Missie Mills
Reporter
I don’t know about you, but “When I drink a tall glass of melonade, I like to eat about 147 Fluffy Puff Marshmallows.” Don’t know what melonade is? Read on… for locked inside your computer is a happy place.This place is HomestarRunner.com.
I first stumbled upon this Internet jewel during my sophomore year, when Josiah Potter and Christan McKay would quote the Fluffy Puff Marshmallow commercial. They seemed to think it was hilarious, but I was not amused. You see, I was once an outsider.
One night when I was particularly bored (I mean, when you break down and visit bored.com, you know it’s bad.) I went to the site. As a new user I was confused, but luckily there is a place on homestarrunner.com specifically for beginners.
From there I found the Fluffy Puff Marshmallow commercial, and I ran to my friends to share the good news… I had found the funniest website on the internet.
Brothers Mike and Matt Chapman created homestarrunner.com in 1999 and took the site live in January 2000. According to an interview with Mike Chapman that is posted at www.legionstudios.com, Homestar actually originated in book form in 1996 as something the brothers would circulate among their friends for fun.
The characters on Homestarrunner relate to each other through a series of cartoons and features. Strong Bad is a pot-bellied wannabe wrestler (who seems to be constructed from a variety of boxing equipment). With the help of his brother Strong Mad and a tiny creature called the Cheat, Strong Bad terrorizes Homestar, a good-natured, armless character with a speech impediment for whom the website is named.
One of the most popular features on Homestarrunner is a section where Strong Bad answers e-mails about the Homestar universe and often pokes fun at the people that write in. According to the interview with Mike Chapman, all of the e-mails Strong Bad answers are real.
“A lot of people don't seem to believe it, though. Strong Bad gets a few hundred emails a day, so there's plenty to choose from,” Chapman said. “About 90 percent just ask why he hates Homestar so much.”
Marzipan, Homestar’s guitar-playing hippee girlfriend, is another character. She has blonde hair and resembles Beeker from The Muppet Show. Take a peek into her private life by listening to Marzipan’s Answering Machine found under toons, then features.
Also found in the features section, the Teen Girl Squad is a snobby group that includes characters The Ugly One, Cheerleader, Whats Her Face and So and So. Check out issue number 3. Strong Bad writes the Teen Girl Squad comics, so naturally it is a hilarious part of the site.
Equally amusing is the home page. Look at the bottom left corner to find small numbers. Each number correlates with a different themed page… an instant makeover that lets you choose your favorite look. Wow, I sound like a writer for Glamour magazine.
On that note, I highly recommend you visit homestarrunner.com. When you do, watch the intro, then watch some Strong Bad emails. Hey, it’s a stupid, quotable and free site. What’s not to like?