Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Apr 20, 2014 16:58:04 GMT -5
Cypher Raige: Hey, folks! We are back for another round of sbemails. A few of the toons this week are a little lackluster, but there is still some quality stuff and some good laughs. What you got, random?
random dude: Yeah, there's a couple of weaker cartoons in here, but there's also one awesome gem at the end. Also, sorry that this review took so long, everyone; that was entirely on me. It took me way to long to get around to this one.
Strong Bad Email #46: your friends
Cypher Raige: Our first sbemail of the week is a little slight. Strong Bad receives an all caps message from Andrew, who says he likes it when Strong Bad hurts his buddies. So the rest of the toon just shows Strong Bad heaping various forms of abuse on almost all of the other characters in the Homestarniverse. I get what the Brothers Chaps are doing here, basically making fun of the fact that some jackass thinks that Homestar Runner is all about cartoon violence and nothing more, which is very far from the truth, so they just serve it right up. It's a clever response, but it just doesn't end of translating very well. The only laugh I got from this cartoon is from the writing on the box of scorpions that are tormenting Homsar: "WE ARE THE SCORPIONS!!", an entertaining reference to the exuberant 80's German metal band. Other than that it was pretty lame. Even the one easter egg I found (click on the Poopsmith's name at the end) is pretty half-assed. All you see if a baseball card with a picture of the Poopsmith on it. So meh.
random dude: Yeah, there's not a whole lot to this one. It honestly felt a lot more like an older idea for a sbemail that the Brothers Chaps didn't get around to until whenever in 2002 this cartoon came out. Still it's not all bad. I like the way that the only audible dialogue from the show that Strong Mad is watching is "some kind of television show...", and any reference to the jibblies is pretty awesome. And while I'm kicking myself for not noticing the Scorpions reference, I think Homsar's nonsequitur in this sbemail, "I'm saving the best for last," coincidentally applies to this week's review.
Strong Bad Email #47: new hands
Cypher Raige: Once again, I was not too impressed with this sbemail. Somebody asks Strong Bad what kind of hands he would like to have if his got chopped off or whatever, and Strong Bad randomly selects some fairly useless items, although the bucket would come in handy for dumpin' oatmeal on stuff. At the end, Strong Bad realizes the stupidity of his choice, and an easter egg (click on either the words "guitars" or "lazor guns") shows some other sometimes more useful and sometimes even less useful choices. Click on either of Strong Bad's hands to change the item, and may God have mercy on your souls.
random dude: Yeah, this one's not too great either, although I liked Strong Bad's choice of having a bucket for a hand, "because that way [he] would always have...a bucket". But yeah, apart from the weirdness of Homestar's head attached to Strong Bad's wrist in the Easter Egg, this one was kind of dull. Oh well, we're through with the kinda lame ones this week, so that's a good thing, right?
Strong Bad Email #48: ghosts
Cypher Raige: Okay, sorry for crapping all over the last two sbemails, because this one totally redeems itself! Strong Bad is asked by a trio of rootin' tootin' cowboys if there are any ghosts in Strongbadia, which sends the Cheat and him on a ghost hunt. This involves them dressing up in dumb costumes and checking things out with a flashlight. Notice that both the Cheat and Strong Bad are wearing Ghostbusters 2 shirts, a joke that Genevieve Koski would not enjoy at all. After little initial success, our heroes do finally encounter a ghost, and hilarity ensues.
random dude: I like the way that Strong Bad's crappy old computers, printer, and more become minor characters of their own in these sbemails, and therefore I absolutely agree that this sbemail totally redeems itself. I particularly enjoyed Mark Chapman's deliberately terrible mumbled Batman theme, and the "bad graphics ghost" on the screen of the ghost of the poor old Tandy 400. Although to be completely honest, I never "got" Ghostbusters either.
Strong Bad Email #49: theme party
Cypher Raige: So check this shit, brah, you won't even believe it! I was totally blasted the other night, you know, like just thrashed, buddy, and I invited some random bro in a wrestling mask to my frat party because, like, how hilarious is that? Then he got weird and started trying to hook up with some girls from Delta Pi, you know, one of those skinny blonde ones, So I was like, "Bro! Totally not cool!" We circled each other for a while, and like, he already had his shirt off, so I pulled mine off and told him to come at me. Anyway, we didn't throw down, and we ended up hugging it out, and we had a few beers and listened to him jam on the acoustic. It turned out cool, he was a pretty solid dude. I'm gonna try to get him to pledge next semester. What? Hell no, bro! NO HOMO!
random dude: Yeah, so this one is kind of generic mockery of frat parties, but as a very not-in-a-frat college student, I thought it was pretty funny. And there's a couple of easter eggs in this one too. If you click on "baseball hats" a picture of a CGNU hat with Strong Bad's head stitched on pops up, and clicking on "t-shirt" will bring up a sterotypical frat party t-shirt. And at the end, if you click on "skinny blonde girls" you can listen to a demo tape of Strong Bad (under the moniker of "The Kinda Long-Haired Band" playing some crappy lo-fi white blues. It's certainly no "Everybody to the Limit", but I thought the line "I failed college algebra again," was pretty good.
