Theme Song Video

This article is about the short. For the Strong Bad Email, see theme song.

Toon Category: Shorts

watch ← Kick the Can Old New Intro →

"Look out, Homestar! It's Strong Bad!"

The Homestar Runner theme song video.

Cast (in order of appearance): Homestar Runner, Strong Bad, Pom Pom, Marzipan, Bubs, Coach Z, The King of Town, The Poopsmith, Homsar (DVD version only), Strong Sad, Strong Mad, The Cheat

Places: The Moon, Outer Space, Free Country, USA, The Field, A Frozen Pond, Various Houses, A Dojo, Swimming Pool, A Racetrack, Skatetown, USA, King of Town's Castle, The Bar

Date: Thursday, May 11, 2000 or earlier

Running Time: 1:00

Page Title: Listen in wonder!

DVD: Everything Else, Volume 1

Lyrics

Homestar run go!
Homestar run, run
Homestar run, run

Homestar Runner, really great
Homestar Runner, ath-a-late
Homestar Runner, Pom Pom too
Homestar Runner, we love you!

Homestar run, run
Homestar run, run

Homestar Runner, do your best
Homestar Runner, pass the test
Homestar Runner, Mom and Dad
Look out, Homestar! It's Strong Bad!

Homestar run, run
Homestar run, run
Homestar run!
Weekdays!

Fun Facts

Trivia

It's the auto that I always all the time drive around. And call an auto.

• Slowing down the voices by around 20% reveals that it is actually The Brothers Chaps singing, apparently with mock-Japanese accents.
• The song is a remake of the one from Super NES.
• The Chinese behind Pom Pom (说明文件) means "Explanation files", or less literally, "Help files".
• A direct front view of Homestar's face appears when he's driving the soap box car. For most of the site's history, the only other times this occurs were in Marshmallow's Last Stand and Old Intro 2; it would eventually be the main subject of Front Facing.
• Homsar is not in the original Theme Song Video because he had not become a character yet. However, he is in the DVD version.
• This would seem to be the first appearance of a Big Knife, although the said weapon is not referred to by name until i love you.
• One of the pennants in the background of the bar says "LEMKE" on it.

Remarks

• When Homestar and Strong Bad race their slot cars, the track has no slots.
• When Homestar jumps off the diving board, he doesn't move forward in the air, and yet doesn't hit the board on his way down.
• Strong Sad's head is at the center of the spinning wheel on the close up, but on the edge after the pan-out.

Goofs

Ever get that sinking feeling?

• In some cases, when the camera cuts to another scene, the rounded border disappears for one frame or moves slightly.
• In the close-up of Homestar running on the Earth, the moon in front of the Earth disappears prematurely.
• The ball that Homestar kicks disappears one frame before the scene cuts.
• In the toy car driving scene and in the bar scene, when Homestar moves his head, it goes over his shirt.

Glitches

• If "Play Again" or "Rewind" is clicked from the contextual menu before the song stops playing, another instance of the song will start playing over the ending of the first one.

Inside References

• Bubs's dancing at the arcade clearly refers to the Dancin' Bubs game.

Fast Forward

• The Homestar Runner Theme Song reappears on several occasions, typically as a leitmotif for Homestar.
• A question in the Homestar Quiz asks about the arcade games Bubs dances in front of during this toon.
• The scene with Homestar and Pom Pom in the bar is almost identical to the one seen at the end of Summer Short Shorts.

DVD Version

• The DVD version contains extra scenes causing the video to end at the same time as the music. A few of these scenes feature running gags that hadn't been invented when the original video was made.
• 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: The Homestar Runner theme song, Mike. Take it away.

MIKE: Well, Matt, this was maybe the first video that we did.

MATT: Music video?

MIKE: Music video that we did, yeah.

MATT: It was originally going to be an intro to the site; do you remember that plan?

MIKE: That would have been—

MATT: And then we—

MIKE: {simultaneously} a little bit annoying.

MATT: Yeah! And then we realized that it was, like, a minute long! And half a meg or something.

MIKE: You may notice some new scenes in this version, Matt, that aren't on the one that's on the website.

MATT: That's right!

MIKE: {simultaneously} Or they're not on the website right now. We were stupid before and did it a stupid way, and there were some gaps. This video was shorter than the song, and we needed more video.

MATT: Back when we made it, our computer was slow, so that the vide— the audio actually was in synch, right? Was it 'cause we had a bad computer that was slow?

MIKE: {simultaneously} Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. Yup.

MATT: Uh, that's disgusting right there. That heaping pile of doodoo.

MIKE: What does 1+a equal?

MATT: Uh, 1+a, I think. Right?

MIKE: Yeah. It's the distributive property.

MATT: Right. Oh! Get it, Homestar! Umm, "Homestar stinks". I remember we debated for a long time whether or not to make it say "sucks" or "stinks", and we went with "stinks".

MIKE: We played the safe route?

MATT: Um, Lemke.

MIKE: Has— has that bowl of peanuts always been there? It's a nice bowl of peanuts.

Fun Facts

• The distributive property is the algebraic principle that a number multiplying a sum of two numbers is equal to the sum of the products of the first number with each of the other two: $a\cdot(b+c)=a\cdot b+a\cdot c$. More than likely, Matt and Mike were thinking of the reflexive property of equality: $1+a=1+a\,$.

See Also

• The visuals that occur during this film, and on the DVD.
• Super NES
• Homestar Runner Theme Song

External Links

• watch "Theme Song Video"
• watch "Theme Song Video" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "Theme Song Video"