Recap / Strong Bad Email E 172 More Armies

Airdate: Monday, May 21, 2007

Sender: Paul, Perth, West Australia

Strong Bad: (regally) Bring to me a suitable email, that I may check it down.

"Paul Perth" asks "Mr Strong Bad" ("Hey, I am no mere Strong Bad!") if his three sons can get some information about enlisting in the Strong Badian army.

Strong Bad: Look, Perthy Paul, I've been over this already: Strong Badia doesn't have/need an army. When we need muscle, we farm it out to our favorite band of shady missionaries... er I mean mercenaries, MERCENARIES! In fact, if your sons are so bonzer to enlist, they can just swing by their booth at our Vaguely Military Career Fair, which just happens to be starting right now!

As it turns out, the actual career fair isn't for three weeks, so Strong Bad passes the time with such activities as helping the Cheat with his magic act ("Tito the Tophaticent and his beautiful assistant, Strong Mad with two basketballs shoved down his singlet!").

A couple time skips later, we cut to the Gym, where an eyepatch-wearing Strong Bad is sitting at a booth for the On-Point Kings, a band of shady missionaries ("Oh crap, I did it again! Mercenaries, I meant mercenaries! We do bad stuff!") who specialize in "black ops, brown ops, and the occasional beige op" and have an impressive-looking brochure printed on 65-pound card-stock and made with a pirated version of QuarkXpress.

Next up is the King of Town, who is busy guzzling giblet gravy out of an oxygen tank, but does have a very inspiring informational video on joining the forces of the Municipality, which features the Poopsmith dramatically climbing a wall.

King of Town: (narrating) The drive... the power... the skills... the motivation... the power again... the fortitude... the strive... the ideals... the list of attributes... the Municipality! Honor, Valor, Buttor!

Lastly we have Homestar Runner, who is enthusiastically (if erratically) recruiting "five-bucks havers" into the "no-armed forces" of the Homestarmy:

Homestar: Say, you good at video games? I'm not good at video games. The last time I fired up one of my old Sega tapes, it made me a waffle. Say, you like pamphlets? Here's a pamphlet! Here's two pamphlets!

Cut back to the Lappy, where Strong Bad sums things up.

Strong Bad: So that's fair, right Dinkum? You send your coolest son off to join the On Point Kings. He'll have to be jumped in. You send your fat son off to join The Municipality. He'll have to be... pooped in. And then you send your step-headed red-child off to certain doom in the Homestarmy. He's gonna wanna be jumped out. Well, I gotta go find the bicycle pump. Tito the Tophaticent's beautiful assistant's looking a little...lopsided.
(Strong Bad leaves. The Paper, looking crumpled and ragged, comes down with a distorted sound. Strong Bad comes back in.)
Strong Bad: Oh. That's a bad sign. (he leaves again)

---

Tropes:

• Brick Joke: In "montage", The Paper was said to leave after Strong Bad Email #173. Its sickly appearance here is a sign of things to come.
• Continuity Cavalcade: This episode is loaded with references to previous e-mails:
  • The Homestarmy and Strong Badia's lack of a standing army come from "army".
  • The Cheat's alter ego "Tito the Tophaticent" first appeared in "part-time job".
  • The On-Point Kings first appeared in "origins".
  • The Municipality and the Poopsmith's "Pooper Trooper" armor first appeared in "disconnected".
• Department of Redundancy Department: The ad for the Municipality includes the line "The drive.. the power... the skills... the motivation... the power again..."
• Eyepatch of Power: Strong Bad wears an eye patch in order to look more impressive.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The brochure for the On-Point Kings only appears briefly, but is loaded with little gags.
• Gang Initiation Fight: Strong Bad says that getting "jumped in" is part of becoming one of the On Point Kings. He also says that anyone who joins the Homestarmy will want to be jumped out.
• Long List: The ad for the Municipality, lamsphaded when one of the elements of the list is "The list of attributes".
• Malaproper:
  • Strong Bad keeps saying "missionaries" when he means to say "mercenaries".
  • He also remarks that the viewer "look[s] like the type of kid who gets his lunch handed to him daily," which is almost certainly "gets his ass handed to him" mixed with "gets his lunch money stolen."
• Metaphorgotten: During Homestar's spiel for the Homestarmy.
  Homestar: Say, you got a girlfriend? Well, what if your girlfriend was a wooden spoon and a plastic orange bowl? That'd be really weird, man. What kind of screwed up kid are you? We don't recruit your kind!
• Poke the Poodle: Strong Bad's "shady mercenaries" are shown... playing hopscotch.
  Strong Bad: C'mon, The Cheat! Go for sixies! SIXIES!
• Sequel Episode: This email acts as something of a follow up to "army". Strong Bad reiterates how Strongbadia doesn't have/need an army, and the Homestarmy returns.
• Shout-Out: The ad for the Municipality is a parody of the United States Marine Corps' "The Few, The Proud, The Marines" ad campaign.
• Sudden Downer Ending / Wham Shot: After Strong Bad wraps the email, The Paper comes down... and looks to be in a real bad state.

---

(Cut to the Vaguely Military Career Fair, where The Cheat is sitting alone behind a table, dressed in his commando outfit from "army", in front of a sign reading "Meet TV's Firebert!". Cue Chirping Crickets after an awkward pause.)
The Cheat: (disappointed The Cheat noises, then angry The Cheat noises)
(The Cheat pulls out a red marker and alters the sign to read "Meet TV's Trogdor!" He makes a satisifed The Cheat noise as a crowd gathers around his table.)
Bystander 1: Oh, Trogdor, man, it's Trogdor!
Bystander 2: He looks taller.