HRWiki:Projects/SBEmail Production History

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Current revision as of 00:01, 26 January 2025

Additional sections to expand and improve the Strong Bad Email article with behind-the-scenes information sourced from Interviews and Public Appearances and Links#Articles (initially started in the HRWiki:Sandbox page by User:Bleu Ninja).

To do:

• History
  • Finish recounting through 2022
  • Add information that does not need third-party citations
    • In-universe information: A couple emails are mentioned, either as landmarks (first, first weekly, 100th, 200th/preceding pause) or because an interview specifically mentions them. Maybe we also mention a few particularly famous/noteworthy/popular ones — dragon, virus, japanese cartoon, kind of cool — where appropriate, though would be tricky to maintain NPOV and limit the listing. Mentioning when Strong Bad got a new computer might make sense.
    • Releases: Mention when DVDs, Podstar Runner, and YouTube became a thing (though of course the full lists should remain in their own section)
    • See if there are any statistics, such as sbemails becoming longer over time, that would make for good supporting evidence. Strong Bad Email Statistics and/or Category:Strong Bad Email Research could be useful resources
• Production
  • Cite "types of emails not to send" list

To be discussed: (See: talk page section)

• At what point in the article should this be added?
  • My vote is for "Strong Bad Emails" - "History" - "Production" - "Releases"

• Are there any extant subsections and fun facts that can be integrated into these new sections?
  • "Milestones", suggested by User:Stux

• Do we make mention of SBCG4AP?
  • Yes

• Can we find an explicit "here's why we decided to have Strong Bad start checking emails..." story or quote? The writeup is an awkwardly implicit "Strong Bad was very popular... fans were emailing TBC... you can see where I'm going with this, right?"

[edit] History

See also Timeline of Homestar Runner

[edit] Prehistory

See also Strong Bad#Character Design and Conception

Strong Bad is one of the oldest Homestar Runner characters, created alongside the title character for The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest in 1996. As early as the release of A Jumping Jack Contest in 2000, the Brothers Chaps realized that he was "probably the most interesting character".^[1] He swiftly became a fan favorite and breakout character; the Brothers Chaps took note of this, attributing it to his role as the antagonist and his humorously mild insults.^[1][2] Also around this time, the brothers were exploring the potential of the characters in toons like A Jorb Well Done and new series formats like Marzipan's Answering Machine.^[2]

[edit] The first sbemails (2001)

The first Strong Bad Email toon was some kinda robot, released August 22, 2001.

An email address to contact the Chaps was listed on the site from its earliest days (it would be removed in late 2015). As of a few months before the launch of Strong Bad's email account, the brothers were typically receiving "five or ten mails a day" from fans;^[3] one such fan had been Abdi LaRue. Requiring an email for Strong Bad to reply to, the Brothers Chaps reached out to LaRue: informing them of Strong Bad's then-new email address and suggesting they send him an email.^[4] Abdi's email (inquiring if Strong Bad takes off his mask and boxing gloves when sleeping) was answered August 22, 2001 in the first Strong Bad Email: some kinda robot.

THE BROTHERS CHAPS: Strong Bad Emails were meant to be a really short thing to occupy the space between our longer cartoons. But they ended up turning Strong Bad into one of the most interesting characters.^[5]

Sbemails were initially envisioned as a simple and short feature,^[5] in the manner of a pseudo-advice column.^[6] Early sbemails typically ran for a minute or less, and frequently would only feature Strong Bad typing at his computer. The original idea had been to write a reply from Strong Bad to every email he received, with one selected each week that would be voiced, animated, and posted on the website; this plan was almost immediately abandoned,^[7][8] with the volume of responses (fifteen emails a day) immediately recognized as too much to deal with.^[7] Even emails that were selected would not receive a reply, with the sender only realizing they'd been chosen upon viewing the resultant toon.

At this point, both brothers still had full-time jobs^[2][8] and lived in different states (Mike in Georgia, Matt in New York),^[2][3] necessitating a split production. Mike, who worked freelance and had more free time,^[2][3] would animate while Matt provided voices; writing duties were shared between the two.^[3] Some early entries had no script, with Matt simply reading through then riffing on a fan's email and sending the resultant audio file to Mike for animation.^[6][9][10] Sbemails, much like the rest of HomestarRunner.com, were not being updated on a set schedule at this point: they were released on varying days of the week, usually with over a week elapsing between them. A total of seven email toons were released in 2001.

