Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
It's funny.  Laugh. The Internet Entertainment

Homestar Runner To Return Soon 57

An anonymous reader writes with good news for everyone who loves Strong Bad.Back in April, Homestar Runner got its first content update in over four years. It was the tiniest of updates and the site went quiet again shortly thereafter, but the Internet's collective 90s kid heart still jumped for joy...The site's co-creator, Matt Chapman, popped into an episode of The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show to chat about the history of Homestar — but in the last 15 minutes or so, they get to talking about its future. The too-long-didn't-listen version: both of the brothers behind the show really really want to bring it back. The traffic they saw from their itty-bitty April update suggests people want it — but they know that may very well be a fluke. So they're taking it slow.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Homestar Runner To Return Soon

Comments Filter:
  • ...or, to a lesser extent, Z'Nuff.

  • Kickstarter (Score:5, Interesting)

    by The Larch ( 115962 ) on Wednesday July 09, 2014 @06:56PM (#47420787)
    From the interview:

    Matt: I’d just love to be making cartoons with these characters again. If it looks like there’s a possibility of doing this full time again, that’s amazing I don’t want to set expectations too high, but needless to say, we’re jonesing to do this again.

    If the Brothers Chaps really wanted to do web cartoons for a living, I bet a Homestar Runner Kickstarter would easily bring in a million or two to get them (re)started.

    • From the interview:

      Matt: IÃ(TM)d just love to be making cartoons with these characters again. If it looks like thereÃ(TM)s a possibility of doing this full time again, thatÃ(TM)s amazing I donÃ(TM)t want to set expectations too high, but needless to say, weÃ(TM)re jonesing to do this again.

      If the Brothers Chaps really wanted to do web cartoons for a living, I bet a Homestar Runner Kickstarter would easily bring in a million or two to get them (re)started.

      I would not hesitate to cont

    • Re:Kickstarter (Score:5, Interesting)

      by antifoidulus ( 807088 ) on Wednesday July 09, 2014 @08:18PM (#47421261) Homepage Journal
      Homestarrunner I think works better as a part time project. While the updates over the past few years have been sparse, they have also been very inspired and incredibly hilarious. I can't say the same about the cartoons they were making towards the end when they were doing it every week. They still may kickstart, but I would much rather see sporadic but absolutely hilarious updates to h*runner than lots of bland ones.
  • by Hsien-Ko ( 1090623 ) on Wednesday July 09, 2014 @07:19PM (#47420937)
    sbtweets.exe
  • what the hell is a Homestar Runner?
  • by Bing Tsher E ( 943915 ) on Wednesday July 09, 2014 @08:14PM (#47421239) Journal

    If it makes a comeback, please don't use Adobe Flash. I think I barely have it installed anymore in Seamonkey. I get very satisfying little windows on my browser page sometimes scolding me that my 'version is too old' that please me.

    • by jensend ( 71114 ) on Thursday July 10, 2014 @12:02AM (#47422177)

      Vector animations like Homestar Runner are the original purpose of Flash- the one thing it is actually quite good at, and has been quite good at since Macromedia released Flash 3 in 1998. That's part of how it became ubiquitous- it did one thing and did it well. Even now there isn't really a better alternative- there's nothing that has the capabilities, the cross-environment rendering consistency, the install base, and the tool support Flash vector animations have.

      It's just really unfortunate that after the Adobe acquisition Flash became a way of shoehorning a subpar and insecure "rich content platform" into that ubiquitous install base. For quite a while now streaming raster video has been a dominant use of flash, where it's been inferior to other solutions and only used because of its large install base and its support for DRM.

      • They're good at the animations and the easter eggs, but they lack things like a pause button which is really irritating if the phone or doorbell rings a little way into the video.
        • A fan on the HR Wiki created a Greasemonkey script [hrwiki.org] that adds a pause button, fast forward/rewind functions, subtitles, and a bunch of other goodies to the Homestar Runner cartoons. It makes watching them so much easier. It also makes it much easier to find the easter eggs. I am not involved with this script in any way, I just think it's cool.
    • by jensend ( 71114 )

      Oh, by the way, one of my pet peeves is seeing vector animations from Homestar Runner, AtomFilms, etc uploaded to raster streaming video sites. The original vector animations had bitrates low enough for dial-up, ran smoothly on a Pentium III, and scaled flawlessly to any resolution. The raster (usu. H264) versions frequently look much much worse despite 20x the bitrate and dedicated processing hardware.

