radio

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Current revision as of 00:32, 16 January 2024

"Hey, hey, HEY! It's the Deathly Pallor!"

Strong Bad gives some advice on how to be a radio show host, in various genres.

Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, Strong Sad/The Deathly Pallor, Mrs. Bennedetto, Marzipan, Homestar Runner, Old-Timey Strong Bad, Strong Mad (Easter egg), The Sneak (Easter egg)

Places: Computer Room, Strong Sad's Room, Marzipan's House, Homestar Runner's House, Basement of the Brothers Strong (Easter egg)

Computer: Lappy 486

Date: Monday, December 13, 2004

Running Time: 4:02

Page Title: Lappy 486

DVD: strongbad_email.exe Disc Four, Sbemails' 50 Greatest Hits DVD

[edit] Transcript

STRONG BAD: I got miles and miles of the email style. Miles and miles of the email style.

subject: radio

Dear Strong Bad,
My friends are radio hosts. Any chance you could give
them any pointers on what they can say/do on their show?
bowing to you

Fraser, Scotland

{Strong Bad reads "say/do" as "say slash do", and pronounces the sender's name as "Frasier" throughout the email.}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Oh, no need to bow, Fraser. G-Get up. {reverently} Rise, my son. And giveth me instead, $7.50 with which to buy some buffalo chicken tenders. {He clears the screen.} So your "friends" are radio show hosts, huh? Well, the first rule of thumb for all radio personalities is to look absolutely nothing like how they sound. Take Ol' Greystoke for instance.

{Cut to Strong Sad standing in his room.}

STRONG BAD: {voice-over} Now here's a whiny know-it-all who sounds just like he looks.

STRONG SAD: Why thank you, Senator.

STRONG BAD: {voice-over} Quit calling me that. Anyway, if Strong Sad was a radio host, he'd sound like this:

STRONG SAD: {In spontaneous, radio host voice} Hey hey hey, it's the Deathly Pallor, coming at you on numbitty 902, WA3D FM, "The Sturge". Coming up next, we got some hot new tracks from double-O ballyhoo!

{Strong Sad covers his mouth in horror while Strong Bad laughs.}

STRONG SAD: {normal voice; frightened} Don't you ever make me do that again!

{Cut back to Lappy 486.}

STRONG BAD: {typing} So once they've got the voice/appearance mismatch working, then it all just depends on what kind of radio station they work for. Listen and loin as I run my test sentence through the various genres.

VOICE-OVER: Strong Bad's test sentence is "The fish was delish and it made quite a dish." {The sentence appears on-screen.}

STRONG BAD: First up is public radio: smooth n' smarmy.

{Cut to Marzipan's kitchen. A radio labelled "Ray-Jo" is sitting on the counter.}

STRONG BAD: {as Public Radio host} Today on Capitol Hill, the fish was delish, and according to U.N. secretary council members, it made quite a dish. You are listening to member-supported public radio.

{Public Radio theme song plays. Marzipan walks in.}

MARZIPAN: Dang old public radio. I never got my tote bag.

{Cut back to Lappy 486.}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Next up is the drive time morning show.

{A poster for "The am morning 'CRUDE' crew" with two Strong Bad-like hosts appears onscreen.}

STRONG BAD: Oooh, these guys are like bad stand up comics that you can't heckle. Or jeckle. Or throw highball glasses at.

{Cut to a clock radio. The clock radio reads 6:59 AM and it is dark in the room, but when the clock switches to 7:00, the lights and radio turn on.}

STRONG BAD: {as morning talk show host, with sound effects in the background} Rise and shine, people! The fish was delish. {canned laughter} Wait for it, wait for it! {clowny sounds} And it made {boing!} quite a dish.

{Cut back from the clock radio to show Homestar in his house with a Public Radio tote bag over his head, holding a glass containing a brown liquid with ice cubes.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: All right, squawk box! Shut it up about the fish already.

STRONG BAD: I guess that's the way {honk honk} {more canned laughter} the cookie crumbles.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: High-ball! {He throws the glass at the radio.}

{Cut back to Lappy 486.}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Then, there's the utter misery that is college radio. Where they apparently just let any bewildered freshman wander into the booth and try to run a radio station.

{Cut to the booOOMbox containing a blank tape.}

STRONG BAD: {as college radio host, over a song ending and some feedback} Uh, that, that was "The fish was delish" and we heard... track... {thumbing through CD jewel cases} six... uh... "It Made Quite a Dish".

{Cut to Strong Sad's room, where he is sitting next to the boombox writing some calligraphy.}

STRONG BAD: {on radio} Um... Cuh...campus outreach is looking for... um... Hang on...

