Information about Homestar Runner

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	[1]

Homestar Runner is a Flash animated Internet cartoon. It mixes surreal humor 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. Most of the site's traffic comes from the United States;^[1] events in the cartoon itself usually take place in Free Country, USA.

The cartoons are nominally centered on Homestar Runner. However, the series entitled Strong Bad Email, in which the antagonist (Strong Bad) answers emails from viewers, is the most popular and prominent feature of the site. While Homestar and Strong Bad are the main characters, the site has grown to encompass dozens of other characters over the years.

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).^[2] It grew in popularity largely through word of mouth.^[3]

History

Homestar Runner was brought to life in Atlanta in 1996 by two University of Georgia^[4][5][6] students, Mike Chapman and Craig Zobel, who were working summer jobs surrounding the 1996 Summer Olympics.<ref name="Wired" /> 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.^[7] 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.^[8] By 1999, Mike and his younger brother Matt Chapman who call themselves The Brothers Chaps were learning Flash and looking for something to practice on.^[9] Digging out the old children's book provided a solution. The site domain was registered on December 6, 1999, and around the start of the year 2000, homestarrunner.com was live. Matt provided the voices of the male characters, while Missy Palmer provided Marzipan's voice.^[2]<ref name="Wired" />

Regarding the origin of the name "Homestar Runner", Matt had this to say, from an interview with Kevin Scott:<ref name="kevinscott" />

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!"

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!. 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.^[11] Today, the site uses the money obtained from sold merchandise to keep the site ad-free.

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. Podstar Runner was taken down on September 21, 2007, for reasons unknown.

Collaborations with other artists

The 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."^[12] 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.^[13] TMBG also wrote the music for Strong Bad Email #99, "Different Town."^[14] Another group, The Skate Party, helped The Brothers Chaps create "The Cheat Theme Song."^[15] 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".^[16]

Characters

The site's characters are quite unique, and can be read as offbeat, satirical versions of common character archetypes.

• Homestar Runner - The star of his website namesake, he is depicted as being absent-minded, and has a speech impediment. He also shares an on-off relationship with Marzipan. He's depicted as being a terrific athlete. He is simple-minded, and is generally very naive.
• Strong Bad - One of the most well-known characters on the site. Originally planned to be Homestar's enemy. As time progressed he became a breakout character due to his sarcastic nature. He has the weekly "Strong Bad Emails", which he answers with unusual responses.
• The Cheat - The smallest of the main characters, and vaguely resembling a Pikachu. Although many view him as cute and harmless, he is very mischievous and sometimes evil. He usually tags along with Strong Bad and Strong Mad pulling pranks on the rest of the characters.
• Strong Mad - The largest of the characters, and the brother of Strong Bad and Strong Sad. His name easily describes his demeanor. Despite this, he shows signs of emotions other than anger to some characters, most notably kindness and compassion towards The Cheat. He is also dull-witted, he shows signs of this by eating rocks when given to him in the interactive Halloween cartoon.
• Strong Sad - The youngest and most depressed of the Brothers Strong, he is constantly being picked on by his older brothers, especially Strong Bad. He is usually very calm, soft-spoken, and is very sensitive.
• Pom Pom - Homestar's best friend. He appears to be inflated or made of a sort of a carbonated/gelatinous substance. He is sometimes seen with Strong Bad, and despite being depicted as a popular individual, he has made friends with unpopular characters such as the King of Town and The Poopsmith.
• Marzipan - The only female character and Homestar's girlfriend (though their relationship is somewhat strained). She is described as a hippy, liberated, and politically correct.
• Bubs - The local concession stand owner, Bubs is a cheapskate salesman who will sell almost anything. It's likely that not all of his dealings are exactly legal, considering his reaction to a practical joke in a Strong Bad Email.
• Coach Z - Homestar Runner's coach; although it is unclear just which sports he coaches, he is very upbeat. He has a strong Upper Midwestern accent which sometimes gets him into trouble.
• King of Town - The ruler of Free Country, USA. However, nobody wishes to acknowledge this. A glutton who will eat almost anything, especially butter. He also tries his best to gain interest with his subjects, with little success.
• The Poopsmith - The Poopsmith, as his name implies, is the filthiest character on the site, considering his self-explanatory job, he has taken a vow of silence and never officially speaks or shows expression.
• Homsar - The most enigmatic of all the main characters, he was originally created as a result of a typo in a Strong Bad Email. Strong Bad promptly dropped a large weight on Homsar and left him for dead. The Brothers Chaps later decided to keep Homsar as a main character, and has since appeared in several toons. Homsar also frequently appears in the site's Easter Eggs.
• Trogdor the Burninator is a fictional dragon within the series. He is created by Strong Bad when a fan e-mail requests him to show his "skills of an artist" by drawing a dragon. Having an S-shaped body, and other features of a normal dragon, he lives to torment the lives of the peasants by "burninating" them. His theme song is featured on Guitar Hero II for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360, reflecting on his popularity with fans.

