Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2014 21:38:42 GMT -5
random dude: Hey everyone! This week we'll be reviewing another batch of Strong Bad Emails. I feel like these sbemails are a bit funnier on the whole than the first five, and we get to see the sbemail that would later inspire one of the site's most popular songs, but on the whole, it still feels like the Brothers Chaps are still getting the hang of making these toons, and things are going to get a whole lot better than this in the near future. What do you think, Raige?
Cypher Raige: I think you are the king of the run-on sentence, Roy Batty's Pet Dove! BURN! Anyhoo, definitely getting better in terms of quality, but we still have a ways to go before the real hilarity begins. Still, there's some decent laffs in this week's selections, and I'm gettin' a li'l tingly just thinking about the funny to come!
Strong Bad Email #6: depressio
random dude: This isn't that great of an email. Anthony emails Strong Bad asking him to insult Strong Sad, and when Strong Bad tells his little brother what Anthony says, Strong Sad utters a sigh of disappointment and tears up a card with which he was going to send Anthony $100. It's kind of a boring email, but, in an elaborate Easter Egg, until the account was disabled, you used to receive a response, ostensibly from Strong Sad himself, if you sent him an email at depressio@homestarrunner.com. In the original reply email, Strong Sad would send you to this website, in which you look at items in a box of keepsakes from Strong Sad's childhood illustrating his relationship with his mean older brother. Later, emailing Strong Sad would elicit a different response that provided a link to a blog called Strong Sad's Lament, which, in what may be the most elaborate Easter Egg in the history of the site, the Brothers Chaps would update at occasional intervals for more than two years. Strong Sad's Lament is pretty funny at times, and characteristically depressing almost all the time. Strong Sad apparently has musical tastes that would fit in pretty well with those of many members of the commentariat. I laughed when he wrote "I can't tell where one song stops and the next one starts" when listening to Godspeed You! Black Emperor. And I would really want to hear Strong Sad's remix of "The writings of Gregor Mendel read over some old Brian Eno stuff." Like, seriously. I would totally spend 10-15 on a copy of Strong Sad reading Experiments on Plant Hybridization over Here Come the Warm Jets or Before and After Science. Homsar makes a couple of appearances as the non-sequitur spouting character that he hadn't quite developed into in his call to Marzipan last week, as he invites Strong Sad to an "I'm Creepin and I'm Creepin and I'm Creepin Party!!" I also loved Homestar's New Year's resolution: "Oh, 640X480 probably." What did you think of this one, Raige? Had you encountered Strong Sad's blog before?
Cypher Raige: I do vaguely remember the Strong Sad blog, and it is a good early example of the easter egg fun that would later become this site's bread and butter. My favorite part of the email itself is the brief view we get of Strong Sad's room, containing posters from The Cure (which is a bit on the nose, but still funny) and the movie Some Kind of Wonderful. There is no doubt in my mind that Strong Sad is the character of Watts from that film, always pining for Marzipan's Keith Nelson, while she only has eyes for the beautiful and popular Homestar Runner, standing in for Amanda Jones in this, my tortured metaphor. strong little pop culture drops from the Brothers Chaps!
Strong Bad Email #7: halloweener
random dude: I liked this one. Ben asks for some advice on how to make a Strong Bad costume, and an cheerfully obliging Homestar puts up with being dressed in a pathetic excuse for a Strong Bad costume, which includes an oven mitt on his head, aluminum foil wrapped around his legs and around a ball of twine on the ground, and boxing gloves on his feet (the Brothers Chaps regularly poke fun at their own bizarre character designs, and frequently reference Homestar's lack of arms through visual gags such as these).
Cypher Raige: I like how the entire Homestar sequence is concocted by Strong Bad not to demonstrate how to actually make a Strong Bad costume, but instead to humiliate dumbass Homestar Runner. He certainly is a belle. Or something. Note that Ben's email is signed "With Crap." Strong Bad would soon get tired of the emailers bogarting his signature word, but not yet. But he still gets in one final dig at Ben by calling him a freaking weirdo.
