50 Fun Facts About Homestar Runner

What does Strong Bad from Homestar Runner keep on his hands while typing replies to emails from fans?

Boxing gloves stay on Strong Bad's hands even at the keyboard of his outdated computer. So many viewers wrote in asking how he types in them that the question became a running gag.

Which S-shaped dragon did Strong Bad draw when a Homestar Runner fan emailed asking him to draw a dragon?

Trogdor the Burninator became one of the most recognizable figures from the whole site, better known among non-fans than the main cast. He went on to star in songs, arcade-style games and a board game.

Which Christmas-like holiday do the Homestar Runner characters celebrate with lights, garlands and presents?

Decemberween replaces the turkey or ham with a traditional meal of bunnies, much to the dismay of the vegan Marzipan. It lands on December 25, which the cartoons treat as pure coincidence.

Homestar Runner, the star athlete of the web cartoon named after him, is drawn without which body parts?

Arms were left off because, the creators reasoned, a character named for running would not need any. He can still carry and throw things, and turned out to be the easiest character to draw.

What is the name of the fictional town where Homestar Runner, Strong Bad and their neighbours all live?

Free Country, USA is nominally ruled by the King of Town, a rich monarch whose authority none of his neighbours care to acknowledge. Strong Bad has even suggested the title is self-proclaimed.

Which large, yellow, balloon-like character is the best friend of the title character in Homestar Runner?

Pom Pom hides a busy life behind his bubble-like looks: he is a martial arts expert and a wealthy ladies' man. He keeps his many girlfriends' numbers in a gadget called the Pom Pilot.

Which internet meme's name has been traced back to a word spoken in a 2005 Homestar Runner puppet cartoon?

Doge was what Homestar called Strong Bad in an office puppet short in 2005. The misspelling only became a worldwide meme in 2013, attached to photos of a Shiba Inu named Kabosu.

Which crudely drawn Homestar Runner spin-off, narrated by Strong Bad in falsetto, often kills off its four leads?

Teen Girl Squad began when a viewer named Brittany asked Strong Bad for a comic strip about her friends. His spur-of-the-moment doodle became a series of its own, with the four always back from the dead.

Which crowdfunding site funded a 2018 board game about Strong Bad's dragon from Homestar Runner within a few hours?

Kickstarter backers passed the $75,000 goal in the first few hours of the campaign. The result was a cooperative game in which every player controls the same dragon.

In Homestar Runner, what kind of business is the fast-talking, shady salesman Bubs most often seen running?

A concession stand bearing his own name is where Bubs sells almost anything, usually at a humorously high price. He also branches out into shadier, often extra-legal side businesses around town.

What kind of blue and red headgear does the title character of Homestar Runner usually wear and prize above all else?

A propeller cap, often called a beanie, is the possession he values most. He refers to the spinning propeller on top as its buzzer.

Which strange Homestar Runner character was killed off in his first scene but returned to join the main cast?

Homsar was crushed under a heavy weight by Strong Bad in his very first scene, a one-off joke about a viewer's spelling. The creators kept bringing him back until he ranked as the twelfth main character.

Which band's Experimental Film music video was animated by the creators of Homestar Runner and stars its characters?

They Might Be Giants became regular collaborators, performing alongside a puppet of Homestar in a run of live-action shorts. The band also wrote music for two of the Strong Bad Email cartoons.

Which Homestar Runner character works for the King of Town and almost never speaks because of a vow of silence?

The Poopsmith shovels for a living and communicates, when he must, with handwritten signs. He first broke his vow outright in the 200th Strong Bad Email, bursting into a grand sung fanfare.

In Homestar Runner's black-and-white Old-Timey cartoons, what is the 1930s counterpart of The Cheat called?

The Sneak takes the form of an opossum and talks by waving his nose. He once won a plague show for carrying more infectious diseases than any of the other vermin entered.

Matt Chapman, the voice of Strong Bad in Homestar Runner, went on to write for and act in which Disney cartoon?

Gravity Falls gave Matt Chapman a writing job and several voice parts, including the character Mermando. Once his work on the show was done in 2014, he and his brother revived their own site after years of near silence.

Which fictional hair metal band from Homestar Runner, adored by Strong Bad, spoofs 1980s acts such as Poison?

