Homestar Runner
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This article is about the Internet cartoon series. For the character and series' namesake, see Homestar Runner (character).
Flash series
The Homestar Runner logo
Homestar Runner
Devised by Mike Chapman
Craig Zobel
Written by The Brothers Chaps
Animated by The Brothers Chaps
Voiced by The Brothers Chaps
Missy Palmer
Launch date New Year's Day 2000
Website Homestar Runner
Homestar Runner is a Flash animated Internet cartoon. It mixes surreal humour with references to 1980s and 1990s pop culture, notably video games, classic television and popular music. Although originally conceived as a book written for children, the site has gravitated towards young adults[citation needed]. Most of the site's traffic comes from the United States[1]; the cartoon itself usually takes place in Free Country USA, a fictional state.
Cartoons are nominally centered on Homestar Runner, a terrific yet unintelligent athlete. However, the series of cartoons in which the antagonist Strong Bad answers email from viewers, called Strong Bad Email, is the most prominent feature of the site. The site has also grown to encompass dozens of other characters.
The site is one of the most popular Flash cartoons on the Internet and is notable for its refusal to sell advertising space (the creators pay for everything through merchandise sales, which includes a line of T-shirts). [1] It grew in popularity largely through word of mouth.
Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Cartoons
2.1 Strong Bad Email
2.2 Teen Girl Squad
2.3 Old-Timey
2.4 Stinkoman K 20X6
2.5 Powered by The Cheat
2.6 Cheat Commandos
2.7 Holiday specials
2.8 Puppet Stuff
2.9 Marzipan's Answering Machine
2.10 Limozeen
2.11 Sweet Cuppin' Cakes
3 Online video games
4 Collaborations with artists
5 Reception
6 Merchandise
7 The Homestar Runner Wiki
8 In popular culture
9 References
10 External links
[edit] History
"Old-Timey" Homestar Runner in early sketch form.Homestar Runner was brought to life in Atlanta in 1996 by two University of Georgia[2][3][4] students, Mike Chapman and Craig Zobel, who were working during the summer in jobs related to the 1996 Summer Olympics.[5]
On a day off, they visited a bookstore where they found that the state of children's books was dismal. Intending to parody this, they wrote the original story The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest.[6] This story featured Homestar Runner, Pom Pom, Strong Bad, The Cheat, and a few characters that are rarely seen in recent cartoons: The Robot, Mr. Bland, Señor, and the Grape Fairie. This hand-drawn book was the only incarnation of the characters for several years.
They later used Mario Paint, a Super Nintendo video game, to create the first cartoon of the series.[7] By 1999, Mike and his younger brother Matt Chapman (who typically call themselves The Brothers Chaps) were learning Flash and looking for something to practice on.[8] Digging out the old children's book provided a solution. The homestarrunner.com domain was registered on December 6, 1999 and by January 2000, homestarrunner.com was live.[citation needed] Matt provided the voices of the male characters, while Missy Palmer provided Marzipan's voice.[1][5]
Regarding the origin of the name "Homestar Runner", Matt had this to say, from an interview with Kevin Scott:[8]
“ It actually comes from a friend of ours. There was an old local grocery store commercial, and we live in Atlanta, and it advertised the Atlanta Braves. It was like, "the Atlanta Braves hit home runs, and you can hit a home run with savings here!" And so there was this player named Mark Lemke, and they said something like "All star second baseman for the Braves." And our friend knows nothing about sports, and so he would always do his old-timey radio impression of this guy, and not knowing any positions in baseball or whatever, he would just be like, "homestar runner for the Braves." And we were just like, "Homestar Runner? That’s the best thing we’ve ever heard!" ”
Homestar was once called The Homestar Runner,[6] but the title has since changed to Homestar Runner, while The Homestar Runner is now mostly reserved for the name of the Old-Timey counterpart.[9]
The site grew slowly at first, but by mid-2001 it began to take off with the first Strong Bad Email. The number of visitors to the site grew, and by March 2003 the site had outgrown its original web host, Yahoo!.[citation needed]
Merchandise sales pay for all of the costs of running the website as well as living costs of the creators, whose retired parents managed many of the business aspects.[10] Today, their sister Karen Wagner takes care of the business.[citation needed]
The multiplicity of characters from the cartoon.The Brothers Chaps have a creative freedom that they would not have doing a regular TV show, because they run their own website and refuse to put their characters onto the small screen. Even 10 years after the first Homestar Runner book was put together at Kinko's, they continue to produce Homestar Runner as a labor of love, enjoying what they do.[citation needed]
Though the internet was initially the only venue for viewing Homestar Runner, the first 100 Strong Bad Emails were released on DVD on November 8, 2004. The strongbad_email.exe box set retained the various hidden features of the Macromedia Flash originals. Also included were three unreleased emails, two music videos, commentary tracks by the characters and their creators, and other features. A fourth collection of e-mails on DVD was released separately on July 25, 2005, and a toons DVD called "Everything Else, Volume 1" was released on November 14, 2005. Volume 2 of this collection was released on October 27, 2006.
