Characters / Homestar Runner Main Characters

Homestar Runner Characters Index
Main Characters | Alternate Universes (Teen Girl Squad, 20X6) | Other Characters

Homestar and Friends

Homestar Runner

Homestar Runner

"Evewybody loves the me! I'm a tewwific athlete!"

Debut: "The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest"

Ostensibly the main character of the site. Homestar is a dim but (usually) lovable doofus with no arms and no clue. He means well, but his idiocy often leads him to accidentally say and do things that alienate his friends. Seems to think that he and Strong Bad are buddies, to the chagrin of the latter.

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• Accidental Misnaming: A frequent habit of his, to the point where he once called Homsar "Homestar."
• Achievements in Ignorance:
  • As Strong Bad put it, "sometimes Homestar does something so stupid, he flips back to smart." To cite one example, his answer for "2+2" is to recite Coulomb's Law. And when Strong Sad calls him out for that, Homestar realizes his mistake and says that 2+2 equals 22.
  • In "Jibblies 2", Homestar is the only character besides Homsar who doesn't get the Jibblies, because he's too oblivious to be scared by the painting. However, since he's aware of what the Jibblies is, it could be he's just a Nice Guy who's not scared of Rocoulm and obliges his "Come on in here!" command. He does however, get the Jibblies from the updated version of the painting (where Rocoulm is replaced with some guy's dad)
• Ambiguously Bi: He's obviously in an on-and-off (and-on-and-off-and-on-and-off) relationship with Marzipan, but in quite a number of appearances, he's displayed what definitely looks like a crush on Strong Bad. At one point when Strong Bad attempts to woo the Ali sisters again, Homestar admits that he may have fallen for Strong Bad.
• Armless Biped: Despite his lack of visible arms, he's still capable of activities like typing on a computer.
• Bad Liar: Homestar can't lie, and when he does, he usually slips up and reveals what he's trying to hide. Mixed with Acting Unnatural in "I Killed Pom Pom".
• Berserk Button: Telling Homestar that he is not wearing pants will result in him losing his temper, as Strong Bad finds out. However, in "email thunder", he stated that he accidentally took some of Strong Sad's pills, so that likely contributed to his meltdown.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He, Pom Pom, and Coach Z seem to be the law enforcers in Free Country USA.
• Blah, Blah, Blah: In "The Li'l Brudder Show". One of his sobbing fits has him blubbering "blah".
• The Bore: Often, the sort who is totally oblivious to the disinterest of whomever he's talking to. He's also the one playing the part of the "office dullard" in Sbemail #37.
• The Casanova: If hremail 49 is of any indication, Homestar seems to have bits of this, considering him being in a sleepover with some girls and the kiss marks all over his face.
• Cast as a Mask: In this toon, he initially sounds like Marzipan due to getting a spit bubble caught in his throat.
• Celebrity Endorsement: He had a stint as a spokesathlete for Melonade according to "hremail 7", to the point where it was the only liquid he could drink, talk about, and bathe in until his contract expired.
• Character Catchphrase: "Seriously"^note Sewiosly. He (extremely) briefly tried to incorporate a new one: "That's bupkus!"
• Characterization Marches On: In his earliest appearances, Homestar wasn't really dumb at all and had a different accent, as well as a more cookie-cutter heroic personality. Besides the athleticism, Homestar was almost an entirely different character to the endearingly-dim, Elmuh Fudd Syndwome-accented jock he would later be known as, and it's especially evident in his more positive relationship with Strong Bad.
• Character Tics: He tends to flick his head back and forth when he's talking, usually to put emphasis on something.
• Cloudcuckoolander: While he's usually just a ditz, he can fall into this at times. A particular running gag is forgetting who he even is.
• Cool Shades: Even Strong Bad admits he looks cool with sunglasses.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He's generally portrayed as being close to unbeatable in any athletic competition.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: He's the only person who can tell that the Thnikkaman is just a Paper-Thin Disguise of Bubs.
• Cult: Homestar outright states that he started one in the 2018's April Fools video with his "Always be'sing and do'sing" movement, though in his commercial for it he constantly states it's not a cult.
• The Ditz: His level of intelligence tends to fluctuate, but he's consistently shown himself to be dumb as a rock.
• Dumb Jock: Athletic? Yes. Stupid? Very Yes.
• Elmuh Fudd Syndwome:
  • Evewybody loves the Homestaw Wunnew. He's a tewwific athlete. He acknowledges that he has "twouble with [his] aw's."
  • He didn't have it in his high school years, but since the person recounting it was Strong Bad, who has a self-admitted "doodle memory," it's doubtful whether it's true or not.
  • He's able to tone it down when speaking Spanish in the "First Time Here?" video.
• Failed a Spot Check: Part of his Comically Missing the Point personality.
  Marzipan: Awww, there there, Homestar. It's not so bad. Everybody thinks I'm a broom.
  Homestar: (genuinely annoyed) You're not a broom?!
• Flanderization: Along with Characterization Marches On, Homestar's foolishness became his most prominent character trait in later shorts.
• The Fool: No matter how dangerous the situation may be, Homestar always comes out with no lasting injuries. He doesn't always make it out unscathed though.
• Henpecked Husband: Or boyfriend in this case as Homestar lives with Marzipan. However, she treats him like environmentally friendly dirt. Subverted in that Homestar often treats her like dirt, too.
• Horrible Judge of Character: He's friends with Strong Bad, despite Strong Bad not considering him to be a friend at all.^note Though they eventually fall into Vitriolic Best Buds level late in the series. Though his relationship with Marzipan is more justified, Marzipan has been an abusive girlfriend to him in the past.
• Incredibly Lame Fun: Homestar shows a general fascination with bafflingly dull activities, such as spitting Teddy Grahams on the ceiling and waiting for them to fall in his mouth, pretending that one leg is shorter than the other, and the videogame Clapping Party.
• Innocently Insensitive: Homestar tends to say things that offend people out of sheer stupidity rather than any malicious intent. This happens especially often with Marzipan, since he tends to insult her without realizing it.
• Invisible Anatomy: He once wore a long-sleeved coat that actually moved when he picked up something, yet he still has no visible arms. Lampshaded often, such as in April Fool's 2015, when he craves the Trogdor backpack. "Can you imagine having three arms? I can! (shudders in delight)"
• Jerkass Ball: Sometimes holds the ball, especially in regard to Marzipan. Once, he refused to answer the phone for her because "I'm busy not answering the phone!"
• Jerkass to One: While Homestar has his jerkish moments, he is usually kind towards others when he's not being innocently insensitive. But he often has fights with his girlfriend Marzipan, getting annoyed at her and insulting her.
• Keet: Probably the most cheerful character on the site.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: A good guy, just incredibly dull-witted.
• Long Pants: The Trope Namer, and he's a pretty good example himself since his "pants" seamlessly blend with his shoes. Strong Bad discusses the trope with Homestar in Strong Bad Email #127: "long pants". As it turns out, telling Homestar that he doesn't wear pants is his Berserk Button.
  Strong Bad: Let's talk about your pants. Or your lack thereof.
  Homestar: What are you talking about? I wear long pants!
  Strong Bad: No, from what I can tell, you wear no pants and have blue soles glued to the bottoms of your feet.
• Lovable Jock: As mentioned in his quote above, which is a variation of the original children's book's opening line.
• Manchild: Acts very childish for someone who appears to be the same age as Strong Bad. When he checked into a hotel, he ordered a race car bed. And he along with Strong Mad and Homsar are in Marzipan's Kindergarten Class.
• Meaningful Name: As his last name implies, he excels at running and is occasionally seen running for fun.
• Misery Trigger: Two words. Lil' Brudder. Just the sight of the one-legged puppy will turn Homestar into a huge sobbing wreck. He tried to defy this trope in "Punkin Stencils", but failed.
  Homestar: Oh, I know what you're expecting. Blah, blah, blah, blah, Brudder. Well, I'm over it! You think a simple carving of that pathetic little three-legged two-legger, with one leg, could make...mm...mmm... [begins blubbering] blah blah blah Brudder!
• Mister Seahorse: He thinks he's a pregnant woman in cliffhangers.
• Naked on Arrival: He claims to be an aversion, in that he was born with his hat on.
• Nice Guy: Tries to be one, when he's not being selfish.
• No Listening Skills: He is prone to this, being both The Ditz and a Cloud Cuckoolander. For example, in "4 branches", Coach Z tries to warn Homestar about the dangers of exposing a "flame pro-tardant polymascotfoamalate" costume to a campfire. Homestar zones out and imagines a commercial for polymascotfoamalate from the 1930s, then concludes "So I should be perfectly safe!" Then merrily goes on building a campfire inside the costume.
• Oblivious to Hatred: Homestar often treats Strong Bad like they're close friends, even though Strong Bad frequently expresses his hatred of Homestar through insults, pranks, and violence.
  • On the other hand, Homestar is also not above pulling the pranks on Strong Bad, like flooding his computer with Mountain Dew.
• Oh, Crap!: When King of Town convinces the Poopsmith that Homestar was responsible for the missing pile of "whatsit":
  Homestar: Oh, Crap! I mean, literal crap.
• Out of Focus: Not as bad as many similar examples, as he's still a prominent character, but Homestar is generally secondary to Strong Bad in all but the website's earliest content.
• The Pollyanna: His cheery demeanor doesn't falter even if his face is covered in broken glass, or his legs have spontaneously gained several more knees.
• Randomly Reversed Letters: In "The Interview", Homestar's "resume" (actually his grocery list) has the esses reversed.
• Recognition Failure: A Running Gag throughout all the Halloween toons is him not recognizing the costumes of others.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Homestar didn't notice that Bubs was speaking to him in very thinly veiled anger in "Donut Unto Others" missing the tone of his voice, the smoke coming from his head and the fact he's literally red in the face.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: He likes to do this whenever he uses a phone or opens a door, saying sounds like "boop" and "ding-dong."
• Signature Headgear: He just wouldn't be the same without his "buzzer".
• Simpleton Voice: His speech impediment is appropriate for his level of intelligence.
• Smart Ball: By default, Homestar is a bit dim, but his intelligence has been known to shoot up whenever the Rule of Funny kicks in. He once correctly stated Coulomb's law (albeit when asked what 2+2 is), he's capable of speaking Spanish to some extent, he's the one person in Free Country that can see through Bubs' Paper-Thin Disguise as the Thnikkaman, and he managed to trick Strong Bad into saying something stupid. Also, when sharing scenes with characters even deeper into Cloudcuckooland (usually Coach Z, Senor Cardgage, or Homsar), he often can't help but look like the Only Sane Man in comparison.
• Spell My Name with a "The": He used to be known as "The Homestar Runner" before the "The" was dropped. His Old-Timey counterpart is called "The Homestar Runner" as a reference to this.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: He manages to cause this reaction to Strong Bad sometimes, most notably in the second Costume Commentary when a hot girl dressed as Homestar is seen.
  Strong Bad: So confused... what to think? Hot Homestar?! My brain is splitting in half!
• Too Dumb to Live: Just to cite one example, he once lit a fire inside of a mascot costume while he himself is in it. That would be stupid even if it weren't made of highly flammable Polymascotfoamalate. Another time he somehow got himself stuck inside an office water cooler.
• Trademark Favorite Drink: Melonade. In one of his hremails, Homestar stated that he once had an endorsement deal that had him "contractually unable to drink, talk about, or bathe in any other liquid" until March of 2003.
• Twin Threesome Fantasy: In "Halloween Potion-ma-jig", when Homestar is changed to having only one eye, he's shocked and disappointed to find out he hasn't been dating twin Marzipans the entire time, which seems to imply he likes this trope.
• Verbal Tic: He has a peculiar obsession with asking about witch's brew.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Strong Bad. Homestar is usually oblivious to Strong Bad's hatred toward him, although there are occasions where they either get along or the dislike becomes mutual.
• Vocal Evolution: Homestar's voice started out as high-pitched and childlike in earlier episodes, but has gotten a bit deeper and gravelly over the years. Sorta explained in the 2014 April Fools episode: he had a piece of crab shell stuck in his throat for several years. Homestar also had something resembling a pseudo-Japanese accent in Marshmallow's Last Stand but it went away almost immediately after.

