missing the second hyphen (though it always has two on in-game text).
  • When Strong Bad asks about Homsar's Theremin, he says "What the crap is that?" when the subtitles say "What the heck is that?"
• When trying to pour bleach down the toilet, Strong Bad's dialogue and subtitles are completely different.

[edit] Glitches

• Sometimes, when pulling out the map, a map icon will still be shown after switching to the "How Awesome I am" chart. This has occurred in every other episode as well.
• If the DÖI poster is dug up in extended play, the King of Town's guitar will be heard even though he's not there.
• Characters' eyes and mouths will sometimes vanish when entering a scene.
• When the metal detector is used at the Cool Tapes stage, Strong Bad will respond as though he is indoors.
• When the security robot pops up at Bubs' store, Strong Bad can take a picture of it with the Instant Camera, and it'll freeze. Bubs won't come over and the alarm will stop.
• On the Two-O-Duo stage, if Coach Z moves to his left for his last move, but the scene of him moving is skipped, he will still be on stage left once the cutscene is over— in the same place as Bubs, causing their sprites to be mixed together. If the player tries to examine Coach Z, instead of him dancing, it will just show the empty space where he used to be.
• If Strong Bad waits until after making the speaker fall at the DÖI stage before pushing the prop release button for the first time, the King of Town can still be heard hitting the speaker with his guitar when shown slurping up the missing piece of cable even though he isn't actually shown swinging it.

[edit] Wii Version

• In extended play, continuing to use the "Do the Wigglie" record on Pom Pom's turntable will earn Strong Bad each Limozeen manual page one after another.

[edit] Inside References

• The line said by Bubs towards the beginning, "It'll be an illegitimate business!", is more than likely to be a reference to a line by Homsar on his secret menu page when the cursor is placed over the button for the store: "LEGITIMATE BUSINESS!"
• This is another appearance of Kicking The Cheat.
• Strong Bad refers to his Fun Machine as Senor Fun Machine.
• Strong Sad has a Hollerin' Jimmy's Bat Hutch and a West Is Lip poster in his room.
• Strong Bad asks Strong Sad how he got the fake sword out of Pompomerania, which reflects upon the events of Strong Badia The Free. He also comments on how Pom Pom re-claimed the katana.
• Strong Bad also mentions the trophies won during Homestar Ruiner. Coach Z replies that he sold them for two bucks.
  • Strong Bad also comments that the shower in the locker room still smells like "Homestar onion soup", referring to the incident in Homestar Ruiner where Strong Bad tricked Homestar into rubbing himself with onions.
• Strong Bad mentions the map that he made in Homestar Ruiner which was subsequently eaten by the King of Town in Strong Badia the Free.
• Strong Bad offers Homestar Runner "total stardom", the same thing Thorax Corporation tries to sell.
• Examining the cable attached to the speakers on the DÖI stage will cause Strong Bad to lament that this has become an obstacle in an episode without hedge shears, swords, or nunchuck guns. He used hedge shears in Homestar Ruiner, a sword in Strong Badia the Free and in 8-Bit is Enough, and a Nunchuck Gun in Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective (the next episode).
• Wade from Bat-Aid refers to Marzipan once as "Melissa-pan".
• Bubs claims he built the stages with galvanized nails, which is a reference to No Hands On Deck!.
• The Poopsmith and Senor Cardgage are among the candidates being considered as Pom Pom's singer.
  • The Poopsmith is wearing the same suit in Pom Pom's picture as he does in the email senior prom.
• Strong Bad tells The Cheat, "Don't forget to wear a bikini!"
• Strong Bad's album cover photo features an imploding star and a burning car, referencing the song Handle My Style.
• The King of Town's guitar solo when he is introduced is identical to the tune played by Strong Bad's Black Metal Detector.
• When counting out how much money Strong Bad got from the sign-ups, Bubs says to "carry the G".
• Strong Bad previously Toilet Papered The Stick in 3 Times Halloween Funjob.
• Strong Bad mentions pants and underwear several times.
• Strong Mad mentions Lady Snake Parade.
• Strong Bad gets the jibblies whenever he sees the that horrible painting in Strong Mad's wardrobe.
• Bubs uses Biscuitdoughhandsman in advertising.
• Homestar and Marzipan's lack of visible arms is mentioned. Homestar comments that he doesn't have any handfuls of cash, while Strong Bad mentions Coach Z wanting Marzipan's hand.
• Strong Bad's head was referred to as being husky in modeling.
• When Strong Sad passes by Bubs' Concession Stand with the security jacket, he hums the sloshy song "We Don't Really Even Care About You".
• The tune played when The Cheat receives the fake sword is the last part of the Strong Badathlon fanfare.
• Many of Strong Bad's lines when putting on clothing in the Snap Shak are slightly paraphrased quotes from modeling.
• Strong Bad referring to Homsar as a typo was a reference to his email of origin.
• If Strong Bad uses the fake sword on the Hot Car before getting the defaced album, he says the fake sword is like "negative zero", referencing Level 8 of Stinkoman 20X6.
• This game has many uses of one's Own Dang X.
• Crickets chirp when Strong Bad doesn't get the ovation he had supposedly hoped for during his concert.
• After sabotaging Cool Tapes, Strong Bad notes that The Cheat is looking overwhelmed. "The Cheat is overwhelmed" was a lyric from the Strong Bad Sings and Other Type Hits version of Everybody to the Limit.

