A Brief History of Homestar Runner

In a collaborative video Hank and Ryder introduce you (or re-familiarize you) with the majesty of Homestar Runner. In a lot of ways it was the very first broadly successful online video project. Pretty much everything we do here on YouTube is in some way based on trails The Brothers Chaps blazed. Our history, people! It is here!

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[pokemonmanic]

What I love about Homestar is that it always feels modern and fresh, even stuff released in the early 2000's feels new and exciting, their jokes are timeless, they don't reply on modern pop culture references and each of the character's personalities are strong enough to hold up even today

[cj-seejay-cj-seejay]

Seeing all these comments like "I have never heard of this, " makes me feel SO old. My brother showed me the site when we were both still in high school, back around 2001 or 2002. Homestar Runner is pretty much a part of my soul now. I still catch myself singing some of the songs or doing impressions of certain phrases. (Usually "That sneakity sneak all day or "Coach Z, how come you don't dance no more?" or "The system... is down.")

[garcia]

I remember one night around 2004 (estimated to be, as I forgot the exact year), I wrote an email as a 13-14 year old boy. I wanted to profess my love for the Strongbad emails, but didn't want my mom to know (as we weren't allowed online at that time). With that said, I just mashed my palms against the keyboard in the box where you were supposed to enter your name. I figured it didn't matter, as I thought I would never have my question posted. To this day, the email I sent is saved under the title "i love you". I have bragged about it to friends for 10 years, and will probably never stop. Homestar Runner fans will understand this..

[ImTopin]

Here's a fun fact: Strong Bad's Cool game for Attractive People is what caught the interest of Robert Kirkman into collaborating with Telltale Games and making the Walking Dead video game.

[sarahocicki]

I spent a good deal of time in college reading Strong Bad's emails. I can't believe there are so many people saying they've never heard of it.... come on fhqwhgads.

[TheOmnipotentPenguin]

I'm 18, so I'm used to my peers not knowing what Homestar Runner is, but it's still so sad to read all these comments about how unimportant HR is just because someone's never heard of it. It seems kind of egocentric and unimaginative to assume that just because you've never heard of something it's unimportant to other individuals or the evolution of online entertainment.

[FootofaFerret]

Thank you so much for bringing ABH onto the Vlogbrothers channel, Hank!  It is genuinely a dream come true :)
DFTBA!

[vlogbrothers]

In a collaborative video Ryder introduce you (or re-familiarize you) with the majesty of Homestar Runner. In a lot of ways it was the very first broadly successful online video project. Pretty much everything we do here on YouTube is in some way based on trails The Brothers Chaps blazed. Our history, people! It is here!

[tomshere]

"Rejoice everyone, Homestar Runner is back!"
Man, those were the days.

[ScreaminEmu]

Homestar Runner is the greatest thing the internet has ever produced and is still god damned hilarious well into my 30's.

[seckela]

This is what we killed time with in High School. We still quote it all the time, including spontaneous Cheat inspired light switch raves. This made me so happy, thank you.

[c.i.demann]

I'm pretty sure this video has set a new world record for "Most Words Spoken In 4 Minutes."

[colonelquakers]

Burninating the countryside, burninating the peasants. Burninating all the people AND THEIR

[rachaelwalker]

HOMESTAR RUNNER WAS MY CHILDHOOD. He was the start of my addiction to the internet & videos. Strong Bad was the absolute best oh my gosh. THE NOSTALGIA

[BeccaMoses]

My favourite thing in homestar runner is that one strong bad mail episode where he's like "Y-O-U-R. Y-O-U-apostrophe-R-E. They're as different as day and night. Don't you think day and night are different? What's wrong with you?"

[AdamTheAlien]

Homestar Runner always makes me nostalgic. When the Homestar Runner site launched and grew popular, I was in high school. I'm about to turn 30. Things on the Internet that actually stick around this long are an incredibly rare species. Things that go dead for years and then return to a dramatically transformed Internet that still welcomes them wholeheartedly are an even more rare species. Homestar Runner defies the odds.

[LamanKnight]

I have three thoughts right now:
1) This makes me so happy.

2) I just want to point out, the last computer that Strong Bad was using when the site went "under" was a Compé. The Compy 386 died a while ago.

3) I have to admit, it's been a while since I last watched a vlogbrothers video and gone so far as to read the comments. I never remember so many Nerdfighters being so entitled and annoying. People are complaining about the free video, brought to them by someone who doesn't do this as a full-time job, that introduces them to learning about things and people they didn't know, which things and people have brought enjoyment and happiness to a lot of people in the past?
...Yes. Let's all complain that Hank chose to do this instead of something else, why don't we.
I think I'm going to stop reading comments again.

[thatmaia]

Whoa. A collab with Hank. Congrats, Ryder!

[MegaChickenfish]

It's in a weird place where nobody knows how popular it was but *everyone* old enough knows about it. I learned my first cuss words off this site, it was great!

[TheDiplomancer]

Excuse you! He doesn't use the Compy anymore. I'm gonna get really Homestar pedantic here, but he started off with the Tandy 400 until that got trashed (though he continued to use it for a little while), and when he came back from "vacation" he started using the Compy 386. He used it for a very long time until it got a virus and Bubs took care of it with a shotgun. He then got the Lappy 486 that worked until it couldn't handle Homestar pouring Mountain Dew over it anymore (I actually can't remember how it went out), and he is now using the Compé.