Meeple Grove

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"Where the meeples all speak in board-gamery terms while I over-explain everything."

Twelve Homestar Runner meeples stand around on a board game and chat. Homsar's Jengaship gets shanked again.

Cast (in order of appearance): The Poopsmith, Strong Mad, Bubs, Marzipan, Pom Pom, The King of Town, Homsar, The Cheat, Strong Bad, Homestar Runner, Coach Z, Strong Sad, Pleasant Narrator, Balding Man

Places: Basement of the Brothers Strong

Date: Thursday, July 26, 2018

Running Time: 1:55

Transcript

{Open on a game board sitting on a table in the basement of the Brothers Strong, with meeples of the twelve main characters standing on it. Soft music plays. Whenever a meeple speaks, he rattles back and forth.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Uh, you guys? How come we look like this? {close up} And how come I can only kinda... shimmy in place? Not that I'm complaining. Everybody knows Homestar Runner loves a good stand-in-place shimmy!

{Pan to the Strong Sad meeple in the bottom-right corner}

STRONG SAD: We're meeples! I've had so many dreams like this!

{Wide shot. The Cheat meeple turns to face Strong Bad as he speaks.}

STRONG BAD: {rhythmically} Gross. I hate you. Gross, gross, I hate you.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: What's a meeple? Sounds like Intendo.

{Close up on Strong Sad meeple}

STRONG SAD: A meeple is a wooden approximation of a human character in a tabletop game!

STRONG BAD: We look like we belong in one of those old British stop-motion shows. You know, where we all speak in board-gamery terms while a pleasant narrator over-explains everything?

{Pan over the board while music plays and the title "Meeple Grove Market" appears over top. During the narration, panning shots are shown of various meeples toddling around the board.}

PLEASANT NARRATOR: {voiceover} Welcome to Meeple Grove Market. Where the meeples all speak in board-gamery terms while I over-explain everything.

{Close up of Strong Bad meeple}

STRONG BAD: {fake Italian accent} Okay, as is the custom of-a my meeples, everybody sound off!

STRONG MAD: I TRADE FOR GRAIN!

BUBS: I just eradicated all disease in Jakarta!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: I lost a turn in the chocolate swamp! Chocolate?! What happened to molasses? Kids love molasses!

COACH Z: I'm creepin' and I'm creepin' down Baltic Ave! (actually says "Ave", not "avenue")

KING OF TOWN: I'm takin' back Irkutsk!

STRONG SAD: Pret-ty sneaky, sis!

{Wide shot, drum roll plays}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Do it Homsar, do it, do it, do it!

STRONG BAD: Do it Homsar, do it!

BUBS: Yeah, yeah! Do it!

COACH Z: Dort!

KING OF TOWN: Yeah, do it! Do it, do it!

COACH Z: DORT!

HOMSAR: Oh, no! {close up} You just shanked my Jengaship!

{Triumphant tune plays. Wide shot.}

STRONG BAD: Oh no, it's our mortal enemy: someone going to get a drink during the game!

{A silhouette of the Balding Man sighs his drawn-out sigh as he gets up from the table, making The Geddup Noise and jostling it, which knocks over all the meeples. Everybody yells in alarm.}

{Slow zoom out as music plays.}

PLEASANT NARRATOR: And so, all the meeples fell down, because you see, when you're playing a tabletop game and you get up to go to the loo—

STRONG BAD: {still lying on his back} Yeah, we get it.

PLEASANT NARRATOR: —sometimes your knee strikes—

STRONG BAD: We get it!

PLEASANT NARRATOR: —the corner of the table—

STRONG BAD: WE GET IT!

PLEASANT NARRATOR: —upsetting everything on the—

STRONG BAD: WE GET IT, OLD MAN!

{"End" screen}

Fun Facts

Explanations

• This was a surprise video posted to Kickstarter to promote Trogdor!! The Board Game. It was linked to by the board game's Facebook and Twitter accounts, along with this message:

>Everybody (Everybody) Check out our surprise meeple video we made! We're still working on the other stuff, but we figured this would be a good amuse bouche.

Trivia

• The YouTube description for this email is "An old stop-motion show featuring your favorite Homestar characters in meeple form. King of Town is in it, too!"

Inside References

• Homestar once again says "Everybody knows [...] Homestar Runner loves..." like he did in Doomy Tales of the Macabre.
• Strong Bad's fake Italian accent (particularly his "as is the custom of-a my meeples") is a reference to one of his prank calls in Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 17.2.
• Homsar's "Jengaship" was previously "shanked" in Where's The Cheat?.
• "Intendo" as a shortened version of "Nintendo" first appeared in the second draft of Sbemail 136.

Real-World References

• A similar show with a pleasant British narrator was featured in the "Trauncles" segment of Two More Eggs, also produced by The Brothers Chaps.
• "What's a meeple? Sounds like Intendo." might be a reference to amiibo, Nintendo's line of plastic figures that interact with their games.
• Strong Bad's description of "old British stop motion shows" involving wooden figures and pleasant narrators calls to mind such shows as Postman Pat.
• The "board-gamery terms" used by the characters refer to various tabletop games:
  • Strong Mad's "grain" is a tradeable resource in the popular game Settlers of Catan.
  • Bubs eradicates disease in Jakarta, one of the cities players must save in Pandemic.
  • Homestar loses a turn in the Chocolate Swamp from the children's board game Candy Land. He also refers to the earlier versions of the game that had Molasses Swamp instead.
  • Coach Z creeps down Baltic Ave, one of the properties in the classic board game Monopoly.
  • The King of Town takes Irkutsk, a conquerable territory in the strategy game Risk.
  • Strong Sad's "Pretty sneaky, sis" comes from an old commercial for Connect Four.
  • Homsar's self-quote references Battleship and the non-board game Jenga.
• Coach Z's "I'm creepin' and I'm creepin'" is once again a quote from Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg's "Nuthin' But a "G" Thang" mild language, previously referenced in Strong Sad's Lament.

Fast Forward

• The fake autoplay image for the YouTube release of the Trogdor!! The Board Game video shows "Meeple Grove Market: Annihilation".

External Links

• View video file
• Watch video in update

• watch "Meeple Grove" on YouTube