Squintmojis

"Guaranteed to give you the slightest impression of a Homestar Runner character!"

Squintmojis are here! See which Homestar Runner characters you can barely recognize on your favorite mobile device!

Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, Homestar Runner, Coach Z, The Cheat, The King of Town, Strong Sad, Marzipan (Easter egg), Strong Mad (YouTube version only)

Places: The Field

Date: Monday, August 28, 2017

Running Time: 4:41 (official), 0:54 (actual), 1:11 (YouTube)

Page Title: Slightest Impression Guaranteed!

Transcript

STRONG BAD: Are you tired of people using {Strong Bad gestures and -moji appears in shiny black letters} -moji as a legitimate suffix?

{"Neith" pops up above the -moji in sharp red letters, and "are we" and a second -moji appears below as Strong Bad speaks}

STRONG BAD: Neith-moji are we -moji!

{Cut to a white background with animated blue tiles. Homestar Runner and Strong Bad float in onto the screen}

STRONG BAD: Introducing new Homestar Runner {the label appears} SQUINTmojis!

{Homestar and Strong Bad are converted into an amalgam of emoji signs. Homestar is a bathtub, siren, and a sake bottle and cup with blue stripes. Strong Bad is a red car, Do Not Enter Sign, a Japanese rice cracker, boxing glove, table tennis paddle, and musical notes.}

STRONG BAD: Guaranteed to give you the {pan slowly across the two emoji figures as Homestar and Strong Bad flash on top of them for comparison} slightest impression of a Homestar Runner character!

{Cut to a yellow tiled background. A smartphone appears with a blue chat balloon reading "Hey bro, Wich is one sez 'jorb'?"}

STRONG BAD: {voiceover} Simply type them in...

{A series of emojis appears consisting of a magnifying glass, a green lizard, a half-chopped cucumber, a green battery, another lizard, and a turtle is entered on the lower talk balloon.}

{Cut to Homestar's head. The word "SQUINT" appears squished as Homestar squints his eyes}

STRONG BAD: {voiceover} ...and squint those eyes up!

{Cut to a comparison shot. The original Coach Z is labelled "ORIGINAL", divided by a line next to the Squintmoji labelled "SQUINTMO'". Above reads "0% SQUINTIFICATION"}

STRONG BAD: {voiceover} More...

{Squintification turns up to 10%. The image becomes blurrier}

STRONG BAD: {voiceover, more anticipatory} More...

{Squintification turns up to 25%. The image becomes much blurrier}

STRONG BAD: {voiceover, angrily} More!

{The scene shakes and blurs to 75%. Both images are barely visible}

STRONG BAD: {voiceover, laughing} There we go!

{A rubber stamp with the word "INDISTINGUISHABLE!" is stamped on}

STRONG BAD: {voiceover} Indistinguishable!

{Cut to Homestar in the field. His propeller cap is on backwards and his eyes look saggy and tired. The corner reads "Actual Talk-Say"}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {mumbling} I this one time I was hanging out with this kid, {pulls out a smartphone with a chicken head, siren, and a sake bottle and cup resembling Homestar} and he got a Squintmoji. And I was like, {pulls it away and squints very hard} "Hey, that's Homestar Runner".

{He moves the phone further and squints harder. Homestar puts down the phone and smiles.}

GENERIC ANNOUNCER 1: That's a great story!

{Homestar's hat spins around on his head.}

{Cut to another white tiled background. Homestar, Strong Bad, The Cheat, the King of Town, and Strong Sad appear and are brought up to size}

STRONG BAD: {voiceover} New Homestar Runner {the label appears} Squintmojis!

{The "squint" part is squeezed as the five figures transform into figures comprised of emojis. Text appears as an announcer speaks.}

GENERIC ANNOUNCER 2: "Oh jeez, squintmojis!"

{The scene briefly goes dark and blurry in a squint, then back to normal}.

GENERIC ANNOUNCER 2: Suh— somebody's already used that, right? {the music cuts out} We should check into that. Get Lawrence. Is he— is he still on the payroll? Lawrence?

Easter Eggs

• Click on the Homestar Squintmoji at the end for an extra scene.

{Squintmoji Homestar is running through an emoji-sculpted version of the Field as "Everybody! Everybody!" plays in the background. He encounters a Squintmoji Marzipan and stops abruptly.} HOMESTAR RUNNER: Ah! Moji-pan!

Fun Facts

Explanations

• This toon is based on emojis, pictograms used in modern web applications.

Trivia

• Starting from this toon, Strong Bad has a new mouth for when his normal mouth is very short.
• The YouTube description for this toon is "The newest craze! The slightest impression will slightly impress! Text your friends! Create your own!"

Remarks

• This cartoon was only categorized under New Stuff for a few days, until it was added to Shorts on August 31st, 2017, the same day Homestar Runner Goes for the Gold was added to Big Toons.
• In the Flash version, the "Oh jeez, squintmojis!" text can be highlighted.

Fixed Goofs

That almost looks like Coach Z!

• Originally, on the comparison shot, the Squintmoji Coach Z was labelled "Original" and the original Coach Z was labelled "Squintmo'". This was fixed by swapping the position of the original image and the Squintmoji image, though the goof can still be seen in the YouTube version.
• As a side effect of fixing the previous goof, the previous scene showed parts of the actual Coach Z being typed into the phone instead of emojis. This, too, was later fixed.

Fixed Glitches

• Since the Ruffle update, the "Original / Squintmo" screen was completely blank, and in the next scene, Homestar was missing his mouth until he pulled his phone out, at which point it reappeared; however, the main part of his hat vanished, leaving only the bill and propeller. The background was also missing from the "actual talk say" scene, resulting in a plain white void.

Inside References

• The message about Coach Z uses Internet slang. Additionally, the mention of Coach Z being the one that says 'jorb' references A Jorb Well Done.
• Homestar's account of using a Squintmoji reflects the "summer talk" he uses in The Baloneyman.
  • The disclaimer during this account reads "actual talk-say", an instance of using a verb after a noun in quick succession.
• At the end, the The Cheat Squintmoji is partially constructed of a cheese, which The Cheat was previously compared to in huttah! and Date Nite.

Fast Forward

• Following the release of this toon, Squintmojis of numerous other characters have been shown on @StrongBadActual.
• "Strong Mad versus Wind-Up Drinks", shown in the YouTube autoplay thumbnail, was released on Instagram.

YouTube Version

"WHERE'S THE APPLE JUICE?"

• The video's title is "Homestar Runner Squintmojis".
• Once again, there is a false autoplay image, this one depicting a video called "Strong Mad versus Wind-Up Drinks". Afterwards, the running Homestar emoji Easter egg plays automatically.
  • The Brothers Chaps blogged about collecting wind-up drink toys in 2010.
• As noted above, the Goof where Coach Z and his Squintmoji are mislabeled is still present.

See Also

• Squintmoji Character Variations for information about which symbols make up the characters.

External Links

• watch "Squintmojis"
• watch "Squintmojis" on YouTube
• watch "Squintmojis" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "Squintmojis"
• forum thread re: "Squintmojis"