Trogdor Con '97
From Homestar Runner Wiki
| Toon Category: Shorts |
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Not to be outdone by The Brothers Chaps's trip to Dragon Con 2005, Strong Bad gets a booth of his own at a multigenre fan convention. Why? To make fun of nerds, of course!
Cast (in order of appearance): Strong Bad, The Cheat, Homestar Runner, Strong Sad, The Poopsmith, The King of Town (Easter egg)
Places: Booth 101, The King of Town's Booth (Easter egg)
Date: Monday, September 5, 2005
Running Time: 3:10 official, 3:31 actual
Page Title: Con as in Convention!
DVD: Everything Else, Volume 1
Contents |
[edit] Transcript
{Strong Bad and The Cheat are seen behind a booth with a banner that reads "TROGDOR-Con" above them. Strong Bad taps his fists on the table in anticipation.}
STRONG BAD: All right, so here we are at Trogdor Con! Got the booth set up and lookin' good! So, The Cheat—these cons... what exactly is gonna go on here?
THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}
STRONG BAD: Geeks and nerds?! That doesn't sound like anything I wanna be a part of!
THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}
STRONG BAD: Ladies in skimpy sci-fi costumes? That sounds like everything I wanna be a part of! Are you sure they're in the same place as the geeks and nerds? That doesn't make any sense. Ladies in skimpy outfits should be hanging out with me... and to a lesser degree, football players and rappers. Not geeks, nerds, or any of their smelly brethren.
THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}
STRONG BAD: Yeah, I'll see it when I believe it.
{Homestar Runner walks up. He has a paper star taped over his normal star and is wearing a red beanie with propeller similar to The Homestar Runner's over his usual cap.}
HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oooh, Booth 101! My favorite booth! Hey, guess who I'm supposed to be!
STRONG BAD: Um... Homestar Runner?
HOMESTAR RUNNER: Hey, you got it! First try! Was it my star {he shows off his paper star} or propeller cap {he bends over and shows off his cap} that gave it away?
STRONG BAD: It was your unbelievably loose grasp on the world around you.
HOMESTAR RUNNER: Yeah, I guess I do have one of those. Hey, what kind of cool stuff do you guys have here? Got any pewter figurines, or maybe some magna?
STRONG BAD: Nope, just hangin' out. Seeing what walks by.
HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oh oh, I can walk by! Here, watch! {Runs offscreen to the left, and instantly returns, walking slowly and staring at his feet. As he moves, his words are not in time with his steps.} Left, right, left, right, right, right, no—left, right, left, right. {exits}
STRONG BAD: So, by the way The Cheat, what are gamertags? Why do we have boxes of them behind us?
THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}
STRONG BAD: So we're not really selling gamertags?
THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}
STRONG BAD: What're we really gonna be selling? Some of those million sided dies?
THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}
STRONG BAD: So, us hanging out selling gamertags is a front for us plain ol' hanging out.
THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}
STRONG BAD: The Cheat, you're a genius! I don't pay you enough!
THE CHEAT: {glares at Strong Bad} {angry The Cheat noises}
STRONG BAD: Oh right, I don't pay you at all. That's what I meant to say. {leans back and puts his feet up} Now let's kick back and see if we can't summon some skimpily-clad ladies to ye olde gamertag booth.
THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}
{The Cheat jumps onto the table and plays an alpine horn}
STRONG BAD: {sits up again} Oh! Where'd you get that bad boy?
THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}
STRONG BAD: Booth 709, huh? I'll have to go check that out!
THE CHEAT: {The Cheat noises}
STRONG BAD: They've got axes and swords!? Man, this con just keeps gettin' better all the time!
{Strong Sad enters from left, wearing a pair of semi-transparent Trogdor-style wings, an armband, eyeliner, blood teardrops, a tribal-tattoo style design around his belly button, and with his toenails painted black}
STRONG BAD: Oh, and we've hit a snag.
STRONG SAD: What are you guys doing here?
STRONG BAD: Hangin' out. Don't tell nobody, but secretly we're really just hangin' out.
STRONG SAD: But didn't it cost money to get a booth?
STRONG BAD: Look, I don't know where The Cheat got 500 bucks or where your missing 500 bucks is. All I know is that we're hanging out here at Trogdor Con '97! Or in your case, Trog-dork-on '97.
STRONG SAD: It's not called Trogdor Con and it's 2005.
STRONG BAD: It might be for you, but {pause} you're... a butt. {smiles}
STRONG SAD: That's a good 'un, Strong Bad. Okay, I'm gonna go buy some {with exaggerated inflection and movements} anime!
STRONG BAD: It's called Japanimation! ...Least it was last time I checked... which was 1987. {The Poopsmith walks by in shadow in his Sleestak costume.} I don't know about all this, The Cheat. Maybe it's time we filled up that horn of yours with pea soup and tried to shoot it all the way over to that Godzilla guy's booth.
