Category talk:Running Gags

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Revision as of 09:09, 7 March 2006

This should be merged with the "Inside Jokes" category.

Actually, these were branched off from the Inside Jokes category. -- Tom 17:25, 1 Jan 2005 (MST)

What, exactly, is the difference between an "Inside Joke" and a "Running Gag?" Or rather, what's the wiki's decided definition of them? Just for future knowledge, y'know. -- Queenie-C

A running gag is an ongoing joke whose humour is primarily derived from its repetition. The Cheats Head exploding is the best example of this. The best example of an inside joke is Lemke because quite frankly even with TBC explanation it really is only funny to TBC. I really take issue with something like The S is for Sucks being an "inside joke" because it really raises the question of "Who is inside/outside?" If the delineation lies between hardcore HSR fans and casual fans, that is not good enough for me. Everything on the site is an inside joke to someone who hasn’t watched it yet. I'm still not sure how to categorize articles like Batman which do a great service in tracking multiple references, but strictly are not a running gag or an inside joke. They are kind of meta-articles. - Dr Haggis - Talk 12:37, 18 Jan 2005 (MST)

Misnamed Body-parts

In the Peasant's Quest game, if you repeatedly use the crank, the game mentions exercising your "Deltoidus Rex" muscles. In the DVD-only cartoon, "Tis True, Pom-Pom, Tis True," Strong Bad claims he broke his "clavicus majorus." Both are examples of messing up the name of a body part (deltoids and clavicles, which are, ironically, both found in the shoulder) by adding the stereotypical Latin suffix "-us" to the end and then adding another latin word. This should be worth mentioning, but I don't know enough about wiki's to do it myself. Anyone wanna lend a hand? Or a boxing glove?

Kickin' The Cheat

I think we need a Kicking The Cheat page. It happened quite a few times if I remember correctly. Kvb 13:36, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

What?

Is it just me, or is saying "what?" something of an inside joke not only for 1936 but also in the modern day? 1936 Homestar says it frequently in Parsnips-a-plenty as well as the ballad for the sneak. His modern day counterpart does as well. -- Tony Stony 21:34, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Breaking Homestar's cow lamp.

Shouldn't that be a running gag? It happens in caper and garage sale

That crazy DumDe! 23:07, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

"Buy all our playsets and toys!"

Isn't this a running gag? It is in all the Cheat Commandos toons.

Matt 03:01, 14 Sep 2005 (UTC)

No, it's really just a slogan or catchphrase. Like 'Gotta Catch 'Em All!' or 'I'm Lovin' It'. --DorianGray

Eggs

The eggs are currently listed as an Inside Joke, but without coroborrating evidence (of some specific event triggering an egg* obsession on the part of the Bros. Chaps, or something specific to which they are referring, which appears not to be the case here) it seems to me they ought to be more appropriately a Running Gag; unless we have a page for Character Obsessions of Characters. cheers, ~hgr.

• Homestar Runner definitely does not have a Stupid Uncle Egg.

I think the difference between a running gag and an inside joke, it that running gags are funny for just the sake of themselves. While inside jokes are funny ether only to the creators, or the most core fans. Eggs just isn't funny without the context of a stupid uncle of a price tag. — Elcool ^(talk)_(contribs) 03:52, 17 Sep 2005 (UTC)

What about "Douglas"?

This has been referenced to (specifically, said randomly) at least three times. On a side note one could also argue a link to Douglas Adams (Privaleges and Strong Sad's Lament)-RatherAnnoying

See Category:Inside Jokes. --ENUSY , 21:48, 20 September 2005 (BST)

Hug a Tree

Hugging a tree is a situation that pops up in several places on the website (Strong Sad's Lament, SBEmails). Should that be included here?

You know what? Gather all the times someone hugged a tree and post them here. If the list is long enough, we'll make a page out of it! — Elcool ^(talk)_(contribs) 06:25, 24 Sep 2005 (UTC)

Not the original poster, but here:

Army “We'll see if those trees you're always hugging save you when Gordon Lightfoot's creeping round your back stair”

Strong sad’s lament: Homars evite : “Most (all) of the live acts will be to hug a tree.”

and “The last time he invited me to something I had to hug a tree”

Bottom 10: “4. There was this one time I had to hug a tree”

Hallrunner: It was a bat. It's too high up. You hug a tree. *0 points*

Peasants quest: Hugging the tree at the hay bale produces a reference to a well-known Byrds song. However, once you do this you seem to get stuck.

personally, I think its crazy most of you don't accept bottom 10 as a direct referance to SSL; the phrasing is identical (had to hug a tree) and homsar is strong sad's homestar afterall. anyways, lots of tree hugging references. I thought there were some instances in relation to marzipan, but none I could find. -sarducci

More argument for this being a running gag: we're always talking about literal tree-hugging here (cept maybe army, hard to tell) rather than the metaphorical tree-hugging hippies might do.

