Recap / Homestar Runner Doomy Tales Of The Macabre

Airdate: Thursday, October 29, 2009

Costumes (in order of appearance): Strong Sad as Doyle from The Misfits, The King of Town as Colonel Mustard, Marzipan as Lola, Homestar as Crispin Glover as Rubin Farr, Coach Z as MC Skat Kat from Paula Abdul's "Opposites Attract" video, Bubs as Jules Winnfield, Pom Pom as a Pooka, the Poopsmith as Goron King Darunia^note misspelled as "Dirunia" in the toon, Homsar as Little Orphan Annie, Strong Mad as Sal from Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" video, The Cheat as The Lorax, Strong Bad as The Skull Kid.

In the darkness of his room, Strong Sad finds an outlet for his frustration at not being invited to anyone's Halloween parties through poetry:

One chillèd Hallow's Eve I rose
And sat right down to writing
For none had bothered to propose
To their parties, my inviting.
So I crafted such a macabre tale
There in my darkened room
To achieve literary justice
And send each to their doom!

As Strong Sad writes his poem, he concocts a variety of unpleasant fates for his friends and neighbors:

• Starting with "the most expendable", the King of Town is slowly lowered into a giant cauldron of mutton stew.
  King of Town: I thought these were 'Tales of the McArby', the mythical fast-food crossover sandwich of legend!
• Up next, "the fair maid Marzipan" is "considering a brand new man" after Homestar leaves his collection of toenail clippings on her toothbrush. Unfortunately, she gets stuck with Coach Z for a boyfriend, which is hardly an improvement.
  Marzipan: Nuuuuuu! Oh wait, what's that say? Noooooo!
• Coach Z... has a life so sucky he doesn't get a doomy fate, unless you count having to be Marzipan's boyfriend.
  Strong Sad: You're already Coach Z. No sense in beating a dead horse.
  Coach Z: Hey, good point!
• Over at Bubs' Concession Stand, Bubs is experimenting in order to come up with something to reduce his overhead. Instead, his concoction causes the Stand to turn into his head and bite his own head off, much to the amusement of Onion Bubs ("Welcome to my world! Eh-hehehehe!")
• Next up on the chopping block are Pom Pom and the Poopsmith. "These two non-talkers need to go / Let's eliminate a Poopsmith 'o'!" But after having the Popsmith inflate Pom Pom to the bursting point, Strong Sad realizes he still needs to think up a macabre fate for the Poopsmith.
  Strong Sad: Oh, uh, and Pom Pom was filled with a deadly gas... that killed the Popsmith... really... fast.
• Strong Sad even finds the time to visit doom upon Homsar, who is crushed not by a Heavy Lourde, but a Heavy Gourd.
• Homestar Runner is next, but it takes a few false starts for Strong Sad to find an appropriate doom for him. After giving him no knees and too many knees, Strong Sad hits pay dirt by turning Homestar into a macrame owl and hanging him from "a 70s basement wall".
• Strong Mad and The Cheat are another two-fer. As they dig into an entire dumpster full of candy, Strong Mad accidentally swallows The Cheat whole, to the horror of both. Strong Bad, meanwhile, isn't impressed.
  Strong Bad: That's not macab-er! Strong Mad eats The Cheat like four times a day. How do you think we give him baths?
  Strong Sad: Oh, fine! Well, I saved the most macabre for last!
  Strong Bad: I'd like to see you get macabré on mé...
• Strong Bad's fate is to find his e-mail answering interrupted by his boxing gloves turning into a pair of over-sized, live-action hands.
  Strong Bad: Aaah! I'm hideous! How will I ever type with these waggly-knuckled monstrosities?!

As Strong Sad concludes his collection of doomy tales, the lights come on and he's greeted by the sight of the rest of the cast showing up to wish him a happy Halloween! Or rather, a recording and a cardboard stand-up of the rest of the cast wishes him a happy Halloween.

Strong Sad: (to the audience) Heh, heh, you weren't really supposed to see that, uh... let's just flick the light back off, shall we?