[edit] Real-World References

• The glitched Hot Babelien Odyssey screen has red, yellow, and blue random letters on the right half, similar to the well-known kill screen from Namco's Pac-Man.
• Strong Bad's "I just sprayed three cans of 4W-DD in it this morning!" is a reference to the spray-on lubricant WD-40.
• The performance on the rooftop in the preview could be modeled after The Beatles' final public performance.
• The name "Bat-Aid" is a play on the band Band Aid.
• Bubs refers to Coach Z as the "Thin Green Duke", a reference to David Bowie's persona The Thin White Duke.
• The riff that Strong Bad sings for "Save/Load" is based on "Breaking The Law" by Judas Priest.
• The line Strong Bad sings for "Quit" is based on "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey.
• The Limozeen video game is possibly a reference to the Atari 2600 game, Journey Escape, which featured the band Journey.
• Strong Bad calls Strong Sad "Sister Christian". He also refers to him as "Teenage Lobotomy".
• The name of Strong Bad's band "DÖI" is a possible reference to Dio, a heavy metal band named after and fronted by Ronnie James Dio. Alternatively, it could be a reference to the Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, a thrash metal band commonly known by the acronym D.R.I.
• One of the potential word choices for the umlautted O in DÖI is "Oyster". This is a reference to Blue Öyster Cult which is the band that started the trend of using heavy metal umlauts by placing a nonfunctional umlaut over the "O" in Oyster.
• Strong Sad's explanation of the theremin is paraphrased from the Wikipedia page^(permalink) for the instrument.
• Strong Bad tells the players not to confuse fog-bats with Foghat.
• The cover art and lyrics for "Hugo Left Me" are based on Les Misérables, originally written by Victor Hugo. The album says it's by "The Frollos"; Frollo was a character in one of Hugo's other works, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
• Strong Bad's declaration of "One Fish, Two Fish, Starfish, Carfish" and the subsequent dialogue references One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss.
• Strong Bad's line spoken as he TPs the Stick is a reference to A Charlie Brown Christmas.
• Strong Bad refers to Homestar as "Very White", a reference to Barry White.
• Coach Z standing in front of Marzipan's house holding a boombox references an iconic scene in the 1989 romantic comedy Say Anything..., where Lloyd Dobbler (John Cusack) romances Diane Court (Ione Skye) by standing in front of her bedroom window with a boombox playing "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel.
• Strong Bad asking Marzipan if she plans to bite off Pazquel's head, The King of Town's on-stage devouring of bats, and Marzipan's allegation of Limozeen performing bat-head-biting all refer to a notorious episode in the career of heavy metal musician Ozzy Osbourne.
• If the Limozeen Coloring Book is used on Strong Bad, he uses the phrase "and name them George" - this is a reference to a Looney Tunes short called The Abominable Snow Rabbit involving Bugs Bunny and the Abominable Snowman.
• If the player clicks on the fuse box at the DÖI Stage, Strong Bad remarks how his "frustration was sure to blow a 50 amp fuse." This is a reference to the Rolling Stones song "You Can't Always Get What You Want", where there is a line with a similar meaning.
• After the speaker has been brought down on the DÖI stage, Strong Bad mentions that it must be Cobain-proofed, a reference to Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, who was known to destroy guitars and speakers at the climax of a performance.
• Strong Bad calls Bubs a keytar hero.
• Strong Bad mentions the King of Town's Richard Pryor impression as being white - Richard Pryor was a black American comedian who was known for his unflinching examinations of racism.
• After looking at the pond after bleach has been poured into it, Strong Bad will shed a tear. This a parody of a famous PSA from the early 1970s starring Iron Eyes Cody.
• Strong Bad sends his Limozeen contest entry to Staten Island, 10301. 10301 is the zip code for part of Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of New York City.
• While playing Limozeen's Hot Babelien Odyssey, Strong Bad references John F. Kennedy's inaugural address ("Ask not what your country can do for you...") and the tagline for the movie Alien ("In space, no one can hear you scream").
• When searching for Canadian coins in his bed, Strong Bad mentions that he fails to find a single Loonie. A Loonie is a Canadian one dollar coin, called such because is displays a common loon, a type of bird, on the front.
