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Recap / Strong Bad Email E 188 Fan Club

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Airdate: Monday, January 28, 2008

Sender: David, Northern Ireland

Strong Bad: (singing) Green green grass... A pleasant ghost... Strong Bad Email, make us some toast!

David wonders if Strong Bad's email show has "it''s own fan club", and if so, "whose the president of it?" Apparently, "Sweet, innocent, restraining order-inducing fan clubs" are one of the few exceptions to Strong Bad's rule that adding "club" to a word makes it better.

It also turns out that, "in a chocolate-covered bit of Stockholm syndrome-esque irony", Strong Sad is president of his own Strong Bad fan club, "the Deleteheads". He, along with his fellow Deleteheads Strong Mad and The Cheat, get together to do such things as discuss where to post their web page, debate whether Homsar or Senor Cargage is the "non-sequitur champion", and plan their big convention, FHQWHfest.

Of course, the only thing worse than fan clubs in Strong Bad's book is fan fiction, which he demonstrates with an excerpt from Strong Sad's SBEmail fanfic "A Grade-A Gray Day". In this tale, Strong Bad is uncharacteristically loquacious, and finds that his email-checking duties have been foisted onto Strong Sad's blatant self-insert character, Twelve Times a Day Man. When Strong Bad objects, Strong Sad has him "put on a bonnet and give Homestar a deep-tissue massage".

Strong Bad: (wearing the bonnet and approaching Homestar against his will) Aah! No!!
Homestar: Oh, this gon' be good! (prepares to receive the massage)
Strong Bad: That's it! Two can play at this extremely nerdy game!

Strong Bad retaliates with a "Deleteheads fan fiction" ("Because I have plenty of time to say both syllables"), in which Strong Sad is attacked by both a "sub sandwich constrictor" and a naked Homestar Runner.

Strong Bad: Oh, grandiose! Very grandiose indeed! Maybe fan clubs and fan fiction aren't so bad after all. In fact, I'm gonna go dabble in a little King of Town fan fiction right now.
Narrator Strong Sad: ...said Strong Bad.
(Strong Bad gets up and leaves, producing a loud chair-scooting sound)
Narrator Strong Sad: ...said Chairscoot.
(New Paper comes down)
Narrator Strong Sad: ...said the New Paper.

Tropes:

  • Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Strong Sad and Homestar pronounce "Twizzlers" as "Tweezzlérs". The acute accent is over the "e" in the fan fic in the characters' word balloons.
  • Big "NO!": This is Strong Bad's reaction to Strong Sad writing his story so that he gives Homestar a deep tissue massage while wearing a bonnet.
  • Borrowed Catchphrase: Strong Bad exclaims "Grandiose! Grandiose indeed!" after writing his Deleteheads fan fic.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Strong Bad's reaction to the mention of Strong Bad fan clubs.
    Strong Bad: Ah, fan clubs. Sweet, innocent, restraining order-inducing fan clubs!
  • Brotherhood of Funny Hats: The Deleteheads wear hats shaped like Delete keys, thus living up to their name.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • The Deleteheads open their meeting with Strong Sad sing the Strongbadian National Anthem.
    • Strong Sad claims that Abdi LaRue will be showing at their annual convention.
    • Twelve-Times-A-Day Man and his catchphrase come from the running gag, "I can do it! I can do it nine times!"
    • Strong Sad refers to the Geddup Noise as "Chair Scoot".
  • Dagwood Sandwich: Rather than vertical height, Strong Bad walks by the Deleteheads meeting with an incredibly long submarine sandwich that The Cheat (who had previously been sitting in on the Deleteheads meeting) has to help him with at the other end. He later incorporates the sandwich as a living sub snake in his fan fiction.
  • Fan Convention: The Deleteheads apparently have their own Strong Bad E-mail-related convention, known as FHQWHfest.
  • Fan Dumb: invoked The main focus of this email, with fan clubs and Fan Fiction being viciously parodied.
    Don't get me wrong; fans are great. It's the addition of 'club' that totally "roons" it.
  • Fanfic: The second half of the episode is devoted to showcasing a fanfic Strong Sad wrote, featuring his own self-insert character "Twelve Times a Day Man" taking over Strong Bad's show. Strong Bad can barely hold his contempt with the subject while talking about it:
    Strong Bad: So that's fan clubs, the next worst word you can couple with the word 'fan' is, you guessed it [ominous, eerie music plays] the word [Strong Bad's voice slows way down, and the camera zooms in on the word as he types it] fiction.
  • Fictional Counterpart: The Deleteheads site has been hosted on "Geofire and Angelcities", referring to free web-site hosting services Angelfire and Geocities.
  • Fight Fire with Fire: Strong Bad retalities against Strong Sad's fan fic by writing his own.
  • Flat Joy: Heard during Strong Bad's demonstration of how the word "club" usually makes things better.
    Strong Bad: Turkey? Mrenh.
    Audience: (groans)
    Strong Bad: Turkey club? mmmMMRENHhhhh!
    Audience: (half-hearted cheering) Yaaay.
  • Gag Censor: Homestar's nudity is censored by the presence of a tiny fig leaf.
  • Geek Physiques: Strong Bad firmly places his brother at the "fat" end of the spectrum, having him rant about "Star Tracks" and having a bag of Twizzlers fall out of his mouth mid-sentence at the beginning of "Into the Moronosphere".
  • Her Codename Was Mary Sue: Strong Sad introduces "Twelve-Times-A-Day Man" into his story. He's a flying superhero who looks just like Strong Sad (Homestar even refers to him as such) and one-ups the "I can do it nine times" Running Gag by saying, "I can do it twelve times!" (which apparently applies to both checking emails and playing paddleball).
    Strong Bad: Twelve-Times-A-Day Man?! You can't just start makin' up terrible new characters!
  • Ho Yay: Invoked by Strong Sad in his fan fic. He writes about Strong Bad wearing a bonnet and giving Homestar a massage.
    Homestar: Oh, this gon' be good! [Prepares to receive massage]
  • Interactive Narrator: Strong Bad manages to escape Strong Sad's story and starts his own in its place, with Strong Sad as his victim. As the email ends, however, Strong Sad returns as narrator in a non-interactive fashion.
  • I Take Offense to That Last One:
    Strong Bad: "And that's why I like all them Star Tracks!" said Strong Sad, an entire bag of Twizzlers falling out of his mouth.
    Strong Sad: Hey, you know I can't eat Twizzlérs!
  • Irony: The president of Strong Bad's fan club is Strong Sad, Strong Bad's go-to victim. He suspects that Stockholm Syndrome is responsible.
  • Naked People Are Funny: Homestar arrives in "Into the Moronosphere" "naked as a jaybird", save for a strategically-placed fig leaf. Oddly enough, the star from his shirt is still visible on his chest.
  • Nested Story Reveal: The final line of the short is Strong Sad's narration, suggesting the entire email was just one of his fanfics.
  • Non Sequitur: The Deleteheads host a debate as to who is the "Non-Sequitur Champion". The participants are resident Cloudcuckoolander Homsar and the crazy and homeless Senor Cardgage. The Flash version of the cartoon randomly chooses one of them to give an unrelated comment each time you watch it.
    Homsar: My name's Millions, and I'm a son of a Chipwich!
    Cardgage: Carrageenan, Monteljohn. Can you detect me to the nearest bus stamp?
    Strong Sad: (Beat) Well, debate's over!
  • Rage Against the Author: Strong Bad escapes from Strong Sad's story "A Grade-A Grey Day" and writes his own story to humiliate Strong Sad, "Into the Moronosphere".
  • Revenge Fic: Strong Bad writes a fic making fun of and tormenting Strong Sad to get revenge for the fan fic Strong Sad wrote.
  • Scare Chord: The trademark scary music the Brothers Chaps use to underscore uneasy subjects plays when Strong Bad brings up the concept of fan fiction.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Strong Bad's dialogue is unusually verbose in "A Grade-A Grey Day." (He does a Call-Back, calling his Deleteheads fan fic "grandiose, indeed!")
    Strong Sad: "Curious," said Strong Bad, "Very curious indeed."
    Strong Bad: Since that's totally the way I talk.
  • Slash Fic: It's heavily implied that Strong Sad's fic "A Grade-A Grey Day" was written to pair up Strong Bad with Homestar.
  • Stylistic Suck: The Deleteheads website is made to look like very, very basic HTML.
  • Take That, Audience!: This email pokes fun at the Homestar Runner fandom and general fan fic writers.
  • Toilet Humor: In an Easter egg, Strong Bad writes another "fan fiction" where the King of Town eats the Poopsmith's pile of whatsit. Then the real King of Town moans "I wish that were fiction!"
  • Unsound Effect: The sound of an eight-foot sub sandwich constrictor bursting into the room is "engsmsplode!"
    Strong Sad: You can't just start making up terrible new words!

Vector Strong Bad: YOUR HEAD ENGSMSPLODE.

(Cut to Marzipan in her house, playing with a paddleball until she misses.)
Marzipan: Aw, shootie-kahootie. I could only do it eleven times today.
(Twelve-Times-A-Day Man suddenly flies in)
Twelve-Times-A-Day Man: I can do it! I can do it twelve times!

(Cut to a rough cartoon of the King of Town, looking bloated, lying next to a puddle with stuff around his mouth.)
Strong Bad: (narrating) "I can't believe I ate that whole pile of whatsit!" said the King of Town.
King of Town: (miserably) I wish that were fiction.

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