Homestar Runner

Today I'm going to talk about another site I've known about for years and years, which also happens to be another site with funny cartoons.

I wonder if there's anybody on the net these days who hasn't heard of Homestar Runner. Mike and Matt Chapman have been making cartoons starring their continually-growing cast of original characters for over a decade now. A friend first showed me the site back in 2001, and I've been hooked since then. I'm also one of the many, many people who have contributed to making it possible for the Chapman brothers to support themselves selling Homestar Runner merchandise.

It's hard to pin down what it is that makes Homestar Runner work. They started out trying to write stories for kids, and I think they quickly decided to open it up to something anyone of any age could enjoy. Although I think there are a lot of references that are specifically geared to people who grew up in the 80s and 90s, who probably make up a large portion of web-surfers anyway.

The big thing Homestar Runner and Angry Alien have in common is that both sites' content consists mainly of Flash animations. Cartoons created with Adobe Flash have been a big thing on the web, and even on TV, for the last ten years, and those two sites have both capitalized on the popularity of the medium.

I'm not sure how Homestar Runner got to be as popular as it has. I think word of mouth is a big part of it. Like I said, I first heard about it from a friend, and I'd bet a lot of other people did. And on the web, word of mouth is a much stronger force. People can e-mail something they like to everyone they know. Search engines will pick something up and tons of people will stumble across it that way. Blogs, like this one, will link to something, and then more people will discover it.

Homestar Runner is probably one of the best sites out there in terms of creative presentation and representing the creators' work. It's a lot of fun to play around on the site because all the links are part of the interactive Flash animations. The links to the store are obvious but unobtrusive. They do a really good job, and I encourage anyone who hasn't seen it before (if there is anyone like that) to check it out.