Homestar Runner Reviews Week 12 (3/14/14)
Mar 14, 2014 15:25:12 GMT -5
🐍 huss 🐍, Smacks, and 1 more like this
Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Mar 14, 2014 15:25:12 GMT -5
Cypher Raige: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of... um... us reviewing Homestar Runner. We have been repeating over and over again over the last few weeks how these are really going to start getting good. Well, folks, we're there! This is the beginning of the best stuff. This is the Season-3-of-the-Simpsons of Homestar Runner. Sit back and enjoy. Your patience shall finally be rewarded. Okay, all of that was a little overdramatic, but this week's toons for the most part really seem to show that the Brothers Chaps are completely comfortable with the voice of the site, and this is when they begin to relax and let the hilarity ensue.
random dude: Boy is it ever one week since our last review was posted. Hey, everyone. Sorry this is so late, I kind of got sidetracked for a couple of days, or like a week and a half, or something. But anyway, here's this week's review.
Strong Bad Email #31: sugarbob
Cypher Raige: Let's just get this out of the way right up front: sugarbob is a crappy sbemail. Sorry, there's just no sugar coating it. This one sucks. It starts out with an all caps email, which Strong Bad shouts out in a loud voice because all caps = shouting, right? I am pretty sure that pointing this kind of thing out was already stale in 2004 or so when this sbemial came out, and it is severaly unfunny here. Also, this email seems to drag on and on with no payoff. Small chuckles can be derived from Strong Bad struggling for nicknames for Daniel's girlfriend and coming up with "funkybunch," but other than that, I was kind of just waiting for this one to be over. What did you think, random dude?
random dude: Yeah, this not only felt like two minutes and change of ad libbing on worn-out internet tropes, it also felt like two minutes and change of ad-libbing on subjects that Strong Bad's already discussed at length, namely, doing a bad job of trying to convince viewers that he's an incredibly cool lady's man. Which can be pretty funny at times with the heights of self-delusion that Strong Bad can reach, but here that schtick comes across as kind of a half-baked retread. The different colored fonts from the putatively hotter-than-Daniel's-girlfriend putative women IMing Strong Bad was kind of creative, and a sign that a crappy sbemail at this point in the history of HSR isn't quite as dull as a crappy sbemail from a year or even months earlier. But on the whole, I'd agree with Raige, this one was largely forgettable.
Strong Bad Email #32: flag day
Cypher Raige: Guys, I just wanted to really apologize for my review of sugarbob. I went back and read it, and I feel like a cranky old man. But then I watched flag day, and it was a straight up joy! This is one of the first sbemails that combines all of the elements that make this site so great, and the result is fantastic! We get Strong bad ripping on someone's name (easter egg: click on "Pablo Phoenix" at the beginning of the email to see a concert ticket stub), the Cheat playing some dope jams on his Casio, Strong Bad singing a hilarious original tune (easter egg: click on the Cheat when Strong Bad sings "And also there's the Cheat"), and Population: Tire! I love it all so dearly.
random dude: I also love this email. In fact, this may very well be my favorite sbemail to this point in our coverage of the feature. The Brothers Chaps' songwriting is one of the most popular things about the site, with songs like "Trogdor" and the music video to "fhqwgads" (both of which will be covered in reviews in the not-so-distant future) among the most recognizable HSR references in the wider pop culture world, and while this might not be as memorable as some of these, it demonstrates a major step forward from the one-joke songs of "Strong Bad Sings". Almost everything about Strong Bad's ode to what, if legally recognized, would have to count as the world's smallest sovereign nation, Strongbadia, is hilarious, whether it be the simple melody that The Cheat is playing repeatedly on his keyboard, the ridiculous Strongbadian flag (complete with the label "Snake" in case you weren't sure that was a crappy picture of a snake holding that big knife), or Strong Sad's at times ridiculous ("the place where the tropical breezes flow") and at times depressingly honest ("the people are so great, but really there's only me") lyrics. (As an aside, I notice that Strong Bad's voice sounds a lot like Homsar's when he's trying to hit that last high note, one of the limitations of having one person do the majority of the voices.)