[edit] Weekly schedule (2002–2008)

MATT CHAPMAN: I'd been living in New York, and then I moved back [to Georgia] and we decided "Hey, let's start doing something every week." We'd done a few Strong Bad Emails at that point, but we decided "that's the easiest thing we could do. We could do one of those a week." So that was 2002 — I feel like just the weekly updating of Strong Bad Emails was really when [the site's popularity] started to go crazy.^[11]

Sbemails released in 2002, such as techno, gained significant traction and led to the burgeoning popularity of Homestar Runner.

2002 was a significant year for Homestar Runner. Matt moved back to Georgia, with the brothers sharing an apartment, and now that they could collaborate in-person they strove to dedicate more time to the website. The then-simple Strong Bad Email toons were selected as something that could be done every week.^[11] The email that established this weekly pace was brianrietta^[10] on January 10, 2002; the subsequent email, i love you (released January 14), standardized the practice of releasing a new sbemail every Monday. Most updates released in 2002 were Strong Bad Emails.

The site's popularity gradually increased throughout the year,^[12] boosted by the new weekly schedule.^[5] At the time, high-speed internet in homes was less common and the site's fans were more likely to watch the toons at work (often in technical jobs) or at colleges, its popularity spread via word-of-mouth; fittingly, viewership and merchandise sales saw a spike in September coinciding with the beginning of the school year.^[11] Both brothers still had full-time jobs at the beginning of the year,^[8] but income from the store allowed both to leave their other work to focus on Homestar Runner full-time by the September spike.^[12][13] Matt would later recall the 2002 emails guitar and techno as being particularly popular, influencing their selection of emails to focus on humorously disparaging specific niches.^[11]

Strong Bad Email's popularity surged in the following years. At the beginning of 2003, Strong Bad was receiving hundreds of emails a day^[7] — this figure would increase to 2,000–5,000 within mere months^[6], remaining as the standard for years. The deluge of messages peaked in summer of 2003 at nearly 8,000 a day^[6], with the caveat that a significant portion was simply spam^[14]. Mondays in 2003 were seeing nearly 300,000 visitors coming to the site to watch the new sbemail,^[13] compared to 200,000 on other days.^[15] A common inquiry^[2][7] — addressed on the FAQ page and its predecessor — was whether the emails Strong Bad answers were genuinely sent by fans: they all are, with the exception of mile (which was purportedly made up by The Cheat).

Though the brothers had hoped to add another weekly feature,^[2][9] the demands of running their own business restricted their time.^[9][16] Additionally, as Strong Bad Emails continued to increase in runtime and complexity, their production took away from opportunities to make other types of cartoons;^[15] the Chaps estimated that "at least 60 to 70 percent" of the site's updates were sbemails.^[17] However, they did not feel limited by the popularity of the series, with Matt reflecting that "when we feel Strong Bad Emails are getting old, we can quickly jump into something else."^[18] The toon Sbemailiarized!, released in 2009, joked that the difference between sbemails and other cartoons on the site was "not all that much!"

[edit] Milestones

Emails that reached a centenary milestone, or a significant division thereof, often focused on (or at least made note of) the landmark. Thus far, five emails have commemorated a significant number of emails; several of these had been teased with an additional toon released the week prior that played off viewers' anticipation.

