Wired News Radio Interview - 23 Jun 2003

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Revision as of 20:53, 25 September 2005

In June of 2003, Kari Lynn Dean of Wired News Radio interviewed Mike and Matt Chapman, and then Missy Palmer, in relation to their website, Homestarrunner.com.

Transcript

KARI DEAN: Hi, I'm Kari Dean, and today on Wired News Radio we're talking to the lovably funny characters at HomestarRunner.com.

{Musical interlude, lowered during Homestar's monologue}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: They have the best snacks in the break room. Like, they have a- an entire assortment, I would- I would go so far as to say a smorgasbord of Little Debbie treats and confections.

{Music ends}

KARI DEAN: I'm joined on the phone today by brothers Mike and Matt Chapman, and Missy Palmer, the creative talent behind HomestarRunner.com. I started out by asking each of them how they became involved with the site.

MIKE CHAPMAN: Hi, I'm Mike Chapman, I'm 29 years old, I started Homestar Runner along with Craig Zobel in, uh, July of 1996, started doing the website in January of 2000. I do half of the graphics and animation and writing and, everything, {laughs} for the last three and a half years.

KARI DEAN: Okay, um, that's Mike, and Matt?

MATT CHAPMAN: Yes, I'm Matt Chapman, and I'm 26 years old, and uh, so I didn't- I was working at the theatre the summer that Mike and Craig were working at the Olympics that they came up with Homestar Runner so I didn't have a lot to do with the inception of it. Then, once uh, Mike dropped out of school and I graduated from college, and we uh, moved back in together, we started working on it together and so I've been involved since we put the website up. Uh, and I do the other half of all the writing and animating, whatnot and then except the- with the exception of Marzipan and uh, the occasional odd voice that Mike does, I do all of the voices.

KARI DEAN: And Missy?

MISSY PALMER: Um, well lets see. I was friends with Craig Zobel, and produced the movie that Matt and Mike worked on a long time ago, they were the only ones that listened to me. So, Mike and I started dating, and I uh, became the voice of Marzipan and did a little bit of writing at the beginning.

MATT CHAPMAN: So there's really, I guess there's me, Mike, Melissa, and then, three business-types.

KARI DEAN: How long ago did you have to start getting business people?

MATT CHAPMAN: Uh well, then I guess it was uh, July of 2001 Mike? Or no, 2000.

MIKE CHAPMAN: May, yeah May of 2001 we started selling shirts.

MATT CHAPMAN: Yea, May of 2001 we started selling shirts.

MIKE CHAPMAN: Then our dad was a- is a retired accountant um, and he offered to uh, you know, do that for us, send out the shirts. be the- our fulfillment. And uh, at the time it was, you know. Maybe a shirt a day. And so he was able to handle it, about six or, six months ago or so it became overwhelming, and now a fulfillment company does it.

MISSY PALMER: We- we ended up having to divide their ping-pong table into quadrants in the basement, {laughter} of their parents house. In like... 12.

MATT CHAPMAN: They were like, shipping stations.

MISSY PALMER: All the neighbors would have to come over, and fill orders.

MIKE CHAPMAN: Yeah, Christmas was a lot of fun this year... {laughter}

MATT CHAPMAN: Yeah it was great 'cause all our friends were home from, you know, school or- or wherever they lived New York or wherever and we put them all to work in our parents basement, shipping T-Shirts.

MISSY PALMER: And then the mini-van would have to run to the post office twice a day with boxes of packages. {laughter}

MATT CHAPMAN: Yea we ran a tight ship. {laughter} You know it was great, it was so-

MISSY PALMER: {unintelligible}

MATT CHAPMAN: -it was a lot of fun though, but then, since then, because of that actually, we had to- now we have um. So we have um, our dad still helps with the store, our mom still helps with like, on the side, like, I mean not even uh- she's not even officially involved, our dad is sort of officially involved, and then our sister is- is like our customer service rep. Sister Karen. And then, we have uh, like main business guy that does all the like, you know any time there's like a deal or whatever, um, he takes care of that stuff. So I guess there's really, I guess there's me, Mike, Melissa, and then three business types.