On January 30, 2006, Podstar Runner was launched, allowing people to download select Strong Bad Emails and other toon episodes to a video-enabled iPod. Once made available through iTunes' podcast directory, it very quickly took the #1 slot on Apple's "Most Popular" podcast list.[citation needed]
On August 21, 2006, the 10th anniversary of Homestar Runner was celebrated with the release of a Flash cartoon remake of the plotline of the original Homestar Runner book, titled Strongest Man in the World.[11]
[edit] Cartoons
Further information: World of Homestar Runner
Homestar Runner features several "sub-cartoons" and spin-offs. Some of these cartoons take place outside the normal Homestar Runner universe, and the main characters of the normal cartoons do not necessarily appear in them. When they do, it is often not in the same way they appear in the main Homestar Runner world — most of the main characters also have alter-egos that appear occasionally, including a futuristic anime-style (20X6) alter-ego and an Old-Timey (circa 1936) alter-ego.
There is a host of other minor characters who sporadically appear in various emails and the other recurring mini-cartoons. Some of these characters include Senor Cardgage, Trogdor, Marshie the Marshmallow (spokes-thing for Fluffy Puff Marshmallows), Stinkoman (anime parody), The Goblin (usually appearing in Halloween-themed toons), Sterrance (Strong Bad's final attempt at a made-up animal), and the band Limozeen.
[edit] Strong Bad Email
Traditionally, one of the most popular features on Homestar Runner are the fairly regular Strong Bad Emails. The format has remained essentially unchanged: it is a series of cartoons in which Strong Bad receives an email from a fan or viewer, and starts typing his response. Strong Bad may mock the viewer, criticizing names, hometowns, spelling, and grammar. Most of the time a cut-away sequence is used that gets away from typing the e-mail. Once the events of the email finish unfolding, Strong Bad wraps up the email.[12]
Emails are checked with no predictable schedule, but there tend to be around two or three per month, and are always released on or around Monday. Strong Bad Emails are the most frequently updated cartoons on the site, with the total in excess of 170 emails as of April 2007, though this count includes neither the extra emails found in the DVDs nor any partial emails found in some episodes that are not officially classified as Strong Bad Emails.
Strong Bad discovering his computer has had an error.Some features of the site, such as Teen Girl Squad and the very popular Trogdor, originated in Strong Bad Emails.[13][14] Some concepts in the emails parody real-world problems, such as the Flagrant System Error[15][16] and the Teal Screen of Near Death,[17] which in Homestar Runner cartoons are equivalent to or variations of the Blue Screen of Death.
