Hiatuses

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:''This is not intended to be an official wiki article, simply a service to our users who wish to know more about hiatuses within the body of work.''
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By [[H*R.com updates 2002|2002]], [[homestarrunner.com]] had established a schedule of releasing new toons weekly. [[The Brothers Chaps]] have taken '''hiatuses''' large and small from this self-imposed schedule of updates to the [[Homestar Runner (body of work)|Homestar Runner]] body of work.
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[[The Brothers Chaps]] have sometimes put the [[Homestar Runner (body of work)|Homestar Runner]] body of work on '''hiatus''', especially in recent years.
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Between 2005 and 2009 there were several minor hiatuses from the weekly pace. The site underwent a major hiatus from 2010 through 2014, after which a new, slower pace of updates has become standard.
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Minor hiatuses occured occasionally between 2005 and 2009, with the first major hiatus starting in 2010 and continuing until 2014. Since then, [[homestarrunner.com]] has still been on hiatus, but now with several toons released a year.
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==Minor Hiatuses==
==Minor Hiatuses==
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===Toons===
 
[[Image:Weclome Back.PNG|thumb|"What is it, like, mid-May or something?"]]
[[Image:Weclome Back.PNG|thumb|"What is it, like, mid-May or something?"]]
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With the exception of Homestar Runner's early years, the first hiatus to last over a month was from December 5, 2005 to January 8, 2006, between the releases of the [[Strong Bad Email]]s [[portrait]] and [[highschool]], 34 days in total— the longest hiatus at the time. That record was broken by the 48-day hiatus from May 16 to July 3, 2006, between the releases of the email [[isp]] and [[Weclome Back]], the latter of which explained what the [[characters]] were up to during that time. This was due to the birth of a [[Very, Very Little Girl|baby]] to [[Mike Chapman]] and [[Missy Palmer]].
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The earlier hiatuses were relatively minor, lasting between one and two months. Despite the lack of new [[Toons|toons]] or [[Strong Bad Email]]s, minor updates {{--}} the [[weeklies]], [[main pages]], [[Games|games]], and [[store]] sales {{--}} would continue through these hiatuses.
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The next hiatus was from December 18, 2006 to January 22, 2007, between the releases of [[Decemberween Short Shorts]] and [[looking old]], a total of 35 days. There was later a 45-day hiatus from June 26 to August 7, 2007, between [[Ever and More!]] and [[Quality Time]] (during which [[Where's an Egg?]] and [[Main Page 24]] were released), which was announced in a [[Main Page Pop-Ups#takin' a baby break|main page pop-up]] as a result of [[Matt Chapman|Matt]] and [[Jackie Chapman]] having also given birth to a baby. The next hiatus, as well as the first without minor updates, was from December 23, 2008 to January 26, 2009, with 34 days between the releases of [[A Death-Defying Decemberween]] and [[Hremail 62]].
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===Strong Bad Emails===
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[[Image:lappysplosion.PNG|thumb|A comeback... or was it?]]
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The first major Strong Bad Email hiatus was in between [[email thunder]] and [[hremail3184]], lasting 280 days (nine months and one week). It was the longest Strong Bad Email gap at the time, and for a while afterwards, one Strong Bad Email came out each month. The release of [[videography]] on October 5, 2009 was the beginning of the longest Strong Bad Email gap in the history of the site (over five years).
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During the hiatus, The Brothers Chaps released [[Sbemail 136 Alternate Versions|drafts]] for the email that eventually became [[geddup noise]], as well as a [[2011 Calendar|calendar]] that documents the release dates of all Strong Bad Emails, along with an image and a quote from twelve selected emails. In addition, Matt Chapman revealed on his [[@ronginald|former Twitter page]] a partial image of scripting for the 206th Strong Bad Email, which he claimed would be released "someday, when you least expect it".
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On April 1, 2015, the hiatus officially ended with the release of [[sbemail206]], but there were no emails since until [[too cool]] was released in August 2017. On April 1, 2018, the 208th Strong Bad Email was hidden inside the holiday toon [[The Next April Fools Thing]]. The [[@StrongBadActual]] Twitter account and [[Trogdor!! The Board Game]] Kickstarter have since hinted at a 209th Strong Bad Email from one of the board game's backers.
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{{clear}}
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==Major Hiatuses==