• One of the tattoos Strong Bad draws on Gary Palaroncini is the letters "E-E-N" on his knuckles. This is a reference to the letters "O-Z-Z-Y" tattooed across the knuckles of Ozzy Osbourne's left hand.
• Strong Bad twice mentions rabies, a fatal brain disease sometimes carried by animals such as bats. He also cautions Strong Sad not to foam at the mouth, one of the common symptoms of rabies.
• Strong Sad's "designy, foreign, put-it-together-yourself" bookshelves and vaguely Swedish-sounding name "Flurgendroon" are a reference to IKEA and similar companies, who sell furniture disassembled in flat-pack boxes, for the buyer to assemble themselves.
• Bubs's diamond-encrusted plantanium record is a reference to diamond and platinum records, which are given to artists for selling a certain number of albums, though the actual number varies depending on location.
• Strong Bad's mention that the Gremlin has a smoke screen and missiles is a reference to James Bond's cars, which were typically equipped with similar devices.
• Bubs's wish that Coach Z would behave like an O.G. is a reference to O.G. Original Gangster, an album by Ice-T.
• Coach Z's doggerel "Yo, what light breaks through yonder window there... it's Marzipan, and she's got yellow hair" is a reference to the famous balcony scene from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. ("But soft! What light from yonder window breaks? 'Tis the East, and Juliet is the sun!") He also mangles the line "wherefore art thou, Romeo", though since the line means "why are you Romeo?" rather than "where are you, Romeo?", he's misusing it as well.
• Strong Bad calls the fake sword "Suxcalibur", a reference to King Arthur's sword Excalibur.
• Strong Mad's "T-K-O" when cheering the King of Town is a reference to Technical Knockout, a term used in boxing. It may also indicate that Strong Mad is dyslexic.
• Limozeen mention the Moscow Music Peace Festival.
• Strong Bad calling the King of Town the King of Townshend refers to Pete Townshend of The Who. Strong Bad compares the King of Town's actions to those of Townshend at the end of a famous performance of "My Generation".
• One of Homestar's lines is sung to the tune of the main theme from The NeverEnding Story.
• Strong Bad asks the cardboard cutout of Limozeen "How in the name of Yngwie did Homestar get so smooth?" This is a reference to Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen.
• Strong Bad's calling his coloring book an "Interactive Chromatic Short-Form Novel" is a reference to mature-age readers referring to comic books as "Graphic Novels".
• Chaka Khan is a female American singer.
• Bubs's farewell line to Strong Bad, "Rock over London! Rock on Chicago", is a reference to songwriter Wesley Willis, who would often use the lines in his songs.
• Strong Sad's plan to become a snooty rock journalist and then sell the rights to the story of his exploits to a snooty independent movie studio refers to Cameron Crowe, who worked for Rolling Stone as a teenager and turned his story into the movie Almost Famous.
• The line "Roadie Miscommunication Breakdown!" and So and So's consequent "It's always the same!" refer to the Led Zeppelin song Communication Breakdown.
• Gary Palaroncini calls Cheerleader "Un-unskinny bop", which is a reference to the Poison song, Unskinny Bop.
• Strong Bad says his stage prop is "almost better than a flying pig" and "maybe cooler than a giant robotic demon".
  • "Flying Pig" is a reference to a prop used in some performances by classic rock band Pink Floyd. It was also used on some of Roger Waters's solo tours.
  • "Giant Robotic Demon" could be a reference to classic metal band Iron Maiden, who uses elaborate stage props in their concerts, including giant puppets of demons and monsters.
• Strong Bad refers to the Gremlin as having plus four armor, while the fake sword is negative zero. This is a reference to items in role-playing games which give a numerical boost (or penalty) to one or more of a character's stats.
• In the scene where Strong Bad realizes which characters are left for his band, The King of Town is eating a Wii remote.
• Homsar's theremin is labelled "Theremaxxx."; the PAIA Theremax really is a brand of theremin.
• The Two-O-Duo's "DeButt" album cover is based on Run-D.M.C.'s album King of Rock.
• Strong Bad's line "The power of rock compels you!" during the Limozeen game is a reference to both "The power of Christ compels you!", a line from The Exorcist and the film Repossessed itself a parody of The Exorcist.
• Coach Z sighs at Homestar's lyrics, and exclaims, "It's like he read my letters out loud", which is a lyric from "Killing Me Softly with His Song".
• Strong Bad's supposed "Strongly Sense" is a play on Spider-Man's famous "spidey sense" which warned him of danger he wasn't consciously aware of.

