New Homestar Runner Short: "Senor Card gage Mortgage" [Archive]

wrenchien

06-30-2004, 02:54 PM

A one minute short? You guys make a hell of a lot of money a year. Surely you can throw people a bone for giving you the most cushy job in America, instead of just boning people with these no effort junkers.

i think this surely took some effort.. after all, finding a computer voice creation program to do a voice instead of getting voice talent..

is actually probably harder for a lot of people.

mdemaria

06-30-2004, 03:35 PM

A one minute short? You guys make a hell of a lot of money a year. Surely you can throw people a bone for giving you the most cushy job in America, instead of just boning people with these no effort junkers.

Plus the multiple new games, a 6:00 toon, 3 other shorts, april fools stunt, 5 puppet times, New Boots, new strong bad email every week or two, longer strong bad emails, new answering machine with animated bits, all done in 2004. On a site that's free, ad free, subscription free, required email address free, annoyance free. No watching movie trailers before the short begins or dealing with porn ads, unlike some other free flash toons sites.

Worst. Episode. Ever.

wrenchien

06-30-2004, 03:47 PM

sounds like an infomercial parody.. heh. .. cardgage can't exactly get the lines right.

i wish someone would take me to chick-fil-a.. they're showing spiderman 2 nearby. mmm, chicken, mmm.

that $ easter egg is funny. especially if you play it in more than one window at once. the more the merrier. sure was worth the download, sure got a sorely needed laugh out of me.

i don't know who the robot is, but i do hope he makes an appearance in some future email. he's funny, especially when he goes 'boom' and 'my naaammme iiiiiiiisss mmmmmmuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuudddddddddddddddhhhhhhhh.'

blown out of the water,

wrenchien

Mek

06-30-2004, 03:56 PM

A one minute short? You guys make a hell of a lot of money a year. Surely you can throw people a bone for giving you the most cushy job in America, instead of just boning people with these no effort junkers.
I have to kinda agree in a sense. It's not too special, but it was actually kinda funny. Though I have to admit, Homestar's stride has pretty much ended. Well, for me anyways.

Feslmogh

06-30-2004, 04:12 PM

They redid the Toons menu (http://www.homestarrunner.com/toons.html)...

The Koopinator

06-30-2004, 04:14 PM

A one minute short? You guys make a hell of a lot of money a year. Surely you can throw people a bone for giving you the most cushy job in America, instead of just boning people with these no effort junkers.
It looks to me that you thought it was bad, but I'm sure plenty of people enjoyed it (like me), and thought they were thrown a bone, and not boned. Or something to that extent. Everything takes effort, and the robot voice is harder to get than a voice actor.

SirLemming

06-30-2004, 10:47 PM

Plus the multiple new games, a 6:00 toon, 3 other shorts, april fools stunt, 5 puppet times, New Boots, new strong bad email every week or two, longer strong bad emails, new answering machine with animated bits, all done in 2004. On a site that's free, ad free, subscription free, required email address free, annoyance free. No watching movie trailers before the short begins or dealing with porn ads, unlike some other free flash toons sites.

2004 has been 6 months, so that alone isn't really saying much. Whether you think Homestar Runner is funny or not, you have to admit that at this stage, they've really got it easy. The Chapman brothers make their living off of this; they don't have to contend with school and jobs. And yet they often go a week -- occasionally 2 or 3 weeks -- with only a one-minute short or new menu page to show for it.
I can't say I wouldn't do the same in their position, but they definitely COULD be working harder. Especially when using the same character models for every cartoon, Flash cartoons of this quality and (at least) this length can be put out by two experienced animators more often than what they're doing.

I'm thinking I might have had more positive things to say about this cartoon if Matt Wilson hadn't gotten me thinking with that comment. Anyway, it was funny, but could've been funnier. Senor Cardgage is great, but his other appearances have arguably been better.

JDuncan

06-30-2004, 10:57 PM

It was funny for what it was, I can't really say that a mortgage commercial parody would work if it was, say, five minutes long.

Martianinvader

07-01-2004, 01:10 AM

You're taking Matt Wilson seriously???

