Recap / Strong Bad Email E 205 Videography

Airdate: Monday, October 5, 2009

Sender: Robert McSwain, Video Media Technologist, ITS Department

Strong Bad: Checkin' emails with boxing gloves. The sweet computer science.

Video media technologist Robert McSwain, hailing from "It's Da Partment", wants to hire "To Whom It May Concern, AKA Strong Bad" as a "videographer" to videotape his wedding in August (hopefully Robert doesn't mean August of this year).

Strong Bad: Well McSwobert, that works out perfectly, because "videographer" is just one of my many professions that have quotes around them. I'm also a "heart surgeon" (photo of Strong Bad in his living room, wearing nurse's scrubs and holding a chainsaw), a "licensed technician" (photo of Strong Bad in a classroom, wearing a lab coat and holding a chainsaw) , a "poultry farmer" (photo of Strong Bad at a dining table, standing over a rusty dinner pan with a single chicken wing in it while holding a chainsaw), and a "fireman" (photo of Strong Bad in the field, standing next to cans of lighter fluid and gasoline while holding a flaming chainsaw).

Even if Robert is getting married "like, two months ago", Strong Bad promises more than enough "fancy wipes, fades, and transitions" to distract from the fact he and the future Mrs. McSwain aren't in their own wedding video. Strong Bad even offers to show off his demo reel.

Strong Bad: Hello there. I'm famed quotation marked videographer Strong Bad. Do you like quick zooms and solarizing effects? What about diamondy transitions, pixelated wipes, or slow fade-outs? All these effects and more will make your cherished event that happened last month be cherished forever.

Strong Bad has video effects, clip-arts, and royalty-free music for any occasion: lacrosse games, forgotten anniversaries, weddings, bar mitzvahs, bar-fights, and more.

Strong Bad: Take family meatloaf night back to the ooold west! Did someone say sepia tones?
Various Voices: Uh, no. I don't... think so. I definitely didn't.

Combined with an outlandish-enough title screen courtesy of Strong Bad's "sweet, sweet suite of video toasters", Strong Bad's videography work is sure to impress, and distract from the question of why a "video media technologist" didn't do it all by himself.

Strong Bad: But you could probably also get away with just putting a label that says "Weddin Tape" on a VHS cassette, since none-out-of-none couples actually ever watch their wedding video. Unless of course a baby drops an f-bomb, somebody pukes in their toupee, or Grandmaw Auntpaw rolls down the stairs in her wheelchair. In which case you simply post it online and turn it into Internet gold! And I can definitely arrange for some of that stuff to happen at your wedding, if you enlist my services as an "event coordinator". A-heh heh heh, heh-heh-heh-HEM.
(The Compé-per pops up)

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Tropes:

• Ambiguous Syntax: Strong Bad gets a few jokes out of the fact that Robert didn't specify whether his wedding was last August (when the e-mail was answered in October) or next August.
• Chainsaw Good: Strong Bad uses a chainsaw while performing as a "heart surgeon", "licensed technician", and a "poultry farmer". He uses a flaming chainsaw while working as a "fireman".
• Evil Laugh: Strong Bad lets out a mischievous chuckle after offering his services as an "event coordinator".
• Forgotten Anniversary: Strong Bad helps Homestar produce "Video Evidence of Homestar & Marzipan's 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 10th Anniversary Celebration".
  Homestar: Oh, twice! I'm a lavish gift-giver!
• Grumpy Old Man: An Easter egg shows a clip of someone's 109-year-old grandmother at her "birthday stand-around", where she complains "I never loved any of you."
• Innocent Swearing: Strong Bad lists "a baby dropping an F-bomb" as something amusing that might happen at a wedding.
• Long List: "Weddings? Bar-mitzfvfahs? Bar-Fvfights? First steps? Droopy drawers? You name it, I'll videographa... fize it!"
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: Strong Bad's remark of "Did someone say sepia tones?" is met by off-screen voices muttering that no, they didn't.
• Scare Quotes: Strong Bad has a lot of fun with the sender's use of quotation marks around "videographer" by equating it to something shady. Strong Bad then says he is also involved in "many professions that have quotes around them".
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: During the "Jimmy's lacrosse game" segment, Strong Bad adds "His dad was totally there and not at Applebee's!"
• Verbal Backspace: During the video for "Jimmy's Lacrosse Game", Strong Bad says "Good shot John—Jimmy!"
• Visual Pun: Strong Bad's line about "video toasters" is accompanied by a shot of toasters with VHS tapes popping out of them.

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Strong Bad: My state-of-the-art camera has a state-of-the-art microphone mounted right next to the giant videotape motor. So you're guaranteed to hear mostly that, and not what Grandmaw Auntpaw just said on her hundred-and-ninth birthday.
(A title card for "Grandmaw Auntpaw's 100-Somethingth Birthday Stand-Around" appears. Cut to a shot of a wheelchair-bound old woman's shadow cast on a purple wall.)
Grandmaw Auntpaw: (barely audible over the hum of the motor) I never loved any of you.