User:RickTommy

From Homestar Runner Wiki

The Poopsmith

In his first appearance, the King of Town was given a small collective of servants for Homestar to encounter as he solved the mystery of the missing sheep. The Bugler, the Knight, the Blacksmith and the Chef have since appeared in bit parts at best and disappeared at worst, but only one servant was destined for greater things.

The Poopsmith is constructed so freakish and idiosyncratic that merely looking at him is often enough to provoke laughter. His chalk-white head is elliptic, but his jaw is slightly slung forward. His eyes are different sizes, shapes and colours, and four scraggly hairs sprout from atop his skull. His most defining facial feature is his protruding lower lip which, combined with his ovoid body, makes him look curiously avian, like some sort of deformed duck. His body, in contrast to his head, is a curious flesh tone. His arms are completely contained in large orange work gloves, and his legs are two gnarled stripes. And in his hand he likely as not is holding a shovel.

Although all of the characters skirt around the issue, the Poopsmith's unenviable occupation is the handling and management of bodily waste; the origin of this bodily waste is unknown, but perhaps it is better that way. It therefore is a curiosity to note that the Poopsmith is not a repellent personality, as one might expect. Perhaps this is because the nature of the Poopsmith's job is not played up or exploited for cheap shock humour. It is merely portrayed as a job that needs to be done by someone, and nobody could say that the Poopsmith does not do his job well. He is almost always seen at his designated pile, tirelessly shovelling away without complaint or resentment. Nothing is known about his character beyond his job, but one suspects that he is defined solely by his trade. He has no identity, no personality, and no ambition to be anything but a Poopsmith.

On occasion, the Poopsmith socializes with the rest of the gang, but he seldom contributes much to the proceedings. His powerful stench understandably keeps him at arm's length, and he is also unable to communicate. The Poopsmith is mute; he reportedly has taken a vow of silence, but it is obvious that no voice could ever match his character. The Poopsmith's humour derives purely from visual slapstick, and a voice of any sort would be unnecessary. On rare occasions, the Poopsmith communicates via signboard in the classic cartoon tradition.

Like the King of Town, the Poopsmith is not especially funny because of what he says and does. His biggest laughs come from the sheer discrepancy of his presence among Homestar and the others. While it is hard for a medieval-era king to fit in among modern-day characters, it is equally difficult for a mute abnormality who shovels excrement for a living. But he tries, and by all accounts it appears that the Poopsmith is here to stay.