Limozeen stepped out of the cartoon in 2008, when Matt Chapman sang lead at a real concert with an indie band filling in for the animated members. Strong Bad owns their signed memorabilia.

What is the name of the blue-haired anime version of Strong Bad in Homestar Runner's futuristic 20X6 cartoons?

Stinkoman was born when a viewer asked what Strong Bad would look like in a Japanese cartoon. With his shiny body and robot boots, he spends his days demanding a challenge from everyone he meets.

What paid for all the running costs of Homestar Runner's website and its creators' living expenses at its peak?

Merchandise sales covered everything, having started with just a few dozen T-shirts in 2001. The brothers' retired parents handled much of the business side while their sons made cartoons.

Homestar Runner's cartoons and games were made with which web animation tool, a browser staple of the 2000s?

Flash was software the brothers were still learning when they turned their picture-book characters into a website. Its shutdown at the end of 2020 pushed new cartoons straight to YouTube.

Which 1980s video game pits players against the Strong Bads, whose name was borrowed for a Homestar Runner star?

Tag Team Wrestling, an NES game, calls its villain team the Strong Bads. His creators wanted an obvious bad guy, and to them nothing looked more evil than the masked wrestlers of their childhood.

A grocery advert featuring which baseball club led, via a friend's garbled impression, to the name Homestar Runner?

Atlanta Braves second baseman Mark Lemke was the player in the advert. A friend who knew nothing about sport mangled the announcer's patter into the phrase that named the cartoon.

Strong Bad's heavy metal dragon anthem from Homestar Runner became a bonus track in which music video game?

Guitar Hero II included the song because the game's lead developer was a fan of the site. A later entry in the same franchise added a number by the cartoon's own hair metal band.

Which TV series gave Strong Bad's dragon from Homestar Runner a name-check in its final episode in 2003?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was created by Joss Whedon, a fan who slipped references to the site into more than one of his shows. The dragon's mention came in the very last episode.

Which studio made the 2008 episodic adventure Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, based on Homestar Runner?

Telltale Games released the point-and-click adventure as a season of five episodes. No serious talks about a second season had taken place before the studio closed in 2018.

Homestar Runner's Cheat Commandos, whose members all look like The Cheat, parodies which 1980s toy cartoon?

G.I. Joe is mocked right down to its advertising: the soldiers call their bases playsets, and every episode ends by urging viewers to buy the toys.

Homestar Runner's 20X6 platform game, starring an anime take on Strong Bad, is modelled on which classic series?

Mega Man also inspired the setting's name, since 20X6 spoofs the vague year 200X used in those games. The tenth and final level only arrived in December 2020, fifteen years after the first nine.

The King of Town, the crowned and mostly ignored ruler in Homestar Runner, has which notorious bad habit?

Eating almost anything put in front of him is the King's great weakness. His snacks have included deodorant, erasers and electric holiday decorations.

Coach Z, the awkward athletics coach in Homestar Runner, is a devoted fan and hopeful performer of which music genre?

Hip hop is his passion, the Wu-Tang Clan above all, and he fancies himself a rapper too. His own rhymes have been summed up as mostly counting to two over and over.

Which device of Marzipan's stars in a nearly animation-free Homestar Runner series plagued by Strong Bad's pranks?

An answering machine fills the screen while the rest of the cast leave their messages. In every episode Strong Bad rings in, badly pretending to be somebody else.

Which of Strong Bad's computers in Homestar Runner did Bubs destroy with a shotgun after it caught over 400,000 viruses?

Compy 386 was his second computer, brought in after an older Tandy was thrown out mid-series. Once the shooting was over, Bubs sold the wreck to Homestar.

The sign at Strong Badia, Strong Bad's dirt-field kingdom in Homestar Runner, gives its population as what?

A tire leaning on a white fence is the entire population of the realm. The notice announcing it is a stop sign propped against a cinder block.

Which fictional company, a spoof of 1980s developers, is credited with most of the games on the Homestar Runner site?

Videlectrix was invented by the brothers, Activision fans as children, as an excuse to make deliberately dated games. Its releases look as if they belong on an Atari 2600 or an NES.

Homestar Runner's adventure game Peasant's Quest closely imitates 1980s titles from which pioneering game company?

