LOL Interwebz: Five Things I Learned from ‘Homestar Runner’

Every Thursday in LOL Interwebz, Luke T. Harrington explores the quirks and foibles of Internet culture from a Gospel perspective.

Generally, being the Internet culture critic around here means I have to sort through mountains and mountains of terribleness (I’m pretty sure Terribleness is the official mascot of the Internet), so when something genuinely beautiful and miraculous happens, I feel lucky to be able to report it. So here you go:

Homestar Runner is coming back!

If my personal experience is at all representative of the real world, everyone within a few years of my age just cheered for joy, while everyone else just said, in unison, “What the crap is a Homestar Runner? Is that something I need to see a dermatologist about?”

And to them, I say: No! It’s not! Homestar Runner is some of the wackiest, whimsical-est, life-affirming-est cartoons you’ll ever see! It was cartoons on the Internet before cartoons on the Internet were even a thing. It was absurdist, adult-oriented animation before Adult Swim made that sort of thing cool. It’s what got me through dozens of late-night study sessions in college, and its dialogue still makes up 60% of my conversational vocabulary. (What can I say? I’m not very clever or up-to-date).  Creators Mark and Matt Chapman basically stopped updating the site several years ago.  But in July, they announced they’d be adding new content later this year.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: Luke, that’s great, but aren’t you going to Jesus-juke us about this one? And the answer is: I’m not! I don’t have to. Not everything has to connect obviously to Jesus to be a good and perfect gift that comes from above! Homestar cartoons are basically secular, but that doesn’t stop them from being life-affirming and beautiful (and funny, obviously). So let me tell you the top five things I learned from Homestar.

1. Art is an interaction

Arguably the most popular cartoon on the site is one entitled “dragon,” a fairly simple, three-minute piece in which the series’ perennial antagonist Strong Bad draws a picture of a dragon named Trogdor the Burninator and then writes a heavy metal anthem for him.

Somewhat inexplicably, it’s the go-to reference point for the site—one of a handful of toons even non-fans tend to have at least a passing familiarity with—and it never would have happened without an email from a fan.

In fact, the most popular feature of the site was always the Strong Bad Emails, in which Strong Bad would answer fan letters—and several site mainstays like Teen Girl Squad came out of it. And why not? Some might call it lazy to ask fans to guide the direction of your work, but I see it as both smart and wise—smart because it’s an easy way to keep the ideas coming, wise because it ensures fan investment in your work.

A lot of us in the West are enamored of the idea of artist as Lone, Inspired Genius, but the reality is that every new idea is the product of human interaction, and every valuable work is made for other people. Iron sharpens iron, and the best art often comes from people working together to build up a community.

2. You can be “edgy” without working “blue”

Plenty of “adult” animation series have tried to earn their stripes the cheap way, by making babies and furry animals swear (I’m looking at you, every Seth MacFarlane show ever); Homestar managed to do just the opposite. Not only did the series remain basically PG-ish, it frequently drew attention to its tameness by piling on words like “crap” and “butt.”

And yet, the site remained popular mainly with young adults.

I think the lesson here, such as it is, is that comedy does need boundaries to push against, but it doesn’t matter so much where, exactly, those boundaries are drawn. Strong Bad signing an e-mail “crapfully yours” was no less funny than hearing Stewie drop a swear on Family Guy. 

Actually, it was funnier, since Strong Bad was actually an interesting character. You take the swears away from Stewie, and there’s barely a character left.

3. Relationships can be chaotic and still be healthy

We all know a couple like Marzipan and Homestar—they fight, they break up, they get back together, they make themselves better significant others out of cardboard. (I mean, right? Or am I crazy?) And while, yes, probably some of those couples are better off apart, there’s something very true (if exaggerated) about Homestar and Marzipan—I think all relationships are Homestar and Marzipan, if you’ll forgive me for saying so. None of us are totally happy together. All of us have things we hate about our significant other. And that’s okay.

Because “true love” is less about never having problems and more about continually trying to make things work. Even if your boyfriend doesn’t wear pants or your girlfriend looks like a broom.

4. Everything is a game

Why did Homestar Runner encompass everything from crudely drawn comics like Teen Girl Squad to music videos with They Might Be Giants? Because the creators felt like it. Homestar Runner was less like a weekly TV series than an ever-expanding blob, growing in whichever direction the Brothers Chaps felt like. Every week, when I logged into the site, I knew I was going to see the exact cartoon they felt like making that week, and the result was a feeling of closeness with the artist that’s difficult to get from any other medium.

Fundamentally, Homestar always felt like a playground for two man-children, and as awful as that could have been, it was actually pure joy. The Brothers Chaps weren’t men who worked on insular art only to amuse themselves, they were artists who had a blast doing what they did and continually invited you to have a blast with them. They weren’t the bullies monopolizing the playground, but rather the kids who happened to be full of the best ideas for games and really wanted you to join in. In other words, the joy they radiated came not just from the pleasure of creating, but the pleasure of creating art to share with others. Art is about community, and if you have a blast contributing something that builds up that community, the odds are good that the community will have a blast with it as well.

5. Not everything has to make sense

Sometimes things are just funny. When Homestar says “I swallowed a bug! The good times are over!” it’s just funny. I can’t explain why it’s funny, because there’s no logic to it; it’s just funny. If you’re telling a story, and the whole thing makes sense, you’re probably doing it wrong. Not every story has to make perfect sense.

After all, real life rarely makes sense, and God is the greatest storyteller of all.

Hey, I got in a Jesus-juke after all! You’re welcome, Interwebz.