{The Cheat holds up a can of pea soup and the horn. He and Strong Bad run off. The word "endeth" appears over the screen, and The Cheat's horn is heard in the distance.}
[edit] Easter Eggs
- Clicking the 'tag?' on the "gamertag?" sign at the end will result in this:
- THE KING OF TOWN: {drenched in pea soup, breathing heavily, and speaking very angrily} Ohhh, somebody picked the wrong authorized Godzilla reseller to mess with today!
- At the end, click on the period in "endeth." to see Strong Bad criticizing people's costumes.
- STRONG BAD: Hey, loincloth, please to be putting on more clothes... Ugh... like five or six... more clothes... {cut}
- STRONG BAD: Oh, what's up, ironic costume? I suppose you think you're cooler than everyone here! Well guess what: You're also here. At the comic book convention. {cut}
- STRONG BAD: I never thought I'd see the day where a tattoo was a bad thing, but you madam, have shown me the light. {cut}
- STRONG BAD: Just for fun I think I'm gonna start throwing boxes of gamertags at dudes wearin' kilts. {cut}
- STRONG BAD: The fact that your costume is accurate down to the tiniest detail does not change the fact that that TV show sucked. {cut}
- STRONG BAD: Man if I see another person in a diaper— {cut}
- STRONG BAD: Oh, hello Rotunda! Your physique certainly merits you wearing that leather bikini and fishnet hose.
[edit] Fun Facts
[edit] Explanations
- This toon spoofs Homestar Runner's attendance at Dragon Con '05, a convention in Atlanta. The Brothers Chaps, assisted by family and friends, hosted a booth in the exhibition hall to sell merchandise and meet with fans.
- The Homestar Runner booth was #101, the same number that Strong Bad is assigned in this toon.
- Booth 709 was occupied by Edhellen Armoury (now Forged Foam), which sold foam and latex replica weapons like the axes and swords The Cheat mentions.
- Because Dragon Con is a "multi-genre" convention, this toon features references to several different facets of geeky pop culture:
- Manga (Japanese comics) and anime (Japanese cartoons) are common fixtures at conventions. Homestar's "magna" is a common misspelling and mispronunciation of the term; "Japanimation" was used in place of "anime" by a distributor in the 1990s, though this term never gained much traction with fans and saw little use by the 2000s.
- "Gamertag" is the term for an Xbox network username, often applied colloquially to other similar gaming or online accounts.
- "Million-sided die" is in reference to tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, where 20-sided dice are heavily used in gameplay. Conventions frequently sell specialized dice along with other tabletop role-playing game accessories.
- Strong Bad remarks on cosplays that attendees are wearing.
[edit] Trivia
- Strong Bad smiles when insulting Strong Sad.
[edit] Remarks
- "Trogdor-Con" is hyphenated on Strong Bad's banner, but not in the title of the toon.
- Though Strong Bad says he doesn't pay The Cheat, he has been shown paying him in lackey, albeit with pencil shavings. He also pays The Cheat in soft tacos for his lawyer services in rough copy.
- This was the longest short when it was released, and is similar in length to two toons released just before it. In fact, it is even longer than the toons Parsnips A-Plenty, The Reddest Radish, and In Search of the Yello Dello Old Version.
[edit] Goofs
- Strong Bad's hand is disconnected from his body for a short time while rubbing his chin.
[edit] Inside References
- The Poopsmith's Sleestak costume was first seen in Pumpkin Carve-nival.
- The King of Town is said to hate peas in different town.
- Strong Bad mentions 1987 as being the last time he checked whether anime was the same as Japanimation.
- Homestar's chant of "left, right, left, right, right, right, no—" is similar to the description of 50K Racewalker on the Videlectrix games catalog page.
- The "Gamertags?" sign makes The Geddup Noise sound effect when moved.
- Strong Bad starts a request with "Please to be...".
- Strong Bad says that a costume is based on a TV show that sucks.
[edit] Real-World References
- Godzilla is a fictional giant monster made famous by his appearances in movies from the Japanese studio Toho Corporation.
[edit] Fast Forward
- A Trogdor!! The Board Game movement card instructing to move "East-East-East" has the direction crossed out and replaced with "wight, wight, wight" and a doodle of Homestar, recalling his "walking by" narration in this toon.
[edit] DVD Version
- To access the Strong Bad egg, click down on the remote until the HR logo lights up. To access the King of Town egg, click right until the star of the logo lights up.
- The DVD version features hidden creators' commentary. To access it, switch the DVD player's audio language selection while watching.
[edit] Commentary Transcript
(Commentary by: Mike Chapman, Matt Chapman)
MIKE: {sings} We put this cartoon up, the time we did a con... {speaks} So yeah, we did, uh, Dragon Con in Atlanta a couple months ago. A month ago.
