List of Homestar Runner characters

This article is a list of fictional characters in the Flash web cartoon series Homestar Runner and episodic video game Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People.

Homestar Runner

Homestar Runner as seen in his character video.

Homestar Runner is the namesake character of the series, and "is a terrific athlete" that "everybody loves".^[1] He serves as the star athlete of an unspecified sports team led by Coach Z,^[2] and has partaken in rather rigorous exercise routines.^[3] Homestar, however, has suffered from psychological issues that Strong Bad had described as an "unbelievably loose grasp on the world around [him]",^[4] often forgetting things or interacting with himself as if he were a different person. Homestar is not stupid, as he has shown intelligence at rather irrelevant times, such as correctly stating Coulomb's law in response to being asked what 2+2 equals.^[5] His best friend is Pom Pom,^[6] although Homestar has also had an on and off relationship with lone female character Marzipan. Homestar speaks with a moderately severe rhotacism, and also sounds as though he experiences chronic nasal congestion.

Strong Bad

Strong Bad is the second eldest of the three Strong brothers, the others being Strong Sad and Strong Mad. He typically wears nothing but a red lucha libre mask, black pants and his boxing gloves, which he can type with. Strong Bad is almost always accompanied with his pet/sidekick, The Cheat, who often accompanies him when he pranks other characters in the series. He often insults his younger brother, Strong Sad, and answers emails sent to him by his fans.

Strong Mad

Strong Mad is an enormous, hyper-muscular, semi-verbal, usually-angry character (much like the Hulk). He is the eldest brother of the brothers Strong; his siblings are Strong Bad and Strong Sad. He often hangs out with The Cheat and helps Strong Bad commit mischief, harass (and occasionally beat up) the other characters. He is also the bassist to Marzipan's music group Cool Tapes. However, he appears to at least try to be friendly to other characters when not told to harm them by Strong Bad. He has also proved to possess a sort of childhood innocence, which he has demonstrated by making macaroni pictures and, once, asking if he could keep Bubs' Concession Stand, claiming it followed him home. His body is a rectangle with different dimensions given in different cartoons, with perfectly square shoulders and no distinct head or neck. He has two dots for eyes, giant, bushy eyebrows that are usually angry. His mouth is always partially open revealing 3 teeth. He wears a purple wrestlers singlet with a white circle in the front containing a large red M and has red shoes. He generally speaks in short, simple sentences, often in an unrestrained roar. His best friend is The Cheat, whom he protects with fervor. He also has a horrible painting in his closet that gives everyone The Jibblies, called the Rocoulm.^[7]

Strong Sad

Strong Sad is the younger brother of Strong Bad and Strong Mad. He stands somewhere between Strong Bad and Strong Mad in height, and has large, elephant-like feet he calls "soolnds," which has led Strong Bad to believe he is in some way descended from elephants.^[8] His body is round and two shades of gray—a lighter gray from the waist up, a darker gray from the waist down. His head is white and has an odd lump on the top and resembles the Manicouagan Reservoir, which Strong Bad refers to as a "disturbing soft serve flip."^[9] He is usually very calm and soft-spoken, although is hyperactive when given caffeine.^[10]

He is constantly tortured by Strong Bad, who frequently threatens to beat him up (and often does). Strong Bad also calls Strong Sad names such as "Dairy Queen", "The Ghost of Christmas Suck", "Trundle Bed", "Diaper Stripe", and "Theloneus Dump".

In early cartoons, Strong Sad's main defining characteristic is his chronic depression, but has since been known to have high levels of intelligence and creativity. His many interests include listening, books, listening to books, calligraphy, being alone, arts and crafts. Strong Sad also enjoys playing board games, and he seems to enjoy going to science-fiction and fantasy conventions.

