Homestarloween Party

Toon Category: Holiday Toon

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Strong Sad's take on the tale

Homestar Runner throws a Halloween party. They take turns telling a story about a goblin.

Cast (in order of appearance): The King of Town, Coach Z, Bubs, Homestar Runner, Strong Bad, Strong Mad, The Cheat, Pom Pom, Marzipan, Strong Sad, The Poopsmith, The Goblin, Pom Pom's Girls, Visor Robot, The Sad Kids

See Homestarloween Party Costumes for more information on what everyone was wearing.

Places: Spooky Woods

Date: On or before Tuesday, October 31, 2000

Running Time: 4:55

Page Title: Homestarloween Party

DVD: Everything Else, Volume 2

Transcript

{Open on a night sky with the spooky woods underneath, the trees illuminated from the ground by a flickering light. Spooky music plays as the credits roll.}

Homestarloween
Party

Written, drawn,
and directed by
Matt, Mike, and Craig

Voices by
Matt Chapman
and Missy Palmer

Animation by
the Brothers Chaps

{Cut to The King of Town, Coach Z, and Bubs, who is holding a pink drink in a cup, in the woods. Jack-o'-lanterns and skulls, both with flickering lights inside, are visible scattered on the ground through the next three scenes.}

COACH Z: Oh jeez, I don't know, I think I prefer his work with the Furious Five much more. Uh, he had more street cred back then...

{Homestar walks by in the foreground, and continues to do so throughout the scene.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Hey, thanks for coming to my party, guys. {rapping; Coach Z dances} Ahh, Coach Z is down with the PE!

{Cut to Strong Bad, Strong Mad and The Cheat.}

STRONG BAD: ...you know, I think it turned out pretty good. I mean Mom helped me do the fruit {gestures to hat}, and I did the sewing—

{Homestar walks by. Strong Bad turns his head to look at him.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oh, lookin' good, Strong Bad. The Chiquita Banana lady, that's great!

{Homestar walks offscreen.}

STRONG BAD: Oooh, Chiquita Ba—?! {shouting} For the last time, I'm Carmen freakin' Miranda!

{Cut to Marzipan, Strong Sad, and Pom Pom, who is also holding a pink drink. The Poopsmith, in the foreground, is bobbing for pumpkins. He picks up a pumpkin and spits it into the bucket twice.}

MARZIPAN: Yesterday, I was out in the garden, and I was weeding, and there was this little worm... and...

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {walks in} Aww, everybody looks so great! {stops walking} You know, there's more punch over there, if anybody... wants any.

{Cut to a closer shot of Homestar.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: All riiiiiight, everybody! Line up! {holds flashlight to his face; an organ plays} We're gonna play {clicks flashlight on and off} Flashlight Ghost-Story-Telling with a Flashliiight! {thunder booms}

{Cut to Marzipan.}

MARZIPAN: We should stand boy-girl-boy-girl. {thunder booms, organ sting}

{Cut back to Homestar with the lit flashlight.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Good one, Marzipan! That way we know it's fair!

{Marzipan walks up to Homestar.}

MARZIPAN: I get to stand next to you, Homestar.

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Nope. I'm standing next to Bubs. You get to stand next to Strong Baaad.

{Homestar walks away. Marzipan gasps in disgust. Strong Bad takes Homestar's place.}

STRONG BAD: Psst! {whispering} Hey, Marzipan... is my slip showing?

{Cut to Homestar holding the lit flashlight at the front of the line, with Bubs and Pom Pom behind him.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Okay, okay, okay! I'll go first.

{A circle forms around him and moves his scene to the lower left so his picture is now an inset surrounded by black. Fade to reveal a new scene behind the inset, with the story starting in the Spooky Woods.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Umm... okay! {talking spooky} Once, there was this green gobliiiin... {a goblin appears, accompanied by a musical sting} and um, he used to... look aroooound... {the goblin looks around, accompanied by a musical sting} And um, I guess he did a daaance. {the goblin dances to a short song} {breaking character} Oh man, that was terrible.

{Homestar passes the flashlight to Bubs. The inset scene follows the flashlight, and continues to do so throughout the story.}

BUBS: And... the goblin, he had a Gremlin!