$7.50

Not that I think it's a running gag now, but I have a feeling it will become one (due to the occurences being relatively close together), so I decided to get it started here. Gillan The Villain 17:26, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

radio - "Oh, no need to bow, Fraser. Get up. Rise, my son. And giveth me instead $7.50 with which to buy some buffalo chicken tenders."

bottom 10 - "Simone, that'll be $7.50."

Somebody tried this already and it was deleted. There's simply not enough to warrant an article here. Thanks for putting it here instead of making a page though. That's how these things are supposed to work. Username-talk 17:28, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

Definite Article

Shouldn't that be a running gag? I mean, here's the list I have:

The Cheat

The Paper

The Denzel (from bedtime story)

The Teach

The Geddup Noise (maybe)

I think I may have forgot some, but it seems legitamate to me. I mean, The Cheat isn't the only one with the definite "The" in his name. -Brightstar Shiner

Oh yeah, forgot. One more:

The Homestar Runner (storybook and old-timey) -Brightstar Shiner

Go for it, Brightstar. Definite articles seem very common here. - Kookykman(t)(c)(r)

All right, I will then. -Brightstar Shiner

Food In Inedible Condition

The title needs some work, but basically I'm talking about food that is still in a package, container, etc. making it inedible.

Bronco Trolleys - the orange still has it's peel on

Cheat Commandos...O's - in the picture of the breakfast, the cup contains carmel pieces in their wrappers.

bottom 10 - Chocozuma's Revenge has brownies still in their wrappers and pudding still in a cup.

Is this enough for it's own article? - AtionSong 00:09, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

I would see if there are any more foods like that and get approval from other people besides me, but I think that's a good idea. Take into account, though, a lot of the KOT's food is inedible. Unless the title is changed, people might get confused.-Brightstar Shiner

I also found

50th Cake - Lemons still have peels

So it brings the count up to four. My new idea for the title: Food in Original Condition- AtionSong 23:51, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

I don't know; I only just now figured out what that meant, after going back and reading this section. At first glance I had no idea what it was talking about! I don't have a good suggestion, though. "Foods that need to be unwrapped or peeled..." "Food in peels or containers..." ...no, not exactly. —AbdiViklas 00:47, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

Crapfully yours...

I'm a little surprised that we haven't listed signatures like "crapfully yours", "with a lot of crap" etc. and Strong Bad's reactions to these signatures as a running gag yet. It's been seen several times on the site, and it seems that TBC themselves have accepted it as a running gag in that they make jokes about it (e.g., Strong Bad substituting "totally not getting old" in do over. Does anyone else agree that this should be added? Heimstern Läufer 06:26, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

I do. On my personal list of things to do, I have this entry: "29. Running gags: Strong Sad's elephant feet, Strong Bad being annoyed with emails signed 'crap'." — It's dot com 06:34, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

Cool, maybe I can get to work on that soon. I'm not really sure what to call the page, though. Signatures with the word "crap" comes to mind, but I'm wondering if there's a more succint way to say it. Any ideas? Heimstern Läufer 06:40, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

Well, if you think of something that fits well into the text of a sentence, then of course go with that, but otherwise, Crapfully Yours works for me. — It's dot com 06:42, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

Record Scratch

Seriously you guys, this happens in like, every toon. Yeah. So does anyone agree? :Elvis 23:06, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Yeah that is a pretty popular sound effect, they use anytime there is a sudden change in the action. I R F 23:13, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Holy Crap!