KARI DEAN: They're all relatives?

MATT CHAPMAN: And, uh well no. The, their, our guy, Mike Hascone who's kind of our main business-type is the guy that, is funny enough went to junior high with us but we were never like, really friends with. But we grew up, you know, in the same neighborhood, the same, sort of people, and he just kind of came back into our lives like, right around the time were, sort of starting to get overwhelmed, and uh, offered to help us. He had just sold like a technology company out in silicon valley and all that, and so he was like "well hey I- I" you know, a friend of his, introduced him to the site before he even realized that it was, you know, these two guys he we to high- or junior high with. And then uh, we started working with him. So he takes care of the, like the nitty-gritty. You know, the deals, and all that junk.

KARI DEAN: So um, how overwhelming is overwhelming? How many T-Shirts do you think you're shipping out in an average day?

MATT CHAPMAN: Well, in December that was like... I mean we were like, around Christmas which was ridiculous and this was running it out of our parents basement, we were doing, I mean there were days when we'd have like 400 orders a day, and um, and uh that was just, you know, picking stuff off the shelf at mom and dad's house. And now we've, we've since moved to like a fulfillment company, so it's all warehoused and they do all the shipping and stuff. And I think, you know, because you know, Christmas is obviously a- a peak point, but now I think our average- what is our average, like 300?

MIKE CHAPMAN: I guess Matt.

MATT CHAPMAN: Around 300 a day. Yea, we're pretty, we can't believe that that many people want to wear T-Shirts with our dumb animal characters on them. {laughter}

KARI DEAN: Was there, a certain point at which, um, you felt that like, you suddenly started, really taking off, or was- has it been like this from the very beginning...?

MIKE CHAPMAN: Well it's definitely not been like this. It's been pretty gradual, I think the biggest spike probably happened in about September of last year which is, uh, coincidentally and just randomly the time uh that, Matt quit his job, he had, a job at Earthlink for the previous three years, and uh, that it had just gotten to the time where we uh, had, you know were making enough off of T-Shirt sales that you could quit his job, um, we just kind of wanted to focus on it. I guess-

MATT CHAPMAN: Yea and at the time it was like an unknown, it was like-

MIKE CHAPMAN: Yea.

MATT CHAPMAN: -kind of unsure about it, you know, like-

MIKE CHAPMAN: Right.

MATT CHAPMAN: -oh I'm not gonna get the steady paycheque neccisarilly, but then immediately like, kids got back in school I guess, in collages or something, and it just went nuts. So that was very fortunite for- for me that, you know immediately I was like "okay this is gonna work out alright."

KARI DEAN: Were you guys doing some sort of PR [Public Relations] or, I mean that it just-

MATT CHAPMAN: No, I mean that it really, I mean that's been the coolest part about this, we've never done any kind of advertising, we've never- we've never really- we've just concentrated on puttin', you know-

KARI DEAN: Oh.

MATT CHAPMAN: -updating the site, and it's just seemed like word of mouth has really just sort of, done it's thing. Yea, I mean-

MIKE CHAPMAN: Yea that's why it's been-

MATT CHAPMAN: -we've been, we've been fortunite that like, you know, certain bands, like fairly popular bands and stuff would link us on their site and, you know we were sock- shockwave site of the day a couple of times over the years. But uh, so there's been things like that that definently spike it and sort of get it into maybe a little more of a mainstream internet audience. And then um... But yea, it's been really cool, I mean just to like watch it grow. I mean we've just, you know, we'll hear like our cousins, {laughs} We had a cousin, that just came back, and then uh, two of her brothers were watching it, and they knew that we did it, but she didn't even know. Like she had heard about it through- so like even our relatives would like hear about it like independantly through other people, and they'd be like "wait, my cousins do that? That's weird."

KARI DEAN: {laughs} That's amazing. That's amazing...

MATT CHAPMAN: Yea, so that's, that's really cool.

