HomestarRunner.com: PAY PLUS!

"Finally At Last!!!"

It's April Fools' Day and—Oh no! HomestarRunner.com is now a subscription site!

Cast (in order of appearance): Homestar Runner, Senor Cardgage, Strong Bad, The Cheat, Strong Sad's Head, Strong Mad, Frank Bennedetto, Sterrance, Bubs (morphed into his concession stand), Vector Strong Bad, Stinkoman, Rather Dashing (silhouetted), Eh! Steve!, The Wheelchair, Ready For Primetime, Casio Head Strong Bad, The Worm, Sherlock, Mr. Shmallow (watermark), Cheerleader, So and So, What's Her Face, The Ugly One, Arrow'd Guy

Places: The Field, Basement of the Brothers Strong, Computer Room, Bubs' Concession Stand

Date: Friday, April 1, 2005

Running Time: 1:12 (combined)

Page Title: Finally At Last!!!

DVD:Everything Else, Volume 1 (Teen Girl Squad Sample only), Everything Else, Volume 2

Transcript

{The page's background has a pattern of grey lines on top of the usual black background}

Page One

>HomestarRunner.com
>PAY PLUS!
>ONLY $12.95 MONTHLY!
>JUST $99.95 YEARLY!
>SIGN UP FOREVER!
>Interactive Menus!!

>Free 7 second trial!!
>Join now!
>Subscriptions are the latest craze!
>Loggin' {a login box}
>Instant access!
>Take the tour!

Homestar's Seven Seconds

{Cue Homestar standing in the field. A timer counts up in the bottom left corner of the screen starting at 0.10 seconds.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: One... two... three... four... fi-

{The timer reaches 7.15; a buzzer goes off, and "TRIAL PERIOD OVER!" pops up on the screen.}

Page Two

>The Email Show!
>HomestarRunner.com
>PAY PLUS!
>ACCESS TO ALL 230+ STRONG BAD EMAILS!
>WEBCAM CHAT WITH THE CREATORS OR SOMEONE ELSE!
>Let's see a clip!
>SHOW ME MORE, SIR!

Strong Bad "Trap Door" Sample

{Cue Strong Bad sitting in front of the Lappy, flanked by The Cheat, who is holding a remote control. Homestar is standing on a brown trapdoor in front of Strong Bad.}

STRONG BAD: All right, The Cheat, let 'er rip!

{The Cheat presses the button on the remote. The trapdoor opens under Homestar's feet. He falls about two feet and stops.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Woo! That was fun!

STRONG BAD: The Cheat, I thought we were opting for the bottomless pit. {Homestar starts a little dance with his feet, stepping back and forth gracefully.} ... Not a two-foot pit!

THE CHEAT: {Angry The Cheat noises}

{Cut to the basement, where Strong Mad sits on the couch with Homestar's feet dancing on top of him.}

STRONG MAD: I HAVE A FUNNY HAT!

Page Three

>There's more?? Why, yes.
>HomestarRunner.com PAY PLUS!
>GEE-AMES!
>Pay for play!!
>Just pennies/pixel!
>Members plus, fool!
>Actual screenshots!
>Fake boxes
>HOURS OF STREAMING VIDEO GAME FEEDS
>FREE SAMPLE GAME
>"Sign Up Today Man"
>1 player simultaneous
>CHECK MARK!
>Continue Free Tour!

Sample Game

The free sample game resembles Space Invaders with Strong Bad against an army of Homestars coming out of the sky. The Cheat periodically falls from top to bottom and if he hits you, a message will appear saying "YOUR" "HEAD" (changes to SHIP a second later) "ASPLODE". Trying to play the game is difficult because the screen continually flashes the message "TRIAL VERSION", locking the game controls. The game also automatically closes itself after the 14th "TRIAL VERSION" screen, keeping you from advancing. Using the cheat described below, it is possible to eliminate all of the Homestars, but this only results in a new set of Homestars appearing, and nothing else.

