I think it’s a matter of recognising funny because it’s funny.
FWIW, it took me a long time to warm up to Homestarrunner.com. A friend would send me links about once a week after the time Penny-Arcade mentioned it long ago, and I’d always think “Who are these characters? Why is that one a wrestler? Is he Mexican? Where are that guy’s arms?” I didn’t like the fact that it wasn’t immediately obvious what these characters were supposed to be or represent. Eventually it just sort of grew on me, I’m not sure how.
It’s funny once you realize that they’re just making everything up as they go along.
- Alan
…which is exactly what I do all the time. :wink:
I think what makes it funny is that Homestar and friends have consistent and fleshed-out personalities, and exist in a complex web of very twisted relationships with each other. Once you let the whole Homestar Runner gestalt sink in, then when you watch a strongbad e-mail, or Marzipan’s answering machine, you’re not waiting for the killer punchline that never comes, you’re just enjoying the absurdity and silliness.
At its best it takes Postmodern humor to a new level. At its worst its uninspired crap.
Probably the easiest way to see it is that it parodies everything. Everything is a joke of itself and its archetype, including all of the characters. Perhaps the bravest thing about the series is that there is no “straight man”… no center, no everyman which the oddities revolve around. What this means is that relationships are chaotic since eccentricities/personality quirks play off each other instead of being seen in relation to “normality”.
In the classic humor model the default status is normal. Comedy is introduced, built up to a peak, then the laughter is attained and the comedy is diffused back to the center for another buildup. There is always a seperation between the comedy and the baseline (which is non-comedic… representing “reality”).
Postmodern humor is denoted by the whole thing being a joke. Instead of the baseline being “normality”, the baseline is a joke itself. Further jokes are simply interplays between the situation. There is no non-comedic center… jokes simply move into other jokes. I wouldn’t call Homestar Runner true (or at least complete) Postmodern Humor… it doesn’t achieve the cleanliness of the first strictly postmodern comic I ever saw… Beavis and Butthead.
The characters in Homestar Runner are setups for Postmodern Humor. The “mexican wrestler” denotes not an actual mexican wrestler but the kind of character who would want to be a mexican wrestler. The “tree-hugger”, treated extremely. Etc. Some of the characters I don’t even understand (Bubs is referencing a character, but I don’t know from where… Coach Z I don’t understand) but I assume the same idea is behind them. There is no way this kind of group would ever exist in traditional reality, if for no other reason than their personalities are self-contained. Their personalities show no effect of communication with each other. Idealized Postmodernity.
So, what’s the farthest anyone’s gotten? I played as far as level 27, and it starts to seem pretty impossible. I wonder how many levels there are anyway.
On the Trogdor game? Level 36 or 38…
Strongbad makes perfect sense if you remember what it was like being 13…
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail24.html
Pom-Pom’s PDA so rules.
Thread ARISE for the first new home screen in a decade!
I’m so glad they found a way to keep this wonderful, ludicrous website going even with Flash dead.
Made my day, finding that on twitter! Still have my Trogdor and Strongbad T-shirts from over 10 years ago!!
I can’t believe Trogdor is old enough to vote/smoke.
Good lord, rub it in
Don’t worry, you’ll be able to do those things before you know it!
I mean, he’s always been old enough to smoke…
I thought about trying to make that joke, so thank you for spiking my set.
Holy shit
Holy crap! Looks like I’m gonna have to buy!!!
So I go to the Homestar page and click on the first video “some kinda robot” and Strongbad says “this sbemail is popular with people named Frank”. Which made me think of Robot Frank who sadly seems to have mostly fallen down the internet memory hole. That movie doesn’t make searching for the real Robot Frank any easier.
Edit: I did find this:
Robot Frank
