Airdate: Monday, August 10, 2009
Sender: -=Evil Gif=-
Phoenix Arizona
The Compé makes its sbemail debut!... but not before Strong Bad is briefly distracted by his new desktop wallpaper, consisting of a low-res photo of some grass.
The Cheat: (The Cheat noises)
Strong Bad: What? Those are actual graphics? And I can change it to be whatever I want? (sing-song) Oh, best thing ever! Best thing ever! (mumbling quickly) This is the best thing ever!
(Strong Bad quickly goes into the options and changes the desktop background to a picture of himself dancing, with a lens flare applied to a close-up of his butt.)
Strong Bad: (rapping) To check my email, all I gotta do is click. All that old typin' made my boxing gloves sick.
Strong Bad gets a question from "Evil Gif"("Evil Moms choose Evil Gif!") asking if Strong Badia has its own independent film festival (or as Strong Bad calls it, a "hideous growth on my butt festival").
Strong Bad goes on to use the film stylings of Strong Sad ("the lifer artist-type who went to film school") and Pom Pom ("a tech-savvy hipster whose dad owns his own studio, and relies on using middle names and/or initials to somehow solidify his indie cred") as representatives of independent and "indie" films respectively.
Strong Sad's "independent" film is a "boring, very personal" lower-than-no-budget "filmic thought excursion" starring a washed-up TV actor who hasn't had work in 10 years (or in this case, Homestar Runner) that features black-and-white shots of dead houseplants, a soundtrack composed of Strong Sad weeping into the wrong end of a saxophone, and a title ("Because, As It Were") cribbed from random words in a random sentence in a random book. When finished, Strong Sad's film then enjoys, not an art house opening, but an "Art's House" opening. ("He's got, like, three couches. Outta sight!")
Pom Pom's "indie" film has a 30-million dollar budget, but is designed to look like he only spend a few hundred thousand, including "a hand-drawn title sequence that looks like it was made by some Junior High kid during Pre-Algebra", a soundtrack by an indie band whose music has primarily been used in car commercials, and a title that's either "two of the cleverly named main characters, or the city and state in which it takes place. Ooh, in fact, just call it City (Comma) State." The cast is composed of A-list actors working "for scale", and the plot revolves around life in a small factory town with a quirky, dysfunctional family. "Pom Pom's little movie that could" opens on thousands of screens in the first two weeks, and has "money left over to take out full page ads in all the local trade papers during award season!"
(An "a-ha!" sound plays from the Compé. a pop-up bubble appears in the bottom left of the screen)
Strong Bad: Whoa! Looks like I've gone The Paper-less with this new computer. Can I at least customize that sound it makes?
(The bubble retracts, and re-appears with a digitized version of The Paper's trademark "Preeeow!")
Strong Bad: That's what I'm talking about!
Tropes:
- Animated Credits Opening: City (Comma) State includes "a hand-drawn title sequence that looks like it was made by some junior high kid during pre-algebra".
- Big "NO!": Strong Bad's response to the idea of a Strong Badian independent film festival:Strong Bad: The short answer is "no". The long answer is... NOOOOOOOOOOOO.
- Bland-Name Product: Quite literally, as Pom Pom's film ends up being called "City (Comma) State".
- Deliberately Monochrome: Strong Sad's film, like any good independent film, is in black and white.
- Dissimile: Strong Bad on the plot of "City (Comma) State".Strong Bad: An indie film's plot is pretty much the same as any summer blockbuster, but just switch out the word "space" with the words "small factory town", replace "aliens" with "quirky, dysfunctional family", and replace "voyage" with... "journey".
- I Resemble That Remark!:Strong Bad: [Strong Sad's] film will star a washed-up TV actor that hasn't worked in ten years, in a desperate attempt to reinvent himself.
Homestar: (annoyed) Hey, whadaya lookin' at me for? - Leave the Camera Running: Parodied; after Strong Sad brags that he minored in "holding on wide-shots for too long" in film school, the camera briefly lingers on him.
- Le Film Artistique: Strong Sad's independent film is full of shots of dead and depressing stuff, and features dialogue like "I just don't think I can handle eating this asparagus..."
- Literal-Minded: Strong Bad assumes that "working for scale" means being paid in a solid-gold scale with gold bars for weights.
- Metaphorgotten: After dissing the sender in the Flash version, Strong Bad brags "Forget evil .gifs, I'm an evil .tif! Or maybe an evil 24-bit .png with alpha channel. Or maybe an evil... targa... file? Whatever those are.
- Mundane Object Amazement: Strong Bad's response to the wallpaper on the Compé. "These are actual graphics? And I can change it to be whatever I want?"
- No Budget: Invoked; Strong Sad's independent film is not just no-budget, but "faux-budget". "The entire thing's being financed with Monopoly money."
- Oscar Bait: Parodied, with Pom Pom's indie movie spending a good chunk of its budget on buying "full page ads in all the local trade papers during award season".
- Portmantitle: The title of Pom Pom's film goes from "Chester + Meg" to "Megchester, NY".
- Preppy Name: Strong Bad says that Pom Pom "relies on middle names and/or initials to somehow solidify his indie cred", and Pom Pom's name is embellished to "J. William Pom Thomas C. Pom".
- Revised Ending: The Youtube version of the email, instead of Strong Bad's Take That, Audience! moment, ends with Strong Bad talking about raiding Pom Pom's craft services table for free snacks.Strong Bad: Can't get enough of those artisanal cheeses and that extra healthy water!
- Running Gag: Strong Bad keeps responding to Strong Sad's remarks with "And best of luck to you."
- Shout-Out: Strong Bad makes fun of "-=Evil Gif=-"'s name with the remark "Evil Moms choose Evil JIF", a play on an old tagline for Jif peanut butter ("Choosy moms choose Jif").
- Show Within a Show: In this case, Strong Sad and Pom Pom are creating their own films. Not quite Dueling Shows, since the two aren't even attempting to compete with each other (though Strong Bad considers their production principles to be).
- Take That!: This e-mail pokes fun at both pretentious art-house movies and trendy "indie" movies, with Pom Pom's film seemingly aiming at the like of Juno.
- Take That, Audience!: The original flash version of the email ends with Strong Bad taking a potshot at "Evil Gif" for expecting the cartoon to show an actual independent film festival with the characters submitting their own films, as he refuses to do so due to his dislike of such films.
Strong Sad: Cut, cut! (turns off his camera)
Homestar: What was wrong with that take?! I mean, whaddya expect for two pinks and a green? I'm not... Bernardo Ralshonde, you know. Sounds like he'd be some type of famous actor.