{A car appears, with the goblin shrinking to fit in the driver's seat. As Bubs talks, the car's tires grow and numerous accessories, including a flux capacitor, are added to it, accompanied by mechanical and car engine noises.}

BUBS: And he jacked it up on some fat tires, and uh, and he tuned it up on some 4.11 positrak out back, 750 double pumper, Edelbrock intake, bore over 30, 11-to-1 pop-up pistons turbo jets 390 horsepower! I mean, he had some freakin' muscle!

{Bubs passes the flashlight to Pom Pom, who makes bubbling noises throughout his segment as upbeat music starts. As Pom Pom talks, a giggling blonde girl in a pink bikini with a Pom head appears to the left of the Gremlin, as well as a redheaded Pom girl with a blue bikini on its hood and a brunette Pom girl in a leopard-pattern bikini on the ground in front of it, followed by beer paraphernalia throughout the scene and a foam finger on the hand of the redhead, who waves her hand around. Pom Pom passes the flashlight to Marzipan, and the music fades out.}

MARZIPAN: One of the girls had a cute little kitten named Kitty-kitty.

{A cat appears beside the girl on the left.}

MARZIPAN: The other girl had a cute little puppy named Chris.

{A dog appears beside the girl on the right.}

MARZIPAN: And then the third girl was a Republican.

{The foam finger of the girl on the Gremlin is replaced with a Republican Party Elephant sign.}

STRONG BAD: {offscreen} Oh, brother! Gimme that! {snatches the flashlight from Marzipan and holds it to his own face} So then the robot came—

{The Visor Robot appears onscreen, walking in from the right.}

STRONG BAD: —and he started vaporizing everybody with his vapor-gun! {the Visor Robot blasts the girls and pets with red laser vision} And he was like "You take this, and you'd better, you, and you take this, everybody's gonna die!" And then he said, {jumping backwards to crush the keg underfoot} "Oh, the Gremlin! I hate the Goblin Gremlin! Bah!"

{The Visor Robot kicks the Gremlin over the trees. However, the Goblin, who has evacuated the vehicle, stays behind.}

STRONG BAD: I need to get some more punch.

{Strong Bad passes the flashlight to the King of Town and walks off.}

THE KING OF TOWN: Oooh, oooh!

{The Visor Robot and Goblin stand across from each other and all the food that the King mentions appears in between them.}

THE KING OF TOWN: And then there was fried fish and Heavenly Ham and Salisbury sundaes {the Goblin walks to the food pile} and globs of meringue and strawberry frosted donuts and bowls full of jelly and Klondike pudding and scrumptious fillers... and—DOO! DOO-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOO!

{All the food inexplicably fades away. The King passes the flashlight to Strong Sad and hurries off.}

STRONG SAD: And so it turns out the robot had a human brain—

{With a mechanical whir, a circle appears over the Robot's head, showing a diagram of its interior with a pulsing human brain.}

STRONG SAD: —that was stolen from a kindly old man.

{A boy and a girl walk in from the left.}

STRONG SAD: And the children of that old man came to the robot looking for their father, and they called out to him.

{A speech bubble with an exclamation point in it appears on the girl. The diagram fades out as they move in closer.}

STRONG SAD: And the robot's human brain remembered his children and his stolen life, and he was moved to tears.

{Tears drip down from the robot's visor, which causes sparks to appear on his exterior.}

STRONG SAD: But the tears shorted out his circuits, and fried his brain.

{The robot topples over, crushing the two kids and the goblin. The robot's brain is thrown clear and begins to slide in a pool of brain juice.}

STRONG SAD: And the robot toppled over, and he crushed his children, and the Goblin, too. And none of them lived.

{Strong Sad turns off the flashlight. Cut to Bubs, Coach Z, and The King of Town crying.}

COACH Z: {crying} Oh, jeez, what a total downer!

{They walk away, still crying.}

{Cut to a wide shot of The Poopsmith, Marzipan, Strong Sad, and Homestar as Strong Bad and Strong Mad leave.}

STRONG BAD: Oh man, I'm outta here!

{The Poopsmith sighs deeply and walks away.}

MARZIPAN: {crying} That's the saddest story I've ever heard! You can't come to next year's party.

