Under Construction

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Revision as of 19:45, 19 April 2006

"WHAAAAAAAT are you doing?"

H*R.com is down? Not registered? Coming Soon? What? Is today April Fool's Day? ... Then things get 20X6'd...

Cast (in order of appearance): Sticklyman, Stinkoman, 1-Up, Pan Pan

Date: April 1, 2004

Page Title: Coming Soon! The biggest name is Web Advertising!!

Transcript

{The setting: "www.homestarrunner.com is coming soon! This domain is reserved through thoraxcorp.com". An animated stick figure in a yellow "Under Construction" diamond shovels diligently. After about ten seconds, a pair of shiny boxing gloves appear at the bottom of the screen...}

STINKOMAN: Habila-HUP!

{...and Stinkoman leaps into the air, executing a dramatic pose before landing.}

STINKOMAN: {to stick figure} Hey, Stickly Man, {waves his arms quickly} whaaaaat are you doing?

{"Stickly Man" stands up, tosses his shovel into the air, leaps out of his diamond, performs a mid-air flip, lands, deftly catches his shovel and assumes a fighting stance.}

STINKOMAN: Correct me if I'm wrong but are you asking for a challeeeeeeenge?! {assumes fighting stance}

{Camera zooms in on Stickly Man, who spins his shovel. The shot freezes in a sketchy style with a high-pitched chime sound. Pan quickly to a close-up of Stinkoman, who executes another fighting pose, then the shot sketch-freezes again. Cut back to Stickly Man's feet, showing him running toward Stinkoman. Cut to Stinkoman's feet, running toward Stickly Man. Cut to a close-up of Stickly Man, who now appears to be getting ready to strike. Cut to Stinkoman continuing to run, then jumping up. Cut to a wider shot showing both characters jumping into each other. They hover in mid-air for a moment, then strike each other. Sketch-freeze as they collide, then the shot unfreezes and the two characters fall back to the ground. Cut to another shot. Stickly Man lands in the background, followed quickly by Stinkoman landing in a kneeling position in the foreground. The camera rack-focuses to Stickly-Man, who wobbles for a moment and then falls over. Cut to a close-up of Stinkoman.}

STINKOMAN: Dot dot dot! {accompanied by a subtitle reading ". . ."}

{Zoom out to whole page.}

STINKOMAN: Twenty exty-six! {poses with chime sound} I twenty-exty-six'd you good.

{1-Up and Pan Pan enter from the left.}

1-UP: Diiid we miss a challenge?

STINKOMAN: Where ya been, ladies? I had to take care of Stickly Man myself!

1-UP: Well, so how was it?

STINKOMAN: Ahh, it was okay. The fighting was decent, but it wasn't much of a challenge. {lies down}

PAN PAN: {Badalang, badalang, badalang}

STINKOMAN: Who-hah? {jumps back up} Good question, Pan Pan. I don't know what he was digging for. Habila-HUP!

{Stinkoman leaps into the yellow diamond. Cut to a close-up of Stinkoman, who takes a bite from the mound that Stickly Man was shoveling.}

STINKOMAN: Hey, this isn't dirt, i—it's pudding!

{Cut to a close-up of 1-Up.}

1-UP: I want pudding! {A green glob descends from his nose}

{Camera pans out to include Stinkoman in the foreground. 1-Up faces the opposite direction from the previous shot.}

