Heavy Metal

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Revision as of 19:46, 18 May 2006

Heavy Metal in Homestar Runner

Heavy Metal, particularly that of the 1980's, plays a big part in the culture of Homestar Runner, particularly in the life of Strong Bad. There are characters and events in the world, from the existence of Limozeen to Strong Bad's personal endeavours into the genre with songs such as Trogdor, and there are also many minor references, on the level of both the characters and the viewers. They will be listed and explained here.

Limozeen

Limozeen themselves are the source of multiple references to heavy metal, as well as being a refence in themselves.

• The original picture of the band, as seen in monster truck, is comprised of four photos of the Brothers Chaps older brother Donnie, dressed as Vince Neil for Halloween 1987. Vince Neil is best known as the frontman for Mötley Crüe, a notorious hair-metal band.
• Limozeen would shortly be developed in character, and would move away from the Motley Crue inspiration, becoming a parody of less heavy hair bands, chiefly Poison and their lead singer, Bret Michaels.

Taranchula

Judging by the musical style of the Taranchula song Moving Very Slowly, it is evident that they were at first designed to be a parody of the Thrash Metal movement, chiefly Metallica. However, as the character of the band developed, as with Limozeen, Taranchula also went in a different direction, and is now a parody of the many Death Metal bands from Scandinavia and the surrounding territories. Immortal seem to be a big inspiration in particular.

Miscellaneous References

• In Main Page 4, a red bowling ball with black and white stripes can be seen by hovering over the Toons button. This is an obvious reference to Van Halen and, more specifically, the band's guitarist and namesake Eddie Van Halen, who famously plays guitars and wears attire that sports this motif. The pattern was also used on the cover of their recent compilation, The Best of Both Worlds.
• In the email Space Program, Sbasaf's flagship is known as the Proud Anselmo, a reference to Phil Anselmo, controversial frontman of the band Pantera.
• Also in Space Program, Strong Bad makes a reference to a "space alien fron Satriani 5". Satriani 5 is a very obvious reference to Joe Satriani, a multi grammy nominee and pioneer of instrumental guitar rock. He is also known to have taught many other famous guitar players, such as Kirk Hammet and Steve Vai.
• In the email Garage Sale, Strong Bad refers to the email sender Cat as Catman. While there are other explanations, it's likely that this is a nod to Peter Criss, the former drummer of the band KISS, whose stage name was Catman.
• In episode eight of Teen Girl Squad, Cheerleader is seen with a heart-shaped, triple-necked guitar, identical to that which space-age guitar hero Steve Vai had custom built.