Talk:Free Country, USA

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Ding! Free Country, USA is a featured article, which means it showcases an important part of the Homestar Runner body of work and/or highlights the fine work of this wiki. We also might just think it's cool. If you see a way this page can be updated or improved without compromising previous work, feel free to contribute.

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Great jorb

Wow!! great job, Sir Monkey!! This should be a featured article! Elcool (talk)(contribs) 13:39, 6 Sep 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the compliment, E.L.! I get all worked up about politics and standing armies and all that jazz. THE SMOKING MONKEY 14:00, 6 Sep 2005 (UTC)

Prohibition

It's dot com, it's me again, here to continue our scholarly debate about "dumb animal characters." I don't really disagree with your removal of the Prohibition item. But I put it in there for the following four (tenuous?) reasons:

  • When the Sneak is kicked out of Tammany Hall, the leg doing the kickin' has "PROHIBITION?" written on it. It's pretty thin, but TBC put it in there either as a nonsensical nod to the period (I mean, the whole Tammany Hall-Boss Tweed period pre-dated the Depression...right?) or as weak support for my idea.
  • In The Ballad of the Sneak, the little guy gets his kicks by "drinking bootleg hooch and listening to the jazz", doubly implying the alcohol he's enjoying is contraband, and he's getting it at a Speakeasy where "the jazz" is being played, both of which indicate Prohibition.
  • When Fat Dudley is enjoying a nip of hooch in That a Ghost, The Homestar Runner questions him interrogatively, in the sense of, "Fat Dudley, are you breaking the law by drinking hooch?" Alcohol is smattered around the H*R universe - Coach Z ale, Cold Ones, and even Strong Bad drinking too much Soy Sauce (this, I find especially hilarious: not only did this escapade of his teach me Soy Sauce does contain alcohol, 2% by volume, but it ties into my rejected STUFF comment about the King surviving his massive salt ingestion in the "record" e-mail...Strong Bad would have done himself in by drinking that much Soy Sauce. But enough about salt-related death!), but no one ever questions anyone else about it. So, this event stood out as being consistent with a Prohibition-era time, when some people followed the law and others didn't.
  • I can't recall it exactly, but since the Ballad of the Sneak is the number one jam of 1932? 1933? it would still have been during Prohibition. I think the Wiki consensus is that the years being depicted are later, to 1935? 1936?, so if this is accepted, than the Prohibition factoid doesn't hold up. But, like I indicated before, TBC are playing fast and loose with the time period references, so whether or not the year they're depicting in the Old Timey world is 1933 or 1936, Prohibition still could be going on there for all we know.

In summary, I can't believe I wrote this much about a cartoon and the status of Prohibition during it. I need to drink less coffee! Anyhoo, let me know what you think. THE SMOKING MONKEY 13:37, 8 Sep 2005 (UTC)

I originally removed the mention of prohibition based solely on the presumed year of the toons. I now think that may have been hasty, as you make a good circumstancial case. Turning to the Wikipedia article, we read that
The Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed nationwide prohibition, explicitly gives states the right to restrict or ban the purchase and sale of alcohol; this has led to a patchwork of laws, in which alcohol may be legally sold in some but not all towns or counties within a particular state. After the repeal of the national constitutional amendment, some states continued to enforce prohibition laws.
From this statement and your evidence, one could easily see at least the possibility that prohibition was still in force in Free Country, USA, until 1937 or beyond. (This is not unreasonable, as in the real world bans on alcohol in some states lasted several decades after the formal end of prohibition.) I think you would be well-justified in wording this back into the article. — It's dot com 14:36, 8 Sep 2005 (UTC)


Map

I have taken upon myself the task of drawing up a map of Free Country, USA. Now I know what you're thinking: "Caleb, you can't draw up a map of Free Country, USA!"

To which I answer this: "I can try!"

To begin the map, I will use the following assumptions:

  • The Stick represents the very centre of Free Country, USA
  • The view of the field of Free Country USA always faces North.

I will then use what is know about the locations in relation to one another, and various other clues within the toons (ie. which direction Homestar walks to get to Bubs') to figure out most of the geography. The rest will have to be guesswork.

The map should be finished soon, but will take a while to actually get onto hrwiki, so don't expect it anytime soon. User: Private Martin of the Homestarmy

This Just In!

My map is done, but I still need to get an image of it onto my computer. Until then, here is a simple idea of where some things are on the map.

                                     The Forest
                                                                           
          Homestar's House            The Stick                          Strongbadia
         Town Hall                                Marzipan's House
                                                               Locker Room
                                                             Athletic Field
       The KoT's Keep           House of TBS           Bubs'   

It's crude, yes, but it's a start! -User: Private Martin of the Homestarmy

Location

I have done some deducing, and based on it I believe FCUSA is somewhere in the state of Oregon, or possibly northern California. Strong Sader

What do you think? Strong Sader

What's your evidence? --DorianGray

1. Likely a northern state because of it's cold Winter temperatures.
2. The term "pop" is used, which means it is likely to be in the upper Midwest.
3. Wharfs exist there, so it is likely to be by the sea.
4. It is NOT Texas.

These are all properties Oregon and Northern California have in common. Strong Sader

Oregon and California aren't in the midwest.
The northwest also refers to it as "pop" by majority
Actually, it would have to be in the Northeast: it's east of the Mississippi River, it's on the ocean, and it snows. Nowhere else in the United States fits. The fact that TBC live in Atlanta doesn't mean HR takes place there, the Nebraska star doesn't necessarily tell us the location, and the Texas clue doesn't help because we already know it's east of the Mississippi. Also, not only are California and Oregon not in the Midwest, it doesn't snow there apart from in the mountains, and they're west of the Mississippi. (And if it could be California or Oregon, it could also be Washington). I've also narrowed down the setting of Calvin and Hobbes to two places, on that note. With crap, Yeltensic (T C) 23:44, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Town Hall?

Seems The Smoky Office is being called "Town Hall" here. Is there any reference to this anywhere? Qermaq - (T/C) Image:Qermaqsigpic.png 18:26, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

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