[edit] Teen Girl Squad
Main article: Teen Girl Squad
Teen Girl Squad is a crudely drawn comic strip narrated by Strong Bad, using a falsetto voice. It began after Strong Bad received an email asking him to make a comic strip of a girl and her friends.[13] The comic features four archetypal high-school girls, parody evident in the characters' nondescript names: "Cheerleader", "So-And-So", "What's-Her-Face", and "The Ugly One". In their quest to become unique and popular, the characters are bland and monotonous. Though they are just stick figures, Strong Bad often subjects them to gruesome and unusual deaths which are described with words using in a "'D" suffix—like "LATHE'D!", which means their deaths were caused by a lathe, or "MANIAC IN A SPEEDO'D!" which means they were killed by a maniac in a speedo with a chainsaw. Later, three months after the email, new Teen Girl Squad episodes were made. As of February 2007, there are twelve episodes, the tenth one being colored and in 3-D, since it celebrates the strip's "tenthennial issueversary". The twelfth one, being released on February 14, 2007, is a "vamlumtimes day" special. In many episodes, one can click on the "O" and/or the "!" of the ending screen where it states "(Now) It's Over!" to see extra footage, much like the "Strong Bad Emails". The Teen Girl Squad comics also have a recurring theme which features an opening sequence with a flock of birds in the background who are always killed in an obscure and gruesome way (ex: the Sun turns into a buzzsaw and chops them to pieces).
[edit] Old-Timey
Old-Timey settingSome cartoons take place in an "old-timey" setting, sometimes referred to as 1936, with most of the Homestar Runner characters having direct counterparts in the Old-Timey cartoons. These cartoons are in black and white with film grain and scratchy, noisy sound. They parody the distinctive style of animated cartoons during the 1920s and 1930s, and can at first be seen as perhaps purposely unfunny, to make a slanted joke about such old-style cartoons. The earliest cartoons in this style did not include speech, and thus were in the style of silent film. But most of the more recent Old-Timey cartoons do include voices. One such cartoon features an original song ("The Ballad of The Sneak") by the comedic a cappella ensemble Da Vinci's Notebook.
[edit] Stinkoman K 20X6
Stinkoman K 20X6 (abbreviated to 20X6; pronounced "Twenty Exty-Six") is yet another cartoon in response to an email, asking Strong Bad what would he look like if he were a Japanese cartoon character. The main character, Stinkoman, is an anime version of Strong Bad with blue hair, a shiny body, and "cool robot boots." He goes around looking for "a challenge, or maybe some light fighting" (in fact, the whole 20X6 world seems to rotate around "challenge and fighting"). His features are based on the popular conception of stereotypical characters of anime and Japanese video games (predominantly Mega Man). Also featured are the stylized versions of Homestar ("1-Up", always referred to by Stinkoman as "just a kid"), Pan Pan ("Pom-Pom", colored like a panda) The Cheat ("Cheatball", talks with only his name, like Pokémon) and Marzipan (heavy Sailor Moon influence, though she only appears once; she also does the "Yatta!" victory pose of Street Fighter's Chun-Li). A 20X6 counterpart for Coach Z has also been made, though his exact name and full appearance has not been revealed. Another character introduced in a short toon, Sticklyman, is a parody of the "under construction" GIF seen on many websites, and shovels pudding. Some fans believe that Stickly Man is the 20X6 version of The Poopsmith because of this, but any connection between the two has been hotly contested. Furthermore, his appearance fighting with Stinkoman doubles as a spoof on the popular Xiao Xiao series of Flash animations, which detail stick figures in highly animated, effects-laden battles of martial arts and firearms with one another. There is also the dragon "Trogador", a 20X6 spin-off of Trogdor, whose first official appearance is in "Happy Trogday".
The name "Stinkoman" is a reference to Strong Bad email 52 entitled "island." In the cartoon Homestar and Strong Bad end up stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean, and Homestar calls Strong Bad "Stinkoman." The year 20X6 is a reference to the ambiguous year 20XX in which the Mega Man series takes place (21XX for the Mega Man X series), and also the Atari 2600[citation needed]. It may also be a reference to the first Metroid game, which takes place in 20X5. The series also draws inspiration from Dragon Ball, Ranma ½, Street Fighter 2, Sailor Moon and others. The Stinkoman theme song is one of the selectable stage tunes from the NESgame Rad Racer (written by Nobuo Uematsu) with "neo-Japanese" lyrics (i.e. "Challenge and fighting and fighting that challenge tonight!").
