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← Older revision		Revision as of 01:53, 14 July 2026
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	=== <span class="mw-headline">Real-World References</span> ===		=== <span class="mw-headline">Real-World References</span> ===

	* "Rando" is a possible reference to ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]: [[Mystery ~~Science Theater~~ 3000: The Movie\|The Movie]]'', in which "The Amazing Rando" is a recurring joke throughout the end credits sequence.		* "Rando" is a possible reference to ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]: [[Mystery ScienceTheater 3000: The Movie\|The Movie]]'', in which "The Amazing Rando" is a recurring joke throughout the end credits sequence.

	<span id="external-links"></span>		<span id="external-links"></span>
	== <span class="mw-headline"> External Links </span> ==		== <span class="mw-headline"> External Links </span> ==

	* Click on the R on the [[Flash]] version of any [https://old.homestarrunner.com/~~main12~~.html Main Page] to see the Random Toon button in action.		* Click on the R on the [[Flash]] version of any [https://old.homestarrunner.com/main1.html Main Page] to see the Random Toon button in action.
	** On the current site, the Random Toon button only works on Main Pages [[Main Page 24\|24]], [[Main Page 25\|25]], [[Main Page 27\|27]], and [[Main Page 28\|28]].		** On the current site, the Random Toon button only works on Main Pages [[Main Page 24\|24]], [[Main Page 25\|25]], [[Main Page 27\|27]], and [[Main Page 28\|28]].
	* [https://homestarrunner.com/rando.swf view Flash file for "random toon"]		* [https://homestarrunner.com/rando.swf view Flash file for "random toon"]

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New page

''"Random" redirects here.'' ''For a random Homestar Runner Wiki article, see [/wiki/Special:Random Special:Random].''

<div class="thumb tright">

<div class="thumbinner" style="width:336px;">

[[File:The Randomiser.gif|[[File:The_Randomiser.gif|334px|thumb]]]]
<div class="thumbcaption">

'Round and 'round it goes, where it stops nobody knows...

</div>

</div>

</div>
A '''Random Toon''' function has been used in various applications on [[homestarrunner.com]] to present a viewer with a randomly selected [[Toons|toon]] for their viewing pleasure. This behavior is governed by [[XML Sources|an XML file]] containing a list of almost [[All Toons|all toons]]. As of [[Post-Flash Site Update|December 31, 2020]], its presence on the site has been reduced.

{| id="toc" class="wikitable toc" summary="Contents"
|-
| <div id="toctitle">

<span id="contents"></span>
== Contents ==

</div>
* [#Appearances 1 Appearances]
** [#Navigation_Bar 1.1 Navigation Bar]
** [#Main_Pages 1.2 Main Pages]
** [#Strong_Bad_Email 1.3 Strong Bad Email]
* [#Fun_Facts 2 Fun Facts]
** [#Trivia 2.1 Trivia]
** [#Remarks 2.2 Remarks]
** [#Goofs 2.3 Goofs]
** [#Fixed_Goofs 2.4 Fixed Goofs]
** [#Inside_References 2.5 Inside References]
** [#Real-World_References 2.6 Real-World References]
* [#External_Links 3 External Links]

|}

<span id="appearances"></span>
== <span class="mw-headline">Appearances</span> ==

<span id="navigation-bar"></span>
=== <span class="mw-headline">Navigation Bar</span> ===

In August 2005, a "'''rando'''" menu option was added to the [[Navigation Bar|navigation bar]] visible at the bottom of each page. Selecting this text redirects immediately to a randomly selected toon.

The email [[virus]] and the corresponding [[Main Page 22]] do not include the regular navbar, instead including a re-creation of it as part of their [[Flash]] files. As a result, "rando" was never added to the navbar on these two pages.

The navbar was redesigned for the December 31, 2020 update and no longer includes a "random toon" option.

<span id="main-pages"></span>
=== <span class="mw-headline">Main Pages</span> ===

''See also [[Weeklies]]''

A '''Random Toon''' button, labeled "r", was added to the [[Main Pages]] (alongside similar buttons for [[Quote of the Week]], [[Weekly Fanstuff]], and [[Sketchbook]]) on September 12, 2005. Pressing this button would summon a pop-up widget, resembling a small LCD-screened device, that would rapidly cycle through toon names before landing on one; after a moment, the page would redirect to the selected toon. Options labeled "again" or "close" would restart or abort the selection process, respectively.