{Cut back to Lappy 486.}

STRONG BAD: {typing} College radio can pretty much be summed up in 5 words:
Dead air, um, dead air.

{Cut back to the boombox}

STRONG BAD: {as college radio host} Okay, I am out of here for today, bu-but, um, but first up is an, um, er...an...an hour of... chanting.

{A chant plays on the boombox. Strong Sad hits the Play and Record buttons.}

{Cut back to Lappy 486.}

STRONG BAD: {typing} And just in case your friends are um, in the past: here's old-timey radio.

{Cut to an Old-Timey room with an Old-Timey Radio, with Old-Timey Strong Bad reading in front of a microphone.}

OLD-TIMEY STRONG BAD: {as old-timey radio host} This week on The Fish Was Delish progrum, brought to you by Portly Washboy laundry paste,—

{Portly Washboy Fancy Laundry Paste logo appears}

OLD-TIMEY STRONG BAD: —we join The Fish down at the wharfs as he closes in on the Quite a Dish gang's hideout. Stay tuned for partial excitement.

{The Portly Washboy logo appears again. It depicts a boy and a heaping jar of paste with a spoon in it.}

VOICE-OVER: {singing} Portly Washboy: Don't eat it like the cartoon, man.

{Cut back to Lappy 486.}

STRONG BAD: {typing} Done and done, Fraser. Your friends should be well on their way to annoying drivers and gas station attendants the world over. Ooh! And see if you can score me some free coozies, frisbees, or bottle openers from their station. Those free giveaways: highly flammable.

{The Paper comes down.}

[edit] Easter Eggs

• Click on Strong Sad's stomach while he does the radio voice (more specifically, when he says "The Sturge") to see him wearing a T-shirt from WA3D FM "The Sturge".
• Click on "The fish was delish, and it made quite a dish" to show a Dr. Seuss-style children's book of the same name by Crazy Prof. Sportsinterviews.
  • After the test sentence disappears, where it was can still be clicked on to show the children's book.
• Click on "coozies, frisbees, or bottle openers" after The Paper comes down to see them. The coozie is blue and says, "WSBD The Voice of CGNU 89.3 'Several Dozen Listeners'". The frisbee is white and says, "The Sturge numbitty 902 WA3D FM". The bottle opener is red and says, "Smooooooth 'n smarmy".
• Click on "annoying" after The Paper comes down to see/hear more of Strong Sad's new persona.

STRONG SAD: Oh, I disagree! I think it's more than just a matter of simple economics. In fact, I'd say... {radio host voice and mannerisms, with music} Oh, yeah! What's the phrase that pays that plays for days? It's numbitty-nine-oh-two, "The Sturge." Don't you touch that {quickly} ZABITTABLOUGH!

STRONG MAD: {confused} ZABITTABLOUGH?

• Click on "me" after The Paper comes down to see more of Old-Timey Strong Bad.

RADIO: {Old-Timey Strong Bad} Stay tuned for partial excitement!

{Portly Washboy Laundry Paste theme song plays over radio.}

OLD-TIMEY STRONG BAD: {listening} Drat and double drat! It's true what they say! The rah-dio really does add four and twenty stone to one's voice!

[edit] Fun Facts

Low-ball!

[edit] Explanations

• "Four-and-twenty stone" is 336 pounds (one stone = 14 pounds), though it is probably a play on the saying that "the camera adds ten pounds." A stone is a common unit of measurement in the United Kingdom.
• A highball glass is a tall, narrow glass typically used to serve certain types of alcoholic beverages. Homestar's glass, therefore, isn't a highball at all; it is a "rocks glass" or "double old-fashioned glass" which is generally short and stout.
  • Homestar's glass is the same kind as the one The Cheat had on the table in montage while smoking.
• The Portly Washboy advertisement is a reference to the bad childhood habit of eating adhesive paste from jars.
• Dead air is an unintentional silence, often because of an error made by the radio or television station.
• Pallor is a word referring to paleness of the skin, caused by a deficit of oxyhemoglobin in the skin or mucous membranes.

[edit] Trivia

• The YouTube description for this email is "Strong Bad describes various radio host styles."

[edit] Remarks

• Homestar must have his lights set to come on with the radio alarm at 7:00 am; strangely, he is already up and having a drink (though this may just be typical clueless Homestar behavior).
• Judging by the call letters of the college radio station, Free Country, USA must be east of the Mississippi River. Generally, call letters for radio stations in cities east of the Mississippi begin with 'W'. Those to the west begin with 'K'.
• The station "902 WA3D FM" cannot exist under current FCC radio regulations. The call sign WA3D is an amateur radio call sign; commercial broadcasters do not use numbers in their call signs. The "902" presumably refers to the 90.2 MHz frequency in the FM broadcast band; however, frequency allocation rules require the last digit to be odd.
• It's interesting (though probably a coincidence) that the sender's name is Fraser, since the title character on the TV show Frasier is a radio psychiatrist.

