HomestarRunner.com: PAY PLUS!
From Homestar Runner Wiki
It's April Fool's day and—Oh no! HomestarRunner.com is now a subscription site!
Cast (in order of appearance): Homestar Runner, Senor Cardgage, Strong Bad, The Cheat, Strong Sad's head, Strong Mad, Frank Bennedetto, Sterrance, Bubs (warped into his concession stand), Vector Strong Bad, Stinkoman, Rather Dashing {silhouetted}, Eh! Steve, The Wheelchair, Prime Time, Keyboard Strong Bad, The Worm, Sherlock, Mr. Shmallow {watermark}, Cheerleader, So and So, What's Her Face, The Ugly One, The Man with the Huge Mouth
Places: The Field, Strong Bad's Basement, Computer Room, Bubs' Concession Stand
Date: April 1, 2005
Page Title: Finally At Last!!!
Contents |
Transcript
Page One
HomestarRunner.com PAY PLUS! ONLY $12.95 MONTHLY! JUST $99.95 YEARLY! SIGN UP FOREVER! Interactive Menus!! *New annual fee! *The same content! *More banner ads! Free 7 second trial!! Join now! Subscriptions are the latest craze! Loggin' (a login box) Instant access! Take the tour!
Homestar's Seven Seconds
{Cue Homestar standing in the field. A timer counts up in the bottom left corner of the screen.}
HOMESTAR RUNNER: One... two... three... four... fi-
{The timer reaches seven; a buzzer goes off, and "TRIAL PERIOD OVER" pops up on the screen.}
Page Two
The Email Show! HomestarRunner.com PAY PLUS! ACCESS TO ALL 230+ STRONG BAD EMAILS! WEBCAM CHAT WITH THE CREATORS OR SOMEONE ELSE! Let's see a clip! SHOW ME MORE, SIR!
Strong Bad "Trap Door" Sample
{Cue Strong Bad sitting in front of his computer, flanked by the Cheat, who is holding a remote control. Homestar is standing in front of Strong Bad.}
STRONG BAD: All right, the Cheat, let 'er rip!
{The Cheat presses the button on the remote. A square hole opens under Homestar's feet. He falls about two feet and stops.}
HOMESTAR RUNNER: Woo! That was fun!
STRONG BAD: The Cheat, I thought we were opting for the bottomless pit. {Homestar starts a little dance with his feet, stepping back and forth gracefully.} ... Not a two-foot pit!
THE CHEAT: [Says something in The Cheat, probably along the lines of "It's not my fault."]
{Cut to the basement, where Strong Mad sits on the couch with Homestar's feet dancing on top of him.}
STRONG MAD: I HAVE A FUNNY HAT!
Page Three
There's more?? Why, yes. HomestarRunner.com PAY PLUS! GEE-AMES! Pay for play!! Just pennies/pixel! Members plus, fool! Actual screenshots! Fake boxes HOURS OF STREAMING VIDEO GAME FEEDS FREE SAMPLE GAME "Sign Up Today Man" 1 player simultaneous CHECK MARK! Continue Free Tour!
The free sample game resembles Space Invaders with Strong Bad against an army of Homestars coming out of the sky. The Cheat periodically falls from top to bottom and if he hits you, a message will appear saying "YOUR" "HEAD"(changes to SHIP a second later) "ASPLODE". Trying to play the game is difficult because the screen continually flashes the message "TRIAL VERSION", locking the game controls. The game also automatically closes itself after the third or fourth "TRIAL VERSION" screen, keeping you from advancing.
Page Four
HomestarRunner.com PAY PLUS! So Much More!! SWEET CUPPIN CAKES A New Episode Each Week! Meet Eh! Steve!'s Lawyer! Win a chance to have lunch with the Worm-type character! teenage girl show! Revamped for the 90's. More humor! Finer dining! See the unaired pilot, the holiday special, and the 'everybody dies' episodes! And also, too: Answering Machines out the wazoo Powered by The Cheat-athons! Senor Cardgage Wednesdays Mr. Shmallow's Webcam Extra free sample here! On the Tour?
Teen Girl Squad Sample
{Cheerleader, So and So, and The Ugly One are standing around. Cheerleader's shirt reads "sperld rott'n".}
CHEERLEADER: That stupid wheelchair kid asked me to the Friday Night Dance! But I'm going with Steven!
{Enter Eh! Steve!, wearing a football uniform with the number nine}
CHEERLEADER: {speech bubble fills with hearts} Hey, Steven!
EH! STEVE: Eh! Steve!
{Cut to Wheelchair}
WHEELCHAIR: I'll teach you to steal my date, Eh! Steve! I'm gonna come outta my shell at the Friday Night Dance and show everybody who's whooooooooooo!
{The Man with the Huge Mouth, with fairy wings, a tutu and a wand, enters and changes the Wheelchair into a realistic drawing of a wheelchair.}
STRONG BAD: {narrating} GOOD DRAWINGED!
WHEELCHAIR: I'm a real boy!
{Cut to the "It's Over!" splash screen.}
STRONG BAD: {narrating} It's over!
Page Five
View Shopping Cart
HomestarRunner.com PAY PLUS!
Join/Sign Up Today/Now!!
$19.95/month or $499.95/week... Yearly Savings!
No More Money!!
OVER 2 BILLION!!
First Name ________
Last Name ________
Nickname ________
Nick's Name ________
Month ________
D/O/B ________
Organ Donor ________
Car Keys ________
Passcode ________
WOOHOO
Page Six
Thank you for your order. You will receive your package in 6-8 weeks.