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{| border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=5 style="border-collapse:collapse"
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===2010 - 2014===
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|- bgcolor=#eeeeee
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[[Image:babylady.jpg|thumb|The original reason for the hiatus]]
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! width="20%"|Start !! width="20%"|End !! width="10%"|Length !! Notes
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After the release of [[Punkin Show]] in November 2009, the first major hiatus in the site's history began, with barely any material produced for nearly five months. In the [[Vox Interview - 6 Oct 2015|October 6, 2015 Vox interview]], The Brothers Chaps attributed this to the birth of Matt and Jackie's second baby, [[The Brothers Chaps' Side Projects|side projects]], and creative burnout. In that interview, they stated that they only expected the hiatus to last one to six months, and still wanted to make new content during that time. Matt eventually moved to Los Angeles to work on TV shows, making it difficult to make toons with Mike in [[Georgia]].
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|-
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| December 5, 2005<br>[[portrait]]
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| January 8, 2006<br>[[high school]]
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| 34 days
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|
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|-
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| May 16, 2006<br>[[isp]]
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| July 3, 2006<br>[[Weclome Back]]
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| 48 days
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| This was due to the birth of [[Mike Chapman]] and [[Missy Palmer]]'s [[Very, Very Little Girl|baby daughter]]. Weclome Back explains what the [[characters]] had been up to during that time.
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|-
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| December 18, 2006<br>[[Decemberween Short Shorts]]
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| January 22, 2007<br>[[looking old]]
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| 35 days
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|
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|-
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| June 26, 2007<br>[[Ever and More]]
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| August 7, 2007<br>[[Quality Time with Cardboard Homestar]]
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| 45 days
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| This was announced in a [[Main Page Pop-Ups#takin' a baby break|main page pop-up]] as a "baby break" for the birth of [[Matt Chapman|Matt]] and [[Jackie Chapman]]'s child.
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|-
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| December 23, 2008<br>[[A Death Defying Decemberween]]
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| January 26, 2009<br>[[Hremail 62]]
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| 34 days
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| This was the first hiatus without any minor updates to the site.
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|}
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<blockquote>'''MATT:''' It was mainly just, I was&mdash; I just had my second daughter, and then we had started, it was right at the ten year mark which felt like a nice, big, you know, if you're gonna take a break like ten years felt like a nice time... to take a breather. ''{laughs}'' And then during that time we decided, "Hey, let's start talking to some of the people who we've heard from over the years in the industry, and see if there's something there that, you know, to work on or try to grow." And so we started talking to people out in Los Angeles, and then some of that stuff started to actually move forward, so we were like okay, if we want to keep pursuing this we kind of need to put Homestar on hold to try to put all our weight behind that stuff. And so that's what we started doing, and I ended up actually moving out to Los Angeles for a few years and we got to do a bunch of cool stuff and work with a bunch of cool people and work on a bunch of cool shows.</blockquote>
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==2009 - 2013: The Big Hiatus==
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[[Image:babylady.jpg|thumb|120px|The baby lady had another baby]]
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===[[H*R.com updates 2009|2009]]===
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Matt and Jackie had their second child in the fall of 2009, announced in a December 1 entry to the [[FeedBurner Page#Stuff - New Baby vs. Updates!|FeedBurner page]] that requested readers "please be patient with updates". The toon [[Punkin Show]], released a few weeks earlier on November 10, was the final update of the year.
