Talk:english paper

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Contents 1 Font? 2 $2.53 3 Wrestleman 4 eBay 5 "All right" is two words 6 Battery Diagram found on Engrish.com 7 Did Kyle really say he handed in both Engli[l]sh papers? 8 Grammar errors

[edit] Font?

What font is used to type out the paper? Some sort of typewriter font obviously, but it'd be good for accurate reproductions.

In the Word document, or the email? In the Word document it's just Times New Roman. — User:ACupOfCoffee@ 14:27, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

In the actual email. It's different in the word document, obviously.

It looks like it might be either EF Raleigh Light or Lucida Typewriter, but I can't really tell. That's the best I could do from the Search by Sight feature on fonts.com. Can anaybody else really tell? — User:ACupOfCoffee@ 21:13, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

I think it's Harting, which we already have. LePorello / T / C 21:25, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, definitely Harting. I'll add it right now. LePorello / T / C 21:28, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Nice observation, LePorello. You're right, the "o" in all of the sentences is ^higher than the rest of the letters, just a bit. ♥ _tee^eff_oh! 21:32, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, it's one of many I've added to my compy. That made it easy to check. LePorello / T / C 21:36, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Contributing to an oooold topic, but thought I'd better make a correction here. The font TBC used is called TypewriterRough, which is almost identical to Harting. The biggest differences between them is that Harting has a cent sign (¢) while TypewriterRough does not, and TypewriterRough has an underscore (_) while Harting does not (although the underscore does not match the rest of the font; it is merely a boring straight line). =] OptimisticFool 15:40, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] $2.53

Is the 2.53$ significant?

It's written "$2.53", and I don't see how. Really, some people read REALLY far into the silliest things... --Jay 21:25, 19 Jan 2005 (MST)

[edit] Wrestleman

The fun facts say that this is the first time Strong Bad is referred to as a wrestle man. Where? There's no mention of "wrestle man" in the transcript or anything. 24.193.240.27 06:38, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)

In the Easter egg. --Jay (Gobble) 06:42, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] eBay

Does anyone have a link to the actual eBay auction? I'd like to check that out. Alcnolien 20:11, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

I kind of doubt it still exists; I believe eBay takes closed auctions offline. More to the point, is there any proof that the original auction and/or the comments originated from TBC, or were they a fan stunt? Granted, the wording right now uses the passive tense to avoid making that claim, but it seems to be implied. —AbdiViklas 20:34, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

We should look into this. Do we know what the seller's username was? If so, we could look into selling history. Alcnolien 02:43, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

true dat......but where? Seriously ^(Talk) 14:25, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

I believe that this was the page on Ebay, but it's been removed. Here's some discussion that was going on around the time of the auction. Trey56 14:34, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

I can't seem to get any proof from this. The e-mail was realeased in 2003 so I'm guessing the auction was made somewhere that year, but Wayback isn't going back more than 2005, and it still will say that it's pulled. Pgj1997 12:41, 2 August 2011 (UTC)

I remember seeing the auction personally, so I know it was real. Not sure why you responded to the topic after five years, but in this case I'll let it slide. --Jay (Gobble) 16:43, 2 August 2011 (UTC)

[edit] "All right" is two words

Since this email is about an English paper, and given how Strong Bad often likes to make fun of email writers' bad spelling, this seems like a good place to point out that Strong Bad makes the common mistake of using "alright" as a word. We spent an entire day (well, the 45 minutes of the class) in high school English about this. Some argue that this error has been made so often by so many that it is now legit. See the usage note in Dictionary.com for more info.

Now I'll go back to my own little world where this sort of thing matters.

[edit] Battery Diagram found on Engrish.com

Today Engrish.com updated with a sign using the same diagram used in this email. Odd, isn't it?

I noticed that too. It's allegedly from Austria, though I think the authenticity is questionable, considering how easy it would be to produce.

It's right here.--Eric the Rexman 20:36, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

According to http://www.consumating.com/profiles/CobaltCube (the website linked on the engrish page) the photo was featured in the submitter's "question of the week" for July 24th 2006.

This fact has been added and removed a few times now. The consensus of a discussion on IRC was that we have to assume that the H*R version is the original. Mainly because of two reasons:

1. english paper was released 3 years before the other sightings
2. The version in english paper looks identical to the one from Engrish.com, yet is a vector graphic. This means that it is most likely the original, and the Engrish sighting is a direct copy.

Based on this, please do not add the fact again to this article. Instead, if you think you have a very good reason why we should, please post it here. Thanks. Loafing 21:02, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

H*R is a social commentary. It has already been known to mimic and implement things found in the real world to make references that its viewers can catch (For example, the game Trogdor uses the Konami Code). These instructions are of a serious nature, and it is very unlikely for battery manufactures to imitate an internet cartoon such as Homestar Runner for no obvious reason.

Furthermore, just because this I just so happened to come across this picture doesn't mean that it is the only one of its type, and also doesn't rule out the possibility that The Brothes Chaps simply made their own version of the image. They may have thouht that this was the perfect image for imitation as it is a bunch of lines and therefore easy to animate. This would fit with my "Social Commentary" theory.

This picture may have been made long before this toon was released.

Judging from the abundance of obscure references to the real world, H*R is likely copying a funny diagram from an actual product. Therefore, the paragraph about the sighting at Engrish.com belongs in the real world references section.

-72.133.214.202

I find it highly unlikely that TBC copied this image, or that a real company would illustrate how not to use its product with such a picture (I mean, c'mon, using such an outrageous picture would be a blatant violation of WP:BEANS, and I just don't see a real company taking that kind of chance). I find it way more likely that someone took TBC's artwork and made it into a fake Engrish example. The second link is obviously lifted from H*R.com, too. It's not TBC's style to rip off other artwork. Imitate, sure. Parody, certainly. But not steal outright (especially in such meticulous detail). — It's dot com 23:08, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Batteries and other products are usually bought by non-naive adults who have money. Also, the fact that no one before me found this picture and suggested it as a Fun Fact probably means that more people know about H*R than Engrish.com. Imitating anything that is already an imitation without ever seeing the original is not uncommon. Also, The Brothers Chaps did not steal this image, they simply copied it. They have directy copied other things, too (such as the Konami Code). They did not change it in any way, but does it matter if they modified it? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. 72.133.214.202 23:23, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

It's not true that nobody found the picture before (see posts at the beginning of this section). Also, may I remind you that this toon is three years older than the entry on Engrish.com. In addition to that, you may want to read the wikipedia article on vector graphics. TBC would have had to go to great length to actually copy the image at this accuracy. And the fact that they have copied other stuff before is in no way proof that they did it here, too. Loafing 01:43, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Copying the Konami Code is not in the same class as this. In that case, they used that key sequence as an Easter egg that they knew we'd recognize. And as Loafing said, making a good vector drawing from a bitmapped image is extremely time-consuming, if you're trying to make it accurate. The fact that the images match exactly is a very strong indicator that TBC's came first. — It's dot com 02:32, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Did Kyle really say he handed in both Engli[l]sh papers?

I'm pretty sure this is ancient history and whoever claimed this has already disappeared, but does anybody know the actual forum post mentioned in the Trivia? As well as the claim needing a source (at least I think so), I'd like to read the original message. Thanks! 222.154.5.207 09:37, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

I think I actually saw the message when the Message Bored was still functional... but I can't prove it. --Jay (Gobble) 18:41, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Grammar errors

I opened the .doc in MSWord 2010 and it picked up quite a few grammar errors many of which are the first word of each line. Should this be noted? Pgj1997 23:06, 4 July 2011 (UTC)