The System is Down

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Revision as of 18:58, 2 July 2005

This is for the toon The System is Down. For the song, please see The System Is Down (song).

The system is down, yo.

In January of 2003, the Homestar Runner web site suddenly and inexplicably went down. Patient viewers then saw this short toon, cleverly disguised as an error page.

Cast (in order of appearance): Homestar Runner, Strong Bad, Bubs

Places: Error Page

Date: January 22, 2003

Running Time: 1:05

Page Title: 404 Doodoo Error

Transcript

{A typical Internet Explorer error page appears. The sound of a whistling wind is heard. Homestar Runner enters from the right.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {walks in looks at the error} Ummmm... what's going on here? What happened to my website?

{Strong Bad enters from the left.}

STRONG BAD: The system is down, yo!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Ohh...the system... Right, right.

STRONG BAD: Yeah, I think too many people tried to log on. {scratches his head} Uh.. sorry about that.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: What are you sorry for? It's my website.

STRONG BAD: Um... I don't think they're coming to see you, Homestar.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: What, you think everyone's logging on to watch "tape-leg"? Yeah, that's a good one.

STRONG BAD: Hey, shut up! The tape-leg is cool. {Stretches his hand out and to the right}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Well, when do I get my website back?

STRONG BAD: Oh, anytime now. We've got our top men working on it round-the-clock.

{Bubs enters from the left.}

BUBS: Well, I found the problem. Looks like someone tried to cram-a-lam a Swiss Cake Roll into the disk drive.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oh, really? {leaning towards Strong Bad, eyeing him suspiciously}

STRONG BAD: Uh, what are you looking at me for? I did—hut—wut—nany—huit— {runs off quickly}

{The note which looks like an error message appears, taped to the screen. It says, "Everything is fine. Nothing is ruined."}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: So, Bubs... What are you gonna do with that Swiss Cake Roll?

Fun Facts

Explanations

• This cartoon came about when the site was still on Yahoo's server. The site's popularity drove the bandwidth well into the terabytes, which Yahoo overlooked for a time only because they were all fans. They finally had to shut it down because of the intense server consumption, hence the origins of the toon.

Trivia

• At the end of the cartoon, it automatically takes you back to the Toons page.

Remarks

• There are actually two Swiss Cake Rolls cram-a-lammed in the disk drive.

Goofs

• Bubs is actually holding a motherboard, not a disk drive.
• The error page is specifically for Internet Explorer; which makes it somewhat out of place for those using an alternate browser.

Inside References

• The note that appears on the screen is from 50 emails.
• "The system is down" is from Strong Bad Email techno.
• tape-leg is a Strong Bad Email, and a running gag.

External Links

• watch "The System is Down"
• view the Flash file for "The System is Down"