homestarretrospective

[homestarretrospective]

#115 - sugarbob

Strong Bad Email #31

Date: June 10, 2002

I'll bring it up time and time again that I'm not a huge fan of the early email format of "sit in front of the computer and boast about how great you are", and unfortunately this one brings us back to that after the last few emails brought us outside the computer room. It doesn't really help that the premise of this one is "Strong Bad is popular with the ladies", which is something that's already been done in earlier emails. The only real thing I can think of to say about this email is, similar to homestar hair, the Tandy is doing things in this one that it should be physically incapable of doing, that being the ability to display fonts and colors and such. Oh yeah, and technically this is one of the few places on the site with cussing. Sort of.

[homestarretrospective]

#114 - The Interview

Date: June 4, 2002 (at most)

Hey guys what'd I miss. This is another relatively early cartoon that shows how tightly written this show is. This short is primarily dialogue-focused without relying on too many absurdist gags. It's 99% just Homestar being dumb and Strong Bad reacting to it, which is always a good time. This one starts off with an honestly quite impressive shot of the camera rotating around Strong Bad as he's using a typewriter, trying to get to the bottom of what makes Homestar tick. And so, he stages an interview with the guy, and as you can expect, hilarity ensues. As I've implied earlier, this is a really solid cartoon. The gag of Homestar looping (whether it be by walking or prancing) around the marshmallow stand always gets a chuckle out of me, the part where Homestar flips the script on Strong Bad and starts interviewing him is genius, but the part that stuck out to me is how, somehow, Homestar and Strong Bad manage to end things positively, agreeing that The Cheat would absolutely destroy Strong Sad in a brawl.

Oh yeah, there's also a weird beta version of this toon that is, for whatever reason, still on the website (I think it was advertised in a magazine?). Also, is it just me or is Homestar's shirt more pink in this one? That's always been like... the first thing that comes to mind when I think of this cartoon lol.

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heyyyy guess who just remembered the password

homestar retrospective resuming soon maybe

[homestarretrospective]

#113 - 12:00

Strong Bad Email #30

Date: June 3, 2002

Woah, where am I?

Yeah, yeah, weclome back everybody!

In case you were wondering why there hasn't been anything on here for a little bit, I decided to take a break! These reviews are hard, and not always exactly the most fun thing in the world, but I feel like I'm back to a state now where I can get these out somewhat regularly again.

Anyways, email time.

Thankfully, we return with a very solid one.

Strong Bad calls Bubs in to fix his broken VCR, a problem that Bubs actually does solve... kinda.

A good showing from Bubs on this one, his solution with The Cheat probably being the highlight of the email.

Though I will say, this one's not really laugh out loud funny, but moreso the type of humor where you can acknowledge that it's funny, if that makes any sense.

Not much else to say here, but it's good to be back!

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See You Tomorrow!

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#112 - superhero name

Strong Bad Email #29

Date: May 27, 2002

Enter a character that I'm honestly somewhat surprised we don't see more of, Strong Badman!

Alright, that's not entirely true, I can kinda understand why this didn't become a recurring thing, but it's still surprising that besides this email, Strong Badman has like... maybe 1 or 2 more major appearances.

Hell, even then, even this email doesn't call much attention to Strong Badman himself. It's mainly focused on making fun of the guy who sent this email's name, Stiny, which is admittedly pretty justified.

Quote: STINY! GET ME A DANISH!!

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#111 - Email Processing Room

Date: May 27, 2002 (at most)

Watch a looping animation that you can behold!

Yeah, basically back in the early days of sbemail, this'd be automatically sent back to you any time you tried to email Strong Bad.

It's a neat enough animation I guess, although Strong Bad holding a piece of paper covered in Strong Mad saliva with absolutely no hesitation is definitely worrying.

Also, clicking on those three signs above Strong Bad's room leads to a (now down) "The Band" fan site run by friends of Matt and Craig, which is... interesting?

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#110 - 1 step ahead

Strong Bad Email #28

Date: May 19, 2002

We've got a bit of an oddball this time! It's a choose-your-own-adventure sbemail, where you (yes, you!) get to decide whether or not Strong Bad should glue Strong Sad's hands to his face!

Alright, there's not really a no option, but you can opt for the glue to be slathered somewhere else!

It doesn't matter what you pick though, because all three segments are pretty good, particularly the third one, which was originally the only one you could pick.

Also yes... unfortunately "PEG ME" takes on a different meaning, nowadays.

Quote: Grabbing your butt? That's not very ladylike.

[homestarretrospective]

#109 - 3 wishes

Strong Bad Email #27

Date: May 13, 2002

Back to the simple straightforward ones here, even though this one manages to be a minute and a half.

In this one, Strong Bad expresses what his 2nd wish would be if he had 3 wishes, that being him having two croissants crammed into his noggin.

There are some good lines in here, but I do feel like it overstays its welcome a bit. They probably could've cut down a few sentences here, with a good chunk of the runtime mainly just being Strong Bad ranting about the "crapfully yours" email sign-offs.

