Today, I'll be talking about Homestar Runner, a (somewhat old) website based around a flash animation series.
Homestar Runner started out as a mock-children's-book, written in the late 1990s. I'm not certain on the details, but essentially, a website was made, and the book was adapted into a flash animation. Eventually, a series (Strong Bad Emails) was created, with regular updates, and things really grew from there. It's since become less popular, and doesn't receive updates with any regularity, but the videos are in the process of being transferred to YouTube for more long-term storage (largely due to troubles with flash).
The site is full of inside jokes, and somewhat obscure references. It's quite intimidating, really- it can take quite some time to watch enough emails and cartoons to understand most of them. The sense of humour can be a bit odd too- it's hard to really describe, but a lot of it is based on made up words and very exaggerated character personalities. There are lots of clever jokes though, once you learn to understand them, and there's a surprising amount of continuity between episodes and emails.
One of my favourite things about the website (which also causes me a lot of stress) is the amount of easter eggs. Since the website is based on flash, there are clickable objects scattered around. Some reveal an image (oftentimes an illustration of something mentioned in the email), others lead to a short animation, and a few even have things to download like images or executables. I love the amount of extra content, but the fact that it could be hidden anywhere without my knowing is pretty overwhelming.
Honestly, my biggest complaint about Homestar Runner is probably the infrequency of uploads lately. It's partially due to the production quality increasing- videos are longer, more intricate and higher quality- but also due to outside, real-world things in the lives of the creators.
Anyways, that's gonna be it for today- hopefully you enjoyed this post!
