Halloween Safety

Toon Category: Holiday Toon

← April Fool 2014 · I Killed Pom Pom →

"Whew! It's hard sittin' there with your mouth open like that, holdin' it just so."

A teaser for the 2014 Halloween cartoon, I Killed Pom Pom.

Cast (in order of appearance): The Brothers Chaps (vocal only), Homestar Runner, Sticklyman, Coach Z (silhouette), Bubs (silhouette), Strong Mad (silhouette), Strong Bad (silhouette), The Cheat (silhouette), Marzipan (silhouette), Pom Pom (silhouette), Strong Sad (silhouette), The Poopsmith (silhouette), The King of Town (silhouette), Homsar (silhouette), Tiny-Handed Strong Bad (Easter egg), The Homestar Runner (storybook) (Easter egg), Tucker Donaldson (Easter egg), Crack Stuntman (Easter egg)

Places: Spooky Woods, The Field, Marzipan's House

Date: Monday, October 20, 2014

Running Time: 0:76 official, 1:40 actual

Page Title: Official Partner of HalloweenSafety.gov!

Transcript

{A sign appears beneath a starry night sky, featuring a suspicious silhouette with a red circle and slash over it and the words "WARNING! Neighbors are a-watchin'!".}

THE BROTHERS CHAPS: Hi; we're the Brothers Chaps from HomestarRunner.com!

MIKE: Normally we let our dumb animal characters do the talking.

MATT: But this year we're partnering with "halloweensafety.gov" {The web address "halloweensafety.gov" appears at the bottom of the screen before disappearing} to raise awareness about "halloweensafety.gov". {The web address appears and disappears again.}

SILHOUETTE: {gradually tilting} Ugh....

MIKE: So please, find it in your heart to donate—

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {Disguised as the silhouette on the sign, he interrupts} Peh! I say, peh! Whew! It's hard sittin' there with your mouth open like that, holdin' it just so. {Homestar demonstrates his previous position} Buhhhhhhh.

{Zoom out to a full-body shot of Homestar in the Spooky Woods. He removes the sign portion of his costume and his eyes become normal.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Check out my roadside sil-houette costume! I tried dressin' up in some other ones, but, uhh... they didn't work out so great.

{Swipe cut to a "Slippery When Wet" road sign that sprouts two sets of Homestar's eyes. The two tire tracks become mouths as they speak.}

TWO HOMESTARS: This one made my voice hurt!

{Homestar's propeller sticks out of the upper left side of the sign and spins, with the left Homestar face making a noise as it does so. The right Homestar face turns the opposite direction and gives an angry glare.}

RIGHT HOMESTAR: Oh, just stop it!

{Cut to a "Construction Zone" sign featuring Sticklyman digging with a shovel. Homestar's eyes and hat appear in the pile he is shoveling.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: This one was asking for a challeeeeenge! {The pile rises to resemble a bulked-up version of Homestar's body, and his feet ooze out of the bottom}

STICKLYMAN: {screaming, while running away} Ai-yagh!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {Homestar's feet begin dripping black sludge.} I got that sludge foot! I got that sludge foot!{Prancing}

{Cut to a "School Crossing" sign featuring a girl in a dress led across a street by a boy, both carrying books. Homestar's eyes appear sideways next to the girl's legs, and when he speaks they move back and forth like a mouth.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: This one just seemed ina-pro-pro! {The word "INA-PRO-PRO!" is stamped onto the screen in red.} Quack quack. Lady's Legs Duck.

{Cut to a Route 66 sign which, when zoomed out, only covers Homestar's eyes.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: And this one was waaaaay too small! {Blinks twice, the 6s in the sign looking like closed eyes.} Blink. Blonk.

{Cut back to the Spooky Woods, with Homestar in his Neighborhood Watch costume again.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: I think I picked the best one. Anyways, here are some other silhouettes. I'mah get back to creepin' and peepin' 'round y'all's neighborhood! {squints his eyes into the suspicious eyes of the original sign and slowly slides off-screen.} Uhhhhhhhh...