Marzipan

Marzipan

"I'm a fiercely independent woman, and I'm fiercely independent about the soy products I choose."

Debut: "Marshmallow's Last Stand"

Homestar's on-again, off-again girlfriend, largely by the fact of being the only major female character on the website. Marzipan is a grade-A Granola Girl whom Strong Bad has described as "a dirty hippie, without the dirt". She tends to protest things at the drop of a hat. Marzipan has also expressed artistic leanings: she frequently sings and plays songs on her guitar Carol, and has been showing painting and indulging in other forms of arts and crafts from time to time.

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• Abhorrent Admirer: Coach Z to the extent that she put a restraining order on him. Strong Bad tends to occasionally hit on her, to her disgust. Strong Sad himself has shyly put the moves on her once or twice, which annoys her. Amusingly, Marzipan even considers Homestar's romantic advances to her with equal disgust. And Homestar's her boyfriend (most of the time).
• Actually Pretty Funny: While not directly stated, it's implied that she recognizes and enjoys Strong Bad's prank calls, stating that the one where she wins a fake radio contest is her favorite.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Even though she seems like the basic hippie chick stereotype, she injures or practically tortures Homestar on frequent occasions (see below), and hurts Strong Bad quite a few times, such as minor cartoon slapstick like hitting him with her guitar, or outright shoves a pencil into his head in SBCG4AP (the latter after he floated her potted plant in a wading pool.)
• Cloudcuckoolander: She can be pretty loopy sometimes, such as treating a sandwich like it was a talking baby while mistaking Homestar's voice for the sandwich's voice, or insisting to everyone that the Kaiju Bubs rampaging around Free Country isn't giant because "he's just in the foreground".
• Companion Cube: Aside from her guitar, Carol, Marzipan also tends to treat inanimate objects as if they were people. When Homestar once made her a veggie burger, she goes on to treat it as if it's her and Homestar's own baby. Marzipan is also shown to prefer inanimate versions of Homestar, like an effigy of him made of tofu or a cardboard cut out version of him, over the actual person.
• Cross Player: Marzipan usually dresses up as male characters during Halloween, something that gets lampshaded by Homestar in "Most in the Graveyard."
• Crosses the Line Twice: Her in-universe opinion of the "Authentic 'Marzipan' Costume", which consists of a Marzipan-colored two-piece bikini, a pointed tail, and cat ears.
  "This is so offensive... that it's not really offensive anymore! I'll take twelve!"
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Some of her more extreme actions include locking Homestar in a cupboard for a few months with no food (she'd told him there was cake in there) and handing Strong Bad a rake, and shovel and a Garden Weasel to smash into Homestar's face. This would be horrific if the roles were switched but it's all Played for Laughs in this case, especially due to Homestar being a crummy boyfriend himself.
• Gag Nose: Before she had her "questionable voluntary surgery", she had a really long nose◊.
• Girly Girl: Being the only girl, she's the most feminine member of the cast.
• Granola Girl: To the point that Strong Bad once described her as a dirty hippie without the dirt.
• Hippy Teacher: She's the teacher at L.U.R.N., which is more or less what happens when you mix a hippie cult with a classroom.
• Invisible Anatomy: She has no visible limbs, yet she has no trouble doing any regular activities. In an early toon, she slaps Homestar on the face, leaving a bright pink handprint.
• Last-Name Basis: A title of a Two-O Duo track in SBCG4AP referring to "Old Man Marzipan" and Homestar addressing her mom as "Mrs. Marzipan" in A Death-Defying Decemberween could suggest Marzipan is a last name.
• Like Brother and Sister: She seems to be better friends with Strong Sad than she is with her own boyfriend. Especially sister-like in that she still picks on him (it's part of his schtick, after all), but they generally have similar interests and seem to enjoy each other's company.
• Line-of-Sight Name: Her band "Cool Tapes" was created because Homestar once scribbled it on her wall.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Occasionally, she plays this role to Homestar, such as when she registers him as a pet for a pet show competition.
• No Accounting for Taste: Despite being Homestar's girlfriend, Marzipan is shown to not enjoy Homestar's company at all even when they are together in their on-and-off relationship. If her and Homestar do couple stuff together, such as kissing in front of a camera, Marzipan will just trick Homestar into making out with something else besides her to get away from doing it. At one point, Marzipan admits that she and Homestar actually hate each other. When Homestar was the first one to break up with her in Mr. Poofers Must Die, Marzipan replies indifferently to him with a nonchalant "okay". Despite all of this, Marzipan is usually together with Homestar again in the next cartoon.
• Odd Friendship: With Strong Mad. He plays bass in her band Cool Tapes, and apparently helps her with her taxes in exchange for help with his craft projects.
• Really Gets Around: A downplayed trope, but Marzipan is known to have "foreign boyfriends" that she cheats on Homestar with. Some of them even leave romantic messages for her in her answering machine. It's apparently known enough with the rest of the cast to the point that Strong Bad once prank called her by pretending to be one of her foreign boyfriends. In addition, Marzipan went on separate dates with The Cheat and Bubs on the same night!
  • If the DVD commentary of Time Capsule is to be believed, she and Mike Chapman are revealed to be "special friends".^note  this was to cover an accidental character break by Missy
• Relationship Revolving Door: Marzipan breaks up, makes up, and outright cheats on Homestar all the time.
• The Smurfette Principle: Marzipan is the only main female character. The others are usually one-time-only characters. Marzipan herself is aware of it and this all gets lampshaded to hell and back by her and the others.
  "I'm the only girl!"
• Soapbox Sadie: She has a habit of protesting subjects environmentalists typically oppose. This can get ridiculous sometimes, such as literally interpreting the phrase "olly olly oxen free" as an animal liberation cry. "Yeah, Ollie, set those oxen free!"
• Straw Vegetarian: Confirmed to be vegan in "Homestar Ruiner." Marzipan has to ask the Blubb-O's fast food restaurant if they serve fast food meat or actual whale meat (since their mascot is a whale) to determine how hard she should actually protest them. Marzipan is an interesting case however, because she also considers soy to be "murder" along with meat because "that way, you'll always feel guilty!"
• Tsundere: Type A. Even though her treatment of Homestar at times is less than reasonable, she seems to generally enjoy having him around. She never outright admits it, however.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Though she openly and vocally hates Strong Bad, she does occasionally welcome his presence or try to help or hang out with him from time to time.
• Vocal Evolution: Her voice is a bit deeper as of I Killed Pom Pom.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: She usually portrays a male musician as her Halloween costume. Homestar admits it's starting to concern him.