Strong Bad Email #33: gimmicks
Cypher Raige: Another great one that got a genuine I HA out of me when Strong Bad's faithful Tandy 400 experiences a catastrophic failure and blows Strong Bad through the freaking wall into the wussy abode of his li'l brudder Strong Sad. The one thing that makes this genius is that the email writer had been lamenting how gimmicky the sbemails had become (because that person is obviously stupid), and the Brothers Chaps responded in literally explosive fashion with a gimmick that would repeat itself many times over as Strong Bad's subsequent crappy computers fail. The only easter eggs on this one appear at the very end when you see the remaining pathetic husk of the Tandy. If you adjust the color knobs, you get some cool shocks and pops.
random dude: I also enjoyed this one. I've never understood the logic behind some of these earlier emails that lament how much funnier the earliest sbemails supposedly were, as they're fairly unambiguously some of the weakest cartoons on the site. And I like it when Strong Bad finds clever ways to insult the senders of his email, so I loved the irony of the gimmick. Another thing I found noteworthy (in addition to the demise of Strong Bad's first, crappiest computer) was that being sad and pathetic seems to be a bit less the only defining trait of Strong Sad, as we see him here talking down (in a literal and figurative sense) to his older brother here, in a display of backbone I don't think we'd really seen previously. This, and the increasingly frequent references to his pretentious intellectual streak, make Strong Sad more interesting than the largely one-note character he was at the site's inception.
Strong Bad Email #34: weird dream
Cypher Raige: After the last two sbemails ushered in the classic Strong Bad era, it's easy to see why this one might be a bit of a letdown, but it's still got some entertaining bits. Continuing the story line from the previous toon, Strong Bad has to horn his way in on the Cheat's iMac since the Tandy asploded. We get a great line from a befuddled and technologically challenged Strong Bad who doesn't know how to work the Cheats newfangled Mac: "Your computer has too much computer in it, and not enough typewriter!" The easter egg at the end of this toon comes when you click on the US wearing tighty whiteys in order to see other states besides Texas modeling some men's underpants (NSFW!!! Not really).
random dude: Yeah, this one was just alright, but I also like the name for The Cheat's computer, Tangerine Dreams, a reference to the band Tangerine Dream, in the singular. Makes me want to listen to some Phaedra or something. Also, as far as anthropomorphizing the United States goes, I'd always assumed that Florida would be the genitalia (for obvious geographic reasons), but I suppose the visual gag works better this way.
Strong Bad Email #35: sisters
Cypher Raige: In the last sbemail we will review this week, we see that Strong Bad has fixed his Tandy with some duct tape. OR HAS HE?! The answer is, no, not really. While the Tandy is back up and running, it for some reason can't tell the difference between deleting an email and saving it. That is the big joke here, along with Strong Bad's stupid broken computer deleting an email from two hot sisters. So there's not much here, but I do like the sense of continuity that we now get from these sbemails as they continue the saga of Strong Bad's injured computer. The only easter eggs that I found were clicking on the different pictures of Ali and Ali's sister that Strong Bad imagines to see alternate views.
random dude: I didn't think there was a whole lot to this one either, although I did enjoy the second message that ended up "saved forever". "i am write single to salute and wait for answer again." And I agree Raige, the sense of continuity, both in this email, and in the Homestarniverse in general, is something that's really cool about the site.
random dude: Boy is it ever one week since our last review was posted. Hey, everyone. Sorry this is so late, I kind of got sidetracked for a couple of days, or like a week and a half, or something. But anyway, here's this week's review.
Strong Bad Email #31: sugarbob
Cypher Raige: Let's just get this out of the way right up front: sugarbob is a crappy sbemail. Sorry, there's just no sugar coating it. This one sucks. It starts out with an all caps email, which Strong Bad shouts out in a loud voice because all caps = shouting, right? I am pretty sure that pointing this kind of thing out was already stale in 2004 or so when this sbemial came out, and it is severaly unfunny here. Also, this email seems to drag on and on with no payoff. Small chuckles can be derived from Strong Bad struggling for nicknames for Daniel's girlfriend and coming up with "funkybunch," but other than that, I was kind of just waiting for this one to be over. What did you think, random dude?
random dude: Yeah, this not only felt like two minutes and change of ad libbing on worn-out internet tropes, it also felt like two minutes and change of ad-libbing on subjects that Strong Bad's already discussed at length, namely, doing a bad job of trying to convince viewers that he's an incredibly cool lady's man. Which can be pretty funny at times with the heights of self-delusion that Strong Bad can reach, but here that schtick comes across as kind of a half-baked retread. The different colored fonts from the putatively hotter-than-Daniel's-girlfriend putative women IMing Strong Bad was kind of creative, and a sign that a crappy sbemail at this point in the history of HSR isn't quite as dull as a crappy sbemail from a year or even months earlier. But on the whole, I'd agree with Raige, this one was largely forgettable.
