Random Toon

From Homestar Runner Wiki

(Difference between revisions)

Revision as of 11:24, 15 April 2019

"Random" redirects here. For a random wiki page, see Special:Random.

'Round and 'round it goes...where it stops nobody knows...

Random Toon Button

The Random Toon Button was added to the main pages alongside Quote of the Week, Weekly Fanstuff, and Sketchbook on September 12, 2005 and can be accessed by clicking the button labeled R. It loads a random Toon, Strong Bad Email, Marzipan's Answering Machine, or Teen Girl Squad. If you don't like the selection it comes up with, you can press the "again" button on the left side of the box before you are redirected, which will restart the selection process. You can also press the "close" button on the right of the box to abort the selection.

random.bat/go rando!

A similar button was also added to the top right of the Strong Bad Email menu on September 12, 2005, along with a Scroll Button Song referencing it. Originally labeled "random.bat", the button appears in the top-right corner of the computer screen. Pressing it causes the menu to select several random emails in sequence. When it is done, it loads the last random email it picked. Strong Bad says one of several things when it's activated:

STRONG BAD: Brrrrrrakatakatakataka...ta..ka...tick...tick... Brring!
STRONG BAD: {higher pitched and louder} Lakalakalakalaka... tuck... tuck... tuck... tuck... {low pitched} Bong.
STRONG BAD: How 'bout this one? Donk. {a random email is then picked without a roulette of emails}
STRONG BAD: Broooodagadagadaga..da..ga..da...ga... Dooj.

The random.bat button was removed from the menu after Strong Bad destroyed Lappy 486 in hremail3184, and then was put back as "go rando!" on August 31, 2009, with the introduction of the first Compé scroll button song.

Navigation Bar

The random toon button was also added to the navigation bar at the bottom of every page. It reads "rando". It doesn't show the roulette box, simply jumping straight to another toon. Thus far, this has not been added to the special navbars of Main Page 22 or virus, since the navbar is part of the .swf. On most of the toons, they use main_nav.swf.

Fun Facts

Trivia

Some of the names of toons were too long for the Main Page random box, leaving the last few letters cut off. They were soon renamed to fit.

Old Title (Letters Left Out)	Solution
Homestar Presents: Present(s)	H*R Presents: Presents
HomestarRunner.com: PAY PL(US!)	HomestarRunner.com: PAY+
In Search of the Yello Dell(o)	Unfixed
Peasant's Quest Movie Trail(er)	Peasant's Quest Trailer
Puppet Jam: Bad Jokes (none)	Bad Jokes (renamed for consistency)
Puppet Jam: Mission Control (none)	Mission Control (renamed for consistency)
Puppet Jam: Tropical Lazor (Beams)	Tropical Lazor Beams
Puppet Jam: Vitamins/Celebr(ities)	Vitamins/Celebrities
Strong Bad is in Jail Cartoo(n)	Strong Bad is in Jail
Sweet Cuppin Cakes December(ween)	Sweet Cuppin Cakes Dween
Teen Girl Squad Decemberwe(en)	Teen Girl Squad Dween
The House That Gave Sucky T(reats)	House ... Sucky Treats
Sickly Sam's Big Outing (none)	Big Outing
Doomy Tales of the Macabre (none)	Tales of the Macabre
The House That Gave Sucky T(ricks)	Unfixed
Later That Night... (none)	Halloween 2016 Cartoon
Homestar Runner Goes For the Gold (none)	HR Goes4Gold
Characters from Yonder Web(site)	Unfixed

The Random toon button also resulted in The Brothers Chaps formatting most of the Puppet Stuff to HTML format.

Remarks

When the rando link in the navigation bar loads a Puppet Stuff, it is placed on a light blue background. This is because a Puppet Stuff is layered over another page, but the rando link doesn't work with this. The Random Toon button on the Main Pages does allow an external Flash link to be layered over them, so a Puppet Stuff is layered over them.
".bat" is the filename extension for batch files, which are text files with a series of commands intended to be executed by the MS-DOS or Windows command interpreters.
While "random.bat" is running, the names of the various Strong Bad Emails can still be clicked as they flash on the screen.
Shortly after being released, a number of minor changes were made to the randomizer. The following issues were resolved:
- Homestar and the Nice Present and Homestar vs. Little Girl (the two Decemberween In July puppet toons) were not originally included in the random list. There was just a comment in the XML file reading "", reminding The Brothers Chaps to add them.
- Labor Dabor didn't originally work, as the URLs for the HTML and SWF files were reversed in the XML.
- If the R button on the main page was clicked more than once (either after closing the randomizer box or while it was up), and it picked a Strong Bad Email, the email number in the URL would be larger than the correct number by the number of Strong Bad Emails (it would redirect to something like sbemail405.html). This was because it kept a counter of the emails as it read the email names from the XML file, and clicking the R again caused it to re-read the list without resetting the counter.
  - flashback was immune to this problem, as it has a different URL from the others (to distinguish it from Not the 100th Email!!!, which itself is not in the XML list).
- The Random Toon machine didn't have the "&" or "_" symbols embedded, so lures & jigs was shown as "SBEMAIL: LURES JIGS" and sb_email 22 was displayed as "SBEMAIL: SBEMAIL 22".
In the XML code, the newest email has the code: new="yup" after it.
The XML document is not valid as there is no root element in the document.