Pom-Pom

Pom-Pom

(bubble bubble)

Debut: "The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest"

Homestar's best buddy. Despite looking like an orange-and-yellow ball with an ovoid head and arms and only communicating through bubbling noises, Pom-Pom is apparently a hip, tech-savvy ladies' man.

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• The Ace: About the only thing he doesn't excel in is Texas hold 'em or pet show contests.
• Acrofatic: Despite his ball-like shape, he once jumped over Strong Badia and the Concession Stand in a single bound, after jumping through the treetops of a nearby forest like a ninja.
• The Artifact: He rarely does anything of note anymore, but he's still spotted sometimes.
• Badass Adorable: Not only has he been crowned the strongest man in the world, but he's also been voted 'most likely to beat everyone in an all-out death match' ever since he pummeled Strong Bad for trying to pop him with a pin. He's also a martial arts master and has an itchy trigger finger when it comes to firearms, so watch out.
• Beware the Nice Ones: As mentioned above. His laid-back personality doesn't stop him from being dangerous if provoked.
• Chick Magnet: He's been described as being popular with the ladies by the other characters.
• Classically-Trained Extra: In the extended play of Dangeresque 3, Strong Bad reveals that Pom-Pom is a classically trained actor playing a secondary character, Professor Experimento.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Once or twice, Pom-Pom has apparently done this, with Homestar gasping and scolding, "Watch your language!"
• Demoted to Extra: Was introduced as Homestar's best friend and played an important role in the site's early history as a favorite of The Brothers Chaps (starring as the only character in their first-ever Flash and getting his Day in the Limelight well before the site caught on in popularity), but seems to have sunk more into the background as of late, thanks in no small part to his role as The Unintelligible limiting his potential for jokes.
• Hipster: Pom-Pom is established as one in the email "independent" and makes indie films to solidify his indie-cred with other hipsters.
• Intelligible Unintelligible: Everyone can understand him even though he only speaks in bubbling noises.
• Kavorka Man: Pom Pom apparently gets a lot of chicks, despite being a giant bouncy ball thing.
• Only Sane Man: As such, he tends to get annoyed whenever Homestar acts particularly stupid.
• Parody Sue: In-universe example. Strong Bad seems to think so.
  Stupid Pom-Pom and his boring physical superiority.
• Satellite Character: Was first introduced as Homestar's best friend and nothing more, but Character Development has been kind enough to give him a few unique traits of his own.
• Silent Snarker: Despite being The Unintelligible, Pom Pom can often come across as this towards the others through his facial expressions alone, usually when they're acting especially weird.
• Straight Man: Being the Only Sane Man in a cast full of cuckoolanders, he acts as the straight man to their antics.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: In-Universe. It can be reasonably inferred that Pom-Pom, given his reputation as The Ace and that he is a classically trained actor, is one of the few actors in Dangeresque 3 who made an effort to give good performances. That said, he does blunder at least three times, as the extended play reveals.
• The Unintelligible: He can only speak in bubbling sounds.

The Brothers Strong

Strong Bad

Strong Bad

"You don't know it yet, but I'm the real reason you're here. Check me out! No, seriously, check me out."

Debut: "The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest"

Arguably the real main character of the website. Strong Bad is an egotistical little man who appears to be wearing boxing gloves and a luchador mask, though according to him, those are what his face and hands actually look like. His hobbies include tormenting his neighbors (especially Homestar Runner, Marzipan, and Strong Sad), responding to e-mails from his fans, and playing retro video games. His pet peeves include Homestar and people asking him "How do you type with boxing gloves on?"

He is one of your opponents in Poker Night at the Inventory, along with The Heavy, Max, and Tycho.

And he's here on TVTropes, too.

