HRWiki:STUFF/Archive/New Boots

No Soup for You!!

From: different town
Posted on: 00:34, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Arguments for:

• Pouring hot soup on someone's eyes is a very specific form of punishment. Coincidence is unlikely.
• The OZ episode aired long before the email was made
• OZ - The Complete Third Season was available on DVD at the time that different town was made
• The reference was made more than one time, making it likely to have come from somewhere. This is the most likely source.
• During the 6 seasons OZ was on the air, it was immensely popular.
• This would not be the first such reference to a single TV show or event.
• Oz is a show that Strong Bad would watch.

Arguments against:

• It's unlikely that the Brothers Chaps would make a reference to a particular instance of prison violence from a particular episode of a particular TV show.
• The OZ episode aired long before the email was made.
• The circumstances are completely different: One is in a prison surrounded by a gang, the other is a picnic. If they were going to make a reference so long after the fact, they would have put in some other clues to tie it in.
• I thought it was pretty obvious it was a reference to email 99 different town where Strong Bad first replies to the email as if pouring hot soup in homestar's eyes was the request.
  • See related statement below.

Additional comments:

• OZ is an TV-MA-rated show, that most viewers won't be familiar with or have access to.
  • Many references on the site are to things that 'most viewers won't be familiar with or have access to', as they have referenced many extremely obscure things before.
• Jeepers—this seems to involve the same principles as Change of Pace. If there's a connection, then it's a direct acknowledgement of a single episode of a tv show. If there's none, it's an uncanny coincidence.
  • And, in the same vein, the "acknowledgement" seems more plagiarism than a legit reference if it's true.
    • Meh, even if this is an intentional reference (which I don't think it is), that doesn't make it plagiarism. Countless fictional works have in-jokes and homages to other works.
• This event was an important plot point through the beginning of Season 4, not just a passing instance of prison violence.
• Very obscure, too much so.
• The OZ episode aired long before the email was made Is this comment for or against? Why is it in both arguments?
  • Because, depending on your point of view, it either strenghens or weakens the case for the fact. On the one hand, the episode was made so long ago that the Chaps would have had time to see it, but on the other hand, it was made so long ago that they wouldn't bother referencing it now.
• Not sure how or why this was changed, but this was supposed to be a reference for different town. New Boots can indeed be considered a reference to different town. This addresses where the concept of pouring hot soup in someone's eyes originally came from.
  • Then it should be changed back again. In it's current form, there isn't even reason for debate: different town was released in February 2004; New Boots in April. If anything is a reference to Oz it's different town; new boots shouldn't even be up for debate.
    • Hardly. In different town, it's just throwaway joke that Strong Bad types. We don't see it at all. I don't see how that could be considered a reference, other than the circumstances being vaguely similar. New Boots, where it actually happens, has the strongest chance of being a reference. Deciding which toon this should go with is moot anyway, because it doesn't go with either.

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