After the December 31, 2020 post-Flash site update, this button was not functional — that is, it was still present on all main pages and displayed "random toon" when moused over, but had no function when clicked. Limited functionality was restored on April 16, 2025: the random function works properly on Main Pages [[Main Page 24|24]], [[Main Page 25|25]], [[Main Page 27|27]], and [[Main Page 28|28]]; on all other main pages, when the button is clicked the widget stalls on the first frame of its entrance animation (at the bottom of the page) and the page reloads.

<span id="strong-bad-email"></span>
=== <span class="mw-headline">Strong Bad Email</span> ===

<div class="thumb tright">

<div class="thumbinner" style="width:182px;">

[[File:Scroll Button Song.png|[[File:Scroll_Button_Song.png|180px|thumb]]]]
<div class="thumbcaption">

<div class="magnify">

[[File:Scroll Button Song.png|[[File:magnify-clip.png|15px|thumb]]]]

</div>
"Scroll buttons and random, you can't handle 'em!"

</div>

</div>

</div>
A similar button was also added to the top right of the [[Strong Bad Email Menu|Strong Bad Email menu]] on September 12, 2005, along with a [[Scroll Button Songs|Scroll Button Song]] referencing it. The text "'''random.bat'''" appeared in the top-right corner of the computer screen. Pressing it causes the menu to cycle through several random [[Strong Bad Email|Strong Bad Emails]] in sequence, while [[Strong Bad]] imitates the sound of a spinning prize wheel:

'''STRONG BAD:''' Brrrrrrakatakatakataka...ta..ka...tick...tick... Brring!

-----

'''STRONG BAD:''' ''{higher pitched and louder}'' Lakalakalakalaka... tuck... tuck... tuck... tuck... ''{low pitched}'' Bong.

-----

'''STRONG BAD:''' Broooodagadagadaga..da..ga..da...ga... [[Dooj]].

-----

'''STRONG BAD:''' How 'bout this one? Donk. ''{a random email is then picked without a roulette of emails}''

The email that the roulette landed on would then load.

On June 30, 2009 (after the destruction of the [[Lappy 486]] in [[hremail 3184]]), the sbemail menu switched to a [[Corpy NT6]] menu which did not include "random.bat". On August 31, the [[Compé]] menu was introduced, which included a "'''go rando!'''" button with the same functionality as the prior "random" option.

The post-Flash update reworked the Strong Bad Email menu, adding descriptions and [[homestarrunnerdotcom|YouTube]] links (where applicable) to all emails. With this update, "rando" now only selects an email without autoplaying it, allowing the user to read the description and choose whether to view on the site, view on YouTube, or select a different email.

<span id="fun-facts"></span>
== <span class="mw-headline">Fun Facts</span> ==

<span id="trivia"></span>
=== <span class="mw-headline">Trivia</span> ===

* Some of the names of toons were too long for the Main Page random box, leaving the last few letters cut off. They were soon renamed to fit. Others would still fit, but are named differently regardless.