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• Abandoned Catchphrase: Earlier, Strong Bad used to say "Holy crap!" This has now been largely abandoned and he gets annoyed whenever an email is signed with a variation of "crap".
• Actually Pretty Funny: Strong Bad's reaction to the question: "If spaceman makes bafroom in his pants, does he go boom?" He initially took insult to the question but found it funnier after thinking about it more.
• Angrish: He once devolved to this when his Compé pretended to crash upon starting up.
• Asshole Victim: He's the biggest jerk on the show, and he also gets hurt a lot. A lot of the pain he suffers tends to be from his villainous schemes blowing up in his face.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Every now and then, he's nice to Strong Sad, suggesting he does care about him deep down. Perhaps best exemplified in email "alternate universe," where Strong Sad plays the guitar for his email song. Strong Bad sincerely thanks him for his help, and Strong Sad replies with a friendly, "No prob, Bob." They also spend most of "concert" genuinely getting along and bonding over their shared love of Sloshy.
• Bad Boss: Strong Bad can be pretty cruel to The Cheat, sometimes for no reason at all. It's implied he's kept in check by Strong Mad, however.
• Bad Liar: To the point where he forgets that he's even a part of what he's lying about. One such example has him telling someone that he doesn't think The Cheat has a computer despite using it to check an email once. His attempts at prank-calling Marzipan also qualify, not even bothering to change his voice or doing a poor job of disguising it. Many of his pranks consist of telling Marzipan to do stupid things no one with any common sense would do. Marzipan even seems to enjoy hearing his prank calls and gives him suggestions and constructive criticism on them.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Played for Laughs in "for kids", when Strong Bad, in the middle of a meltdown, shouts "I'LL KILL YA! I'LL KILL ALL YOUR DOGS!"
• Berserk Button: He gets annoyed when e-mails ask him how he can type with boxing gloves on or end with any form of the word "crap".
• Big Bad: He sure WISHES he was, but he's usually too busy playing video games and doing petty pranks.
• Big Brother Bully: While his villainous side has mostly been Flanderized away, he still regularly bullies and abuses his younger brother Strong Sad. Even his less physically harmful treatment of Strong Sad is well into psychological abuse territory.
• Blatant Lies: One of his defining attributes, as a consequence of his Bad Liar status and his Small Name, Big Ego attitude. He'll lie about things that just happened, right in front of the person listening to him.
• Boisterous Weakling: Though his level of physical prowess depends somewhat on the cartoon, between "reasonably competent" and "laughably outclassed", it's consistently far less than whatever he claims it to be.
• Breakout Character: He started out as the bad guy who opposed Homestar Runner, before eventually becoming the face of the whole site, even getting his own video game series.
• Buffy Speak: He has a habit of making up his own words. Strong Sad even called him out on it in the "Fan Club" email.
• Bullying a Dragon: He intentionally ticks off Strong Mad sometimes.
• Card-Carrying Villain: He sometimes thinks of himself as this. Why ask to borrow Homestar's newspaper when you can steal it dressed as a cat burglar?
• Casanova Wannabe: He considers himself a ladies' man, yet he's never seen with any around. In fact, the only woman he does interact with hates him.
• Character Blog: Has a Twitter account that can be found here.
• Character Catchphrase: Aside from "Holy crap!", which he has largely abandoned, his catchphrase is any variation of "DELETED!" Earlier, he occasionally says "Haselos theselos, haselos theselos" whenever he gets excited.
• Characterization Marches On: He's gone from being the main villain and Homestar's foil to just a jerk who occasionally inconveniences people. His relationship with Homestar has also improved dramatically from the days of their rivalry; especially since the April Fools Day 2015 cartoon and on. He seems much less annoyed with Homestar and even tries to get him to come to the fallout shelter when Flash is 'dying.' His treatment of his brothers and The Cheat has also evolved as well; early on he was downright abusive towards Strong Sad and treated the Cheat more as an underling, but as the episodes went on, he changed to actually getting along with Strong Sad on occasion (while still throwing the occasional jab) and treating The Cheat more as an endeared pet/surrogate little brother.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Most of the time.
• The Chew Toy: Getting 100% Completion in Baddest of the Bands requires the player to find all five ways of Strong Bad getting abused.
• Childish Older Sibling: To Strong Sad, who is smarter and more sane and often points out holes in Strong Bad's schemes.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: He spends a fair amount of time looking after his not-all-there older brother Strong Mad, up to and including arranging play dates with Homestar for him. It's one of his kinder traits, and just about the only one he doesn't hide away in shame.
• Comedic Underwear Exposure: He's been caught in his tighty-whities sometimes.
• Comically Missing the Point: He often misinterprets the e-mails he receives, although sometimes he does this on purpose.
• Cool Mask: He wears a luchador mask, or rather, his luchador mask is his face.
• Cruel to Be Kind: One way of interpreting his relationship with Strong Sad. At times, Strong Sad has stated that he wants to be miserable. With that taken into consideration, Strong Bad's bullying could be seen as this trope, in that he is giving Strong Sad exactly what he wants. The 2022 Decemberweenvent Calendar seems to confirm this; when he refers to the calendar as "Disappointo," Strong Sad gets offended because he thought he was "Disappointo".
• Deadpan Snarker: Since he strives to be a bad guy, he doesn't bother trying to be polite.
• Defiant Stone Throw: He, or rather, his headless body, once opposed the King of Town by throwing stones at him.
• Defictionalization: In-universe, a lot of things Strong Bad makes up become real, like the bands Limozeen and Taranchula and the cartoon Sweet Cuppin' Cakes.
  Strong Bad: I kinda black out a lot lately and when I wake up sometimes things I made up in my brain come to life. I practically pee my pants every time a Cheat Commandos comes on.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Strong Bad's attempts to cheat often backfire on him.
• Disco Dan:
  • Aside from the New Paper and the Compé, he has ridiculously outdated technology. For starters, he considered Mode 7 to be state-of-the-art. He also seems to have quite an affinity for video games Older Than the NES. When he does use new technology, he's shown to be very out of touch with it, such as trying to enter the email command in The Cheat's iMac G3 from 2002. When he gets the out-of-his-competence-zonely modern Compé, he mistakes the wallpaper for a full-colored photo taped to the monitor, and when it's crushed by six years worth of dust into another older-style computer, the Lappier, he considers it a step up.
  • Strong Bad's tastes in media appear to be locked into the early 90s at best (and frequently much older). The biggest example of this is probably Limozeen, a hair metal band which Strong Bad continues to follow years on from the genre's mainstream collapse.
• Drunk on Milk: He once acted drunk after drinking soy sauce.
• Epic Fail: He once tried to ruin The Cheat and Marzipan's date by acting as an Italian chef... despite being in Marshmallow's L'est Stand, a French restaurant.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Strong Bad does care about his friends and family deep down, but out of all the characters, he especially has a soft spot for The Paper. He mourns his green striped friend ever since it died.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • While the canonicity of this is up for debate, in Poker Night at the Inventory, when The Heavy delves into Russian Humor about what he did to an Engineer, Strong Bad replied "That is some [BLEEP]-ed up [BLEEP] , man!" The Heavy also tells a story about a boy killing a sparrow, then running away, leaving the Heavy to bury it. Strong Bad replies "That's not even a little bit funny, man". This time, the Heavy agrees with this statement.
  • When he believed he had popped Pom Pom at the request of an emailer, he starts to feel bad and berates the emailer for making him do it. He then writes a sorrowful letter to Pom Pom's parents.
• Even the Guys Want Him: A couple of instances with Homestar, plus an email from a lovestruck dude named Brian. Strong Bad takes the time to answer him in an email to ward him off:
  Look, man, unless Brian is short for... "Brianrietta" or "Brian-Sue" or something like that, it's just not gonna work out between you and me, alright? Sorry to crush your hopes and dreams, Strong Bad.
• Evil Is Cool: Invoked and Zig-Zagged. Undoubtedly the reason why he keeps trying to proclaim himself a villain when he clearly isn't. Meanwhile, when he's genuinely abusive to his brother, it's never played as cool.
• Expressive Mask: Justified in that his mask is actually his face. The one time he took it off (offscreen), it caused him extreme agony and gurgling noises.
• Expy: Strong Bad gets both his name and the red-masked luchador appearance from the Data East NES game Tag Team Wrestling.
• Genre Savvy: He often incorporates his knowledge of video games and movies into his logic.
• Gory Discretion Shot: The viewer never sees what happens while Strong Bad is removing his "mask". Given that the experience was incredibly painful, it was probably for the best.
• Grammar Nazi: Strong Bad will always make fun of people whose emails have bad spelling and grammar.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Sexually Active Today?: He often reminds people that he has many girlfriends, none of which are ever actually seen.
• Hidden Depths: There's many layers to Strong Bad's character, even if he'd deny it.
  • He's an avid metalhead, a decent if amateurish director in the Dangeresque movies, and occasionally shows a more keen awareness of the world than others, usually when pointing out the moronic activities of his neighbors.
  • In the email "lures & jigs", Strong Bad admits that he is a Casanova Wannabe and does not know anything about the ladies... but then he immediately catches what he is saying and runs off in embarrassment.
  • His comical edits of children's books usually make things worse for the characters but in "Strong Bad Classics!", he modifies the ending so the porridge maiden is able to make a name for herself as an internet star in the afterlife instead of becoming Death's stay-at-home housewife.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • He enjoys criticizing people's grammar, but his own grammar isn't perfect either.
  • He finds it ridiculous that someone would still use Windows 98 even though his technological preferences are even more outdated
• I'm Not Doing That Again: Strong Bad says this immediately after he removes his mask (or rather, rips his face off) and promptly puts it back on.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain:
  • The emails "rampage" and "your edge" has Strong Bad getting called out on it and trying his absolute best to assure everyone that he's not, with mixed results.
  • Zig-zagged with his career as a thief. He's been known to break into the King of Town's castle not just unopposed (there's usually only one actual guard, The Poopsmith) but also undetected until the next day. At the same time, his absolute lack of a budget and the Closed Circle nature of Free Country means there aren't a lot of places for him to hide.
• Insane Troll Logic: In the sbemail "caffeine", his science project consists of pouring coffee into Strong Sad's orange juice, which makes him hyperactive, say weird, random things, and eventually have a caffeine crash. Somehow, this leads him to the conclusion that Strong Sad is adopted.
• Insufferable Imbecile: In addition to being very mean, he is often shown to be not very smart.
• Insult Backfire: His prank calls on Marzipan are so bad, that in "Marzipan's Answering Machine version 4.0", Marzipan actually suggests Strong Bad call her with a particular prank call because it's her favorite.
• Jerkass: Strong Bad has been a jerk to everyone: his friends, his family, and even his fans; the email "your friends" in particular really highlights how much of a jerk Strong Bad can be. The only person he has never been mean to is the Little Girl.
• Jerkass Has a Point: On occasion, he's quick to point out the idiocy of others, such as in "A Decemberween Mackerel".
  Strong Bad: What's goin' on here?
  Marzipan: Help, quick! I think Senor Cardgage is dying!