Crazies....

Anyway, I thought it was really good. Watch more daytime TV--then you'll be familiar with the stupid ads this imitates. And the hosts are pretty much Cardgage in human form.

Killtacular

07-01-2004, 11:18 AM

Plus the multiple new games, a 6:00 toon, 3 other shorts, april fools stunt, 5 puppet times, New Boots, new strong bad email every week or two, longer strong bad emails, new answering machine with animated bits, all done in 2004.
Those were all done this week? Oh, no. They weren't.

The Brothers Chaps spend 6 hours on the weekly update. Then maybe 3 hours at most checking up on merchandise. The rest of the time they spend playing video games and eating at McDonald's, and getting interviewed by magazines and G4. That is their life. That they cannot do more for their weekly update is inexcusable. Most animators work 40 hours a week. They can't even be bothered sometimes to work ONE DAY out of the week. Think of what they COULD do if they actually took their work seriously and spent effort trying to put out something of real quality every week. If they spent maybe 15-20 hours on a cartoon instead of 6 (or less, looking at this cartoon). Then we wouldn't have these lazy, slopped together, last minute, idiotic offerings. They didn't make 2 million dollars in revenue last year just for doing puppet jams and menu pages.

On a site that's free, ad free, subscription free, required email address free, annoyance free. No watching movie trailers before the short begins or dealing with porn ads, unlike some other free flash toons sites.
This would be filed in the 'uh duh' category. When you make a lot of money, you can afford good server hosting.

Kryten

07-01-2004, 12:58 PM

Like I said... you should e-mail them demanding your money back.

If you're lucky, they'll ONLY tell you to go f*** yourself.

Blue Priestess

07-01-2004, 01:10 PM

Like I said... you should e-mail them demanding your money back.

If you're lucky, they'll ONLY tell you to go f*** yourself.
And when they do, they'll speak for us all. I guess this "Length/Time spent = quality" thing explains why every attempt I've made to slog through "High Score" feels like an eternity.

If you're gonna go all sour grapes, do it on your own time, oh Argument-for-the-ability-to-put-mods-on-the-ignore-list.

Killtacular

07-01-2004, 01:36 PM

And when they do, they'll speak for us all. I guess this "Length/Time spent = quality" thing explains why every attempt I've made to slog through "High Score" feels like an eternity.
Making this argument personal would only make sense if I were making as much money as the Chapman brothers were making. And if I had the cushy lifestyle they had. But I don't, so there's no comparison.

Tea

07-01-2004, 04:35 PM

I couldn't understand about 50% of what was said but the randomness did amuse me.

PaQ

07-01-2004, 05:20 PM

That was.. a tad on the lackluster side. I chuckled a bit, but there wasn't much and it ended pretty quickly. And StrongBad's out of shape.. @_@

The ending with the number wasn't bad. It was decent. C-.

Blue Priestess

07-01-2004, 07:34 PM

That was.. a tad on the lackluster side. I chuckled a bit, but there wasn't much and it ended pretty quickly. And StrongBad's out of shape.. @_@

Check the "Kind of Cool" email - that's not really Strong Bad. It was "a different kind of cool" Strong Bad who was based off of his creepy childhood neighbor, Senor Cardgage.

And like Martianinvader said, it had to be short to be a decent commercial parody; if it was a ten-minute commercial parody, it wouldn't work.

Space Kitty

07-01-2004, 07:44 PM

On a site that's free, ad free, subscription free, required email address free, annoyance free.
Not quite. The whole site is an ad for their merchandise. Like Transformers in the 80's, only not quite as cool.

Plus, the KOT does not equal annoyance free.:shrug:

SirLemming

07-01-2004, 11:55 PM

And when they do, they'll speak for us all. I guess this "Length/Time spent = quality" thing explains why every attempt I've made to slog through "High Score" feels like an eternity.

If you're gonna go all sour grapes, do it on your own time, oh Argument-for-the-ability-to-put-mods-on-the-ignore-list.