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This hiatus ended for a short time with the release of the [[April Fools' Day]] toon [[Xeriouxly Forxe]] in 2010, with [[Main Page 26|a Xeriouxly Forxe-themed main page]] shortly thereafter. The hiatus continued again after that, and most of the main page messages that year were [[Yahoo Store|Store]] offers. For the first time in the site's history, no major [[Halloween]] cartoon was produced in 2010. Strong Bad was later featured as one of the characters in the [[Telltale Games|Telltale]] game [[Poker Night at the Inventory]], released November 22. The first major update in over eight months, [[A Decemberween Mackerel]], was released on December 14, shortly followed by [[Which Ween Costumes?]] on December 22 &mdash; a [[Decemberween]]-themed Halloween toon.
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===[[H*R.com updates 2010|2010]]===
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[[File:Matt portrait Pen Ward.jpg|thumb|120px|Portrait of [[Matt Chapman|Matt]], later used on the [[@ronginald]] account.]]
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Updates continued to be scarce in the new year. The first update was [[April Fools' Day]] toon [[Xeriouxly Forxe]], with [[Main Page 26|a Xeriouxly Forxe-themed main page]] shortly thereafter. The next major updates were not until December: [[A Decemberween Mackerel]] on the 14th, shortly followed by [[Which Ween Costumes?]] on the 22nd {{--}} a Decemberween-themed Halloween toon (2010 had been the first year in the site's history without a major [[Halloween]] toon).
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Following the holiday break into the new year, the site was back on hiatus. The only character appearance during 2011 was [[Puppet Character Variations|Puppet Strong Bad]] appearing at [[Aquabats Concert - 18 Jan 2011|an Aquabats concert in January]]. Since then, the last site update was a Store offer.
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[[Strong Bad]] was featured as one of the characters in the [[Telltale Games|Telltale]] game [[Poker Night at the Inventory]], released November 22.
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In September, Matt created a Twitter account called [[@ronginald]] in which he stated that Homestar Runner would be updated "sporadically and without warning". During this time, he also stated that he was working for the [[Nickelodeon]] program [[Wikipedia:Yo Gabba Gabba|Yo Gabba Gabba]], for which he had previously created an animated segment, as well as [[The Aquabats|The Aquabats! Super Show!]] and the [[Disney]] cartoon [[Wikipedia:Gravity Falls|Gravity Falls]]. December 22, 2011 marked the first time in the site's history that an entire year passed without any content. On February 27, 2012, Matt posted an out-of-focus image of the apparent script for Strong Bad Email 206 on his Twitter account, with the message [[:File:sbemail206_teaser.jpg|"Someday, when you least expect it..."]]. He deleted his Twitter account in January 2013.
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===2011-13===
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No new toons were produced for three years. The only updates to the site during this time were store offers.
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Strong Bad and Homestar Runner made a surprise appearance at [[W00tstock - 18 Jul 2013|W00tstock 5.0]] in July 2013, marking the first on-screen appearance of the characters in two-and-a-half years. The store was updated with the re-release of [[Decemberween]] cards around November 23, 2013.
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Outside of the website, a few character appearances were made during this time: [[Puppet Character Variations|Puppet Strong Bad]] appeared at [[Aquabats Concert - 18 Jan 2011|an Aquabats concert in January 2011]], while Strong Bad and Homestar Runner made a surprise appearance at [[W00tstock - 18 Jul 2013|W00tstock 5.0 in July 2013]].
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===2014 - present===
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In September 2011, Matt created the Twitter account [[@ronginald]] which allowed for direct, public communication with fans. Although remarking that "[[@ronginald#112956119256805376|lately, not a whole lot]]" had been done for Homestar Runner, he asserted that the site would continue to be updated "[[@ronginald#18185|forever! just sporadically and without warning]]", and hinted that [[sbemail 206|Strong Bad Email 206]] would come "{{prs|174295231376785409|27|Feb|2012|site=ronginald|alt=Someday, when you least expect it...}}". He deleted this Twitter account in January 2013.
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==2014 - Present: Transition to the New Status Quo==
[[Image:AprilFools2014.png|thumb|"You got this, Homestar. This is nothin'."]]
[[Image:AprilFools2014.png|thumb|"You got this, Homestar. This is nothin'."]]