Strong Bad Email #8: brianrietta
random dude: In easily the weakest cartoon of the week, Brian asks Strong Bad out in an email, and Strong Sad starts to reply before he realizes that Brian is a dude's name. Hahaha, casual homophobia is hilarious, amirite guys? No, not really? Yeah, I didn't think so either. Granted, there's a lot of comedy out there that's plenty more homophobic than this cartoon, and I don't get the impression that the Brothers Chaps are overtly homophobic so much as a little careless and lacking in self-awareness with the dumb trope that two guys being in a relationship is somehow inherently funny, but it's also just not a funny cartoon. It's pretty clear that the sender of this email probably had the kind of response that Strong Bad makes in mind when writing it, and it's a shame that the Brothers Chaps engaged them in the sophomoric joke. I did think that "Brienrietta" was a kind of funny name in what an exceedingly lame attempt to feminize Brian, though, so I guess this one wasn't completely devoid of humor for me.
Cypher Raige: Yeah, you pretty much said it all on this one. Short and stupid. I watched the toon before reading your response, and the first thought that popped into my head was "casual homophobia." It's not over the top or anything, and we are looking at this toon from over a decade down the road, but I have a feeling that this would have even been stale at the time of its conception. Still, Strong Bad is supposed to be a bit of a super macho stereotype, so it's not out of character, but I'm curious if this joke would have made it onto the site in this day and age.
Strong Bad Email #9: i love you
random dude: Strong Bad receives an email simply stating "i love u" from someone who gives their name as fhqwhgadshgnsdhjsdbkhsdabkfabkveybvf, and after attempting to phonetically pronounce the jumble of letters Strong Bad goes on to berate their name for its great length, saying that in the time it took him to say fhqwhgads' name he could have done something else, such as "paint a picture of a guy with a big knife", which he then proceeds to do. This email is kind of slight, but I enjoyed it. The painting of a guy with a big knife would go on to make several more appearances in later cartoons, and I thought the way that Strong Bad thought he could sell it to "like, somebody's dad" was one of the cleverest jokes we've encountered thus far in our reviews. And we haven't seen the last of fhqwgads.
Cypher Raige: I cannot even watch this toon without getting the later "fhqwgads" song stuck in my head. That is an earworm if ever there was one! The guy with the knife reminds me of Sylvester Stallone as Rambo, which I'm sure it is no doubt meant to invoke. But more importantly, let me take you on a little trip back in time. The year was 1987, and a young Cypher Raige had just entered the 4th grade. For some reason, it became fashionable in that previous summer to get a flat top haircut, one of the more unfortunate 80's trends that I can recall. Anyhoo, Young Master Raige had just turned ten years old, and he received two major birthday presents that year. One was a black BB gun, with which Baby Raige miraculously managed to not shoot his eye out. The second was a skateboard. On the bottom of said skateboard was painted a guy holding a knife, not too dissimilar from Strong Bad's fine work of art seen here. Somewhere out there (like in a cardboard box in a closet at my mom's house), there is a photograph of Tiny Raigeling happily smiling while holding his black BB gun, looking stupid with his grown out flat top, and posing in a fake wheelie on the skateboard with a guy holding a knife on it. This has been Embarrassing Memory Theater, starring your good buddy me.
Strong Bad Email #10: trevor the vampire
random dude: This is another short email, in which an email from Trevor abruptly cuts off at "I am a vampire and," and leads Strong Bad to believe that Trevor the vampire has been slain, and to mourn for his newly-made-and-putatively-deceased friend with a memorial service in which "[we] go back and revisit a few of favorite Trevor memories", which consist of two clips of Strong Bad reading Trevor's email from just seconds before. It's a simple joke, but one that I think works pretty well, and I think this and the rest of this week's sbemails sans #8 show the Brothers Chaps taking a small step forward towards writing funnier material which is well-suited for being referenced in future call-backs, rather than simply riffing in character while playing around with Flash animation. Over the next few weeks and months the material we review will definitely get much stronger than it is now, of course, but to this point, I think these are among the more consistently funny cartoons we've reviewed.
Cypher Raige: Eh, this one didn't do a lot for me. After the email has been read and Strong bad's subsequent reaction, his revisitation of the exact same email at first seems like it is going to be one of those endings that were tacked onto "Very Special Episodes" of 80's sitcoms, but it ends up being more like the goodbye reels/tearjerkers that they show at the end of the Oscars. I almost think it might have been funnier if, instead of just revisiting the email that was just shown, they showed Strong Bad reading the email while syrupy, sad music played over it. But maybe that is why I am a dork sitting here reviewing a ten plus year old cartoon while the Brothers Chaps are beloved internet animation pioneers. So... God, I suck.