Goofs

Sbemail 169 Deleted Scene links to An Important Rap Song.
Date Nite links to Strongest Man in the World.
Many cartoons are omitted from the XML list, and therefore will not be selected randomly. Currently, these are:
- Commandos in the Classroom
- Homestar vs. Other Little Girl
- Strong Bad is a Bad Guy
- Marshie vs. Little Girl
- Dangeresque: Puppet Squad
- Kick-A-Ball
- April Fool 09
- Any of the New Stuff-exclusive toons, such as Hremails

Fixed Goofs

On Monday, January 9, 2006, when the Scroll Button Song was updated, a new bug was introduced to random.bat: the screen would not automatically scroll to the emails as they are selected by the roulette. This was later fixed.
Strongest Man in the World used to appear as "Strongest Man in the Worldk" in the randomizer. This has since been fixed.
The Next Epi-Snowed was originally listed in the XML file as ccd06.html instead of ccdo6.html. This was later fixed.

Inside References

One of the 'random.bat' raps ends with "Dooj".

Real-World References

"Rando" is a possible reference to "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie", in which "The Amazing Rando" is a recurring joke throughout the end credits sequence.

External Links

Click on the R on any main page to see the Random Toon Button in action.
view Flash file for "random toon"
view XML file for "random toon"
view the Strong Bad Email list with random.bat
view the navbar with the "rando" link
forum thread re: Random Toon
forum thread re: random.bat