{Marzipan walks away crying}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {sadly} Gee... thanks for coming to my party, Strong Sad.

{Homestar sighs and walks away.}

{With Strong Sad now alone, crickets start chirping. An owl hoots as Strong Sad clicks the flashlight on and off a few times.}

{Cut to the sky above, showing the moon behind clouds as the light continues clicking on and off from beneath the trees. A far-off wolf howls as text reading "The End" fades in and out. Cut to a dark grey screen showing everyone in costume, with captions beneath them naming them and their costume. On an orange stripe through the middle of the screen is text reading "Which costume was your favorite? Click here to let us know." "Back" and "Play again!" buttons are also in the center.}

Fun Facts

Trivia

• This marks the only major Halloween toon which Homsar doesn't appear in, due to the fact that he had not yet been created.
• "Craig" from the opening credits is Craig Zobel, co-creator of the Original Book. Although he co-wrote other toons, this is the only toon Zobel is credited with contributing drawing and direction.
• This is the only time Coach Z is seen with a full complement of fingers until 2022 Costume Pack Now Available.
• Homestar incorrectly identifies Strong Bad's costume for the first time, albeit not with the "I really like your costume" format.
• This toon marks the first appearances of The Goblin, who has become something of a Halloween toon staple, as well as the Gremlin, Pom Pom's Girls, the Visor Robot, and the Sad Kids, which have all later reappeared in several toons.
• Marzipan has one of Pom Pom's girls hold up a Republican sign with an elephant on it.
• With nine deaths, this cartoon has a higher body count than any other cartoon on the website, including Teen Girl Squad.
• Strong Mad, The Cheat, The Poopsmith, and Coach Z never contribute to the ghost story, but the Poopsmith probably doesn't contribute to the story on purpose, courtesy of his vow of silence.
• The YouTube description for this toon is "Check it out! Homestar's first Haloween Special!"

Remarks

• The birthmark on Strong Sad as Gorbachev is on the wrong side of his head.
• When Homestar turns the flashlight on and off for Flashlight Ghost Storytelling with a Flashlight, his face isn't illuminated any better, so much as the rest of his body is cast into shadow.
• Clicking "here" at the end screen opens a blank email addressed to halloween2000@homestarrunner.com.

Goofs

• In the beginning, Strong Bad's right sleeve is off center, and hangs down below his shoulder.
• Although the flashlight has a sliding switch, it makes a sound like that of an on/off button.
• The Goblin's pupils shrink when he turns his head to look at the second girl.
• Chris's eyes are transparent.
• After the robot kicks the Gremlin, the front loses the double bumper.
• When the King of Town's imagined desserts fade away, one of the desserts changes color before fading. This is because the dessert is a tinted version of an existing dessert, and in Flash a symbol cannot have its opacity and tint be modified at the same time, so it reverts to its original color.
• When Strong Bad leaves the party, his mouth disappears for a split second.
• When Marzipan is weeping as she leaves, her mouth doesn't move. Also, Homestar's mouth doesn't move when he sighs.
• When Strong Sad turns the flashlight on and off at the end, his hands do not move.

Glitches

• Once the opening credits end, there is a slight jump in the music.

Inside References

• The King of Town's addition to the story involves a pile of foodstuff which includes strawberry frosted doughnuts, Salisbury sundaes, ham, pudding and fish.
• Strong Bad dressing up as Carmen Miranda is an example of cross-dressing.
  • Strong Bad also admits that his mom helped with making the costume.
• Nearly everyone breaks down crying due to Strong Sad's depressing conclusion to the story.
• This toon features instances of death and alcohol.
• "Homestarloween" is a portmanteau of "Homestar" and "Halloween".

