93-628: Matthew Alan Chapman (born November 1, 1976) and Michael Raymond Chapman (born September 20, 1973), known collectively as The Brothers Chaps , are American writers, voice actors, directors, animators, producers and composers. They are best known as the creators of the animated series Homestar Runner and Two More Eggs . While Matt and Mike Chapman were born in Indiana , they grew up in Decatur, Georgia and later resided in Atlanta . Growing up in
186-490: A thrash metal / sludge metal style); rapper Peacey P, with a rapping style resembling that of Snoop Dogg ; and the self-absorbed R&B artist Tenerence Love, a parody of Barry White and such artists. Beyond cartoons, Homestar Runner offers a variety of online games. Early games such as the Homestar Soundboard , "Homestar Talker", and Lite-Brite emulator "Astro-Lite 2600" are basic web toys featuring
279-718: A "Lethal Ladies" programming block, but spent most of her time online, appearing in 100 webisodes. As broadband bandwidth began to increase in speed and availability, delivering high-quality video over the Internet became a reality. In the early 2000s, the Japanese anime industry began broadcasting original net animation (ONA), a type of original video animation (OVA) series, on the Internet. Early examples of ONA series include Infinite Ryvius: Illusion (2000), Ajimu (2001), and Mahou Yuugi (2001). In 2003, The Spot executive producer and head writer Stewart St. John revived
372-427: A "few dozen" T-shirts by 2001. Mike moved back to New York in mid-2001 and he and Matt started crafting the first Strong Bad Email some kinda robot , intending this to be a weekly feature. The Strong Bad Email series proved very popular, generating significant interest in the site; when the brothers were late in publishing a new Strong Bad Email, they received angry emails asking where the new short was, which Matt said
465-458: A Homestar Runner Flash animation called "The System is Down" in a browser window. The Brothers Chaps have partnered up with rock band They Might Be Giants and supplied animation for a music video of their song " Experimental Film ". The creators of Homestar Runner spent time with the band and wrote songs that have been released on the website as "Puppet Jam", a spin-off of "Puppet Stuff", where Puppet Homestar sings with TMBG. TMBG also wrote
558-605: A Promethean Curse " by Of Montreal , " Experimental Film " (featuring the Homestar Runner characters, most notably Strong Sad ) and " Figure Eight " by They Might Be Giants , " Brand of Skin " by Folk Implosion , and "LA Lindsay" by Y-O-U , the band who also collaborated with the brothers on Strong Bad Sings . In 2017, the duo along with Robert Schneider and James Husband formed the Air-sea Dolphin project, which had two split singles with Honey Radar and
651-553: A Strong Bad Email short and a life-sized replica of Tom Servo from Mystery Science Theater 3000 producer Jim Mallon on the same day. They also reflected on how Homestar Runner had been a common point of reference over which newly formed couples bonded and how Joss Whedon incorporated references to Homestar Runner into his television shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel as further signs of success. Through 2010, Homestar Runner remained financially viable for
744-496: A book written by Mike Chapman and Craig Zobel , intended as a parody of children's literature . While learning Macromedia Flash , Mike and his brother Matt expanded the concept into a website, which was launched on New Year's Day 2000 . While the site originally centered on the title character, the Strong Bad Email cartoon skits quickly became the site's most popular and prominent feature, with Strong Bad , initially
837-753: A couple of times over the years." Homestar Runner 's popularity, coupled with its positive critical response, has led to the website receiving widespread coverage. Homestar Runner has been featured in Wired , National Review , Entertainment Weekly , Total Gamer , G4 , and NPR 's All Things Considered . A review published in National Review characterized the site's humor as having "the innocence of slapstick with sharp satire of American popular culture" — humor that "tends to be cultural, not political." The site-generated music has enjoyed surprising popularity, such that two songs, "Trogdor" by
930-484: A home run with savings here!" And so there was this player named Mark Lemke , and they said something like "All star second baseman for the Braves". And our friend [James] knows nothing about sports, and so he would always do his old-timey radio impression of this guy, and not knowing any positions in baseball or whatever, he would just be like, "homestar runner for the Braves". And we were just like, "Homestar Runner? That's
1023-516: A new Internet studio, EQAL, and produced a spin-off from lonelygirl15 entitled " LG15: The Resistance ". Mainstream press began to provide coverage. In the UK, KateModern ended its run on Bebo . That site also hosted a six-month-long reality/travel show, The Gap Year , produced by Endemol UK, who also made Kirill , a drama for MSN . During MipCom, in October 2008, MySpace announced plans for
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#17327874939321116-478: A new original series created by Craig Brewer that brought together the indie music world and new media expansion. Joss Whedon created, produced and self-financed Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog starring Neil Patrick Harris and Felicia Day . Big Fantastic wrote and produced Foreign Body , a mystery web series that served as a prequel to Robin Cook 's novel of the same name. Beckett and Goodfried founded
