Nondescript Nouns

The "That Paintball Place Down the Street" Scorecard.

Nondescript or generic nouns are often used where either a proper noun or a more specific common noun is expected. This unusual naming convention has become a hallmark of the website's style.

Appearances

• Original Book and its toon remake, Strongest Man in the World — The robot who won the competition last year is named "The Robot".
• Where My Hat Is At? and its toon remake of the same name — Homestar Runner prepares for the "Big Game".
• A Jumping Jack Contest — The title of the toon and the contest in the toon are generic.
• Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 5.0 — Homestar says that he represents "Distinguished Businessman".
  • This line appears again in An Open Forum.
• Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 6.0 — Strong Bad, as "Doctor Professional" informs Marzipan that tests revealed her to have "serious problems".
• Email i she be — "great looking girl" wants to meet The Cheat at "the food court".
• First Time Here? — Homestar's attempts to introduce homestarrunner.com include "something.com" and "A Website".
• Email dullard — During the demonstration for "Method 3", Homestar tries to discuss last night's episode of "Popular Reality Show" with Strong Bad.
• Email vacation — Strong Bad sends postcards from such locations as "That Clock" and historic "Over There".
• Email your friends — Strong Mad is watching "Some Type of TV Show". The hot sauce bottle on top of the circular saw blades reads "sauce".
• Email comic — Strong Bad creates Teen Girl Squad, giving the main characters the nondescript names Cheerleader, So and So, What's Her Face, and The Ugly One.
• Email morning routine — Strong Sad wants to watch "that show on public broadcasting hosted by that British guy".
• Email fingers — Homestar's foam finger reads "GO SPORTS!".
• Email english paper (Easter egg) — A parody of eBay is called Some Type of Online Auction.
• The Show — Homestar's game show has a nondescript title.
• Lookin at a Thing in a Bag — Homestar orders red, blue, and orange drinks. It's never revealed what Strong Bad and the others were pretending was the "thing in a bag".
• Email sibbie — Strong Bad tells the viewer that he does not want to fulfill "your every freakin' whim" and gives "put on a purple thing and dance around" as an example. He also repeatedly refers to "The Guy" as a character on a TV show.
• Population: Tire — The introduction states that "You are Soldier!"
• Email anything —
  • The postcard for Fish Lake states that it's "Home of this fish".
  • Homestar gives Marzipan "Really Slow Old People Music", "Pretty Slow Old People Music", and "Very Slow Old People Music" CDs.
• Teen Girl Squad Issue 4 — So and So carries a "Subject" textbook. Cheerleader asks Quarterback out.
• Email couch patch — Strong Bad's floppy disk is simply labeled "Old game". The ASCII art million dollar bill that is printed out has the portrait labeled simply "President".
• Strong Bad Sings and Other Type Hits — The last song on the album is Homestar's Secret Song.
• Thy Dungeonman — One of the game's items is "ye flask". Another one of the items is "a trinket", which turns out to be "a bauble". Additionally, one of the areas is "parapets", which are described as such.
• Teen Girl Squad Issue 5 — What's Her Face receives a postcard from "A Beach".
• Email different town — At the end of the email, Strong Bad says, "I'm gonna go... place." Then, in an Easter egg, a postcard from Place is shown.
• Strong Bad is in Jail Cartoon — The jail is labeled "A box". Additionally, Strong Bad and The Cheat collect bags of "Some Savings".
• Cheat Commandos (toon) — Coach Z plays with a figurine named "Reinforcements".
• Cheat Commandos...O's — Silent Rip calls Crackotage "that guy" and his plane "that plane".
• Teen Girl Squad Issue 6 — Cheerleader gets a "gift card for fashion".
• Email crying — At the end of the email, Strong Bad says he has "a food...in the oven".