MATT: Yeah.
MIKE: And umm, originally we were gonna make this to show at the con in our booth; we had a little booth that looked pretty much like the booth that The Cheat and Strong Bad are at.
MATT: {laughs} Yeah. Umm, though we spent more of our time making a fake Strong Badia fence and painting a stop sign to look like Strong Badia.
MIKE: But anyway, so we didn't get it done in time to show at Dragon Con but we did this— we had it written, and since that went through the weekend, this was our Monday update.
MATT: Yeah. Yeah, what do you think, guys?
MIKE: Gamer— gamertag!
MATT: Yeah. That seems like something—
MIKE: {simultaneously} That's my buzzword. {laughs}
MATT: Umm... yeah, Strong Bad doesn't have a— any kind of gaming system that would— that has gamertags involved with it.
MIKE: No. That, uh, Halloween cos— err, that costume that Homestar's wearing: last Halloween, uh, he dressed up—
MATT: {simultaneously} Homestar vs. Little Girl 2.
MIKE: Yeah, the puppet, uh, Homestar puppet had that costume on.
MATT: He did.
MIKE: But none of those takes made it into the final cut.
MATT: Yeah. Not very funny.
MIKE: It was a good costume, though.
MATT: She wasn't kicking him in those, so we didn't use them. Umm, so there were a lot of pewter figurines at Dragon Con.
MIKE: Yeah, I was surprised. It was the first con I'd ever been to, and I was surprised at how much like what I thought it was—
MATT: Yeah.
MIKE: —gonna be it was.
MATT: Lots of dice booths...
MIKE: Yeah, there was a booth all of dice, and...
MATT: We were in Booth 101, too, weren't we? That was our actual booth number? And, uh, later on, uh, we— Strong Bad makes come comment about dudes wearing kilts. And our man Phil from, uh...
MIKE: Ah, yes!
MATT: A booth around the way was wearing a kilt. He was dressed in a nice— a nice Scots garb, all—
MIKE: Very nice man, very nice man.
MATT: Is it OK that I mentioned Phil?
MIKE: Yeah! We didn't men— we don't know his last name.
MATT: Rizzuto.
MIKE: I'm sure there's a lot of Phils.
MATT: Probably Rizzuto.
MIKE: {simultaneously} That were wearing kilts there.
MATT: {laughs} That's probably very true, Mike. Truer than you could know. Umm, so here's another convoluted cockamamie scheme like the Lookin at a Thing in a Bag scheme, where the gamertags— they're selling gamertags as a front for just wasting time—
MIKE: {simultaneously} Hanging out—
MATT: —yet they paid... I really like your Norse horn there, Mike.
MIKE: Did I make that?
MATT: I think you did—
MIKE: {simultaneously} I think I... The old Google image searss— search and trace.
MATT: {simultaneously} Yeah. Oh yeah, and that booth— that booth number he just said was, uh, was a real booth at Dragon Con that was selling axes and swords.
MIKE: {simultaneously} Oh, remember the axes and swords? Oh, lots of people dressed— lots of people with wings!
MATT: Yeah.
MIKE: Wings were...
MATT: Not dressed as anything in particular just...
MIKE: Yeah, just wings.
MATT: I'm winged, and then kind of have some Marilyn Manson makeup on...
MIKE: I'm winged!
MATT: Winga, winga...
MIKE: I like AFI, and I have wings.
MATT: Yeah. That's right, Mike. '97.
MIKE: '97's something...
MATT: Is that the same, Awexome Cross '97, right?
MIKE: I think it's Awexome Cross '98.
MATT: Is it? We don't know our website very well, do we?
MIKE: I think it's '98, 'cause I think I actually looked at that 'cause I thought it was '97. too.
MATT: Yeah.
MIKE: But Trogdor Con '97 sounds good.
MATT: I love it when— I love it when Strong Bad sah— smiles, and I love it when Strong Sad pronounces— overly pronounces things.
MIKE: {laughs} Originally we were gonna have lots of characters walking all around, making it look full, but I stopped after I made the Poopsmith walk by in his old Halloween costume.
MATT: No new graphics!
MIKE: {simultaneously} I got lazy.
MATT: Ka-chent!
[edit] Fun Facts
- Marilyn Manson is a rock musician and frontman of an industrial metal band of the same name. The band members have been known to wear makeup similar to that worn by Strong Sad in this toon.
- Phil Rizzuto is a former New York Yankees player and sportscaster, famous for his catchphrase "Holy Cow!"
- AFI is a band that usually wears dark make-up.
[edit] See Also
- Bobby Blackwolf Interview - 5 Sep 2005 — the Brothers Chaps and Jonathan Howe interviewed at Dragon Con 2005
- Moron Life Interview - 5 Sep 2005 — the Brothers Chaps interviewed at Dragon Con 2005