1209-535: A second series and indicated that it was in talks with cable network Foxtel to distribute their first series on network television. Additionally MySpace spoke of their plans to produce versions of the MySpace Road Tour in other countries. The emerging potential for success in web video caught the attention of top entertainment executives in America, including former Disney executive and current head of
1302-401: A series of video interviews featuring actors and directors like Guillermo del Toro , Santiago Segura , Álex de la Iglesia , and Keanu Reeves , which were distributed through his own website. lonelygirl15 , California Heaven , " The Burg ", and SamHas7Friends also gained popularity during this time, acquiring audiences in the millions. lonelygirl15 was so successful that it secured
1395-420: A short song to himself while booting up his computer to check fan emails. Starting a reply, he typically mocks the sender's name, spelling, and grammar, and rarely answers questions directly. While early episodes focused mostly on Strong Bad sitting at the computer with occasional cutaways, the cutaways would become more elaborate over time, allowing for more complex story lines to develop, growing tangentially from
1488-466: A slanted joke about such old-style cartoons. 20X6 (pronounced "twenty exty-six"), a parody of the Mega Man and EarthBound games' "year 200X", originated from Strong Bad Email #57, japanese cartoon , an email asking Strong Bad what he would look like if he were in a Japanese anime . The main character, Stinkoman, is an anime version of Strong Bad with blue hair , a shiny body and robot boots. He
1581-458: A special video featuring Homestar and Strong Bad for the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con to introduce a panel regarding the history of W00tstock . Matt, after completing work on Gravity Falls , moved back to Atlanta in 2014 where Mike was living, and the two agreed that they now had the opportunity to return to Homestar Runner on a semi-regular basis. Their first short in nearly four years, posted on April 1, 2014, poked fun at how they had not updated
1674-441: A spin-off of the syndicated television series Weird TV . The web series featured dozens of shorts, comedy sketches, and mini-documentaries produced exclusively for MSN video. The video-sharing site YouTube was launched in early 2005, allowing users to share television programs. YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim said the inspiration for YouTube first came from Janet Jackson 's role in the 2004 Super Bowl incident , when her breast
1767-430: A sponsorship deal with Neutrogena . In 2007, the creators of lonelygirl15 followed up the series' success with KateModern , a series which debuted on social network Bebo , and took place in the same fictional universe as their previous show. Big Fantastic created and produced Prom Queen , which was financed and distributed by Vuguru , and debuted on MySpace . These web serials highlighted interactivity with
1860-504: A television series. After a four-year hiatus beginning in 2010, Homestar Runner returned with a new Holiday Toon on April 1, 2014, for April Fools' Day . Afterwards, co-creator Matt Chapman announced plans to give the site semi-regular updates. Since global support for Flash ended on December 31, 2020, homestarrunner.com has maintained a fully functional website through the Flash emulator Ruffle . More cartoons have since been released on
1953-459: A total of $ 1,421,903 (nearly 20 times the goal) and 23,338 backers. In 2022, an expansion pack titled Majicks & 'Mergencies Expando Deck was released, adding new cards and gameplay elements. Extra copies are sold in the website's store. Trogdor!! is described as a cooperative puzzle area control game in which the players work together to burninate all of the game tiles, thatched-roof cottages, and peasants. Every player controls Trogdor, assuming
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#17327874939322046-449: A weekly cartoon, and believed that, creatively, they needed a break. The success of Homestar Runner led to Matt and Mike getting writing jobs for television animated series Yo Gabba Gabba! , Gravity Falls , The Aquabats! Super Show! , and Wander Over Yonder . During this hiatus, the brothers released a small number of Homestar Runner cartoons, including ones for 2010's April Fools' Day and Decemberween holidays. They also made
2139-404: A wider range of creators to develop web series. As well, since web series are made available online, instead of being aired at a single preset time to specific regions, they enable producers to reach a potentially global audience who can access the shows 24 hours a day and seven days a week, at the time of their choosing. Moreover, in the 2010s, the rising affordability of tablets and smartphones and
2232-496: A writer for Yo Gabba Gabba! , and — like his brother Matt — has collaborated with the Wander Over Yonder staff, credited for writing the episode "The Liar". The brothers had a general development deal with Disney Television Animation , and developed a series of short animations for Disney XD titled Two More Eggs which ran from 2015 to 2017. They have directed several music videos, including " Heimdalsgate Like
