Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Dec 6, 2013 21:57:58 GMT -5
Cypher Raige: Hey, all! We are back after a one week hiatus in order to gorge ourselves on large-breasted birds (which are pretty hot, but not as hot as the Yello Dello!) and other such traditional holiday foodstuffs. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgivingween! We're starting to push ever deeper into the HSR mythos, and today will see us reviewing one of the most popular long toons from the site. So let's get to the reviewinating!
random dude: But first, a quick note/apology from me. It turns out that when I was working out which cartoons to review next, I skipped over a couple of the early ones in our last review, and thus our first two cartoons this week are not only the oldest cartoons we'll be reviewing this week, but are in fact slightly older than some of the cartoons we reviewed last week. We're not planning on reviewing cartoons in completely strict order of release, but if the first two toons this week seem a little disconcertingly incongruent with the increasingly stylistically consistent other cartoons we'll be covering this week, then I apologize. I don't mean to skip anything over, but it looks like I've already made a couple of mistakes on this point. I should also point out that it was me who was doing the scheduling, so if you're irrationally angry about this, don't blame Cypher Raige (if you feel the need to yell at him, just remember that he coined the term "Homestarniverse" in the first review).
The Reddest Radish
Cypher Raige: This cartoon finds The Brothers Chaps once again experimenting with their animation style, presenting their characters here in a diorama fashion as drawings on cut out pieces of paper standing against static backgrounds. The paper cutout thing may be a shout out to South Park, since Trey Parker and Matt Stone originally used construction paper cutouts to fashion their early cartoons. The story here is pretty thin once again, and the children's story angle still seems to be present. But it would not take long for the Brothers Chaps to find their voice. Another odd decision here is the laugh track, which is pretty annoying and doesn't add anything to the toon. Also, we actually see Homestar and Strong Bad get into a physical tussle here. Violence has never been a big part of the Homestarniverse (ugh, it hurts to type that word!), and soon we would find the Homestar vs. Strong Bad rivalry become less physical and more about Strong Bad taking advantage of Homestar's extreme naivete/stupidity.
random dude: Yeah, this strikes me as yet another half-baked idea for a children's story turned into a half-baked (and hence only marginally amusing) cartoon. On the other hand, it's kind of cool to see Homestar & Co. animated in paper-cutout style, a style that I don't believe The Brothers Chaps would ever use again, and with good reason, as Flash would prove to be a far superior format for their purposes, but all the same, it was interesting to see this style for one episode. In addition to possibly styling their animation after South Park, I felt a bit of a Paper Mario vibe from the cartoon. In fact, the way that Marzipan pulls the radish from the ground and exclaims "I'm the winner!" at the end of the episode reminds me of the radish-looking things from the Mario franchise, and the way that the famous plumber will say some sort of variation of "I'm a winner!" in several Mario games (although some quick research reveals that this cartoon may predate that, so I guess the jury's still out on the Mario references). Moving on, while you might not have liked it, I actually thought the satirically overactive laugh track was kind of funny, although it did seem really out of place in a cartoon whose plot, style, and aesthetic all barely even begin to resemble a sitcom. Also, on the "Important Firsts" front, the ever-informative Homestar Runner Wiki claims that this is apparently the first time that Strong Bad says "Holy crap!" which would go on to become a borderline-catchphrase of his.
Theme Song Video
Cypher Raige: Here we have another update to the Homestar Runner theme song. This one finds the Brothers Chaps settling in to the Flash animation that would become the site's bread and butter. We also see a little more definition to some of the other characters. While they were still fixated on Homestar himself being Mr. Sports Guy, we see a little bit of the Homestar/Strong Bad rivalry emerging, and we also see some familiar actions from other characters, such as Bubs and Coach Z dancing, Strong Mad and the Cheat assisting Strong Bad with his pranks on Homestar, and the Poopsmith shoveling some poop for the KoT. The KoT gets a little green, but later versions of the KoT probably would have totally eaten that shovel full of poop. Doo hoo hoo!
random dude: Yeah, the Strong Bad of the original theme song was definitely very different from the kind of character that Strong Bad would become. Although I don't have much more to say about this one, so let's move on.
Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 2.0
Cypher Raige: There was some discussion in our last review about the answering machine gags being some of the weakest material on the site. While conceding that the first version was pretty lame, I did state that they get better. After having gone back and re-watched them though, I found that they don't actually start to get really funny until around version 8. Version 2.0 is more of what seems to be mostly unscripted riffing from Matt Chapman. I like Strong Bad's first message where he is posing as a police officer who has shot and killed Homestar. Something about how Strong Bad can barely restrain himself from cracking up while describing Homestar's bullet-ridden body makes me smile. But the rest of the cartoon is pretty lame, featuring one of my least favorite characters, the King of Town. Haha, he eats a lot! That never gets old!
random dude: Yeah, Strong Bad's completely childish immaturity is kinda funny. Although while I'm also not the biggest fan of the King of Town, I did enjoy the hasty "I'm never calling you back!", with which he ended his last message. I also like the way that Marzipan is not only the type of person that would leave herself a message on her answering machine, but would also begin her message with "Hey Marzipan, this is Marzipan calling..." (which, to be fair, is something that I would totally do all the time if I owned a landline phone with answering machine). This is possibly the most Marzipan-ish thing that Marzipan has done thus far, as up until this point, she's pretty much just been an extremely one-dimensional stock girlfriend character, devoid of any of her own weird eccentricities or a solidly defined personality. But as we'll continue to see in the next cartoon, that's starting to change, and while I'm still a bit uncomfortable with the way that Marzipan never really outgrows her role as a bit of a stereotypical nagging girlfriend, that's certainly not all there is to her character.
The Luau
Cypher Raige: To me, this cartoon is where the Brothers Chaps really began to find their voice. It views less like something for kids and more like a fully realized universe with some small nods to the adult viewers that young kids might not get, such as Homestar's "drinking problem" and the resulting ocean of urine that sabotages Strong Bad's efforts to build a fire for marshmallow roasting. It also establishes Marzipan and Strong Sad as the resident nerds. Strong Bad brings in some classic lines that would go on to be iconic, such as "crazy-go-nuts" and labeling everyone as "crap for brains." There are also some strong stand-alone gags here, such as Homestar's "Soooooooo... ZZZZZZZZ... boooowwwwing!" line and his creation of Tofu Homestar to fool Marzipan. This is probably the strongest non-holiday themed cartoon we have reviewed yet. And it also features the song "Poot Slap", so it it officially awesome.
random dude: I'm not a huge fan of "The Luau", but I'd definitely agree that it's a big step forward for The Brothers Chaps in terms of figuring out what kind of cartoons they wanted to make. We also see some of the aforementioned fleshing out of Marzipan's character, both in her vaguely hippy-ish vegan leanings, and in her pseudo-intellectual tendencies, which most strongly manifest themselves in the fact that she's probably the character who gets along best with Strong Sad.
A Jorb Well Done
Cypher Raige: Did I say that "The Luau" was the strongest cartoon we had reviewed so far? Because that didn't last long. "A Jorb Well Done" is one of the most popular non-Sbemail cartoons the site ever produced, and it is indeed a gem. The plot is centered around Coach Z's ultra-super-mega-Chicago accent that somehow prevents him from pronouncing the word "job" correctly. At the beginning of the cartoon, we also hear one of Coach Z's many references to late 80's/early 90's hip hop when he says, "Pack it up, pack it in," referencing House of Pain's "Jump Around." Anyway, the rest of the cast makes it their mission to fix Coach Z's pronunciation, each with their own methods. Homestar dons a mortarboard, Marzipan goes the kindergarten teacher route, Pom Pom gets dark and straps Coach Z down in a method reminiscent of "A Clockwork Orange," and Strong Bad mercilessly mocks him by suggesting that he "try to add some more syllables." In the end, it is Strong Sad that has the winning method, providing Coach Z with a tape that he can listen to in his sleep. But, in a twist ending, Coach Z fucks that one up too. It should also be noted that this cartoon shows us the final evolution of Homestar's character design. He is less rounded and more angular, and the character's look would not change much after this.
random dude: Yep, this is easily the best cartoon that we review this week. I enjoyed Coach Z's bizarre inability to make an "o" sound, Strong Bad mocking his polysyllabic pronunciations, and Pom Pom's rather questionable methods. Also, is there anyone in the world as boring as early-era Strong Sad, who presumably has multiple cassette tapes of single words repeated hundreds of thousands of times from when he was "practicing the dictionary"? Another thing that strikes me about this episode is that, while most of the character designs have been figured out at this point, and The Brothers Chaps have developed their basic Flash animation style, the animation in these early cartoons is pretty rudimentary in comparison with that of some of the site's later cartoons.
Next week, we'll be reviewing the first five Strong Bad Emails, which are probably the site's most popular feature, and in so doing be introduced to an entirely new (sort of) major character!
