Airdate: Sunday, January 8, 2006
Sender: Patrick Cowiche, WA
"Patrick Cowichiewa" wants to know what Strong Bad was like in "highschool". Despite Strong Bad's "extremely unphotographic memory", he recalls that "like other cartoons were in high school", he was a member of a team of super sleuths, working with Homestar, Marzipan, and Strong Mad as "The Homestar Runner Mysfit-steries".
Teenage Strong Bad: Ah, there's no such thing as "mysterious".
Teenage Homestar: I don't want to take any chances. We should play in a band, just to be safe.
(cut to Homestar and friends playing in a rock band)
Teenage Homestar: Havin' fun with my friends
Words about a mystery
Shakin' hands with my man...
In those days, Homestar went around in a pair of "ridiculous stripéd pants", from which Strong Bad and Strong Mad were always trying to "liberate" him when they were't "debating the existence of mysterious". Strong Bad goes on to describe life in "middle school", when he and his friends were "a bunch of melon-headed babies with gigantic eyes and enormous imaginations!"
Baby Strong Bad: I'm pretending I'm playing better video games! Aw man, that freakin' duck swallowed both my pixels...
Baby Strong Sad: I'm pretending I'm not sitting next to the Diapersmith!
The Diapersmith: (blows a raspberry)
Homestar: (wearing striped bloomers and holding a broom, just offscreen) Now you children ske-daddle!
"Going even unnecessarily further back," Strong Bad recalls a time when "we were all a bunch of plucky parameciums living in Free Petri Dish, USA", when "Homestarmecium" would multiply himself whenever "Strongbadiophage" gave him a hard time about shopping for "rear end cream".
(The Paper comes down.)
Tropes:
- Accidental Misnaming: Strong Bad mangles the sender's name into "Patrique" and later "Patrice".
- Amateur Sleuth: "The Homestar Runner Mysfit-steries" depicts Homestar, Marzipan, Strong Bad, and Strong Mad as a team of teen investigators.
- Brick Joke: At the end of the e-mail, Strong Bad sings Homestar's song from earlier in the e-mail.
- Continuity Nod: An Easter egg demonstrating Strong Bad's "doodle memory" references the events of "caper".
- Eskimos Aren't Real: Teenage Strong Bad insists "there's no such thing as 'mysterious'".
- Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: Strong Mad is depicted with red, curly hair in "The Homestar Runner Mysfit-steries".
- I Have This Friend: Homestarmecium claims to be buying "rear end cream" for his twin brother. To prove it, he creates a twin brother through binary fission
. - Medium Awareness: "I would hazard a guess that we were probably just like other cartoons were in high school..."
- Me's a Crowd: Homestarmecium divides into clones of himself during the Free Petri Dish USA sequence, which freaks out Strongbadiophage.
- Running Gag: In-universe, Strong Bad and Strong Mad were "all the time trying to liberate Homestar from his ridiculous stripéd pants" back in high school.
- Self-Serving Memory: An Easter egg shows Strong Bad's "doodle memory" version of the events of "caper", with the Cheat being half-snake, and him and Strong Bad stealing a huge diamond and a roast turkey.
- Shout-Out:
- "The Homestar Runner Mysfit-steries" is an extended parody of the many, many teenage Amateur Sleuth cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears during The '70s, most famously Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!.
- The "middle school" scene, with Strong Bad and company as "melon-headed babies with gigantic eyes and enormous imaginations" seems to be riffing specifically on Rugrats and Muppet Babies (1984).
- The "Romans... in Roman times" sequence seen in an Easter egg may be a parody of The Roman Holidays.
- Spinoff Babies: Strong Bad recalls him and his friends being "melon-headed babies with gigantic eyes and enormous imaginations" in middle school.
- That Reminds Me of a Song: "We should play in a band, just to be safe."
- Unreliable Expositor: Strong Bad admits to having a "doodle memory", as opposed to a "photographic memory".
The Homestar Runner: Oh, aqueduct.
Old-Timey Strong Bad: Hmm, yes, vomitorium!
Don Knotts: (pokes his head in) Andy?
(Pan to Sickly Sam, wearing a sack that says "OLIVES". He sighs and turns into an Ionic column.)
