best thing
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Strong Bad Email #126
Strong Bad shows us the best thing he's ever seen, done or eaten: the quickly cancelled pilot of Limozeen in Space!
Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, Limozeen, Teeg Dougland, Strong Sad, Mitch Overlord, Bozar, Nebulon
Date: March 8, 2005
Running Time: 4:02
Contents |
Transcript
STRONG BAD: You got to e-mail, just to stay alive! {types "strongbad_email.exe", begins reading}
Dear Strong Bad, How you doin'? I have three quick questions... 1. What's the best thing you've ever seen? 2. What's the best thing you've ever done? 3. What's the best thing you've ever eaten? Later, Albin J. (from Maryland)
{Strong Bad doesn't read the numbers, and after saying "seen", he immediately follows with "done, eaten." He also whispers "from, from Maryland." Then he clears the screen.}
STRONG BAD: {typing} I'm doing real real {types "rrll rrll"} well Albi. Believe it or not, I've got one answer for all three questions. And that answer is...
{Cut to an image of a video tape labelled "Limozeen cartoon" and "Don't record over for dang's sake!!!"}
SINGERS: VHS!
STRONG BAD: The only known copy of the failed pilot episode of the Limozeen Saturday morning cartoon shoooooooow!
{cut back to the Lappy}
STRONG BAD: {typing} It only aired once at, like, 4 a.m. some forgotten Saturday. And guess who was already up and eating brown sugar straight from the box? That's right, Strong Sad. But then I got up and started watching TV. If not for my The Cheat-like VHS reflexes, it would have been as lost as four-armed Grimace. {clears screen} I'll let you guys see it, but please, no flash photography or video taping. It could damage the precious oils and heavy metals of this priceless piece of television history.
{cut to the cartoon. It opens with "Metalmation" appearing in large block letters, followed by "presents" in cursive}
SINGER:
Remember those guys from that band Limozeen?
Well, they turned their tour bus into a space machine!
But they're still Limozeen!
LARRY:
We're still Limozeen!
SINGER:
But they're in space!
LARRY:
But we're in space?!
{now the title screen is shown: LIMOZEEN "but they're in space!" The Limozeen members appear in animated form below. Teeg walks in from stage right.}
TEEG DOUGLAND: I'm afraid I've got some bad news, boys. You're in space!
{one final chord of the theme song plays}
{cut to the Couch. Strong Bad is sitting on it, while Strong Sad is leaning on it from behind.}
STRONG BAD: Oh-ho-ho! So classic!
STRONG SAD: But why are they in space? There's no reason for them to be in space!
STRONG BAD: On the contrary, my dear Fatson! There's every reason for them to be in space.
{title card for "ENCOUNTER AT GROUPULON 5" by A. Chimendez appears. From there, it cuts to the Limozeen members running away from a pair of flesh-colored hands, a pair of blue hands, and two magenta tentacles}
STRONG BAD: {narrating} So, one of their main goals is to both run away from and give backstage passes to all the hot babe-liens of the galaxy.
{the Limozeen members run into their tour spaceship}
TEEG DOUGLAND: I'm afraid I've got some bad news, boys. None of the hot alien chicks from Groupulon 5 have backstage passes to tonight's show.
LARRY: Then whose midriffs are we gonna sign?
GARY: What happened to all the passes, Teeg?
TEEG DOUGLAND: Galactic Radio gave them all away. To Mitch Overlord.
{The members of Limozeen gasp, as we cut to Mitch Overlord's lair}
MITCH OVERLORD: That's right, Limozeen! I was the one million, six hundred and eighty-five thousand, four hundred and twenty-first caller! {raises his claw-like right hand and opens and shuts it twice}
{The members of Limozeen are shown running again, this time from nothing that can be seen.}
STRONG BAD: {narrating} And sometimes the magical prankster Bozar appears and turns reality upside-down.
BOZAR: {unintelligible} Limo-losers! How are you going to play tonight's show after I turn your instruments into Italian noodles?
{The band is greeted with "boooos" as they attempt to play a concert with their noodle-instruments anyway. The word NOODLES! appears in lights behind the stage. Mary eats his noodles instead.}
MARY: This is the best show ever, guys!
{laughter is heard}
LARRY: Mary, quit eatin' your drums!
