HomestarRunner.com: PAY PLUS!

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You will receive your package
You will receive your package
in 6-8 weeks.</pre>
in 6-8 weeks.</pre>
 +
 +
(After about 15 seconds, you are returned to the main page.)
== Fun Facts ==  
== Fun Facts ==  

Revision as of 17:41, 26 November 2005

File:payplus aprilfools2005.JPG
"Finally At Last!!!"

It's April Fool's day and—Oh no! HomestarRunner.com is now a subscription site!

Cast (in order of appearance): Homestar Runner, Senor Cardgage, Strong Bad, The Cheat, Strong Sad's head, Strong Mad, Frank Bennedetto, Sterrance, Bubs (warped into his concession stand), Vector Strong Bad, Stinkoman, Rather Dashing (silhouetted), Eh! Steve, The Wheelchair, Ready for Prime Time, Keyboard Strong Bad, The Worm, Sherlock, Mr. Shmallow (watermark), Cheerleader, So and So, What's Her Face, The Ugly One, Arrow'd Guy

Places: The Field, Strong Bad's Basement, Computer Room, Bubs' Concession Stand

Date: April 1, 2005

Page Title: Finally At Last!!!

Contents

Transcript

Page One

HomestarRunner.com PAY PLUS!
ONLY $12.95 MONTHLY!
JUST $99.95 YEARLY!
SIGN UP FOREVER!
Interactive Menus!!
*New annual fee!
*The same content!
*More banner ads!
Free 7 second trial!!
Join now!
Subscriptions are the latest craze!
Loggin' (a login box)
Instant access!
Take the tour!

Homestar's Seven Seconds

{Cue Homestar standing in the field. A timer counts up in the bottom left corner of the screen starting at 0.15 seconds.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: One... two... three... four... fi-

{The timer reaches 7.15; a buzzer goes off, and "TRIAL PERIOD OVER!" pops up on the screen.}

Page Two

The Email Show!
HomestarRunner.com PAY PLUS!
ACCESS TO ALL 230+ STRONG BAD EMAILS!
WEBCAM CHAT WITH THE CREATORS OR SOMEONE ELSE!
Let's see a clip!
SHOW ME MORE, SIR!

Strong Bad "Trap Door" Sample

{Cue Strong Bad sitting in front of his computer, flanked by the Cheat, who is holding a remote control. Homestar is standing on a brown trapdoor in front of Strong Bad.}

STRONG BAD: All right, the Cheat, let 'er rip!

{The Cheat presses the button on the remote. The trapdoor opens under Homestar's feet. He falls about two feet and stops.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Woo! That was fun!

STRONG BAD: The Cheat, I thought we were opting for the bottomless pit. {Homestar starts a little dance with his feet, stepping back and forth gracefully.} ... Not a two-foot pit!

THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}

{Cut to the basement, where Strong Mad sits on the couch with Homestar's feet dancing on top of him.}

STRONG MAD: I HAVE A FUNNY HAT!

Page Three

There's more?? Why, yes. 
HomestarRunner.com PAY PLUS!
GEE-AMES!
Pay for play!!
Just pennies/pixel!
Members plus, fool!
Actual screenshots!
Fake boxes
HOURS OF STREAMING VIDEO GAME FEEDS
FREE SAMPLE GAME
"Sign Up Today Man"
1 player simultaneous
CHECK MARK!
Continue Free Tour!

The free sample game resembles Space Invaders with Strong Bad against an army of Homestars coming out of the sky. The Cheat periodically falls from top to bottom and if he hits you, a message will appear saying "YOUR" "HEAD"(changes to SHIP a second later) "ASPLODE". Trying to play the game is difficult because the screen continually flashes the message "TRIAL VERSION", locking the game controls. The game also automatically closes itself after the 13th or 14th "TRIAL VERSION" screen, keeping you from advancing.

Page Four

HomestarRunner.com PAY PLUS!
So Much More!!

SWEET CUPPIN CAKES
A New Episode Each Week!
Meet Eh! Steve!'s Lawyer!
Win a chance to have lunch with the Worm-type character!

teenage girl show!
Revamped for the 90's.
More humor! Finer dining!
See the unaired pilot, the holiday special, and the 'everybody dies' episodes!

