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Homestar Runner

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Homestar Runner is both the name of an animated cartoon character and the name of the website on which he appears, [1]. The Homestar Runner universe has an absurdist sense of humor similar to that found in H.R. Pufnstuf. Although ostensibly for children, the site is perhaps most popular with young adults, with its short movies, games, charmingly naïve music, and plentiful opportunities for interaction.

HSR (or H*R) is an abbreviation for Homestar Runner in the sense of the entire website, rather than just the character.

Creators

The website is the product of Matt and Mike Chapman, who typically call themselves "The Brothers Chaps". Most of the voices are done by Matt Chapman and Missy Palmer.

Because "The Brothers Chaps" run their website, they have a creative freedom that they would not have doing a regular TV show. Although you can buy Homestar merchandise, their website has no commercials (other than the fake ones for products like "Fluffy Puff Marshmallows.") The Internet has allowed them to reach a large audience that they wouldn't have access to otherwise. Originally, they developed Homestar Runner as a labor of love, and for their own amusement. It has grown large enough that merchandise sales pay for all of the costs of running the website. An article in the Chicago Tribune on July 24, 2003 says "The Brothers Chaps"' retired parents are spending a lot of time dealing with the business aspects of the website.

Characters

Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers

There are about a dozen main characters in Homestar Runner's world. Here are the main ones.

Homestar Runner

Homestar Runner himself combines the intelligence and lovability of Ted Baxter with the good luck of James Bond and the physical beauty of Don Rickles. His lack of visible hands and arms in no way handicaps him. Although he is often the target of pranks by Strong Bad, Homestar believes that he is friends with Strong Bad, and tries to win his favor.

Strong Bad

Although the site's various cartoons are usually centered around Homestar Runner, Strong Bad is a very important character. Each week, Strong Bad uses his vintage computer to answer a viewer's question sent in by e-mail. New cartoons, however, are rare, occurring every 2-3 months. Nominally a Mexican wrestler, Strong Bad is consistently topless. He has boxing gloves for hands and a Mexican wrestling mask for a face. (A common misconception is that Strong Bad is wearing gloves and a mask; they are literally his hands and face, and he chastizes someone for suggesting otherwise in one of his E-Mails. In the Yello Dello cartoon, Strong Bad is seen wearing oven mitts; Strong Bad insists that scene was digitally edited.) He seems to be very loosely based off of the Strong Bads in the Nintendo Entertainment System game, Tag Team Wrestling. Oddly enough, Strong Bad has wrestled in only one cartoon. While Strong Bad makes a show of being strong and manly, he secretly enjoys baking, and has been known to sing or draw from time to time.



Pom-Pom

Homestar Runner's best pal is Pom-Pom, who looks much like a big yellow Mandelbrot set. Pom-Pom is probably the smartest character of the bunch, but only his friends can understand Pom-Pom's bubbly voice. He likes to hang out with Homestar Runner and Strong Bad, although not necessarily both at the same time. On more than one occasion, Pom-Pom foils Strong Bad's plan to cheat Homestar. Pom-Pom comes from a land called the Isle of Pom, where he has 27 girlfriends and a dog named Trivia Time.

Marzipan

Marzipan is Homestar Runner's girlfriend. Although she's got the same lack of intelligence (and lack of arms) as Homestar, nobody seems to mind. She is a folk singer, pacifist, and vegetarian -- and resembles a mop wearing a skirt, or a bell. Strong Bad likens her to "a dirty hippie - without the dirt".

Marzipan has an answering machine, where the other characters leave awkward or amusing messages.

Strong Sad

Not to be confused with his brothers, Strong Sad is the Eeyore of the group. A large white-and-grey lump with elephant feet, he listens to gothic music and speaks in a thoroughly gloomy tone. He has never really overcome his youth as the picked-on little brother. He's almost as smart as Pom-Pom, and emotionally quite deep, if crippled. Like his brother Strong Bad, he has his own e-mail address.

The Cheat

The Cheat (whose name is "The Cheat", with the grammatical article) is Strong Bad's partner in crime. He's a little furry yellow creature who, true to his name, is always looking for a way to cheat, or to help someone else to do so. His appearance has been described as a cross between a Pikachu and a wedge of cheese.

The Cheat makes music videos and sketches for various other characters. The Cheat's animation is drawn in its own distinctive style. Some sources say that is the animation style used by The Brothers Chaps before they settled on the current style.

Coach Z

Coach Z is the coach of the athletic team Homestar and his friends are on. It is not clear what kind of sport this is - while played on a football field, it also involves basketball hoops and a baseball being kicked around. Coach Z's primary gag is his thick and incomprehensible accent, in which, for example, the word "job" comes across as "jaerrrrrrrrrrrb". Coach Z claims to have been a hip-hop star in his home country and is a fan of the Wu-Tang Clan.

Strong Mad

The biggest and strongest of the Strong brothers, Strong Mad has the size, strength, and oratory skills of an ogre. He is The Cheat's best friend and has very fond feelings for him, and very few feelings (besides anger) for anyone and anything else.

