Strong Bad's Message Bored

"Ohhhh, I'm so bored!" "!derob os m'I ,hhhhO"

Strong Bad's Message Bored was a fan bulletin board that was on the Homestar Runner website until May 2003. The board's interface was very basic, did not require registration, and there were few rules. The old header of the board can still be accessed by clicking on the Strong Bad sticker on the front of the blue mailbox on the Email page.

Page Title: Remember What the Tandy Told You

Features

The entire board was powered by MivaScript, since this was back when The Brothers Chaps used Yahoo, where a back-end like PHP was not available with their hosting service.[#endnote_1 [1]] The features of the message bored were simple:

• A [homestarrunner.com/msgboard.mv?parm_func=showpostform Post Message] feature.
• A [homestarrunner.com/msgboard.mv?parm_func=showsearch+parm_starting_root=1 Search] feature.
• And "Ja Rules":

>(the ones that matter)

>(the boring ones)

>Break a rule and get totally booted out.

When the bored was up, different messages were displayed on the main page:

• "Welcome to the Message Bored. Eternally runnin on empty."
• "Welcome to the Bored. The proof isn't the taste!"
• "Welcome to the Message Bored. Where all your dreams come true!"

A common occurrence on the board was for someone to post that they had found a new Easter egg by clicking on the "O" in "Bored", even though this egg had already been discovered and catalogued by the various fan groups of the time. The email invisibility makes fun of this by having the discarded Tandy 400 divulge the "secret" of the message bored "O".

The End of the Message Bored

As the site grew in popularity, a newer, more advanced message board was created at http://bored.homestarrunner.com on May 12th, 2003, but was closed citing overwhelming response within the first day of existence. The Brothers Chaps put up the following message:

>YOU GUYS WENT NUTS!! >
>Okay, so we kinda underestimated the response the new bored would get. In the span of just a few hours, about a thousand people registered. That rules! Unfortunately, we didn't have stuff configured to handle that kinda slammage. So bear with us while we figure something else out. Until then, enjoy Strong Bad's Message Bored Games. If you don't know, ask the Tandy.

• They then posted all the icons available in posting when the board was up.
  • Homestar Runner's face
  • Bubs's face
  • Homestar's face with the sunglasses from Main Page 3
  • Pom Pom bouncing
  • Strong Bad's face
  • The Strong Badia Stop Sign
  • Marzipan, swinging her hair back and forth
  • Strong Bad, laughing
  • Strong Mad's upper body
  • The Poopsmith's face
  • Coach Z, blowing his whistle
  • The King of Town's Old Castle
  • The King of Town's face
  • Homsar's face
  • The Cheat, showing his gold tooth
  • Stinkoman, Double Deucing
  • Another Homestar face
  • Another Strong Bad face
  • Marshie
  • Trogdor

Easter Eggs

• Roll over Strong Bad's head to hear him say three different things:
  • "Ohhhh, I'm so bored!"
  • {turns upside-down, says "Ohhhh, I'm so bored!" backwards}
  • "Why don't you post something already?"

• Click on the "O" in "Bored" to access three secret games:
  • Armless Invaders
  • The Cheat's Smoking Challenge
  • Nighttime Driving Type Game

User names

Various user names have been mentioned by The Brothers Chaps. Here is a list so far:

• Taryn
• StrongSteve (either that, or Homsar, or Eh Steve)[#endnote_1 [1]]
• Emiwy[#endnote_1 [1]]
• Carter[#endnote_1 [1]]
• InvisiblePedestrian[#endnote_1 [1]]
• Variations of "Bonk" (See the [#Trivia Trivia])[#endnote_1 [1]]
• Pablo Phoenix (possibly) [#endnote_2 [2]]

Fun Facts

Trivia

• As Matt and Mike Chapman divulge in one of the DVD commentaries, one of the regulars of the old Strong Bad Message Bored was a certain Pablo, most well known for sending in the email that was the basis for flag day. Messages posted by him can still be viewed in the original archived Message Bored in the external links.
• Using a seek bar, one can see that the score and lives are carried over from game to game. Also, pausing The Cheat's Smoking Challenge or Armless Invaders on the go screen enables a cheat that can be used to get a higher score in Nighttime Driving Type Game. Finally, Strong Bad's high score on Nighttime Driving Type Game replaces one's score, but this cannot be seen without a seek bar.
• When the Bored was operational, the page title was "Strong Bad's Message BORED". When it was overloaded, the title was changed to "There's Too Many of Them!!!".
• One time when the board crashed, Matt put the word "BONK!" at the top.[#endnote_1 [1]]

Real-World References

• Ja Rule is a rapper from the late '90s and 2000s, best known for his songs "Holla Holla", "Mesmerize", and the remix of Jennifer Lopez's "I'm Real".
• "There's too many of them!" is a popular Star Wars quote. Its most notable use was by Lieutenant Telsij during the Battle of Endor in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

Notes

1. [#ref_1 ^] Late Nite JengaJam Interview
2. [#ref_2 ^] The commentary for the Email flag day

External Links

• go to the current page
• go to the current page on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for the current page
• view "Ja Rules"
• [homestarrunner.com/msgboard.mv?parm_func=showmain+parm_starting_root=1 view the message bored's index page when it was operational] (archive)
• view the message bored right after it closed (mirror)