And also, too:
Answering Machines out the wazoo
Powered by The Cheat-athons!
Senor Cardgage Wednesdays
Mr. Shmallow's Webcam

Extra free sample here!
On the Tour?

Teen Girl Squad Sample

{Cheerleader, So and So, and The Ugly One are standing around. Cheerleader's shirt reads "sperld rott'n".}

CHEERLEADER: That stupid wheelchair kid asked me to the Friday Night Dance! But I'm going with Steven!

{Enter Eh! Steve!, wearing a football uniform with the number nine}

CHEERLEADER: {speech bubble fills with hearts} Hey, Steven!

EH! STEVE: Eh! Steve!

{Cut to Wheelchair}

WHEELCHAIR: I'll teach you to steal my date, Eh! Steve! I'm gonna come outta my shell at the Friday Night Dance and show everybody who's whooooooooooo!

{Arrow'd Guy, with fairy wings, a tutu and a wand, enters and changes the Wheelchair into a realistic drawing of a wheelchair.}

STRONG BAD: {narrating} GOOD DRAWINGED!

WHEELCHAIR: I'm a real boy!

{Cut to the "It's Over!" splash screen.}

STRONG BAD: {narrating} It's over!

Page Five

View Shopping Cart
HomestarRunner.com PAY PLUS!
Join/Sign Up Today/Now!!
$19.95/month or $499.95/week... Yearly Savings!
No More Money!!
OVER 2 BILLION!!
 First Name ________
  Last Name ________
   Nickname ________
Nick's Name ________
      Month ________
      D/O/B ________
Organ Donor ________
   Car Keys ________
   Passcode ________

Page Six

Thank you for your order.
You will receive your package
in 6-8 weeks.

(After about 15 seconds, you are returned to the main page.)

Fun Facts

Explanations

  • The entire April Fool's site is a spoof of the preview pages on many pay-sites on the Internet: the trial videos, the free tour that ends with a sign-up page, the tacky design and layout, and the "streaming video game feeds" all mimic said pages.
    • The second page claims "ACCESS TO ALL 230+ STRONG BAD EMAILS!" when there were only 127 emails at the time it was posted. This spoofs how subscription sites often flagrantly misrepresent their content. However, this may be a reference to a perk of subscribing (viewing unaired Strong Bad E-mails).
    • A recent trend for Internet entertainment sites (especially game sites) is to be free for a few years, and then the owners initiate a pay-to-play policy. Perhaps this April Fool's joke was done so the Homestar Runner site would fit the trend.

Trivia

  • When the page was first released, the navigation buttons at the bottom of the page weren't there, like Under Construction.
  • After the false message about 6 to 8 weeks delivery, the page always directs you to Main Page 19, The Show.
  • Pressing '7' on the keyboard (or the numeric keypad) during the trial game will toggle the gray 'TRIAL VERSION' message. If it's onscreen, it will vanish. If it's not onscreen, it will appear. Holding down the 7 key rapidly toggles the message on and off. The 7 key has no effect at any other time.
  • The screenshots on the first page show:
    • Senor Cardgage showing a pie chart to Homestar, dressed in his pajamas and robe from caper
    • Strong Bad with the Lappy 486 as The Cheat serves him Strong Sad's head on a platter.
    • Strong Mad on The Couch wearing Homestar's Homestarmy bowl, next to Frank Bennedetto.
  • The screenshots on the second page show:
  • The third page has:
  • There is a background tile image, but it's only a tiny black line.
  • If Homestar only made it to five at the end of the Seven Second Trial he was counting at the rate of one for every 1.4 seconds.
  • Using a Flash decompiler, it is possible to see that The Brothers Chaps left ALL of the games menu in the 7 Second Trial Game instead of just the necessary objects.