Strong Bad Email #32: flag day
Cypher Raige: Guys, I just wanted to really apologize for my review of sugarbob. I went back and read it, and I feel like a cranky old man. But then I watched flag day, and it was a straight up joy! This is one of the first sbemails that combines all of the elements that make this site so great, and the result is fantastic! We get Strong bad ripping on someone's name (easter egg: click on "Pablo Phoenix" at the beginning of the email to see a concert ticket stub), the Cheat playing some dope jams on his Casio, Strong Bad singing a hilarious original tune (easter egg: click on the Cheat when Strong Bad sings "And also there's the Cheat"), and Population: Tire! I love it all so dearly.
random dude: I also love this email. In fact, this may very well be my favorite sbemail to this point in our coverage of the feature. The Brothers Chaps' songwriting is one of the most popular things about the site, with songs like "Trogdor" and the music video to "fhqwgads" (both of which will be covered in reviews in the not-so-distant future) among the most recognizable HSR references in the wider pop culture world, and while this might not be as memorable as some of these, it demonstrates a major step forward from the one-joke songs of "Strong Bad Sings". Almost everything about Strong Bad's ode to what, if legally recognized, would have to count as the world's smallest sovereign nation, Strongbadia, is hilarious, whether it be the simple melody that The Cheat is playing repeatedly on his keyboard, the ridiculous Strongbadian flag (complete with the label "Snake" in case you weren't sure that was a crappy picture of a snake holding that big knife), or Strong Sad's at times ridiculous ("the place where the tropical breezes flow") and at times depressingly honest ("the people are so great, but really there's only me") lyrics. (As an aside, I notice that Strong Bad's voice sounds a lot like Homsar's when he's trying to hit that last high note, one of the limitations of having one person do the majority of the voices.)
Strong Bad Email #33: gimmicks
Cypher Raige: Another great one that got a genuine I HA out of me when Strong Bad's faithful Tandy 400 experiences a catastrophic failure and blows Strong Bad through the freaking wall into the wussy abode of his li'l brudder Strong Sad. The one thing that makes this genius is that the email writer had been lamenting how gimmicky the sbemails had become (because that person is obviously stupid), and the Brothers Chaps responded in literally explosive fashion with a gimmick that would repeat itself many times over as Strong Bad's subsequent crappy computers fail. The only easter eggs on this one appear at the very end when you see the remaining pathetic husk of the Tandy. If you adjust the color knobs, you get some cool shocks and pops.
random dude: I also enjoyed this one. I've never understood the logic behind some of these earlier emails that lament how much funnier the earliest sbemails supposedly were, as they're fairly unambiguously some of the weakest cartoons on the site. And I like it when Strong Bad finds clever ways to insult the senders of his email, so I loved the irony of the gimmick. Another thing I found noteworthy (in addition to the demise of Strong Bad's first, crappiest computer) was that being sad and pathetic seems to be a bit less the only defining trait of Strong Sad, as we see him here talking down (in a literal and figurative sense) to his older brother here, in a display of backbone I don't think we'd really seen previously. This, and the increasingly frequent references to his pretentious intellectual streak, make Strong Sad more interesting than the largely one-note character he was at the site's inception.
Strong Bad Email #34: weird dream
Cypher Raige: After the last two sbemails ushered in the classic Strong Bad era, it's easy to see why this one might be a bit of a letdown, but it's still got some entertaining bits. Continuing the story line from the previous toon, Strong Bad has to horn his way in on the Cheat's iMac since the Tandy asploded. We get a great line from a befuddled and technologically challenged Strong Bad who doesn't know how to work the Cheats newfangled Mac: "Your computer has too much computer in it, and not enough typewriter!" The easter egg at the end of this toon comes when you click on the US wearing tighty whiteys in order to see other states besides Texas modeling some men's underpants (NSFW!!! Not really).
random dude: Yeah, this one was just alright, but I also like the name for The Cheat's computer, Tangerine Dreams, a reference to the band Tangerine Dream, in the singular. Makes me want to listen to some Phaedra or something. Also, as far as anthropomorphizing the United States goes, I'd always assumed that Florida would be the genitalia (for obvious geographic reasons), but I suppose the visual gag works better this way.
Strong Bad Email #35: sisters
Cypher Raige: In the last sbemail we will review this week, we see that Strong Bad has fixed his Tandy with some duct tape. OR HAS HE?! The answer is, no, not really. While the Tandy is back up and running, it for some reason can't tell the difference between deleting an email and saving it. That is the big joke here, along with Strong Bad's stupid broken computer deleting an email from two hot sisters. So there's not much here, but I do like the sense of continuity that we now get from these sbemails as they continue the saga of Strong Bad's injured computer. The only easter eggs that I found were clicking on the different pictures of Ali and Ali's sister that Strong Bad imagines to see alternate views.
random dude: I didn't think there was a whole lot to this one either, although I did enjoy the second message that ended up "saved forever". "i am write single to salute and wait for answer again." And I agree Raige, the sense of continuity, both in this email, and in the Homestarniverse in general, is something that's really cool about the site.