[edit] Fast Forward

• At the end of the game, Strong Sad comments that Strong Bad's video game "sounds pretty dangerous". Strong Bad replies, "No. Sounds..." then hums the opening theme to Dangeresque 1: Dangeresque, Too? as the camera zooms in on his Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective poster. Dangeresque 3 later becomes the main focus of the next SBCG4AP episode.
  • The next episode's events are further forshadowed in extended play, when examining the calendar in the computer room makes Strong Bad say "Well, now that I've gotten my broken Fun Machine repaired, maybe today's the day I get to work on Dangeresque 3."
• When Strong Bad sees the Gremlin, he claims it has a smoke screen and missiles. This is revealed to be true (sort of) in Dangeresque 3.
• Strong Bad contemplates bringing DÖI on tour and trashing the Peasantry Inn in 8-Bit is Enough.

[edit] External Links

• Archive of the Official Episode Webpage
• Telltale Games Forum thread re: Baddest of the Bands
• forum thread re: "Baddest of the Bands
• Gamespot Preview of Baddest of the Bands Spoilers
• Archive of the official website for Baddest of the Bands

[edit] Reviews

• Metacritic review summary
• Gamespot preview
• Game Pro Arcade preview and interview with Mike Stemmle
• Game Pro Arcade review
• IGN review
• WiiWare World review
• CheatCode Central review
• 1UP review
• Jolt Online review
• Adventure Gamers review
• Cubed3 review
• Gamervision review
• Adventure Classic Gaming review
• Video Game Generation review