    • Upgrade your Flash then. Flash isn't going away anytime soon.
  • I'm sorry but (Score:2, Interesting)

    instead of -abandoning- their creation, I never understood why these guys didn't sell the rights a decade ago and let adult swim or w/e run with it. They had offers. It would be alive and surely people would surely enjoy it....though of course there would be purist sourpusses at by whom to be yelled. (? english)

    And as someone who has played in horrible bands, I say, screw artistic integrity, it's 'merica. Get paid. These guys had kids, right?

    • Re:I'm sorry but (Score:5, Insightful)

      by EuclideanSilence ( 1968630 ) on Wednesday July 09, 2014 @10:58PM (#47421967)

      You can't sell creativity and a good sense of humor.

    • "And as someone who has played in horrible bands, I say, screw artistic integrity, it's 'merica."

      Admit it. That was some of the best times in your life.
      (My horrible bands: Forgiven Sin, Final Justice, FEAR, Revenge Weasel. Certainly you heard of us? :P )
      • by Anonymous Coward

        I take it you played 4 gigs. :D

    • They did get paid. H*R was selling enough merchandise for The Brothers Chaps to quit their dayjobs and work on the site full-time. What it sounds like to me is they saw opportunity to do more (other) things they wanted to do and got sucked into doing those all the time.
    • Count me among the purist sourpusses by whom they would be yelled at to be :P (englilish)

      Part of the charm of homestarrunner.net was the fact that they didn't sell out. No advertising, no product placement, no pay wall, or other attempts to monetize the web content. When they ran out of steam they just stopped updating, but kept the site intact.

      I'm glad they didn't sell their creation for forty pieces of silver... it's nice to see some artists care about integrity, even if people like you don't.

    • The cartoons were all made by Mike and Matt Chapman by themselves in Flash, and Matt and Mike's wife Missy did all of the voices. If they sold off the IP to anyone else, it would be completely different. I don't think it would be Homestar at all.
  • More like maybe!

  • by Hydrated Wombat ( 1314267 ) on Wednesday July 09, 2014 @08:58PM (#47421451)
    Ones that always are up to date and maintain the same functionality, like http://zombo.com/ [zombo.com]
  • by perlith ( 1133671 ) on Wednesday July 09, 2014 @09:51PM (#47421701)
    OK, for those who have no idea what this is (the internets is a big place):
    http://www.homestarrunner.com/ [homestarrunner.com]

    From Wikipedia:
    "Homestar Runner is a Flash-animated Internet cartoon series. It mixes surreal humor with references to retro pop culture, video games, classic television, and popular music. [....] The site is one of the most-visited sites with collections of Flash cartoons on the Internet and is notable for its refusal to sell advertising space (the creators pay for everything through merchandise sales, which includes a line of T-shirts)."

    Try this cartoon to understand a bit of the site's humor:
    http://www.homestarrunner.com/... [homestarrunner.com]
  • My apologies. It needed to be said.

  • It has to be said: (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Guy From V ( 1453391 ) on Thursday July 10, 2014 @12:26AM (#47422243) Homepage

    TROGDOOOOOOR!!!!

  • WIDESCREEEEEEEEEEEEN!

    www.homestarrunner.com/sbemailahundred.html

  • by Anonymous Coward

    I know several 80's kids who loved H*R, myself included! Not to mention several Millennials!

    • I know several 80's kids who loved H*R, myself included! Not to mention several Millennials!

      Ya, I feel the same way. I was like what about us?

  • Just so long as they don't bring Homestar Runner back as a gritty reboot [hrwiki.org]
  • Long Pants Long Pants
  • by weeboo0104 ( 644849 ) on Thursday July 10, 2014 @11:07AM (#47424741) Journal

    Dear Strong Bad,
    How do you tweet with boxing gloves on?
    I mean, you must hit that 160 character limit every time you touch your smartphone and smash all the keys at once with those things.
    Seriously, your twitter feed must look like:
    "#Strongbad -
    Adflkjad-0u91Adflkjad-0u915kl134-0udfk;lgkm;ldf-qpoilmar,madfv[pairg;lkqmer,m/. adfv[0adlm ,adlav[fqegl,mqdeg,.madfv;oja;ldknfadf890uarjo1k109afomaqer, q34t[0er"
    Sincerly,
    Chicago, IL

  • finally! some tech news worth reading.
  • CHEERLEADER! (boy crazy)
    SO-AND-SO! (math crazy)
    WHAT'S HER FACE! (whatev!)
    THE UGLY ONE! (actually crazy)

    ITS OVER

As you will see, I told them, in no uncertain terms, to see Figure one. -- Dave "First Strike" Pare

Working...