Page Four

>HomestarRunner.com PAY PLUS!
>So Much More!!
>
>SWEET CUPPIN CAKES
>A New Episode Each Week!
>Meet Eh! Steve!'s Lawyer!
>Win a chance to have lunch with the Worm-type character!
>
>teenage girl show!
>Revamped for the 90's.
>More humor! Finer dining!
>See the unaired pilot, the holiday special, and the 'everybody dies' episodes!
>
>And also, too:
>Answering Machines out the wazoo
>Powered by The Cheat-athons!
>Senor Cardgage Wednesdays
>Mr. Shmallow's Webcam
>
>Extra free sample here!
>On the Tour?

Teen Girl Squad Sample

{Cheerleader, So and So, and The Ugly One are standing around. Cheerleader's shirt reads "sperld rott'n".}

CHEERLEADER: That stupid wheelchair kid asked me to the Friday Night Dance! But I'm going with Steven!

{Enter Eh! Steve!, wearing a football uniform with the number nine}

CHEERLEADER: {speech bubble fills with hearts} Hey, Steven!

EH! STEVE!: Eh! Steve!

{Cut to Wheelchair}

WHEELCHAIR: I'll teach you to steal my date, Eh! Steve! I'm gonna come outta my shell at the Friday Night Dance and show everybody who's whooooooooooo!

{Arrow'd Guy, with fairy wings, a tutu and a wand, enters and changes the Wheelchair into a realistic drawing of a wheelchair.}

STRONG BAD: {narrating} GOOD DRAWINGED!

WHEELCHAIR: I'm a real boy!

{Cut to the "It's Over!" splash screen.}

STRONG BAD: {narrating} It's over!

Page Five

>View Shopping Cart
>HomestarRunner.com PAY PLUS!
>Join/Sign Up Today/Now!!
>$19.95/month or $499.95/week... Yearly Savings!
>No More Money!!
>OVER 2 BILLION!!
> First Name ________
> Last Name ________
> Nickname ________
>Nick's Name ________
> Month ________
> D/O/B ________
>Organ Donor ________
> Car Keys ________
> Passcode ________

Page Six

>Thank you for your order.
>You will receive your package
>in 6-8 weeks.

{After about 15 seconds, you are returned to Main Page 19.}

Fun Facts

Explanations

• The entire April Fools' site is a spoof of the preview pages on many pay-sites on the Internet: the trial videos, the free tour that ends with a sign-up page, the tacky design and layout, and the "streaming video game feeds" all mimic said pages.
  • The second page claims "ACCESS TO ALL 230+ STRONG BAD EMAILS!" when there were only 127 emails at the time it was posted. This spoofs how subscription sites often flagrantly misrepresent their content. However, this may be a reference to a perk of subscribing (viewing unaired Strong Bad Emails).
  • A recent trend for Internet entertainment sites (especially game sites) is to be free for a few years, and then the owners initiate a pay-to-play policy.
  • The free trial game that expires very quickly is very common on many pay sites, which offer demos of popular games that expire after a specific amount of usage time, counted in hours, times played, or days. Afterward, many member sites disallow users from downloading the demo again (or are allowed one or two more downloads), and the user must then purchase the actual game.
  • The low quality images spoof the compressed JPEGs used by the sites.