2325-494: A year. Rogers Media will help fund and distribute Vuguru's upcoming productions, solidifying a connection between traditional media and new media such as web series. Web series can be distributed directly from the producers' websites, through streaming services or via online video sharing websites . The Webby Awards , established in 1996 by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), and
2418-432: Is a Mega Man -style platform game featuring the characters and world of anime parody 20X6 . Nine levels were added to the game over the course of 2005, while the tenth and final level was not released until December 2020, days before Flash would no longer be supported by browsers. The Thy Dungeonman series are parodies of text adventure games originating from Strong Bad Email #94, video games . In each game, your goal
2511-447: Is always looking for a fight, asking various characters he interacts with to engage him in a "challenge" ("Are you asking for a challenge?"). There is also a game, Stinkoman 20X6 , which is heavily based on the Mega Man series. Cheat Commandos is a parody of G.I. Joe that features a cast of characters that are the same species as The Cheat. Most are based on G.I. Joe characters, or characters from other 1980s cartoons. The cartoon
2604-514: Is an adventure game featuring Rather Dashing, a young peasant in short pants. After he finds his cottage burned to the ground, he vows to kill the destroyer of his cottage, Trogdor. The game uses a system that is a near-replica of Sierra Entertainment 's Adventure Game Interpreter , used in King's Quest , Space Quest and several other early Sierra titles. This system is something like text adventure games yet it has simple visuals. Stinkoman 20X6
2697-449: Is constantly advertising its products in the cartoons by such methods as referring to the areas they are in as "playsets", a convoy truck as an "action figure storage vehicle", and by ending each cartoon with the phrase "Buy all our playsets and toys!", sung in a patriotic way. It also parodies the G.I. Joe cartoons' use of public service announcements , referring to nonsensical things like "peer-2-teen choice behaviors". Some cartoons feature
2790-464: Is to "get ye flask". Though the game purports to be set in the medieval era, the text is actually rendered in mock Early Modern English , in the style of William Shakespeare . Thy Dungeonman has two sequels: Thy Dungeonman II , which expands on the features of the original game and can only be found on the Videlectrix site, and Thy Dungeonman III which adds basic graphics and can be found on
2883-629: Is usually just a picture of the answering machine, sometimes there are short animated segments featuring the characters. As of April 1, 2016, there are 17 Marzipan's Answering Machines. These are live action shorts in which the regular characters are depicted by puppets. These may be skits , or musical performances with They Might Be Giants . Many Puppet Stuff videos feature the characters interacting with children, often related to The Brothers Chaps . One spin-off series, "Biz Cas Fri", depicts Homestar and Strong Bad's interactions from his office cubicle at work. The first Biz Cas Fri video arguably first coined
The Brothers Chaps - Misplaced Pages Continue
2976-630: The Wander Over Yonder episodes "The Bounty" and "The Timebomb" in collaboration with the show's writing staff. Matt also appeared in the second-season finale of Camp Camp , an animated series by Rooster Teeth , as the voice of Neil's father, Carl. Mike also provides intentionally poor imitations of his brother's voice work for the Powered by The Cheat cartoon series on the Homestar Runner website. In addition, he has served as
3069-475: The Indie Series Awards , established in 2009 by We Love Soaps, recognize independently produced comedy, drama, and reality TV entertainment created for the web. In 2009, the International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV) was founded with the mission to support and recognize artistic and technological achievements in the digital entertainment industry. It administered the selection of winners for
3162-635: The Internet (i.e. World Wide Web ), which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single instance of a web series program can be called an episode or a webisode . The scale of a web series is small and a typical episode can be anywhere from three to fifteen minutes in length. Web series are distributed online on video sharing websites and apps , such as YouTube , Vimeo and TikTok , and can be watched on devices such as smartphones , tablets , desktops , laptops, and Smart TVs (or television sets connected to
3255-458: The 150th Strong Bad Email, alternate universe . Old-Timey cartoons take place in an old-time setting, with most of the characters being Old-Timey counterparts of the Homestar Runner characters. These cartoons are in black and white with a film grain effect and scratchy audio quality. They parody the distinctive style of animated cartoons during the 1920s and 1930s (à la Steamboat Willie ), and can be seen as perhaps deliberately unfunny, to make
3348-546: The 1980s, the Brothers Chaps were creating comic books, filming Super 8 movies and eventually toying with a video camera. Mike attended the University of Georgia and studied photography, while Matt went to film school at Florida State University . Mike Chapman created the character of Homestar Runner in 1996 with friend Craig Zobel . The character debuted in the children's book The Homestar Runner Enters
