Airdate: Tuesday, November 9, 2004 (strongbad_email.exe, Disc 1)
Sender: Wilbur, Seattle, WA
Wilbur (whose name sounds like a video game programming version of The Cheat) queries Strong Bad on his opinion of the effects of video games on children, asking him if video games are harmful to development of the human brain. Strong Bad disagrees, stating that video games can teach plenty.
He brings up that video games taught him words like "strafe" (walk sideways and shoot) "toggle" (as in "toggling between the missiles and the lasers") and "melee" ("Which I can only assume means a buncha peoples fighting, like, all at the same time")
Strong Bad then mentions the manuals, and how they perfectly demonstrate what not to do when it comes to spelling and grammar, stating that a kid can get plenty of educational value out of reading one and trying to find at least one complete sentence.
Lastly, Strong Bad reminisces on the classic scenario of staying up all night to beat the Final Boss, only to be rewarded with the word "CONGRATURATION!", which he assumes is some sort of pastry that the developers put in instead of an actual ending. They weren't even generous to give you multiple ones. Just a single congraturation they had laying around somewhere. The email ends on Strong Bad sulking about how much of a waste of time it was.
Trope:
- A Winner Is You: Strong Bad is reminded of staying up all night to beat the end boss only to be rewarded with the word "CONGRATURATION!"
- Buffy Speak: Strong Bad complains about the days when video games would just end with "a single congratuation they had lying around the... video game make place".
- Cutaway Gag: Strong Bad's remark about games ending with a "CONGRATUATION" involves a cut-away to a "Wilbur" and his colleague at The Video Game Make Place wondering what to do with a spare "congratuation".
- Easter Egg: Changing the angle when Strong Bad mentions the word "melee" shows a computer screen filled with sprites of Homestar Runner characters duking it out at The Stick.
- Opaque Lenses: The video game programmers Strong Bad imagines have thick glasses that obscure their eyes.
- Shout-Out:
- Strong Bad assumes "melee" means "a buncha peoples fighting, like, all at the same time", likely a reference to Super Smash Bros. Melee.
- "CONGRATURATION!" is a reference to the mistranslated ending in the original Ghosts 'n Goblins.
- There's a Brøderbund Software poster in the background of the "congraturation" scene.
- Strong Bad opens the email with "There comes a time, when we read a certain email."