  Strong Bad: And what makes you think that?
  Marzipan: He told me so when I brought him a hot covered dish to brighten his dismal life.
  Strong Bad: He told you. You decided to take, at face value, something the guy who lives in a bush and talks to melty candy bars said.
  Marzipan: Maybe?
  Strong Bad: And, who not fifteen minutes ago, told me I "might paste away if I Dinty Moore."
  Senor Cardgage: You rally might, Pez Dispenser.
• Jerks Use Body Spray: In keeping with his characterization as a wannabe "cool dude", Strong Bad douses himself in body spray while preparing for a night at Club Technochocolate in "nightlife". Though he insists to Strong Sad that it's "the blood of slain warrior-mammoths".
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: There have been occasions where Strong Bad gets along perfectly fine with other people, even helping them out. He has a reputation as the resident Jerkass to uphold, but he also cares about his family and friends and does spend actual quality time with him. This also includes Strong Sad.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: He's not as big of a Butt-Monkey as Strong Sad and The King Of Town, but Strong Bad's attempts at various schemes tend to end in embarrassment and pain that he very much deserves due to how mean and antagonistic he is.
• Kick the Dog: While Strong Bad is generally a Harmless Villain with a tendency to Poke the Poodle, he does have these moments when he gets a little more aggressive/violent.
• Large Ham: He can be over-the-top sometimes.
• Laughably Evil: In spite of aspiring to be a villain, he is the source of a lot of the show's humor because of his schemes and antics bordering on immature and nonsensical as well as his tendency to be set off by very trivial things.
• Little Big Brother: Much smaller than his younger brother Strong Sad.
• Loving Bully: There are occasional hints that, despite constantly harassing and insulting Marzipan, Strong Bad secretly has a crush on her. The most blatant example is his list of prank ideas◊, where a scribbled-out entry reads, "Tell Marzipan how you really feel about her. Time is running out!"
• Man of a Thousand Voices: He provides the voices of all the characters of Teen Girl Squad. In addition, he could speak in Stinkoman's voice perfectly.
• Masked Luchador: He used to be a wrestler with all sorts of gimmicks. The only kind he didn't use was being a masked wrestler, despite having a mask for a face.
• Mature Younger Sibling: To Strong Mad, he orders him around and sometimes looks after him like a younger brother.
• Menace Decay: Acknowledged in the sbemail "Your Edge".
• Meta Guy: He breaks the fourth wall more than most of the other characters combined.
• Metal Scream: And the Trogdor comes in the NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!!!!!
• MST: On some Costumes made by fans They are quite funny. Not to mention the site intro.
• The Napoleon: Strong Bad is the shortest of the Brothers Strong (and one of the shortest main characters), and is easily the biggest jerk among them.
• Narcissist: He's convinced that he is the paragon of handsomeness, to the point where he once got distracted by a dancing toy of himself. Interestingly, he often imagines himself as being more buff than he actually is.
• Neologizer: So much so that he's written an entire dictionary of his expressions. Many of them are here.
• Nostalgia Filter: Strong Bad frequently shows a preference for old technology instead of new technology. He's repeatedly shown his disdain towards the New Paper for being worse than the old Paper, and once mocked The Cheat for using "new computers." When he discovers that the sound the Compé-per makes could be changed, he replaces its pop-up sound with the first Paper's sound. This quote from when the original Paper failed sums it up best:
  The Paper, NOOO! Why do all my thirty-year-old electronics keep breaking on me?
• Not a Mask: Strong Bad's "mask" is actually his face. In the sbemail "the chair", he removes his "mask", but his new chair was blocking everything. Considering that the experience was incredibly painful for him (and that he actually ripped his face off), it was for the better.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Despite his "Poke the Poodle" behavior he can have pretty nasty moments, such as the abuse he heaps on Strong Sad and The Cheat and his more violent tendencies. This is also parodied in "Best Caper Ever", where he and The Cheat can't seem to remember how they got Homestar stuck in the Arctic after peeing in his melonade.
• Only Sane Man: Will occasionally play this part, usually snarking about the moronic activities that the others do.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Lampshaded in the April Fool's 2014 return when Strong Bad notes his voice doesn't have a Mexican accent anymore.
• Pet the Dog: Though it's usually on Strong Sad's part, there are times when Strong Bad actually gets along with him or even does not bully him at all. One particularly moving example is when Strong Bad plans to throw a pie at Strong Sad, but he catches him playing "Some Things Last A Long Time" by Daniel Johnston, who at the time recently died. He could not bring himself to see the plan through and decided to give Strong Sad a day to grieve in peace.
• Poke the Poodle: As the years wore on, Strong Bad's ideas of evil acts shifted toward not inflating a deflated basketball, throwing feathers at people (he claimed he couldn't afford the hot tar), and spreading mayonnaise all over the living room and waiting almost half-an-hour before cleaning it up.
  "THIRTY WHOLE MINUTES!! Can you believe!!-yeah okay, we're losing our edge."
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Played for laughs. Strong Bad doesn't seem to like the English and once made remarks that brought the entire royal family to tears. When asked to comment on the matter, Strong Bad replied "Screw all ya'll!"
• Prom Wrecker: Attempts to humiliate everyone at the local prom with a device that will make everyone's pants disappear. However, it turns out that he's the only one who actually wears pants, so he's the only one humiliated.
• Reality Warper: Somehow, a large number of things that start out only existing in his imagination later become real. Cheat Commandos and Sweet Cuppin Cakes were things he just invented on the spot, yet they later became a real cartoons within a cartoon, and, as the above quote under Defictionalization implies, he's not entirely sure of how this happens (all he knows is that he'll pass out for a bit and when he comes to, whatever he made up is now real). Perhaps best exemplified in-universe in the Sbemail "pizza joint," where midway through making a fake pizza joint to attract girls, he "somehow created a successful and well-reviewed pizza joint!"
• Real Men Wear Pink: Not that he'd admit to it, but he's been shown to like a lot of "girly" things, like pretending he's a grandma baking, female empowerment songs, and swim aerobics. Mostly, it's to show that his "tough guy" persona is very much an act, and he's more sensitive than he lets on.
• Red Boxing Gloves: His boxing gloves are actually his hands.
• Redeeming Replacement: A downplayed example twice over. Unlike his earlier coutnerparts (Old Timey Strong Bad and Tiny Handed Strong Bad) he's not a villain for villain's sake and has a hidden softer side that he denies. In turn, his replacement down the line, Stinkoman is an anime protagonist out to fight the bad guys rather than a prankster, even if he's still rude and dissmissive of his allies.
• Rogues Gallery: Refers to himself, Strong Mad, and The Cheat as a "multi-purpose criminal element" in his character video. However, they are not much of a threat.
• Self-Serving Memory: As he puts it, his memory is less photographic, and more of a doodle. It's pretty heavily implied that the more outlandish parts of his flashbacks are the result of this. He seemed genuinely convinced, for instance, that Pom Pom exploded when he pricked him with a pin, as opposed to what happened, which was that he missed and Pom Pom kicked his ass.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The heavy-metal-listening, skirt-chasing, bare-chested Manly Man to Strong Sad's Sensitive Guy... in his mind, anyway. In reality, it's shown that he is a lot more feminine and sensitive than he lets on, and he and Strong Sad actually have a lot of interests and preferences in common. His love of heavy metal and other "edgy" things is genuine, but he also likes mud baths with Cucumber Facials, for example.
• Small Name, Big Ego: One of his most defining characteristics is how inflated his ego is compared to his actual accomplishments.
• Smoking Is Cool: Zig-Zagged. The private office he works in sometimes almost always has a lit cigarette in an ashtray next to him, especially when he's playing the hardboiled P.I. Dangeresque in his homemade Dangeresque films. However, he's rarely seen actually holding it, and usually uses it just to fill the air with smoke. He actually DID smoke a cigar once◊, but there's no way of seeing the short toon anymore.^note To see it, you had to buy something from the store between 5 AM and 11:59 PM, but even then there was only a 1/3 chance that that was the one you would see. And on top of that, they discontinued the store messages in 2008. Coach Z once found him "smoking," but Strong Bad denies being a smoker, and admits it's just a white crayon he lit on fire so he can use it to get a smoke break after he used all his other breaks that day, including maternity.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: He's had more screen time and importance than the character the website is actually named after.
• Talking in Your Sleep: For some reason, he tends to mumble names of various Super NES games while dozing.
• Technopath: We've actually seen how he types with boxing gloves — he just bumps his fists against the keys and magically gets the letters he wants. However, this isn't limited to just his fists; not only can he type with his forehead and feet, the words that result still match his mood (despair, hyperactivity, etc.)
• Unexplained Accent: While his Hispanic accent has been toned down over the years, and it does fit with his luchador mask-styled face, there's still no explanation for why he has it when neither of his brothers speaks with the same accent.
• Unmanly Secret: He absolutely does not like to admit that he takes swim aerobics classes down at the rec center, or that he likes pretending he's a grandma baking cookies with her friends.
• Unreliable Narrator: His massive ego, combined with his "doodle memory", means his recollection of past events is usually warped beyond recognition. One flashback from his perspective is told like a storybook, while another showed his high school years as a hip Hanna-Barbera-style Amateur Sleuth cartoon.
• The Unreveal: In a sbemail, Strong Bad takes off his mask... only for his chair Le Restige to block the view. Considering that his "mask" is actually his face, it was probably for the best. He also showed pictures of his parents in the same episode. Again, Le Restige blocked that, too.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Sort of, he at least showed Strong Sad some affection when they were little.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Thanks to being a Jerkass, a lot of bad things that happen to him are Played for Laughs.
• Villain Decay: Started out as a genuine menace and rival to Homestar, before sliding into more of a Harmless Villain, before finally turning in a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who's Vitriolic Best Buds with Homestar. Despite all this, Strong Bad is still absolutely convinced that he's a full-on badass. Suffice it to say, he's not. Perhaps best summarized by the email "your edge", where he's confronted about it by a fan and tries (and fails) to counter their point.
• Villain Protagonist: He aspires to be one, and is to a degree when one considers some of his crueller acts. However, he's a Harmless Villain for the most part.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: What his relationship with Homestar evolved into, becoming his co-star in the Dangeresque films and co-workers at some unnamed cubicle corporation.
• Vocal Evolution: In early cartoons, he has some kind of Hispanic accent. There's even a DVD-exclusive email entirely about Strong Bad's old accent. There are still traces of the accent in his current voice, but it's nowhere near as thick as it was in his earlier appearances.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: He's almost never seen wearing a shirt.
• Would Harm a Senior: He regularly bullies the King of Town, both verbally and physically.
• Would Hit a Girl: He insults Marzipan on a regular basis and has tried to hurt or even kill her several times throughout the series, but he's never actually succeeded.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: His genre savviness can end up being this sometimes.