{Cut to the Field, where the cast is gathered in costume in silhouette. The words "Halloween Cartoon Sometime Before Halloween" are beneath them. After a few seconds of waiting, Homestar speaks.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Hey, Homestar, I really like your "that one guy from Mad Mazagine" costume. You know the one I'm talkin' about. Always blowin' up that pointy white man. {During this, Homestar in his Neighborhood Watch costume pops up over the word "Halloween", then tosses a lit bomb to a white version of himself in the same costume, blowing him up and chuckling to himself before disappearing.}

Easter Eggs

"Nice Try, Literal Message"

• Like the other teasers, when the Flash file is decompiled, there is a hidden shape that reads "hidden words". Every silhouette excluding Homestar and Homsar has one letter behind it. Also, Strong Mad's silhouette actually has two letters.
• Click on the moon at the end:

{A sign reading "NEIGHBRAHOOD WATCH" fills the screen, with a logo resembling a giant eye. The eye's pupil looks around before donning Crack Stuntman's glasses. When he speaks, an angular mouth appears on the dot.} CRACK STUNTMAN: Blah'm Crack Stuntman, the new spokesperson for HalloweenSafety.gov, since Pistols for Pandas found out about my line of frozen panda-burger patties! I swear they're high in Omega-3s! {The glasses disappear with a pop.}

• Click on Homestar's silhouette at the end:

{Tiny-Handed Strong Bad and storybook Homestar are standing in a field, with Homestar wearing a yellow shirt that features the girl from the school crossing sign and his own eyes and Strong Bad holding a scroll; their speech appears beneath them and is narrated by Strong Bad like the other children's books.} TINY-HANDED STRONG BAD: "Get your entire face out of here, Lady's Legs Duck Shirt," STRONG BAD: —proclamated DeVry graduate Strong Bad. {Emphasis lines appear next to the scroll in Tiny-Handed Strong Bad's hand} STORYBOOK HOMESTAR: "Ina-pro-pro!" STRONG BAD: —barfed the Queen of England.

• Click on the second "Halloween" at the end:

{Marzipan's Answering Machine appears, with the title changed to "Mikezipan's Answering Machine" and the version number listed as "version 1.00001".} MIKE: Hi, this is Mikezipan. I'm out looking at the fall colors. Please leave me a message and I'll call you right back. {The machine beeps.} TUCKER DONALDSON: Look here. This message is for the Brothers Chap— Chapman Brothers. Chapman Brothers? This is Tucker Donaldson with HalloweenSafety.gov. Your little "joke", if that's what you wanna call it? It wasn't funny, and, uh— and it's not appreciated. I don't know who you think you are, or— or who you think I am, or if you even think at all, frankly. It is not cool and it is not funny, and that's real talk, gentlemen. Gentlemen? That is real talk. {The machine beeps again.}

Fun Facts

Explanations

• The opening of the cartoon is a parody of cartoons that make public safety awareness announcements in tandem with governmental entities, most commonly UNICEF.
• Route 66 is a famous former United States Highway System road that was built in 1926 and crossed through eight states. The highway was largely superseded by the interstate highways of today and was decertified in 1985.
• Omega-3 fatty acids help the body metabolize food and are postulated to assist in brain development; they are often touted as a "miracle" supplement and are most commonly associated with fish. They were previously mentioned in Quality Time with Cardboard Homestar.

Trivia

Hey, Sticklyman! WHAAAT are you doing wearing those pants?

• This is the first time Sticklyman has vocalized, as well as first time he has been seen wearing a visible article of clothing (in this case, pants).
• Tucker Donaldson's message is presented in a lower audio quality, much like an actual telephone call. This is the first Answering Machine message to do so.
• This is the first time that "The Brothers Chaps" and "dumb animal characters" have been said out loud on homestarrunner.com.

