Here's where I deconstruct all of those little asides throughout the story and point out some facts that might be of some interest to some. Think you know Pom Pom's Eleven? You may still be surprised! There's more than I listed, but left out the "DUH" ones. You guys are smarter than that!

- Strong Bad's remark about the prison food resembling crap is partially based on an old Rodney Dangerfield stand-up routine.

- The song Strong Bad sings as he leaves the prison is AC/DC's "Back in Black", the same song Homestar once sang on Marzipan's answering machine.

- The Java Jav gets its name from Public Enemy rapper Flava Flav (who, incidentally, wears a... clock).

- The chapter title is a line from a Bruce Springsteen song infamous for being almost impossible to understand. It was changed because I was never pleased with the original title: "Running With Bad Boys".

- Homestar and Strong Bad's opening dialogue was the first dialogue I wrote in the entire story. It's kinda lowbrow, but it's still one of my favourite exchanges in the entire saga.

- J Bucket's name was inspired by a Red Green monologue where he listed "Ice Bucket" as a generic rapper name.

- I got the title of Coach Z's signature tune wrong. In all, I got off lucky; up until shortly before I began to write, I thought that the title was "faze me" instead of "fade me".

- Strong Bad's comment on the dominance of hugs in the first few chapters is the first of several occasions where the characters make a comment of the oddities of the plot construction. If I notice I'm writing something weak or contrived, I'm sure to have a character comment on it. You know Strong Bad wouldn't let something like that go.

- The chapter title comes from a famous Bachman-Turner Overdrive hit.

- Coach Z's remark about boycotting Scope is a reference to an infamous feud in the 1990s when Scope mouthwash published a list of the least kissable people in America (now how'd I miss making the cut? Good thing I'm Canadian!), one of them being then-talk-show-celebrity Rosie O'Donnell. O'Donnell famously retaliated by donating $100 to Scope's competitor Listerine for every kiss she received from a guest on her show. Coach Z getting emotionally involved in something like that struck me as funny, but not entirely impossible.

- Yep, Homestar just recognized that he doesn't have any teeth (gotta be the marshmallows). Self-awareness can get a writer out of many embarassing corners.

- The breakfast special served in a cup of bacon grease was inspired by a rather infamous mistake made in my childhood. Suffice it to say that bacon grease does NOT taste the same as mayonnaise.

- Heheh. Coach Z said he has more than two problems. Oh, wait. Why am I pointing that one out? You all noticed it on your own, right?

- The old rap playing on the jukebox borrows heavily from Digital Underground's "The Humpty Dance". I may rewrite it to something more original in the Director's Cut.

- "Easterektovik" was my pitiful attempt at spelling "East Reykjavik", which is mentioned the album version of "Everybody to the Limit" (which I didn't really care for, actually)

- Ricky Fighters gets his name from the NES game "Tag Team Wrestling", which is where we get the name "Strong Bads". I figured that since the Ricky Fighters and the Strong Bads were rivals in the game, the same should hold true here. I also tried to work in the infamous "A WINNER IS YOU!", but I thought it'd be a bit contrived.

- The Announcer at the start of this chapter is NOT the fellow with the monocle and moustache. I don't know what that guy did when the website was down, but he's not in this story at all.

- The reporter's question about which tree Strong Mad would like to be was actually a common interview question in the 1960s and 1970s. Some sorta hippie thing. (P.S. Strong Mad would totally be a petrified oak)

- Strong Bad paraphrases a Homerian quote when he says "Oh Strong Bad, where art thou?". The original quote actually is "O brother, where art thou?", which has some relevence to the situation.

- "Alphabunny" was a name that came to me when I was half-asleep. I later found out that it's a real name for some sort of quilting pattern. Given the cruddy state of kids' books these days, it doesn't seem all that far-fetched.

- Bubs' book references the Elvis Presley song "Are You Lonely Tonight?". "Hunka Hunka Burnin' Food" just didn't sound as good.

- The Gothic girl was inspired when I accidentally stepped on my sister's Evanescence CD and saw that creepy vampire girl on the cover staring up at me. (The CD was undamaged - I'll let you decide if that's a good thing or not)

- Originally, the King was supposed to have been placed on the Atkin's Diet. A chance to eat all the meat he wants sounds right up the King's alley! I eventually decided against it because it would have the unfortunate effect of the King LOSING weight (blasphemy!), and besides, a King has to have his carbs.

