Homestar Runner: Too popular?

[Jam Torkberg]

Sometimes I am too indie for my own good.

I am finding H*R references all over the net these days, and at one time I would chortle silently to myself at getting the inside jokes.  But with each passing day I find the site's popularity grows, and as it does the people getting the jokes, not to mention the people making the jokes, grows with it.

And, as such, the jokes loose their effect on me.  As a site, television show, or anything else goes from camp to mainstream I always find that I no longer enjoy covert references or cute quotes.  Which is not to say I don't enjoy the site itself anymore.  It's as good as ever.  It's just the humor outside the site has fades.

Sort of a Simpons Vs. Family Guy situation.

You're thoughts?

[remixor]

I think it's a common thing to want to belong to more of an "exclusive club", in which you are one of a select few privy to certain jokes and so forth.  However, bear in mind that all the rest of the people who are making H*R so popular probably find it funny for the same reasons you do.  I've been visiting the site regularly for well over a year now, and I think it's great that it's getting so popular.  It's comforting to me knowing that a great ad-free high-quality source of entertainment (like AGS, btw) is so appreciated.  Just remember that there have almost always been people in "the club" longer than you (unless you're CJ or Gilbert or something in the case of AGS); that's probably the only reason you found out.  I've been a HR fan longer than anyone I personally know, but there were obviously lots of people before me, which is how I found out about it.

[Evil]

I love Strong Bad. I like stating things like "The transitive butt property" to people. I find it a nice little inside joke. Much like my love for Meat Wad and Brak. I have been long fans before adult swim. The same goes for Mother Goose's Rocking Rhyme. I know Trap will get this, "Can I fluff your tuffet!?!". Its fun to have inside jokes. And H*R is a great one...

[Trapezoid]

heh evil... it rings a bell, but unfortunately I haven't seen that movie for years.

As for Homestar... well, it's hasn't really caught on in "real life" or anything. For Pete's sake, back in the day people were just fine with liking semi-obscure things. Why does everybody have to be into ultra-obscure things now? In about ten years, I bet as soon as you find someone else who likes something you like you'll have to ditch it and find something else to like.

[Evil]

WATCH MGRR DAMNIT!

[remixor]

As for Homestar... well, it's hasn't really caught on in "real life" or anything.

Although I have seen a surprisingly high amount of people with HR clothing.  So far I've seen a black Strong Sad shirt with gothic type, a Strong Bad hoodie, a Homestar shirt, and God knows how many TROGDOR!!! shirts.  I also met a guy with a Strong Bad sticker on his refrigerator.

For Pete's sake, back in the day people were just fine with liking semi-obscure things. Why does everybody have to be into ultra-obscure things now?

Probably because there are so many more people and things now.  (I do agree that it's ridiculous though)

[MrColossal]

too popular for you maybe

these guys are just two brothers dicking around having a blast and making money off it at the same time

awesome for them

i can understand not liking something cause it's too popular but don't you think that's really silly? it's along the same lines as saying you like so and so musician and someone says "well have you heard this song and that song?" and you say, "no just a greatest hits album" and they scoff at you and say "you're not a fan at all."

lots of people like homestar and lots of people love homestar and lots of people love three brain and lots of people love sin fest [for some reason] and too many people love sprite comics.

not to sound evil or anything but bluntly, get over yourself is the only option i can offer. i had to when i thought about things like this, feeling all "but i heard of them first!" when people would mention something on the internet or when Junior Senior was on MTV2.

who cares really? good for the artist and good for people who like it, enjoy their success and enjoy their cartoons.

and enjoy the fact that the last email was from schenectady, my home town

REPRESENT!

eric

strong bad emails were played at a concert here inbetween sets, the brothers were interviewed on G4 also, there are some clips on the G4 site, i recommend

[DGMacphee]

My guess is the fan base will grow and the diehard fans will will get sick of the over-popularity, then like all fads it will die and become just a small fan base thing again.

Kinda like what happened to South Park.

[remixor]

Eric's post reminded me of a point I meant to bring up, and forgot to, which is that if you like an artist's work (whatever type of work it may be), you should be HAPPY more than anything if it becomes popular, since the artist you appreciate is gaining recognition and praise.  Remember, it's the artist's work, not anybody else's, so it's not anyone else's right to claim ownership.


I also meant to mention that I've seen this type of attitude on these forums with the whole oldies vs. newbies debates that crop up every once in a while.  Same principle.

[rodekill]

Those guys rock.
They're doing their own thing, like most of us, and it happened to work out really well for them.
Awsome.

Sometimes I wonder if I'd even be able to handle it. I mean, I barely have the time to do the Rode Kill stuff that I do now. If people actually cared... yikes.

[taryuu]

i've never thought it was that funny actually.  and yet i still keep seeing it pop up, so i guess i must be wrong.  

[TheYak]

One thought that I don't think has been mentioned.  Sometimes, it sucks to see something become mainstream.  

