Once upon a time in 2004...

I don't remember exactly how I found Homestar Runner on the internet. It could have been from any number of places: a stranger's blog, a forum post, fanart from Newgrounds or Deviantart... What I do remember is about 20 years ago I ended up on the website and clicked on The Search for The Yellow Dellow, instantly sealing my fate and destroying my vocabulary.

So... what is it?

It's a flash cartoon show with a bunch of quote, "dumb animal people" that is made by the Chapman brothers, also known as the "Brothers Chaps". In its prime there was a weekly series called "Strong Bad Emails", where the Bad Himself would respond to (and insult) viewer emails every week. Larger cartoons also came out every once in a while, along with yearly Halloween and non-religious equivalent of Christmas "Decemberween" episodes. Nowadays the site gets irregular updates whenever the Brothers have free time.

Okay, but what's the appeal?

The main draw of Homestar Runner and friends has always been its unique style of humor. It's absurdist, train of thought, doesn't care if you "get it" or not. A bit remeniscent of Rocky and Bullwinkle, if you replaced the puns with portmanteaus. The voice acting is expressive as hell with each character having their own unique cadance and accent, quite impressive since everyone except Marzipan (the only girl) and Pom Pom (speaks in bubble blowing sounds) is voiced by Matt Chapman. Not every joke has aged well, but for being a 20 year old series it's held up fantastically well. Even the new stuff, produced two decades later, is as fresh and funny as the best of it.

So uh... if any of that interests you, I'd recommend hopping over the the favorites page to see what I consider the cream of the crop. Or jump into the website yourself! Pick a random short or toon, give it a watch. Anything after 2002 should be good representation of what the rest of the site has to offer.

Ancient Art-ifacts