The Poopsmith

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Current revision as of 20:33, 28 December 2023

The Poopsmith

Domicile	The King of Town's Castle
Voiced by	John Linnell
First seen	Marshmallow's Last Stand
Debut	The King of Town
Complete Filmography
Related Articles
Character Video Character Relationships Character Evolution Other Costumes Nicknames
3D Variation

The Poopsmith is a man with a very crappy job. Literally. One of the King of Town's most loyal subjects, the Poopsmith can often be seen silently at work shoveling a massive pile of whatsit.

[edit] Characterization

Although it is unclear what exactly his job is, The Poopsmith is employed by the King of Town, apparently to shovel whatsit for a living. In Homestar Ruiner, Strong Bad describes The Poopsmith's job as being the King's "personal bodyguard/mime/poopsmith." He also works as a mail carrier, as seen in Compy Catalog. While he never seems to transfer whatsit between his constantly-soiled gloves and anything he touches, the inherently filthy nature of his job tends to keep him out of most social circles; for example, he is apparently banned for life from Strong Bad's Swimming Pool, as seen in keep cool. Despite this, he seems to be held in deep respect by the other characters. For example, Strong Bad has refrained from hurting The Poopsmith, figuring "the guy shovels crap for a living so his tolerance for pain's gotta be through the roof." He even made two cakes for The Poopsmith (though he threw one of them at Strong Sad). The Poopsmith also seems to be a good friend of Pom Pom.

During disconnected, The Poopsmith is depicted as being the King's law enforcement agent, defending the King and his "municipality" from the rock-throwing disobedience of Strong Body. He also has some musical talents: he plays the cymbals for the K.O.T.H.S. Junior Varsity Marching Band, which made its first appearance in Fall Float Parade; and is the lead vocalist for All the King's Men! despite never speaking (he simply gestures with the microphone).

In The King of Town's Very Own Quite Popular Cartoon Show!, The Poopsmith was wed to the pleasant odor of a bouquet of flowers — only for them to wilt after coming into contact with his stench.

[edit] Speech

The thought of The Poopsmith singing makes me weeeeeeeeeeak!

The Poopsmith has taken a vow of silence and almost never speaks, nor does he seem to ever display any emotions or facial expressions. He occasionally utilizes handwritten signs to communicate brief ideas or concepts. Occasionally, he will poke people or objects with his shovel as a half-gesture, similar to how his Old-Timey incarnation The Demon uses a pitchfork.

The first instance of breaking his vow outright occurred in email thunder, the landmark 200th Strong Bad Email (a narrator explains that, according to "legend", the Poopsmith breaks his vow every 200 sbemails). He sang a commemorative song at the toon's opening, voiced by John Linnell of They Might be Giants — making The Poopsmith one of the few Homestar Runner characters to not be voiced by Matt Chapman, and the only main character not voiced by a member of the Chapman family. Linnell again voiced the Poopsmith in Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 17.2, in which he discussed a dissatisfaction with both his vow of silence and poop-smithing job, pondering becoming a baker or musician before deciding to return to his life of silence.

There have been a few other possible minor exceptions:

• In Pumpkin Carve-nival, The Poopsmith (dressed as a Sleestak) hisses at Strong Bad (disguised as Homestar Runner) and The Cheat.
• In senior prom, The Poopsmith stands in front of a microphone as a part of the band All the King's Men, though he does not sing. During the email, a deep voice (similar to The Poopsmith's imaginary voice in different town) says "Oh yeah!"; characters react in shock to this and, though it is strongly implied that it was The Poopsmith speaking, he just shrugs it off. In the DVD commentary for this email, The Brothers Chaps suggest that it might instead have been The Blacksmith (or The Cleric, who did not appear in the toon).

Strong Bad has imagined the Poopsmith vocalizing:

• One of the changes Strong Bad would make in his different town is for The Poopsmith to talk. To demonstrate this, the fantasy Poopsmith says "Hello!" in a deep voice.
• In high school, Strong Bad's "doodle memory" includes a scene with "The Diapersmith" blowing a raspberry at baby Strong Sad.

Also notable:

• A storyboard for "The King of Town" showed the Poopsmith saying "Nope". This line was not included in either version of the actual toon.
• In Ever and More, The Poopsmith is seen gesticulating along with the Broternal Order of Different Helmets' chant; however, his mouth is not seen moving.