KARI DEAN: Okay. So, moving away from the business stuff, we've got lots of questions about characters and stories. One of the most pressing questions we've gotten is: "Why is Marzipan the only girl?"

MISSY PALMER: Yea, that's what I've been wondering. {laughs}

MIKE CHAPMAN: She's not the only girl anymore-

MISSY PALMER: What do you mean?

MIKE CHAPMAN: -there's Teen Girl Squad now.

MISSY PALMER: Oh, well they don't count very much...

MATT CHAPMAN: Yea, well now, Strong Bad has his own independant comic that he makes, he draws, and- and writes. And uh, and it's called Teen Girl Squad. So then there's four girls. So now we- we feel a little more comfortable, that, even though they're not technically girl characters that are interacting with everybody else, there are- there are four girl presences now, you know, on the site. In some form or fashion. And um-

MIKE CHAPMAN: And the other reason is that uh, well she get's more attention this way, right Melis?

MISSY PALMER: I don't know about that. I'm pushing for more females. {laughter}

MIKE CHAPMAN: We, it grew to a point where we-

MISSY PALMER: But, then again, I'm the most important one.

MIKE CHAPMAN: -yea. Well you- we just um- {laughter}

MATT CHAPMAN: It became a joke very quickly obviously, because she was-

MIKE CHAPMAN: Yea we didn't- we didn't mean, you know, it was just like "hey, the main charcter's gotta have a girlfriend." And then, we didn't think about it for a few months, and all of a sudden there was 11 characters and 12 characters and 11 of them were, you know... {laughter}

MATT CHAPMAN: Dudes or, androgenous shapes.

MIKE CHAPMAN: Yea all, a couple of them are just kind of weird things that, you know, I guess they're technically male but, they could just as easily be female.

MATT CHAPMAN: We had discussed that, there's a character named The Cheat, and we had discussed him having a litter of babies at one point, so. Maybe some A-sexual characters. {laughter}

MISSY PALMER: Maybe- maybe somebody will have a gender change. {laughter}

KARI DEAN: Um, you said that you invented Marzipan because your main character needed a girlfriend. That was actually a question that was posed by a few people here is: "is Marzipan really Homestar Runner's girlfriend?"

MIKE CHAPMAN: Well that, yea I think, definently back when she was created she was Homestar Runner's girlfriend-

MATT CHAPMAN: Right.

MIKE CHAPMAN: -but now it's uh-

MATT CHAPMAN: She's sort of been fleshed out.

MISSY PALMER: I'm kind of independant now.

MATT CHAPMAN: Yeah.

MIKE CHAPMAN: {simultaniously} Yeah.

KARI DEAN: So there was no offical breakup or...?

MIKE CHAPMAN: There's n-no, it's um. Homestar didn't-

MATT CHAPMAN: You know, it'd probably take a while for it to sink in with Homestar anyways, even if they did break up. He's not the sharpest, uh, knife in the drawer. It's one of those relationships like you know, I dunno, what's- what's one of the- what's- what's some sitcom relationship where it's like for seasons and seasons they're off and on and off and on, it's almost like that where they're like-

KARI DEAN: So um- I'm back to moonlighting.

MIKE CHAPMAN: {simultaniously} Moonlighting or something.

MATT CHAPMAN: -yea, like moonlighting. Exactly. {laughter}

KARI DEAN: I've noticed that, you know, it's a pretty clean site. There's, no real adult content and no swearing. Was that a concious decision?

MATT CHAPMAN: That's just sort of how who we are.-

MISSY PALMER: {unintelligible}

MATT CHAPMAN: -I mean like if we were going to make anything it would probably be, you know, I mean we would just sort of, just growing up watching TV, I mean you just sort of get into that mode where it's like... I mean I guess it's changing now, sort of getting a little more edgy and crass but, for the moment we just sort of see it as, we'd write anything like an old looney toons, or an old three stooges or an old whatever, where it's like got some, you know, definently humor that's more for adults, but not nessicarilly that it's like... Inapproprite or, I dunno. I mean it's just, I guess that's just sort of the way we'd do anything, I mean it wasn't like, a decision where like "We are going to be very clean, and- and appeal to the young children, and families". {laughter}

MIKE CHAPMAN: Also it was partly a reaction to when we started doing it in 2000, everything on the internet, all flash cartoons anyway were just kinda like South Park ripoffs and you know like this cute little cartoon character that, you know, says cus words, or this cute little cartoon character that's gay or whatever, and so it was just about-

MISSY PALMER: Crass humor.

