Cartoons are nominally centered on girlfriend
Marzipan , his best friend
Pom Pom , their coach
Coach Z , local businessman
Bubs , the self proclaimed
King Of Town , his
Poopsmith , and the surreal character
Homsar who speaks in nonsensical phrases, such as "I was raised by a cup of coffee!" or "I'm a
Trendy tote bag!"
By focusing on
Internet distribution, the animated series has been able to reach a larger audience than they would otherwise have had access to. The site has built a loyal following and is updated constantly with new short movies, games, and music. There are plentiful opportunities for interaction with the cartoons, with many featuring hidden
Easter Eggs : if a certain area on the screen is clicked at the right time, additional animation appears. These eggs typically include short cartoons, video clips, pictures, songs, or (occasionally) alternate versions of the site's main page.
The site has found its way into pop culture multiple times. The character "
Trogdor the Burninator" was mentioned in the final episode of
Buffy The Vampire Slayer , and the game "Peasants Quest" has found popularity far beyond fans of the site. Perhaps the most common reference to the site is using the suffix "'D" to make a
Past Participle (such as "ARROW'D").
Homestar Runner was brought to life in Atlanta in 1996 by two college students, Mike Chapman and Craig Zobel, who were working that summer in jobs related to the
1996 Summer Olympics . On a day off, they visited a bookstore where they found that the state of children's books was dismal.
Intending to rectify this, they wrote the original story ''The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest''. This story featured Homestar Runner, Pom Pom, Strong Bad, The Cheat, and quite a few characters that soon disappeared from the Homestar Runner world. This hand-drawn book was the only incarnation of the characters for several years.
By 1999, Mike and Matt Chapman (who typically call themselves "
The Brothers Chaps ") were learning
Flash and looking for something to practice on. Digging out the old children's book provided a solution. By January
2000 , homestarrunner.com was live. Matt Chapman provided the voices of the male characters, while
Missy Palmer (then Mike's girlfriend, now his wife) provided Marzipan's voice.
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. Currently, merchandise sales pay for all of the costs of running the website as well as living costs of the creators, whose retired parents manage many of the business aspects.
"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. Originally, they developed Homestar Runner as a labor of love, and for their own amusement. Though the site sells Homestar merchandise, it has no commercials—in fact, a few of the cartoons parody advertising, with products like "Fluffy Puff Marshmallows", and advertisements for The Cheat's own cartoon (
Cheat Commandos , a parody of ''
G.I. Joe ''), where viewers are encouraged to "''buy all our playsets and toys!''"
Though the internet was initially the only mechanism for viewing Homestar Runner, the first 100 Strong Bad e-mails 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 is expected to be released in early 2006. Also, on
January 30 ,
2006 , Podstar Runner was launched, allowing people to download select Strong Bad Emails and Teen Girl Squad episodes to a video-enabled
IPod . Once made available through iTunes' podcast directory, they very quickly took the #1 slot on Apple's "Most Popular" podcast list.
Regarding the origin of the name "Homestar Runner", Matt Chapman had this to say, from
an interview with Kevin Scott :
"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 Homestar Runner, similar to The Cheat, but the title has since changed to his full name.
Traditionally the most popular features on Homestar Runner are semi-regular Strong Bad Emails. The format has remained essentially unchanged over several years. It is a series of cartoons in which Strong Bad receives an email from a fan or viewer, and starts typing his response (generally in a mocking way; criticizing names, hometowns, and grammar), and usually segues into a short cartoon, generally featuring
The Cheat ,
Strong Mad , and/or
Homestar Runner , among others. Some features of the site, such as
Teen Girl Squad , and the very popular
Trogdor games/cartoons/references, originated in Strong Bad Emails.
Strong Bad emails are updated frequently, and there are currently 150 emails (as of April 4th 2006), although this doesn't include the extra emails found on the DVD extras. You can find them in the "sbemail" part of the website, linked to below.
- - (Strong Bad Email Directory)
The Homestar Runner world features several sub-cartoons and spin-offs. These cartoons take place outside the normal Homestar Runner world, 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 Homestar Runner world — each of the main characters also has two alter-egos that appear occasionally: a futuristic
Anime -style alter-ego and an old-timey alter-ego.
There is a huge host of other minor characters who sporadically appear in various emails and the other recurring mini-cartoons (listed below). Some of these characters are Senor Cardgage,
Trogdor , Marshie the Marshmallow (spokes-thing for Fluffy Puff Marshmallows), Stinkoman (anime parody), The Goblin (usually appearing in Halloween-themed toons), The "Sweet Cuppin' Cakes" cast (from a "crazy" cartoon Strong Bad invented), and the band
Limozeen .