{| class="wikitable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" style="border-collapse:collapse"
|- bgcolor="#eeeeee"
! Old Title (Letters Left Out)
! Solution
|-
| [[Homestar Presents: Presents|Homestar Presents: Present]](s)
| H*R Presents: Presents
|-
| [[HomestarRunner.com: PAY PLUS!|HomestarRunner.com: PAY PL]](US!)
| HomestarRunner.com: PAY+
|-
| [[In Search of the Yello Dello|In Search of the Yello Dell]](o)
| <span class="small">''Unfixed''</span>
|-
| [[Peasant's Quest Movie Trailer|Peasant's Quest Movie Trail]](er)
| Peasant's Quest Trailer
|-
| [[Puppet Jam: Bad Jokes]] <span class="small">''(none)''</span>
| Bad Jokes <span class="small">''(renamed for consistency)''</span>
|-
| [[Puppet Jam: Mission Control]] <span class="small">''(none)''</span>
| Mission Control <span class="small">''(renamed for consistency)''</span>
|-
| [[Puppet Jam: Tropical Lazor Beams|Puppet Jam: Tropical Lazor]](Beams)
| Tropical Lazor Beams
|-
| [[Puppet Jam: Vitamins/Celebrities|Puppet Jam: Vitamins/Celebr]](ities)
| Vitamins/Celebrities
|-
| [[Strong Bad is in Jail Cartoon|Strong Bad is in Jail Cartoo]](n)
| Strong Bad is in Jail
|-
| [[Decemberween Sweet Cuppin' Cakes|Sweet Cuppin Cakes December]](ween)
| Sweet Cuppin Cakes Dween
|-
| [[Teen Girl Squad Issue 6|Teen Girl Squad Decemberwe]](en)
| Teen Girl Squad Dween
|-
| [[The House That Gave Sucky Treats|The House That Gave Sucky T]](reats)
| House ... Sucky Treats
|-
| [[Decemberween Short Shorts]] <span class="small">''(none)''</span>
| D'ween Short Shorts
|-
| [[The King of Town's Very Own Quite Popular Cartoon Show|KOT's VOQPCS!]] <span class="small">''(none)''</span>
| KOTVOQPCS
|-
| [[Sbemail 169 Deleted Scene]] <span class="small">''(none)''</span>
| Sbemail 169 Lost Scene
|-
| [[Trogday 08]] <span class="small">''(none)''</span>
| Trogday 2008
|-
| [[Sickly Sam's Big Outing]] <span class="small">''(none)''</span>
| Big Outing
|-
| [[Twenty THANXty Six]] <span class="small">''(none)''</span>
| 20 THANXty 6
|-
| [[Hooked on Decemberween]] <span class="small">''(none)''</span>
| Hooken on D'ween
|-
| [[A Death Defying Decemberween|A Death-Defying Decemberwe]](en)
| Death Defying D'ween
|-
| [[The Homestar Runner Gets Something Stuck In His Craw|The Homestar Runner Gets S]](omething Stuck in His Craw)
| Stuck in His Craw
|-
| [[The Animated Adventures of Puppet Homestar|The Animated Adventures of P]](uppet Homestar)
| Puppet Homestar Toon
|-
| [[Doomy Tales of the Macabre]] <span class="small">''(none)''</span>
| Tales of the Macabre
|-
| [[Cheat Commandos: Two Part Episode: Part 1|2 Part Episode: Part 1]] <span class="small">''(none)''</span>
| 2 Pt Episode Pt 1
|-
| [[Cheat Commandos: Two Part Episode: Part 2|2 Part Episode: Part 2]] <span class="small">''(none)''</span>
| 2 Pt Episode Pt 2
|-
| [[A Decemberween Mackerel]] <span class="small">''(none)''</span>
| Decemberween Mackerel
|-
| [[Which Ween Costumes?]] <span class="small">''(none)''</span>
| Decemberween Costumes
|-
| [[The House That Gave Sucky Tricks|The House That Gave Sucky T]](ricks)
| <span class="small">''Unfixed''</span>
|-
| [[Later That Night...]] <span class="small">''(none)''</span>
| Halloween 2016 Cartoon
|-
| [[Homestar Runner Goes for the Gold]] <span class="small">''(none)''</span>
| HR Goes4Gold
|-
| [[Squintmojis]] <span class="small">''(none)''</span>
| Homestar Squintmojis
|-
| [[Characters from Yonder Website|Characters from Yonder Web]](site)
| <span class="small">''Unfixed''</span>
|-
| [[Dangeresque Puppet Squad: The Hot Jones Hijack|Decemberween Dangeresque]] <span class="small">''(none)''</span>
| D'ween D'esque <span class="small">''(Holiday)''</span><br />
Decemberween Puppet Squad <span class="small">''(Puppet Stuff)''</span>
|}

* The Random Toon button also resulted in [[The Brothers Chaps|the Brothers Chaps]] formatting most of the [[Puppet Stuff]] to HTML format.

