Halloween Safety

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Revision as of 10:50, 23 October 2014

"Whew! It's hard sittin' there with your mouth open like that, holdin' it just so."

A teaser for the 2014 Halloween cartoon.

Cast (in order of appearance): The Brothers Chaps (vocal only), Homestar Runner, Sticklyman, Coach Z (silhouette), Bubs (silhouette), Strong Mad (silhouette), The Cheat (silhouette), Marzipan (silhouette), Pom Pom (silhouette), Strong Sad (silhouette), The Poopsmith (silhouette), The King of Town (silhouette), Homsar (silhouette), Tiny-Handed Strong Bad (Easter egg), Strong Bad (Easter egg, vocal only), The Homestar Runner (storybook) (Easter egg), Tucker Donaldson (Easter egg, vocal only), Crack Stuntman (Easter egg)

Places: Spooky Woods, The Field, Marzipan's House

Date: Monday, October 20, 2014

Running Time: 0:76 official, 1:40 actual

Page Title: Official Partner of HalloweenSafety.gov!

Transcript

{A sign appears beneath a starry night sky, featuring a suspicious silhouette with a red circle and slash over it and the words "WARNING! Neighbors are a-watchin'!".}

THE BROTHERS CHAPS: Hi; we're the Brothers Chaps from HomestarRunner.com!

MIKE: Normally we let our dumb animal characters do the talking.

MATT: But this year we're partnering with "halloweensafety.gov" {The web address "halloweensafety.gov" appears at the bottom of the screen before disappearing} to raise awareness about "halloweensafety.gov". {The web address appears and disappears again.}

SILHOUETTE: {gradually tilting} Ugh....

MIKE: So please, find it in your heart to donate—

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {Disguised as the silhouette on the sign, he interrupts} Peh! I say, peh! Whew! It's hard sittin' there with your mouth open like that, holdin' it just so. {Homestar demonstrates his previous position} Buhhhhhhh.

{Zoom out to a full-body shot of Homestar in the Spooky Woods. He removes the sign portion of his costume and his eyes become normal.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Check out my roadside sil-houette costume! I tried dressin' up in some other ones, but, uhh... they didn't work out so great.

{Swipe cut to a "Slippery When Wet" road sign that sprouts two sets of Homestar's eyes. The two tire tracks become mouths as they speak.

TWO HOMESTARS: This one made my voice hurt!

{Homestar's propeller sticks out of the upper left side of the sign and spins, with the left Homestar face making a noise as it does so. The right Homestar face turns the opposite direction and gives an angry glare.}

RIGHT HOMESTAR: Oh, just stop it!

{Cut to a "Construction Zone" sign featuring Sticklyman digging with a shovel. Homestar's eyes and hat appear in the pile he is shoveling.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: This one was asking for a challeeeeenge! {The pile rises to resemble a bulked-up version of Homestar's body, and his feet ooze out of the bottom}

STICKLYMAN: {screaming, while running away} Ai-yagh!

HOMESTAR RUNNER: {Homestar's feet begin dripping black sludge.} I got that sludge foot! I got that sludge foot! {Prancing}

{Cut to a "School Crossing" sign featuring a girl in a dress led across a street by a boy, both carrying books. Homestar's eyes appear sideways next to the girl's legs, and when he speaks they move back and forth like a mouth.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: This one just seemed ina-pro-pro! {The word "INA-PRO-PRO!" is stamped onto the screen in red.} Quack quack. Lady's Legs Duck.

{Cut to a Route 66 sign which, when zoomed out, only covers Homestar's eyes.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: And this one was waaaaay too small! {Blinks twice, the 6s in the sign looking like closed eyes.} Blink. Blonk.

{Cut back to the Spooky Woods, with Homestar in his Neighborhood Watch costume again.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: I think I picked the best one. Anyways, here are some other silhouettes. I'mah get back to creepin' and peepin' 'round y'all's neighborhood! {squints his eyes into the suspicious eyes of the original sign and slowly slides off-screen.} Uhhhhhhhh...

{Cut to the Field, where the cast is gathered in costume in silhouette. The words "Halloween Cartoon Sometime Before Halloween" are beneath them. After a few seconds of waiting, Homestar speaks.}

HOMESTAR RUNNER: Hey, Homestar, I really like your "that one guy from Mad Mazagine" costume. You know the one I'm talkin' about. Always blowin' up that pointy white man. {During this, Homestar in his Neighborhood Watch costume pops up over the word "Halloween", then tosses a lit bomb to a white version of himself in the same costume, blowing him up and chuckling to himself before disappearing.}

Easter Eggs

"Nice Try, Literal Message"

• Like the other teasers, when the Flash file is decompiled, there is a hidden shape that reads "hidden words". Every silhouette excluding Homestar and Homsar has one letter behind it. Also, Strong Mad's silhouette actually has two letters.
• Click on the moon at the end:

{A sign reading "NEIGHBRAHOOD WATCH" fills the screen, with a logo resembling a giant eye. The eye's pupil looks around before donning Crack Stuntman's glasses. When he speaks, an angular mouth appears on the dot.}

CRACK STUNTMAN: Blah'm Crack Stuntman, the new spokesperson for HalloweenSafety.gov, since Pistols for Pandas found out about my line of frozen panda-burger patties! I swear they're high in Omega-3s!