That's it for this week, everyone. Next week, we'll be reviewing:
The House That Gave Sucky Treats
Some Stupid Turkey
The Best Decemberween Ever
Marzipan's Answering Machine: Version 6.0
The Cheat Theme Song
Where's the Cheat?
Cypher Raige: I think you are the king of the run-on sentence, Roy Batty's Pet Dove! BURN! Anyhoo, definitely getting better in terms of quality, but we still have a ways to go before the real hilarity begins. Still, there's some decent laffs in this week's selections, and I'm gettin' a li'l tingly just thinking about the funny to come!
Strong Bad Email #6: depressio
random dude: This isn't that great of an email. Anthony emails Strong Bad asking him to insult Strong Sad, and when Strong Bad tells his little brother what Anthony says, Strong Sad utters a sigh of disappointment and tears up a card with which he was going to send Anthony $100. It's kind of a boring email, but, in an elaborate Easter Egg, until the account was disabled, you used to receive a response, ostensibly from Strong Sad himself, if you sent him an email at depressio@homestarrunner.com. In the original reply email, Strong Sad would send you to this website, in which you look at items in a box of keepsakes from Strong Sad's childhood illustrating his relationship with his mean older brother. Later, emailing Strong Sad would elicit a different response that provided a link to a blog called Strong Sad's Lament, which, in what may be the most elaborate Easter Egg in the history of the site, the Brothers Chaps would update at occasional intervals for more than two years. Strong Sad's Lament is pretty funny at times, and characteristically depressing almost all the time. Strong Sad apparently has musical tastes that would fit in pretty well with those of many members of the commentariat. I laughed when he wrote "I can't tell where one song stops and the next one starts" when listening to Godspeed You! Black Emperor. And I would really want to hear Strong Sad's remix of "The writings of Gregor Mendel read over some old Brian Eno stuff." Like, seriously. I would totally spend 10-15 on a copy of Strong Sad reading Experiments on Plant Hybridization over Here Come the Warm Jets or Before and After Science. Homsar makes a couple of appearances as the non-sequitur spouting character that he hadn't quite developed into in his call to Marzipan last week, as he invites Strong Sad to an "I'm Creepin and I'm Creepin and I'm Creepin Party!!" I also loved Homestar's New Year's resolution: "Oh, 640X480 probably." What did you think of this one, Raige? Had you encountered Strong Sad's blog before?
Cypher Raige: I do vaguely remember the Strong Sad blog, and it is a good early example of the easter egg fun that would later become this site's bread and butter. My favorite part of the email itself is the brief view we get of Strong Sad's room, containing posters from The Cure (which is a bit on the nose, but still funny) and the movie Some Kind of Wonderful. There is no doubt in my mind that Strong Sad is the character of Watts from that film, always pining for Marzipan's Keith Nelson, while she only has eyes for the beautiful and popular Homestar Runner, standing in for Amanda Jones in this, my tortured metaphor. strong little pop culture drops from the Brothers Chaps!
Strong Bad Email #7: halloweener
random dude: I liked this one. Ben asks for some advice on how to make a Strong Bad costume, and an cheerfully obliging Homestar puts up with being dressed in a pathetic excuse for a Strong Bad costume, which includes an oven mitt on his head, aluminum foil wrapped around his legs and around a ball of twine on the ground, and boxing gloves on his feet (the Brothers Chaps regularly poke fun at their own bizarre character designs, and frequently reference Homestar's lack of arms through visual gags such as these).
Cypher Raige: I like how the entire Homestar sequence is concocted by Strong Bad not to demonstrate how to actually make a Strong Bad costume, but instead to humiliate dumbass Homestar Runner. He certainly is a belle. Or something. Note that Ben's email is signed "With Crap." Strong Bad would soon get tired of the emailers bogarting his signature word, but not yet. But he still gets in one final dig at Ben by calling him a freaking weirdo.
Strong Bad Email #8: brianrietta
random dude: In easily the weakest cartoon of the week, Brian asks Strong Bad out in an email, and Strong Sad starts to reply before he realizes that Brian is a dude's name. Hahaha, casual homophobia is hilarious, amirite guys? No, not really? Yeah, I didn't think so either. Granted, there's a lot of comedy out there that's plenty more homophobic than this cartoon, and I don't get the impression that the Brothers Chaps are overtly homophobic so much as a little careless and lacking in self-awareness with the dumb trope that two guys being in a relationship is somehow inherently funny, but it's also just not a funny cartoon. It's pretty clear that the sender of this email probably had the kind of response that Strong Bad makes in mind when writing it, and it's a shame that the Brothers Chaps engaged them in the sophomoric joke. I did think that "Brienrietta" was a kind of funny name in what an exceedingly lame attempt to feminize Brian, though, so I guess this one wasn't completely devoid of humor for me.