• Email other days — Strong Bad's calendar has "A Month" written on the top. Homestar brags about his frag count in "Online Gaming".
• Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 11.2 — Strong Bad, under the alias "Bob Statesman", claims to be running for the office of "Elected Official".
• Email montage — Strong Bad announces one of his guests will be "Some Guy from a Zoo".
• Videro Games — Strong Bad mentions the "video game make place".
• Email origins — The book Ewww, Claire!! Why??? has won "Some Award".
• Email rock opera — The amp in the background reads "An Amp".
• Stinkoman 20X6 —
  • The boss of Level 7 is called "An Ice Machine".
  • At the start of Level 10, Stinkoman fights the boss from the Skills of an Artist episode End Boss. This boss is called "Worst End Boss Ever" in the credits.
• Biz Cas Fri 1 — Homestar tries to persuade Strong Bad to go to "Beach Themed Restaurant".
• Email modeling — There is a map that shows the locations of "Place" and "Land".
• Puppets on the Road — Shark-Tooth Bubs says that a regular stand has "a food" for sale.
• Trogdor Con '97 (Easter egg) — Strong Bad suggests someone wear "like five or six... more clothes...."
• Exaggerations — The picture that cycled through various puns in the original Marshmallow's Last Stand simply reads "a joke" in the Exaggerations.
• Fall Float Parade — The name of the 4Tst Annual Fall Float Parade is nondescript.
• Teen Girl Squad Issue 11 — So and So is forced to take a summer job at Shirt Folding Store.
• Email portrait — Strong Bad paints his self-portrait using cans of "Some Paint" and "Some More Paint".
• Email secret identity — The book Laramie, Why? has won "Some Award".
• Thy Dungeonman 3 — One of the areas is blank. It claims that there are "no people here", "no paper on the ground", etc.
• Email cliffhangers — Coach Z and Homestar accuse themselves of being the Thnikkaman and stealing the Lappy 486, respectively, and try to cover it up by talking about "sports team".
• Email coloring (Easter egg) — A crayon is shown labeled "Some Crayon".
• Let us give TANKS! — Gunhaver salutes a flag marked "The Flag".
• Email the chair — After Strong Bad and Strong Sad each get hurt while trying out Le Restige and the Styleron Ecochair (respectively), each exclaims, "I can't feel my parts."
• Email what i want — The Cool Snowman's monitor reads "internet dot com."
• Email looking old — Bubs sells "iTems".
• Email strong badathlon —
  • An announcer on the Telebision announces the upcoming "Cute little girl from sit-com sings patriotic song." Strong Bad acts as though he knows exactly which little girl is singing.
  • At the end, the box of Temporarios reads "side words" on the side.
• Teen Girl Squad Issue 12 — Two boys are talking about "band name".
• Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 14.2 — Strong Bad uses a robotic voice and claims to be "Nadine Automatedmenuburger" calling from "Trusted Financial Institution".
• Drive-Thru — The Drive-Thru Whale describes the week's toy as "brown". When this upsets The Cheat, Strong Bad exclaims that they must be out of "blue ones". Later, in an Easter egg, Strong Bad asks for a "blue one" for The Cheat.
• Date Nite (Easter egg) — A radio advertisement for Public Rage-O at "some civic hall auditorium" plays.
• Email more armies — Homestar holds up a book of "Game Program Instructions" from a Videlectrix game.
• Teen Girl Squad Issue 13 — Momkins says, "Listen, I'll be at a place until a time. My cell phone number is some numbers. The baby needs stuff."
• strongbad email.exe Disc Five — The inside of the case lists "stuff, things, and more!" as bonus features.
• Email mini-golf — One of the places that Strong Bad calls out the name of is called "That Paintball Place Down the Street".
• Email hygiene — A pennant on the wall during the hygiene video reads "A sport!".
• Rap Song — Coach Z and Peacey P sing "Rap Song".
• Email business trip — Homestar and Strong Bad go to the "Annual Symposium Conference Lecture Seminar Series Registration".
• Jibblies 2 — The back door of Bubs' Concession Stand reads "door".