[edit] Character Design and Conception

See also The Poopsmith Evolution

a> run "mr.smith"_

From a 2003 interview with UMFM:

KEVIN SCOTT: What I like about the site is that there seems to be a conscious decision to not focus on potty humor and poo-poo jokes. But there IS the Poopsmith—
MIKE CHAPMAN: Yes, who's that whole sort of thing wrapped up into just that one character.
KEVIN: Exactly, and that, to me, is like saying, "here it is, have your cheap laugh and we'll get on with the rest of the site." Almost like you're making a joke ABOUT potty humor.
MIKE: Well, yeah. Exactly. He originally was just going to be a one-off joke in the King of Town cartoon, where it says the Blacksmith and then the Poopsmith. And that was going to be it, but then people liked him, and we actually had him appear in a few other cartoons here and there and he's sort of become a recurring character.

The Poopsmith debuted in the toon The King of Town, humorously juxtaposed between the more typical King's men of the Blacksmith and the King's Chef. None of the three figures audibly spoke in the original cartoon; though the Blacksmith and Chef would speak in the toon's remake, the Poopsmith's muteness became a fixed character trait. It's unclear if "The Poopsmith" is his actual name; occasionally he is referred to with an integral article.

The Poopsmith has a big white face with mismatched eyes. Four wispy strands of graying hair extend from his head. His mouth is almost always closed, forming an enormous underbite with a prominent pink lower lip. His body is peach-colored and egg-shaped, and he has small blue legs and feet. He wears a pair of large orange gloves stained with whatsit, and his arms and hands are almost never seen; a Halloween costume of a double amputee revealed him to only have short stumps for limbs, though Halloween costumes frequently include exaggerated changes to character's bodies. Regardless of whether he is at work or not, he is usually seen carrying a large shovel.

In the majority of Halloween toons, clicking on something related to The Poopsmith (typically his head) triggers an Easter egg featuring Homsar. As of 2015, this practice has become less common.

[edit] Character Video Transcript

See main article: The Poopsmith's Character Video

{Cut to the Poopsmith shoveling through his pile of whatsit}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {offscreen, narrating in animal show host type voice} Here we have a rare glimpse of the Poopsmith in his natural habitat. {drops narrative tone} Pretty nasty, if you ask me. Oh, {narrating} The Poopsmith has taken a vow of silence. {drops narrative tone} I'm about to take a vow of throwin' up my cookies all over this microphone. {taps microphone twice} How much is this thing worth, anyways? 'Cause it's about to be worth a lot less. No for real. The Poopsmith is a good guy. He's just got a crappy job.

[edit] Relationships

Main article: Character Relationships

• Homestar Runner and The Poopsmith's Relationship
• Pom Pom and The Poopsmith's Relationship
• Strong Bad and The Poopsmith's Relationship
• The King of Town and The Poopsmith's Relationship

[edit] Variations

The Poopsmith's duties frequently extend to doing other dirty work for the King.

• The Demon (Old-Timey)
• Mushy Chamberpot (The Castlefunnies)
• The Diapersmith (middle school)
• Petey POOPsmith (trading cards)
• The Smith (Xeriouxly Forxe)

[edit] Halloween Costumes

• Tron in Homestarloween Party
• Lazer Tag in The House That Gave Sucky Treats
• A Sleestak in Pumpkin Carve-nival
• M. Bison (from Street Fighter) in 3 Times Halloween Funjob
• Lion-O (from Thundercats) in Halloween Fairstival
• Ookla the Mok in Halloween Potion-ma-jig
• Necron 99 (from Wizards) in Happy Hallow-day
• Doc Brown from Back to the Future in Jibblies 2
• Dr. Zoidberg in Most in the Graveyard
• Goron King Darunia (from The Legend of Zelda) in Doomy Tales of the Macabre
• Mean Machine Angel in I Killed Pom Pom
• Feyd-Rautha (from the 1984 movie Dune) in The House That Gave Sucky Tricks
• Flaming Globes of Sigmund (from Seinfeld episode "The Heart Attack") in Later That Night...
• Instant Martian (from the Looney Tunes cartoon Hare-Way to the Stars) in Haunted Photo Booth
• A Sea Monkey in Mr. Poofers Must Die
• A Condorman in The Homestar Runner Enters The Spooky Woods
• 1 Guy from Andromeda (developer of Space Quest) in Halloween Hijinks
• Cobb (from Loom and Monkey Island) in Halloween Hide & Seek
• Rinzler (from Tron: Legacy) in 2022 Costume Pack Now Available
• Xur (from The Last Starfighter) in The Show: Ween Edition

[edit] See Also

• The Poopsmith Evolution
• Other Costumes
• Nicknames
• The Poopsmith's Signs
• Whatsit

[edit] External Links

• watch The Poopsmith's character video
• watch The Poopsmith's character video on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for The Poopsmith's character video