Airdate: Monday, October 21, 2002
Parsnips A Plenty is a pastiche of early 1930s Inkblot Cartoon Style shorts with Homestar Runner characters as portrayed from the era. The toon is about The Homestar Runner, Marzipan and Fat Dudley (Pom Pom) attempting to buy parsnips for soup, only to run into Strong Bad, Strong Man (Strong Mad) and The Sneak (The Cheat).
Tropes:
- Adaptational Villainy: 1930s Strong Bad is much more evil than his modern-day counterpart, going as far as challenging The Homestar Runner to a duel over parsnips.
- Anachronism Stew: Parodied.
- The "Buy U.S. Soup Bonds" Easter egg is a reference to World War II war bonds. The cartoon is apparently from 1936; the war would not start for another three years and the U.S. not be involved for another five years.
- The Kaiser (The King of Town's 1930s counterpart) is based on German Kaiser (emperor) Wilhelm II.
- Big Red Devil: An Easter egg shows Strong Bad being tormented in Hell by a devil that resembles the Poopsmith with horns, a spaded tail, and a pitchfork. He's not red (because the 1936 cartoons are Deliberately Monochrome), but otherwise fits the stereotype.
- Dastardly Whiplash: Strong Bad's 1930s self, complete with a sinister upper-class accent and mustache.
- Department of Redundancy Department: The Homestar Runner and Marzipan both say "Let's make soup!" in the opening scene.
- Evil Is Petty: Strong Bad plans to buy all the parsnips in hopes that The Homestar Runner will go hungry. Justified, since the toon is set in The Great Depression.
- Fire and Brimstone Hell: An Easter egg shows that Strong Bad and The Kaiser have both somehow ended up in Hell.Strong Bad: Curses, I've gone to Hell! How unfortunate!
- I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham: Inverted. The Homestar Runner seems excited about eating parsnip soup. When he tries some, he gags and spits it in Fat Dudley's face.
- Instant Mystery, Just Delete Scene: The results of the duel aren't explained. Just as Strong Bad takes his final pace, it cuts to a card reading "SCENE MISSING" and the next scene after that has him falling off a cliff.
- Literal Metaphor: The Homestar Runner tells Fat Dudley he's "all wet", and is right in both the figurative sense (since the parsnip soup turned out to not be such a good idea) and the literal sense (since Homestar just did a Spit Take into Fat Dudley's face).
- The Roaring '20s: Some references show up. The Homestar Runner tells Fat Dudley he's "all wet" which is 1920s slang for being incorrect.
- Shout-Out: Fat Dudley's speech is based on the scarecrow from the 1934 short "Jack Frost" from Comi Color Cartoons.
- Two Decades Behind: Downplayed in-universe.
- This is billed as the first Homestar talkie, despite sound cartoons being the norm by 1929.
- The cartoon is in black and white; color cartoons were commonplace by 1936 with two notable exceptions. Looney Tunes and Popeye shorts continued to be produced in black and white until 1943.
- Wink "Ding!": Homestar gives one of these to the audience as the cartoon does an Iris Out at the end.
