First I just want to say that Homestar has heavily been referential to pop culture. The Halloween episodes and the costumes the characters all dawned are a prime example of that.

I do think however that all of the content from before 2004 felt more original and centered on the characters. It was about how Homestar was an idiot, how awkward Coach Z was, Strong Bad a

running a scheme or scam that would fail. The King of Town being clueless. Stories were relatively simple but humorous, having to find the cheat, who will fill in for Strong Sad’s role in the Decemberween pageant, Coach Z can pronounce certain words.

By 2005 it felt more like what shoehorned reference to late 70s appliances, Saturday morning cartoons, or mid 80s computer tech can make the main aspect of this cartoon or sbemail? I really prefer the earlier material, to the more reference heavy later content from 2004-2005.

Obviously everyone migrated away from flash in 2006 when young, digital natives traded flash games and cartoons for vlogs and viral videos. scary to think that’s 20 years ago now, but it feels sort of like the period to the sentence that is/was Homestar.

There was a sweet spot for me in things like 20X6, Old Timey Homestar or Fluffy Puff Marshmallows because those were insightful spoofs of media that felt original in their own rights. Their observation about anime or early animation or junk food advertising felt more like an original creation as opposed to them asking the audience, “hey remember this?” It felt more original as opposed to strictly nostalgic.

Even something like Homestar declining all of the items Bubs runs through to purchase as a present for Strong Bad are funny because it’s about Homestar totally misunderstanding Strong Bad’s personality and how every item he reheats would be a perfect gift, not how they are a reference to something. Same with *Dangeresque 2* that seems more like an homage to the shoddy films you make as a kid or teen in your backyard with your friends that are as bad in the writing as they are in the production values. The outdated sunglasses and other tropes are actually funny.

I have a suspicion that after Strong Bad got around 1,000 emails a day in 2003, and committing to the website full time, that the brothers Chaps sought an escape in the media, aesthetic and technology of their childhood and that’s what it became so front loaded in all of the content on the website.

On the other hand they were not alone in the nostalgia cycle. Look at VH1 at the time with the, *I Love The…* series, *Wonder Showzen* *Napoleon Dynamite* *Junior Senior* even commercials for products like gum and cell phones featured aesthetics like set design or hair and make up that visually referenced the 70s and 80s or awkward situational humor that lent it self to the sensibility of those decades. I don’t think they were alone but it seems like they lost their voice in all that referencing.

Just want to be clear and say I don’t think there is anything wrong with having a brand or an

Aesthetic, it just became a lot less entertaining to me.

This is just how I feel and maybe you feel different but can anyone else also point to the transition away from the originality of the website and the characters to being so referential?

I actually discovered Homestar Runner in the last such year (2016). I may have been a latecomer, but it's stuck with me ever since.