Strong Mad

Strong Mad

"I'M STRONG MAD!!!!! [beat] I DON'T LIKE THIS MOVIE!!! [another beat; smiles] I LIKE THE CHEAT! Ummm... BREAKING STUFF!"

Debut: "Super NES"

Strong Bad's hulking brute big brother. Doesn't say much, but what he does say is always said in a sort of guttural half-shout. Best buds with The Cheat.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Strong Bad sometimes calls him "Graw Mad" as a term of endearment. According to the commentary for the Strong Bad E-Mail "car", this name came about because it was how the creators' niece pronounced Strong Mad's name at the time.
• And Call Him "George": He once stayed over at Homestar's house to play. Homestar got buried under cinderblocks, had the Concession Stand thrown at him, and got hit by a meteorite. Though the meteorite wasn't Strong Mad's fault.
• Becoming the Mask: If given a role, he takes it very seriously.
• Berserk Button: Whatever you do, do not harm The Cheat unless you want to face his wrath.
• Big Brother Bully: He sometimes torments Strong Sad, though not to as great of an extent as Strong Bad does. He is also not above tormenting Strong Bad, especially if he lashes out at The Cheat.
• The Big Guy: When he's not helping Strong Bad in his schemes, he acts like the dumb, strong guy of the group.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He's big and strong, highly protective of The Cheat, and has No Indoor Voice.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": He has a big letter "M" on his singlet.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: As much of a Dumb Muscle guy that he is, he really likes The Cheat.
• The Brute: He serves as the muscle in Strong Bad's schemes.
• Childish Older Sibling: Strong Mad is the eldest, but is a man-child who acts like a younger brother to Strong Bad and Strong Sad.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Although he is the eldest of the Strong brothers, he's also the most naïve. Not only does he not have an indoor voice, but, according to Strong Bad, he also has "a pretty tenuous grasp on the English language." Example:
  Strong Bad: Hey, Strong Mad, what's my favorite movie?
  Strong Mad: GARBLEDINA!
• The Ditz: Possibly the dumbest character in the series.
• Dumb Muscle: He's strong enough to carry Bubs' Concession Stand, yet dumb enough to fall for Homestar's Paper-Thin Disguise as The Cheat.
• Extreme Omnivore: He eats everything but guitars. Yes, he also eats The Cheat. Several times to give him baths, if Strong Bad is to be believed. He can even drink internet bandwidth.
• Formerly Fat: In his teenage years, Strong Mad had more fat than muscle, especially in the sbemail "high school".
• Gentle Giant: For all his muscle and hostility, he also has a big heart and a soft side, especially towards The Cheat, of whom he is quite defensive.
• Giftedly Bad: He's got quite the creative streak; from computer art to animation to origami, he's often shown dabbling in some kind of arts and crafts project... and they're all absolutely terrible. (His "origami" is just crumpled paper balls, for example.) That said, Rule of Funny is in full effect, so he can occasionally make incredible things (like a lifelike standee of the back of his head) when it'd be most humorous.
• Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: He has no hair aside from his eyebrows. The sbemails "high school" and "imaginary" portray him with red, curly hair in his teenage years.
• Hidden Depths: Strong Mad seems to have hidden levels of intelligence. He has musical talent, as he is an excellent death metal singer, plays bass for Marzipan's band, and has played the drums in high school. He spent an entire night making a hiding spot (a copy of himself attempting to hide behind The Stick, where he usually hides every game) which impressed Strong Bad. He cracked a joke Strong Bad admitted was funny. He also helped Marzipan with income taxes to get her to make papier-mâché skulls for him.
• Manchild: While Strong Mad is the oldest of the Strong brothers, he is also the most childish and naïve. One good example is the short "Play Date", when he gets sent to Homestar to be babysat.
  Strong Bad: Hey, thanks for babysitting the little guy for me, Homestar.
  Homestar: What?
  Strong Mad: [sadly] Awwww, time to go?
  Strong Bad: Yeah, sorry, man. Cinder blocks, structural damage, and meteors? It is definitely time for your nap.
  [Strong Mad sulks and follows Strong Bad.]
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: STRONG MAD. And when he's acting in the Dangeresque movies, he's called "Killingyouguy," and as such, is the page image for this trope.
• No Indoor Voice: He shouts nearly all of his lines in a loud, grunting voice. Lampshaded by Strong Bad in "the facts", where he says Strong Mad has "zero volume control" and demonstrates it thusly:
  Strong Bad: Hey, biggest bro. Mom says to keep it down 'cause baby Strong Sad's sleeping.
  Strong Mad: I CAN BE THE QUIETEST MOUSE! I LIVE IN THE QUIETEST HOUSE!!
• Nobody Loves the Bassist: He serves as the bassist in Marzipan's band, but he doesn't get much recognition. On Cool Tapes' song in Weclome Back, when one of their songs listed the names of the band members, he's only referred to as their bass player.
• No-Neck Chump: The one quality about him that barely disqualifies him as Ambiguously Human.
• Odd Friendship: With Marzipan. Not only does he play bass in her band Cool Tapes, but he apparently helps with her taxes in exchange for help with his craft projects. They seem to bond over their mutual artsiness, even though Strong Mad's craft skills are... questionable.
• Offscreen Teleportation: In "Homestar Ruiner".
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: A caffeine-crazed Strong Sad freaks him out so badly in one sbemail, he actually speaks in a normal tone of voice ("Did you just say 'parakeet'?!")
• Overly Narrow Superlative: He once set the record for "Most Macaronis Nailed To A Paper Towel Tube... By Strong Mad."^note Just one!
• Papa Wolf: Towards The Cheat.
• Perpetual Frowner: His default expression is a big, angry frown. He has smiled on occasion though.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Averted, even when he wears glasses, he doesn't get any smarter.
• Terrible Artist: He apparently has a creative streak and has dabbled in the arts from time to time, but his creations aren't really that good. His attempt at drawing a dragon is just carving the word "DAGRON" into his desk, his attempts at origami are just a bunch of crumpled-up paper balls, he once sent Strong Bad a childish MS Paint drawing of a brontosaurus having breakfast, his macaroni art portrait version of Strong Bad leaves plenty to be desired, and the first cartoon he made (called "Doug the Dino") was a crude and nonsensical claymation short. Much later, his "magnum opus", "Swordguys vs Skullguys", was revealed, and it's, er... considerably better than "Doug the Dino."

Strong Sad

Strong Sad

"Each day, we die a little more."

Debut: "Super NES"

Strong Bad's depressed, sarcastic and possibly undead punching bag of a younger brother. Years of being picked on by his brothers have given him an outlook on life that's as grim and gray as he is. Strong Sad is fairly smart, though, and occasionally gets one over on Strong Bad. He's also noted for his elephant or rhino feet, which he calls "soolnds."

