Homestar Runner characters
Homestar Runner characters include numerous recurring people, places, phrases, ideas, and even times.
People
Senor Cardgage
Senor Cardage's First appearance\nSenor Cardgage first appeared in the Strong Bad Emails. Strong Bad was trying to represent what he would be if he were an ugly, dumpy guy with a bad combover. It turns out Strong Bad's fictional character is actually a guy who lived down the street from the Brothers Strong. He's a little taller, fatter, and with facial hair. He's the kinda cool where he walks around with a shopping bag filled with an unknown substance, stands too close behind you in line, and smells like pea soup. He's known to say things like 'expardon me'. He also owns his own mortgage company - Senor Cardgage's Mortgage. They can help you get a leg up on the pile. Bad credit? No probablo.\nSenor Cardage's Mortgage Commercial
\nHomeschool Winner
Homeschool Winner is a canceled character who looks sort of like Homestar Runner. He can be seen in the pack of HSR trading cards and in one of the backgrounds of the Bubs dancing game. Many have speculated that he is Homestar's younger brother.
Marshie, The Marshmallow
Homestar had a job in a marshmallow commercial. Homestar could not remember his lines, and lost his job to a talking marshmallow named Marshie. This has resulted in some resentment from Homestar, although he seems to dislike the character on its own merits as well. Marshie is an inherently odd character (relatively speaking, of course); his advertisements are forceful, abrupt, surprising, and sometimes disturbing.
The Yello Dello
A yellow bird with the legs of a human woman. It's the most rare and exotic bird in the entire website. One cartoon features Homestar, Strong Sad and Pom Pom looking for the Yello Dello as a gift for Marzipan.
Limozeen
Limozeen is a generalization of any and every 1980's hair-metal band you know, 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 (other suggestions were "Bigg Nife", "Z'Nuff", "Lazor", and "Taranchula", as well as Van Halen and Dokken). Limozeen reportedly plays live shows at events in Strong Badia, and the band contributed two tracks to the recent CD Strong Bad Sings (and other type hits): "NITE MAMAS" and their megahit "Because, It's Midnight."
Lem Sportsinterviews
A fictional author who writes various books and magazines. He wrote "This Book is Better Than First, Second, and Quite Possibly Even Third Base", and he owns the credit card that appears on the ATM card in the "Downloads" section. He is also probably the author of the children's book "Everyone is Different", credited as Leomard (not "Leonard") Sportsinterviews.
Lem also wrote the rules for the card game "Three-to-one marny".
The Goblin
A small, green creature that was originally created in a Halloween cartoon as part of a ghost story. Interestingly, it later appeared and interacted in the same world as the main caracters. It appears mostly in Halloween cartoons and communicates by dancing and making an organ-like sound. It has only worn a costume twice, the first one being an exact replica of Strong Bad (as a bee), and the second time as, as Homestar calls it, "A Santaman".
Places
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 (as seen in the Strong Bad Email "Vacation") include the Great Mound, Pantsburg, The Clock, and Over There. Places called Ohio and Tennessee also appear to exist.
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.
The Stick
A few sketches, most notably the cartoon Where's the Cheat?, feature characters meeting at a mundane-looking stick in the ground. Strong Bad has revealed that he would like The Stick to be a large man-eating tree.
Crazy Go Nuts University (CGNU)
A fictional correspondence school run by Strong Bad. It has a mascot called "The Dumple" (initially Strong Bad's misspelling of "dumpling"), and a "Golf Club Team", which participates in a strange sport that consists of The Cheat whacking things with a golf club. The motto for the University is "The future is you....probably."
Their fight song:
\nFighting, and sometimes striving
\nWondering what the Dumple is
\nExcellence, and what is valor?
\nAnd The Cheat will hit stuff with a golf club!
\nC! G! N! ... U!
Times
Stinkoman: 20X6
Stinkoman is Strong Bad drawn as a stereotypical anime (Japanese animation) character. The spinoff is set in the future year 20X6 (Twenty Exty-Six), and some of the other characters also have 20X6 counterparts, including Homestar Runner (with a completely different voice) and Pom Pom (a panda, called "PanPan").
The voice of Stinkoman sounds similar to that of Kaneda (Cam Clarke) from the anime film Akira when it was originally dubbed into English. In one cartoon, Stinkoman repeats one of Kaneda's lines from Akira: "maybe when you're older."
His name comes from the Strong Bad e-mail cartoon Island where Homestar calls Strong Bad "stinkoman".
His cartoons include Japanese Cartoon as well as Under Construction
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 children's books. Many other characters appear in 1936 style, although some names are altered (see below).
The music for the 1936 cartoon "Ballad of the Sneak" -- Who's the jaunty jackanapes with moxie and pizazz? -- was provided by Virginia-based a capella group Da Vinci's Notebook.