"Holy Crap!" has become a running joke on here, as it used to be Strong Bad's catch phrase, and then other characters began using it, sometimes to poke fun at Strong Bad (see Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 4.0). Email lady...ing deliberately pokes fun at SB's gratuitous use of the phrase. So I'm just wondering if anyone else believes we should list these occurrences? —  KieferSkunk (talk) — 00:03, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

Yes, why ISN'T this a page yet? o_o I mean, it's so common, yeah? --DorianGray

I dunno. It's common because it's a real-world, everyday phrase. I think lady...ing is a just special case. — It's dot com 00:13, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

Well, the MAM I pointed to also seems to specifically poke fun at Strong Bad for using the phrase, but since the phrase is so prevalent on the site, it seems appropriate to document it. I would get the process started, but I don't have time at the moment. —  KieferSkunk (talk) — 00:47, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

Breaking up

Anybody think that Homestar and Marzipan breaking up could be considered a Running Gag? It seems be referenced frequently (for example, Pumpkin Carve-nival, Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 9.2 and Halloween Potion-ma-jig, to name three). Anyone else think this is worth mentioning? Heimstern Läufer 03:03, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

That wouldn't be too bad. Although it is already mentioned in the Homestar and Marzipan section of Homestar Runner, go ahead and do it if you want. — Has Matt? (talk) 03:05, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

I was about to kind of vote the opposite: it's an interesting dynamic, and one that deserves tracking in some form, but maybe not an official Running Gag. My hesitence is that a Gag, to me, suggests something that's funny, like in a isolated-instance, make-you-laugh way. Homestar and Marzipan's nebulously-defined relationship is funny in and of itself, always. It's more of a Perpetual Humorous Oddity than a reccuring shtick. —AbdiViklas 03:10, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

You may have a point, Abdi. Still, I'd be curious to know how you'd suggest we document the phenomenon if we don't call it a Running Gag. It seems to me, furthermore, that some of things we already call Running Gags are somewhat similar to this, for example, Strong Bad's Technology. But then, maybe you think those two are different. Let me know if you have any ideas. Heimstern Läufer 03:21, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Both of you guys have a point. Still Heimstern, remember what Bubsty always said: Be bold with your editing! With articles like The Cheat's Smoking and Pizza popping up all over the place, I think that this would make a fine article. — Has Matt? (talk) 03:27, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

True, but I do like to get feedback on something like page creation. I've thought of something else, though: Marzipan and Homestar breaking up is really only part of the picture. As Abdi suggests, it's really the fact that their relationship is consistently tenuous, even when they're not breaking up (for example, Homestar saying Marzipan's butt looks big or kicking her in the shins and whatnot). So maybe the article should actually cover those aspects of their relationship too. Anyway, I think I will create the article soon, and that I'll call it a Running Gag unless anyone has a better idea. Also, does anyone have any ideas for a better title than "Homestar and Marzipan's Relationship"? That's what I'm coming up with so far. Heimstern Läufer 03:41, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

You've started the page by now; that's great. To be clearer, I do think a page on it would be great; I just wasn't sure it should be included in this category. Emphasis on not sure, though; if there's one thing I hate it's pages never getting seen because they're not mentioned in high-traffic areas or linked in ways that would encourage people to visit them. So take my comment above with a grain of salt; I guess a lot of the Running Gags I wouldn't consider true "running gags," but better in a category than in none. —AbdiViklas 04:59, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

No worries; I knew what you meant the first time. And, like you, I do see some problem with calling this a Running Gag, but I'm going to categorize it there for now at least. So, I think we're agreed on that. Perhaps you could propose that we create a category called "Perpetual Humorous Oddity"? :-) Talk atcha later. Heimstern Läufer 05:05, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Under Siege 2

Does this merit a running gag? Or an unused running gag or beheind (intentional) the scenes gag?

Sub-categorization

The following has been moved from its original user subpage User:Lapper/project. Discussion can continue below:

The following is a proposal for the re-categorization of running gags. As some users are aware, the creation of these pages has quickly grown to large numbers. This category would benefit from a break-up into several, smaller, more managable categories within Running Gags.