Sierra built King's Quest and Space Quest on an engine that Peasant's Quest copies almost exactly, mixing typed commands with simple pictures. Matt Chapman has called it the best thing the site ever made.

In Homestar Runner, the nonsense name Fhqwhgads was taken from which part of a viewer's email to Strong Bad?

The signature was a 36-letter string of apparently random typing, which Strong Bad cut down to something he could almost say. He then wrote a song casting its owner as a hopeless imitator.

On which holiday in 2000 did brothers Mike and Matt Chapman launch the Homestar Runner website?

New Year's Day 2000 saw the site go live quietly, with no promotion behind it. It grew slowly by word of mouth and through links from bands that liked the cartoons.

After more than three years without an update, Homestar Runner came back in 2014 with a cartoon released on which day?

April Fools' Day 2014 brought a short that poked fun at how long the site had sat untouched. The date had form: earlier pranks included turning the whole site upside down.

In Homestar Runner, what slid down the screen after nearly every early Strong Bad Email, inviting viewers to write in?

The Paper was a sheet of printer stock carrying a link for emailing Strong Bad. Viewers who stayed after it appeared were often rewarded with hidden extra scenes.

In Homestar Runner, Strong Bad shoots home-made action movies starring himself as which tough-guy alter ego?

Dangeresque films are shot on The Cheat's video camera with cardboard sets and all-too-visible stunt doubles. They send up the action cinema of the 1970s and 1980s.

Beating Strong Bad of Homestar Runner in Poker Night at the Inventory can unlock sunglasses for use in which other game?

Team Fortress 2 players can wear the shades on the Demoman, but only after winning a hand in which Strong Bad has staked them instead of cash. The card game also offers decks and tables themed on the cartoon.

Who provides the voice of Marzipan, the only female member of the main cast of Homestar Runner?

Missy Palmer gave the early cartoons their one voice from outside the two brothers. She became family for real when she married Mike Chapman in 2004.

Which 1990s art program did the creators use to animate the very first cartoon starring the Homestar Runner characters?

Mario Paint on the Super NES produced that first looping cartoon, well before the website existed. The brothers have gone back to the cartridge since to make the odd short clip.

The original Homestar Runner picture book was written in 1996 by two friends working temporary jobs around which event?

The Summer Olympics had come to their city, and on a day off a bookstore visit prompted the pair to parody the children's books on the shelves. They never tried to get the result published.

In the title of the 1996 picture book that started it all, Homestar Runner enters a contest to find the world's what?

Strongest man was the title at stake in a book that already featured Strong Bad and The Cheat, years before either appeared on screen. It was drawn to feel like a baffling children's story imported from abroad.

For Homestar Runner's deliberately crude Powered by The Cheat cartoons, what do creators Mike and Matt Chapman do?

The brothers swap their usual roles: Matt animates while Mike does the voices. The results look and sound deliberately poor, as if The Cheat had made them himself.

Which series of Disney XD shorts did Homestar Runner creators Mike and Matt Chapman make between 2015 and 2017?

Two More Eggs kept the brothers so busy that their own site saw only occasional updates, mostly for holidays. They had landed the job through a development deal with Disney Television Animation.

A producer of which cult TV show sent Homestar Runner's makers a life-sized replica of one of its robots?

Mystery Science Theater 3000 producer Jim Mallon mailed a full-size Tom Servo, and it arrived the same day as a demo tape from a band the brothers loved. Matt Chapman called that day the high point of the series.

Whose step-by-step children's drawing books inspired the Homestar Runner email in which Strong Bad draws a dragon?

Ed Emberley taught children to build animals out of simple shapes, numbers and letters. The email was first planned as Strong Bad's guide to drawing badly in the same manner.

Which future director of the miniseries Mare of Easttown co-created the original Homestar Runner picture book in 1996?

Craig Zobel made the self-published book with his friend Mike Chapman and helped to create the web cartoon that followed. He then moved into film, directing Compliance and The Hunt.

In Homestar Runner, Strong Bad's sidekick The Cheat makes his home inside which object belonging to the King of Town?

A grill owned by the King is where The Cheat lives, and Strong Sad has called it a nice place. Nobody knows his real birthday, so it is celebrated on the date printed on his fake ID.