-Sometimes when stuff becomes popular, people decide they can charge for it. Yes, artists deserve income from work but it sucks to have to pay for something you used to get for free.

-Sometimes all the mainstream people using something makes it turn into a big puddle of suck.  Do you think there'd be as much stink about file-sharing if nobody showed their computer-neophyte friends how to get a song off Napster or Kazaa?  

-And unfortunately sometimes artists change to appeal to the masses.  I've never checked out this Homestar Runner thing so I couldn't say about this personally.  However, how many times have you heard this? "I like their music but I liked their older stuff better.  They used to rock, now they're more like pop-rocks"  Not verbatim, of course, but doesn't each of us feel that way about some group or other?  

Edit: (rather than reply) For instance, I liked Metallica a bit, at least until after the black album.  Load, reload, still loaded, motherlode and wide load all sucked (in my inexpert opinion).  I liked the stuff the foo-fighters were doing before people decided a nirvana without kurt was worth a shit.  I liked Reel Big Fish until they gained popularity, were accused of selling out and then started whining about the accusations on every album.  I dig the barenaked ladies, though.  They don't seem to have changed much.  1-2 pop-ish songs per album for the masses with the real music never seeing radio play.

[Trapezoid]

I dunno. No band will keep the same style forever, whether they're mainstream or not. If you don't like it, the fact that it's become popular is often a scapegoat.

[Jam Torkberg]

Well, I think I let that stew long enough.

First, as is my habit, a few words in my defense.  I did not one say that I no longer like H*R.  To the contrary, I state that I still enjoy the site, it is the references I see on the web outside of the site that run thin on my funny bone.

Further, I also did not mean to say that H*Rs success was a bad thing, especially not for the Brothers Chaps.  The best part of that site is that it is so isolated.  No banner ads, no pop ups.  Just some site, and they might sell stuff.

Anyway, getting past all that, I guess what I was trying to get at is that whole "club" thing, the whole "I was into that way before you" jazz.  And I know it's all horribly pretentious, and I try to keep that side of myself quiet, but I was just curious what other people thought along those lines.  I didn't mean to imply that my opinion was correct, nor that everyone should agree with me.  I just thought the subject might merit some small bit of discussion.

[MrColossal]

i totally wasn't being mean towards you jam, i hope none is felt

i think i was just bluntly stating

i love the hell out of Futurama and Invader Zim was great and Homestar is the bee's knees... but i agree when there seems to be a HUGE amount of people saying "Trogdor is teh greatest! the others suck cause trogdor rocks! HE COMES IN TEH NIIIIIIIITE!!!! LOLOLZZZZZ" it's like, woah dude, chill

and when every other word out of their mouth is a quote from Gir or whatever awesome thing is out there, again it's like Woah dude, chill.

but that's the way life goes i guess. some people have latched unhealthily on to Roger and the Bluecup in AGS and personally it gets annoying but again, they have the right to it and i have to live with that.

there will always be fan boys, despite all my napalming.

and yes, agreement goes with remixor, people who automatically jump on you with a comment "You're JUST hearing about this now?!?! JESSUS!" or have to be the one that heard of everything first first first this makes them popular LOVE THEM! make me want to die.

so just steer clear of these people and look for the lonely person in the back quoting Buckaroo Banzai

eric

[Minimi]

I love STRONGSAD!! Homestarrunner is too good to be true! Every week at least 2 new things added... strongbad email, with lots of extra secret interactions, cool movies, fun games, cool tshirts... (i have one myself!).. .everything cool!

Strongbad is so awesome! I FEEL SO LONELY!!!!!! Woot!! How about making an adventure game about homestarrunner and send it to homestarrunner.com email... and check if he likes it??!

*Minimi searches team together*

[DGMacphee]

Though I like Homestar Runner, it ain't no Seanbaby.

I miss that rainbow-haired nutjob!

[Toefur]

I have but one question: What the devil is Homestar Runner?

[remixor]

One thought that I don't think has been mentioned.  Sometimes, it sucks to see something become mainstream.  

Well, I think that was pretty much the overriding sentiment of several of these posts

-Sometimes when stuff becomes popular, people decide they can charge for it. Yes, artists deserve income from work but it sucks to have to pay for something you used to get for free.

That's often true, but there's also nothing wrong with that.  Certainly nobody likes paying for things but I think that our society has created in people too much of a feeling that they somehow deserve things for free.  I have a very unpopular attitude towards (for example) file sharing, which is that I'm in many ways against it.  I will download songs occassionally (hell, I downloaded stuff you recommended to me ), but there really are very few mp3s I have which I am not legally entitled to due to physical ownership.
In the case of Homestar, it's still free, and ad-free, and it doesn't seem like the type of thing that the creators would charge for.  If they did, though, I really couldn't complain too much.  It's great animation, it's high-quality, and it must cost them a HELL of a lot of money to maintain that server considering how many people visit that site daily.
I subscribe to Gamespot, for example.  I don't really even need all the stuff they give you with a paid subscription, but I got so fed up with people complaining about how they're a pay site now (which is really unfair--the amount of stuff they still have for free is absurdly high), and I've been using their site for so many years now that I feel they deserve my 5 bucks a month for putting out MUCH more quality content than a pay-no-matter-what print magazine.  I feel very much the same about any artist or group of people who feel their work justifies some sort of monetary compensation.  It's all well and good for us to get free stuff, but remember that in the case of almost everything, somebody really does have to pay for it.