Now that's just uncalled for. And really, you should be arguing against Bonus Stage, since that's a cartoon Matt Wilson does every week and is thus more comparable to this situation. And if you do argue against that, you'll fail. Because when the Chapman Brothers spend the same or less time on their stuff in a week than Matt does on his stuff in a week, it's almost an absolute scientific fact that they're being lazy, since they have nothing else to do.

Plus, this is on-topic, even if you don't like the complaints.

Animelee

07-02-2004, 01:27 AM

2 million dollars in revenue last year
Are you serious?! :eek: Would you happen to have a link to where I could read an article on it?

Lucky Bob

07-02-2004, 01:33 AM

Ummmm...as to the toon itself, I think it was pretty clever. Cardgage is a pretty safe character to go with, to be sure. (See also Homsar and The Poopsmith.) But it was worth a chuckle. The only "LOL" moment was the little number song at the end. Kinda catchy, too.

I'd give it a three out of five. Nice diversion.

PaQ

07-02-2004, 02:35 AM

Check the "Kind of Cool" email - that's not really Strong Bad. It was "a different kind of cool" Strong Bad who was based off of his creepy childhood neighbor, Senor Cardgage.

And like Martianinvader said, it had to be short to be a decent commercial parody; if it was a ten-minute commercial parody, it wouldn't work.Oh, I see.. yeah I don't watch many shorts there besides the emails, which I don't remember too well anyway.. Thanks, I didn't know that. :sweat: I was wondering how Strong Bad let go of himself so quickly.

And that makes sense, for what it was parodying, it was the right amount of time.. It was just something odd to see IMO.

Nice Avatar by the way Blue Priestess :)

Blue Priestess

07-02-2004, 09:17 AM

Now that's just uncalled for. And really, you should be arguing against Bonus Stage, since that's a cartoon Matt Wilson does every week and is thus more comparable to this situation. And if you do argue against that, you'll fail. Because when the Chapman Brothers spend the same or less time on their stuff in a week than Matt does on his stuff in a week, it's almost an absolute scientific fact that they're being lazy, since they have nothing else to do.

Plus, this is on-topic, even if you don't like the complaints.
Someone who actually likes Matt Wilson. Hell's frozen over. I will always firmly believe that if he were not a moderator, he would've been long banned for his nasty attitude. He's the only thing I can't stand here, and his sniping here was just a "that tears it" occasion.

I can't be the only one who sees his comments as thinly veiled bitter jealousy over someone else's success in the same medium. And towards someone who's capable of actually being funny.

And as for lazy, the Chapmans have been contracted to do music videos for They Might Be Giants - not the puppet jams, legit videos. So that probably eats up time, too.

And Mr. Resentful, I want that article link, too. Back up your griping already.

Kryten

07-02-2004, 10:26 AM

Not quite. The whole site is an ad for their merchandise.

...which we're forced to buy to see the 'toons... oh, wait, we're NOT.

I often find myself agreeing with Matt, but this time, he's simply WRONG WRONG WRONG.

SirLemming

07-02-2004, 10:57 AM

I can't be the only one who sees his comments as thinly veiled bitter jealousy over someone else's success in the same medium. And towards someone who's capable of actually being funny.
Well, what Flash animator wouldn't be jealous of the Chapmans? They've succeeded better than any other Flash animator probably ever will, and now they've reached the point where they really don't have to work like dogs to make this whole thing work.
So they're taking it easy. They're being lazy. Do they deserve to? Possibly. But the site's popularity might wane if they're not careful. That's all I'm really saying. This short wasn't really anything special. If they were to do something like this every week (it was actually 2 weeks, wasn't it?), I might stop keeping up with the site altogether. I've already stopped caring and looking forward to it every week, to a large extent. Partially because it's NOT every week.
And I guess it's only natural to end that diatribe with the counterexample that I DO look forward to Bonus Stage every week, because it's a lot more consistent. And I also believe that it's funny, which is a matter of style of humor moreso than time and effort, and I don't see how your insulting it on that level helps your argument any.

...which we're forced to buy to see the 'toons... oh, wait, we're NOT.

I often find myself agreeing with Matt, but this time, he's simply WRONG WRONG WRONG.
Huh? You're not even responding to Matt. Check who you just quoted.