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{redirects|Random}} {{for-nothe|a random wiki page|Special:Random}}
 [[Image:The Randomiser.gif|frame|'Round and 'round it goes...where it stops nobody knows...]]
 ==Random Toon Button==
 The '''Random Toon Button''' was added to the main pages alongside [[Quote of the Week]], [[Weekly Fanstuff]], and [[Sketchbook]] on September 12, 2005 and can be accessed by clicking the button labeled ''R''. It loads a random [[Toon]], [[Strong Bad Email]], [[Marzipan's Answering Machine]], or [[Teen Girl Squad]]. If you don't like the selection it comes up with, you can press the "again" button on the left side of the box before you are redirected, which will restart the selection process. You can also press the "close" button on the right of the box to abort the selection.
-==random.bat==
+==random.bat/go rando!==
-A similar button was also added to the top right of the [[Strong Bad Email]] menu on September 12, 2005, along with a [[Scroll Button Song]] referencing it. It is labeled "random.bat" and appears in the top-right corner of the computer screen. Pressing it causes the menu to select several random emails in sequence. When it is done, it loads the last random email it picked. [[Strong Bad]] says one of several things when it's activated:
+A similar button was also added to the top right of the [[Strong Bad Email]] menu on September 12, 2005, along with a [[Scroll Button Song]] referencing it. Originally labeled "random.bat", the button appears in the top-right corner of the computer screen. Pressing it causes the menu to select several random emails in sequence. When it is done, it loads the last random email it picked. [[Strong Bad]] says one of several things when it's activated:
 *'''STRONG BAD:''' Brrrrrrakatakatakataka...ta..ka...tick...tick... Brring!
 *'''STRONG BAD:''' ''{higher pitched and louder}'' Lakalakalakalaka... tuck... tuck... tuck... tuck... ''{low pitched}'' Bong.
 *'''STRONG BAD:''' How 'bout this one? Donk. ''{a random email is then picked without a roulette of emails}''
-*'''STRONG BAD:''' Broooodagadagadaga..da..ga..da...ga... Doosh.
+*'''STRONG BAD:''' Broooodagadagadaga..da..ga..da...ga... Dooj.
+The random.bat button was removed from the menu after Strong Bad destroyed [[Lappy 486]] in [[hremail3184]], and then was put back as "go rando!" on August 31, 2009, with the introduction of the first [[Compé]] scroll button song.
 ==Navigation Bar==
@@ Line 26: / Line 29: @@
 |[[HomestarRunner.com PAY PLUS!|HomestarRunner.com: PAY PL]](US!) || HomestarRunner.com: PAY+
 |-
-|[[In Search of the Yello Dello|In Search of the Yello Dell]](o) || ''Unfixed''
+|[[In Search of the Yello Dello|In Search of the Yello Dell]](o) || <small style="color:gray">''Unfixed''</small>
 |-
 |[[Peasant's Quest Movie Trailer|Peasant's Quest Movie Trail]](er) || Peasant's Quest Trailer
@@ Line 42: / Line 45: @@
 |[[Decemberween Sweet Cuppin' Cakes|Sweet Cuppin Cakes December]](ween) || Sweet Cuppin Cakes Dween
 |-
-|[[Decemberween Teen Girl Squad|Teen Girl Squad Decemberwe]](en) || Teen Girl Squad Dween
+|[[Teen Girl Squad Issue 6|Teen Girl Squad Decemberwe]](en) || Teen Girl Squad Dween
 |-
 |[[The House That Gave Sucky Treats|The House That Gave Sucky T]](reats) || House ... Sucky Treats
+|-
+|[[Sickly Sam's Big Outing]] <small style="color:gray">''(none)''</small> || Big Outing
+|-
+|[[Doomy Tales of the Macabre]] <small style="color:gray">''(none)''</small> || Tales of the Macabre
+|-
+|[[The House That Gave Sucky Tricks|The House That Gave Sucky T]](ricks) || <small style="color:gray">''Unfixed''</small>
+|-
+|[[Later That Night...]] <small style="color:gray">''(none)''</small> || Halloween 2016 Cartoon
+|-
+|[[Homestar Runner Goes For the Gold]] <small style="color:gray">''(none)''</small> || HR Goes4Gold
+|-
+|[[Characters from Yonder Website|Characters from Yonder Web]](site) || <small style="color:gray">''Unfixed''</small>
 |}
-*The Random toon button also resulted in [[The Brothers Chaps]] formatting all the puppet stuff to html format.
+*The Random toon button also resulted in [[The Brothers Chaps]] formatting most of the [[Puppet Stuff]] to HTML format.
 ===Remarks===
 * When the rando link in the navigation bar loads a Puppet Stuff, it is placed on a light blue background. This is because a Puppet Stuff is layered over another page, but the rando link doesn't work with this. The Random Toon button on the Main Pages does allow an external Flash link to be layered over them, so a Puppet Stuff is layered over them.
-* ".bat" is the filename extension for [[Wikipedia:Batch file|batch files]], which are text files with a series of commands intended to be executed by the [[Wikipedia:DOS|MS-DOS]] or [[Wikipedia:Microsoft Windows|Windows]] command interpreters.
+* ".bat" is the filename extension for [[Wikipedia:Batch file|batch files]], which are text files with a series of commands intended to be executed by the [[DOS|MS-DOS]] or [[Wikipedia:Microsoft Windows|Windows]] command interpreters.
-* While "random.bat" is running, you can still click on the names of the various Strong Bad Emails as they flash on the screen.
+* While "random.bat" is running, the names of the various Strong Bad Emails can still be clicked as they flash on the screen.
 *Shortly after being released, a number of minor changes were made to the randomizer. '''The following issues were resolved:'''