• 50: 50 emails — Strong Bad attempts to check 50 emails in honor of his 50th email-check, but only succeeds in answering three.
• 100: flashback — The email is presented in "wiiidescreeeen". Marzipan, Homestar Runner, Senor Cardgage, Old-Timey Strong Bad, and Limozeen congratulate him on his 100th email (although Homestar absentmindedly wishes him a "happy 100th birthday" instead). The Compy presents Strong Bad with a congratulatory screen indicating that he has checked 100 emails, and Strong Bad celebrates by saying "email" 100 times.
  • Sbemail 100 Fakeout — Viewers hoping to see email 100 before its official release are teased by Strong Bad.
• 125: rock opera — Strong Bad performs a rock opera featuring scenes and at least one word from all of his previous emails.
• 150: alternate universe — Strong Bad visits alternate universes featuring different versions of himself; they all form a supergroup to sing a ballad commemorating the "sesquicentennemail".
  • Sbemail 150?!? — Strong Sad trys to convince Strong Bad to check a 150th email, proposing a storyboard for it.
• 200: email thunder — The Poopsmith breaks his vow of silence to sing a grand fanfare (by They Might Be Giants). The email also ends with a screen listing the first 200 emails.
  • Place Ya Bets! — The Deleteheads speculate on what will happen in email 200.
  • Sbemail 200 Fakeout — The Deleteheads camp out at the URL for the 200th email.

[edit] Bicentennial and Break (2008–2009)

MATT CHAPMAN: 200 was a nice round number to take a break from [Strong Bad Email] and do other stuff on the website.^[19]

The milestone of 200 emails was reached on September 23, 2008 with email thunder. The narrative of this cartoon quickly shifts from celebrating Strong Bad's achievement to the surprising reveal of Homestar Runner's competing email show — hremails — which have been running parallel with sbemails. Though the toon ends with Strong Bad gleefully destroying Homestar's computer, the coming months would see the release of additional hremails and other cartoons while the Brothers Chaps took a pause from producing more sbemails. In interviews, the brothers expressed that this hiatus was taken to vary their output and that, though they were enjoying the variety, this did not necessarily signal the end of sbemails.^[17][19]

"I've got other plans for the Lappy today."

Another landmark in 2008 was the release of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, produced by Telltale Games in partnership with the Brothers Chaps (the first time Homestar Runner had been licensed out to a third party). This five-part episodic video game centered around Strong Bad's adventures, kicked off by answering emails in the manner of the site's toons (notably, these emails were created by Telltale's writers^[20] rather than sent by fans); each game also featured additional, optional emails the player could guide Strong Bad to read, respond to, or delete. Though the release of the game's episodes overlapped with sbemails going on hiatus, the brothers were quick to specify that the decision to pause sbemail production was not a result of the SBCG4AP workload.^[19]

Strong Bad Emails returned in 2009, with Strong Bad reclaiming the fanmail format from Homestar in hremail 3184 on June 30. Four more emails were subsequently produced, albeit now at a monthly rate rather than the previous weekly pace. The 205th email, videography, was released October 5, 2009; though this toon was not particularly noteworthy or conclusive on its own, it would prove to be the last email for over five years.

[edit] The Big Hiatus (2010–2013)

See main article: Hiatuses

sbemail206 was first teased more than three years before its eventual completion.

Updates to HomestarRunner.com began to slow in late 2009, quickly and dramatically dropping to where only three toons were produced in 2010. The site entered an extended hiatus in 2011, with no new toons for over three years.

During this hiatus, Matt occasionally posted to his Twitter account @ronginald. He affirmed that the site would continue to be updated "forever! just sporadically and without warning", and hinted that a new Strong Bad Email could be released "Someday, when you least expect it...".

[edit] Modern Era (2015–present)

MATT CHAPMAN: We're not expecting [Homestar Runner] to be our full-time gig [again], we just want this to be fun. There were points in the initial run where it was a great job, but it was also stressful. If we want to make a great cartoon, every couple months it will be something new. But we're not going to stay awake all night just to finish a Strong Bad Email.^[21]

HomestarRunner.com became active again in 2014, albeit without a schedule and with a slower pace of updates as the new standard;^[21] as the main pages put it, the site is now "updated every someday". Strong Bad Emails returned with sbemail 206 on April 1, 2015. The email cheekily acknowledges the time that had passed between emails; however, befitting its release date, it is primarily an April Fools' Day cartoon that is not centered around Strong Bad replying to a message from a fan.