'''s, Strong Bad often subjects them to gruesome and unusual deaths, that are described with nouns with a "'D" after them, like, "LATHE'D!", meaning their deaths were caused by a
Lathe .
Later, three months after the email, new Teen Girl Squad episodes were made. Presently, there are ten episodes, the last one being colored, since it celebrates the strip's "tenthennial issueversary". 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".
Li'l Brudder originated in a drawing created by Strong Bad for the sole purpose of making Homestar Runner cry. He is a
Disabled puppy with only one leg who dreams of being a
Quarterback . His
Motto is "I can make it on my own." His debut was in Strong Bad Email 109 entitled "Crying".
{Link without Title} .
He recently starred in his own cartoon, where he was met by his friend Tendafoot, a two legged elephant. Tendafoot was created when Strong Sad asked Strong Bad if Li'l Brudder meant "little brother", implying that Strong Bad saw him as analogous to a one-legged dog. Strong Bad replied that he saw Strong Sad as more of a two-legged elephant named Tendafoot who could "power a small city with
whining" (which Strong Sad admits "[I probably could").
is another cartoon created by Strong Bad in response to an
email request . The cartoon, designed to be as "kah-razy" as possible, 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), whose goal in life is to destroy 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 "Prime Time" 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."
Some cartoons take place in an "old-timey" setting, circa the 1930's, with most of the Homestar Runner characters having direct counterparts in the Old-Timey universe. These cartoons are in black and white with film grain and scratchy, noisy sound. They parody the distinctive style of
Animated Cartoon s during the 1920s and 1930s. They are blatantly and purposfully not funny (at first glance), to make a slanted joke about the lameness of the whole concept.
One such cartoon features an original song by the comedic
A Cappella ensemble
Da Vinci's Notebook .
(pronounced "Twenty Exty-Six") is yet another cartoon in response to an email, asking Strong Bad to create a 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", parody of
Trogdor . He is found in the toon "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 accidentally calls Strong Bad "Stinkoman".
The year 20X6 is a reference to the ambiguous year 20XX in which the ''
Mega Man X '' series takes place, and also the
Atari 2600 . It may also be a reference to the first ''
Metroid ]'' game, which takes place in the same year. The series also draws inspiration from ''
Dragon Ball Z '', ''
Ranma ½ '', ''
Street Fighter 2 '', ''
Sailor Moon '' and others.
The Stinkoman theme song is one of the selectable stage tunes from the
NES -game ''
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 ", etc.).
Some sketches 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, pixelated
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, even its own welcome page. It is rumored that the Brothers Chaps tried this animation before settling on the current type. In Powered by The Cheat segments, Mike Chapman provides intentionally poor imitations of his brother Matt's normal voice work.
Note that these animations clue us into The Cheat's fantasies and insecure personality.
Strong Bad Email #87 ("Mile") is an ideal example of what he most desires yet cannot possibly possess. The Cheat shamelessly 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. (Notice that the two rarely exchange words outside of a fabricated Flash universe.)
The are a
Fictional line of
Action Figure s 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 Cobra Commander (known in the UK as "Red Laser").
The Cheat Commandos were inspired by the Strong Bad Email "Army", in which Strong Bad commands The Cheat to spy on Homestar Runner and his Homestarmy (Strong Sad, Homsar, and some inanimate objects), 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 "it's just 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.
"]]
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-treat ing, or
Pumpkin Carving ).
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 to seven; 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 .
Most recently, for April Fool's Day
2006 , the entire website and all of it's content was turned upside down. This caused problems with some of the content of the site – many pages which were of a different size to the default 550x400 would not be centred 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 E-Mail menu. It caused an empty e-mail list and a nonworking Random button.
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 25 th 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 .
Other holidays 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 Dabor" (a reference to
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.
Some sketches use real-life
Puppet s 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 members 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.
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.
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" , which allows you to make Homestar say various sentences, and "Spin n' Say", a variation on the popular children's toy of the same name.
More recent games have been released as products of ". 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 "
Stinkoman 20X6 ", a spoof of the
Mega Man video games.
One video game known as ", started the Internet catchphrase "Your head a splode." Naturally, a 1980s vector-style game such as that would have translation problems with "Your head explode."
Recently, the
Brothers Chaps have partnered up with the rock band
They Might Be Giants to produce a music video for their song "
Experimental Film ", available on the website. Other TMBG 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. The TMBG web site has hinted that more videos are in production.
;Official Websites
;Wikisites, Fanpages and Message Boards
