Airdate: Monday, May 5, 2003
Sender: monkeydude
Strong Bad: I'm intrigued by these... how you say... emails.
Strong Bad gets an email from "Your awesome friend monkeydude", who wants him to make a CRAZY cartoon.
Strong Bad: Look, I'm not your friend, monkey dude. In fact, I'm not even gonna call you monkeydude again. I'm-a call you Josh.
The first step to coming up with a truly crazy cartoon is to think up a title that has nothing to do with the cartoon itself... in this case, "Sweet Cuppin' Cakes". The setting of the cartoon is a bizarre dimension with a blue-and-white checker-board ground and jagged pink mountains in the distance, populated by a series of bizarre characters:
- The main character is "a mix between a cow and a helicopter", a ball-shaped blue critter that travels by hovering and communicates in "just these weird sounds, and no words". Every episode involves him fruitlessly trying to get a little worm out of the ground.
- "Eh! Steve" is a trapezoid-shaped fellow who pops up at least once an episode to say his catch-phrase, which is also his name: "Eh! Steve!"
- "Bubs would definitely be the voice of the Wheelchair", another character who's a crudely-drawn wheelchair that has it out for Eh! Steve for some weird reason.
Wheelchair: I'll get you, Eh! Steve, if it's the last thing I doooooo!
- Finally, one of the characters would be Strong Bad, except his head is an old electronic keyboard that plays the demo music and dances around when he gets angry.
Strong Bad: So that's a pretty crazy cartoon huh, Josh? But I'm not much of an animator. Though I bet The Cheat makes some crazy cartoons. Let's see what he's cookin' up tonight... um, today... just right.
In The Cheat's room, he's just finished a crude cartoon in which Strong Bad kicks Homestar in the face nine times in a row. Then the two of them and Coach Z give The Cheat trophies for no apparent reason, and Eh! Steve makes a cameo.
PBTC Strong Bad: The Cheat, this is the greatest cartoon in the whole world! Have a trophy! (gives The Cheat a trophy)
PBTC The Cheat: (grateful The Cheat noises)
Tropes:
- All There in the Manual: The only mention of Sherlock the Cow-Copter's name ever is in the DVD commentary for this email. To this day, he has never been referred to by name in any other Homestar Runner-related material.
- Animate Inanimate Object: The Wheelchair, as the name implies, is a talking wheelchair able to move on his own.
- Astral Checkerboard Decor: The ground in wherever Sweet Cuppin' Cakes takes place is a blue-and-white checkerboard.
- Author Avatar: One of the characters in Sweet Cuppin' Cakes is Strong Bad, with his head replaced by an old Casio keyboard that plays "Unterlanders Heimweh" when he gets mad.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Strong Bad doesn't think The Cheat's cartoon qualifies for a trophy, and barely qualifies for a pizza. "Maybe a pizza-trophy..."
- Cartoon Creature: Most of the cast of Sweet Cuppin' Cakes are strange creatures of no identifiable species. Sherlock, ostensibly the main character, is described by Strong Bad as "a cross between a cow and a helicopter" despite resembling neither of those things.
- Continuity Nod: In "vacation", Strong Bad imagined receiving a particularly inane email from someone named Monkey D. That's probably why Strong Bad takes such an immediate dislike to monkeydude.
- Creator Cameo: Strong Bad doesn't resist the opportunity to put himself in his own cartoon, only he gives himself the head of a toy keyboard.
- Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": The Cheat's cartoon trails off into Strong Bad, Homestar, and Coach Z giving The Cheat trophies for no reason. "Three trophies for The Cheat!"
- Malicious Misnaming: Lampshaded, when Strong Bad addresses the sender with "I'm not your friend, monkeydude. In fact, I'm not even gonna call you monkeydude again. I'ma call you Josh."
- Pokémon Speak: "Eh! Steve!" is apparently only able to communicate by saying his name.
- Road Runner vs. Coyote: Sherlock is always trying to catch a little worm.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: The Wheelchair is out to get Eh! Steve for some reason.
- Stylistic Suck: The Cheat's cartoon features crude animation and voice acting, and horribly-Off-Model versions of Strong Bad, Homestar, Coach Z, and Eh! Steve. Homestar's star looks more like a lightning bolt, and The Cheat made Coach Z pink instead of green for some reason.
- The Unintelligible: Sherlock the Cow-Copter communicates in "just these weird sounds, and no words".
- Word Salad Title: Strong Bad names his crazy cartoon "Sweet Cuppin' Cakes", on the grounds that "Crazy cartoons usually have titles that have nothing to do with the cartoon itself."
Strong Bad: (watching the PBTC version of himself giving The Cheat the trophy) Hey, I didn't do that! Did I? I mean, it was good. I liked the way you worked in Eh! Steve, but I don't think it deserved a trophy. I don't even think it deserved a pizza! Maybe a pizza-trophy...
(The Paper, also rendered in PBTC style, comes down)