[edit] Goofs

• The left sleeve of Strong Sad's radio T-shirt disappears during parts of the Easter egg. If Strong Sad is clicked on again, it reappears. (See the image above.)

[edit] Glitches

• "The fish was delish and it made quite a dish" can still be clicked even after the words disappear from the screen, although that may be an intentional extension of the Easter egg's duration so that it can be seen for an adequate amount of time.

[edit] Inside References

• Strong Mad's reaction to Strong Sad's strange remarks in the Easter egg is extremely similar to his reaction to "parakeet" in caffeine.
• Strong Sad's calligraphy pen is also featured in his action figure in the Easter egg for action figure and when writing to Strong Bad in Strong Bad is in Jail Cartoon.
• Strong Sad refers to himself as "The Deathly Pallor", harking back to Coach Z's introduction of Strong Sad in the email impression.
• Right at the very end of the chanting, when Strong Sad presses the play and record buttons on the booOOMbox, one can hear the first two notes of the Sweet Cuppin' Cakes theme song, as seen in Decemberween Sweet Cuppin' Cakes.
• The booOOMbox Strong Sad listens to was also seen in autobiography. However, it had a white record button.
• "Listen and loin" is an instance of Strong Bad pronouncing an "er" sound as an "oi" sound.
• The public radio jingle has the same tune as the Videlectrix theme.

[edit] Real-World References

• "Drat and double drat!" was Dick Dastardly's (Wacky Races and Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines) catchphrase, a character similar to Old-Timey Strong Bad.
• Marzipan's book Tolstoy Story 2 is a reference to famous Russian author Leo Tolstoy and also to the Disney/Pixar film Toy Story 2.
• Strong Bad's test phrase is an old broadcasting cliché. The phrase has been used to test the levels of the F and SH sounds in audio signals for recording, public address and broadcast. When those sounds are too "hot", sounding like intense hisses, the mic can be moved or covered to reduce the "swishiness".
• "Public Radio Sounds" (or "PRS") is a playful combination of PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service, and PRI, Public Radio International.
• Marzipan talking about how she "never got her tote bag" is a reference to how financial donors to PBS usually receive gifts. A tote bag with the PBS logo embroidered on it is probably the most well-known.
• The "UN Secretary Council" represents a mix between the UN Secretary-General and the UN Security Council.
• Judging by Strong Sad's T-shirt, "The Sturge" is short for sturgeon — a large, rare fish — and is a spoof of radio stations named after animals. For example, WKRP in Cincinnati had the mascot "the WKRP Carp".
• "Heckle or jeckle" is a reference to the Terrytoons cartoon Heckle and Jeckle.
• Strong Bad calling Strong Sad "Greystoke" is a reference to Tarzan.
• The short theme heard while Marzipan listens to public radio is reminiscent of the theme to the National Public Radio program All Things Considered. Interestingly, on May 8, 2005, The Brothers Chaps were interviewed about the Homestar Runner website on the show, and a clip from the Public Radio segment of this email was featured.
• Like most US college radio stations, WSBD has a frequency in the lower part of the FM spectrum (between 88 and 92).

[edit] Fast Forward

• $7.50 is the same amount of money that Strong Bad asks "Simone" for in bottom 10.
• Strong Bad pretends to be a "smooth and smarmy" public radio show host again in Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 17.2, with the same public radio theme song.

[edit] DVD Version

• If the angle is changed (to view the mid-toon Easter eggs), Strong Sad's shirt has both sleeves in this version.
• The DVD version features hidden creators' commentary. To access it, switch the DVD player's audio language selection while watching.

[edit] Commentary Transcript

(Commentary by: Mike Chapman, Matt Chapman, Strong Sad, Mike's Strong Sad)

MIKE: This is a... commentary. Look, be— be a character.

MATT: Okay. Who— Which character, Mike?

MIKE: Be Strong Sad. Strong Sad's never joined me for commentary before.

MATT: Okay, we'll see how that works out.

MIKE: All right. Oh, Strong Sad's in this one, I didn't even think about it.

STRONG SAD: I am in the one, Mike.

MIKE: This is— You're pretty good in this. Did you actually do the voice?

STRONG SAD: I don't want to talk about what happened while we were doing that.

MIKE: Did they give you things?

STRONG SAD: I was given some things...

MIKE: {laughs}

STRONG SAD: For—

MIKE: Did they drug you? Or, just—

STRONG SAD: I don't know, Mike!

MIKE: You don't remember?

STRONG SAD: I just know that?