STINKOMAN: We deserve a break. Eating pudding with a spoon! {holds up a spoon}

{Pan Pan falls onto 1-Up.}

{Sketch-freeze on a shot showing all three characters holding bowls and spoons. Credits roll while a short tune plays:}

executive producer
h. yamauchi

producer
s. miyahon

director
s. miyahon
ten ten

designer
ten ten

programmer
t. nakazoo
maru maru

sound composer
konchan
paul pan
storm storm

quality
wibe snodgrass

actual items
foss tony

scare tactics
poncho

elevator action
tesoro dub

crotchety gnomes
perl bess

cover ups
kevin

{"back" and "again" buttons appear at the bottom of the screen.}

Fun Facts

Explanations

• This toon was put up instead of the regular intro page on April 1st, 2004.
• thoraxcorp.com is the web site of Thorax Corporation, a fake company created by The Brothers Chaps.
• "..." is a common tool used in Japanese anime and manga. It literally means the character is "saying" nothing at all. For example, it would be used for dramatic effect in serious scenes where the character is in deep contemplation about something, or for comedic effect in slapstick anime when the character is stunned and at a loss for words. However, Stinkoman actively pronounces the ellipsis as if it were a witty one-liner, ruining the silence after his dramatic battle with Stickly Man.

Trivia

• The toon originally took up the entire page and there were no grey buttons at the bottom.
• When first released, viewers couldn't see Stickly Man during parts of the fight scene as well as after it, due to layer order. This was fixed the same day.
• "paul pan" and "storm storm" refer to Paul Sabourin and Storm DiCostanzo, the singers who performed Ballad of The Sneak. They are erstwhile members of the a cappella singing group DaVinci's Notebook
• At the end, if you click on the back button it will always go back to the 20X6 Main Page.

Remarks

• The three boxes at the bottom of the site contain some pretty funny advertisements. They are of the same quality you'd expect from Thorax Corporation. Here they are:
  • Spam Free Living!! Tired of spam-getting ventures gone horpfully wrong!! Get with the program for as low as $9.95 a month. $4.95 each additional minute. No delabors.
  • Affordable Hostings! New house? New domain? WHO HAS TIME??!? With all new Greg Hosting you can get the website you need at the lowest interest rate in 40 years! 6.2% APR
  • Guaranteed Results! Use twice daily with exorbitant food intake. After dinner mints highly recommended. Will you please quit making that horribly annoying noise!? No Prescriptions! No Credit Check! $12,000
• Stickly Man's shovel suggests a shortened Zanbato, a giant sword weilded by Sanosuke in the anime Rurouni Kenshin.

Inside References

• The "Spam Free Living!!" ad contains the word "horpfully," a reference to Coach Z's thick accent.
  • The same ad also mentions "No delabors," a line also used in the Strong Bad Email flag day.

Real-World References

• Stinkoman saying "WHAAAAAAAT are you doing?" references the Streamline dub of Akira, where the character Yamagata asks Tetsuo in a similar manner: "WHAAAAAAAT the h*** are you talking about" (the long "what" was due to the character's mouth being open for an extended period of time.)
• Stickly Man is almost certainly a reference to the popular Flash cartoon series Xiao Xiao, where stick figures battle in elaborately-choreographed fight scenes.
• The entire fight scene is completely pulled from the popular original NES game, Ninja Gaiden, which has an introduction sequence of two ninjas having a duel. The freeze-frame during the jump, and even the "..." are included.
• The first listing in the credits reads "Executive Producer H. Yamauchi." Hiroshi Yamauchi was the former president of Nintendo and appeared in the credits as executive producer in many of Nintendo's older games. There are a few other names that are also Nintendo employees, namely S. Miyahon (mistranslation of Shigeru Miyamoto) and Ten Ten (Takashi Tezuka). These are people who worked on the original Legend of Zelda game. These credits also appeared at the end of japanese cartoon.
• In the credits, "Elevator Action" is a reference to the Taito game of the same name. "Crotchety Gnomes" may be a continuation of the Legend of Zelda theme, as the game had numerous characters arguably resembling crotchety gnomes, such as Moblins, and Rauru (The Sage Of Light), found in various caves, and the end boss Ganon.
• Maru Maru is a mis-spelling of Maru Mari, the Japanese name for the Morph Ball Powerup in the NES game Metroid.

External Links

• watch "Under Construction"
• view the Flash file for "Under Construction"