Sbemail 206 also began the practice of ending with a prompt for fans to "email" Strong Bad by making a post directed at @StrongBadActual on Twitter (rather than emailing strongbad@homestarrunner.com). The Twitter account began posting regularly in 2014, and is presented as being run by Strong Bad, nearly all posts being written in-character to some degree. In the post-hiatus era, it has become the most active facet of the body of work and superseded many features: acknowledging fan works, sharing production artwork, and announcing new toons and projects have all been done through this account. Though only two full Strong Bad Emails have been made in response to fans' tweets, the account has generally substituted for sbemails' primary function of allowing Strong Bad to interact directly with fans.

Four Strong Bad Emails have been made since 2015. As there is no longer a set schedule for the feature, they are typically motivated by a holiday or made as a reward for a fan contest rather than simply checking Strong Bad's inbox at an arbitrary time:

• sbemail 206 (April 1, 2015) — An April Fools' Day cartoon
• too cool (August 14, 2017) — The winner of a fill-in-the-blank contest
• the next april fools thing (April 1, 2018) — Initially presenting as an April Fools' Day cartoon, the toon is soon revealed to be a sbemail responding to a fan's tweet
• parenting (April 1, 2022) — Produced as a reward for a backer of the Trogdor!! The Board Game Kickstarter, "not an April Fool's Joke"^[22]

[edit] Production

[edit] Email selection

Strong Bad would typically receive thousands of emails every day.

Due to the popularity of Strong Bad Email, it was impossible for the Brothers Chaps to read every message in Strong Bad's inbox. The strongbad@homestarrunner.com account would regularly receive two to five thousand emails a day,^[6][23] requiring the email server to mass-delete the inbox every few days.^[6][23]

The Brothers Chaps would read through emails for hours at a time,^[7][15] arbitrarily selecting chunks of dozens to read through^[6] as they reviewed hundreds of emails in a sitting;^[14] it could take up to 4-5 hours to decide on an email.^[8] The emails would be read in Strong Bad's voice, seeing if humorous riffs or interesting directions to potentially take the toon would emerge naturally.^[6][23][24] Emails with potential were typically identified quickly, "within the first five seconds" of reading — a simple misspelling or idea of how to mock the sender's name could be the impetus for a toon.^[24] The brothers maintained a "good ones" folder of emails that could be used weeks or months later.^[6][25] Other times, the Brothers Chaps would have an idea in mind for a toon and would search the inbox to find an email on the subject:^[6] for instance, Accent had already mostly been written as the topic had been a recurring subject, and when the time came to finish the cartoon they simply searched the inbox for an appropriate email to "reverse-engineer" the cartoon's framing device.^[25]

MATT CHAPMAN: There's a lot of repetition [in the emails]. People can’t seem to get over how Strong Bad types with boxing gloves on.
MIKE CHAPMAN: For the most part they are not very interesting. I wade through them for a couple hours a week and usually only find a handful that can be used. About 80% of them ask how he can type so fast with boxing gloves on.^[7]

The Brothers Chaps would frequently remark that a significant portion — or even the majority — of emails received were repetitive (with another portion as spam, from people simply entering strongbad@homestarrunner.com in email fields around the Internet), asking the same questions that were invariably deleted. These offending subjects were so consistent that the brothers had even considered making a meta email where Strong Bad would address the topic.^[14][25] Such topics included:

• Asking how Strong Bad types with boxing gloves on^[7][14] or what he looks like without his mask^[8]
  • some kinda robot obliquely addressed this, while the chair poked fun at the concept.
• Requesting Strong Bad repeat a topic from a previous email,^[14][23] with requests to draw Trogdor (or another dragon) again especially common^[5][8][25]
• Suggesting a parody of a currently popular movie, event, or cultural phenomenon^[5][8][23]
  • The 2006 Winter Olympics were given as an example of an avoided topic in 2006;^[8] by comparison, the Olympics parody strong badathlon was not in an Olympic year and the email Strong Bad responds to was not about the Olympics.
• Inquiring about characters' parents, particularly asking what they look like^[5][8]
• Using obviously intentionally-poor spelling and grammar to bait a mocking response^[24]
• The same email address sending several emails in a row,^[26] or an identical email again and again^[24][26]
• Taking "too long" (over four or five sentences) to get to the point of the message, though an overly-wordy email could be edited for clarity^[14]
  • In long pants, Strong Bad aggressively truncates an email he deems too long.
  • The email presented in space program was originally over twice as long when sent to Strong Bad.

