Recap / Homestar Runner I Killed Pom Pom

Airdate: Thursday, October 30, 2014

Costumes (in order of appearance): Homestar as Tobias Fünke, Strong Bad as Mac Tonight, Bubs as Adam Yauch as MCA as Nathan Wind as Cochese, Coach Z as A Tribe Called Quest, the King of Town as Ram-Man, The Poopsmith as Mean Machine Angel, Homsar as Dungeonmaster, Pom Pom as King-Size Homer, Strong Mad as Goro, The Cheat as Spaceman Spiff, Strong Sad as Pale Man, Marzipan as Tom Servo

Homestar tries to cover up his "murder" of Pom Pom while Strong Bad gets some European pastries.

---

Tropes

• Accidental Murder: Homestar actually kills Pom Pom when defending himself from what he thinks is Pom Pom's vengeful ghost.
• Acting Unnatural: Homestar acts perfectly natural when he asks for bleach, saw blades and body bags. It's the 12-pack of cold ones and dozen maple Bismarcks that make him crack.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: The things that Homestar enjoys about the Halloween season include "Hot tricks, cool treats, good friends, and murder!"
• Comically Missing the Point: When everyone else tries to point out that Homestar killed Pom Pom for real, Homestar replies with a deadpan "Um... duh!"
• Continuity Nod:
  • After quoting the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage", Bubs is briefly distorted with a fish-eye lens, accompanied by the "waughmp waughmp" sound effect from Fish-Eye Lens.
  • When Homestar pops Pom Pom, the resulting explosion has "one of those blast-wavy Saturn rings around it that've become so popular lately."
  • In one Strong Bad Email, Strong Bad spun him receiving a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Pom Pom into Pom Pom "exploding in a big fiery ball visible from space," like how he dies here.
  • In Where's The Cheat?, Strong Bad called Marzipan and pretended to be Homestar who had killed Pom Pom; this may be why Marzipan's response was "This again?"
• Deadly Prank: Because Strong Bad decided to keep playing along and make Homestar think he murdered Pom Pom, Homestar ultimately murders Pom Pom for real when he's lead to believe Pom Pom's ghost has come to haunt him.
  Homestar: No way, Unckie Strong Bad, you guys have shown me the light! It's time to fight murder with (snaps off the tip of Strong Bad's Mac Tonight costume) murder!
• Everyone Has Standards: Even Strong Bad is horrified when Homestar kills Pom Pom for real.
• Hammerspace: Pom Pom is easily able to fit behind Strong Bad's couch to hide from Homestar.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Homestar begins his explanation with, "It all started 117 days ago..." 117 days before Halloween, Jeff Rubin conducted an interview with Matt Chapman, discussing Homestar Runner's 4-year hiatus.
• Mistaken for Murderer: Homestar mistakes himself for a murderer when he becomes convinced that he killed Pom Pom. This is then subverted when he really does kill Pom Pom.
• Noodle Incident: When Homestar admits to Bubs and Coach Z that he killed Pom Pom, they chuckle and say they've been in situations they've had to Make It Look Like an Accident. In Coach Z's case, it might not have been accidental!
• Oh, Crap!: Homestar tries to establish an alibi claiming he was at the King of Town's castle, only for the King to pin the consumption of a pile of whatsit on Homestar.
  Homestar: Oh, crap. Literal crap.
  (The Poopsmith turns the dial on his head and brandishes his claws)
  Homestar: AH! Objection! Leading the witness! (flees)
• Oh, No... Not Again!: Marzipan's reaction to Homestar trying to pin Pom Pom's "murder" on her and Strong Sad is "This again?!"
• Overly Long Name: Bubs is dressed as Adam Yauch as MCA as Nathan Wind as Cochese.
• Perfectly Cromulent Word: Strong Sad describes himself as a "Cosplay-donnaire".
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Homestar spends so much of the cartoon under the impression that he killed Pom Pom that, when it appears that Pom Pom's ghost has come to haunt him, Homestar winds up killing Pom Pom for real.
• Sidetracked by the Analogy: When Strong Bad tells Homestar to pin his "crime" on someone else "like a corsage on a puffy-dressed prom date".
  Homestar: You mean like with a lot of blood and them going, "Ow, ow, Homestar, ow, quit it, I'm not going to prom with you anymore! And I hate Bennigan's!"
• Shout-Out:
  • Marzipan is dressed as Mystery Science Theater 3000's Tom Servo, and suggests she and Strong Sad watch a bad horror movie and "make snappy comments and obscure references while we watch it".
  • During the costume lineup, Strong Sad gets a kick out of Homestar's Elmuh Fudd Syndwome by asking him where the Dark Lord Sauron lives (since Homestar pronounces "murder" the same way as "Mordor").
  • During the costume line-up, Strong Bad and Bubs quote "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys, the music video of which was the source of Bubs' costume.
  • Coach Z quotes A Tribe Called Quest's "Check the Rhime" during the costume line-up at the end. Or tries to, at least.
    Coach Z: Bork in the days on the borlevard a Lerndon / we used ta kork routines, and the presence was fortin'!
    Homestar: Euw, maybe you were "fortin'"...
• Tongue Twister: During the costume roundup at the end, Strong Sad pokes fun at Homestar's way of pronouncing murder, which sounds similar to Mordor. Homestar gets caught up in trying to say "Orcs murdering Wargs in the land of Mordor" before hacking up some marbles and finishing the Twister with Matt Chapman's original voice. The last part properly spooks Strong Sad.
• Unexplained Recovery: Homsar reappears despite his apparent death at the end of A Decemberween Mackerel.
• Waxing Lyrical: Strong Bad and Bubs both quote "Sabotage" during the costume line-up.
  Strong Bad: I can't stand it, Cochese. I know you planned it!
  Bubs: I'ma set it straight, this Watergate!