Remarks

• halloweensafety.gov is not an actual website.
• This toon is the second toon in a row (following Fish Eye Lens) and the first Halloween teaser to contain no back button.
• This teaser's appearance of Homsar suggests, and his apperance in I Killed Pom Pom confirms, that the character is still alive, despite his supposed death in A Decemberween Mackerel.
• This is the first time a character other than Strong Bad has been depicted in a different costume than that worn in the final Halloween toon; Marzipan is dressed here as Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men (as confirmed in the Sketchbook and Quote of the Week), but appears as Tom Servo in I Killed Pom Pom.
• This toon features both duplicate and triplicate characters, all variations of Homestar.
• In the Mikezipan's Answering Machine Easter egg, the PhoneTime XL8 is used, despite having been replaced by the XL800 model.
• The SWF file is called "ween12_teaser.swf" rather than "ween14_teaser.swf" (or "weensafety.swf").

Goofs

• On the loading screen, the rounded rectangle that forms the ground doesn't quite reach to the left edge of the frame, leaving the upper-left corner of the shape and a sliver of the sky visible.

Inside References

• In the beginning, The Brothers Chaps refer to the characters as dumb animal characters.
• Homestar's echoing voice in the first sign idea is the same as Homestarmecium from the email high school.
• Homestar mentions asking for a challenge in the second sign.
• This teaser continues several gags from the previous three teasers: Jibblies 2 Teaser (2007), Most in the Graveyard Teaser (2008), and Doomy Tales of the Macabre Teaser (2009):
  • Silhouetted characters (in the same order as the previous teasers)
  • Action that occurs after waiting
  • Hidden text behind the characters
  • Strong Bad depicted in an outrageous costume (a Bug from the Starship Troopers franchise)
• This teaser stands out from the others as:
  • It's the first to start like a normal toon instead of the silhouetted characters scene.
  • It's the first to be listed in a category other than the New Stuff category on the TV Time Toons Menu.
  • It's the first to contain Easter eggs other than the "hidden shape" Easter egg.
  • The ground looks slightly different, and the text lacks the orange outlines and has a gradient of white to orange instead of white to grey.
• Homestar compliments somebody's costume (in this case, his own) in the "I really like your costume" format.
• Crack Stuntman mentions Pistols for Pandas.
• Mikezipan is a portmanteau.
• Mike's line on the answering machine is the same as Marzipan's outgoing message in Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 1.0.
• DeVry University was previously referenced in different town.

Real-World References

• Homestar (the silhouetted criminal) and Crack Stuntman (the eye against the blue background) are dressed as symbols of the neighborhood watch campaign, a civilian effort to monitor their own neighborhoods for suspicious or criminal activity.
• "That one guy from MAD Magazine" Homestar is referring to is the Black Spy from Spy vs. Spy.
  • The misspelling "mazagine" is derived from competitor Cracked magazine, which always used the same misspelling on its front cover.
• In an Easter egg, Crack Stuntman's appearance resembles Pac-Man's in-game design from the original arcade games.
• "Creepin' and peepin' 'round y'all's neighborhood" references Michael Jackson's Thriller, in which Vincent Price sings "Creatures crawl in search of blood/To terrorize y'all's neighborhood."

Fast Forward

• The term "ina-pro-pro" would be used to signal disgust in a number of future toons.
• Tucker Donaldson would later call Marzipan in Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 17.2.

YouTube Version

• The YouTube description for this toon is "Some real talk about Halloween safety. In conjunction with halloweensafety.gov".

"Don't look for these, too."

• Similar to the YouTube version of Fish Eye Lens, after the end of the toon, a group of nine thumbnails appears, parodying YouTube's related video thumbnails. Some of the thumbnails are similar to the ones seen in Fish Eye Lens, while others are new.
  • Marzipan's eyes in the middle-right thumbnail blink once.
• After the thumbnails, the Crack Stuntman Easter egg is shown, followed by Mikezipan's Answering Machine, and finally, the Easter egg with Tiny-Handed Strong Bad and Homestar.

External Links

• watch "Halloween Safety"
• watch "Halloween Safety" on YouTube
• watch "Halloween Safety" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "Halloween Safety"
• forum thread re: "Halloween Safety"