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Matt decided to move back to the Atlanta region, and The Brothers Chaps finally had the chance to make new content. For the first time in over three years, the hiatus was briefly interrupted on April 1, 2014 with [[April Fool 2014]], the first toon since 2010, when the site stopped updating. The toon acknowledges the length between updates by making the [[index page]] look dilapidated, and centers around Homestar and Strong Bad attempting to update "the website's best feature". At the end of that toon, Strong Bad and Homestar Runner discuss the possibility of there being a substantial amount of time before the next update. This toon replaced the normal index page until July.
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The site was updated with a new toon, [[April Fool 2014]], for the first time in over three years. The toon acknowledged the length between updates by making the [[index page]] look dilapidated; at its conclusion, Strong Bad and Homestar Runner imply a possible multi-year wait before the next update. In several later interviews, The Brothers Chaps credit the large positive response to this toon as a major encouragement to continue site updates.
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<blockquote>
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Matt appeared on [[The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show Interview - 7 July 2014‎|The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show on July 7]], in the first [[Interviews and Public Appearances|interview]] with either of the Brothers Chaps in several years. Matt expressed that the Brothers had an interest in "making more stuff, hopefully on a more frequent basis" {{--}} borne out with more site activity in October with [[Fish Eye Lens]], [[Halloween Safety]], [[I Killed Pom Pom]] (the first full-length [[Halloween]] toon since 2009), and the first updates to [[Quote of the Week]], [[Weekly Fanstuff]], and [[Sketchbook]] in exactly five years. Matt also mentioned plans for a [[sbemail206|new Strong Bad Email]], a [[Post-Flash Site Update|more accessible website redesign]], and a Homestar Runner-themed [[social media]] account, all of which eventually came to pass as well.
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'''JEFF RUBIN:''' This year, April, first cartoon in a while, which you already managed&mdash; it sounded like you were testing the waters a bit to find out if there was still interest?<br>
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'''MATT:''' Sort of. It was something, we had heard from people that were like, "Hey, where did it go? We wanted more," which is always super cool to hear.<br>
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'''JEFF RUBIN:''' I bet you get that on a daily basis, whether you know it or not, like in your email or somewhere. That must happen all the time, right?<br>
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'''MATT:''' Well, I hope it does, 'cause that would be very encouraging. I feel like the consensus is that we stopped because we didn't want to do it, and I hate for people to think that we've been sitting in a pool with a martini sort of laughing at the Internet, like, "What fools! We'll never make you a Strong Bad Email again!" It's very much the opposite. My brother and I have lived the last three or four years still thinking in our brains that we're gonna be making a new cartoon next week, and we would routinely text each other dumb jokes from a Homestar line or a Strong Bad line that will probably never happen. So, we've been jonesing&mdash; we've been wanting to do this stuff. [...] It's not that we were like, "We hated it, we wanted to take a break." No, the rest of the world has influenced us in a way where we have to take a little time off, and there literally hasn't been time to do them. So that's why the April Fools' thing was definitely like, "All right, we've got the time. We're gonna do it. We're gonna see if anybody gives a crap anymore. And if they do then the goal will be to start making more stuff, hopefully on a more frequent basis."<br>
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'''JEFF RUBIN:''' And I think we can conclude people still gave a crap, right?<br>
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'''MATT:''' It seemed like it. Maybe it was a fluke just because it was the first one we've done. I don't know if there'll be diminishing returns or not, but just based on that alone it's enough to make us want to give it a try again.
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</blockquote>
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In the [[The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show Interview - 7 July 2014‎|July 7, 2014 Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show interview]], Matt stated he planned to update the website again in summer or fall. He said to have plans for a new Strong Bad Email, a more accessible website redesign, and possibly a Homestar Runner-related social media account. This proved to be true with the release of [[Fish Eye Lens]] in October and the first posts from the [[@StrongBadActual]] Twitter account. In the [[Rolling Stone Interview - 3 Oct 2014|October 3, 2014 Rolling Stone interview]], Matt stated that they were doing it for fun, and not full-time, due to the stress and deadlines of the website's former weekly schedule, and that they would only release a toon every couple of months. [[I Killed Pom Pom]], the first full-length [[Halloween]] toon since 2009, was also released at the end of the month.