{The glasses disappear with a pop.}

• Click on Homestar's silhouette at the end:

{Tiny-Handed Strong Bad and storybook Homestar are standing in a field, with Homestar wearing a yellow shirt that features the girl from the school crossing sign and his own eyes and Strong Bad holding a scroll; their speech appears beneath them and is narrated by Strong Bad like the other children's books.}

TINY-HANDED STRONG BAD: "Get your entire face out of here, Lady's Legs Duck Shirt,"

STRONG BAD: -proclamated DeVry graduate Strong Bad. {Emphasis lines appear next to the scroll in Tiny-Handed Strong Bad's hand}

STORYBOOK HOMESTAR: "Ina-pro-pro!"

STRONG BAD: -barfed the Queen of England.

• Click on the second "Halloween" at the end:

{Marzipan's Answering Machine appears, with the title changed to "Mikezipan's Answering Machine" and the version number listed as "version 1.00001".}

MIKE: Hi, this is Mikezipan. I'm out looking at the fall colors. Please leave me a message and I'll call you right back.

{The machine beeps.}

TUCKER DONALDSON: Look here. This message is for the Brothers Chap- Chapman Brothers. Chapman Brothers? This is Tucker Donaldson with HalloweenSafety.gov. Your little "joke", if that's what you wanna call it? It wasn't funny, and, uh- and it's not appreciated. I don't know who you think you are, or- or who you think I am, or if you even think at all, frankly. It is not cool and it is not funny, and that's real talk, gentlemen. Gentlemen? That is real talk.

{The machine beeps again.}

Fun Facts

Explanations

• The opening of the cartoon is a parody of cartoons that make public safety awareness announcements in tandem with governmental entities, most commonly UNICEF.
• Route 66 is an old highway in the United States, which ran from Chicago to Santa Monica.
• Omega 3 fatty acids help the body metabolize food and are postulated to assist in brain development; they are often touted as a "miracle" supplement and are most commonly associated with fish.

Trivia

Hey, Sticklyman! WHAAAT are you doing wearing those pants?

• This is the first time Sticklyman has said anything, as well as first time he has been seen wearing a visible article of clothing (in this case, pants).

Remarks

• halloweensafety.gov is not an actual website.
• This toon is the second toon in a row (following Fish Eye Lens) and the first Halloween teaser to contain no back button.
• At the end of the toon, both Strong Sad and The Poopsmith lack arms, despite having visible arms.
• This is Homsar's first appearance since his supposed death in A Decemberween Mackerel.
• This toon features both duplicate and triplicate characters, all variations of Homestar.
• The SWF file is called "ween12_teaser.swf" rather than "ween14_teaser.swf" (or "weensafety.swf").

Goofs

• On the loading screen, the rounded rectangle that forms the ground doesn't quite reach to the left edge of the frame, leaving the upper-left corner of the shape and a sliver of the sky visible.

Inside References

• In the beginning, The Brothers Chaps refer to the characters as dumb animal characters.
• Homestar's echoing voice in the first sign idea is the same as Homestarmecium from the sbemail highschool.
• Homestar mentions asking for a challenge in the second sign.
• This teaser continues several gags from the previous three teasers: Jibblies 2 Teaser (2007), Most in the Graveyard Teaser (2008), and Doomy Tales of the Macabre Teaser (2009):
  • Silhouetted characters (in the same order as the previous teasers)
  • Action that occurs after waiting
  • Hidden text behind the characters
  • Strong Bad depicted in an outrageous costume (a Bug from the Starship Troopers franchise)
• This teaser stands out from the others as:
  • It's the first to start like a normal toon instead of the silhouetted characters scene.
  • It's the first to be listed in a category other than the New Stuff category on the TV Time Toons Menu.
  • It's the first to contain Easter eggs other than the "hidden shape" Easter egg.
  • The ground looks slightly different, and the text lacks the orange outlines and has a gradient of white to orange instead of white to grey.
• Homestar compliments somebody's costume (in this case, his own) in the "Hey, X, I really like your X costume" format.
• Crack Stuntman mentions Pistols For Pandas.
• Mikezipan is a portmanteau.
• Mike's line on the answering machine is the same as Marzipan's answering machine message in Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 1.0.
  • The PhoneTime XL8 is used, despite having been replaced by the XL800 model.
• DeVry University was previously referenced in different town.

Real-World References

• Homestar (the silhouetted criminal) and Crack Stuntman (the eye against the blue background) are dressed as symbols of the neighborhood watch campaign, a civilian effort to monitor their own neighborhoods for suspicious or criminal activity.
• "That one guy from Mad Mazagine" Homestar is referring to is the Black Spy from Spy vs. Spy.
  • The misspelling "mazagine" is derived from competitor Cracked magazine, which always used the same misspelling on its front cover.
• In an Easter egg, Crack Stuntman's appearance looks like that of the original design for Pac-Man from the arcade games.

YouTube Version

"Don't look for these, too."

• Similar to the YouTube version of Fish Eye Lens, after the end of the toon, a group of nine thumbnails appears, parodying YouTube's related video thumbnails. Some of the thumbnails are similar to the ones seen in Fish Eye Lens, while others are new.
  • Marzipan's eyes in the middle-right thumbnail blink once.
• After the thumbnails, the Crack Stuntman Easter egg is shown, followed by Mikezipan's Answering Machine, and finally, the Easter egg with Tiny-Handed Strong Bad and Homestar.

External Links

• watch "Halloween Safety" on the old Flash site
• view the Flash file for "Halloween Safety"
• watch "Halloween Safety" on YouTube
• forum thread re: "Halloween Safety"