Recap / Strong Bad Email E 191 Buried

Airdate: Monday, March 3, 2008

Sender: Paul M. Pasquella

Strong Bad: (singing) Oh, who's checkin' emails with his pants, who's checkin' emails with his pants!

Paul M. from "Pathquaya" wants to know if there are any ancient ruins buried underneath Strong Badia.

Strong Bad: Well Pauly Pasqually, I know for sure there's a lotta something buried deep under Strong Badia. Mainly cause I rent out the dirt to unsavory characters in need of a place to stash, ditch, or make disappear, the evidence of their choice. I never really thought that there might be ancient ruins down there, though.

Equipped with a shovel and his trusty Taranchula "Black Metal Detect-or" ("America's coolest children's game show consolation prize"), Strong Bad and The Cheat head over to Strong Badia, and get to digging for ruins, riches, and "booby-traps we can steal ideas from". Strong Bad quickly finds something, in the form of a mysterious circular object labelled "Coldonesdry" that may well be the tip of an ancient, richest-filled structure.

Strong Sad: Uh, me again! I think that's just the cap of a bottle of Cold Ones Dry. You could probably just pick it up.
Strong Bad: What, are you crazy? I'm not touching that thing! It's booby trapped! It'll shoot a bunch of poison-tipped witch doctors at me!
Strong Sad: Riiiiiight. Or, it's just a bottle cap, and you're crazier than ever.

Strong Bad ignores his nay-saying brother and continues his search for ancient riches. He quickly finds "a futuristic piece of paper", bearing a picture of some alien being resembling a smiling head with arms and legs captioned "BABBY ALIEN".

Strong Bad: Oh... my... geez... I knew it! Strong Badia was originally colonized by extra-terrestrials! That explains why I'm so brilliant! And why all beings look the same except for slight differences of our foreheads.

Strong Sad points out it's just a piece of tinfoil with a picture that a young Strong Mad drew of his weird-looking younger brother, but Strong Bad stubbornly sticks to his "ancient aliens" theory.

Strong Bad: Quit ruining my ruins, Jurassic Dork! This clearly says "Babby Alien". Which is probably the name of my true mother, who left me here as a young larva hundreds of years ago, until someone, I'm guessing an elderly oatmeal enthusiast, unwittingly disturbed my cocoon. Oh, Babs! Why did you leave me stranded here?
(Zoom out to show Bubs standing by the hole Strong Bad has dug.)
Bubs: Oh, sorry about that, Strong Bad. Was I supposed to come earlier?
Strong Bad: What? No, I said "Babs". "Babs".
Bubs: Bubs, Babs, whatever. I take what I can get.
Strong Bad: Whaa?
Bubs: Anyways, I'm here for my weekly, ahem, "delivery". (gestures to several barrels reading "inTOXICatingly good WASTE").
Strong Bad: Yeah, yeah, just bury it wherever. But if you uncover any ruins, or hot aliens, or riches, they're mine, OK?
Bubs: Uh, what about fellas named Rich?
Strong Bad: Wha-what? No, I don't know anyone named Rich.
Bubs: Okay, good. Then he can stay where he is!
Strong Sad: Uh, is there anyway I can unhear the last few sentences? Or years of my life?

Strong Bad concludes there are no ancient, riches-filled ruins buried beneath Strong Badia, or at least about a foot beneath Strong Badia.

Strong Bad: Digging is hard, man! Did you ever try to dig a hole? It's not all wipes and montages like in the movies. It takes forever! But who knows what wonders lie, say, one-and-a-half feet beneath Strong Badia? Or, dare I say it, a few feet beneath Strong Badia. Why, it staggers the bad imagination.
(An illustration of elaborate hypothetical ruins beneath Strong Badia appears onscreen. New Paper comes down.)

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Tropes:

• Ancient Astronauts: Strong Bad briefly claims that Strong Badia was colonized by aliens after finding a picture of a "BABBY ALIEN" drawn on tin-foil buried beneath Strong Badia.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The King of Town's box of peas from "different town" is visible in the Funny Terrain Cross Section at the end.
  • An Easter egg has the King of Town telling off the "Shut Up!" Lady from "bottom 10" and "your funeral".
• Death by Cameo: Homeschool Winner's skull can be seen in the Funny Terrain Cross Section.
• Fast Tunnelling: Averted. Strong Bad points out that it's really hard to dig a hole.
• Funny Terrain Cross Section: The e-mail ends with one of these, provided by Strong Bad.
• Noodle Incident: We never do find out who "Rich" was, or why Bubs had to hide his body.
• Shout-Out:
  • "Why all beings look the same except for slight differences of our foreheads" is a nod to/jab at the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Chase", where the intervention of an ancient alien civilization is used to explain why there are so many Rubber-Forehead Aliens in the Star Trek franchise.
  • Strong Bad's reference to "an elderly oatmeal enthusiast" disturbing his cocoon is a reference to Wilford Brimley, who had a starring role in Cocoon and also did commercials for Quaker Oats.
  • In the ending cross-section, there's an arrow pointing down to the "dinosaurs n' Sleestak" layer.
• Too Much Information: Strong Sad's reaction to hearing of Bubs' shady business practices is to ask "Is there any way I could unhear the last few sentences, or years of my life?"

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King of Town: (commenting on the Funny Terrain Cross Section) Ooh, that thing looks delicious! I'll take two slices of that, a piece of the igneous pie, and a molten core tart.
Lady: Oh, that looks sinful!
King of Town: Shut up, lady!

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Announcer: Cold Ones Dry, the official beverage of Taranchula.
Schenkel McDoo: Yah guys, Yold Ones Vry!
Announcer: That's right, Sven, learn to speak American.