3441-653: The Atlanta indie band Y-O-U along with Matt Chapman on vocals) performed a live show in Atlanta, Georgia, and again on November 8, 2008, opening for indie pop band of Montreal . A college rock band called Sloshy (with the logo stylized in lower case and rotated 180 degrees, with the "o" being a different color, as " ʎɥs o ןs ") was introduced in 2007. Sloshy features songs in the musical vein of Pavement such as "We Don't Really Even Care About You" and "The B-est of B-Sides". Other fictitious artists include Scandinavian death metal parody Taranchula (although performing more in
3534-704: The Burninator (stylized as TROGDOR, the BURNİNATOR ), and performing his heavy metal theme song. Trogdor's popularity saw the character appear on merchandise such as T-shirts, hoodies, and posters, with an extended version of the song appearing on the CD Strong Bad Sings . In 2002, a fictional hair metal band, Limozeen, was introduced as a parody of 1980s bands such as Skid Row , White Lion and Poison ; with songs including "Because, It's Midnite" and "Nite Mamas". On March 17, 2008, "Limozeen" (actually
3627-673: The Homestar Runner site. "Ye Flask" and "You can't get ye flask" have become catch-phrases in the Homestar Runner universe, eventually spawning a T-shirt in the Homestar Runner store. In 2007, the website produced Wii versions of some of the games on the site, for the Wii internet browser. When played on the computer, they use the mouse only. Two point-and-click adventure game titles by the Brothers Chaps made in Unity have been released to Steam and Itch.io , Halloween Hide & Seek and Dangeresque: The Roomisode Triungulate , an expanded remake of
3720-415: The Homestar Runner site. In 2004, the Homestar Runner characters were featured in the music video to their song Experimental Film . Additionally, they have performed multiple times with a puppet of Homestar Runner. They have also collaborated on several other shorts, including Strong Bad Email #200, email thunder . In Strong Bad Email #58, dragon , Strong Bad is asked to draw a dragon , creating Trogdor,
3813-432: The Internet with a media streaming device ). They can also be released on social media platforms. Because of the nature of the Internet, a web series may be interactive and immersive. Web series are classified as new media . Web series are different from streaming television series, as the latter is purposed to be watched on streaming platforms such as Netflix , Amazon Prime Video , and Hotstar . Although
The Brothers Chaps - Misplaced Pages Continue
3906-664: The Mac operating system after a vote on the Telltale Games website. Strong Bad appears as one of the computer-controlled opponents in Telltale's Poker Night at the Inventory , using the same model from SBCG4AP. Players can unlock in-game card sets and table designs based on Homestar Runner. Additionally, Strong Bad will occasionally bet Dangeresque Too's sunglasses in place of in-game cash; defeating him after doing so will unlock
3999-534: The PAL region on November 21. The fourth episode, Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective , was released on Telltale Games' website and WiiWare in North America on November 17, and in the PAL region on December 5. The fifth and final episode, 8-Bit is Enough , was released to North America on December 15 and in the PAL region on January 2, 2009. In 2010, it was decided that Telltale games would release SBCG4AP for
4092-537: The Rooster Teeth website, acquiring over 100 million social media views during its run. Rooster Teeth would eventually create RWBY in 2013. In 2004, Salad Fingers was created, which amassed a cult following. Sam Has 7 Friends , which ran in the summer and fall of 2006, was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award , and was temporarily removed from the Internet when it was acquired by Michael Eisner . In 2004–2005, Spanish producer Pedro Alonso Pablos recorded
4185-747: The Streamys and IAWTV also cover programs on streaming platforms. Most major award ceremonies have also created web series and digital media award categories, including the Emmy Awards and the Canadian Screen Awards . There are also several web series festivals , most notably in Los Angeles and Vancouver . In April 1995, "Global Village Idiots", an episode of the Bloomington, Indiana -based public access program Rox ,
4278-541: The Strongest Man in the World Contest, which was subsequently posted online as a series of images. In 2000, the Brothers Chaps began to create cartoons with the character using Adobe Flash . As the series progressed, more characters were added to the series and spin-off series were created, notably Strong Bad Emails in 2001. During production of Homestar Runner , Matt has been the primary voice actor for
4371-541: The Tornante Company, Michael Eisner. Torante's Vuguru subdivision partnered with Canadian media conglomerate Rogers Media on October 26, securing plans to produce upwards of 30 new web shows a year. Rogers Media agreed to help fund and distribute Vuguru's upcoming productions, thereby solidifying a connection between old and new media. The rise in popularity of mobile Internet video, along with technological improvements to storage, bandwidth, and bitrates, led to