Besides, are you forced to buy porn or any of the other things that are advertised on other Flash sites?

Kryten

07-02-2004, 12:10 PM

Huh? You're not even responding to Matt. Check who you just quoted.
I know. I'm responding to someone who was defending Matt's WRONG opinion.

Besides, are you forced to buy porn or any of the other things that are advertised on other Flash sites?
No... and what does that have to do with calling someone lazy for not updating a site that you're not paying anything for, or under-updating it?

It's like... let's say someone starts dropping off a free apple pie at your doorstep every Monday. He doesn't demand anything in return. And if there happens to be an advertisement for his bakery at the bottom, who cares? It's still generous.

Now, let's say one week, he gives you half a pie. Or a strawberry pie. Or, horror of horrors, the pie comes on Wednesday. Do you:

a) Say to yourself "Oh well, I'm not paying for it anyway."
b) Whine loudly about it to everyone you know.

Do you see why choice b might seem slightly... obnoxious?

Sprocket

07-02-2004, 12:42 PM

I gotta agree with Matt on this one.

If they're devoting all their time to Homestar Runner, it doesn't really make sense as to why they're making FAR LESS in terms of cartoons than previous years.

Back when they did it part-time, they pumped out TONS of stuff. Perhaps eating McDonalds has made them lazy as hell. It sure happened to me when I ate too much junk food for a while.

Artimus Gigan

07-02-2004, 01:07 PM

Word of advice Matt Wilson is notorious for hating nearly everything, it's sorta a well known factoid like the ocean is full of salt water...so take his opinion(as everyone's opion) with a grain of it

unless it matches the following:
The Matt Wilson Story
Starring: Matt Wilson
Co-Starring:Matt Wilson
Original Opening Theme By: Matt Wilson
Screenplay Written By: Matt Wilson
Directed By: Matt Wilson
Dolly-Grip: Matt Wilson
Filmed in Wilson-vision

I kid, I kid...only because I care...

SirLemming

07-03-2004, 12:36 AM

No... and what does that have to do with calling someone lazy for not updating a site that you're not paying anything for, or under-updating it?

It's like... let's say someone starts dropping off a free apple pie at your doorstep every Monday. He doesn't demand anything in return. And if there happens to be an advertisement for his bakery at the bottom, who cares? It's still generous.

Now, let's say one week, he gives you half a pie. Or a strawberry pie. Or, horror of horrors, the pie comes on Wednesday. Do you:

a) Say to yourself "Oh well, I'm not paying for it anyway."
b) Whine loudly about it to everyone you know.

Do you see why choice b might seem slightly... obnoxious?

Whine loudly about it to everyone I know? This is a message board post devoted to discussing HomestarRunner.com (a.k.a. the pie service). If someone has a problem with the current state of HomestarRunner.com, this is a proper place to voice it.
Now, I won't speak for Matt (and I apologize if I had been, since I'm sure he feels that's unnecessary), but I'm simply saying that the Chapmans are lazy for doing the cartoons at this rate. Am I saying I deserve a long cartoon every week? No. I'm only pointing out a trend that makes me less satisfied with the product they're putting out. I don't see the big deal. I expect them to be able to do more. If they don't, fine. I'll go on living my life.
But this isn't my life. This is a message board. My posts don't represent what I devote all my time and interest to. I'm discussing what's meant to be discussed.

If this is a result of a time-consuming project with They Might Be Giants, then that actually is a pretty good explanation. At that point I'd just suggest that they find a better balance, if the web site is suffering from it.

Eddie G.

07-03-2004, 12:52 AM

Well because we just have to talk about Matt Wilson, I agree with him. I liked this short for the most part... it was worth a giggle and a smirk or two. But I agree with Matt on the idea that this is all we get when these dudes have both the money and the time to give us more. I mean PvP is one of the most sucessful webcomics, but the guy behind it still puts in as much work as he should... giving us daily comic strips.

But judging on this alone and not taking all this other hub-bub into account, it was decent. More satirical than HR usually is, it was cute.....