<span id="remarks"></span>
=== <span class="mw-headline">Remarks</span> ===

* When the "rando" link in the navigation bar loads a Puppet Stuff, it is placed on a light blue background. This is because a Puppet Stuff is layered over another page, but the "rando" link doesn't work with this. The Random Toon button on the Main Pages does allow an external Flash link to be layered over them, so a Puppet Stuff is layered over them.
* ".bat" is the filename extension for [[Batch file|batch files]], which are text files with a series of commands intended to be executed by the [[DOS|MS-DOS]] or [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] command interpreters.
* While "random.bat" is running, the names of the various Strong Bad Emails can still be clicked as they flash on the screen.
* Shortly after being released, a number of minor changes were made to the randomizer. '''The following issues were resolved:'''
** [[Homestar and the Nice Present]] and [[Homestar vs. Little Girl]] (the two [[Decemberween in July]] puppet toons) were not originally included in the random list. A comment in the XML file read "<code></code>", indicating that they had not been forgotten.
** [[Labor Dabor]] didn't originally work, as the URLs for the HTML and SWF files were reversed in the XML.
** If the '''R''' button on the Main Page was clicked more than once (either after closing the randomizer box or while it was up), and it picked a Strong Bad Email, the email number in the URL would be larger than the correct number by the number of Strong Bad Emails (it would redirect to something like [https://homestarrunner.com/sbemail405.html sbemail405.html]). This was because it kept a counter of the emails as it read the email names from the XML file, and clicking the '''R''' again caused it to re-read the list without resetting the counter.
*** [[flashback]] was immune to this problem, as it has a different URL from the others (to distinguish it from [[Sbemail 100 Fakeout]], which itself is not in the XML list).
** The Random Toon machine didn't have the "&" or "_" symbols embedded, so [[lures & jigs]] was shown as "SBEMAIL: LURES JIGS" and [[sb email 22]] was displayed as "SBEMAIL: SBEMAIL 22".
* [[Limozeen Live (practice)|Limozeen Live!]] links to the notice for the [[Limozeen Live! - 27 Mar 2008|first concert]] instead of the toon.
* In the XML code, the newest email has the code: new="yup" after it.
* The XML document is not valid, as there is no root element in the document.

<span id="goofs"></span>
=== <span class="mw-headline"> Goofs </span> ===

* [[Sbemail 169 Deleted Scene]] links to [[An Important Rap Song]].
* [[Date Nite]] links to [[Strongest Man in the World]].
* Many cartoons are omitted from the XML list, and therefore will not be selected randomly. Currently, these are:
** [[Commandos in the Classroom]]
** [[Homestar vs. Other Little Girl]]
** [[Strong Bad is a Bad Guy]]
** [[Marshie vs. Little Girl]]
** [[Dangeresque: Puppet Squad]]
** All [[Hremails]], with the exception of [[hremail 3184|Hremail 3184]]
** [[Kick-A-Ball]]
** [[April Fool 09]]
** [[Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 17.2]]
** [[The Homestar Runner Enters The Spooky Woods]]
** [[Halloween Hijinks]]
** Any of the previously [[New Stuff]]-exclusive toons
* [[Dangeresque Puppet Squad: The Hot Jones Hijack]] is listed twice on the XML list under both Holiday and Puppet Stuff, with two different names.

<span id="fixed-goofs"></span>
=== <span class="mw-headline">Fixed Goofs</span> ===

* On Monday, January 9, 2006, when the [[Scroll Button Songs|Scroll Button Song]] was first updated, the screen did not automatically scroll to the emails as they were selected by the roulette.
* [[Strongest Man in the World]] used to appear as "Strongest Man in the Worldk" in the randomizer.
* [[The Next Epi-Snowed]] was originally listed in the XML file as <code>ccd06.html</code> instead of <code>[https://homestarrunner.com/ccdo6.html ccdo6.html]</code>.

<span id="inside-references"></span>
=== <span class="mw-headline"> Inside References </span> ===

* One of the 'random.bat' raps ends with "[[Dooj]]".

<span id="real-world-references"></span>
=== <span class="mw-headline">Real-World References</span> ===

* "Rando" is a possible reference to ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]: [[Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie|The Movie]]'', in which "The Amazing Rando" is a recurring joke throughout the end credits sequence.

<span id="external-links"></span>
== <span class="mw-headline"> External Links </span> ==

* Click on the R on the [[Flash]] version of any [https://old.homestarrunner.com/main12.html Main Page] to see the Random Toon button in action.
** On the current site, the Random Toon button only works on Main Pages [[Main Page 24|24]], [[Main Page 25|25]], [[Main Page 27|27]], and [[Main Page 28|28]].
* [https://homestarrunner.com/rando.swf view Flash file for "random toon"]
* [https://homestarrunner.com/rando.xml view XML file for "random toon"]
* [https://homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html view the Strong Bad Email menu with "go rando!"]
* [https://old.homestarrunner.com/main_nav.swf view the navbar with the "rando" link]
* [http://forum.hrwiki.org/viewtopic.php?t=4916 forum thread re: Random Toon]
* [http://forum.hrwiki.org/viewtopic.php?t=4915 forum thread re: random.bat]

<div style="clear:both;">

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<div style="clear:both;">

</div>
<div id="catlinks" class="catlinks">

<div id="mw-normal-catlinks">

[/wiki/Special:Categories Categories]: <span dir="ltr">[[Category:H*R Navigation|H*R Navigation]]</span> | <span dir="ltr">[[Category:Special Pages|Special Pages]]</span>

</div>

</div>

Random Toon - Revision history

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