radio
From Homestar Runner Wiki
Strong Bad Email #120
Cast (In order of appearance): Strong Bad, Strong Sad, Trivia Time, Marzipan, Homestar Runner, The Strong Bad, Strong Mad (Easter Egg), The Sneak (Easter Egg)
Strong Bad gives some advice on how to be a radio host, in various genres.
Contents |
Transcript
STRONG BAD: I got miles and miles of the e-mail style. Miles and miles of the e-mail style.
{types in "strongbad_email.exe"}
subject: radio Dear Strong Bad, My friends are radio hosts. Any chance you could give them any pointers on what they could say/do on their show? bowing to you Fraser, Scotland
STRONG BAD: {typing} Oh, no need to bow, Fraser. Get up. {reverently} Rise, my son. And giveth me instead $7.50 with which to buy some buffalo chicken tenders. {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 radio host voice} Hey hey hey, it's the Deathly Pallor, coming at you on the numbitty 902, WA3D FM, "The Sturge." Coming up next, we have 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 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 totebag.
{Cut back to Lappy 486.}
STRONG BAD: {typing} Next up is the drive time morning show. {A morning show poster with two Strong Bad-like hosts appears onscreen.} 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.}
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 quite a dish.
{Cut back from the clock-radio to show Homestar in his house with a Public Radio totebag over his head, holding a highball 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 the cookie crumbles.
HOMESTAR RUNNER: Hi-ball! {throws highball glass at 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 in to the booth and try to run a radio station.
{Cut to a boombox 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 six...{thumbing through papers} "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... cam... campus outreach is looking for... hang on...
{Cut back to Lappy 486.}
STRONG BAD: {typing} College radio can pretty much be summed up in five 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, but um, but first up is, an, um, okay... an... an hour of chanting.
{A chant plays on the boombox, and Strong Sad's hand 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 1936 style and an old-timey radio, with The Strong Bad reading in front of a microphone}
THE STRONG BAD: {as old-timey radio host} This week on The Fish Was Delish progrum, brought to you by Portly Washboy laundry paste, we join The Fish down at the wharf as he closes in on the Quite a Dish gang's hideout. Stay tuned for partial excitement.
{The Portly Washboy logo appears. It is of 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.}
Click here to e-mail Strong Bad strongbad@homestarrunner.com
Easter Eggs
- Click on Strong Sad's stomach while he does the radio voice to see a t-shirt from WA3D FM "The Sturge" radio station.
- Click on the text in the test sentence to see the book it was based on.
- Click on "coozies, frisbees, or bottle openers" after The Paper comes down to see them.
- Click on "annoying" after The Paper comes down to see/hear more of Strong Sad's new persona.
- STRONG SAD: {normal voice} Oh, I disagree! I think it's more than just a matter of simple economics. In fact, I'd say...
- STRONG SAD: {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 BLEBERTYBLOUGH!
- STRONG MAD: {confused} Blebertyblough?
- Click on "me" after The Paper comes down to see more of old timey Strong Bad.
- RADIO: {The Strong Bad} Stay tuned for partial excitement!
- THE STRONG BAD: {listening} Drat and double drat! It's true what they say! The radio really does add four and twenty stone to one's voice!
- Click on "The Fish Was Delish, and it made quite a dish" when it shows up to show a children's book made in the style of Dr. Seuss, called "The Fish Was Delish, and it Made Quite a Dish". It was written by Crazy Prof. Sportsinterviews, obviously a reference to Leonard Sportsinterviews, who writes most of the children's books Strong Bad mangles.
Fun Facts
- After the text of "The Fish Was Delish..." disappears, you can still click where it was and it will come up.
- Strong Sad's left sleeve disappears during parts of that easter egg. If you click on him again it appears. (Depicted in article image above.)
- The totebag on Homestar's head reads: PRS Public Radio Sounds "Smooth 'n Smarmy". One can infer that the totebag rightly belongs to Marzipan.
- "Four-and-twenty stone" is 336 pounds (one stone = 14 pounds).
- The real WSBD is a news radio station in Ohio. TBC cannot have possibly known about it; SBD most likely stands for Strong Bad.
References
To other cartoons
- This is the second time Strong Sad has confused Strong Mad by saying something weird. The first was in caffeine, after he said parakeet.
- Strong Sad's calligraphy pen is also featured in his action figure in the easter egg for action figure, and from the Strong Bad Is in Jail Cartoon.
- The college radio is 89.3 WSBD The Voice of CGNU, "Several Dozen Listeners". This refers to Crazy Go Nuts University.
- The Trivia Time cookie jar appears in Marzipan's kitchen.
- Homestar's command of "shut it up" is a reference to The Cheat's crazy cartoon.
- This is the second time we've seen the interior of Homestar's House. The first was in caper, when Strong Bad and The Cheat tried to steal his Jumbles. Apparently, someone fixed his cow lamp, which is seen at the righthand side of the screen.
- Strong Sad refers to himself as a "deathly pallor," harking back to Coach Z's introduction of Strong Sad in the email impression.
- Strong Bad says the words "absolutely nothing" exactly the same way in the email website.
To real things
- A highball glass is a tall, narrow glass typically used to serve certain types of alcohol and cocktails.
- Homestar's "highball," therefore, isn't a highball at all, since it's served in a short, stout glass rather than a tall, thin one.
- The glass Homestar throws is a "Rocks Glass", which are generally short and stout.
- Marzipan's reference to the totebag has to do with public radio often having on-air fundraisers where they offer gifts for different levels of donations.
- The book "The fish was delish and it made quite a dish" (see Easter Eggs) is an obvious spoof of Dr. Seuss's books, even down to the name of the author, Lem 'The Crazy Prof.' Sportsinterviews.
- Marzipan's book Tolstoy Story 2 is a reference to Leo Tolstoy, a famous Russian author, and also to the Disney/Pixar film Toy Story 2.
- "PRS" is a playful combination of PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service, and PRI, Public Radio International.
- PBS often gives out tote bags, like the one on Homestar's head, to reward fund-drive contributors.
- The "UN Secretary Council" represents a mix between the UN Secretary-General and the UN Security Council, both of which frequently make headlines on PBS and PRI.
- The bit where the voice-over tells the viewer what the test phrase is in whispered tones is a reference to game shows like "Password," where something similar would occur so that the viewers knew what the password was.
- Judging by Strong Sad's T-shirt, "The Sturge" is short for sturgeon, a large, rare fish and is an obvious spoof of radio stations named after animals. For example, WKRP in Cincinatti, had the mascot, "the WKRP Carp."
Possible references
- Strong Bad calling Strong Sad "Greystoke" is a possible reference to the fictional character Tarzan, who was the orphaned son of Lord Greystoke.
- This may be a stretch, but 'the fish was delish, and made quite a dish' might be a reference to the old short lived live action series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, where Michelangelo sings a similar song.
- The Strong Bad saying "Drat and double drat!" is also said by Dick Dastardly from the '60s cartoon "The Wacky Races". Old timey Strong Bad may be partially based on Dick Dastardly, as they share many characteristics