---

• AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle: Has a habit of pronouncing words as if they had accented letters when they don't, to sound fancy or erudite or something.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Downplayed; Strong Bad certainly considers him this, but he's still a huge Big Brother Bully who picks on Strong Sad far more often than the other way around. There are occasions where Strong Sad will mess with Strong Bad, though, like in this video.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Finds the idea of a bear holding a shark preposterous, on the basis that "these strange creatures just aren't real". As Strong Bad points out, he's saying this despite being "an elephant-footed ghost man".
• The Bore: He's rather resigned to the fact that nobody except Marzipan and Homsar is interested in his art, poetry, and music. (And it's hard to tell with Homsar.)
• Butt-Monkey: He suffers more abuse than everyone else on the site, usually from Strong Bad.
• Big Little Brother: He's the youngest of three siblings but is taller than Strong Bad.
• Character Blog: Here, though "I haven't updated that thing in years." In keeping with his Emo Teen characterization, it's modelled on LiveJournal.
• Character Catchphrase: "Each day we die a little more..."
• Characterization Marches On: His original primary characterization was being whiny and depressed. As part of his generally depressing persona, he picked up a preference for True Art Is Angsty. This artsy side of him gradually took over more of his character, until he morphed from a depressed sadsack to a nerdier-than-thou hipster who's more geeky than gloomy.
• Deadpan Snarker: His most frequent way of getting revenge on Strong Bad is to snark at him whenever possible.
• Death Seeker: In "Most in the Graveyard", he's thrilled at the thought of having willed himself to death.
• The Dog Bites Back: Strong Sad does get Strong Bad back every once in a while, such as pelting him with snowballs in "rough copy", tasering the living crap out of him in Baddest of the Bands, or writing a poem in which he tortures the other characters with some form of punishment in "Doomy Tales of the Macabre", where he gives his most macabre punishment to Strong Bad: replacing his boxing gloves with human hands!
• The Eeyore: He even tries his best to avoid being happy sometimes. If a viewer takes this and Strong Bad being a Big Brother Bully into consideration, then it would suggest that Strong Bad is making Strong Sad miserable because this is what Strong Sad wants.
• Emo Teen: He may or may not be a teenager, but he fits otherwise.
• Fake High: Strong Sad somehow gets caffeine high from Sanka (a decaffinated coffee).^note It more resembles a sugar rush, so maybe Strong Bad put too much sugar in it, which would explain Strong Sad coming down hard.
• Fanboy: In the email "fan club", it's revealed that Strong Sad heads the fan club devoted to Strong Bad Emails, the "Deleteheads".
• Flanderization: His status as The Eeyore has steadily taken a backseat to his Hipster qualities over time. Lampshaded in "Marzipan's Answering Machine 17.2'', where he starts to feel depressed about not getting to be depressed very much anymore.
• Four-Fingered Hands: Unlike his brother Strong Mad, he has four fingers on his hands.
• Gloomy Gray: His body is made up of shades of gray, fitting his depressive personality and name.
• Happier Home Movie: Strong Sad has a box of "fond reminiscences" which contains one of these. It shows that he and Strong Bad used to have a happier relationship when they were kids.
• Hidden Depths: In Doomy Tales of the Macabre, Strong Sad takes his time to write a poem in which he inflicts all sorts of punishments on his peers because he was not invited to the Halloween Party. This implies that he is capable of holding very nasty grudges.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Which continues onto adulthood, thanks to Strong Bad! As a kid, Strong Sad was once bubble-taped to the ceiling for the crime of standing and blinking. And that visible belly button you see on Strong Sad as an adult? That wasn't there when he was a kid. It's actually an old scar he got when Strong Bad power drilled him a "belly-button" when they were children. And Strong Sad has been locked and chained inside a bathtub every Decemberween to the point that he doesn't know or understand that people gave each other gifts during that time of year.
• Hipster: Among all the cast he's the most natural source of jokes on this, like his Fugazi-referencing "This is not a the geddup noise t-shirt" and calling the Geddup Noise a "freakin' sell-out". His favorite band is sloshy (all lower case), a lo-fi alt-rock band which prides itself on being obscure — and having broken up at least four times.
• I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin!: He acts like he's on a caffeine high after Strong Bad pours Sanka (a brand of decaffeinated coffee) into his orange juice, talking rapidly and nonsensically.
• I Have No Son!: In the old version of the website, it was constantly stated that Strong Sad was disowned by his brothers. However this seems to have been retconned.
• Intoxication Ensues: Bad things happen when Strong Sad drinks coffee. It doesn't even matter if it's decaf or not. Just don't give him caffeine.
• Iron Butt Monkey: It's often glossed over, but he suffers through some stuff that would probably be fatal in real life, like being boarded up in a full bathtub on a yearly basis.
• Le Film Artistique: He seems to have a fondness for making artsy "faux-budget" films. To wit, the soundtrack of his latest independent film in the SBEmail "independent" has him crying into the wrong side of a saxophone.
• Like Brother and Sister: His one close friend in the cast is Marzipan, particularly as his Flanderization set in and he became artsier and more hipster-ish. It's especially sibling-like in that she still tends to make fun of him, but she has been shown to voluntarily hang out with him on many occasions.
• Mad Eye: When he gets caffeinated, one of his eyes gets bigger.
• Mature Younger Sibling: Despite being the youngest, he is the most smart and sane of his brothers.
• Meta Guy: He often remarks how weird life can be in the series.
• Narcissist: Downplayed. While he usually has low self-esteem, there have been occasions where Strong Sad tries to stroke his own ego, such as in the Strong Bad Email "pizza joint" where he calls himself a fan favorite, and the "fan club" email where he inserts a Parody Sue version of himself into his SBEmail fan fiction.
• Nerds Are Virgins: In "Fan Costumes '07", Strong Bad claims the only inaccuracy with a fan in a Strong Sad costume is that they're "hugging someone of the female persuasion".
• Nightmare Fetishist: At times, he has stated that he wants to be miserable. To name a few examples, he considers being horribly sick to be the best day of his life and was happy about the prospect of being struck blind. Once, he rejoiced over the fact that he got cursed for life upon watching footage of Senor Cardgage's "family might/could".
  Strong Sad: Strong Bad, I think you just made us all watch one of those urban legend cursèd video tapes! I think we all may be cursed for life! Finally!
• No-Respect Guy: The rest of the cast generally treats him pretty badly, even though he's the smartest (intelligible) person in the cast.
• Not So Above It All: Although he usually has one of the most grounded personalities of the main cast, there are occasions where he contributes to the wackiness, such as when he is one of the people laughing at Andy Griffith's head taped to the turned-off TV in "extra plug", in the same email, he sings with Homestar about having to pee, when he takes a dose of caffeine, and when he gets overly excited about topics like poetry or Boolean operators. In this video, Strong Sad was poking Strong Bad, presumably just to infuriate him. "Best Caper Ever" implies that Strong Sad has a yearly schedule of aimlessly drifting through hemispheres.
• Only Sane Man: One of the few rational characters in the series, when he's not wallowing in self-pity.
• Pretentious Pronunciation: Strong Sad has a habit of pronouncing words as if they have accented letters when they don't.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Often, other characters will assume Strong Sad is dead for little to no reason.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Strong Bad views him as the wimpy, soft-spoken, poetry-loving Sensitive Guy to his Manly Man. Strong Sad, however, clearly recognizes that Strong Bad is nowhere near as tough as he brags about being, and they actually have several shared activities (like swim class at the rec center and getting mud baths and Cucumber Facials) that Strong Bad doesn't like to admit to.
• Shipper on Deck: As seen in "fan club," he's written fanfic about his brother, Strong Bad, giving a "deep tissue massage" to Homestar, suggesting he ships them in an Internet sense if not in a real-world one.
• The Smart Guy: Probably the smartest character of the main cast. He deduced a way to return King Bubsgonzola (Supreme) back to his normal size by using a bowl of Kashi and is also capable of calculating the temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure using no tools when asked. At one point he transcribed Paradise Lost on a single grain of rice in four languages.
• Stage Magician: Strong Sad is apparently a skilled illusionist, as shown at the end of magic trick. He pulls a trick on Strong Bad (by appearing to have his head fall off and then appearing behind him) and manages to scare him.
• Straw Nihilist: Played for laughs in Strong Badia the Free's Maps and Minions minigame. He's so bleak and depressing that the only way to counter him is to pit him against Homsar, who simply isn't affected by his depressing statements.
• Trademark Favorite Food: He enjoys various Indian curry, such as rogan josh and saag paneer, causing Strong Bad to mock him for liking "grody ethnic food."
• Twitchy Eye: When he gets high on caffeine, one of his eyes gets twitchy.
• Vague Age: In SBMAIL #164: Looking Old, Strong Bad hopes to appeal to the 18-24 year old demographic with his new facelift. The first person he immediately goes to show it off to is Strong Sad, hinting that this is Strong Sad's age range.
• Vocal Evolution: His voice started out as low and rather monotone, but over the years it's become higher and more expressive. Best shown in the "2022 Costume Pack Now Available" Halloween toon, where Strong Sad's voice from "Homestarloween Party" is replaced halfway with his modern voice.
• Weakened by the Light: Not him personally, but his depressive personality is implied to be suppressed by excess daylight, as seen in "Happy Hallow-day", which makes him slowly start to get happier, much to Strong Sad's own chagrin.
  Strong Sad: Ahahahaha...ohohohohohoho....Somebody shoot me.

The Cheat

The Cheat

"Meh!"

Debut: "The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest"

Strong Bad's small, yellow, unintelligible, and snarky pet/lackey. He supposedly lives in the King of Town's grill, but hangs out in the house of the Brothers Strong to work on his computer, Tangerine Dreams, where he makes his own Flash cartoons (usually with badly-drawn and voiced members of the rest of the cast singing the praises of The Cheat and giving him trophies).

