Post by Deleted on Dec 15, 2013 22:29:08 GMT -5
random dude: Hey everyone, so this week we'll be introduced to the most popular feature on the Homestar Runner site, Strong Bad Emails (or sbemails for short). A ton of the sites best recurring jokes, characters, an more would come out of Strong Bad's fourth wall-bending interactions with the site's viewers. But I'll save any substantive commentary for the actual reviews. Do you have anything to say about Strong Bad Emails before we begin, Raige, particularly speaking as someone who followed the site during its heyday?
Cypher Raige: No. No I do not.
OF COURSE I DO I ALWAYS HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY!!! Sorry for yelling. So the sbemails certainly became the breakout feature on this site, but from these early toons, it is not immediately evident why. In the beginning, Strong Bad exhibited some of the small features that would be expanded upon much more in the near future, but the fist few are pretty thin, though not without their own merits. So let's do this thing that we do so well!
Strong Bad Email #1: some kinda robot
random dude: In this very first Strong Bad Email, Abdi LaRue asks Strong Bad if he takes his mask and boxing gloves off before going to bed, thus prompting one of the site's longest running standing jokes of refusing to ever explain the surrealism of these all the weird characters inhabiting the Homestarniverse (damn it Raige, that word is just too convenient not to use). So Strong Bad's head and face appear to be boxing gloves, Homestar, Marzipan, and the King of Town can all manipulate objects in front of them as though they had arms, etc. Also striking is how rudimentary the animation of this initial sbemail is. We can the reflection of Strong Bad's face in the screen of his hilariously ancient computer monitor, and we can see Strong Bad's mouth moving as he speaks, and we see green lines running constantly across the screen (you can also change the screen to various shades of antiquated-80s-technology green if you click on the contrast knobs), but that's about it. The typing sounds are also a bit too loud, and don't properly sync up with the words that appear on the screen. And animation aside, this is also a very short sbemail. Later cartoons would both more impressive both in terms of animation and something resembling narrative structure.
Cypher Raige: Pretty slim pickings from this shortie short email, but some funny parts. I like that Strong Bad believes that robot powers can only be used "for good or for awesome." There's another option there, Strong Bad (hint: it's the second word of your fucking name!). But this email does make me wish that they had made a cartoon where Strong bad and a super powered robot rob banks together or some shit. Then I guess they would be using their powers for good and for awesome and for bad. Don't worry, I'm not really sure what I'm babbling about either.
Strong Bad Email #2: homsar
random dude: This cartoon is noteworthy for two reasons. The first being that this is the first of many times that Strong Bad mocks an email sender for poor spelling/grammar, which would become a staple of future sbemails, albeit future mistakes would rarely be the focal point of a cartoon, the way that Vinnie C.'s failure to include the "e" or the "t" in "Homestar" is here. The second reason is that, instead of simply making fun of the fact that the sender had misspelled Homestar's name, the Brothers Chaps instead decide to make up an entirely new character named Homsar for Strong Bad to drop a Heavy Lourde onto. Don't worry though, Homsar would survive, and go on to develop into one of the website's two greatest non sequitur machines (who is the second of homestarrunner.com's non sequitur machines, the new viewer may ask? well, you'll just have to wait, for quite a while, actually, or just ask a fan of Homestar Runner, if you want to cheat), but here he just talks weird and falls victim to Strong Bad's cruelty.
Cypher Raige: I totally know the answer to who the second non sequitur machine but we'll leave that for later reviews. My left name is tremendous savings, Ms. America! While I do not necessarily have love for Homsar the character, the English major in me loves that the Brothers Chaps went so far in criticizing someone's poor spelling that they basically created a mentally retarded version of Homestar just to throw it back in the email author's face. That's some goooood snarkin'!
Strong Bad Email #3: butt IQ
random dude: Not a whole lot to this sbemail. Just more Strong Bad being kind of unfunny before his character was rewritten to be marginally less immature. Although that is a pretty high quality picture of Homestar that Strong Bad pulled up on his computer screen.
Cypher Raige: I love the "Transitive Butt Property," but something tells me I should not have written my college thesis on it. But yeah, these quick and short sbemails don't have a lot of meat on the bone to comment on. It should be noted that this is the first email from a viewer to be signed with some variation of the word "crap" (here, it is "Crapfully Yours"). We'll see more of it, and we'll eventually see Strong Bad get tired of it and call the audience out. Also, Homestar's head is pretty stupid. Look at his stupid head!
Strong Bad Email #4: homestar hair
random dude: This sbemail mostly seems to serve as a reminder to viewers that homestarrunner.com also has a <link>games section. In particular the cartoon mentions this game, which is just a kinda boring online version of one of those cheap magnet shavings for hair toys. The Temple of Apshai reference was amusing, though.
Cypher Raige: This sbemail is also the first time that we see Strong Bad continue talking after The Paper appears. This would continue in later episodes, and we would also see the addition of Easter eggs, but not yet. My favorite line from this cartoon is Strong Bad's command to his Compy: "delete that crap." To which Compy replies: "crap deleted." That's comedy.
Strong Bad Email #5: making out
random dude: And our last cartoon of the week largely consists of Strong Bad pretending to be suave relationship expert, but failing immensely by suggesting that his own "hit single" entitled "You're Really Ugly (But There's Nobody Cute Around)". I think the song title was pretty funny, but overall this particular cartoon was kind of dull. What were your thoughts, Raige?
Cypher Raige: Yeah, this one kinda sucked. I was looking more for something like, "Ladies, line up on the left for makeouts. Dudes, line up on the right for high fives!" But no, we kinda get a rehash of Strong Bad Sings. Don't worry, people, it gets better.
