Punkin Stencils

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Pick a punkin, any punkin

The Punkin Stencils are printable stencils to overlay on pumpkins, allowing fans to trace and carve out Homestar Runner-themed designs into a jack-o'-lantern.

New stencils were released annually from 2003-2009. Starting as a simple stencil selection for Halloween 2003, it returned in a pumpkin patch design for 2004 with almost twice as many pumpkins. In 2005, it was updated with the front row of pumpkins and the light switch Easter egg. In 2007, the current layout featuring a conveyor belt debuted.

Due to their seasonal nature, the Punkin Stencils are not a permanent fixture on the site and are often not linked to from anywhere on homestarrunner.com. The latest version of the stencils are typically only linked during the Halloween season — from a Main Page message, @StrongBadActual post, or Index Page message.

Cast: The Cheat, Homestar Runner (voice only), The Homestar Runner (voice only), Bad Graphics Ghost

Date: Monday, October 20, 2003

Page Title: Hot Punkins! Fresh off the Line!

Original Stencils

I'm a stencil!

Date: Monday, October 20, 2003

Page Title: Make-a Your Own-a Pumpakin!

The initial set of stencils were simply displayed as printable outlines on a white screen, without any pumpkin mockups. This menu is still on the site, but not linked to from any other page.

• Marshie's face
• Bubs's head
• Homestar Runner running
• Homestar Runner's head
• Coach Z's Z emblem
• Marzipan in silhouette
• Strong Bad's face
• Strong Sad's head
• Strong Mad's face
• The Cheat against a circular background
• Strong Bad in silhouette
• Homsar's face against a circular background
• The King of Town's head

Punkin Patch Stencils

Punkin Patch

The "Print it!" dialog box allows users to customize the stencil size to best fit their pumpkin.

Date: Thursday, October 14, 2004

Updated: Monday, October 17, 2005; Friday, October 20, 2006

Page Title: Make-a Your Own-a Pumpakin!

Left to right in each row:

• Back row: Sherlock, The King of Town, Eh! Steve!, Bubs, Marshie, The Cheat

• Sixth row: Homestar Runner running, Pom Pom, The Poopsmith, Marzipan, Coach Z

• Fifth row: Strong Bad's face, Old-Timey Strong Bad, Strong Bad's silhouette

• Fourth row: Homestar Runner's face, Strong Mad, Trogdor, Strong Sad, Homsar's silhouette

• Third row: Homsar's face, Coach Z's Z, Stinkoman, The Goblin

• Second row (added 2005): Homestar Runner logo, Li'l Brudder, Rather Dashing, Sterrance

• Front row (added 2006): Gary Palaroncini with guitar, Bear holding a Shark, The Municipality's logo, the duck from Homestar's Duckie Shirt

Easter Eggs

• If you wait 20 seconds after the screen is done loading (without clicking any of the pumpkins), the Bad Graphics Ghost will appear.
  • If you click on one of the pumpkins, the timer stops – the ghost will appear after 20 seconds total with no stencil visible.
  • This happened in the 2009 edition after Doomy Tales of the Macabre was released. It was doable by clicking the demonic Homestar.
• In the 2005 and 2006 versions, pressing L causes the lights to turn off. Pressing L again causes the lights to flicker and come back on.

Fun Facts

Goofs

• The lights-out masks (see below) for the Poopsmith, Stinkoman, and most notably Sherlock are not quite right; they don't take the pumpkins in front of them into account.

Glitches

• If you roll your cursor over the pumpkins while the lights are out, the pumpkins will still expand, but the outline of the originals (before you roll over them) will be left visible. This is because the darkness is just a nearly opaque black mask over the original scene.

Conveyor Belt

The conveyor belt in its first year of operation, 2007

Date: Monday, October 22, 2007

Updated: Monday, October 13, 2008; Monday, October 12, 2009

Page Title: Hot Punkins! Fresh off the Line!

Old Page Title (2007-2008): Make-a Your Own-a Pumpakin!

The left and right arrows control the motion of the belt to scroll through the stencils; the longer an arrow is held, the faster the belt will move. When a stencil is selected, The Cheat drops down and gnaws out the pattern. The pumpkin will then start to glow as the downloadable stencil appears.

When the page first loads, the newest stencils are displayed first. The stencils in order, from left to right:

Easter Eggs

Scary!