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The [[@StrongBadActual]] Twitter account began posting regularly on September 26, 2014; it has since become the most active facet of the Homestar Runner body of work.
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In 2015, the [[Store]] was redesigned and switched to a different website, and the [[NavBar]] was updated with "[[youtube]]" replacing "[[FeedBurner Page|subscribe]]". The first major update was in April 2015, when [[sbemail206]] was released after a five-year wait. It was around this time that the Chaps started working on their Disney web series [[Two More Eggs]], which was originally updated with a frequency equivalent to Homestar Runner in its heyday. After that, toons started to come out semi-regularly, with new content every second month. [[Record Store Day]], [[Flash is Dead!]], [[Strong Bad Classics!]], and [[The House That Gave Sucky Tricks]] were released during this time, followed by [[Fan Costumes 2015]], the first [[Fan Costumes]] toon since 2009.
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In a [[Rolling Stone Interview - 3 Oct 2014|Rolling Stone interview on October 3]], The Brothers Chaps specified that they were not planning to return to full-time work on the site due to the stress and deadlines of the former schedule. Rather, they would simply create any new toons at their own pace, closer to every couple of months rather than weekly.
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In 2016, the first major update was [[Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 17.2]] on April Fools' Day, the first [[Halloween Safety|true]] [[Marzipan's Answering Machine]] since 2009. On September 2nd, 2016, the [[Homestar Runner 20th Anniversary Show - 2 Sep 2016|Homestar Runner 20th Anniversary Show]] was performed, with a [[Homestar Runner 20th Anniversary Show - 7 Oct 2016|second show on October 7th]]. A new toon, [[Homestar Runner Goes for the Gold]], was shown at both shows, and would be released on the website later in the year, as well as [[Later That Night...]] and [[Fan Costumes 2016]].
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[[H*R.com updates 2015|2015]] was the true start of the modern pace of updates; there was new content every second month. In the years since, the site has been updated slowly but semi-regularly, with new content every 1-4 months; [[Halloween]] toons have been released annually since 2014.
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In 2017, the site was first [[Screenland - 24 Apr 2017#Easter Eggs|visibly]] updated in August with the release of [[too cool]], the 207th Strong Bad Email; combined with the subsequent release of [[Skills of an Artist]], along with monthly [[Toons|toons]], it has been updated weekly for the first time since 2009. @StrongBadActual (and to a lesser extent, his [[@strongbadactual (Instagram)|Instagram]] account) has been highly active during this time, with new posts nearly every day; arguably even more so than the website in its heyday.
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== Reasons for the hiatus ==
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Several reasons for the extended hiatus in the early 2010s have been given across multiple interviews, most prominently in [[The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show Interview - 7 July 2014|a 2014 appearance on ''The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show'']], [[Vox Interview - 6 Oct 2015|a 2015 ''Vox'' interview]], and [[Gizmodo Interview - 24 Jan 2017|a 2017 ''Gizmodo'' interview]].
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===Family===
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The [[FeedBurner Page]] update in December 2009, playfully titled "New Baby vs. Updates!", explained that the new addition to the family would likely result in slower updates. However, this is only mentioned in passing in most later interviews, implying this was a relatively minor factor in the decision to take a hiatus.
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===Creative burnout and desire for a break===
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''JRJR Show:''
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<blockquote>'''MATT:''' It was right at the ten-year mark which felt like a nice, big... if you're gonna take a break, ten years felt like a nice time to take a breather.</blockquote>
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''Gizmodo:''
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<blockquote>'''MIKE:''' There was some creative burnout. We had been doing it for 10 years and we probably stuck to that weekly schedule a little more strictly than we needed to, so we needed a break. It was definitely a slog sometimes. Like Saturday you're at a friend's house and it slowly dawns on you that "we don't have an idea for a cartoon." Even during the hiatus I'd feel weird on the weekends because for 10 years there was this cloud looming over me that I had 20 hours straight of sitting in front of a computer bleary-eyed on Sunday night.</blockquote>