Trivia

• The font type of the phrase "There's more?? Why, yes." is the same font used on the Compy 386.
• When the page was first released, the navigation buttons at the bottom of the page weren't there, like Under Construction.
• The loading screen for the Trapdoor sample reads "loading free pay sample...".
• Pressing '7' on the keyboard (or the numeric keypad) during the trial game will toggle the gray 'TRIAL VERSION' message. If it's onscreen, it will vanish. If it's not onscreen, it will appear. Holding down the 7 key rapidly toggles the message on and off. The 7 key has no effect at any other time.
• The screenshots on the first page show:
  • Senor Cardgage showing a pie chart to Homestar, dressed in his pajamas and robe from caper.
  • Strong Bad with the Lappy 486 as The Cheat serves him Strong Sad's head on a platter.
  • Strong Mad on the couch wearing Homestar's Homestarmy bowl, next to Frank Bennedetto.
• The screenshots on the second page show:
  • Strong Bad at the Tandy 400 with Sterrance (from animal) in the foreground.
  • Strong Bad destroying a city (à la Godzilla).
  • Strong Bad in front of Bubs' Concession Stand, which has gained Bubs's eyes and mouth.
• The third page has:
  • A screenshot from StrongBadZone with the quote "A SPLODE IS A LOT".
  • The boxes for the Videlectrix games Planet Alert! and Spaceshipper.
  • The sprite of Stinkoman from Stinkoman 20X6.
  • A screenshot from RhinoFeeder.
  • A screenshot from the Videlectrix game Rabbit Algebra.
• There is a background tile image, but it's only a tiny black line.
  • The line actually gradients to grey as it nears the center, but in front of a default white background, it is almost impossible to see. When the image is tiled on a black background, then the gradient forms a line that can be seen.
• Homestar made it only to five at the end of the "Seven Seconds" trial, meaning he was counting, on average, at the rate of one for every 1.4 seconds.
• Using a Flash decompiler, it is possible to see that The Brothers Chaps left the entirety of the games menu in the trial game instead of just the necessary objects.
• The label on the disk in the floppy disk container reads "hunt the wumpus".
• Except for the buttons and movie clips, all content featured in this toon are JPEGs.
• In the math problem shown in the screen shot of Rabbit Algebra, x = ±4.

Remarks

• Right clicking and selecting "play" will quickly advance you, page by page, to the very end of the presentation.
• None of the screenshots on the first two pages are from actual toons or emails. The StrongBadZone screenshot contains a quote not found in the game.
• On the "The Email Show" page, in the middle of the screen, Strong Bad's eyes are a much lighter shade of green and have lost the shadow on the tops of his eyes.
• Homestar is shown standing on Strong Mad's head after falling through the trapdoor, yet in Strong Mad's Character Video, The Li'l Brudder Show, and Toikey TV, the basement was shown to have a much higher ceiling.
  • In Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, it is revealed that the computer room is on the top floor of the House of Strong, with an entire floor separating it from the basement, though the HomestarRunner.com universe has never been entirely consistent in terms of locations and distance.
  • Additionally, it is first shown that only Homestar's feet fell through the hole, yet in the next scene it shows that half of his legs went through.
• If you shoot all the Homestars in the trial game, a second wave appears.
• On the first page, the right column of pictures is entitled "Instant Access", but at the end, it states "You will receive your package in 6 - 8 weeks."
• The presentation refers to an "everybody dies" episode of Teen Girl Squad; however, at the time of this cartoon, Issue 8 had already included every character dying. Since then, Issue 9, an Easter egg in Issue 10, and Issue 13 have too.
• The "question box" on the Games page only allows for ten characters. It is also impossible to submit anything.
• You can access the "you will receive your package in 6-8 weeks" page without filling the form out.
• Even if you were a member, you wouldn't be able to login, as the "loggin'" box has no submit button.
• The price of the subscription changes from $12.95/month and $99.95/year on the first page to $19.95/month and $499.95/week.
• "View your shopping cart" cannot be clicked on.

Goofs

• Pressing the back button while watching the "Let's see a clip!" preview on page 2 will not make the clip close, but it does close if you go back to page 2. This does not work if you hit "Show me more, sir!" or on any other of the previews.
  • However, if you right click and click Rewind while watching the other samples, it goes to the first section. It zooms in on the game.
• In the 7-second trial (which is actually 7.15 seconds long, according to counter), the counter in the corner is counting by seconds and then 60ths of seconds. If you watch it frame by frame in the Flash file, you can see the decimal counter is going at 5 60ths of a second per frame, which means the decimal goes up by 5 every frame. At the end of any second, the counter does not go from 55 to 0, it goes from 55 to 60, and then to 65 of the next number, and then to 10 of the next number.
• The black part of Sterrance's face mask is not present in his screen shot.
• In the free trial of the "Email Show" page, when Homestar has been caught in the trapdoor, his position on Strong Mad's head would be impossible.
• As of the post-Flash site update, after the page redirects to Main Page 19, the buttons on the main page are not visible.