• Once all the pumpkins have been lit, clicking a lit pumpkin will make the Bad Graphics Ghost appear and fill the pumpkin back in again.
• In the 2009 update, clicking on the stencils listed below will cause Homestar to give his opinion on your selection.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Really? The Umpire? That's who you want to carve on your pumpkin? I'm pretty sure they included that one as a joke. Nobody likes that umpire! I don't even believe that he exists. Him or Strong Sad.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Uh, I don't know if you want to put that thing on your porch. Seems like that's sending the wrong message to parents in the neighborhood.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Hey, I met that guy one time when I was on the moon! Wait, I was on the moon? And at the beach? And in the Swiss Alps? {sound begins to fade out, until no longer audible} And in a bowling alley? And at a Waffle House? And falling to my death?

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oh, times. You are going to have such fun carving that Strong Bad pumpkin! Its little ears, those pistol-packin' eyes, and oh, that button nose!

THE HOMESTAR RUNNER: If I was you, and I had carved a punkin like that, I'd sneak-toe up to your house while you was sleepin', and shove an entire flaming bag of cow manure {pronounced "man-ware"} inside of there.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oh, so even the old show-up-onceler gets a stencil of his own. Does anybody even know that guy's name? Well, here, look, I can make some junk up off the top of my head too! {crumpling paper is heard} Oh, look it's Paper Crumple Man! Oh hi, Paper Crumple Man! {in a different voice} Hey Homestar, you're Paper Crumple Man! {normal voice} Wait, no, but, you're Paper Crumple Man. {back to different} This is an existential experience. {normal voice} I don't like you, Paper Crumple Man. You don't get a pumpkin stencil.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oh, I know what you're expecting. Blah, blah, blah, blah, Brudder. Well I'm over it! {transitioning to teary tone} You think a simple carving of that pathetic little three-legged two-legger, with one leg, could make...mm...mmm...m...bl–... {quickly, high pitched} Blah blah blah Brudder!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Once, I carved my pumpkin like a green gobliiiin! And then I left it on the front porch until Easter tiiime! And so it really turned greeen! And then the city came and shut me doowwn! And fined me twiiice! {singing} And super niiiice! {coughs, stops singing} You should probably carve that goblin. It's a good one.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: I think it's about ding-dang time I got my proper juice for making up the name Stinkoman! Nobody ever remembers that! Man, if I wasn't saying awesome stupid stuff all the time, like nobody might not like have a name. Like, Coach Z, Bubs, and Marzipan, might like be named Mrs. Gray, Chauncey, and Bellsman. Ooh! Suggestion tiiime!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Okay, while we're looking at this one, let's just go over this real slow, everybody. His name is {dragged out} Hooooom...saaar. My name is {dragged out even more} Hooooo-o-o-omestar. Hom, sssar, Home, star. {faster, progressively more so} Homsar, Homestar, Homsar, Homestar, Homsar, Homestar, {unintelligible}. Okay, maybe I see where the... confusion's comin' in.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oh, I remember that stencil. I remember posing for it in July. You can see that in my eyes, there. There's July in 'em. Oh, no, wait, Gel-eye. I got jelly in my eyes that day. Sorry. That— that's the way it went. You should put some jelly inside this pumpkin.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Hey, that's that giant square blind colonist costume I dress up in some times for Strong Bad. I think his name's Tongue-o. Tongue-o Drippo, the square blind colonist man. Thumbs up!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Just do it! Just do it, you know you want to! Make her butt look real big when you carve this pumpkin! {seductively} And then slip over to my pumpkin and make my pumpkin's butt look big.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oh jeez, man, comma, oh jeez, man. One year, {fearful} I carved that Marshie pumpkin, and it started talking to me! It told me {not fearful} how to win big in business. And so I did. I won real big in business. I'm gonna carve that pumpkin again.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: All right, Eh! Steve!, I understand. He's a classic. You can carve him on your pumpkin until the cows come home. But that thing? A bump in a shape of a hoop and a hey? How you gonna explain that to the kids that come to your door looking for treats? "Hey kids, Happy Halloween! And here is my pumpkin! Carved in the shape of a marshmallow hoo-hooshmalla-heyballa-hoo."