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2018 saw the introduction of [[The Deleteheads Download]], an updates newsletter not unlike the [[Secret Pages#emailupdates|one]] used in 2001-2003. It has showcased a preview of the long-awaited [[Stinkoman 20X6 Level 10|tenth level]] of [[Stinkoman 20X6]], as well as a [[Trogdor]]-themed [[board game]], [[Trogdor!! The Board Game]]. A new version of the website that doesn't use [[Flash]] was launched on July 17, 2018. However, the only major toon releases in 2018 were [[The Next April Fools' Thing]], [[Trogdor Was Dragon Man]], the Halloween toon [[Mr. Poofers Must Die]], and [[Fan Costumes 2018]], with additional [[:Category:Kickstarter Videos|promotional material]] being made for Trogdor!! The Board Game.
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===Concerns about longevity===
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''Gizmodo:''
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<blockquote>'''MIKE:''' We always knew our business model was temporary. Everyday it was like, "We're on borrowed time here, there’s just no way to make a living off of this, because it’s unsustainable." We didn’t want to start selling ads, and this was before the era of Kickstarter or Patreon and other ways of artists monetizing directly from their audience. We were just like, "Let’s just do it this way, rather than try to change our business plan," which was never a real business plan. Our mindset was, "We're lucky to make money off this in the first place, and if it's no longer making enough money to not have other jobs, we'll not worry about it and get another job." [When we went on hiatus] we knew we were going to have to start looking for other jobs.</blockquote>
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Because Homestar Runner was solely supported by the [[Store]] rather than ads or recurring royalties, the brothers were aware that it would not be infinitely sustainable and wished to explore other avenues.
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===Other projects===
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{{seemain|The Brothers Chaps' Other Projects}}
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''JRJR Show:''
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<blockquote>'''MATT:''' We started talking to people out in Los Angeles, and then some of that stuff started to actually move forward. So we were like, okay, if we want to keep pursuing this we kind of need to put Homestar on hold to try to put all our weight behind that stuff.</blockquote>
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Matt moved to Los Angeles from 2011 to 2014, and he and Mike worked on several TV shows such as ''{{w|Yo Gabba Gabba!}}'', ''[[The Aquabats|The Aquabats! Super Show!]]'', and ''[[Gravity Falls]]''. This also made it logistically more difficult to make Homestar Runner toons with Mike, who still lived in [[Georgia]]. Even when Matt returned to Atlanta, other projects like [[Two More Eggs]] continued to take up their time.
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In 2019, more Trogdor!! promotional material was released, including a [[Trogdor!! The Board Game Rulebook EP|rulebook EP]], with music videos being made for some of the songs. Additionally, the tenth level of Stinkoman 20X6 is planned to come out later in the year.
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===Uncertainty of communication===
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''Gizmodo:''
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<blockquote>'''MIKE:''' We really just didn’t know how long it’d be before we could get back to Homestar. Maybe one month, two months, six months. After a certain point it almost became weird to say something about the break. In retrospect, we probably could’ve handled it a little better.<br>
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'''MATT:''' I know we probably bummed people out or lost some people's respect for not saying anything, but we also wanted the site to be focused on the characters, so it would've felt like pulling back the curtain too far to suddenly be like "Hey! We've got kids! And it’s hard!" It didn't seem worth it to be like, "We wrote the ''Yo Gabba Gabba!'' Christmas special! That’s why we’re taking a hiatus!"</blockquote>
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Updates such as [[Main Page Pop-Ups]] or the [[FeedBurner Page]] were often written in a tongue-in-cheek tone, and appearances by the brothers on the site (such as in [[Sbemailiarized!]]) were typically done in a facetious style. The Brothers Chaps were loath to break this tone with a more serious, dramatic, or direct announcement about the status of the website.
==See Also==
==See Also==
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*[[Timeline of Homestar Runner]]
*[[Acknowledged Update Delays]]
*[[Acknowledged Update Delays]]
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*[[The Brothers Chaps' Side Projects]]
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*[[The Brothers Chaps' Other Projects]]
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*[[Post-Flash Site Update]]
[[Category:Real World]]
[[Category:Real World]]
[[Category:Research]]
[[Category:Research]]