The games section of the Homestar Runner website includes a Stinkoman 20X6 side-scrolling video game in the style of early 1990s Nintendo or Sega games. It is especially similar to Mega Man games. It also includes mock Engrish phrases such as, "And other victory for Stinkoman." As the site is updated, new levels are being added to the game, extending its playability as well as adding new features (a shoot-em-up level, introducing 1-Up (who is Homestar Runner's 20X6 counterpart) as a playable character, new pages into the "manuél", etc.).
[edit] Powered by The Cheat
Some shorts are portrayed as being drawn by The Cheat, who has his own distinctive animation style that he produces on his old iMac-like computer, "Tangerine Dreams". The drawings usually consist of an amalgam of clashing textures, pixellated JPEGs used as objects, and uncoordinated voices. The cartoon characters also have amorphous appendages. This style has appeared in many forms, such as in Strong Bad e-mails, cartoons, and even its own welcome page. In Powered by The Cheat segments, Mike Chapman provides intentionally poor imitations of his brother Matt's normal voice work. The animation style itself is designed to mock stereotypical amateur flash animation, and features simple tweening instead of frame-by-frame animation and purposely has an unpolished, rushed look that is common in that setting. Some of the humor in these clips require some knowledge of Flash creation to understand, such as items being placed on the wrong animation layers and parts of the scenery of one scene remaining visible in the next scene.
Note that these animations clue us into The Cheat's fantasies and insecure personality[citation needed]. Strong Bad Email #87 ("mile") is an ideal example of what he most desires yet cannot possibly possess.[18] The Cheat, inserting himself in his cartoons, elevates his status in the eyes of others through praise given by his boss Strong Bad while Marzipan finally gives him the attention and affection he has been craving[citation needed](the two rarely exchange words) à la Mary Sue.
[edit] Cheat Commandos
The Cheat Commandos are a fictional line of action figures that all resemble The Cheat wearing different outfits. The Commandos are an extensive parody of the popular '80s version of the G.I. Joe action figures and cartoon. As with G.I. Joe, the Cheat Commandos figurines are all nearly exactly the same; the cartoon has silly dialogue, bad animation, mindless action sequences, and stereotypical characterization; and the entire series exists to sell merchandise (The Cheat Commandos theme song ends with, "Buy all our playsets and toys!"). The Cheat Commandos fight an evil organization known as Blue Laser (or Blue Lazer), a clear parody of G.I. Joe's arch-nemesis Cobra, and its hopelessly incompetent and hotheaded leader Red Lazer (known in the UK as "Red Laser"). The series parodies some other elements of G.I. Joe's cartoons, such as the dispensability of the "green helmets", or the fact that the Cheat Commandos' computer screen can at any time display where Blue Laser is and vice versa, including in each others' hideouts.
The Cheat Commandos were inspired by the Strong Bad Email "Army"([19]), in which Strong Bad commands The Cheat to spy on Homestar Runner and his Homestarmy (Strong Sad, Homsar, a painting of a man holding a big knife, and a hot-air popcorn popper named Frank Benedetto), poised to attack Strong Badia. The Cheat is dressed in his black commando gear, and demands to be referred to as "Firebert", which Strong Bad reluctantly does, though after insisting that "it's not a good commando name." An Easter egg in this email shows Firebert's action figure package, which is also featured in the first Cheat Commandos cartoon.
[edit] Holiday specials
Several episodes have been dedicated to special days of the year. For example, every Halloween, a cartoon is released that features all the characters in costumes celebrating some traditional aspect of Halloween (such as ghost stories, trick-or-treating, or pumpkin carving). The characters' costumes have gotten famously esoteric in recent years, full of obscure pop culture references.[20] For example, in 2005 Strong Bad dressed up as Jambi, the Genie from Pee-Wee's Playhouse.
On April Fool's Day 2005, fans were greeted with a page which stated that fans would be required to purchase a membership to continue viewing the site. The page contained a full "Tour" which parodied paid membership websites. It also featured 3 short clips (Homestar counting in a seven-second time frame; a Strong Bad email segment; and a Teen Girl Squad/Sweet Cuppin' Cakes crossover episode) and a "trial version" game which lampooned Space Invaders. On the same day in 2004, the main page was replaced with an "Under Construction" page which turned out to be a 20X6 cartoon in disguise. In 2003, the main page was replaced with a King of Town main page.