The Cheat

The Cheat is Strong Bad's sidekick and Strong Mad's best friend. He stands at knee-height to most other characters and is covered with yellow fur with prominent black spots down his back. His arms resemble flippers and he does not have any visible legs. He also has a gold tooth. It is not known what type of "animal" The Cheat is; he seems to belong to his own species. Whenever Strong Bad is abusive to The Cheat, Strong Mad stands up for him. The Cheat lives in The King of Town's grill, which, according to Strong Sad, is a nice place. He can play multiple instruments, such as the flute, drums, and keyboard, and often makes unusual animations that he calls "Powered by The Cheat". In the original book, he helped Strong Bad cheat in the Strongest Man in the World contest, which gave him his name. He is always referred to as The Cheat, not just Cheat, even when being spoken to. The practice even extends to his species.

He speaks in a language consisting entirely of high-pitched squeaks and growls, which the other characters seem to be perfectly able to understand. Subtitles are used whenever The Cheat talks to the camera alone, but it is implied that he provides the voices for his "Powered by The Cheat" cartoons, which are spoken in English. He often has a hostile attitude towards others, threatening to throw things at them. He often sounds rather full of himself, complimenting himself several times in the majority of his videos. The Cheat, according to Strong Bad, came from a giant egg also filled with a lifetime supply of fish sticks which he won on the same day that he met Homestar Runner in a 10 step foot race to win the egg, although it is unknown if this is actually true.

Marzipan

Marzipan is the only female character in Homestar Runner. She has a handbell-shaped body with her face on the surface of the "handle". Her eyes consist of two black circles of different sizes. Her mouth is usually seen in a slight curve. She wears her hair in a bright yellow-like golden blonde haired ponytail, and is almost always seen wearing a purple dress embellished with white trim and gold buttons, along with a matching hair band. Like Homestar Runner, she does not appear to have visible arms. Nevertheless, she is still able to pick up and handle objects without any hint of difficulty. She is voiced by Missy Palmer and is one of the few characters not voiced by Matt Chapman. The reason she is the only female character is because Missy Palmer cannot do any other voices.

Marzipan is Homestar's girlfriend (on her terms), and in the early days of the website was listed as the King of Town's daughter; however, in an interview, The Brothers Chaps remarked that this was an idea they had that they did not go through with. She is essentially a feminist "hippie chick" demonstrated in her traits of being a strict vegetarian who spends much of her time singing and playing her guitar; she is lead singer and guitarist in a band called Cool Tapes. Most of her songs are about happiness and nature. She often makes protest signs to express her views on issues of varying and personal interest. She often tends to fight for political correctness and being eco-friendly, but at times can be hypocritical.

Bubs

Bubs is a businessman who owns Bubs' Concession Stand, which offers a constantly changing variety of goods and services. He has a round blue head and mismatched eyes (his right eye is white with a blue iris while his left is simply a black dot). His upper body is orange, and he has "flipper arms." He has a green stripe around his middle which, according to Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, is a belt, and his lower half is colored dark gray. His voice is reminiscent of Rochester of The Jack Benny Show fame or Mr. Messy from The Mr. Men Show.

Always ready to make a quick buck, Bubs will sell anything, including letters off the sign on his stand. Besides the Concession Stand, he seems to run a few other businesses on the side, many of which are decidedly shady in nature. This includes performing almost any service that someone wants done, such as being a "questionable doctor" or a "paranormal investigator." It is implied that he is often involved in destroying and/or covering up evidence of crimes. He also sells bologna sandwiches from his truck to the other residents of Free Country, USA. His best friend appears to be Coach Z, although the coach often gets on his nerves. He has an alter ego of "the Thnikkaman", though nobody (with the occasional exception of Homestar) knows that the Thnikkaman is just Bubs in sunglasses with a piece of paper taped to his chest that says "tH".

Coach Z

Coach Z is the "coach" of the residents of Free Country, USA, though it is unclear exactly what he coaches. He has a strong Upper Midwestern accent which sometimes gets him into trouble and is thought to be fake. He almost never says anything negative to anyone, and he often offers more encouragement than is needed. He wears a blue and purple baseball cap and a large gold "Z" emblem around his waist, but it is unclear whether his bright green color is his skin or a body suit.