• Email yes, wrestling — The Announcer hosts an interview in "historic empty high school gymnasium".
• Email diorama — Strong Bad's fake book is decorated with "Some Award". Its summary is "A real book that exists", and it is allegedly printed by the "Actual Publishing Company".
• Trogday 08 — Strong Bad holds a book entitled Things I'm About to Say.
• Email winter pool — Strong Bad fills the swimming pool with "Fluffy Puff Translucent Dessert Related Substance".
• Email pet show — The King of Town's pet is an "As Seen on TV Low-Fat Cooking Device".
• Sloshybowl — sloshy performs as the halftime show for American Football Championship Game.
• Email licensed — Strong Bad mentions knock-off DVDs with such generic titles as Jungle Animals in Decidedly Non-Jungle Situations.
• SBCG4AP Dev Blog — In the May 7, 2008 entry, a generic Videogame Company Logo screen is shown.
• Email love poems — Homestar's grocery list consists of the words "amazing thing" repeated four times.
• Email specially marked — The book "Problem Brian" has won a "Round Award".
• The Baloneyman — Bubs sells summer movie tie-in baloney sandwiches to promote "the sequel".
• Email hiding — The book "Scar, Let Moe" has won a "Round Award".
• The Next Epi-Snowed —
  • The character portrayed by Crack Stuntman's girlfriend is named New Bad Guy Girl Character.
  • The actor who portrays Blue Laser Commander is referred to as Guy Who Does the Bad Guy's Voice.
• Homestar Ruiner — Various characters compete in the "Race to the End of the Race".
• Strong Badia the Free — Strong Mad's country is called "Country".
• Coach Z's 110% —
  • Strong Sad chants "sports and practice" while training.
  • The cartoon advertises "Coach Z's 110% Hustle for Sports Instructional Video".
  • Homestar is said to have just won "the sports".
• Hooked on Decemberween — "A cuss" is spelled on the roof with Christmas lights.
• A Death Defying Decemberween — Before Homestar goes down the Steep Deep, the Announcer introduces him as "the man that's about to do a thing".
• Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 16.2 — Marzipan receives a call from "Slick Somebody".
• Cheat Commandos: Two Part Episode: Part 1 and Part 2 — The title of this two-part Cheat Commandos toon is "Two Part Episode".
• Email imaginary — Strong Bad makes up his own imaginary friend after drinking three gallons of "blue drink".
• Email independent — Pom Pom's film is entitled "city (comma) state".
• Email dictionary — Strong Sad only says "Talk?" during Strong Bad's demonstration of the "gutterance" for him.
• The Animated Adventures of Puppet Homestar — Strong Sad opens the toon by saying "Once upon a time, here's the type of thing that happened."
• A Decemberween Mackerel — Marzipan writes that Senor Cardgage won first place in "sports".
• Halloween Safety — Decompiling the Flash file reveals the hidden words "hidden words".
• Cartoon Characters — Strong Bad refers to his stylized drawings of himself and Homestar as Character 1 and Character 2.
• Characters from Yonder Website —
  • One of Strong Bad's sponsors is "Faceless Megacorp".
  • Characters 1 and 2 return from Cartoon Characters, with the introduction of Character 3 through Character 8.
• Dangeresque Puppet Squad: The Hot Jones Hijack —
  • The black beans at Price Style are labeled "canned item".
  • A product at Shady's Grocery Mart is labeled "actual jug".
  • Dangeresque says "Six-syllable catchphrase".
• Trogdor Was A Man — The game box has the label "Contains: Contents".
• Talkin' Strong Bad Plush Doll Commercial — The legal disclaimer for the Strong Bad Talking Plush is spoken as "mumble mumble fine print legal disclaimer".
• @StrongBadActual tweet (3 Jul 2024) — Imitating an old-school adventure game, Strong Bad describes a room as containing "an internet".
• Email robots — Homestar tells the Visor Robot to add "amazing thing" to his shopping list.

See Also

• Cold One
• Integral Article
• Type
• Not X
• Color Flavored
• Getting Great
• Overdescriptive Nouns