-**[[Decemberween Puppet Style]] and [[Homestar vs. Little Girl]] (the two [[Decemberween In July]] puppet toons) were not originally included in the random list. There was just a comment in the XML file reading "<tt><nowiki><!--note to add puppet dween!--></nowiki></tt>", reminding [[The Brothers Chaps]] to add them.
+**[[Homestar and the Nice Present]] and [[Homestar vs. Little Girl]] (the two [[Decemberween In July]] puppet toons) were not originally included in the random list. There was just a comment in the XML file reading "<tt><nowiki><!--note to add puppet dween!--></nowiki></tt>", reminding [[The Brothers Chaps]] to add them.
-**[[Labor Dabor]] didn't originally work, as the urls for the html and swf files were reversed in the XML.
+**[[Labor Dabor]] didn't originally work, as the URLs for the HTML and SWF files were reversed in the XML.
-**If you clicked the '''R''' button on the main page more than once (either after closing the randomizer box or while it was up), and it picked a Strong Bad Email, the email number in the URL would be larger than the correct number by the number of Strong Bad Emails (it would redirect you to something like [[HR:sbemail405.html|sbemail405.html]]). This was because it kept a counter of the emails as it read the email names from the XML file, and when you clicked the '''R''' again it re-read the list without resetting the counter.
+**If the '''R''' button on the main page was clicked more than once (either after closing the randomizer box or while it was up), and it picked a Strong Bad Email, the email number in the URL would be larger than the correct number by the number of Strong Bad Emails (it would redirect to something like [[HR:sbemail405.html|sbemail405.html]]). This was because it kept a counter of the emails as it read the email names from the XML file, and clicking the '''R''' again caused it to re-read the list without resetting the counter.
-*** [[flashback]] was immune to this problem, as it has a different URL from the others (to distinguish it from [[Not the 100th Email!!!]], which itself is not in the XML list)
+*** [[flashback]] was immune to this problem, as it has a different URL from the others (to distinguish it from [[Not the 100th Email!!!]], which itself is not in the XML list).
 **The Random Toon machine didn't have the "&" or "_" symbols embedded, so [[lures & jigs]] was shown as "SBEMAIL: LURES&nbsp;&nbsp;JIGS" and [[sb_email 22]] was displayed as "SBEMAIL: SBEMAIL 22".
-*Often the new toons are delayed being added to the XML list, and therefore will not yet be selected randomly. Currently, these are:
-**[[Commandos in the Classroom]]
-**[[Strong Bad is a Bad Guy]]
-**[[Homestar vs. Other Little Girl]]
 * In the XML code, the newest email has the code: new="yup" after it.
+* The XML document is not valid as there is no root element in the document.
 === Goofs ===
 *[[Sbemail 169 Deleted Scene]] links to [[An Important Rap Song]].
 *[[Date Nite]] links to [[Strongest Man in the World]].
-*[[The Next Epi-Snowed]] is listed in the XML file as <code>ccd06.html</code>.  The actual file is <code>ccdo6.html</code>.
+*Many cartoons are omitted from the XML list, and therefore will not be selected randomly. Currently, these are:
+**[[Commandos in the Classroom]]
+**[[Homestar vs. Other Little Girl]]
+**[[Strong Bad is a Bad Guy]]
+**[[Marshie vs. Little Girl]]
+**[[Dangeresque: Puppet Squad]]
+**[[Kick-A-Ball]]
+**[[April Fool 09]]
+**Any of the [[New Stuff]]-exclusive toons, such as [[Hremails]]
 ===Fixed Goofs===
-*On Monday, January 9, 2006, when the Scroll Button Rap was updated, a new bug was introduced to random.bat: the screen would not automatically scroll to the e-mails as they are selected by the roulette. This was later fixed.
+*On Monday, January 9, 2006, when the [[Scroll Button Song]] was updated, a new bug was introduced to random.bat: the screen would not automatically scroll to the emails as they are selected by the roulette. This was later fixed.
 *[[Strongest Man in the World]] used to appear as "Strongest Man in the Worldk" in the randomizer. This has since been fixed.
+*[[The Next Epi-Snowed]] was originally listed in the XML file as <code>ccd06.html</code> instead of <code>[[HR:ccdo6.html|ccdo6.html]]</code>. This was later fixed.
 === Inside References ===
-*One of the 'random.bat' raps ends with ''Doosh''. ''Doosh'' was also used in [[The System Is Down (song)|The System Is Down]].
+*One of the 'random.bat' raps ends with "[[Dooj]]".
 ===Real-World References===
-*"Rando" is a possible reference to "[[Wikipedia:Mystery_Science_Theater_3000|Mystery Science Theater 3000]]: The Movie", in which "The Amazing Rando" is a recurring joke throughout the end credits sequence.
+*"Rando" is a possible reference to "[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]: [[Wikipedia:Mystery_Science_Theater_3000:_The_Movie|The Movie]]", in which "The Amazing Rando" is a recurring joke throughout the end credits sequence.
 == External Links ==

Homestar Runner Navigation
Navigation Bar	Index Page \| Main Pages \| Toons Menu \| Strong Bad Email Menu \| Games Menu \| Store \| Contact
Popups	Quote of the Week \| Weekly Fanstuff \| Sketchbook \| Random Toon
Other	Character Videos \| Downloads \| Museum \| Legal \| YouTube

Random Toon

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Revision as of 11:24, 15 April 2019

Contents

Random Toon Button

random.bat/go rando!

Navigation Bar

Fun Facts

Trivia

Remarks

Goofs

Fixed Goofs

Inside References

Real-World References

External Links

Views

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