For April Fool's Day 2006, the entire website and all of its content was turned upside down. This caused problems with some of the content of the site – many pages which were of a different size so the default 550x400 would not be centered properly, and some pages with a lot of ActionScript would fail, including many of the older games. This also caused problems with the Strong Bad email menu. It caused an empty e-mail list and a nonworking "random" button. But some of those were fixed a few minutes or a few hours after turning pages upside down.
The characters also celebrate an annual holiday called "Decemberween", which features gift-giving, carol-singing, and decorated trees. The fact that it takes place on December 25th has been presented as just a coincidence, stating that Decemberween traditionally takes place "55 days after Halloween". In 2004, however, the traditional Decemberween toon was replaced with a Decemberween in July toon in July, a clear parody of Christmas in July. The holiday in and of itself is a replacement of Christmas—perhaps to include non-Christian viewers, or to parody non-denominational holiday advertising (i.e. "Happy Holidays!").
Other holidays celebrated include New Year's Day, "The Big Game" (around the time of the Super Bowl), St. Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, "Senorial Day" (a reference to Senor Cardgage and Memorial Day), Flag Day, Independence Day (which Homestar calls "Happy Fireworks"), Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. Most holiday cartoons are archived on the Toons page and can be accessed using the "Holiday" button on the top right of the remote.
[edit] Puppet Stuff
A Screenshot from a Puppet Stuff shortSome sketches use live-action puppets of Homestar, Strong Bad, and The Cheat. From time to time, the characters are featured with a little girl known simply as Little Girl, actually the niece of The Brothers Chaps. Several "Puppet Stuff" sketches feature Homestar Runner singing with John Linnell and John Flansburgh of the rock band They Might Be Giants. Furthermore, the Chapmans themselves occasionally make cameo appearances with their own characters in various skits, most notably in the puppets' appearances on the Strongbad_email.exe DVDs as bonus features and Easter eggs. This DVD set also contains extensive puppet content including a scene in which Homestar Runner plays Mike Chapman in a game of basketball.
[edit] Marzipan's Answering Machine
These are the messages left on Marzipan's answering machine by Homestar, Strong Bad, Strong Sad, and others of the town. The messages are not updated as frequently as Strong Bad's emails. They tend to include prank calls from Strong Bad as well as calls of various sorts from other characters. Also in the early answering machine, it hints that some of the other characters are in love with Marzipan (most notably Coach Z). There are fourteen different anwsering machine versions to listen to.
[edit] Limozeen
Limozeen is a fictional 80's hair metal band that acts as a recurring segment. This features The Brothers Chaps and others as the band, all voice-overed by Matt. Strong Bad brandishes a tape of their short-lived Saturday morning cartoon in one e-mail, and apparently voice-chats with the lead singer. Limozeen is not simply a hair metal band; they are the ultimate stereotype of the hair metal genre, as evidenced by the lyrics of their song "Because It's Midnite".
[edit] Sweet Cuppin' Cakes
Sweet Cuppin' Cakes is a cartoon created by Strong Bad in response to an email request to make a crazy cartoon. The cartoon, designed to be as "kah-razy" as possible is largely based on Eastern Europe avant garde cartoons from the 1980s. It takes place on a surreal multi-colored plane resembling a disco dance floor. Violation of reality is the miniseries' forte. The central character is Sherlock, "a cross between a cow and a helicopter" who communicates through a series of weird noises and spends each episode trying to catch a worm that crawls in and out of the ground. Other characters include "Eh! Steve", an anthropomorphic polygon with a swirly mouth and a Greek pattern on his body that appears once an episode to deliver his eponymous catch phrase, "Eh! Steve," and the Wheelchair (voiced by Bubs), who holds an unknown grudge against Eh! Steve. Strong Bad also placed himself in the cartoon, although his head is an old Casio VL-Tone keyboard. Whenever he becomes angry, it plays the demo (the German folk song "Unterlander's Heimweh"). Also featured is another small, anthropomorphic polygon named "Ready for Primetime" with blonde tufts of hair that, according to Homestar, does a "tiny, tiny dance". This "tiny, tiny dance-man" is based on the "Ready for Primetime" eyebrow style Strong Bad made for Strong Mad in the e-mail entitled "haircut" (hence the name). Upon seeing it, Strong Mad said "SWEETY CAKES!", and Strong Bad remarked that "it does look a little bit like one of them 'Sweet Cuppin Cakes' guys."