Fun Facts
Explanations
- The entire April Fool's site is a parody of the preview pages on many pay-sites on the Internet: the trial videos, the free tour that ends with a sign-up page, the tacky design and layout, and the "streaming video game feeds" all mimic said pages.
- The second page claims "ACCESS TO ALL 230+ STRONG BAD EMAILS!" when there were only 127 emails at the time it was posted. This parodies how subscription sites often flagrantly misrepresent their content.
- A recent trend for Internet entertainment sites (especially game sites) is to be free for a few years, and then the owners initiate a pay-to-play policy. Perhaps this April Fool's joke was done so the Homestar Runner site would fit the trend.
Trivia
- When the page was first released, the navigation buttons at the bottom of the page weren't there, like Under Construction.
- After the false message about 6 to 8 weeks delivery, the page always directs you to Main Page 19, The Show.
- Pressing '7' on the keyboard (or the numeric keypad) during the trial game will toggle the gray 'TRIAL VERSION' message. If it's onscreen, it will vanish. If it's not onscreen, it will appear. Holding down the 7 key rapidly toggles the message on and off. The 7 key has no effect at any other time.
- The screenshots on the first page show:
- The screenshots on the second page show:
- Strong Bad at the Tandy 400 with Sterrance (from animal) in the foreground.
- Strong Bad destroying a city (à la Godzilla).
- Strong Bad in front of Bubs' Concession Stand, which has gained Bubs' eyes and mouth.
- The third page has:
- A screenshot from StrongBadZone with the quote "A SPLODE IS A LOT".
- The boxes for the Videlectrix games Planet, Alert! and Spaceshipper.
- The sprite of Stinkoman from Stinkoman 20X6.
- A screenshot from RhinoFeeder.
- A screenshot from the Videlectrix game Rabbit Algebra.
- In the Rabbit Algebra screenshot, x is about 3.74.
- There is a background tile image, but it's only a tiny black line.
- If Homestar only made it to five at the end of the Seven Second Trial he was counting at the rate of one for every 1.4 seconds
Remarks
- None of the screenshots on the first two pages are from actual toons or emails. The StrongBadZone screenshot contains a quote not found in the game.
- Strong Bad is seen with the Tandy 400 in one of the screenshots, with Sterrance from the email animal even though that was a Lappy 486 era email.
- Saying that a new Sweet Cuppin' Cakes episode will come out every week pokes fun at the fact that Sweet Cuppin' Cakes almost never gets any new episodes.
- Except for the buttons and movie clips, all content featured on this toon are JPEGs.
- If you shoot all the Homestars in the trial game, a second wave appears.
- On the first page, the right column of pictures is entitled "Instant Access", but at the end, it states "You will receive your package in 6 - 8 weeks"
Goofs
- Pressing the back button while watching the "Let's see a clip!" preview on page 2 will not make the Clip close, but it does close if you go back to page 2. This does not work if you hit "Show me more, sir!" or on any other of the previews.
- Though if you right click and click rewind while watching the other samples, it goes to the first section. It zooms in on the game.
- In the 7 second trial (which is actually 7.15 seconds long, according to counter), the counter in the corner is counting by seconds and then 60ths of seconds. If you watch it frame by frame in the swf. file, you can see the decimal counter is going at 5 60ths of a second per frame, which means the decimal goes up by 5 every frame. At the end of any second, the counter does not go from 55 to 0, it goes from 55 to 60, and then to 65, and then to 10.
- On the "The Email Show" page, in the middle of the screen, Strong Bad's eyes are a much lighter shade of green and have lost the shadow on the tops of his eyes.
- In the .swf file, right clicking and clicking "play" will take you to the "6-8 weeks" page where normally in their toons (when viewed in .swf form), the Brothers Chaps have the cartoon already on "play" mode so that when you click it, all it does is pause the toon.
- Note that Homestar's outline is black on the 1st and 5th pages, yet on the clips, his outline is gray.
- Sterrance's black mask thing is not there in the screenshot with him in.
Inside References
- When your ship is destroyed in the trial game, the message "YOUR HEAD A SPLODE" appears, with "head" changing to "ship" a split-second later. This is an obvious reference to StrongBadZone.
- All the sprites in the trial game come from the secret games on Strong Bad's Message Bored.
- The "cred" card shown on page five belongs to Lem Sportsinterviews, who is a member of the Superfied Credit Union. This is a reference to the credit card email and to the Downloads page.
- Strong Sad's head may be a reference to the Fan Costume Commentary.
Real-World References
- The trial game is a Space Invaders clone.
- "I'm a real boy!" is an obvious reference to Pinocchio, a wooden puppet who was turned "real" and made a similar remark in at least one version of the story.
- "I'll teach you to steal my date, Eh! Steve! I'm gonna come outta my shell at the Friday Night Dance and show everybody who's who!" and the #9 jersey are references to the movie Angus.
- In the background of the Strong Bad "trapdoor" sample, the disk is labeled Hunt the Wumpus.
- The phrase on Cheerleader's dress (sperld rott'n) is very similar to the license plate on Princess Vespa's spaceship (Spoil'd Rott'n I) in Spaceballs.
- The "Interactive Menus!!!" is a clear reference to cut rate DVDs. While most DVDs offer additional features like Director Commentaries, and "Making Of" featurettes, cheap DVDs have to get by with advertising Interactive Menus as a bonus feature
External Links
- View "PAY PLUS!"
- View the Flash file for "PAY PLUS!"
- View the component flash files for:
