I wasn't sure I'd ever post here. Honestly, I try to avoid this forum. You see, silly little ol' me found the HR website years ago and have been enjoying it thoroughly ever since. It wasn't until I discovered the forum that, actually, everything I liked about it sucked. It's been quite an education. I've tried to learn without thinking that anyone is a
loudmouth know-it-all, but I suppose I'm just not sophisticated enough. Minoring in literature and becoming a moderately successful writer and critic just doesn't give you the perspective you should get, apparently. Still, as ignorant as I am of the subtleties of good humor and story development, I nonetheless feel compelled to answer one of these obviously superior minds - and I would object to
anyone calling them
arrogant nitwits, so I would appreciate if no one used such terminology.
Here I go.
buhubs wrote:
Firstly:
Homestar's humor mostly subsists of either lack of intelligence or completely outrageous or weird behavior. Which gets old sometimes. Whereas Strong Bad mostly puts his own commentary on the world or great speeches about how awesome he is, which covers a really broad spectrum and leaves numerous opportunities for stories. Because of this, Homestar is thrust into situations and SB can just waltz right in.
Secondly:
Given its run so far all Hremails seem to have taken place at some talkshow format rather than his computer which can greatly wander from the fact that this is an electronic letter. We don't get the subtle text format of answers which can start small and then go places, Homestar directly runs into the random and strange as an attempt at entertainment which while fresh at first, can lose its novelty at times. Strong Bad has a computer, a nice friendly and familiar place with which he can start the e-mail just using a simple and lengthy explanation that does not sound at all like it was rehearsed or done with effort, letting his own charisma and wit carry on the life of the cartoon. A cherry topping and a..cherry bottom-ing.
Lastly (Thirdly):
Again, I know I sort of blurbed about this in the second thing, but Homestar just tries way too hard. He's not human, not even attempting to be. Over the years with the website he has proven more and more that he does not learn and he does not mature. He's proven he works much better as a side character, he's grown more and more one-dimensional. We laugh at Homestar's starring roles because of their abnormalities, but we laugh at Strong Bad's because of his reaction to them.
Maybe I reargued some points, which I apologize for but there's a reason Strong Bad (at least for some time, I know the Compy era was pretty good) Emails were such a big hit. It's because they were approachable and not at all like it stank of the writing as poor as some children's show on Nick or Disney that thrives off simple-minded humor, more about simple foibles and tendencies than a parody of them. Whereas Hremails, well...
Ah, the old over-analysis of good humor. I believe it was 20 year-old college students with goatees and ponytails who originally decided that, after careful examination and dissection of classic humor, the Marx Brothers were vastly superior to the Three Stooges. How frustrating it must have been for them that this did not cause people to immediately ditch the wiseguys for constant reruns of "Animal Crackers". Don't get me wrong, I love the Marx Brothers. Their brotherly chemistry and well-honed comic timing gave us some unparalleled moments of feature comedy - at least until "A Night at the Opera", which nonetheless suffered from the lack of Zeppo. But it's the Three Stooges everyone remembers the most. Nearly everyone who has seen television marathons of Three Stooges shorts has a favorite Stooge and many favorite moments - and this is true around the world, including in places where people who spoke no English at all and yet entire villages would gather around the one available television and laugh as the boys stumbled into their various misadventures.
Ah, but these days things are different. These days, you can't have a main character in a Hollywood comedy who isn't "cool". And I am so very uncool. I go as far as to roll my eyes every time someone begins talking to me excitedly about the latest Adam Sandler film coming out. And my temptation to smack people who tell me that they hate Winnie the Pooh but Tigger is sooooooooooo cool is so strong that it's difficult to fight at times. That might seem to be a slight change of subject, but the principle is the same. Just as you can't have an animated children's film these days without a goofy, over-the-top sidekick to sharpen the focus on how "with-it" the main character is. Insecure people want to see themselves in these "sharp-witted" (oh, how loosely I have to define that in order to use it in this context) characters.
I'd be willing to bet the Brothers Chaps are well versed in old comedy. If not, I can say they'd have been perfectly at home in that era. There simply isn't much comedy made these days that I can watch over and over again, and I find myself at the HR website every single day, if only to watch a single piece. They currently reside in my heart right next to my favorite Three Stooges shorts (you'd think that watching "Spook Louder" as many times as I have would make anyone tired of it, and yet I can't stop - Curly and the balloon is just possibly the most brilliant comedy bit I've ever seen).
And so, Mr. buhubs, I come to your comments. So today, we've got a new sbemail. I'm sure this pleases a lot of people. Now, I love Strong Bad, but I am very much with the folks here who got a little sick of him. His brand of comedy is very commonplace. It's good, but it doesn't stand out. Strong Bad has a bit more depth than the average stand-up comedian, but that's basically what he is. Without the rest of the characters, Strong Bad himself simply wouldn't keep me coming back to the site. Now, while I appreciate that you have shared your infinite wisdom about what characters we
should like and care about, I simply cannot bring myself to agree. In fact, I cannot think of any retort beyond "bite me".
I want more Homestar and there appears to be quite a few of us, as ignorant as we must be.
I hope this latest toon does not signal a return to the previous form.
Thank you.
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Some fans are too picky. Let the Chaps run the site the way they want.