{Cut to the outside of the tour spaceship flying through space. Nebulon flies past.}
STRONG BAD: {narrating} But most of all, the episode centers around the boys making sure metal stays number one throughout the galaxy.
{Cut to spaceship interior}
TEEG DOUGLAND: I'm afraid I've got some bad news, boys. We've been knocked off the charts in the Forbidden Zone by an alternative rock band.
PERRY: But their bassist is a girl!
MARY: And the drummer's got short hair!
LARRY: And the lead singer wears glasses!
{Cut back to the couch. Strong Bad throws the remote at Strong Sad.}
STRONG SAD: Ow! What was that for?
STRONG BAD: For you and your kind destroying metal! Chuck Taylor-wearing, low self-esteemers...
{Cut back to the cartoon. The band is practicing as Teeg walks up to them.}
TEEG DOUGLAND: I'm afraid I've got some bad news, boys. Our pilot episode has been cancelled.
LARRY, GARY, PERRY, and MARY: What?
GARY: Oh well. I guess I won't be needing this anymore. {throws his guitar offscreen}
{Cut to the real Larry on Strong Bad's television, who catches the real equivalent of the guitar.}
LARRY: Oh, thanks, Space Gary! I can't believe we got cancelled! Weeeeeell, join us next time, kids! In syndication! Or maybe on DVD! {plays a short tune as the TV fades out. Strong Bad returns to the Lappy.}
STRONG BAD: {typing} Whattaya think, Albi? If that's not the best thing you've ever seen, done, or eaten, then may I politely ask you to gouge out your eyes, cut out your tongue, and um, have all your done {short pause} removed.
{The Paper comes down.}
Easter Eggs
- Click on "brown sugar" to see a box of "Suge Brown" brown sugar, with the tagline "Don't borrow from thy neighbor" and a weight of "one whole pound".
- At the end of the email, click "eaten" to see a member of Limozeen question his hair color and size:
- MARY: How come they made me fat and have red hair?
- LARRY: Because you're the comic relief-uh!
- {Mary burps very loudly}
Fun Facts
Trivia
- Teeg Dougland was voiced by Mike Chapman who looks almost identical to Teeg.
- The email song could be a parody of the movie "Saw"'s logo 'How much blood would you shed to stay alive'
Remarks
- This email gives a good answer to Strong Bad's own question in different town when he tries to think up the Best Thing Ever, which turned out to be beef stew.
- Strong Bad's tape lacks the little tab you knock out to prevent people taping over it, a chief concern with the cartoon tape.
Goofs
- Just before Strong Bad sits down at the Lappy, you see almost his entire head, but you can't see the laces on the back of his mask; usually when they show that much of his head (e.g. in crazy cartoon) you see those laces.
- When the space-mobile is flying at supposed hyper-speed, the stars flying by in the background are streaking the wrong way.
- When we see the TV and VCR in Strong Bad's basement, the VCR shows no sign of a tape being inside it nor of any playback. (VCRs typically have some type of counter or a "play" graphic on their display.)
Inside References
- The green alien which floats by in one scene is Nebulon, as seen in New Boots and Main Page 1.
- The teleplay for Limozeen's cartoon is written by A. Chimendez.
- Teeg Dougland is the name of the director of the Moving Very Slowly video on the strongbad_email.exe DVD. He is likely the Band's manager.
- The VCR is still blinking from 12:00 and someone removed the alarm clock that Bubs duct-taped to it.
- When Space Larry throws his guitar and says "I guess I won't be needing THIS anymore," it is a reference to invisibility. Strong Bad says the same thing when he gets rid of the broken Tandy 400 and replaces it with the Compy 386.
- The guitar that Space Gary tosses is the same one seen in Puppet Time.
Explanations
- The fact that Limozeen's cartoon takes place in space for no good reason is likely a reference to several other cartoons which also took place in space for no reason, like the Partridge Family, 2200 A.D., Gilligan's Planet, and Josie & the Pussycats In Outer Space, all of which had extremely short runs (usually only one season).
- The Limozeen cartoon is also likely a riff on Hanna Barbara cartoons that featured bands who solved crimes or fought villians. In addition to Josie there was Jabberjaw and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids. Teeg Dougland's repeated mantra of "I'm afraid I've got some bad news, boys" is a riff on band managers in such cartoons, who were often only featured as characters for plot exposition.