MIKE: Is it all a blur?

STRONG SAD: All this— I would kind of black out, and all of a sudden there was this horrible voice coming forward from my mouth.

MIKE: I kind of like it better than your regular voice.

STRONG SAD: Oh.

MIKE: I can kind of do your— good impression of you, Strong Sad.

STRONG SAD: See, look, there's— that's me.

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: Yeah, this could be you, too.

STRONG SAD: Ah, that's terrible.

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: No, it sounds pretty good.

STRONG SAD: No, it sounds awful.

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: No, I don't— It sounds just like you, Strong Sad.

STRONG SAD: I don't think so, Mike.

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: But do that voice.

STRONG SAD: Do—

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: Do the radio personality voice, Strong Sad.

STRONG SAD: {in radio host voice} Okay! Maybe I will! For a little while! But it hurts! So I'm gonna stop!

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: {sarcastically} Oh, that's so great! That was great!

MATT: Yeah, how you doing, Strong Sad?

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: Well, I'm doing pretty good, I guess.

MATT: This is pretty talented. Matt is talking to Strong Sad at the same time.

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: This— This is the magic of computer technology.

MATT: So, Strong Sad, that phrase, "the fish was delish and it made quite a dish"—

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: Yeah?

MATT: Uh, there was this place in Brooklyn I used to eat called—

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: That—

MATT: —called Giando On The Water, and it was a great little restaurant on the Brooklyn side, right under the— the Williamsburg bridge.

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: Oh.

MATT: So I wrote an online review of it on, uh, zagat.com or something—

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: Oh, yeah?

MATT: —and under "user comments" I said that the fish was delish and it made quite a dish.

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: That's pretty good.

MATT: You can't find that online, anymore, I looked, actually.

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: That's pretty good. I wonder what {sounding more and more like Mike} Stoops and Gusso have been up to lately. I— I— I usually am not awake at that time, so I— I don't get to hear their hilarious an—

MATT: You're turning less and less into Strong Sad the longer you do it.

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: Aww.

MIKE: Oh, no! It's going away!

MATT: And now you're just Mike!

MIKE: Augh.

MATT: Mike— And I love that part in the background. Mike is just being the other dudes hanging out in the studio, and just going, "Yeah! You got it! Yeah!" Good job. So, what— that's, uh— there's "highball", "hiyah"—

MIKE: And—

MATT: —and "ah-choo"?

MIKE: "Ah-choo." Is that what it is?

MATT: And then there's something else?

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: I dunno.

MIKE: Homestar says two s— Oh, that's our friend Rusty's song.

MATT: It is.

MIKE: The very end of it.

{pause}

MATT: Oh, why do they do that at college radio stations? They put that little sticker on the CD and, like, make the D.J. have to read that thing. So they're always like—

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: Track— I mean, the track number— who care— you don't have— like on any other radio, no other radio would say—

MIKE: I— I like— I think track number three is a good track.

MATT: {laughs}

MIKE: Seriously. I think that if you listened— go listen to 10 albums and I think that track number three's—

MATT: It's like problems—

MIKE: —probably going to be a hit.

MATT: It's like putting C for an answer on a Scantron test.

MIKE: I used to— I used to count the C's. If C didn't win, I'd go back and change some.

MATT: {laughs}

MIKE: C or D.

MATT: Nice. Uh, originally we were going to use, uh, our friend Ariana chanting there, who actually knows some Sanskrit prayers, and so, we had her, but then we felt that she might take offense.

MIKE: Hey, that's sacrilegious.

MATT: Yeah. We don't want to offend—

MIKE: If they were real prayers.

MATT: Hey, the Portly Washboy looks kind of like the kid from the Boy— old Boychicks Deli sign over in Orchar— or, Georgetown.

MIKE: {laughs} Georgetown!

MATT: Remember him?

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: He's about to inhale this entire sub.

MIKE: {laughs} I got celery— ce— celery-flavored soda from Boychicks Deli.

STRONG SAD: That stuff is good!

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: Oh, yeah! You're back! We're both back!

STRONG SAD: I'm out of here—

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: {simultaneously} This is so cool!

STRONG SAD: I'm out of here now.

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: No, stay! Hang around! This is—

STRONG SAD: I don't like you!

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: Oh, man!

MATT: Um...

MIKE'S STRONG SAD: That was great.

MATT: Poster just fell.

[edit] Fun Facts

• "Hiyah" was Homestar's similarly-pronounced exclamation from montage. "Ah-choo" was probably supposed to be "Ahct-poo" from Homestar Presents: Presents.

[edit] External Links

• watch "radio"
• watch "radio" on YouTube
• watch "radio" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "radio"
• forum thread re: "radio"