Current revision as of 20:30, 8 February 2024

By 2002, homestarrunner.com had established a schedule of releasing new toons weekly. The Brothers Chaps have taken hiatuses large and small from this self-imposed schedule of updates to the Homestar Runner body of work. Between 2005 and 2009 there were several minor hiatuses from the weekly pace. The site underwent a major hiatus from 2010 through 2014, after which a new, slower pace of updates has become standard.

Contents

[edit] Minor Hiatuses

"What is it, like, mid-May or something?"

The earlier hiatuses were relatively minor, lasting between one and two months. Despite the lack of new toons or Strong Bad Emails, minor updates — the weeklies, main pages, games, and store sales — would continue through these hiatuses.

Start End Length Notes
December 5, 2005
portrait 		January 8, 2006
high school 		34 days
May 16, 2006
isp 		July 3, 2006
Weclome Back 		48 days This was due to the birth of Mike Chapman and Missy Palmer's baby daughter. Weclome Back explains what the characters had been up to during that time.
December 18, 2006
Decemberween Short Shorts 		January 22, 2007
looking old 		35 days
June 26, 2007
Ever and More 		August 7, 2007
Quality Time with Cardboard Homestar 		45 days This was announced in a main page pop-up as a "baby break" for the birth of Matt and Jackie Chapman's child.
December 23, 2008
A Death Defying Decemberween 		January 26, 2009
Hremail 62 		34 days This was the first hiatus without any minor updates to the site.

[edit] 2009 - 2013: The Big Hiatus

The baby lady had another baby

[edit] 2009

Matt and Jackie had their second child in the fall of 2009, announced in a December 1 entry to the FeedBurner page that requested readers "please be patient with updates". The toon Punkin Show, released a few weeks earlier on November 10, was the final update of the year.

[edit] 2010

Portrait of Matt, later used on the @ronginald account.

Updates continued to be scarce in the new year. The first update was April Fools' Day toon Xeriouxly Forxe, with a Xeriouxly Forxe-themed main page shortly thereafter. The next major updates were not until December: A Decemberween Mackerel on the 14th, shortly followed by Which Ween Costumes? on the 22nd — a Decemberween-themed Halloween toon (2010 had been the first year in the site's history without a major Halloween toon).

Strong Bad was featured as one of the characters in the Telltale game Poker Night at the Inventory, released November 22.

[edit] 2011-13

No new toons were produced for three years. The only updates to the site during this time were store offers.

Outside of the website, a few character appearances were made during this time: Puppet Strong Bad appeared at an Aquabats concert in January 2011, while Strong Bad and Homestar Runner made a surprise appearance at W00tstock 5.0 in July 2013.

In September 2011, Matt created the Twitter account @ronginald which allowed for direct, public communication with fans. Although remarking that "lately, not a whole lot" had been done for Homestar Runner, he asserted that the site would continue to be updated "forever! just sporadically and without warning", and hinted that Strong Bad Email 206 would come "Someday, when you least expect it...". He deleted this Twitter account in January 2013.

[edit] 2014 - Present: Transition to the New Status Quo

"You got this, Homestar. This is nothin'."

The site was updated with a new toon, April Fool 2014, for the first time in over three years. The toon acknowledged the length between updates by making the index page look dilapidated; at its conclusion, Strong Bad and Homestar Runner imply a possible multi-year wait before the next update. In several later interviews, The Brothers Chaps credit the large positive response to this toon as a major encouragement to continue site updates.

Matt appeared on The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show on July 7, in the first interview with either of the Brothers Chaps in several years. Matt expressed that the Brothers had an interest in "making more stuff, hopefully on a more frequent basis" — borne out with more site activity in October with Fish Eye Lens, Halloween Safety, I Killed Pom Pom (the first full-length Halloween toon since 2009), and the first updates to Quote of the Week, Weekly Fanstuff, and Sketchbook in exactly five years. Matt also mentioned plans for a new Strong Bad Email, a more accessible website redesign, and a Homestar Runner-themed social media account, all of which eventually came to pass as well.

The @StrongBadActual Twitter account began posting regularly on September 26, 2014; it has since become the most active facet of the Homestar Runner body of work.

