Recap / Strong Bad Email E 117 Montage

Airdate: Monday, November 8, 2004

Sender: Steve, Surf City NJ

Strong Bad: (announcer voice) Tonight on Strong Bad Email: Comedian Coach Z, actress Marzipan, and some guy from a zoo.

Steve from "Surf City, No Job" wants Strong bad to "creat" a montage.

Strong Bad: (in a whiny, mocking tone) Ooh, why don't you "creat" an alternate reality where you don't have to spell correctly... and I talk like this... and your name is Watered Down! (in normal voice) A montage, eh Watered Down? Like about whatever? Okay.

Strong Bad decides to start with a simple montage involving himself hanging out in the Field, dragging along "a wagon... full of pancakes." Then he decides it would be even better to do "a montage of me falling in love with a wagon full of pancakes!", complete with a cheesy love ballad:

Let's make this moment
Be the symbol of our lives
We'll pawn your dad's computer
And we'll sail to paradise
You're a girl, or maybe a wagon
Filled up with pancakes...

Strong Bad is further inspired to do a montage of the Wagon Fulla Pancakes and The Cheat as "down on their luck door-to-door salesmen":

You can't do it
So give up now
Whatcha gonna do
When your dough runs out?
Ain't that a drag?

Finally, Strong Bad imagines a montage in which the Wagon Fulla Pancakes trains to take Homestar on in "the Champeenship".

Guts, guts and might!
Lifting weights and feeling alright!
It's a showdown going downtown
You're gonna mess around, showdown
Put your nose down, showdown!

After the Wagon Fulla Pancakes defeats Homestar in a not-so-climactic final showdown, we cut back to Strong Bad.

Strong Bad: Those were some good montages, eh Watered Down? That was like, a montage of montages. The only thing we left out is the end credits photo montage. Hit it!

The email closes with Homestar singing a song about partying over still photos from the previous montages, complete with captions showing what happened to the various characters in the email:

Homestar: Partying! Party party party!
It's the weekend! Party party party!
(The Cheat never sold a single box of toner. He is currently unemployed.)
Homestar: And a wagon! Party party party!
Fulla pancakes! Party party party!
(Homestar sold his "The #1" shirt for $3(US). He got a good deal.)
Homestar: And we're partying! Party party party!
It's the weekend! Party party party!
(Strong Bad went on to host some show on Animal Planet. It was cancelled before the first commercial break.)
Homestar: And we're partying! Party party party!
Everybody does it tonight!
(After winning the champeenship, the Wagon Fulla Pancakes did some local TV spots for a used car dealership. It currently resides in Long Beach with its spouse and 2 children.)

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Tropes:

• Anticlimax: The Wagon Fulla Pancakes manages to beat Homestar in "the championship" just by having its handle fall on his foot.
• Cargo Ship: Invoked, with Strong Bad having a romantic montage with a Wagon Fulla Pancakes. "You're a girl, or maybe a wagon / filled up with pancakes..."
• Companion Cube: The Wagon Fulla Pancakes.
• Escalating Punchline: Strong Bad's reaction to Steve's email.
  Strong Bad: (in a whiny, mocking voice) Oooohhh! Why don't you "creat" an alternate reality where you don't have to spell correctly? (beat) And I talk like this. (beat) And your name is Watered Down!
• Epic Fail: In the Easter egg, after losing "the championship" to the Wagon Fulla Pancakes, Homestar's singing "You're the Best" pushes his score into negative digits.
• Montages: Strong Bad decides to do several montages in this email. The first is a sort of generic montage involving Strong Bad hanging out with the Wagon Fulla Pancakes.
  • Falling-in-Love Montage: "Oooh, or maybe a montage of me falling in love with the wagon full of pancakes."
  • Travelling Salesman Montage: "Or maybe a montage of the wagon full of pancakes and The Cheat being down-on-their-luck door-to-door salesmen."
  • Training Montage: "No, I got it. A montage of the wagon full of pancakes training for the championship!"
  • Photo Montage: "The only thing we left out is the end credits photo montage. Hit it!"
  • Ultimately, Strong Bad claims that the entire episode was a "montage of montages".
• One-Episode Wonder: In-universe, Strong Bad hosts "some show on Animal Planet" that gets cancelled before the first commercial break.
• Short-Runners: An In-Universe example; the Photo Montage reveals that Strong Bad went on to host a show on Animal Planet, which was cancelled before the first commercial break.
• Shout-Out:
  • An Easter egg references the inter-circuit training cut-scenes from Punch-Out!! for the NES.
  • Another Easter egg has Homestar singing Joe Esposito's "You're the Best" to himself.
• Take That, Audience!: Strong Bad reads the sender's signature as "Steve, Surf City, No Job", and mocks them for misspelling "create".
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: A series of "where are they now?" messages accompany the "end credits photo montage".

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(The Paper stuck around until email #173, at which time Strong Bad upgraded to an inkjet printer.)

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Homestar: (in the now closed gymnasium, to the tune of "You're the Best Around") I'm the best around! Sombadubba sombadubba, take me down! I'm the best around! Dubba dubba dubbado, take me down! (the scoreboard changes from 0 to -1)