The King of Town

The overweight and mustachioed "K. of T." lives in a castle (which, according to Strong Bad, is merely a two-bedroom apartment next door to his house) and eats just about everything he can get his hands on. He also employs the Poopsmith to shovel poop at the castle. The King of Town has his own website, which nobody visits, and his own answering machine, although nobody ever calls him.

Bubs

Bubs runs the concession stand on the side of the field. Bubs loves muscle cars and Spike Lee movies. Bubs also is a handyman. He once made a Strong Bad robot out of a Speak-and-Spell toy and a box of Grape Nuts cereal, and once built a working hot rod out of a pumpkin. He enjoys dance music and goes to night school at Disco Tech. He helps Strong Bad solve a common problem with VCRs where the time flashes 12:00 to indicate it is not set. Bubs and Coach Z show up in sketches where a large number of characters are required, usually at a party. Bubs and Coach Z appear to hang out together when they aren't working, but this is implied rather than explicitly shown.

The Poopsmith

The Poopsmith is employed by the King of Town for reasons he prefers not to discuss. He shovels poop all day long. Strong Bad refuses to play any pranks on The Poopsmith, because his job renders The Poopsmith immune to any other discomfort. The Poopsmith never speaks, and has taken a vow of silence.

Homsar

Homsar is a doofy, verbally challenged fellow who resembles Homestar. He was created when a fan asked Strong Bad to kill 'Homsar', an obvious misspelling of Homestar. However, Homsar does survive to thank Marzipan for sending him flowers while he was in the hospital, and to make future appearances. He's well known for his nonsensical quotes. For example, "I was raised by a cup of coffee" and "I'm a song from the sixties." Strong Sad, his only friend, humors him by attending "concerts" he organizes, which consist entirely of hugging trees. Some cartoons have an encounter with Homsar as an easter egg, such as the Strong Bad E-Mail titled "Dragon" and the cartoon "A Pumpkin Carve-Nival."

Interactivity

Because the website heavily uses Macromedia Flash animation, the Brothers Chaps have been able to put a number of easter eggs into many of the activities. For example, in Strong Bad's e-mail "Studying", when Strong Bad mentions a book, the clever user can view a hidden web page about the book.

Catch Phrases and Other Frequent References

  • "Somebody get this freaking duck away from me!" (A reference to the yellow dragon from the Atari 2600 game Adventure. The dragon makes several cameo appearances.)
  • "Wear a bikini!"
  • "How do you type with boxing gloves on?" (frequent E-Mail to Strong Bad)
  • "DELETED!!" (when Strong Bad reads an E-Mail he doesn't like)
  • "BALEETED!!" (when Homestar Runner tried imitating Strong Bad)
  • "ARROWED!!", "SWORDED!!", "404'd!!", "MSG'D!!", "CHILDREN!!" (mostly Teen Girl Squad death notifications, but they have found their way into other things as well)
  • "SOOOO GOOD!" (Teen Girl Squad)
  • "fhqwhgads" (see below)
  • "I was raised by a cup of coffee." (Strong Bad imitating Homsar)
  • "I'm a song from the sixties." (Homsar)
  • "And the Trogdor comes in the NIIIIIIGHT!" (Strong Bad)
  • "Eh, Steve!" (Eh Steve)
  • "I'll get you Eh Steve, if it's the last thing I dooooooo!" (Bubs, the talking wheelchair)
  • "Hello, Mrs. Pan?" (Strong Bad in frequent prank calls to Marzipan)
  • "Powered By The Cheat" (Branding for The Cheat's various animations)
  • "Are you supposed to be some kind of a witches' brew?" (Homestar)
  • "For good, or for awesome?" (Strong Bad)
  • "I'm doomed." (Strong Sad)
  • "Double Deuce!" (Strong Bad/Stinko Man)

Fhqwhgads

The made-up word fhqwhgads is a stock phrase stemming from from three short Homestar Runner cartoons.

The first involves the character Strong Bad receiving email from a person going by the name of "fhqwhgadshgnsdhjsdbkhsdabkfabkveybvf" which Strong Bad shortened to "fhqwhgads".

The second, ostensibly a music video produced by the character The Cheat for Strong Bad's song "Everybody to the Limit", also features this name for humorous effect. The song was recorded by a band called The Skate Party.

The third involves Strong Bad receiving a request by "Sibbie" to write a song about her, as he did about fhqwhgads. Strong Bad remarks about how fhqwhgads is properly spelled and mocks frequent misspellings of the word. A secret segment at the end of the short features Homestar Runner, Coach Z, and Strong Mad similarly butchering the pronounciation of fhqwhgads (which is fuh-HUUG-wuh-gahdz). In the sketch, Strong Mad successfully pronounces "Douglas", which he was unable to do in an earlier E-Mail.


Much like "all your base are belong to us", this random word has become more than a little bit of an in-joke in fan circles.

The body of the original email is "I love you", and some fans suggest the message was a copy of the VBS.LoveLetter worm, also known as the "ILOVEYOU" virus. Because Strong Bad uses an archaic computer to read his email, his computer was not affected; the executable part of the worm was displayed as characters forming the "long freakin' name" of fhqwhgads.

