Airdate: Monday, June 30, 2003
Sender: Dan from FL
In an extremely rare turn of events, Strong Bad's out for the day. Also, interestingly enough, Homestar decides to substitute for him, complete with an impression of a substitute teacher:
Homestar brings up an email from Dan from "Fish Lake", or possibly either "Far-off Lands" or "Foreign Leadership Camp". He asks Strong Bad ("Um, I do believe I just told you my name is Homestar Runner, but I'll let it slide this time.") "Did you ever make anything out of anything?", prompting Homestar to regale "Jerome" with some of his do-it-yourself projects. These include making a birthday present for Marzipan out of a decorative bag full of old CDs Homestar didn't want anymore, making breakfast from half-and-half and leftover pizza, using old "Sega tapes" as coasters, and making shoeboxes into makeshift sneakers. He then decides to demonstrate "how to make a wet computer out of Strong Bad's computer" (accidentally kicking The Cheat aside in the process):
Alas, in the midst of his demonstration, a ringing sound appears from somewhere, signaling the end of Homestar's "lesson" for the day.
Tropes:
- Accidental Misnaming: Homestar refers to Dan as "Jerome" for most of the e-mail.
- Brick Joke: One of Homestar's guesses for what "FL" stands for is "Foreign Leadership Camp". Later in the email, Strong Sad is seen wearing a t-shirt for "Foreign Leadership Camp '91".
- Comically Missing the Point: Homestar gets affronted when Dan's e-mail (written with almost certainly no way of knowing Homestar would be substituting) opens with "Hi Strong Bad".Homestar: Um, I do believe I just told you my name is Homestar Runner. But I'll let it slide this time.
- Continuity Nod: "Reg had the ball at the top of the key" is a reference to Strong Bad's basketball story in "autobiography".
- Convenience Store Gift Shopping: Homestar "made" a gift for Marzipan by filling a decorative bag with an assortment of "slow old people music CDs".
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Homestar once had cold pizza and half-and-half for breakfast.
- Epic Fail: Subverted. Homestar bungles the command to access Strong Bad's email ('run "sb_enail.com"' instead of "strongbad_email.exe"), but it works.
- Hammerspace: Homestar pulls the bottle of Mountain Dew from behind his back.
- Hypocritical Humor: Homestar gets mad at Dan for getting his name wrong... then refers to Dan as "Jerome" for the rest of the short.
- Noodle Implements: You have to wonder why The Cheat was dressed like George Harrison when he came in. According to the DVD commentary
, Strong Bad was gonna do the email on a Wednesday (sbemails were normally on Mondays at the time), only for Homestar to "shanghai" the email. The Cheat's outfit was part of the intended plan for the email to center around a Beatles cover band. - Offhand Backhand: Homestar accidentally knocks The Cheat back off-screen while standing up.
- Orphaned Set Up: After Homestar shows off his shoebox-shoes, Coach Z continues his conversation with Strong Sad by saying "Anyway, Reg had the ball at the top of the key..."
- Shout-Out:
- The Cheat makes a cameo dressed like George Harrison from the cover of The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
- Homestar sings a little song about the "never-ending soda" to the tune of Limahl's theme song to The Never Ending Story.
- Spill Stain Sabotage: Homestar pours Mountain Dew on Strong Bad's computer to make a wet computer out of it.