Cypher Raige: Yeah, you pretty much said it all on this one. Short and stupid. I watched the toon before reading your response, and the first thought that popped into my head was "casual homophobia." It's not over the top or anything, and we are looking at this toon from over a decade down the road, but I have a feeling that this would have even been stale at the time of its conception. Still, Strong Bad is supposed to be a bit of a super macho stereotype, so it's not out of character, but I'm curious if this joke would have made it onto the site in this day and age.
Strong Bad Email #9: i love you
random dude: Strong Bad receives an email simply stating "i love u" from someone who gives their name as fhqwhgadshgnsdhjsdbkhsdabkfabkveybvf, and after attempting to phonetically pronounce the jumble of letters Strong Bad goes on to berate their name for its great length, saying that in the time it took him to say fhqwhgads' name he could have done something else, such as "paint a picture of a guy with a big knife", which he then proceeds to do. This email is kind of slight, but I enjoyed it. The painting of a guy with a big knife would go on to make several more appearances in later cartoons, and I thought the way that Strong Bad thought he could sell it to "like, somebody's dad" was one of the cleverest jokes we've encountered thus far in our reviews. And we haven't seen the last of fhqwgads.
Cypher Raige: I cannot even watch this toon without getting the later "fhqwgads" song stuck in my head. That is an earworm if ever there was one! The guy with the knife reminds me of Sylvester Stallone as Rambo, which I'm sure it is no doubt meant to invoke. But more importantly, let me take you on a little trip back in time. The year was 1987, and a young Cypher Raige had just entered the 4th grade. For some reason, it became fashionable in that previous summer to get a flat top haircut, one of the more unfortunate 80's trends that I can recall. Anyhoo, Young Master Raige had just turned ten years old, and he received two major birthday presents that year. One was a black BB gun, with which Baby Raige miraculously managed to not shoot his eye out. The second was a skateboard. On the bottom of said skateboard was painted a guy holding a knife, not too dissimilar from Strong Bad's fine work of art seen here. Somewhere out there (like in a cardboard box in a closet at my mom's house), there is a photograph of Tiny Raigeling happily smiling while holding his black BB gun, looking stupid with his grown out flat top, and posing in a fake wheelie on the skateboard with a guy holding a knife on it. This has been Embarrassing Memory Theater, starring your good buddy me.
Strong Bad Email #10: trevor the vampire
random dude: This is another short email, in which an email from Trevor abruptly cuts off at "I am a vampire and," and leads Strong Bad to believe that Trevor the vampire has been slain, and to mourn for his newly-made-and-putatively-deceased friend with a memorial service in which "[we] go back and revisit a few of favorite Trevor memories", which consist of two clips of Strong Bad reading Trevor's email from just seconds before. It's a simple joke, but one that I think works pretty well, and I think this and the rest of this week's sbemails sans #8 show the Brothers Chaps taking a small step forward towards writing funnier material which is well-suited for being referenced in future call-backs, rather than simply riffing in character while playing around with Flash animation. Over the next few weeks and months the material we review will definitely get much stronger than it is now, of course, but to this point, I think these are among the more consistently funny cartoons we've reviewed.
Cypher Raige: Eh, this one didn't do a lot for me. After the email has been read and Strong bad's subsequent reaction, his revisitation of the exact same email at first seems like it is going to be one of those endings that were tacked onto "Very Special Episodes" of 80's sitcoms, but it ends up being more like the goodbye reels/tearjerkers that they show at the end of the Oscars. I almost think it might have been funnier if, instead of just revisiting the email that was just shown, they showed Strong Bad reading the email while syrupy, sad music played over it. But maybe that is why I am a dork sitting here reviewing a ten plus year old cartoon while the Brothers Chaps are beloved internet animation pioneers. So... God, I suck.
That's it for this week, everyone. Next week, we'll be reviewing:
The House That Gave Sucky Treats
Some Stupid Turkey
The Best Decemberween Ever
Marzipan's Answering Machine: Version 6.0
The Cheat Theme Song
Where's the Cheat?