• In the 2009 update, when lighting one of the six Strong Bad-themed pumpkins (Strong Bad's body, Strong Bad's mask, Senor Cardgage, Stinkoman, Sterrance, and Old-Timey Strong Bad), a segment of the pumpkin outline in the top left will fill in. Once the sixth is filled in, a new "Devil Homestar" pumpkin will appear there with a Legend of Zelda sound effect.

Fun Facts

Trivia

• The 2009 RSS description of this feature is:

>Homestar says - Hey look! There's new pumpakin stencils for 2009! But, OH, what's this? Why is there some type pumpakin meter in my upper left hand screens? And why come do I sometimes get a verbal treat when I click on a pumpakin? Well, it's all a part of what I've just decided to start calling, 'Some Minor Changes to the Pumpkin Stencils Thing 2009.' Pretty catchy, huh? Rolls right off that tongue-o.

• In order for the conveyor belt to move smoothly, this Flash file uses a higher frame rate than normal.
• The page was linked to in a main page message on October 5, 2017, making 2017 the first year to link to the stencils without any updates. This is alluded to in the main page message, which reads "old punkin stencils".
  • This was also the case in 2019, and by extension 2020, since the message was left up all year.
  • On October 16, 2021, it was featured on the Old Crap Corner.

Remarks

• The Pistols for Pandas pumpkin did not appear when the conveyor belt was first introduced. It was added later.
• Despite the fact that the pumpkins appear to not have removable tops, they still glow after The Cheat carves them.

Goofs

• The rollers in between the conveyor belt turn the wrong way relative to the belt's movement.
• The Strong Mad stencil is backwards relative to the pumpkin displayed on the conveyor belt.

Glitches

• If the Devil Homestar pumpkin is clicked while The Cheat is gnawing on another pumpkin, the Devil Homestar Pumpkin stencil appears, but The Cheat continues gnawing. When he finishes, the Devil Homestar Pumpkin stencil disappears for a split second and appears again, and the pumpkin The Cheat gnawed does not become carved or lit.
• After lighting all the pumpkins, clicking the 'Devil Homestar' pumpkin causes the bad graphics ghost to appear, but does not fill the pumpkin.

Inside References

• Homestar mistaking the Pistols For Pandas' Panda for Strong Bad is an example of Identity Confusion.
• Several of Homestar's remarks after selecting each pumpkin make references to other pages on the website.
  • Nebulon:
    • The places and experiences Homestar lists refer to (in the order he mentions them) Main Page 1 ("on the moon"), Main Page 3 ("at the beach"), Main Page 2 ("in the Swiss Alps"), Main Page 4 ("in a bowling alley"), Main Page 5 ("at a Waffle House"), and Main Page 8 ("falling to [his] death"). His seeming surprise at all of these realizations alludes to the dubious canonicity of the Main Pages.
  • Li'l Brudder:
    • Homestar imitating himself crying (and then actually crying) refer to crying and The Li'l Brudder Show.
  • Marshie:
    • Homestar says comma aloud, on top of pausing for it.
  • The Goblin
    • Homestar's manner of speaking refers to the story he tells about the Goblin in Homestarloween Party.
  • Stinkoman
    • Homestar's complaint about not getting credit for Stinkoman's name refers to island, in which he calls Strong Bad this name.
    • Homestar says that Bubs might be named Chauncey if he wasn't saying awesome stupid stuff all the time.
  • Sterrance
    • Homestar's line, "You don't get a pumpkin stencil," is similar to a line in the older Halloween toon, Pumpkin Carve-nival, which also features carved pumpkins.
    • Homestar calls Sterrance a "show-up-onceler", even though he had appeared several times on the website. In addition to his debut in the Strong Bad Email animal, Sterrance has shown up in a fake thumbnail in HomestarRunner.com: PAY PLUS!, in alternate universe, and in an Easter egg for email thunder.

Real-World References

• The phrase "Show-up-onceler" might be a reference to the Once-ler, the main antagonist of The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.

External Links

• view "Punkin Stencils"
• view "Punkin Stencils" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "Punkin Stencils"

• view the stencils available for Halloween 2003 on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for the stencils available for Halloween 2003

• view the stencils available for Halloween 2004 (mirror)
• view the Flash file for the stencils available for Halloween 2004
• view the stencils available for Halloween 2005
• view the stencils available for Halloween 2006
• view the stencils available for Halloween 2007
• view the stencils available for Halloween 2008