Homestar Runner: Strongbad_Email.exe
Okay, here’s a confession that will probably shock absolutely no one: your webmaster is a big fan of the surreal, mondo bizarro online cartoon Homestar Runner. Sure, it seldom obeys anything other than its own twisted internal logic, and to the average non-twisted mind, it probably doesn’t make a lot of sense. But I love it. And the “gateway drug” that got me hooked on the Homestar universe once and for all was a Strong Bad e-mail about the local news.
Okay, to back up for a second and offer a helping hand to the uninitiated: Strong Bad is a portly fellow who never seems to doff his boxing gloves, or his seemingly Mexican-wrestler-inspired mask. With his much-put-upon cohort The Cheat (who speaks in his own indecipherable language), Strong Bad precipitates mischief upon his friends, neighbors, and anyone who’s unlucky enough to get their e-mail answered by him personally. The e-mails are the real deal, sent in by viewers and fans of the site, and fans or not, Strong Bad relentlessly polices every submission for grammatical correctness and spelling, and then proceeds to relentlessly make fun of, or otherwise misinterpret, said e-mail. Possibly the biggest draw at the Homestar Runner site, Strong Bad e-mails appear just about every week on Mondays. And this 3-DVD set compiles the first 100 viewer e-mails in their full glory - complete with the hidden “Easter eggs” which have become a hallmark of the web site - along with other bonus goodies.
The whole Homestar Runner phenomenon is the invention of two brothers, Matt and Mike Chapman of Atlanta, Georgia, who write, voice, animated and code their cartoons as a full-time job - and apparently make a killing off of merchandise like this, or at least a decent maiming; whatever the case, neither of them has to hold down a day job and they never have to sell any kind of ad space on their site. I think that’s part of my attachment to the whole Homestar Runner thing - more power to the Chapman Brothers. I wish it could’ve been me doing what they’re doing, but y’know, it’s probably more fun to kick back and watch the fruits of what Homestar would undoubtedly refer to as their “wabor.” The vast majority of the Strong Bad e-mails are still howlingly funny. You can bet that the first thing I went looking for was the Local News e-mail (for obvious reasons), and it’s still knee-slappingly, ejecting-what-I’m-drinking-through-my-nose-worthy hilarious.
If there’s one drawback to Strongbad_email.exe, it’s that, for those of us playing it back on a standard component DVD player rather than a computer, some of the hidden surprise magic is lost. The Easter eggs, for those e-mails that have them, are hidden as a Strong Bad head icon that’ll appear when you scroll your mouse pointer over it, but in the case of my DVD player and the compass rose of arrow keys on its remote, basically you just keep hitting the “down” button until you see the head appear. Now, don’t get me wrong - I’d rather have the Easter eggs there than not, but when I’m trying to induct a new recruit to the Homestar universe, it’s a little difficult to explain (A) why they’re there, and (B) why they’re so obvious. But it’s probably a given that most of the site’s target audience will be playing these back on a PC - if they’re tech-savvy enough to be tuning in for an online Flash cartoon every week, chances are they’re probably way ahead of me and have stuff like DVD-ROM drives in their computers. (I can, at the very least, sympathize with Strong Bad on one front - I may not be stuck with a Lappy 486 with a 5 meg hard drive, but my PC isn’t very far beyond that.)
The bonus features are a treat, with three previously unreleased e-mails (including one about badly translated video game instruction manuals, which gave me a chuckle), some behind-the-scenes stuff which manages to impart information and mock itself gleefully at the same time, and “Karaoke videos” for some of the most popular original tunes that have appeared on the site. (Who wouldn’t want to rap along with the “Fqwhgads” song?) The menus are a revelation in and of themselves - the Homestar universe as 3-D animation. (Don’t worry - it’s the same low-tech look, only with rotation and shading. Pixar has nothing to worry about.) And the menus are a hoot on their own - one disc, if left on the menu for a long time, sees Strong Bad leaning back into the frame and admonishing the viewer to “bring us some cold ones whenever you get back!” With 100 individual cartoons plus bonus features, the tables of contents are surprisingly easy to navigate.
So is it worth the money? You betcha. For loyal Homestar fans such as myself, finally we have a recruiting tool to help us lure new fans into what is likely our secret (and silly) obsession. I can only hope that the rest of the site’s ‘toons - the Strong Bad e-mails are only one part of Homestar Runner, though they’re admittedly a big part - will make their way to DVD before too long. As twisted and obscure as its humor may occasionally be, Homestar Runner is more fun than most of the animated fare that makes it onto TV these days, let alone the web. I can’t even begin to express how much admiration I have for the Chapman Brothers for resisting the lure of TV or any other medium that might expose Homestar Runner to a wider audience, but at the expense of robbing them of their creative control. Keep cranking out the DVDs and other merchandise, guys - as long as you don’t get sick of making them, I don’t see getting sick of buying and watching them anytime soon.
I don’t know if Strongbad_email.exe will help entry-level fans get into Homestar Runner, but for those of us who are already fans, it’s gold. And y’know, for those entry-level fans, there’s a whole web site full of other ‘toons, and it’s all free (including - even after this set’s release - almost everything that’s on these DVDs).