This page is about the email where Strong Bad makes up an animal. For the email where Strong Bad is asked what he would do if a little animal came up to him, see little animal.
Airdate: Monday, November 29, 2004
Sender: Spud Jr.
Behold, Strong Bad has a new computer: the Lappy 486! After boasting about the classy start-up noise ("Dong... DING!") and the "speculations" of his "new" laptop, Strong Bad brings up the Lappy's inaugural email. Said email comes from Spud Jr., asking Strong Bad "what would you like as if you were your own made up animal." After poking fun at "Stu-pud Jr." and his bad grammar ("Come now, Spud Jr. What would Spud Sr. think of such nightmarish grammar and punctuation?"), Strong Bad boasts that his own made-up animal would have all the best features: claws, horns, tentacles, a proboscis, power doors, etc.
Monstrosity Strong Bad: (gurgles incoherently, foams at the mouth)
Strong Bad: Oh. I guess I couldn't really talk with that proboscis. Not that I'd have much of an answer for "Do you know the times," anyway.
Strong Bad briefly considers being "one of those deep-sea fangly fishes", with a custom lure in the shape of Homestar's head ("Right this way, folks! Free puppies, ginger snaps, pocket PCs...") and a back-deck for "dining and dancing". He quickly realizes, however, that he wouldn't be able to enjoy the dining and dancing if he was already the fangly fish.
Strong Bad then tries coming up with a cool name for his own made-up animal, but his various attempts (the Huuuuuudge, the red-steckled elbermung, and the pardack) keep coming out as dopey-looking blobby monsters. He finally hits pay-dirt with Sterrance, a creature which Strong Bad finds even more adorable than the Cheat (much to the latter's consternation). Strong Bad then closes out the e-mail by introducing the Lappy to the Paper, which seems more than a little hesitant to meet its new roommate.
The Paper: (it creeps down even more, reading a new message:) Enough already, Strong Bad.
Strong Bad: Oops! Sorry. Bye, everybody.
Tropes:
- Alternate Species Counterpart: The premise is Strong Bad trying to envision himself as another, fictional species.
- Artistic License – Biology: The proboscis is clearly seen just above the "mouth" section of that monstrosity and since its equivalent on a human would be the nose, Strong Bad's lack of coherent speech is certainly not due to the proboscis. Of course, this is Rule of Funny kicking in...
- Art Shift: The segment with the fangly-fish is done in "Powered by The Cheat" style.
- Blob Monster: The Huuuuuudge (all but one of the "u"s is silent) is just a big, mustard-colored blob with Strong Bad's face on it.Strong Bad: Euw! No. No Huuuuuudge.
Marzipan: Oh, wow, look at the Huuuuuudge. - Body Horror: The Monstrosity looks like Strong Bad... with compound eyes, tusks, a proboscis, and tentacles for legs, among other things.
- Cuteness Proximity: Strong Bad reacts this way to Sterrance.
- Didn't Think This Through: Strong Bad realizes too late that he can't dance on the fangly-fish's back deck if he is the fangly-fish.
- Disco Dan: This is the email that pretty much locked in Strong Bad's "loves outdated technology" character trait; he sees "new computers" as a badge of disdain and happily rattles off specs that suggest that the Lappy is on par with a solar-powered calculator.
- Drop the Cow: According to Strong Bad, The Paper's job is to "let me know when I've stopped being funny!"
- I'm Standing Right Here: The Cheat's (implied) reaction to Strong Bad calling him "smelly", "washed-up" and "Captain Past-His-Prime".Strong Bad: Yeah, I know you heard me, and I stand by it.
- Interface Spoiler: The Lappy's loading screen is used despite not yet being introduced.
- Luring in Prey: One of Strong Bad's attempts at imagining a made-up animal is "one of those deep-sea fangly-fishes", with Homestar's head as the lure (which tries to lure people with promises of free puppies, ginger snaps and Pocket PCs). and "an awesome back deck on me for dining and dancing".
- Malicious Misnaming: Strong Bad mocks the sender's bad grammar by calling them "Stu-pud Jr."
- Mundane Made Awesome: The intro of the Lappy.Strong Bad: It is a time of desolation, chaos, and uncertainty. Brother pitted against brother; babies havin' babies. Then one day, from the right side of the screen, came a man. A man with a plastic rectangle... I mean, laptop computer!
- "No. Just… No" Reaction: Strong Bad's reaction to the red-steckled elbermung: "No, no, no."
- Overly Long Gag: Strong Bad takes a while to coax the Paper down to meet the Lappy.
- Our Slogan Is Terrible:
- The Lappy 486 is advertised with "Finally, a computer for your lap!"
- Styles Upon Styles' slogan manages to go from overly honest to complete non-sequitur in four words: "Steep Prices and Trees!"
- Parody Commercial: Strong Bad launches into a spiel reminiscent of this while boasting about the "speculations" of the Lappy 486.Strong Bad: The Lappy 486 weighs in at an extremely portable forty-two pounds and features an impressive battery life of one-half of ten minutes. The Lappy 486, by Compy.
(Stickers appear reading "42 POUNDS!!! (LBS.)", "'Several' color monitor", "2MB Hard Drive!", and "Warning: +/- Five Minute Battery Life") - Rattling Off Legal: An Easter egg has an announcer giving a rapid-fire spiel offering the fangly-fish as a consolation prize on a game show.
- Snarky Inanimate Object: The Paper points out that Strong Bad introducing him to the Lappy is turning into an Overly Long Gag.Strong Bad: Lappy, this is the Paper. He lets me know when I've stopped being funny.
The Paper: Enough already, Strong Bad. - Shout-Out: Strong Bad's spiel about the Lappy's "speculations" is a parody of the way big prizes are described on The Price Is Right.
- The Unintelligible: Monstrosity Strong Bad is unable to talk properly. Strong Bad blames it on the proboscis.Strong Bad: ...not that I'd have much of an answer for "Do you know the times?" anyway.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Homestar doesn't seem taken aback by Monstrosity Strong Bad's appearance, and is only slightly weirded-out when it begins gurgling and spewing green foam.