[quality]
-Sometimes all the mainstream people using something makes it turn into a big puddle of suck.  Do you think there'd be as much stink about file-sharing if nobody showed their computer-neophyte friends how to get a song off Napster or Kazaa?  
[/quality]

Well, for one thing, it would be much harder for you to find the songs you want.  

And in the case of file-sharing, I have no problem with other people doing it (I really don't care at all), and I download songs from time to time, but I still think that it's wrong, and so far I really haven't heard an argument that's convinced me otherwise.

-And unfortunately sometimes artists change to appeal to the masses.  I've never checked out this Homestar Runner thing so I couldn't say about this personally.  However, how many times have you heard this? "I like their music but I liked their older stuff better.  They used to rock, now they're more like pop-rocks"  Not verbatim, of course, but doesn't each of us feel that way about some group or other?  

Certainly, but I'd be willing to wager that this is just as much a reflection of the listener than of the artist.  EVERY artist changes, and there will always be people who want them to keep doing the same old thing.  As a musician whose goal in life is to support himself through his band, at least for a while, I can already say that my band's style has gone through a couple major changes, and this is without any big fanbase to influence us in any way.  I can definitely see where someone who liked our original material would not like the direction we went in after that, but honestly I don't really care.  Changing BACK would pretty much be committing the same sin as changing in the first place.

Edit: (rather than reply) For instance, I liked Metallica a bit, at least until after the black album.  Load, reload, still loaded, motherlode and wide load all sucked (in my inexpert opinion).  I liked the stuff the foo-fighters were doing before people decided a nirvana without kurt was worth a shit.  I liked Reel Big Fish until they gained popularity, were accused of selling out and then started whining about the accusations on every album.  I dig the barenaked ladies, though.  They don't seem to have changed much.  1-2 pop-ish songs per album for the masses with the real music never seeing radio play.

Well, Metallica takes more shit than just about any band out there today, so I think they are perhaps not the best example.

I don't have much familiarity with the other bands you mentioned.  However, in the case of BNL (who I also don't know well, but that's irrelevant to what I'm about to say), I'm willing to bet that there are plenty of fans who feel that they DID in some way change to fit the market.  Who decides when a band has "sold out"?  When more people like them?  When they start to actually sell albums?  When they're on the radio?  When other people actually like them too?  I don't know.  


All I know is, if I ever get signed to a record label (and who the hell knows; I'm not holding my breath), I'm not going to take a bunch of crap from people telling me whether I'm selling out or not.  I think it's utterly unfair to expect a band to continue appealing to the same people they always have for the same reasons.  Bands that do that just keep the exact same fanbase for their entire existence and in all likelihood will never experience much artistic growth.

Now, all of this comes with a caveat:  Being the cynical bastard I am, I DO think that most of the stuff being played on MTV and the radio is shit (I stopped watching TV and listening to the radio largely for those reasons).  However, I firmly believe that that is entirely distinct from "selling out".  I think most bands who are really bad now probably weren't that great before, and it would be ludicrous to assume that simply because a band is on MTV now and they weren't before that they've somehow betrayed their ideals or their fans.  What if they wanted a large fanbase in the first place?  That's not my goal, but why shouldn't it be someone else's?  People have to live, and to do that you need money somehow.  It's a shitty fact, but it's the truth.  And despite everything that people say about the record industry, major-label bands quite simply DO make more money than indy bands.  Period.  Fullstop.  Whatever.  My goal is to get signed to an indy label, and I would turn down a major label, but that doesn't give me the right to look down upon artists who want greater exposure and so forth.


Yeah, this reply really digressed quite a bit.  Ah, whatever.  I'm always glad of an opportunity to spout off.

[plasticbaby]

people become easily possessive about bands, websites or whatever. they feel like they were robbed when new people come in.
i am guilty of the "i liked them better before they got popular" when i don't identify with the other fans anymore. if the evolution doesn't live up to my memories, i feel disappointed. of course it's a stupid attitude, but as long as you don't spoil the fun for the others, it's ok.

i can think of a few bands i started to listen to when nobody would talk about them. i introduced them later to some of my friends, who became fans after a while, when it got popular.
actually, i'm constantly saying "but have you heard their song x or y ?", not to brag because i know them better, but simply because i like to discuss what i know, just as i like to hear about new artists.

laugh while you can, monkeyboy !