Discussion WMG / HomestarRunner

Trigger Loaded: This WMG was taken out for getting bogged down in natter. Certainly a concern, but seems rather drastic to delete the whole thing. I've moved most of it back into the main article, but for posterity, I'll stick the original entry, natter and all, in here:

—-

Watch Behind the Bad: Episode 2. During Strong Bad's break-in, he notices an employee's desk littered with anime figurines. He promptly tells said employee to "move out of his parents basement." While I first thought of this as a simple, throwaway joke, eventually the 2008 Thanksgiving toon and 8-bit is Enough came out. Both of these portrayed Stinkoman, the website's anime parody character, as obnoxious and annoying, different from previous appearances. (Hell, in 8-bit is Enough, Strong Bad outright states that Stinkoman is no longer "kind of cool", and has to kill him to proceed.)

This all came to a head in the toon "4 Gregs", with the character Japanese Culture Greg. He can't speak a normal sentence without interjecting a random Japanese word, none of which make any sense in context. This is atypical of the internet's (not entirely incorrect) stereotype of the common weeaboo. To bring this full circle, his first line is him suggesting that his group of friends "stare at vinyl figurines", just like the ones in the Telltale office. I can't help but think that these things are linked somehow.

• Considering how embarassing the subculture is, I'm rather surprised they haven't poked fun at them earlier.
• It gets worse: when they finally acquired the services of their Flash game programmer Johnathan Howe again around the time of Dangeresque 3's release, rather than take the opportunity to finally make the long-awaited Stinkoman 20X6 Level 10, they instead made a one-room Dangeresque adventure game. The Brothers Chaps' new-found hatred of Japanese culture may have doomed the completion of Stinkoman 20X6.
  • Johnathan Howe composed the music for every minigame in SBCG4AP. He was always in contact with the Brothers Chaps. He could have made Stinkoman level 10 at any time.
    • My reasoning for that was based upon this interview in which the Brothers Chaps say that Stinkoman 20X6 was delayed because Johnathan Howe moved away. Howe could have easily made the music from afar. Come to think of it, I suppose he also could have programmed the Dangeresque mini-adventure from afar, too, and the only reason they're putting off Stinkoman 20X6 Level 10 is because they have such epic plans for it (as mentioned in the interview) that they'd need Johnathan to be there so they could all put in the most effort possible.
      • His portrayal in the Thanksgiving toon isn't that different from, say, the time he met Old-Timey Homestar. If anything, I think it has less to do with hatred and more that they're simply making fun of another subculture, like the whole bit with sloshy and alternative rock bands. I mean, seriously, They Might Be Giants is an alternative rock band, and they provided the 200 sbemail song.
• This isn't much of a wild mass guessing, since it's partially accurate. The Brothers Chaps always had a great dislike towards not only anime/manga/japanese culture fans but fandom in general, their own fans included.
• It could just be a jab at Anti-Hero "annoying" heroes like Naruto and so on - the overconfident ones that grate and make people gravitate towards the Ensemble Dark Horse instead.
• As of the most recent Teen Girl Squad, Japanese Culture Greg is portrayed as freaky by "Greg" standards and doesn't get a date with the TGS. This theory is looking better all the time.
• I'm still not buying it. Again: sloshy, They Might Be Giants. Heck, ignoring sloshy, there's the fact that Strong Bad hates They Might Be Giants themselves judging by the commentary in Experimental Film and Crystal Fortress. Strong Bad is pretty clearly not an Author Avatar, just a very opinionated wrestleman.
  • I'll have to disagree with you on that last part. "Independent" was a pretty blatant Author Tract on the Chaps' part. I mean, there's parody, and then there's "they seem to be locked in a civil war that will hopefully end in the extermination of both sides."

Don't take life too seriously. It's only a temporary situation. Hide / Show Replies