- Is Marzipan the King's daughter? I personally like the idea, but there are just too many holes in it. In my regular style, I addressed the issue and then ignored it entirely. Besides, I think that if the King did father any children, they'd be a fading memory in a lifetime of feeding frenzies. He probably doesn't even remember what the Queen of Town looked like, God rest her soul. (And yes, I'm majorly extrapolating here. Gimme a break)

- Homestar's remark about the secret passages is a reference to the movie Clue, one of the funniest films I've ever seen. Tim Curry plays the know-it-all butler who definitely steals the show.

- I don't accept the Prince of Town as an accurate portrayal of how things actually happened, but I at least made a passing reference to it. Castlefunnies didn't exist at the time, thank heavens.

- Yeah, I know Strong Bad is supposed to name video games in his sleep. But I made him mumble snippets from old e-mails instead, just to show how much he's missed his old lifestyle in those long years in prison.

- The lines Strong Bad and Homestar exclaim are references to the old PC game "Stay Tooned", where a character wakes up from an apple juice-fueled stupor and exclaims "What happened? How long have I been out? And where's my pants?" (Despite the fact that the character never wears pants)

- The scene with Homestar snuggling with Strong Bad, dreaming of Marzipan, was around from the very first draft. When I wrote the sleeping gas subplot, I knew exactly where to put it.

- Originally, Strong Sad was going to get dropped by the Poopsmiths. I decided it seemed a little mean, even for Strong Sad, and it made the Poopsmiths look clumsy, which was working against my design.

- The Golden Pile was another "idea in search of a story". I based in entirely across the pun made by Strong Bad and the Master as it is revealed.

- I didn't explicate this in the story, but the myriad Poopsmiths are not identical. All are built on the same model, but some are tall, short, fat, skinny, etc.

- Yes, the Bucket Master makes a Star Wars reference in his farewell to the Poopsmith. I love Star Wars, but referencing it is beyond old, beyond cliche. So, I decided to reference it in the most crude, banal way possible. Replacing "Force" with "poop" fit the bill perfectly.

- The original draft had Homeschool finding Homestar Jr. and crushing him underneath his heel to teach Marzipan a lesson. That seemed too cruel for this stage; I had to let Homeschool's villainy grow over the course of the story. Plus, as I said before, I'm not into killing off canon characters, even inanimate ones.

- The doctor Homestar and Strong Sad are watching on TV is, of course, Dr. Phil McGraw.

- Originally, instead of Senor and Mr. Bland, the gang was to be visited by none other than Limozeen, who would insist on wanting to help and perform a badly-written song to show what they could do. It wasn't very funny, and it didn't seem likely that Strong Bad would slam the door on his rock idols, so the old incidental characters were brought on instead. Much of Limozeen's intended dialogue ultimately ended up in Crisis on Infinite Mirths.

- I don't speak a lick of Spanish, so I have no idea as to the accuracy of what Senor is saying. His first line is paraphrasing an Offspring song (roughly; "All the ladies say I am pretty fly for a blue guy"), and the other line expresses his desire to buy the album Chinese Democracy by the same band.

- Strong Bad's comment about radio has a strange ring in light of recent e-mails.

- I STILL can't think of a good name for this chapter.

- Strong Bad gets to wear the mixing bowl on his head after the disbanding of the Homestarmy. Colonel Homestar doesn't have much potential for a plot like this, so I just ignored his existence altogether.

- The drumming joke was taken from an episode of Pinky and the Brain, where what sounded like military background music was actually Pinky drumming enthusiastically. I let Coach Z be the drummer cuz he gots riddym.

- The "D" in "D-Day" really does stand for "day". Before Strong Sad was interrupted, he was likely going to say he learned it from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, which is where I get all my worthless trivia.

- When Strong Bad tells Homestar to stow the navy talk, he's paraphrasing a similar rant by Yosemite Sam to the Tasmanian Devil in an old cartoon whose name escapes me.

- Oddly, I thought that "Talk2Baby" was a clever name when I wrote it. I musta been sick that day.

- Coach Z's insistence that he'd never talk - unless he was tortured, of course - references the same Pinky and the Brain episode as the drumming joke.

- Yep, Homestar notices that the plot is beginning to resemble the Lion King. I'm glad he pointed that out for me.