However, the LoveLetter worm does not fit this pattern; its body reads "kindly check the attached LOVELETTER coming from me." [2]

Other Places and Ideas

Free Country USA

The Homestar Runner cartoons are set in a fictitious land called Free Country USA. The King of Town rules all or part of this region. Tourist attactions in Free Country USA include the Great Mound, Pantsburg, The Clock, and Over There. Neighboring countries include Dortugal, Prance, and the Dortugal Congo.

Strong Badia

Strong Badia exists as a field behind a dumpster, with a permanent population of a single tire. In an early Strong Bad email, Strong Bad claimed he has ruled the field since diaper school. In one of the Strong Bad emails, the ghost of Strong Bad's obsolete and broken Tandy computer haunted the kingdom.

Crazy Go Nuts University (CGNU)

A fictional university run by Strong Bad. It has mascot called "The Dumple", and a "Golf Club Team".

Decemberween

A fictional holiday that occurs in December, fifty-five days after Halloween. It's sort of like Christmas, but nondenominational. The site does not explicitly mention that Decemberween coincides with Christmas. Marzipan disapproves of Decemberween, on the grounds that it somehow kills bunnies, and that the holiday is too commercialized.

Marshie, The Marshmallow

Homestar had a job in a marshmallow commercial. As usual, Homestar could not remember his lines, and lost his job to Marshie, the corporate mascot for Homestar's favorite marshmallows.

The Yello Dello

A yellow bird with the legs of a woman. It's the most rare and exotic bird in the entire website.

The Stick

A few sketches, most notably the cartoon Where's the Cheat?, feature characters meeting at a mundane-looking stick in the ground.

Trogdor, the BURNiNATOR (sic)

Trogdor the Burninator is Strong Bad's creation: SB drew Trogdor when a fan email requested a display of his "skills of an artist." Trogdor does not interact with the rest of the gang, but is featured in an animated short at the end of the "Dragon" email, and he has his own arcade game.

The final episode of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer made a throwaway reference to Trogdor the Burninator as a monster in a Dungeons and Dragons game.

Teen Girl Squad

A comic strip drawn and narrated by Strong Bad. The first issue of Teen Girl Squad originated from a Strong Bad email. The comic strip features four teenage girls, who tend to suffer gruesome deaths. The comic strip's main characters are Cheerleader, So-and-so, What's-her-face, and "The Ugly One." At the time of this writing, there are three issues of Teen Girl Squad.

Sweet Cuppin' Cakes

Like Teen Girl Squad, Sweet Cuppin' Cakes is a cartoon created by Strong Bad in response to an email. The cartoon, designed to be as "kuh-razy" as possible, takes place on a surreal multi-colored plane resembling a disco dance floor. The central character, which resembles "a cross between a cow and a helicopter" and communicates through a series of weird noises, spends each episode trying to catch a worm that crawls in and out of the ground. Other characters include "Eh Steve", an anthropomorphic rectangle that appears once an episode to deliver his self-referential catch phrase, and the Wheelchair (voiced by Bubs), whose sole goal in life is to catch Eh Steve and "blast him to tomorrow noon". Strong Bad is also in the cartoon, although his head is an old keyboard; when he is angry, it plays the demo tune.

Stinko Man: 20x6

Stinko Man is Strong Bad drawn as Japanese Animation (anime). It is set in the future year of 20x6 (Twenty Exdy-Six), and some of the other characters also have 20x6 counterparts, including Homestar Runner and FanTan (Pom Pom).

Old Tyme Homestar, 1936

Homestar, drawn in the style of a 1936 cartoon. In these cartoons, he is referred to as "The Homestar Runner", as was his name in the original childrens' books. Many other characters appear in 1936 style, although some names are altered. The other characters include Sir Strong Bad, Strong Man (Strong Mad), Sickly Sam (Strong Sad), Fat Dudley (Pom-Pom), The Sneak (The Cheat), Mr. Shmallow (Marshie), and the Kaiser (King of Town).

The music for the 1936 cartoon "Ballad of the Sneak" -- Who's the charging jackanapes with moxie and pizazz? --was provided by Virginia-based a capella group Da Vinci's Notebook.

The Cheat's Animation

Some sketches are drawn by The Cheat, who has his own distinctive animation style.

Limozeen

Think of any and every 1980's hair-metal band you know, and you have Limozeen, one of Free Country USA's hottest musical acts. Strong Bad is a huge fan of Limozeen and may have come up with their name while answering an e-mail asking for good band names. Limozeen reportedly plays live shows at events in Strong Badia, and the band appears to be laying down a new version of their hit single "Heart Of a Lion" for an upcoming CD collection of Homestar Runner-themed musical numbers.

Atari 2600 Game

Homestar is going to be featured in a new Atari 2600 game, to be released in 2004.

Les Sportsinterviews

A fictional author who writes various books and magazines. He wrote "This book is better than first, second, and possibly even third base". He wrote "Everyone is different".

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