[edit] Online video games
Homestar Runner offers a variety of online games that feature one or more of their characters. The first games were simple in nature and are now found under Super Old Games-n-Such. Among them are the "Homestar Talker",[21] a Soundboard starring Homestar, and "Who Said What?", a parody of the popular children's toy See 'n Say. Also, at the end of the email Duck Pond, you can play the duck pond simulator featured in the email. More recent games have been released as products of "Videlectrix", a side project of the brothers. These games are far more complex, spoofing many popular 80's videogames. Their greatest gaming endeavor, "Peasant's Quest", is an adventure game featuring a young peasant in short pants named Rather Dashing, who vows to kill the destroyer of his cottage: Trogdor. The game uses a system that is a near replica of Sierra Entertainment's Adventure Game Interpreter, used in King's Quest, Space Quest and several other early Sierra titles. The most recent addition to the website is "Kid Speedy", a 2-D racing game, in which you play as an overweight kid running a foot race against other athletes. One video game known as StrongBadZone, originating in the Strong Bad Email video games, started the Internet catchphrase "Your head a splode." The phrase, used by the game as a game over message, is a reference to translation errors in Japanese games imported to an English speaking country, such as "All Your Base Are Belong To Us".
The December 2005 issue of Wired Magazine claimed that a new Homestar Runner video game would soon be coming to the Atari 2600, but this has yet to be seen. The interview with the Brothers Chaps by Bobby Blackwolf reported that the game was in limbo because the game's developer, Paul Slocum, was getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work and was pushing the limits of the Atari 2600. The price was set at $40.
Recently, the website has produced Wii versions of some of the games on the site, for the Wii browser. When played on the computer, these use the mouse only.
[edit] Collaborations with artists
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Homestar Runner singing "Apple Juice Blues" with They Might Be GiantsThe Brothers Chaps on occasion have partnered up with the rock band They Might Be Giants. The Brothers Chaps supplied animation for a music video of their song "Experimental Film."[22] The creators of Homestar Runner spent a day with the band, and those songs have found their way onto the website in the form of "Puppet Jam", a subset of "Puppet Stuff", where Puppet Homestar rocks out with TMBG.[23] TMBG also wrote the music for Strong Bad Email #99, "Different Town."[24]
Another group, The Skate Party, helped The Brothers Chaps create "The Cheat Theme Song."[25] As well, a band named Y-O-U helped with the Strong Bad Sings and Other Type Hits CD, as well as on the strongbad_email.exe DVDs.
The Brothers Chaps also employed the services of the erstwhile acapella band DaVinci's Notebook to create a theme song for the old-timey version of The Cheat, called "Ballad of The Sneak".[26]
[edit] Reception
The site receives several million hits a month, and almost a thousand emails a day.[27] According to Matt Chapman, the site did no real advertising, but grew on word of mouth and endorsements; "Certain bands, like fairly popular bands and stuff would link us on their site and, you know we were shockwave site of the day a couple of times over the years."[5]
A review published in the National Review characterized the site's humor as having "the innocence of slapstick with sharp satire of American popular culture" — humor that "tends to be cultural, not political."[28] Free Country is "definitely a guys' place, where video games, monster trucks, and smashing things take priority over sensitive male themes."[28] Homestarrunner.com is the "Internet equivalent to The Yellow Kid, the comic introduced by Richard Outcault in the New York World in 1896.[28]
Homestar Runner's popularity, coupled with its positive critical response, has led to the website (and its creators, the Chapman brothers) to receive national coverage. Homestar Runner has been featured in Wired Magazine, the National Review, Entertainment Weekly, G4 television, and NPR's "All Things Considered," to name a few. They were also obliquely referenced on an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (when a character mentioned the popular character Trogdor's name).