Chart
{|\n! Character || 1936 Counterpart || 20X6 Counterpart \n|- \n| Strong Bad || Sir Strong Bad || Stinkoman\n|-\n| The Cheat || The Sneak || [no appearance]\n|-\n| Homestar Runner || The Homestar Runner || The Kid\n|-\n| Marzipan || Marzipan || [unknown]\n|-\n|Strong Mad || Strong Man || [no appearance]\n|-\n| Strong Sad || Sickly Sam || [no appearance]\n|-\n| Pom-Pom || Fat Dudley || PanPan\n|-\n| The King of Town || The Kaiser || [no appearance]\n|-\n| The Poopsmith || "The Devil" || Stickly Man\n|-\n| Coach Z || "Football Player" || [no appearance]\n|-\n| Bubs || "Parsnip Salesman" || [no appearance]\n|-\n| Marshie || Mr. Shmallow || [no appearance]\n|-\n| "The Announcer" || "The Barbershop Trio" || [unknown]\n|}
Sub-Cartoons
Teen Girl Squad
A comic strip drawn and narrated by Strong Bad. The first issue of Teen Girl Squad originated from a request in a Strong Bad email. The comic strip features four ditzy teenage girls (named Cheerleader, So-And-So, What's-Her-Face, and The Ugly One) who Strong Bad often subjects to gruesome and unusual deaths through someone who looks suspiciously similar to the principal in the film Donnie Darko. Its humour derives from the totally random and unexpected happenings, which occur for no reason whatsoever and with absolutely no justification.
Read more about Teen Girl Squad by clicking on the link.
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 "kah-razy" as possible, takes place on a surreal multi-colored plane resembling a disco dance floor. The central character, "a cross between a cow and a helicopter" who communicates through a series of weird noises, is said to spend each episode trying to catch a worm that crawls in and out of the ground. Other characters include "Eh! Steve", an anthropomorphic polygon 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 also placed himself in the cartoon, although his head is an old Casio VL-Tone keyboard. When the Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Strong Bad is angry, his Casio head plays a synthesized version of Unterlanders Heimweh, a German folk song, which is the demo song on 1980's Casio keyboards.
The Cheat's Animation
Some sketches are drawn by The Cheat, who has his own distinctive animation style. It has appeared in many forms, such as in Strong Bad e-mails, cartoons, even its own welcome page. It is rumored that the Brothers Chaps tried this animation before settling on the current type. The sketches have the normal characters in them but with more dull voices (which are in fact done by Mike Chapman rather than Matt), and the plots are centred around The Cheat with all the other characters doing things for him and giving him trophies.
Cheat Commandos
The Cheat Commandos are a line of action figures that all resemble The Cheat wearing different outfits, with other merchandising tie-ins such as a TV cartoon show and breakfast cereal. In the Strong Bad Email "Army", Homestar Runner is preparing to lead an army to conquer Strong Badia. Strong Bad employs the services of the Cheat, who goes by the commando name Firebert (which Strong Bad declares "not a good commando name"), to spy on the "Homestarmy" to find out what they are doing, thus saving Strong Badia. At the end of the email, an easter egg directs the viewer to a Firebert action figure, which would be featured again when the action figures are introduced. The Commandos are an extensive parody of the popular 80's version of the G.I. Joe dolls and cartoon. As with G.I. Joe, the Cheat Commandos figurines are all nearly exactly the same; the cartoon has silly dialogue, bad animation, mindless action sequences and zero characterization; and the entire series exists to sell merchandise. (The Cheat Commandos theme song even states "Buy all our playsets and toys!") The Cheat Commandos fight an evil villain known as Blue Laser (or Blue Lazer), a clear parody of G.I. Joe's arch-nemesis Cobra.
Companies
Fluffy Puff Marshmallows
A brand of marshmallows in the Homestar Runner universe. The mascot is a talking marshmallow named Marshie, who replaced Homestar Runner. Among the products are Fluffy Puff Marshmallows, Fluffy Puff Marshmallow Mayonnaise, and Fluffy Puff Malloweens. The motto for the marshmallows and mayonnaise is "Made from the best stuff", and the motto for the Malloweens in "They Taste the Same, but Look Different!"
Cheap as Free
Cheap as Free is a fictional Homestar Runner brand name. It is found on such "products" as: Strong Bad Sings, Everyone is Different (see Lem Sportsinterviews), the Christmas tree found in "The Best Decemberween Ever", the Cheat "Firebert" action figure found in email #93, and Action Figures found in the store.
Videlectrix
Videlectrix is a fictional company that apparently makes all of the old-style video games featured on the site. \nVidelectrix apparently makes programs on a number of platforms, including the "Funmachine" (ex. Secret Collect), the "Super Funmachine" (Rhinofeeder), the "Compydore 64" (Population Tire), arcade boxes (Trogdor), LCD handhelds (Pigs on Head), and personal computers (Thy Dungeonman).