Strong Bad Email #50: 50 emails
Cypher Raige: We have reached a milestone, people. Strong Bad's 50th email is here, and with it, an immediate jump in quality from the previous few sbemails. Seriously, this is one of the best sbemails yet. Strong Bad at first attempts to answer fifty emails in a row, but he only makes it a few in before being interrupted by a telemarketer who apparently is going to cut off Strong Sad's elephant feet for $50. Meanwhile, Homestar Runner arrives returning Strong Bad's fondue pot (I don't know which of the two characters is more hilarious to imagine eating fondue), but he finds Strong Bad's email open and decides to answer a few. Through his typical adorable cluelessness, Homestar manages to hose Strong Bad's operating system by continually entering the wrong command for "DELETED!" (as a side note, I still say "BALEETED!" to this day). Homestar cleverly attempts to disguise his error with yet another error message taped to the screen, but Strong Bad returns to find his computer screwed. After a short fade to black, we see a swiss cake roll with candles. Click on the roll for a great Old Timey Strong Bad toon.
random dude: Hooray for 50 sbemails! Not only is this the best cartoon of the week, but, like Raige said, it's one of the best cartoons we've reviewed so far. Not only does Strong Bad mock someone ruthlessly for their spelling errors, but we also get to see what, I think, is the first appearance of Homestar in Strong Bad's computer room ("Whoa! This TV has words on it!"). And then of course Homestar proceeds to be adorably terrible at answering Strong Bad's emails. He's such a cheerful guy, that he can't even insult someone properly without forging Strong Bad's signature as "Your buddy, Strong Bad". And Homestar's fake "system report" is great: "Everything is fine. Nothing is ruined," under the heading "This Is Real." And Old Timey Strong Bad's telegram is great, especially when he calls "Lord Elsington Hallstingdingdingworth a "carpetbagger".
Anyway, that's it for this week, everyone, next week we'll be back with:
Strong Bad Email #51: website
Strong Bad Email #52: island
Strong Bad Email #53: comic
Strong Bad Email #54: morning routine
Strong Bad Email #55: cheat talk
random dude: Yeah, there's a couple of weaker cartoons in here, but there's also one awesome gem at the end. Also, sorry that this review took so long, everyone; that was entirely on me. It took me way to long to get around to this one.
Strong Bad Email #46: your friends
Cypher Raige: Our first sbemail of the week is a little slight. Strong Bad receives an all caps message from Andrew, who says he likes it when Strong Bad hurts his buddies. So the rest of the toon just shows Strong Bad heaping various forms of abuse on almost all of the other characters in the Homestarniverse. I get what the Brothers Chaps are doing here, basically making fun of the fact that some jackass thinks that Homestar Runner is all about cartoon violence and nothing more, which is very far from the truth, so they just serve it right up. It's a clever response, but it just doesn't end of translating very well. The only laugh I got from this cartoon is from the writing on the box of scorpions that are tormenting Homsar: "WE ARE THE SCORPIONS!!", an entertaining reference to the exuberant 80's German metal band. Other than that it was pretty lame. Even the one easter egg I found (click on the Poopsmith's name at the end) is pretty half-assed. All you see if a baseball card with a picture of the Poopsmith on it. So meh.
random dude: Yeah, there's not a whole lot to this one. It honestly felt a lot more like an older idea for a sbemail that the Brothers Chaps didn't get around to until whenever in 2002 this cartoon came out. Still it's not all bad. I like the way that the only audible dialogue from the show that Strong Mad is watching is "some kind of television show...", and any reference to the jibblies is pretty awesome. And while I'm kicking myself for not noticing the Scorpions reference, I think Homsar's nonsequitur in this sbemail, "I'm saving the best for last," coincidentally applies to this week's review.
Strong Bad Email #47: new hands
Cypher Raige: Once again, I was not too impressed with this sbemail. Somebody asks Strong Bad what kind of hands he would like to have if his got chopped off or whatever, and Strong Bad randomly selects some fairly useless items, although the bucket would come in handy for dumpin' oatmeal on stuff. At the end, Strong Bad realizes the stupidity of his choice, and an easter egg (click on either the words "guitars" or "lazor guns") shows some other sometimes more useful and sometimes even less useful choices. Click on either of Strong Bad's hands to change the item, and may God have mercy on your souls.
random dude: Yeah, this one's not too great either, although I liked Strong Bad's choice of having a bucket for a hand, "because that way [he] would always have...a bucket". But yeah, apart from the weirdness of Homestar's head attached to Strong Bad's wrist in the Easter Egg, this one was kind of dull. Oh well, we're through with the kinda lame ones this week, so that's a good thing, right?