On October 24, 2006, an image was leaked confirming Trogdor's theme song to be a bonus track in Guitar Hero II. This marks Trogdor's first appearance in a non-Videlectrix video game beyond a simple reference[citation needed]. The song has since been confirmed as an unlockable bonus track in the final version of the game, released on November 7, 2006. This recording is the same one found on the "Strong Bad Sings (And Other Type Hits)" CD.[citation needed]
[edit] Merchandise
The Chapman brothers have created a very large collection of collectable merchandise, ranging from t-shirts to DVDs. The most popular item in their store is the Strong Bad Sings CD, which mostly includes songs sung by Strong Bad (but also includes songs by other characters). Also available in the store is the collectible figurines of the website's characters. There are two different sets of figurines available that feature the main Homestar Runner characters, and another set for the Cheat Commandos.
The strongbad_email.exe DVD box set.strongbad_email.exe, released on November 9, 2004, is a DVD collection of the first 100 Strong Bad Email animation shorts, as seen at the Homestar Runner website. There are also several special features, such as never-before-seen email episodes and "Puppet Stuff." This product was originally released as a three-disc box set. Separately, a fourth disc was released on July 25, 2005, which includes emails 101 to 130 as well as a number of bonus features. The title of the DVD set stems from what Strong Bad types to access his e-mail client.
There are four different kinds of Easter eggs to be found on the DVD: Creator's Commentary: Press the audio or language button on certain episodes. Pop-ups: During some episodes you can press the angle button to have a picture show up. After-episode secrets: If you don't use the "play all" feature, then there will be a menu option at the end of each episode. Press down several times from each option and a Strong Bad icon might appear. Press enter to see the secret. Bonus Features: At the "bonus features" menu press the right button several times. A Strong Bad icon will appear. Press enter to watch the secret bonus material.
[edit] The Homestar Runner Wiki
The current HRWiki logoThe Homestar Runner Wiki,[29] commonly abbreviated to HRWiki, is a Homestar Runner wiki fansite running on MediaWiki software. It was founded on October 7, 2003 and is owned and operated by Joey Day. The wiki was originally powered by WikkiTikkiTavi wiki software. After users began signing up, and content grew, it was moved to its own domain, and upgraded to its current format running MediaWiki on July 16, 2004.[30] The HRWiki is not affiliated with The Brothers Chaps, though they often use the Wiki to help them remember their own continuity.[31] They have praised it on multiple occasions and once donated money to it.[32][33]
The Homestar Runner Wiki contains detailed information on all of the Cartoons, Strong Bad emails, Games and Characters from the main site as well as other minutiae. These articles include full transcripts, easter eggs, fun facts and trivia, and links to external resources. A complete list of items sold in the Homestar Runner Store along with detailed descriptions of the items, prices and even mistakes found in the page. Other pages found on the wiki include secret pages, places, running gags, inside jokes and cartoons that are no longer on the site. The Homestar Runner Wiki recently acquired the homestarrunner.net domain made famous by the First Time Here? cartoon. This site has become the Homestar Runner Community Portal.
[edit] In popular culture
In the Comedy Central comedy series, The Sarah Silverman Program, a poster of Homestar and Strong Bad can be seen in Brian and Steve's Apartment.
In an episode of the TV show Angel, a character can be seen wearing a Strong Bad t-shirt.
In the video game Guitar Hero II for the Playstation 2, you can purchase the song Trogdor.
In an episode of the TV Show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Trogdor makes an appearance in a role playing game as the Burninator.
In the remake of Final Fantasy for the GBA (Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls), within the Hellfire Chasm, in of the basements, a boy blocking the player's way says, "This is private property. Trespassers will be burninated!" This is a reference to Trogdor.