4464-811: The a cappella band Da Vinci's Notebook to create a theme song for the Old-Timey version of The Cheat, called "Ballad of The Sneak"; the duo later wrote the theme tune for the Stinkoman 20X6 game. Matt Chapman provided guest vocals as Strong Bad on The Aquabats ' "Pink Pants!" from their 2011 album, Hi-Five Soup! . Strong Bad's voice also appears on Shellac 's "Genuine Lulabelle" off the album " Excellent Italian Greyhound " from 2007. Discussing how he and his sibling decide which projects to work on, Mike Chapman said, "We learned how to politely say no to things that were going to affect our lives negatively. If it's going to be fun, if we're going to enjoy doing it, and if
4557-417: The audience in addition to the narrative on relatively low budgets. In contrast, the web series Sanctuary , starring actor/producer Amanda Tapping , cost $ 4.3 Million to produce. Both Sanctuary and Prom Queen were nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award . Award-winning producer/director Marshall Herskovitz created Quarterlife , which debuted on MySpace and was later distributed on NBC . In 2009,
4650-500: The best thing we've ever heard!" When Mike and Craig were in a bookstore and made a remark about how "awful" the children's books were, the idea to write their own children's book occurred to them. They spent around two hours designing the look of Homestar Runner, Pom Pom, Strong Bad, and The Cheat, and completed the book within a day. They only printed about five to ten copies to share with friends, and had no intention to publish it. However, they had no idea that their father had sent out
4743-514: The book as a manuscript for submission to about 80 different publishers, but they only got rejection letters back, if anything. The pair began to work on a sequel, Homestar Runner Goes for the Gold , which would have introduced Strong Bad's brothers, Strong Mad and Strong Sad, but was eventually abandoned. They later used the Super NES video game Mario Paint to create the first cartoon featuring
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#17327874939324836-420: The brand for online audiences with a new cast, and created a separate mobile series to air on Sprint PCS Vision-enabled phones. St. John and partner Todd Fisher produced over 2,500 daily videos of the first American mobile phone soap, driving story lines across platforms to the web counterpart, The Spot (2.0). The same year, Microsoft launched MSN Video, which featured the original web series Weird TV 2000 ,
4929-652: The brothers also worked to transfer the older Flash content into video format for archival purposes. Prior to Flash's discontinuation, the Internet Archive included Homestar Runner content in its collection of Flash animations and games. The content is directly viewable in modern browsers through the Ruffle Flash emulator. The Homestar Runner website itself was also updated to use Ruffle, restoring much of its original functionality. Homestar Runner cartoons typically center on Homestar Runner, Strong Bad, and
5022-442: The brothers through sales of related merchandise. Both brothers were married by 2010 and had their children to care for, and they recognized that they would need to find other jobs to support their respective families. When Matt had a second daughter, the two agreed to put the series on hiatus, knowing they would want to come back to it but could not guarantee a time frame. Mike also noted that they had spent nearly ten years delivering
5115-564: The cartoon, such as Secret Collect , StrongBadZone , and Strong Bad's RhinoFeeder , all parodies of early Atari and arcade games, originating in the Strong Bad Email video games . TROGDOR! which previously appeared in the Arcade Game short, features the titular dragon Trogdor the Burninator attempting to burn all the cottages on each stage without being slain by knights. A spin-off of TROGDOR! , called Peasant's Quest ,
5208-403: The character Strong Bad and "Because, It's Midnite" by Limozeen, have been included in the successful Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s video games, respectively. Web series A web series (also known as webseries , short-form series , and web show ) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos , generally in episodic form , released on
5301-495: The character Crack Stuntman, the fictional voice actor for the Cheat Commandos character Gunhaver. The Homestar Runner site frequently features songs and videos within their animated shorts or as stand-alone entities. These are primarily sung and performed either by the characters or by fictitious artists serving as parodies of various genres. Real-life musicians They Might Be Giants have collaborated multiple times with
5394-588: The character Senor Cardgage), Flag Day , Independence Day , Labor Day (occasionally referred to as "Labor Dabor"), Thanksgiving , and Easter . Teen Girl Squad is a crudely drawn comic strip narrated by Strong Bad, using a falsetto voice. The series was a spin off of Strong Bad Email #53, comic , in which Strong Bad is asked to make a comic strip of a girl and her friends. The comic features four archetypal teenage girls, "Cheerleader", "So and So", "What's Her Face" and "The Ugly One", and satirizes high school life, teen movies, and television. Each episode follows
5487-399: The characters, and can now be found on the "Old Games" section of the site. Over time, more recent games have diversified and become more complex, with many being released as products of "Videlectrix", a game company within the world of Homestar Runner and a side project of The Brothers Chaps, spoofing games of the 1980s. Often the games would originate as video games played by the characters in
