Airdate: Monday, January 6, 2003
Sender: james f.
Strong Bad: (in the form of a haiku) So cool an email. I thought you would enjoy it. Ding dong, Dear Strong Bad...
"james fffffffffff" wants to know what Strong Bad would be like if he were a character from a Japanese cartoon. Strong Bad isn't intimately familiar with them ("I saw one of those once"), but has a rough idea:
Strong Bad: Okay, so first of all, my head would have to be a little bean. With real, real big eyes. Get rid of my thumbs, make me all shiny... and my boots would be a whole lot cooler. Like, robot boots. And for some reason, I got blue hair. You gotta have blue hair. Then there's my mouth. Real tiny when it's closed; ridiculously huge when it's open.
These ideas, along with a hammy, boyish voice, ultimately come together to create "Stinkoman", the anime version of Strong Bad. His adventures mostly consist of him "flying around in cool poses", with anime versions of Homestar (1-Up the Extra Guy) and Pom Pom (Pan Pan) as comic relief. And thus, the world of Stinkoman K 20X6 is born.
Strong Bad: (in Stinkoman's voice) Japanese cartoons are w— (coughs, goes back to normal voice) Oh, ahem, excuse me! Japanese cartoons are weird, man. Though I may be on to something with that blue hair. Look pretty nice, it look-a pretty nice...
(The scene changes to a Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame. More credits appear as Strong Bad hums the 20X6 theme tune, the last one reading "Click Here To Email Strong Bad")
(The scene changes to a Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame. More credits appear as Strong Bad hums the 20X6 theme tune, the last one reading "Click Here To Email Strong Bad")
Tropes:
- Animesque: Stinkoman and his world.
- Continuity Nod: In the e-mail "island", Homestar randomly called Strong Bad "Stinkoman".
- Credits Gag: The credits at the end of the email include entries like "Combolations: Oolong Singy"
- Fingerless Hands: Stinkoman has completely fingerless hands; Strong Bad at least has thumbs.
- Hong Kong Dub: Stinkoman and 1-Up (the anime version of Homestar) have their dialogue badly synced to their mouth flaps.
- Just a Kid: Stinkoman's reason for not letting 1-Up be The Guy is because he's too young.
- Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame: The Stinkoman cartoon ends on one, which continues through the "credits". It happens again immediately afterwards when Strong Bad ends the email.
- Shonen Hair: Stinkoman has a big ol' mop of spiky hair, despite Strong Bad himself being totally bald. It's also blue, just because.
- Shout-Out:
- Those robot boots are clearly a Mega Man staple.
- The instrumental for the Stinkoman theme song is lifted from the NES game Rad Racer.
- The credits for the Stinkoman show are lifted from the credits for The Legend of Zelda for the NES: "S. Miyahon" is Shigeru Miyamoto, "Ten Ten" is Takashi Tezuka, and "Konchan" is Koji Kondo.
- An Easter Egg at the end shows Homestar has a collection of endings from various NES games, including Super Mario Bros. 2, Mega Man 2, and Blaster Master.
- Stinkoman's "just a kid" line is a reference to AKIRA, where Kaneda refused to let Tetsuo ride on his bike for the same reason (though not in those exact words). Fitting, since his voice is based on Cam Clarke as Kaneda.
- During the fake credits, there's a picture of Stinkoman with even spikier hair in the style of a Super Saiyan from Dragon Ball Z.
- Tagalong Kid: This seems to be the role of 1-Up.1-Up: Hey, Stinkoman! Everybody says you're the guy, but I wanna be the guy too!
Stinkoman: No way! You're just a kid! Maybe when you're older. - Shallow Parody: In-universe example: Strong Bad's idea of a "Japanese cartoon" is based on his memory of a single show (according to a later toon, one he saw in 1987), with the gaps filled in by his more relevant memories of '80s video games.
- Voiced Differently in the Dub: Parodied; Strong Bad says for his Japanese cartoon, "they'd probably get someone else to do the voices". Stinkoman's voice is less gravelly and more energetic than Strong Bad's, and 1-Up's is softer and more childlike than Homestar's (and he lacks Homestar's Elmuh Fudd Syndwome).
- Volumetric Mouth: Strong Bad says that if he were a Japanese cartoon character, his mouth would be "real tiny when it's closed, ridiculously huge when it's open."
- Year X: Stinkoman apparently hails from the year 20X6, pronounced "Twenty-exty six!"
Homestar: (watching "Stinko Man K 20X6") Challenge and fighting and fighting that challenge tonight, somethin' and a somethin' and a somethin' and a somethin' and a...