[edit] Writing

"Making of Email 100" provided a look into the office of the Brothers Chaps during the three-day production of flashback.

The earliest sbemails were written and animated in one sitting,^[9][14] but as of 2004 the Brothers Chaps allowed themselves several days for writing and brainstorming.^[6][8][27] After selecting an email, the brothers would talk through ideas while at their homes^[6] or their office,^[8] chatting amongst themselves, going on walks, and otherwise drawing inspiration from their surroundings; Matt described their writing process as something that they "try to let happen more naturally."^[28]

After a few days of fine-tuning,^[27] the brothers would each write their own script for the story and ideas they had come up with together. These scripts would be compared and compiled, using the best parts of each.^[8] With the final script in place, Matt (the voice actor for Strong Bad as well as most other characters) would still ad-lib or reinterpret the lines during the recording process: "nine times out of ten what ends up coming out of my mouth is usually a little different. And sometimes just through me screwing up we'll come up with funnier ideas."^[9]

[edit] Animation

The runtime of sbemails slowly increased over time, with a runtime of 3–5 minutes becoming the standard by the late Compy era.

At first, a sbemail toon could be wholly completed within seven hours,^[27] with Mike primarily handling animation duties for the earliest sbemails;^[3] after the decision to make Strong Bad Email a weekly feature in 2002, the animation process extended and involved both brothers. Mike would begin animating while his brother recorded audio, then Matt would join in animating once he finished^[9] with the brothers working at opposite ends of the toon progressing towards the middle.^[6]

New Strong Bad Emails were typically uploaded Monday mornings. In 2002 and 2003, the practice was to write and animate an entire email on Sunday nights — beginning in the early evening (typically 6–7 PM,^[2][12] as early as 4 or as late as 10^[9]), the Brothers Chaps would begin a marathon 12–15 hour^[1][12] creative session of writing and animating^[2] (powered by Red Bull energy drinks^[12]). The work would continue until the morning hours — breaking for sleep and finishing the cartoon after waking up,^[2] or even working straight through until dawn.^[9] This sleepless schedule was enabled by Matt's day job, which did not require him to be in the office until 11 in the morning.^[29]

With the Brothers Chaps beginning full-time work on Homestar Runner in late 2002^[12][13], and renting an office workspace in 2004,^[6][8] their production schedule became less of a sprint — though they would admit to continuing to pull occasional Sunday all-nighters for years to come.^[6][23] By 2006, the brothers estimated that the recording and animation process took anywhere from 18-24 hours of work,^[27][28] distributed across the latter two to four days of the week.^[6][8] Due to the improvisational nature of the toons, changes from minor additions (such as the Trogdor song in dragon) to wholly rewriting the toon would often be made at the last minute.^[23] The runtime of Strong Bad Emails steadily increased over time, regularly extending past four minutes compared to how earlier entries barely crossed the two-minute mark. These factors led to sbemail production taking up a significant portion of the brothers' time.^[17] Family obligations also increasingly occupied their time — by 2007, both men were married and had children.^[29][30] In various interviews, both brothers had expressed hopes to someday build up a backlog of completed Strong Bad Email cartoons,^[6][14] which they apparently were never able to achieve.^[31]

MIKE CHAPMAN: It's kind of funny how much it feels the same when we make Homestar cartoons today. I’m still sitting across my brother with my headphones on, working for 12 hours, putting it up in the early morning, and maybe stopping at Waffle House on the way home.^[29]

Factors such as creative burnout and the desire to take a break from their self-imposed schedule led to the extended hiatus in the early 2010s.^[11] Though the brothers have no plans to produce toons at a weekly pace again,^[21] they still retain an open-ended, quick-turn writing/recording/animation process in their current work. Some toons produced after the hiatus (such as the Two More Eggs shorts) are still turned around in about a week's time, a process the Brothers Chaps consider instrumental to their "lighting-in-a-bottle" creativity.^[32] Even though they no longer adhere to set deadlines,^[21] the Brothers Chaps occasionally still work late into the night to finish animating a toon.^[29]

[edit] References