MIKE CHAPMAN: -trying to be shocking, and, you know "hey we can make cartoons that cus now, and no one can stop us." And uh, so there was alot out that wasn't too... {unintelligible}

MATT CHAPMAN: Yeah, so we were just trying to do something that was original, was part of the, and yeah, that was definently, that was more of a challenge that we actually just like-

MIKE CHAPMAN: Yea, so what- and uh, yea, that's just the way we are too.

KARI DEAN: So, how did you develop the characters for the site?

MIKE CHAPMAN: The characters-

MATT CHAPMAN: Yea, well tell her who all came in the book.

MIKE CHAPMAN: Yea the original story was uh, Homestar and Pom Pom were kind of like best friends. And then Strong Bad, and The Cheat um, were like, sort of-

MATT CHAPMAN: The foils.

MIKE CHAPMAN: -the two bad guys. And those were the two, really the only two characters that were really {Someone unintelligible in the background corrects Mike} or four characters, from the original story. And uh, when we first started the site it was, you know, obviously going to be centered around Homestar and... You know for the most part the cartoons, the early ones, were. And it was then in uh, I think I guess in the beginning of 2001, is that right? No, in the middle of 2001 we started doing Strong Bad emails. He had already sort of become, you know everyone's favorite character. We try to get the other characters in there, as freqently as possible, so they don't get too- {Says something unintelligible due to being cut off by Missy}

MISSY PALMER: Forgotten.

MIKE CHAPMAN: {laughs} Or forgotten.

MATT CHAPMAN: Exactly.

KARI DEAN: {pause} Okay. Is there one character that you specifically identify with? So Melissa is it actually Marzipan for you?

MISSY PALMER: Oh yea.

KARI DEAN: Really? {laughter} Can- just- in a couple words, how would you describe Marzipan?

MISSY PALMER: Ummm... {pause} Oh I don't know. Maybe, um, freethinking, intelligent, charismatic, {laughs} and attractive? {laughter}

KARI DEAN: Okay. Umm, and how about Matt and Mike?

MATT CHAPMAN: Mike, you go first.

MIKE CHAPMAN: Ummm... {pause} I'm trying to think if I, {pause} I think I'm just saying this because it's my favorite character, but uh, we have, I don't know if you've ever seen those, old time black and white versions of all the characters in the whole world, the, you know, the cartoons from 1936...

KARI DEAN: Oh yea, I have seen those, I think.

MIKE CHAPMAN: They look, weird and are black and white. And that version of Homestar Runner, {laughter} Old-Timey Homestar is uh, {pause} I don't know, he's...

MATT CHAPMAN: He's a little more aloof maybe than modern Homestar.

MIKE CHAPMAN: Yea, he's- he's definently not as dumb as real Homestar, he's smarter and, um, he- he seems to know what's going on more than any other character.

MATT CHAPMAN: And he's Old-Timier, and that's always a bonus.

MIKE CHAPMAN: Yea, {laughs} exactly.

KARI DEAN: So you guys diss Homestar Runner alot, {laughs} can you give me uh, just a few words how you would describe Homestar Runner, the character, to someone.

MATT CHAPMAN: He's like um, he's like the really dumb caption of the football team, like the sort of clueless figure head, but that's like-

MIKE CHAPMAN: Because he's really nice too.

MATT CHAPMAN: -yea, he's super well intentioned-

MIKE CHAPMAN: Like he's nice to nerds...

MATT CHAPMAN: -he would never do, and- and when he, even if he is uh, mean to you, he doesn't even know, you know he's so, he has no idea you were mean to him and, er, he was mean to you, and when you were mean to him on purpose,