[edit] Grand Theft Candy
The series of sirens and buzzes that Homestar Runner makes when he discovers Strong Bad and The Cheat (each time interrupting Strong Bad as he tries to say "Oh no, we've been found out") is a takeoff on a popular car alarm.
From: Strong Bad is in Jail Cartoon
Posted on: 23:18, 2 Aug 2005 (UTC)
Arguments for:
- If Homestar was imitating the siren, he wouldn't have broken into the other sound effects. It is a typical car alarm sound that he begins to make.
- I work at a grocery store, gathering up carts in the parking lot, and so I hear that alarm a lot. When I first watched this cartoon, I immediately recognized the sound Homestar was making as being that car alarm.
Arguments against:
- Homestar is simply imitating a police car siren. If you live near the highway, this is incredibly obvious.
- Many police car sirens change the sound as they drive past, to draw extra attention to themselves.
- Homestar imitating a car alarm in this context makes little sense, even for Homestar.
Additional comments:
- First, here is the sound from the cartoon.
- Next, here is an example of the alarm from the real world. This is just a typical example.
- Both files are in WMA format.
- The movie clip is from When a Man Loves a Woman (1994). The voices you hear are Andy Garcia and Meg Ryan as they pummel eggs at a car whose alarm is going off.
- Of the six sirens you can hear, Homestar imitates the last four. He doesn't quite get the first one exactly right, but the other three are dead on, and all are in the order as in the movie clip.
- This clip is not from a movie and is not a car alarm. That's got sounds 3 and 4 in it, and isn't too far off from sound 2.
- The movie clip is from the real world, in that the alarm in it was not designed specifically for the film, just used in it. Also, even though the film predates the toon by a decade, the alarms match.
- But the siren link is EQUALLY as close and makes more sense in context. Shouldn't that trump something that makes no sense in context?
- TBC needed an alarm, so they stuck in a car alarm reference. That's the joke. Makes perfect sense to me.
- That's not an answer to the question. Why should we say it's a reference to something that doesn't make sense in context over something that does? Just because it's funnier?
- The siren link is not equally as close. The car alarm is almost identical. People, listen to all three links, and decide for yourselves.
- The car alarm is not identical. It has already been admitted that it doesn't match sound 1, and it doesn't match the timing on sound 3. That said, no proof has yet been given that that IS a real car alarm and not just a misplaced sound effect in the movie.
- "Misplaced sound effect" business aside (I've already said this example is typical), the fact that Homestar doesn't get the first sound exactly right and changes the timing a little on sound three does not negate the entire reference. Taken as a whole (in particular, not just the sounds but their order (especially the last three)), it fits quite well.
- But if we take sound 3 as honks of the vehicle's horn (which it could just as easily be), then the siren link is just as close a match on sound 1, still really close on sound 2, and gets all sound effects that aren't honks (which don't necessarily have to be in part of an order) in order too.
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