5580-409: The characters. Around 1999, Mike recognized how popular Flash animation was taking off, and he and his younger brother Matt Chapman started to learn Flash on their own. Looking for something on which to practice, they found inspiration in the old "children's" book. Their initial cartoons were launched on their dedicated website, homestarrunner.com, by 2000. Mike animated the cartoons, Matt provided
5673-471: The creators, whose retired parents managed many of the business aspects. The brothers considered the period between 2002–2005 to be their most creative and successful, exploring various different media for the shorts and having a large quantity of merchandise. Matt considered a day in February 2004 to be the highlight of the series, having received a demo tape from They Might Be Giants for a song to use in
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#17327874939325766-514: The designing of a web series can be similar to that of a television series their development and production does not entail the same financial investment required for a television series. The popularity of some web series, however, have led to them being optioned for television. As of 2021, a number of awards have been established to celebrate excellence in web series, like the Streamys , Webbys , IAWTV , and Indie Series Awards , although
5859-403: The end project is going to be something we want to have happen, we say yes." In 2003, the site received several million hits a month and almost a thousand emails a day. According to Matt Chapman, the site did no advertising, but grew on word of mouth and endorsements. "Certain bands, like fairly popular bands and stuff would link us on their site and, you know we were Shockwave site of the day
5952-412: The episode number ended in .0 (for example, Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 5.0), but since Marzipan changed to a new answering machine, the number ends in .2 (for example, Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 15.2). In every episode, Strong Bad prank calls Marzipan, badly pretending to be someone else, such as "Detective Everybody", "Safety Dan", and sometimes other characters. Although the animation
6045-427: The erasure of accessibility and affordability barriers. This meant that high-speed broadband and streaming video capabilities for producing and distributing a web series became a feasible alternative to "traditional" series production, which was formerly mostly done for broadcast and cable television. In comparison with traditional TV series production, web series are typically less expensive to produce. This has allowed
6138-586: The fictional band Sloshy from the Homestar Runner universe. Homestar Runner Homestar Runner is an American comedy animated web series and website created by Mike and Matt Chapman, known collectively as The Brothers Chaps . The series centers on the adventures of a large and diverse cast of characters , headed by the titular character, Homestar Runner . It uses a blend of surreal humor , self-parody, satire, and references to popular culture , in particular video games , classic television , and popular music . Homestar Runner originated in 1996 as
6231-733: The first web series festival was established, called the Los Angeles Web Series Festival . In 2008, major television studios began releasing web series, such as the ABC show "Squeegies", the NBC show Gemini Division , and the Bravo show The Malan Show . Warner Bros. relaunched The WB as an online network beginning with their first original web series, " Sorority Forever ", created and produced by Big Fantastic and executive produced by McG . Meanwhile, MTV announced
6324-414: The girls in typical high school situations, often leading to their gruesome deaths. A spinoff of this series is "4 Gregs", which follows four of the squad's nerdy classmates, all named Greg. Marzipan's Answering Machine is a series of cartoons with almost no animation. It features messages from the other characters, being played on the answering machine belonging to the character Marzipan. In early episodes,
6417-555: The glasses as an equippable cosmetic item for the Demoman in Team Fortress 2 . The game was released for PC and Mac on November 22, 2010. Trogdor!! The Board Game is a board game made by The Brothers Chaps in collaboration with James Ernest . The campaign was put on Kickstarter on Tuesday, July 17, 2018, with a goal of $ 75,000, which was surpassed in the first few hours. The campaign ended on Wednesday, August 15, 2018, with
6510-503: The initial email. Each episode closes with Strong Bad finishing his reply, closing the episode with a link to email Strong Bad appearing via "The Paper", a dot matrix printer at the top of the screen. In later episodes, it is replaced with the "New Paper", an inkjet printer ; then with the "Compé-per", a pop-up balloon ; and finally with a CGI version of the original Paper, which instead promotes Strong Bad's Twitter account. As of April 1, 2022, 209 Strong Bad Emails have been released on