Real-World References

• Coach Z's opening line references Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, a pioneering rap group in the late '70s and early '80s. The specific artist Coach Z refers to is likely Grandmaster Flash, who split the group in 1983; he could also be referring to Melle Mel, who led a new version of the group as "Grandmaster Melle Mel & the Furious Five".
• Homestar's shirt says "corporate rock still sucks", which is the motto of SST Records, a favorite record label of Cobain's. Cobain famously wore a shirt parodying the slogan ("Corporate Magazines Still Suck") on a Rolling Stone cover. Homestar's shoes resemble Chuck Taylor All-Stars, popular with Cobain and others in the grunge movement.
• Homestar's line "Coach Z is down with the P.E." is a reference to the Public Enemy song "Burn Hollywood Burn", wherein guest-rapper Ice Cube raps "Ice Cube is down with the P.E.".
  • This has a double meaning, with PE also standing for physical education.
• The Cheat is holding Pooky, Garfield's teddy bear.
• Homestar makes reference to the Chiquita bananas logo, which was created by cartoonist Dik Browne and was inspired by Carmen Miranda.
• Bubs's description of the Gremlin is content warningquoted almost directly from the movie Dazed And Confused.
  • Edelbrock is a seller of performance parts for automobiles.
• The flux capacitor visible on the Gremlin is a reference to the Back to the Future movies.
• The King of Town mentions Heavenly Ham, a food retailer that was based out of Atlanta. It was purchased by The Honey Baked Ham Company in 2002.
• Strong Sad turning the flashlight on and off is possibly an homage to the movie Shallow Grave, in which Christopher Eccleston's character turns a flashlight on and off into his face while spiralling into insanity.

Fast Forward

• The following year's Halloween toon, The House That Gave Sucky Treats, calls back to this toon in multiple ways:
  • The music used for the Flashlight Ghost Storytelling With a Flashlight is used again.
  • Marzipan remarks to Strong Sad that he wasn't invited, following up on her line in this toon that he "can't come to next year's party."
  • An Easter egg allows the viewer to put a pumpkin in The Poopsmith's mouth again.
• According to Strong Bad is in Jail Cartoon, the spooky trees in the background are just next to Bubs' Concession Stand.
• The organ music used for the introduction of the flashlight is used once again for the Strong Bad email theme park during "The Strong Sad Gets Decked Repeatedly Stunt Spooktacular".
• A slight variation of Homestar's "Corporate Rock Still Sucks" (the motto of SST Records) shirt was worn by Strong Sad in geddup noise, which said "Corporate The Geddup Noise Still Sucks".
• In Doomy Tales of the Macabre, Strong Sad gets "literary justice" when he's invited to no one's party.
• 2022 Costume Pack Now Available is a replay of this cartoon with "added DLC"; namely, the costumes are changed, other characters contribute to the ghost story, and some less significant changes are made. Additionally, an Easter egg features the characters commenting on each other's costumes from the original toon.
  • The teaser foreshadowed this, as it was also in the style of the original toon.

DVD Version

• The spot at the very end to see what the characters were dressed as has been removed.
• The DVD version features hidden creators' commentary. To access it, switch the DVD player's audio language selection while watching.

Commentary Transcript

(Commentary by: Matt Chapman, Mike Chapman)

MATT: Oh, Mike, listen to how you can hear your fingers hitting the keys—

MIKE: Really?

MATT: —on the little—yeah. {pause} They're kinda little puh puh puh clicky—

MIKE: Yeah. Yeah.

MATT: —holding a mic up to the Casio SK-1 keyboard.

MIKE: Does that not have a line out?

MATT: Uh, it didn—it sounded crappy, I think.

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: It just had to go from like an 8-inch to an adaptor, et cetera et cetera.

MIKE: So here's our first Halloween cartoon.

MATT: Yeah, it was a really nice credit sequence... Mike.

MIKE: ...Not sure why Matt is taking this tone with me, everyone!

MATT: {laughs} "Every single {clears his throat conspicuously} wanna see me."

MIKE: Ohh, interesting.

MATT: Yeah.

MIKE: Uh, The Cheat's costume, while he looks pretty good, wasn't very involved. It's just a pair of glasses... Garfield-looking glasses.

MATT: He has a very authentic Pooky, though... {Mike chuckles} for sure.

MIKE: I think the Mikhail Gorbachev still may be my favorite costume.

MATT: It's a good one.

MIKE: Although his glasses don't have any, uh...

MATT: {laughs} They're just taped to his face.

MIKE: And I think the Marzipan genie costume might be the least thought-out—

MATT: Yeah. We just—

MIKE: It was the first one, but, everyone else's costumes are pretty good.

MATT: Yeah. Yeah.

MIKE: Cap'n Crunch, that's a good... Ooh, Marzipan's old mouth.