Strong Bad Email #48: ghosts
Cypher Raige: Okay, sorry for crapping all over the last two sbemails, because this one totally redeems itself! Strong Bad is asked by a trio of rootin' tootin' cowboys if there are any ghosts in Strongbadia, which sends the Cheat and him on a ghost hunt. This involves them dressing up in dumb costumes and checking things out with a flashlight. Notice that both the Cheat and Strong Bad are wearing Ghostbusters 2 shirts, a joke that Genevieve Koski would not enjoy at all. After little initial success, our heroes do finally encounter a ghost, and hilarity ensues.
random dude: I like the way that Strong Bad's crappy old computers, printer, and more become minor characters of their own in these sbemails, and therefore I absolutely agree that this sbemail totally redeems itself. I particularly enjoyed Mark Chapman's deliberately terrible mumbled Batman theme, and the "bad graphics ghost" on the screen of the ghost of the poor old Tandy 400. Although to be completely honest, I never "got" Ghostbusters either.
Strong Bad Email #49: theme party
Cypher Raige: So check this shit, brah, you won't even believe it! I was totally blasted the other night, you know, like just thrashed, buddy, and I invited some random bro in a wrestling mask to my frat party because, like, how hilarious is that? Then he got weird and started trying to hook up with some girls from Delta Pi, you know, one of those skinny blonde ones, So I was like, "Bro! Totally not cool!" We circled each other for a while, and like, he already had his shirt off, so I pulled mine off and told him to come at me. Anyway, we didn't throw down, and we ended up hugging it out, and we had a few beers and listened to him jam on the acoustic. It turned out cool, he was a pretty solid dude. I'm gonna try to get him to pledge next semester. What? Hell no, bro! NO HOMO!
random dude: Yeah, so this one is kind of generic mockery of frat parties, but as a very not-in-a-frat college student, I thought it was pretty funny. And there's a couple of easter eggs in this one too. If you click on "baseball hats" a picture of a CGNU hat with Strong Bad's head stitched on pops up, and clicking on "t-shirt" will bring up a sterotypical frat party t-shirt. And at the end, if you click on "skinny blonde girls" you can listen to a demo tape of Strong Bad (under the moniker of "The Kinda Long-Haired Band" playing some crappy lo-fi white blues. It's certainly no "Everybody to the Limit", but I thought the line "I failed college algebra again," was pretty good.
Strong Bad Email #50: 50 emails
Cypher Raige: We have reached a milestone, people. Strong Bad's 50th email is here, and with it, an immediate jump in quality from the previous few sbemails. Seriously, this is one of the best sbemails yet. Strong Bad at first attempts to answer fifty emails in a row, but he only makes it a few in before being interrupted by a telemarketer who apparently is going to cut off Strong Sad's elephant feet for $50. Meanwhile, Homestar Runner arrives returning Strong Bad's fondue pot (I don't know which of the two characters is more hilarious to imagine eating fondue), but he finds Strong Bad's email open and decides to answer a few. Through his typical adorable cluelessness, Homestar manages to hose Strong Bad's operating system by continually entering the wrong command for "DELETED!" (as a side note, I still say "BALEETED!" to this day). Homestar cleverly attempts to disguise his error with yet another error message taped to the screen, but Strong Bad returns to find his computer screwed. After a short fade to black, we see a swiss cake roll with candles. Click on the roll for a great Old Timey Strong Bad toon.
random dude: Hooray for 50 sbemails! Not only is this the best cartoon of the week, but, like Raige said, it's one of the best cartoons we've reviewed so far. Not only does Strong Bad mock someone ruthlessly for their spelling errors, but we also get to see what, I think, is the first appearance of Homestar in Strong Bad's computer room ("Whoa! This TV has words on it!"). And then of course Homestar proceeds to be adorably terrible at answering Strong Bad's emails. He's such a cheerful guy, that he can't even insult someone properly without forging Strong Bad's signature as "Your buddy, Strong Bad". And Homestar's fake "system report" is great: "Everything is fine. Nothing is ruined," under the heading "This Is Real." And Old Timey Strong Bad's telegram is great, especially when he calls "Lord Elsington Hallstingdingdingworth a "carpetbagger".
Anyway, that's it for this week, everyone, next week we'll be back with:
Strong Bad Email #51: website
Strong Bad Email #52: island
Strong Bad Email #53: comic
Strong Bad Email #54: morning routine
Strong Bad Email #55: cheat talk