6603-703: The main "shorts" and "big toons", including the most well-known, Strong Bad Email. Strong Bad Emails (also known as "sbemails") is a series featuring Strong Bad answering emails from fans. Since starting in August 2001, the initially brief episodes have grown in length and scope, introducing numerous spin-offs, characters, and inside jokes, such as Homsar, Trogdor, Senor Cardgage, 20X6 , the Teen Girl Squad shorts, and Homestar Runner Emails (also known as "hremails"). The format, however, has remained largely unchanged. Each episode typically begins with Strong Bad singing
6696-590: The main characters celebrating a traditional aspect of the holiday (such as ghost stories , trick-or-treating or pumpkin carving ) in costume, often making obscure pop culture references. The site also usually releases a separate Halloween video where Strong Bad views a slideshow and mocks and/or appraises photos sent in by real life fans of their Halloween costumes and props modeled after Homestar Runner characters and other elements. Similarly, Decemberween cartoons typically satirize Christmas traditions such as gift-giving and carol-singing. The fact that it takes place on
6789-486: The music for Strong Bad Email #99, different town , and the band wrote and vocalized the intro song of the 200th Strong Bad Email. Another group, The Skate Party, helped The Brothers Chaps create "The Cheat Theme Song". The band Y-O-U helped with the Strong Bad Sings and Other Type Hits CD, as well as songs on the strongbad_email.exe DVDs. The Brothers Chaps also employed the services of Paul and Storm of
6882-645: The origin of the name "Homestar Runner" as an in-joke between themselves and James Huggins , a childhood friend of the Chapman brothers while growing up in Dunwoody, Georgia . It actually comes from a friend of ours [James]. There was an old local grocery store commercial, and we live in Atlanta, and it advertised the Atlanta Braves . It was like, "the Atlanta Braves hit home runs, and you can hit
6975-607: The original Dangeresque: Roomisode 1 web game that adds two new episodes. On April 10, 2008, an episodic licensed game based on the series centering around Strong Bad titled Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People (abbreviated as SBCG4AP ) was announced for the Wii 's WiiWare service and Microsoft Windows, developed by Telltale Games in partnership with Videlectrix. The first episode, Homestar Ruiner , premiered on August 11, 2008 on Telltale Games' website and in North America on Nintendo's WiiWare service on August 11, 2008. It
7068-552: The other ten main characters: The Cheat, Marzipan, Coach Z, Bubs, Strong Sad, Strong Mad, Pom Pom, the King of Town, the Poopsmith, and Homsar. The Brothers Chaps have described them as “dumb animal characters”. These characters all live in the fictional town of Free Country, USA. Each character has multiple alternate versions of themselves, such as "Old-Timey" and "20X6" versions. Homestar Runner features several spin-off series from
7161-669: The rising ownership rates of these devices in industrialized nations means that web series are available to a wider range of potential viewers, including commuters, travelers, and other people who are on the go. The emerging potential for success in web video has caught the eye of some of the top entertainment executives in America, including former Disney executive and current head of the Tornante Company, Michael Eisner . Eisner's Vuguru subdivision of Tornante partnered with Canadian media conglomerate Rogers Media on October 26, 2009, securing plans to produce over 30 new web shows
7254-429: The role of one of the twelve "Keepers of Trogdor". Each Keeper has unique powers and items, both decided by cards. The game is for one to six players, and play time is 30 minutes with variable levels of difficulty the players can set. The recommended age is 14+. It comes with a mini-game titled "Stack 'Em To The Heavens" in which you stack the meeples in different ways. An album titled Trogdor!! The Board Game Rulebook EP ,
7347-529: The same day as Christmas has been presented as just a coincidence, having been stated that Decemberween takes place "55 days after Halloween". April Fools' Day features various gags, such as turning the site into a paid subscription service, or turning it upside down. Other holidays celebrated include New Year's Day , "The Big Game" (around the time of the Super Bowl ), St. Valentine's Day , Mother's Day , "Senorial Day" (a parody of Memorial Day featuring
7440-505: The series' main antagonist, becoming a breakout character. Since 2000, the site has grown to encompass a variety of cartoons and web games featuring Homestar, Strong Bad, and numerous other characters. At the peak of its popularity, the site was one of the most-visited sites with collections of Flash cartoons on the web , spreading via word of mouth . The site sustains itself through merchandise sales and has never featured advertisements . The Brothers Chaps have turned down offers to make
7533-610: The site in years. Matt confirmed their commitment to continue the series in July 2014. Since then, the site has featured occasional updates, usually for holidays. Until 2017, this was mostly due to the brothers' involvement in developing the Disney XD animated show Two More Eggs . With the impending discontinuation of Adobe Flash in December 2020, most new Homestar Runner animations were released directly as videos to YouTube ;