Recently a Videlectrix website was set up at videlectrix.com. Their games are scattered throughout the Homestar Runner site, particularly on the games page and at the end of E-mail #94.
Pigs on Head
Pigs on Head is a video game which involves stacking pigs up on your head. The game was originally played by Strong Bad in email #71, as he was waiting for his party, but has since been made into a handheld LCD version available on the Web.
Thy Dungeonman
\nIn email #94, Strong Bad was asked to come up with how he would be represented in a video game. Of the four video games dreamed up, "Thy Dungeonman" was the penultimately primitive: a text-based adventure game. "Thy Dungeonman" has little to do with Strong Bad; rather, it chooses to make fun of text adventure games, most notably with a phrase that has become household among H*R fans: "Get ye flask." (When attempting to 'get ye flask,' players are told that task is impossible, but are given no explanation why -- and, as Strong Bad quips, "there certainly aren't any precious 'graphics' to help you out!") In the subsequent weeks, the Brothers Chaps released "Thy Dungeonman 2", which is much more in-depth than (though just as humorous and impossibly confusing as) the original "Thy Dungeonman."
Miscellaneous
Guy with Big Knife
Strong Bad occasionally likes to draw or paint. On one such occasion he illustrated "a picture of a guy with a big knife". An applicant to CGNU must draw such a picture, but only so the staff can laugh at it. "Bigg Nife" is also a band name suggested at the same time as "Limozeen". The painting was present at the Homestarmy rally in email #93. It was the most menacing-looking participant in Homestar Runner's failed invasion of Strongbadia.
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 kills bunnies (bunnies, not turkeys are eaten, you see), and that the holiday is too commercialized.
Phrases
- "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.)\n* "Wear a bikini!"\n* "I want pudding!" Homestar 20X6\n* "ARE YOU ASKING FOR A CHALLENGE?!" Stinkoman 20X6\n* "How do you type with boxing gloves on?" (frequent E-Mail to Strong Bad)\n* "DELETED!!" (when Strong Bad reads an E-Mail he doesn't like)\n* "BALEETED!!" (when Homestar Runner tried imitating Strong Bad)\n* "ARROWED!!", "SWORDED!!", "404'D!!", "MSG'D!!", "CHILDREN!!" "CEREBELLUM'D!!" "SAILING MISHAP!!" "LATE 360 SHOVE-IT TO BONELESS'D!!" (mostly Teen Girl Squad death notifications, but they have found their way into other things as well)\n* "SOOOO GOOD!" (Teen Girl Squad)\n* "fhqwhgads" (see below)\n* "I was raised by a cup of coffee." (Strong Bad imitating Homsar)\n* "I'm a song from the sixties." (Homsar)\n* "And the dragon comes in the NIIIIIIGHT!" (Strong Bad - the line is also used with "Trogdor" replacing "dragon")\n* "Eh! Steve!" (Eh! Steve)\n* "I'll get you Eh! Steve, if it's the last thing I dooooooo!" (Bubs, as the voice of the talking wheelchair)\n* "Hello, Mrs. 'Pan?" (Strong Bad in frequent prank calls to Marzipan)\n* "Powered By The Cheat" (Branding for The Cheat's various animations)\n* "Are you supposed to be some kind of a witches' brew?" (Homestar)\n* "Do you use [your powers] for good, or for awesome?" (Strong Bad)\n* "Double Deuce!" (Strong Bad/Stinkoman)\n* "I don't like food anymore." (Strong Sad)\n* "I'm sad that I'm flying." (Strong Sad)\n* "Here comes the Thnikkaman." "There goes the Thnikkaman." (High pitched voices)\n* "YOUR HEAD A SPLODE" (Synthesized computer voice)\n* "BACK OFF BA-BY" (Same synthesized voice)\n*"You people and your demands! Write a song about me, send Trogdor over to my house, dress up in a purple thing and dance around." (Strong Bad, mad about Sibbie's request)\n*"Oh, hello dello." (Homestar's greeting to the Yellow Dello)\n*Say 'Douglas'." (Strong Bad trying to make the cheat and Strong Mad speak properly)\n*Pour hot soup in Homestar's eyes, eh Steven?" (Strong Bad)\n*"The system is down." (Strong Bad informing Homestar of why his site isn't loading. The quote is also used in his techno song.)\n*"Booowing!" (Homestar Runner after reading the legal notice)\n* JOOOOORB! (Coach Z trying to say the word "Job")\n* The king's gone mad with power! He's gonna eat the Chort! (After the KOT finds the Cheat sleeping in his grill)\n* I'm Homsar, the captain of the gravy train! (Homsar in his "Characters" video)\n* You shanked my Jenga ship! (Homsar when losing at Connect Four)\n* I just hate you so much! (Blue Lazor)
See also
Category:Homestar Runner