Strong Bad Email #1: some kinda robot
Strong Bad Email #2: homsar
Strong Bad Email #3: butt IQ
Strong Bad Email #4: homestar hair
Strong Bad Email #5: making out
random dude: But first, a quick note/apology from me. It turns out that when I was working out which cartoons to review next, I skipped over a couple of the early ones in our last review, and thus our first two cartoons this week are not only the oldest cartoons we'll be reviewing this week, but are in fact slightly older than some of the cartoons we reviewed last week. We're not planning on reviewing cartoons in completely strict order of release, but if the first two toons this week seem a little disconcertingly incongruent with the increasingly stylistically consistent other cartoons we'll be covering this week, then I apologize. I don't mean to skip anything over, but it looks like I've already made a couple of mistakes on this point. I should also point out that it was me who was doing the scheduling, so if you're irrationally angry about this, don't blame Cypher Raige (if you feel the need to yell at him, just remember that he coined the term "Homestarniverse" in the first review).
The Reddest Radish
Cypher Raige: This cartoon finds The Brothers Chaps once again experimenting with their animation style, presenting their characters here in a diorama fashion as drawings on cut out pieces of paper standing against static backgrounds. The paper cutout thing may be a shout out to South Park, since Trey Parker and Matt Stone originally used construction paper cutouts to fashion their early cartoons. The story here is pretty thin once again, and the children's story angle still seems to be present. But it would not take long for the Brothers Chaps to find their voice. Another odd decision here is the laugh track, which is pretty annoying and doesn't add anything to the toon. Also, we actually see Homestar and Strong Bad get into a physical tussle here. Violence has never been a big part of the Homestarniverse (ugh, it hurts to type that word!), and soon we would find the Homestar vs. Strong Bad rivalry become less physical and more about Strong Bad taking advantage of Homestar's extreme naivete/stupidity.
random dude: Yeah, this strikes me as yet another half-baked idea for a children's story turned into a half-baked (and hence only marginally amusing) cartoon. On the other hand, it's kind of cool to see Homestar & Co. animated in paper-cutout style, a style that I don't believe The Brothers Chaps would ever use again, and with good reason, as Flash would prove to be a far superior format for their purposes, but all the same, it was interesting to see this style for one episode. In addition to possibly styling their animation after South Park, I felt a bit of a Paper Mario vibe from the cartoon. In fact, the way that Marzipan pulls the radish from the ground and exclaims "I'm the winner!" at the end of the episode reminds me of the radish-looking things from the Mario franchise, and the way that the famous plumber will say some sort of variation of "I'm a winner!" in several Mario games (although some quick research reveals that this cartoon may predate that, so I guess the jury's still out on the Mario references). Moving on, while you might not have liked it, I actually thought the satirically overactive laugh track was kind of funny, although it did seem really out of place in a cartoon whose plot, style, and aesthetic all barely even begin to resemble a sitcom. Also, on the "Important Firsts" front, the ever-informative Homestar Runner Wiki claims that this is apparently the first time that Strong Bad says "Holy crap!" which would go on to become a borderline-catchphrase of his.
Theme Song Video
Cypher Raige: Here we have another update to the Homestar Runner theme song. This one finds the Brothers Chaps settling in to the Flash animation that would become the site's bread and butter. We also see a little more definition to some of the other characters. While they were still fixated on Homestar himself being Mr. Sports Guy, we see a little bit of the Homestar/Strong Bad rivalry emerging, and we also see some familiar actions from other characters, such as Bubs and Coach Z dancing, Strong Mad and the Cheat assisting Strong Bad with his pranks on Homestar, and the Poopsmith shoveling some poop for the KoT. The KoT gets a little green, but later versions of the KoT probably would have totally eaten that shovel full of poop. Doo hoo hoo!
random dude: Yeah, the Strong Bad of the original theme song was definitely very different from the kind of character that Strong Bad would become. Although I don't have much more to say about this one, so let's move on.
Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 2.0
Cypher Raige: There was some discussion in our last review about the answering machine gags being some of the weakest material on the site. While conceding that the first version was pretty lame, I did state that they get better. After having gone back and re-watched them though, I found that they don't actually start to get really funny until around version 8. Version 2.0 is more of what seems to be mostly unscripted riffing from Matt Chapman. I like Strong Bad's first message where he is posing as a police officer who has shot and killed Homestar. Something about how Strong Bad can barely restrain himself from cracking up while describing Homestar's bullet-ridden body makes me smile. But the rest of the cartoon is pretty lame, featuring one of my least favorite characters, the King of Town. Haha, he eats a lot! That never gets old!
random dude: Yeah, Strong Bad's completely childish immaturity is kinda funny. Although while I'm also not the biggest fan of the King of Town, I did enjoy the hasty "I'm never calling you back!", with which he ended his last message. I also like the way that Marzipan is not only the type of person that would leave herself a message on her answering machine, but would also begin her message with "Hey Marzipan, this is Marzipan calling..." (which, to be fair, is something that I would totally do all the time if I owned a landline phone with answering machine). This is possibly the most Marzipan-ish thing that Marzipan has done thus far, as up until this point, she's pretty much just been an extremely one-dimensional stock girlfriend character, devoid of any of her own weird eccentricities or a solidly defined personality. But as we'll continue to see in the next cartoon, that's starting to change, and while I'm still a bit uncomfortable with the way that Marzipan never really outgrows her role as a bit of a stereotypical nagging girlfriend, that's certainly not all there is to her character.
The Luau
Cypher Raige: To me, this cartoon is where the Brothers Chaps really began to find their voice. It views less like something for kids and more like a fully realized universe with some small nods to the adult viewers that young kids might not get, such as Homestar's "drinking problem" and the resulting ocean of urine that sabotages Strong Bad's efforts to build a fire for marshmallow roasting. It also establishes Marzipan and Strong Sad as the resident nerds. Strong Bad brings in some classic lines that would go on to be iconic, such as "crazy-go-nuts" and labeling everyone as "crap for brains." There are also some strong stand-alone gags here, such as Homestar's "Soooooooo... ZZZZZZZZ... boooowwwwing!" line and his creation of Tofu Homestar to fool Marzipan. This is probably the strongest non-holiday themed cartoon we have reviewed yet. And it also features the song "Poot Slap", so it it officially awesome.
random dude: I'm not a huge fan of "The Luau", but I'd definitely agree that it's a big step forward for The Brothers Chaps in terms of figuring out what kind of cartoons they wanted to make. We also see some of the aforementioned fleshing out of Marzipan's character, both in her vaguely hippy-ish vegan leanings, and in her pseudo-intellectual tendencies, which most strongly manifest themselves in the fact that she's probably the character who gets along best with Strong Sad.
A Jorb Well Done
Cypher Raige: Did I say that "The Luau" was the strongest cartoon we had reviewed so far? Because that didn't last long. "A Jorb Well Done" is one of the most popular non-Sbemail cartoons the site ever produced, and it is indeed a gem. The plot is centered around Coach Z's ultra-super-mega-Chicago accent that somehow prevents him from pronouncing the word "job" correctly. At the beginning of the cartoon, we also hear one of Coach Z's many references to late 80's/early 90's hip hop when he says, "Pack it up, pack it in," referencing House of Pain's "Jump Around." Anyway, the rest of the cast makes it their mission to fix Coach Z's pronunciation, each with their own methods. Homestar dons a mortarboard, Marzipan goes the kindergarten teacher route, Pom Pom gets dark and straps Coach Z down in a method reminiscent of "A Clockwork Orange," and Strong Bad mercilessly mocks him by suggesting that he "try to add some more syllables." In the end, it is Strong Sad that has the winning method, providing Coach Z with a tape that he can listen to in his sleep. But, in a twist ending, Coach Z fucks that one up too. It should also be noted that this cartoon shows us the final evolution of Homestar's character design. He is less rounded and more angular, and the character's look would not change much after this.
random dude: Yep, this is easily the best cartoon that we review this week. I enjoyed Coach Z's bizarre inability to make an "o" sound, Strong Bad mocking his polysyllabic pronunciations, and Pom Pom's rather questionable methods. Also, is there anyone in the world as boring as early-era Strong Sad, who presumably has multiple cassette tapes of single words repeated hundreds of thousands of times from when he was "practicing the dictionary"? Another thing that strikes me about this episode is that, while most of the character designs have been figured out at this point, and The Brothers Chaps have developed their basic Flash animation style, the animation in these early cartoons is pretty rudimentary in comparison with that of some of the site's later cartoons.
Next week, we'll be reviewing the first five Strong Bad Emails, which are probably the site's most popular feature, and in so doing be introduced to an entirely new (sort of) major character!
Strong Bad Email #1: some kinda robot
Strong Bad Email #2: homsar
Strong Bad Email #3: butt IQ
Strong Bad Email #4: homestar hair
Strong Bad Email #5: making out