- Homestar's calling the gang "buffalo soldiers" is odd, as none of the gang are black. (The jury's still out on Bubs, of course)

- Strong Bad paraphrases a statement made by Mahatma Gandhi: "There they go; I must run to catch up with them, for I am their leader!"

- Coach Z makes the second blatant Star Wars reference.

- "Mothsbald Weevilbats" sounds like a bad cartoon name, doesn't it?

- Boy, I really seem to like that "That's not incidental music!" joke, don't I? Even though it doesn't really work in text?

- Did Dijory Doo plant the sheep skeleton to distract Strong Mad, or was it a bizarre coincidence? Don't ask me; I still can't decide. Also, I made a rare Strong Brother mixup when Strong Mad gets knocked unconscious.

- Boy, was I thinking ahead when I wrote Strong Bad rediscovering his computer! Notice how he just refers to it as "my old computer", instead of by name! That means it can be the Compy, the Lappy, or whatever computer he gets next (my money's on the Eyrie). Okay, actually that wasn't intentional. In fact, it was one heck of a lucky break. At the time I had a hard time telling the Tandy and the Compy apart, so that was pretty darn lucky.

- Strong Bad probably meant to say "Sierra Madre", which is a river. Sierra and Pontiac, while rivers, are more commonly known as automobile names. (And that was my H*RWiki impersonation! Thank you, thank you!)

- Homsar was paraphrasing Marlon Brando's lament from "On the Waterfront" in his opening line.

- There goes the incidental music gag again! Gad, I know a good joke when I throttle one!

- I saw the Robot as an amalgam of the two Robots of the Homestar universe: the look and temperment of the later Robot, the shortcomings of the old one.

- Yet again Bubs smacks down a chance for some plot exposition. These guys don't let me get away with much, do they?

- How can Coach Z be against cell phones if he raps about owning one? Oh, crap. Do some research next time, dude.

- The pizza guy has a surfer-dude accent. You can't tell, but he does.

- Coach Z accidentally pronounces The Cheat's name correctly. Talk about asleep at the wheel.

- The King's line about dying in the kitchen is a reversal of a line from the Drew Carey Show.

- What did Homestar want to do with Brooke Shields before he died? I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill... uh... Homestar. And you don't want that, do you?

- Homsar directly quotes an Elton John song that seems relevent to the situation at hand.

- Hey, the Ungurait is gonna tear the back of Strong Bad's head open! That happened once before, didn't it...? Fortunately, there's a happier ending this time.

- The lead Ungurait's vow to "break" the Poopsmith is taken from the Witch-King's vow to "break" Gandalf the White in the book Return of the King. And indeed, just as the Witch-King breaks Gandalf's staff in a duel, so does the Lead Ungurait break the Poopsmith's shovel, although both villains are ultimately defeated.

- I know I'm blowing my own horn here, but I always liked Strong Bad calling Homestar "Casablanca" (instead of, of course, "Casanova").

- I just thought of something. I could claim that Strong Bad finding the strength to lift Strong Sad out of harm's way could be a reference to the song "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother"! But that would be dishonest.

- The chapter title is based off of, you guessed it, an Offspring song. I play too much Crazy Taxi.

- More incidental music comedy! Wherever did I get that idea?

- When Homestar plays Carol, he sings Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart", specifically the high male counterpoint.

- There's a reason Marzipan was especially apprehensive about apologizing to Coach Z. It'll be explained in the Director's Cut.

- "Tangerine County". Ho ho. Hardy har har. I wonder if people call it "The T.C." for short? Ah, making fun of shallow teen dramas takes such finesse.

- Homsar's encouragement of Marzipan borrows from a Tina Turner feminist anthem.

- As the judge rants in Strong Bad's daydream, he quotes Judge Dredd: "I am the law!"

- After writing the scene, I realized that Strong Bad's fantasy of escaping the courtroom on Trogdor's back reminded me of a daydream from Calvin & Hobbes of Calvin escaping school on the back of a triceratops. I then knew that Strong Bad would have to mention it.

- I think naming the Judge "Tort" was supposed to be some species of joke. Believe it or not. Maybe the law students laughed.

- Having a character survive a stabbing or shooting because of something they happened to have in their shirt is the staple of way too many movies for me to try to figure out what my inspiration was.

Well, now you know what's going on behind the scenes. Ain't it enriching?