Cartoons

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.

Some cartoons take place in an old-time setting, 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. Another series of cartoons, Stinkoman K 20X6 (abbreviated to 20X6; pronounced "Twenty Exty-Six"), is a response to an email, asking Strong Bad what he would 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 robot boots. He goes around looking for constant fighting and challenges. His features are based on the popular conception of stereotypical characters of anime and Japanese video games.

Other side cartoons introduce completely new casts of characters. The Teen Girl Squad, which was introduced in a Strong Bad email, about 4 stereotypical teenaged girls, the entire cartoon is hand drawn by Strong Bad. Limozeen, an 80's glam metal band who had their own short-lived Saturday morning cartoon entitled 'Limozeen: "but they're in space!"'. Sweet Cuppin' Cakes, a children's cartoon introduced in a Strong Bad Email. The Cheat Commandos, a parody of G.I. Joe; a death metal band (Taranchula); and others.

Strong Bad Email

Strong Bad Emails (also known as "sbemails") have traditionally been among the most popular features on Homestar Runner. The format has remained essentially unchanged since its inception: Strong Bad receives an email from a fan or viewer, and starts typing his response. Strong Bad generally mocks 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, and then "the paper" comes down with a link to email Strong Bad (the paper dies and a new one replaces it). Often, hidden animations (Easter Eggs) are displayed when the user clicks on a word or picture after the e-mail has ended and sometimes during it.^[17] As of October 2007, there are 182 Sbemails.

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.^[18] The comic features four archetypal high-school girls, with heavy parody evident in the characters' nondescript names: "Cheerleader", "So-And-So", "What's-Her-Face", and "The Ugly One". The comic strip revolves around their lives (and frequent violent deaths).

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 become famously esoteric in recent years, full of obscure pop culture references. April Fool's Day features various gags, such as turning the site into a "PAY PLUS!" offer site or flipping it upside down. The characters also celebrate an annual holiday called "Decemberween", a parody of Christmas that features gift-giving, carol-singing, and decorated trees. The fact that it takes place on December 25, the same day as Christmas, has been presented as just a coincidence, stating that Decemberween traditionally takes place "55 days after Halloween".

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 (occasionally referred to as "Labor Daybor"), 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.

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",^[19] a Soundboard starring Homestar and "Who Said What?", a parody of the popular children's toy See 'n Say. More recent games have been released as products of "Videlectrix", a side project of the brothers. These games (e.g., Where's an Egg?) 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. 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.

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 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.

Reception

The site receives several million hits a month, and almost a thousand emails a day.^[20] 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."<ref name="Wired" /> Homestar Runner's popularity, coupled with its positive critical response, has led to the website receiving national coverage. Homestar Runner has been featured in Wired, National Review, Entertainment Weekly, Total Gamer, G4, and NPR's All Things Considered.

A review published in 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."^[21]

Merchandise

The Chapman brothers have created a very large collection of collectible 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 are 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.

Music

Homestar Runner has created music which has, surprisingly, become extremely popular, thanks to the Guitar Hero game series for PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360. The music that is usually featured in the series are parodies of hair metal, death metal, college rock, and hip-hop. Hip-hop was the first genre to enter the Homestar Runner world, with songs created by Coach Z, who often makes references to hip-hop and rap music. Hair metal then entered the realm with Limozeen, which can be considered a parody of AC/DC and 80s metal bands like Skid Row and White Lion. Limozeen has hits such as "Because, It's Midnite," "Nite Mamas," and "Brain Sister." They have also covered sloshy's song, "We Don't Really Even Care About You." Death metal was next, with a band called Taranchula. They are a Swedish band with disturbing videos and known for writing lyrics that contain words starting with "D-E." They can be related to Mayhem, a black metal band made infamous for the suicide and murder of members. More recently, college rock was introduced to Homestar Runner with a band called sloshy. They have covered Limozeen's song, "Because, It's Midnite," along with making an original song, "We Don't Really Even Care About You." The most popular music to come from Homestar Runner has been from Limozeen, as well as "Trogdor." The latter has played a major role in pop culture, and has been included in the video game Guitar Hero II, while "Because It's Midnite" achieved master track status on the extension .

References

External links

• Official website
• Videlectrix Webpage

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