In a Rolling Stone interview on October 3, The Brothers Chaps specified that they were not planning to return to full-time work on the site due to the stress and deadlines of the former schedule. Rather, they would simply create any new toons at their own pace, closer to every couple of months rather than weekly.

2015 was the true start of the modern pace of updates; there was new content every second month. In the years since, the site has been updated slowly but semi-regularly, with new content every 1-4 months; Halloween toons have been released annually since 2014.

[edit] Reasons for the hiatus

Several reasons for the extended hiatus in the early 2010s have been given across multiple interviews, most prominently in a 2014 appearance on The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show, a 2015 Vox interview, and a 2017 Gizmodo interview.

[edit] Family

The FeedBurner Page update in December 2009, playfully titled "New Baby vs. Updates!", explained that the new addition to the family would likely result in slower updates. However, this is only mentioned in passing in most later interviews, implying this was a relatively minor factor in the decision to take a hiatus.

[edit] Creative burnout and desire for a break

JRJR Show:

MATT: It was right at the ten-year mark which felt like a nice, big... if you're gonna take a break, ten years felt like a nice time to take a breather.

Gizmodo:

MIKE: There was some creative burnout. We had been doing it for 10 years and we probably stuck to that weekly schedule a little more strictly than we needed to, so we needed a break. It was definitely a slog sometimes. Like Saturday you're at a friend's house and it slowly dawns on you that "we don't have an idea for a cartoon." Even during the hiatus I'd feel weird on the weekends because for 10 years there was this cloud looming over me that I had 20 hours straight of sitting in front of a computer bleary-eyed on Sunday night.

[edit] Concerns about longevity

Gizmodo:

MIKE: We always knew our business model was temporary. Everyday it was like, "We're on borrowed time here, there’s just no way to make a living off of this, because it’s unsustainable." We didn’t want to start selling ads, and this was before the era of Kickstarter or Patreon and other ways of artists monetizing directly from their audience. We were just like, "Let’s just do it this way, rather than try to change our business plan," which was never a real business plan. Our mindset was, "We're lucky to make money off this in the first place, and if it's no longer making enough money to not have other jobs, we'll not worry about it and get another job." [When we went on hiatus] we knew we were going to have to start looking for other jobs.

Because Homestar Runner was solely supported by the Store rather than ads or recurring royalties, the brothers were aware that it would not be infinitely sustainable and wished to explore other avenues.

[edit] Other projects

See main article: The Brothers Chaps' Other Projects

JRJR Show:

MATT: We started talking to people out in Los Angeles, and then some of that stuff started to actually move forward. So we were like, okay, if we want to keep pursuing this we kind of need to put Homestar on hold to try to put all our weight behind that stuff.

Matt moved to Los Angeles from 2011 to 2014, and he and Mike worked on several TV shows such as Yo Gabba Gabba!, The Aquabats! Super Show!, and Gravity Falls. This also made it logistically more difficult to make Homestar Runner toons with Mike, who still lived in Georgia. Even when Matt returned to Atlanta, other projects like Two More Eggs continued to take up their time.

[edit] Uncertainty of communication

Gizmodo:

MIKE: We really just didn’t know how long it’d be before we could get back to Homestar. Maybe one month, two months, six months. After a certain point it almost became weird to say something about the break. In retrospect, we probably could’ve handled it a little better.
MATT: I know we probably bummed people out or lost some people's respect for not saying anything, but we also wanted the site to be focused on the characters, so it would've felt like pulling back the curtain too far to suddenly be like "Hey! We've got kids! And it’s hard!" It didn't seem worth it to be like, "We wrote the Yo Gabba Gabba! Christmas special! That’s why we’re taking a hiatus!"

Updates such as Main Page Pop-Ups or the FeedBurner Page were often written in a tongue-in-cheek tone, and appearances by the brothers on the site (such as in Sbemailiarized!) were typically done in a facetious style. The Brothers Chaps were loath to break this tone with a more serious, dramatic, or direct announcement about the status of the website.

[edit] See Also

Retrieved from "http://hrwiki.org/wiki/Hiatuses"
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