Article name	Proposed sub-category	Sub-category description
ABA Basketball, Graffiti, Jibblies, Kicking The Cheat, Lack of Visible Arms, Making Out, Prance, Smoking, The Cheat's Head Exploding	Activity running gags	Running gags involving sports and/or activities
Bowler Hats, Diapers, What are you supposed to be?	Clothing running gags	Running gags related to clothing
Atari 2600, Couch Mumbling, Disconnected Telephone, Internet Slang, Joy of Painting, Strong Bad's Computer Malfunctioning, Strong Bad's Technology	Electronics running gags	Running gags involving electronics
Exaggerated Strong Bad, Made-Up Body Parts, Strong Bad Lore, Strong Bad's Ladies	Exaggeration running gags	Running gags involving exaggeration or made-up exaggerated ideas
Cinnamon, Food Still In Peel or Package, Foods used as phones, Mountain Dew, Peas, Pie, Pizza	Food running gags	Running gags involving food
Best/Worst X bucks I ever spent, Buttdance, Homestar Peeking, Homestar Runner vs. Strong Bad, Homestar and Marzipan's Relationship, Homestar's Fashion Sense, Homestar's Pants, Naked Homestar, Witches' Brew	Homestar Runner running gags	Running gags explicitly related to Homestar Runner
Beverly Sportsinterviews, Dan, Fhqwhgads, Names ending in -erson, Obviously Phony Aliases, Senor, Wrestleman	Name running gags	Running gags involving people's names or aliases
BMW Lighter, Breakfast Cereal, Cardboard Boxes, Dinosaurs, Duct Tape, Ointment and Old Person Rub, Stand-up arcade games	Object running gags	Running gags related to specific objects
Bottomless Pits, Death, Double Deuce, Goats, Hyperactive Strong Sad, Twin Characters	Prank running gags	Running gags involving pranks and/or practical jokes
Crapfully Yours, DELETED, Floppy Disk Container, How Do You Type With Boxing Gloves On?, Poorly Written Emails, Tape leg	Strong Bad Email running gags	Running gags explicitly related to Strong Bad Email
-'d, All up ons, Crap, Definite Article, Dump, Foreign Words, G, Nondescript Nouns, Preeeeow, b/w	Word running gags	Running gags related to words, wording, or grammar

Discussion

The project has been completed. Thank you for your support.

[Accept] Looks good, running gags have been getting a bit unwieldy as of late. ⇔Thunderbird⇔ 01:27, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. -- Tom 01:57, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

[Accept] Man, when you first talked about it, I never thought you'll do it that good. let's do this. — Elcool ^(talk)_(contribs) 04:55, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

[Decline] The distinctions seem kind of arbitrary (e.g. "name" vs. "word"). I'm voting a very, very tenuous "not quite." -- Jweb Guru 05:07, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

As mentioned in Da Basement, feel free to tinker with the idea, including the categories' names. — Lapper (talk) 13:19, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

It just seem wrong to have Pie and How Do You Type With Boxing Gloves On? on the same category. They are totaly different things. Sure, those appear alot throughout the site, but they are still fundamentally different. — Elcool ^(talk)_(contribs) 16:08, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

[Accept] Good jorb! Homestar Coder 20:08, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

[Accept] I, too, think this is a good idea. But we may indeed need to tweak the categories a bit. More on that later. Heimstern Läufer 21:08, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

[Accept] Let's do this like brutus! — Seriously ^(Talk) 21:10, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

[Accept] Wow, I never thought of something like this. Let's get it on like Diddy Kong! — Has Matt? (talk) 00:15, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

[Accept] Good idea! but, will these be subcategories to running gags, or their own categories? Hmmm... tacos Bluebry 00:17, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

All the categories listed here will have Category:Running Gags in them. — Elcool ^(talk)_(contribs) 05:16, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

[Accept] I love this! LePorello / T / C 00:19, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

And now, for the inside jokes. An old category, even older then Running Gags, is pretty messed up. Some articles there can be re-categorized under the new categories, but what we really need is a defenition on what a running gag or an inside joke is. I think that if we find then too similar, they can be merged. Almost all the items on Inside Jokes can fit in one of the new categories.
At first, inside jokes were things that TBC put inside cartoons that only they can understand, but as the fan base grew bigger and Homestar became known to more people, interviews were made to answer those questiones. Now that we know what is a source of a joke, is it really an inside joke? And if we don't know, do we know why TBC put all the other stuff on the website? It's to hard to categorize by that, and so I say marge the two categories. — Elcool ^(talk)_(contribs) 05:10, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

I agree with E.L. Cool here. Inside jokes are only running gags that we don't understand. The second an interview shows up with the answer, it pretty much just becomes a regular running gag. It could simply be noted that these "inside jokes" are indeed "inside jokes", but filed as running gags. — Lapper (talk) 05:16, 7 March 2006 (UTC)