Real-World References
- When the bus shortens and turned into a spaceship, it looks a lot the opening of The Magic School Bus
- "Metalmation" is a reference to the Filmation animation studio, with the logos looking very similar. Filmation was famous for churning out cookie-cutter cartoons many of which also took place in space for no good reason.
- The repeated "band being chased" segments may be a reference to a Hanna-Barbera 70's staple of stock-footage chase scenes, which appeared most prominently in Scooby-Doo. Also, this refers to the Beatles, who spent a good deal of "A Hard Day's Night"--supposedly a typical day in the life of the band--running away from adoring female fans.
Four-armed Grimace
- The drummer eating his drums is also a likely reference to Scooby and Shaggy, who were perpetually focused on eating.
- "Four-armed Grimace" is a reference to the purple McDonaldland character. Grimace was originally named "The Evil Grimace", and he had four arms -- so that he could hold many shakes at once.
- "My dear Fatson" is an adaptation of "My dear Watson", a way Sherlock Holmes often addressed his assistant.
- The space logo of Limozeen is very similar to the logo of the Nintendo game series Metroid. This isn't the first Metroid reference on the site -- in fact, a Metroid code appeared in an Easter Egg in the Strong Bad Email invisibility.
- "Encounter at Groupulon 5" is most likely a combined reference to Encounter at Farpoint (the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation) and the popular science-fiction show Babylon 5.
- Mary asking "How come they made me fat and have red hair?" draws attention to the manipulation of characters in cartoon adaptations to clearly defined sterotypical roles. In particular, Mary's question references the cartoon The Real Ghostbusters, where the Dan Aykroyd character (from the Ghostbusters film) was modified into an overweight redhead. This was probably done because the real-life actors had contract clauses that prevented likenesses of them being used.
- It may also have been done so that the animated counterparts of Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Harold Ramis (all dark haired and of similar build in the film) could be easily told apart by kids.
- The phrase "Chuck Taylor wearin'..." refers to Converse High Top Basketball Shoes, designed by Chuck Taylor. "Chucks" are a signature look of Grunge, Punk, and Metal that happened after 1990.
- This is also a reference to that particular brand of shoe being popular among fans of "Alternative Rock" (or indie, or emo, etc.) that Strong Bad is so angry about. We know that Strong Sad has a fondness for these bands from his Blog.
- Bozar's huge cranium, love of bizarre magical pranks, and insulting manner of addressing the heroes of the show bears a strong resemblance to the antics of Mr. Mxyzptlk, a derby-wearing, fifth-dimensional imp and Superman antagonist who periodically appeared in Metropolis to pester the Last Son of Krypton with his reality-altering powers.
- This also bears a resemblance to the Great Gazoo from The Flintstones.
- He also resembles a megalomaniacal antagonist from the 90's show Mighty Max called Dr. Zygote, who had an oversized brain/head, alien-like features, and would construct elaborate schemes to rule/destroy humanity.
- The scene at the end, where the cartoon throws the guitar to the real-life band member, pokes fun at almost every 80's cartoon that had a (semi) famous person behind it -- where the cartoon would transition/interact with the real person from off screen: Fat Albert, Alf, M.C. Hammer, Mr. T, the Harlem Globetrotters, and many others all closed the episode with the real-world people.
- "rrll rrll" is a common short-hand notation for a double-stroke roll, which is a percussion rudiment executed by playing two strokes on a single hand followed by two in the alternate hand and repeating.
- Forbidden Zone is a really bad cult sci-fi movie most notable for launching the 80's new-wave band Oingo Boingo
- It's also the place where George Taylor went in Planet of the Apes to learn the horrible truth.
- Teeg Dougland's reccuring line could be a reference to Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth's from Futurama. Prof. Farnsworth usually entered a scene with the line "Good news everyone!" (or occassionally "Bad news everyone!") followed by something really weird, such as "Tomorrow you'll be making a delivery to Ebola 9, the virus planet."
- Mary's loud burp at the end of the easter egg may be a reference to Homer Simpson's bar-buddy Barney, who often ended a scene with a loud burp.
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