In addition to frequent mispronunciations, Coach Z also seems to have mental and gender confusion problems, as evidenced by the time he spent "talking to his parents" on a disconnected telephone, and claiming to be a mother. He has even stated on one occasion that he sometimes "forgets what's real, and what's just in [his] head". He also has trouble managing his money, causing his electricity to be shut off one year. He is quite lonely and has an unrequited crush on Marzipan, very often making inappropriate romantic gestures to her, especially on her answering machines. He is very fond of hip-hop and often refers to it in conversation. He has also recorded several songs, including "These Peoples Try to Fade Me", "Hip-Hop Dance", and "Rap Song."

Pom Pom

Pom Pom is a Pom from the Isle of Pom. Pom Pom, like all Poms, appears to be inflated. His body consists of a yellow sphere with an orange stripe. His oval head, and triangular arms and feet are the same color orange. Pom Pom's eyes are black ovals and he has no visible mouth. He talks by making bubbly noises that only the characters can understand and can absorb objects into his body for storage. Pom Pom is Homestar Runner's best friend, but he sometimes hangs out with Strong Bad as well. It has been hinted that Pom Pom is a superb athlete, martial artist, and rich to boot. His nationality has been vaguely hinted at a variety of times: his parents are known as General and Fräulein Pom Pom. His father owns a film production company which allows Pom Pom to direct indie films. He appears in the game Dangeresque Roomisode 1: Behind the Dangerdesque, as a take-out guy. He makes a cameo in the beginning cutscene of Poker Night at the Inventory as he leaves a previous poker game before you arrive.

The King of Town

The King of Town is the self-proclaimed ruler of Free Country, USA. His head is completely white, with black lines for eyes, a mustache and a beard (though it has been suggested that the white is fur or hair, as he has pink flesh underneath). He wears a gold crown and what appears to be a red robe with white trim with no arms. He is a known glutton that will eat almost anything in front of him (including toilet paper and other inedible items) and anything with the word "butter" in its name. Apparently, the only foods he doesn't like are those which contain peas. He tends to speak with an older but jolly tone of voice, usually saying "doo hoo hoo hoo" to represent his hearty laughter. He apparently got overweight by eating the lifetime supply of fishsticks that was in the egg that contained The Cheat.

The Poopsmith

The Poopsmith is a character whose job is the King of Town's "poopsmith," though it is never explained what this actually entails. His body is peach-colored and egg-shaped, and he has small blue legs and feet, a white head, and an enormous underbite. He always wears a pair of large orange gloves stained with "whatsit," which has been implied to be feces, and he is usually seen carrying a large shovel.

The Poopsmith had taken a vow of silence and therefore almost never speaks. However, in "email thunder", the 200th Strong Bad Email, he breaks his vow to sing the opening song, and he breaks it again later when calling Marzipan. During a school dance, he is also shown as the band's lead singer, although he is just simply holding the microphone stand. At this time he is voiced by John Linnell of They Might Be Giants. He does not seem to ever display any emotions or facial expressions. He does occasionally hold up signs to communicate, however, and is sometimes seen poking his shovel as a half-gesture.

Homsar

Homsar is an energetic dwarf with red shoes, blue shirt and a bowler hat. Homsar's speech consists almost entirely of non sequiturs, seen when he claims to be the captain of the "Gravy Train" and a "Song from the sixties," more often than not prefaced by a bizarre "ah-ahh-ahh!" uttering, although it is revealed in Strong Badia the Free that Homsar is actually an intelligent being, with his way of speaking being a language of his own. Strong Bad claims that Homsar's parents are a cup of coffee and a Chipwich, although the former was not confirmed by Homsar himself. He seems to have the super power of being incredibly awkward, and often defies the laws of physics. In most of his appearances, his hat will either change shape to something, or move around on its own, often orbiting his head. He was created when a fan accidentally misspelled Homestar Runner's name in the second Strong Bad Email, "homsar".

References

External links

• Characters at Homestar Runner Wiki