---

Tropes

• Anvil on Head: The Heavy Gourd, which drops on Homsar's head.
• Ass Pull: In-universe, Strong Sad hastily improvises a doomy fate for the Poopsmith.
  (The Poopsmith has just killed Pom Pom with an air pump a la Dig Dug)
  Strong Sad: Oh, uh...and...Pom Pom was filled with a deadly gas...that killed the Popsmith...really...fast.
  [quick musical sting]
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Marzipan is so disgusted with Homestar that she consults a Crystal Ball on finding a new boyfriend...
  Strong Sad: But the gypsy forces she invoked
  Decided they would play a joke!
  • ...after which Homestar turns into Coach Z!
    Coach Z: Hey there, my little love jorb! These bunions, corns, and calluses aren't gonna pumice themselves!
• Big "NO!": Marzipan does this when Homestar turns into Coach Z, but accidentally mispronounces it.
  Marzipan: (halfheartedly) NUUUUUU! (stops suddenly) Oh, wait, what's that say? NOOOOO!
  • Also played straight when Strong Mad accidentally eats The Cheat.
• Body Horror:
  • Strong Sad inflicts it on Homestar by giving him several knees. Not that it bothers Homestar one bit.
  • He later inflicts this on Strong Bad by turning his boxing glove hands into giant, live-action human hands.
    Strong Bad: I'm hideous! How will I ever type with these waggly-knuckled monstrosities?!
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Strong Sad talks to the audience at the end of the cartoon.
• Call-Back: That Strong Sad is not invited to any Halloween Parties might be a reference to Homestarloween Party, in which is told that he could not come to the next Halloween party for ending the ghost story on a really depressing note.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Most of the punishments that Strong Sad delivers.
• Continuity Nod:
  • At the end of Homestarloween Party, everyone is so upset at what a Downer Ending that Strong Sad made the scary story that they don't invite him to next year's party (he attends anyway, and Marzipan calls him out on that).
  • Bubs' Concession Stand turning into his head is a nod to the 2005 April Fools' Day cartoon HomestarRunner.com PAY PLUS!
  • Homsar meets his doom the same way he does in his debut appearance, the Strong Bad Email "homsar", except instead of a Heavy Lourde, he is crushed by a Heavy Gourd.
  • After Bubs gets his head bitten off, Onion Bubs pops up to quip "Welcome to my world!"
• Disproportionate Retribution: The other characters didn't invite Strong Sad to their Halloween party, so he creates a macabre tale in which they're made to suffer various unpleasant fates.
• The Dog Bites Back: This entire toon is about Strong Sad doing just this, having been mistreated by almost the entire cast in some way. He saves his most macabre punishment for Strong Bad, likely payback for all the years of abuse at the latter's hands.
• Doomy Dooms of Doom: The title of the cartoon is "Doomy Tales of the Macabre".
• Dwindling Party: One by one, Strong Sad visits a terrible fate on each character. All except Coach Z, that is.
• Extreme Omnivore: Strong Mad, albeit unintentionally in this case.
• Faux Horrific: Homestar's reaction to being turned into a macrame owl.
  Homestar: Oh no! Macrame! My worst nightmare!
  Marzipan: But Macrame Owl Homestar, I give you a macrame dream catcher for Decemberween every year.
  Homestar: My point exactlyyyyy!
  • Marzipan's fate is simply having Homestar turn in to Coach Z, which Marzipan reacts to with a halfhearted Big "NO!" that she was apparently reading from a cue card.
• Forced Transformation: Homestar's doom is to be turned into a macrame owl, while Strong Bad's fate is to have his boxing glove hands turned into oversized human hands.
• Getting Eaten Is Harmless: Strong Bad protests that Strong Mad swallowing The Cheat isn't particularly "macab-er", because he does it all the time with no ill effect.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Bubs' fiendish experiment was supposed to reduce his overhead, but instead, it turns his concession stand into his head, with eyes on the stand sign and teeth hanging from the window that bite Bubs' head off!
  Strong Sad: You all know how these things go
  With unnatural creations.
  A puff of smoke, a greenish glow,
  Voila! Horrible abomination!
• Gratuitous German: Marzipan is dressed as Lola from Run Lola Run, a German movie. At the end, Strong Bad mocks her, and she responds by calling him a "Kinder Überraschung". ^{literal translation} "children surprise", a brand of German egg-shaped candy
• I Ate WHAT?!: Strong Sad punishes Strong Mad and The Cheat by having them gather a huge pile of trick-or-treat candies and start to eat them. However, Strong Mad accidentally eats The Cheat in the process, much to Strong Mad's horror.
  Strong Bad: That's not macab-er! Strong Mad eats The Cheat like four times a day. How do you think we give him baths?
• Ironic Death: The King of Town is doomed by being drowned in a giant pot of mutton stew.
• Mad Scientist: Bubs become something like this as he experiments to reduce his overhead.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: Many of the characters' reactions to their fates are comically disproportionate to the fates themselves, either over-reacting or under-reacting.
• Not so Dire: Strong Bad promptly shuts down Strong Mad's accidental devouring of The Cheat as being scary by pointing out this is a regular occurence.
  Strong Bad: Strong Mad eats The Cheat like four times a day! How do you think we give him baths?!
• Off with His Head!: How Bubs meets his doom, when his concession stand grows teeth that bite his head off.
• Painful Rhyme: During Strong Mad and The Cheat's scene:
  Strong Sad:...except for greedy trick-or-treaters, like Strong Mad and The Cheat...ers...
• Pet the Dog: Strong Sad opts to leave Coach Z alone, as his own existence is punishment enough.
• Revenge via Storytelling: The whole premise of the toon. Strong Sad doesn't get invited to any Halloween parties, so he concocts a tale in which his brothers, friends, and neighbors suffer various strange and unpleasant fates.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Strong Sad rhymes nearly all his dialogue throughout the cartoon.
• Running Gag: Throughout the cartoon, different characters keep mispronouncing the word "macabre" in different ways.
• Scare Chord: Each character's fate is accompanied by a four-note musical sting, along with images of their skulls flashing over their faces.
• Take That!: In an Easter egg at the end, Strong Bad pokes fun at The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask by saying "Oh, the evil moon is crashing into the Earth again! What a totally un-frustrating way to play a video game!"
• Tempting Fate: Homestar tells Strong Sad, "These doomy tales of macrame aren't very scary." This inspires Strong Sad to have Homestar turned into a macrame wall hanging, which finally gets to him.
• Tyop on the Cover: The ending screen says that the Poopsmith was dressed as Goron King Dirunia.
• Unishment: Strong Sad's attempts to punish Homestar don't initially work, because Homestar finds both changes (first losing his knees, then having several knees added to each leg) to be no big deal.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Bubs' reaction to accidentally turning his concession stand into his head is annoyance rather than horror.
  Bubs: Aw, this was supposed to reduce my overhead, not turn into my head!
• You Say Tomato: Strong Sad uses the British pronunciation of "macabre" - "muh-kaa-bruh", while Strong Bad pronounces it "maca-ber".
• You Will Be Spared: Strong Sad doesn't give Coach Z a fate, because being Coach Z is bad enough. "No use in beating a dead horse!"
  Coach Z: Hey, good point!