Old-Timey
From Homestar Runner Wiki
The Old-Timey era (also referred to as the 1936 era) is the collective name for the Homestar Runner toons said to have been made in the 1930s; they are in essence a pastiche/tribute to the cartoons of the time. The toons are in black and white and have intentionally sloppy edits, a grainy and scratched appearance, and a soundtrack filled with static and pops. The characters look and sound different from their modern-day counterparts, and often have different personae, much in the way that the characters in the earliest Mickey Mouse and Looney Tunes cartoons are noticeably different from later incarnations.
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Appearances
This is a list of all full Old-Timey works, which consist of only or mostly Old-Timey settings and characters, and Old-Timey segments, which consist of few uses of Old-Timey settings and characters and many uses of other non-Old-Timey settings and characters.
Full
Segments
- Email little animal — In an Easter egg, Old-Timey Strong Bad gets in a never ending chase by Strong Man
- Email 50 emails — In an Easter egg, there is segment where Old-Timey Strong Bad, along with The Sneak, answer "The Electronic Message"
- 20X6 vs. 1936 — The Homestar Runner is featured throughout the toon
- Email 2 emails — In an Easter egg, Old-Timey Strong Bad has a segment about "Uncle Strong Bad's Flavor Taste Style Chewing Powders"
- Email flashback — In an Easter egg, there is a segment in which Old-Timey Strong Bad sends a message in his telegraph machine
- Email radio — Old-Timey Strong Bad provides one of the examples of different types of radio broadcasts. There is also a follow-up to this in an Easter egg
- Email highschool — In an Easter egg, The Homestar Runner, Old-Timey Strong Bad, Sickly Sam, and Don Knotts have a short segment in Ancient Rome
- Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 13.2 — The Homestar Runner and Old-Timey Strong Bad leave messages on Marzipan's answering machine
- Email alternate universe — Old-Timey Strong Bad is featured in many places throughout the email
- Email 4 branches — The Homestar Runner, Old-Timey Strong Bad, and Rumble Red have a segment about Polymascotfoamalate
- Decemberween Short Shorts — The Homestar Runner, Old-Timey Marzipan, and Rumble Red have a segment about Decemberween
Characters
See also the Characters page.
The following lists every Old-Timey character, with their present-day counterpart in parentheses if said counterpart exists.
- The Homestar Runner (Homestar Runner)
- Old-Timey Marzipan (Marzipan)
- Fat Dudley (Pom Pom)
- Old-Timey Strong Bad (Strong Bad)
- Strong Man (Strong Mad)
- The Sneak (The Cheat)
- Old-Timey Bubs (Bubs)
- Sickly Sam (Strong Sad)
- The Kaiser (The King of Town)
- The Demon (The Poopsmith)
- The Fort Wayne Locomotive (Coach Z)
- The Barbershop Trio (The Announcer)
- Mr. Shmallow (Marshie)
- The Dapper Swindler
- Mr. Bossman
- Eustice Pietimer
- The Guys
- Old-Timey Ghost
- Don Knotts
- Rumble Red
Dates
As far as we know, all of the toons in this style take place in the 1930's, although only three of them are dated. Kick the Can, Parsnips A Plenty, and That A Ghost are labeled 1933, 1936, and 1937 respectively. The early "1933" toons did not have voices and were much more cartoony than the later Old-Timey cartoons, with heads coming off, body-parts changing and characters flying away, among other things. (See the variants from Kick the Can.) Toons released in later years featured voices and were more realistic (if only slightly).
Color
It appears as if the Old-Timey world is actually entirely gray, rather than filmed with outdated camera equipment. Old-Timey characters are still gray when appearing in more colorful time periods, as in 20X6 vs. 1936, when The Homestar Runner is seen on Planet K, he is still in black and white with slight visual errors appearing over him (as in the full cartoons) and crackling audio whenever he spoke. Also, Strong Bad is still in full color when he appeared in the black-and-white Old-Timey world in the email alternate universe. However, the Ballad of The Sneak establishes The Sneak as being "small and smart and yellow" so the idea of color in the Old-Timey world is still open to debate.