Fixed Glitches

• After the post-Flash update, the ship in Homestar Invaders could only shoot four times.

Inside References

• This toon mentions interactive menus.
• When your ship is destroyed in the trial game, the message "YOUR HEAD A SPLODE" appears, with "head" changing to "ship" a split-second later. This is a reference to StrongBadZone and another appearance of "A Splode".
• All the sprites in the trial game come from the secret games on Strong Bad's Message Bored.
• The floppy disk seen during the "Trap Door" sample reads "hunt the wumpus".
• The "cred" card shown on page five belongs to Lem Sportsinterviews, who is a member of the Superfied Credit Union. This is a reference to the credit card email and to the Downloads page.
• The Cheat uses a single-button remote control.
• The phrase "Also, too" also appears in monster truck.
• Cheerleader's shirt reads "Sperled rotten", an instance of "Oi" pronounced as "Er".

Real-World References

• The trial game resembles another Homestar Runner game, Armless Invaders, which in turn resembles the arcade game Space Invaders.
• "I'm a real boy!" is a reference to Pinocchio, a wooden puppet who was turned "real" and made a similar remark in at least one version of the story.
• "I'll teach you to steal my date, Eh! Steve! I'm gonna come outta my shell at the Friday Night Dance and show everybody who's who!" and the #9 jersey are references to the movie Angus.

Fast Forward

• Similarly to Homestar, Strong Bad and The Cheat would fall through the floor onto Strong Mad's head in an Easter egg in your edge.
• Bubs' Stand would turn into his head again in Doomy Tales of the Macabre.
• The line "Revamped for the '90s" would later be used in Xeriouxly Forxe, another April Fools' Day prank.

DVD Version

• Viewers can read the pages in any order.
• The DVD will advance to the next page automatically if nothing is selected after a while.
• The Free Sample Game is not playable; instead, a video of the game being played is shown, with the nag screen still present.
• The form at the end can't be filled out or submitted.

External Links

• view "HomestarRunner.com: PAY PLUS!"
• view "HomestarRunner.com: PAY PLUS!" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "HomestarRunner.com: PAY PLUS!"
• view the component Flash files for:
  • Homestar's Seven Seconds
  • Strong Bad "Trap Door" Sample
  • Trial Game "Homestar Invaders"
  • Teen Girl Squad Sample

April Fools' Day
2003: kingoftown.com (King of Town Main Page, Revenge of the King, King of Townmail) 2004: Under Construction 2005: HomestarRunner.com: PAY PLUS! 2006: April Fools' 2006 2009: April Fool 09 2010: Xeriouxly Forxe 2014: April Fool 2014 2015: sbemail 206 2016: Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 17.2 2018: the next april fools thing 2019: Discount Strong Bad emails 2022: parenting

Teen Girl Squad
Characters	Main: Cheerleader, So and So, What's Her Face, The Ugly One Gregs: Sci-Fi Greg, D n' D Greg, Open Source Greg, Japanese Culture Greg Minor: Arrow'd Guy, The Birds, Brainkrieg, Fighting Growlbacks, Manolios, Mr. Pitters, Mrs. Commanderson, Olympic Man and Coach, Peacey P, Quarterman, she likes cloth, Thomas, Tompkins
Issues	Main: Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4, Issue 5, Issue 6, Issue 7, Issue 8, Issue 8½, Issue 9, Issue 10, Issue 11, Issue 12, Issue 13, Issue 14, Issue 15 SBCG4AP: Homestar Ruiner, Cave Girl Squad, Teen Girl Squad Meets Limozeen Toons: 4 Gregs, Decomposing Pumpkins
Miscellaneous	Locations, Costumes, Theme Song, Fangs, -'d, Ow! My X!, Captioned Transitions
Other	Teen Girl Squad Deaths, 404'd, Neon 404'd, Teen Girl Squadcast