MATT: {softly} Ooh, the—Oh... I don't think Kurt Cobain had that stringy of—his hair was that stringy.

MIKE: I don't— Our friend Craig made that hair.

MATT: Did he really? I didn't remember that. I know that Craig made the ladies, the hot ladies that show up in Pom Pom's story later on.

MIKE: Yeah, he made, he made—

MATT: Did he make that headdress on, uh, the fruit basket headdress?

MIKE: No... I made that.

MATT: Oh. It looks good. Oh yeah, you drew that and scanned it in, didn't you?

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: I think we still have the drawing of that in the old sketchbook.

MIKE: So Matt one time when he was... what do you think, you were three maybe?

MATT: Uh, nnnnyeah, may—four.

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: Four, probably four. It was right when we moved to Atlanta.

MIKE: There was his Halloween costume, it was this big inflatable head that you sort of have attached with this headgear of this Martian. Yeah, goblin?

MATT: He was a goblin, not a Martian, he was a gween gobolin.

MIKE: Our dad was interviewing him on Super 8, and said, "What do you dress up?" {imitating Matt's young, high-pitched voice} "A gween gobolin!"

MATT: It was true, man.

MIKE: Look, Bubs has no arms, Matt!!

MATT: {laughs}

MIKE: He has no arms!!

MATT: Good job, us!

MIKE: Who were we fooling?!

MATT: No one! {pause} These ladies are a little risqué for the website, honestly.

MIKE: {laughs}

MATT: Craig made them way too hot.

MIKE: Especially the way that one's kinda twisting her ankle like that.

MATT: Yeah, she's—

MIKE: Look, she's funneling beers too!

MATT: They're party girls. Pom Pom's into the party girls. {pause} I remember Melissa made all these things up and I was amazed by her improvisational talents.

MIKE: {chuckles}

MATT: I don't think I—I don't think I still—I didn't really like Melissa at that time, and I was really impressed. Naw, I was kidding. I liked Melissa plenty. {pause} He hates the Goblin Gremlin, Mike. {pause} Heh, the weird King of Town voice.

MIKE: {laughs}

MATT: —before it found its stride. There was really, what, like four or five different—oh, okay there was an impressive amount of different drawings, there. In my head that was a way bigger pile—

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: —than what I remember.

MIKE: I don't know why—

MATT: {pause} There's a lot of things that were invented from this cartoon: The Goblin, the sad kids, that robot—the Visor Robot appeared.

MIKE: The Visor Robot.

MATT: Why is it called the Visor Robot?

MIKE: I dunno, I think the wiki—I didn—We didn't name it the Visor Robot, did we?

MATT: No.

MIKE: But I call it the Visor Robot, {in a funny voice} don't I, Matt?

MATT: {in a funny voice similar to Coach Z's} Yeah, you do; you gotta listen to that wiki, Mike!

MIKE: I like, watch the brain slide here.

MATT: Yeah, I did this part. {pause} Those squashed kids look pretty terrible. {both laugh} Not even sure how that works.

MIKE: Oh, Bubs has arms again!

MATT: {laughs} Good, see—he only has pointy fingers.

MIKE: Oh yeah, he's got fingers. Yeah, Coach Z—'Cause he says, uh, "the Furious 5", right?

MATT: Yeah, I think so. Well, he was just pointing too, when he's rapping, when he says, "Coach Z is down with the PE." But, now he just has mittens. {Mike laughs} He has never shown his fingers again. Maybe those are—

MIKE: He's never shown his true fingers before.

MATT: Maybe he's just wearing those on top of his mittens as part of his costume. We're really consistent, everybody! We think this stuff through ahead of time; we have a ten-year plan for the website...!

MIKE: {wolf howls in the cartoon} Hey, that's Matt.

MATT: That's me.

MIKE: Yeah.

MATT: I do an owl, too. On the website, sound effects master, mang! Manganese.

Fun Facts

• Matt quotes "Burn Hollywood Burn", the same song Homestar references when seeing Coach Z's costume, albeit clearing his throat to avoid swearing.

See Also

• Egg Throwing Game

External Links

• watch "Homestarloween Party"
• watch "Homestarloween Party" on YouTube
• watch "Homestarloween Party" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "Homestarloween Party"