Remarks

  • Right clicking and selecting "play" will quickly advance you, page by page, to the very end of the presentation.
  • None of the screenshots on the first two pages are from actual toons or emails. The StrongBadZone screenshot contains a quote not found in the game.
  • Strong Bad is seen with the Tandy 400 in one of the screenshots, with Sterrance from the email animal even though that was a Lappy 486 era email.
  • Saying that a new Sweet Cuppin' Cakes episode will come out every week pokes fun at the fact that Sweet Cuppin' Cakes almost never gets any new episodes.
  • Except for the buttons and movie clips, all content featured on this toon are JPEGs.
  • If you shoot all the Homestars in the trial game, a second wave appears.
  • On the first page, the right column of pictures is titled "Instant Access", but at the end, it states "You will receive your package in 6 - 8 weeks."
  • In the math problem shown in the screen shot of Rabbit Algebra, x = ±4.
  • The presentation refers to an "everybody dies" episode of Teen Girl Squad, however two episodes have already been made in which every character dies, Issue 8 and Issue 9. (It is notable that this toon pre-dates Issue 9, but not Issue 8)

Goofs

  • Pressing the back button while watching the "Let's see a clip!" preview on page 2 will not make the Clip close, but it does close if you go back to page 2. This does not work if you hit "Show me more, sir!" or on any other of the previews.
    • Though if you right click and click rewind while watching the other samples, it goes to the first section. It zooms in on the game.
  • In the 7 second trial (which is actually 7.15 seconds long, according to counter), the counter in the corner is counting by seconds and then 60ths of seconds. If you watch it frame by frame in the swf. file, you can see the decimal counter is going at 5 60ths of a second per frame, which means the decimal goes up by 5 every frame. At the end of any second, the counter does not go from 55 to 0, it goes from 55 to 60, and then to 65, and then to 10.
  • On the "The Email Show" page, in the middle of the screen, Strong Bad's eyes are a much lighter shade of green and have lost the shadow on the tops of his eyes.
  • In the .swf file, right clicking and clicking "play" will take you to the "6-8 weeks" page where normally in their toons (when viewed in .swf form), the Brothers Chaps have the cartoon already on "play" mode so that when you click it, all it does is pause the toon.
  • The black part of Sterrance's face mask is not present in his screen shot.

Inside References

Real-World References

  • The trial game resembles another Homestar Runner game, Armless Invaders, which in turn resembles the arcade game, Space Invaders.
  • "I'm a real boy!" is an obvious reference to Pinocchio, a wooden puppet who was turned "real" and made a similar remark in at least one version of the story.
  • "I'll teach you to steal my date, Eh! Steve! I'm gonna come outta my shell at the Friday Night Dance and show everybody who's who!" and the #9 jersey are references to the movie Angus.
  • The "Interactive Menus!!!" is a clear reference to cut rate DVDs. While most DVDs offer additional features like Director Commentaries, and "Making Of" featurettes, cheap DVDs and DVDs of movies that didn't make enough money to make such featurettes have to get by with advertising Interactive Menus as a bonus feature.

External Links

Teen Girl Squad
Characters Main: Cheerleader, So and So, What's Her Face, The Ugly One
Gregs: Sci-Fi Greg, D n' D Greg, Open Source Greg, Japanese Culture Greg
Minor: Arrow'd Guy, The Birds, Brainkrieg, Fighting Growlbacks, Manolios, Mr. Pitters, Mrs. Commanderson, Olympic Man and Coach, Peacey P, Quarterman, she likes cloth, Thomas, Tompkins
Issues Main: Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4, Issue 5, Issue 6, Issue 7, Issue 8, Issue 8½, Issue 9, Issue 10, Issue 11, Issue 12, Issue 13, Issue 14, Issue 15
SBCG4AP: Homestar Ruiner, Cave Girl Squad, Teen Girl Squad Meets Limozeen
Toons: 4 Gregs, Decomposing Pumpkins
Miscellaneous Locations, Costumes, Theme Song, Fangs, -'d, Ow! My X!, Captioned Transitions
Other Teen Girl Squad Deaths, 404'd, Neon 404'd, Teen Girl Squadcast
Retrieved from "http://hrwiki.org/wiki/HomestarRunner.com:_PAY_PLUS!"
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