7626-622: The term Doge . In-universe, “Powered By The Cheat” videos are short cartoons made by the character of The Cheat, and are often music videos done for other characters. During these segments, Matt Chapman does the animation and Mike Chapman provides the voices, a switching of their usual roles. As a result, the cartoons are deliberately poorly animated. Over time, many alternate versions of the Homestar Runner world and characters would appear, parodying other cartoons and animation styles. Many of these feature in their own cartoons. The many alternate universes would later cross over in some cartoons, such as
7719-523: The title of Infoseek's "Cool Site of the Year," an award which later became the Webby. In January 1999, Showtime licensed the animated sci-fi web series WhirlGirl , making it the first independently produced web series licensed by a national television network. In February 1999, the series premiered simultaneously on Showtime and online. The character occasionally appeared on Showtime, for example hosting
7812-655: The titular character as well as characters like Strong Bad . Mike has been responsible for much of the animation, as well as the technical aspects of the Homestar Runner site. Both brothers contributed to the writing and direction of the series. For a time, Matt Chapman worked as a writer and director for the children's television series Yo Gabba Gabba! . He also worked for the Disney Channel animated series Gravity Falls and The Hub live-action series The Aquabats! Super Show! , where he also contributed occasional voice work and supporting acting roles. Matt wrote
7905-401: The voices of the male characters, and Mike's girlfriend (now wife) Missy Palmer provided the voice of Marzipan. They initially started off with shorts that featured competitions between Homestar Runner as a heroic character and Strong Bad as the villain, but these did not really capture viewers. Mike and Matt came up with the idea of animating the scenes between competitions; Matt stated "that
7998-759: The website (with another six exclusive to DVD releases), separable into distinct eras by Strong Bad's different computers; the Tandy 400, the Compy 386, the Lappy 486, the Compé, and his current computer, the Lappier. Prior to the 2010 hiatus, holiday specials were a regular feature of the site, released to coincide with popular holidays, specifically Halloween and Decemberween (a fictional holiday similar to Christmas also celebrated on December 25). Halloween shorts typically feature
8091-414: The website and its YouTube channel on an occasional basis, usually to celebrate holidays. Homestar Runner was created in Atlanta in 1996 by University of Georgia students Mike Chapman and friend Craig Zobel , who wrote the original picture book, The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest , while working summer jobs surrounding the 1996 Summer Olympics . Matt described
8184-425: Was "a cool feeling to know you're as important as a cup of coffee or morning crossword to some folks". Their father suggested Matt quit his full-time job to devote time to creating more Homestar Runner shorts. With the number of visitors to the site growing, by January 2003 the site had outgrown its original web host, Yahoo . Merchandise sales paid for all of the costs of running the website as well as living costs of
8277-624: Was also released in Europe and Australia the following Friday (August 15, 2008). The second episode, Strong Badia the Free , was released on September 15 on the WiiWare service in North America and on the Telltale Games' website, and in the PAL region on October 3. The third episode, Baddest of the Bands , was released on Telltale Games' website and the WiiWare service in North America on October 27, and to
8370-461: Was exposed during her performance, and later from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami . Karim could not easily find video clips of either event online, which led to the idea of a video sharing site. From 2003 to 2006, many independent web series began to garner and achieve significant popularity, most notably the series known as Red vs. Blue by Rooster Teeth . The series was distributed independently using online portals YouTube and Revver , as well as
8463-410: Was made to explain the rules of the game. An email worm named Lacon, which featured Homestar Runner characters, was created and distributed by someone going by the name of DimenZion in 2003. It affected 32-bit Windows computers on the 10th of each month, emailing copies of itself to contacts in the computer's address book, and also adding various .exe files to the hard drive. Its final payload showed
8556-504: Was the stuff that was funnier, the stuff happening between the plot points, which is hilarious because we hadn't even established a routine of making cartoons about competitions, we'd made like one". From May 2000 to February 2001, the website and cartoons started out with different art styles. In February 2001, it gained a new look, which has largely remained consistent to the present with minor changes. The site grew slowly at first and primarily through word-of-mouth. They were able to sell
8649-457: Was uploaded to the Internet, making Rox the first series distributed via the web. The same year, Scott Zakarin created The Spot , an episodic online story which integrated photos, videos, and blogs into the storyline. Likened to Melrose Place -on-the-Web , The Spot featured a rotating cast of characters playing trendy twenty-somethings who rented rooms in a fabled Santa Monica, California beach house called "The Spot". The Spot earned
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