Here are the next group of toons we will be reviewing:
A Mother's Day Message
Fluffy Puff Commercial
Marzipan's Answering Machine: Version 3.0
Marzipan's Answering Machine: Version 4.0
Marzipan's Answering Machine: Version 5.0
Cypher Raige: No. No I do not.
OF COURSE I DO I ALWAYS HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY!!! Sorry for yelling. So the sbemails certainly became the breakout feature on this site, but from these early toons, it is not immediately evident why. In the beginning, Strong Bad exhibited some of the small features that would be expanded upon much more in the near future, but the fist few are pretty thin, though not without their own merits. So let's do this thing that we do so well!
Strong Bad Email #1: some kinda robot
random dude: In this very first Strong Bad Email, Abdi LaRue asks Strong Bad if he takes his mask and boxing gloves off before going to bed, thus prompting one of the site's longest running standing jokes of refusing to ever explain the surrealism of these all the weird characters inhabiting the Homestarniverse (damn it Raige, that word is just too convenient not to use). So Strong Bad's head and face appear to be boxing gloves, Homestar, Marzipan, and the King of Town can all manipulate objects in front of them as though they had arms, etc. Also striking is how rudimentary the animation of this initial sbemail is. We can the reflection of Strong Bad's face in the screen of his hilariously ancient computer monitor, and we can see Strong Bad's mouth moving as he speaks, and we see green lines running constantly across the screen (you can also change the screen to various shades of antiquated-80s-technology green if you click on the contrast knobs), but that's about it. The typing sounds are also a bit too loud, and don't properly sync up with the words that appear on the screen. And animation aside, this is also a very short sbemail. Later cartoons would both more impressive both in terms of animation and something resembling narrative structure.
Cypher Raige: Pretty slim pickings from this shortie short email, but some funny parts. I like that Strong Bad believes that robot powers can only be used "for good or for awesome." There's another option there, Strong Bad (hint: it's the second word of your fucking name!). But this email does make me wish that they had made a cartoon where Strong bad and a super powered robot rob banks together or some shit. Then I guess they would be using their powers for good and for awesome and for bad. Don't worry, I'm not really sure what I'm babbling about either.
Strong Bad Email #2: homsar
random dude: This cartoon is noteworthy for two reasons. The first being that this is the first of many times that Strong Bad mocks an email sender for poor spelling/grammar, which would become a staple of future sbemails, albeit future mistakes would rarely be the focal point of a cartoon, the way that Vinnie C.'s failure to include the "e" or the "t" in "Homestar" is here. The second reason is that, instead of simply making fun of the fact that the sender had misspelled Homestar's name, the Brothers Chaps instead decide to make up an entirely new character named Homsar for Strong Bad to drop a Heavy Lourde onto. Don't worry though, Homsar would survive, and go on to develop into one of the website's two greatest non sequitur machines (who is the second of homestarrunner.com's non sequitur machines, the new viewer may ask? well, you'll just have to wait, for quite a while, actually, or just ask a fan of Homestar Runner, if you want to cheat), but here he just talks weird and falls victim to Strong Bad's cruelty.
Cypher Raige: I totally know the answer to who the second non sequitur machine but we'll leave that for later reviews. My left name is tremendous savings, Ms. America! While I do not necessarily have love for Homsar the character, the English major in me loves that the Brothers Chaps went so far in criticizing someone's poor spelling that they basically created a mentally retarded version of Homestar just to throw it back in the email author's face. That's some goooood snarkin'!
Strong Bad Email #3: butt IQ
random dude: Not a whole lot to this sbemail. Just more Strong Bad being kind of unfunny before his character was rewritten to be marginally less immature. Although that is a pretty high quality picture of Homestar that Strong Bad pulled up on his computer screen.
Cypher Raige: I love the "Transitive Butt Property," but something tells me I should not have written my college thesis on it. But yeah, these quick and short sbemails don't have a lot of meat on the bone to comment on. It should be noted that this is the first email from a viewer to be signed with some variation of the word "crap" (here, it is "Crapfully Yours"). We'll see more of it, and we'll eventually see Strong Bad get tired of it and call the audience out. Also, Homestar's head is pretty stupid. Look at his stupid head!
Strong Bad Email #4: homestar hair
random dude: This sbemail mostly seems to serve as a reminder to viewers that homestarrunner.com also has a <link>games section. In particular the cartoon mentions this game, which is just a kinda boring online version of one of those cheap magnet shavings for hair toys. The Temple of Apshai reference was amusing, though.
Cypher Raige: This sbemail is also the first time that we see Strong Bad continue talking after The Paper appears. This would continue in later episodes, and we would also see the addition of Easter eggs, but not yet. My favorite line from this cartoon is Strong Bad's command to his Compy: "delete that crap." To which Compy replies: "crap deleted." That's comedy.
Strong Bad Email #5: making out
random dude: And our last cartoon of the week largely consists of Strong Bad pretending to be suave relationship expert, but failing immensely by suggesting that his own "hit single" entitled "You're Really Ugly (But There's Nobody Cute Around)". I think the song title was pretty funny, but overall this particular cartoon was kind of dull. What were your thoughts, Raige?
Cypher Raige: Yeah, this one kinda sucked. I was looking more for something like, "Ladies, line up on the left for makeouts. Dudes, line up on the right for high fives!" But no, we kinda get a rehash of Strong Bad Sings. Don't worry, people, it gets better.
Here are the next group of toons we will be reviewing:
A Mother's Day Message
Fluffy Puff Commercial
Marzipan's Answering Machine: Version 3.0
Marzipan's Answering Machine: Version 4.0
Marzipan's Answering Machine: Version 5.0