Looking towards the internet of yesteryear and some of the sites, videos, and quotes that defined a generation, we present for your viewing enjoyment: a retrospective on early 2000s internet subculture in the hope that you can take up the gauntlet and ensure our laughs are not lost to time…
Challenge #1: HomeStar Runner, The Cheat, Strong Bad Emails and more
The original site these aired on (homestarrunner.com) was built with flash, opened with the o so lovely “every body, every body” theme song, and isn’t quite so easy to get to anymore unless you’re on a computer that’s running the flash plug-in, but you can still find these gems on youtube if you want to catch them on your mobile device.
Originally the site featured the Strong Bad Emails series, but soon expanded to include Teen Girl Squad, a few other series, and games. I remember frantically trying to send funny emails to Strong Bad in the hopes that I would get featured in a future episode, but alas just like all of those raffles and sweepstakes I entered I won *drumroll please* nothing.
Big whoop, anyways, I digress – onwards and upwards.
Like every meme and internet video we’ve laughed at, they get buried over time because the next new thing comes out. Case in point, vines and dabbing. Yes, I went there. You’re welcome. What about flossing, is that still popular? Or has 2020 come out with its own viral dance move I’m unaware of? Please tell me, meanwhile I’ll be over here following the rabbit hole of youtube videos I’ve rediscovered thanks to this Bruno Mars vs. Strong Bad mash-up video someone uploaded in 2014…
Original “email” episode clip and follow up music video made by the Cheat “Everybody to the Limit” included for posterity and for those with equally short attention spans.
In all seriousness and for the sake of your internet history lesson, the Internet Archive has been archiving our favorite, and not so favorite, sites and capturing what they look like at any given time for quite awhile via the Wayback Machine project, so you too can go back and revisit HomeStar Runner, The Cheat, and their motley crew of friends in their early 2000s habitat. Or you can utilize it for your next project, if you happen to need to capture a website as a source at a given time. It might change tomorrow, you never know. Life moves fast, but the internet changes faster. Today’s article for that current event paper may be tomorrow’s “404 page not found” error.
This post is dedicated to my fellow youths and everyone who misses HomeStar Runner, Strong Bad, and Trogdor as much as I do. You know who you are.
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