Quote: You know, you could just put, "Sincerely"... or, "Yours truly," is another good one.

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#108 - CGNU

Strong Bad Email #26

Date: May 6, 2002

Hey, we've actually got a genuinely pretty good one this time!

I don't think I'm alone when I say that Homestar has always been pretty good at doing fake commercials, even in its early years, and this is no exception.

Strong Bad does an ad for CGNU, which was previously only a background gag in the Homestar Quiz, saying how it'll make you more awesome, and all the tons of new jobs you can do!

There are some good lines in this, and it honestly feels more like a Compy-era email than a Tandy one.

Quote: Remember, at Crazy Go Nuts University, the future is. . . you. Probably.

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#107 - super powers

Strong Bad Email #25

Date: April 30, 2002

Yeah, I said this back in the kick-the-cheat email, but you can definitely feel us starting to crawl our way out of the bad early emails.

In this one, we're introduced to the powers of Strong Bad's blue diamond thing on his head, which can be used to open up cold ones and make people's... hats.... fall off.

Honestly, with how self-referential this series is, especially in the post-hiatus years, I'm genuinely surprised that this power hasn't been mentioned again once. Yeah, as far as I can remember, this is the only appearance of Strong Bad being able to do that.

Most people don't remember this one for the actual power anyways, though. The highlight for most here, including me, is of course the legendary "tight pants" conversation.

Quote: Once again, I point the blame squarely at tight pants.

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#106 - the bird

Strong Bad Email #24

Date: April 22, 2002

Switchin' it up this week, Strong Bad checks an email from the stick! It doesn't really lead to anything too special, but it's neat to see an email that doesn't feature the computer room at all, I guess.

The joke in this email is that Strong Bad flips you off, which is... alright I guess. I wouldn't say it's particularly too funny, but the phrase "Double Deuce" is something I still use to this day.

Also, this email made me realize how few people in the main cast have fingers.

Quote: Well, you think you're so hot, but me hot, me hot!

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#105 - little animal

Strong Bad Email #23

Date: April 15, 2002

This is email #23. The previous one was email #21. Keep that in mind.

Anyways, here we see the original of another running gag, which I feel like has been happening a surprising amount recently.

Yes indeed. this email's big claim to fame is that it spawned the joke of people kicking The Cheat! Unless of course, you count the original book, where Homestar kicks him, or an unfinished toon that, if actually did end up getting completed, would've been the first appearance of it.

But I digress. This is yet another email, although for some reason this is one of the few earlier ones that doesn't really give off the same vibe as the first 20 or so. Maybe we're finally entering a new era?

Quote: I'ma kick you, too!!

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#104 - Main Page 15

Date: April 11, 2002 (at most)

Alright, unexpected Main Page time!

So, I can only imagine that, if you were to go to the site for the first time, and just happened to land on this page, you probably weren't given the best first impression of the site.

If you do know what the hell is going on though, then this is a pretty good main page.

If you can't tell, it's based off of the "Powered by the Cheat" art style, which we saw previously in The Cheat Theme Song, and we'll see more of in an upcoming summer jam.

It's got all of the usual cheat-isms, such as god-awful motion tweening, weird bitmap to vector conversion, and even some extra scenes with Strong Bad judging The Cheat's creations.

It's also the first appearance of "I'm sad that I'm flying", which is definitely a good thing.

Quote: And what is that terrible voice? Is that supposed to be Homestar?

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#103 - Homestar's Yearbook

Date: April 9, 2002 (at most)

And now for something that we will spend all of 5 seconds talking about, this is logo used for the old guestbook.

When you mouse over Homestar, he says something.

Yep, that's about it.

(One of the easiest reviews I've typed in a while lol)

Quote: Sign my yearbook! ... but don't use any swears, because my mom reads it.

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#102 - cartoon

Strong Bad Email #21

Date: April 8, 2022

Not to be confused with the much superior "crazy cartoon", Strong Bad showcases what it would be like if his emails had commentary... about 2 years before several emails, including this one, would actually get commentary.

This isn't one that I really know how to judge, though. My main complaint is that it's pretty boring, but y'know, that's probably what they were going for here. So... in a way, it's both good and bad.

I guess the most accurate way to label this toon is "middle-of-the-road". It's a pretty forgettable email and doesn't stand out much against even some of these earlier ones.

Quote: Yeah, I remember that part. I totally had to scratch my head then, man.

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#101 - spring cleaning

Strong Bad Email #20

Date: April 1, 2002

Starting off our next hundred is the premiere (technically) of a long-running joke in the Strong Bad Emails, that being "DELETED!"

And by god, do they use that to its full advantage here, with Strong Bad deciding to do some "spring cleaning" by clearing out all the crap in his emails.

Actually, technically this is the premiere of two sbemail running gags, with this being the first appearance of the infamous "How do you type with boxing gloves on?" question.

So for all that, I think this email is alright. The gimmick leads to some neat jokes, and the premiere of a running gag is always nice to see.

Quote: Oh, I'll totally answer this one because apparently the only thing I'm concerned with is the word crap— DELETED!!