There is a pop-punk band from the Republic Of Ireland named "Home Star Runner".[citation needed]
The Texas band Salsa Commodity recorded the song "A Tribute to Homestar Runner" back in 2004. Since then, the band has disbanded and become Strike Four.[citation needed]
The Ron and Fez show on XM satellite radio air a clip at the end of their show where homestar says "thats the end of my show, dun"[citation needed]
[edit] References
^ a b c Alexa traffic information (HTML) (2007). Retrieved on 2007-4-3.
^ Aucoin, Dan. "Lookin' At A Thing In A Bag", The Boston Globe, The Boston Globe, 09 August 2003, pp. C1. Retrieved on 2006-12-25. (in English)
^ Strick, Jacob; Samuel Strick (26 May 2003). Homestar Runner Interview. Penguin Brothers. Retrieved on 2006-12-25.
^ Chinsang, Wayne (June 2003). Homestar Runner's The Brothers Chaps. Tastes Like Chicken. Tastes Like Chicken. Retrieved on 2006-12-25.
^ a b c Dean, Kari Lynn (June, 2003). HomestarRunner Hits a Homer. Wired News. Retrieved on 2006-06-12.
^ a b Chapman, Mike; Zobel, Craig (1996). The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest. homestarrunner.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-19.
^ Super NES (SWF). homestarrunner.com (1996). Retrieved on 2007-01-03.
^ a b Scott, Kevin (May 20, 2003). The Homestar Runner Interview. Kevin's Spot. Retrieved on 2006-05-28.
^ Chapman, Matt; Chapman, Mike (2002). Parsnips A-Plenty. homestarrunner.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-19.
^ Meinheit, Matt (April 23, 2004). Holy crap. The Daily Eastern News. Retrieved on 2006-08-18.
^ Chapman, Matt; Chapman, Mike (August 21, 2006). Strongest Man in the World (SWF). homestarrunner.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-19.
^ Chapman, Matt; Chapman, Mike (2003). Strong Bad Email 79 "the process" (SWF). homestarrunner.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-19.
^ a b Chapman, Matt; Chapman, Mike (2002). Strong Bad Email 53 "comic" (SWF). homestarrunner.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-19.
^ Chapman, Matt; Chapman, Mike (2003). Strong Bad Email 58 "dragon" (SWF). homestarrunner.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-19.
^ Chapman, Matt; Chapman, Mike. Strong Bad Email 50 "50 emails" (SWF). Retrieved on 2006-10-03.
^ Chapman, Matt; Chapman, Mike. Strong Bad Email 118 "virus" (SWF). Retrieved on 2006-12-14.
^ Chapman, Matt; Chapman, Mike (2006). Strong Bad Email 159 "retirement" (SWF). homestarrunner.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-19.
^ Chapman, Matt; Chapman, Mike (2004). Strong Bad Email 87 "mile" (SWF). homestarrunner.com. Retrieved on 2006-05-28.
^ Strong Bad e-mails Army
^ Homestar Runner Wiki - What are you supposed to be?
^ Homestar Talker. homestarrunner.com. Retrieved on 2006-05-28.
^ Chapman, Matt; Chapman, Mike. Experimental Film. homestarrunner.com. Retrieved on January 3, 2007.
^ Chapman, Matt; Chapman, Mike. Puppet Jam: Bad Jokes. homestarrunner.com. Retrieved on January 3, 2007.
^ TMBG-News. TMBG. Retrieved on January 3, 2007.
^ The Skate Party; Chapman, Matt; Chapman, Mike. The Cheat Theme Song. homestarrunner.com. Retrieved on February 2, 2007.
^ Ballad of the Sneak. homestarrunner.com. Retrieved on March 20, 2007.
^ Jenkins, Mandy. "Cult is chasing wacky Web toon", Cincinnati Enquirer, August 1, 2003.
^ a b c Wood, Peter. "Everybody to the Limit", National Review, August 27, 2003.
^ The Homestar Runner Wiki - Main Page
^ The Homestar Runner Wiki - HRWiki: A History
^ The Homestar Runner Wiki - Flashforward 2006 - Seattle
^ The Homestar Runner Wiki - The Brothers Chaps: Fansite Acknowledgements
^ The Homestar Runner Wiki - HRWiki: Thank You
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