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• Absurd Phobia: Much to Strong Bad's amusement, The Cheat is terrified of a wooden cut-out of a Bear Holding a Shark that Strong Bad rigged up and the sight of it will send him running away screaming. He also got frightened once by the loud noises of the engine in Bubs' Halloween pumpkin, though it's implied it was just his animal instincts kicking in.
• Asshole Victim: The Cheat gets kicked a lot, but given his criminal tendencies, he definitely deserves some of that kicking.
• Cartoon Creature: As Strong Bad put it once, "The Cheat's physiology◊ just plain baffles me." The Cheat is some sort of mammal, but is established to have hatched from an egg, possesses some ability to fly, and can even molt his skin whole like a snake.
• The Chew Toy: People like kicking him. One game even features Strong Bad building a machine (comprised of a giant replica of his foot) designed to kick The Cheat into a brick wall. There is also a gag where The Cheat's head would suddenly explode for whatever reason.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: A non-romantic example. The concept of somebody else replacing him as Strong Bad's lackey really seems to anger The Cheat. In the sbemail Superhero Name, him overhearing Strong Bad making joking remarks at an email-sender to be his new sidekick just gets him all jealous and wound up at Strong Bad. And he is very annoyed whenever he gets side lined in Homestar Runner Goes for The Gold by Dijjery Doo or The Sneak. When Dijjery Doo frees himself in the end of the cartoon, The Cheat immediately gets him locked up again.
• A Dog Named "Dog": Going by other characters' reactions to referring to his species, The Cheat's species is also called The Cheat.
• The Dragon: Often serves as the sneaky sidekick to Strong Bad during his more antagonistic roles.
• Drunk on Milk: He got drunk once after drinking soy sauce.
• Evil Counterpart: He started out as one to Pom Pom, both being Intelligible Unintelligible Hypercompetent Sidekicks to their respective best friends, but he gradually lost the "Evil" bit over time and became a Butt-Monkey to Pom Pom's The Ace.
• Expy: Of both Pikachu and Eugene the Jeep, the latter of Thimble Theater and Popeye fame.
• Foil: To Strong Bad's extremely short-lived minions The Sneak and Didgeridoo.
• Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": His "Powered by The Cheat" animations either have him stealing the spotlight from someone else, or inserting himself into them for no reason.
  "Strong Bad": Here, The Cheat, have a trophy!
  "Homestar": Here, The Cheat, have another trophy!
  "Coach Z": Here, The Chort, have a trophy!
  All three: Three trophies for The Cheat!
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Zig-Zagged. Sometimes The Cheat can accomplish tasks remarkably well, such as stealing a cantaloupe from Marzipan's garden in a matter of seconds. Other times he causes things to fall apart, such as using fireworks instead of explosives on a door, causing him and Strong Bad to get caught.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: His "Powered by the Cheat" cartoons make it pretty clear The Cheat thinks that he's far above other people and desperately requires validation to convince himself of that. Many of his cartoons feature the other characters giving him gifts or saying how great he is.
• Intelligible Unintelligible: He only communicates in squeaks around the other characters, but they usually have no trouble understanding him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's an antagonistic narcissist who assists Strong Bad in his schemes often, but he really cares about the Strong brothers and even he was upset by Lil' Brudder.
• Kavorka Man: Strong Bad calls him a "little yellow squeaky thing that somethetimes steals my ladytypes" and is established to be more successful at attracting ladies than Strong Bad, despite being mostly an unintelligible animal thing. The Cheat has even seduced Marzipan at least twice and went on a date with her.
• Man of a Thousand Voices: He provides the voices of all the characters in "Powered by The Cheat".
• Meaningful Name: He's a known cheater. His black-and-yellow spots are also reminicent of a cheetah.
• Odd Name Out: While technically not one of The Brothers Strong, The Cheat is treated like a member of the Strong family when they're all together, but his name is The Cheat instead of "Strong (word that rhymes with Ad)".
• Partially Civilized Animal: The Cheat is established to be Strong Bad's pet, as Strong Bad enters him in pet shows, takes him to the vet, and being trained to be housebroken. However, he also has his own computer and, aside from sleeping in the King of Town's grill, basically lives in the Brothers Strong's household as if he's their human roommate.
• Ping Pong Naïveté: Depending on the toon, The Cheat can either be rough and egotistical (For example, in his character video where he makes threats at the viewer), or act like a little child with Ambiguous Innocence. (like being inconsolably upset when the local Blubb-O's ran out of the kid's toy he wanted)
• Prima Donna Director: In addition to being self-aggrandizing, Strong Sad complains about this of The Cheat.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: He's been likened to Pikachu in-universe, and has been described as "holy crap adorable" by Strong Bad.
• Spell My Name with a "The": He is "The Cheat." The "The" is always capitalized and is emphasized as being part of his name, not an article ("And out of that egg popped a The Cheat!").
• Suddenly Voiced: He speaks for the first time (with the voice of PBTC Strong Bad) in "The Homestar Runner Enters the Spooky Woods", confirming once and for all that he does all the voice acting for his "Powered by The Cheat" cartoons. Strong Bad is quick to point this out the second The Cheat starts speaking.
• Stylistic Suck: His "Powered by The Cheat" animations have poor animation, are filled with mistakes, and have bad voice acting.
• The Unintelligible: A strange case. The Cheat is otherwise completely unintelligible but he is fully capable of coherent speech as it's been confirmed he does all the voice acting for his animations; he sounds like an even raspier Strong Bad. Even more strangely, The Cheat provides the voice over for Firebert in Cheat Commandos but unlike in his own cartoons, he just voices the character with his regular unintelligible The Cheat noises.
• Villainous Gold Tooth: He is an antagonistic narcissist who often assists Strong Bad in his schemes, though he's ultimately a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. When his teeth are shown, one is gold.
• Weasel Mascot: Especially his old-timey counterpart, "The Sneak", which is a rat/possum-like creature.
• Your Head A-Splode: One Running Gag involves The Cheat's head exploding for whatever reason, leaving him with an Ash Face.

Other Main Characters

Bubs

Bubs

"I'm a self-made man, I am, I am! I sell hot dogs, chili dogs, slaw dogs, ketchup dogs and mustard dogs. I got drinks, drinks, drinks, candy and snow cones. I can fix everything what needs fixing. Like cars, TVs... marriages... [...] I guess the best word that describes me is... "personality". Um, because I have a good personality."

Debut: "Where My Hat Is At?"

An enthusiastic but not entirely honest salesman and handyman, and proprietor of Bubs' Concession Stand. Also something of a party animal.

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• Amoral Attorney: When Bubs served as Coach Z's defense attorney, he decided that Coach Z was guilty without even knowing what the crime was. Granted, Coach Z had previously all but admitted to having committed premeditated murder in cold blood in I Killed Pom Pom!, while standing next to Bubs. Though Bubs' lines heavily imply he might've also killed someone...
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't ever say he's not the original Bubs, as Strong Bad found out when Bubs beat the ever-living crap out of him for doing so.
  • Also, don't make fun of his weight as Homsar and Coach Z can attest to.
  • And don't set up a shop ten feet away from his concession stand.
  • Don't eat his chicken wings. Because they're his, and they're good.
  • And don't insinuate you want to date his sister, as Coach Z learned by getting sucker-punched during Most in the Graveyard.
• Character Catchphrase: "That'll be five dollars!" He also uses "Yeah, shut up, kid!" as the Thnikkaman.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • He may be a terrible internet service provider who openly admits to ripping Strong Bad off in 99 different ways, but throttling him down isn't one of them.
  • His black market goods are quality, as he has a reputation to uphold.
• Fat Bastard: He's pretty big, and he's neither particularly honest nor easy to work for.
• Fingerless Hands: He has no fingers, yet he has no problem holding things normally.
• Formerly Fit: Bubs claims to have the ability to fly. After letting himself go, he can now hover no higher than three inches off the ground.
• Honest John's Dealership:
  • And how! Here's a list of his more questionable practices.
  • Turns out it's enforced or invoked. He sells his legit quality merchandise on the black market and his inferior and often dangerous products at his storefront because he has a reputation to uphold. Though one of the piñata's he sold on the black market was full of broken glass.
  • Ironically, Bubs himself is pretty susceptible to being swindled, like the time The Cheat tricked Bubs into accepting pencil shavings as legal tender.
    Bubs: (as an invisible Strong Bad carries them off) My chocolates! Come back, chocolates! I didn't mean what I said!
• Jive Turkey: Strong Bad mentions that some of the things he says don't make sense.
• Kaiju: He briefly becomes one in the Strong Bad Email "unnatural", as King Bubsgonzola (Supreme). After he's brought back to normal, he admits that it happened after he accidentally flushed himself down the toilet.
• Legacy Character: Subverted. Strong Bad says he's not the first Bubs, but Bubs threatens him into backing down from this stance. Considering Strong Bad sometimes subconsciously warps reality to fit his tenuous grasp on it, Bubs had good reason to make him admit otherwise.
• Loan Shark: As seen in "other days", Bubs sends Strong Bad a letter in which he threatens to turn him to a "cut off your toes"-style collections agency if he doesn't pay him back $3.62.
• Long Pants: At least they look like long pants. He has been known to wear other pants over these when wearing Halloween costumes.
• Mean Boss:
  • Toward Strong Bad, as seen in the email "part-time job". It turns out Bubs forced Strong Bad to buy his sad clown hot dog costume himself.
  • As seen in "On Break", Bubs only gives one smoking, bathroom, coffee, and maternity leave break per day, and doesn't allow Pom Pom to take any breaks at all since he is not in the union.
• Mr. Fixit: If something's broken, you go to Bubs. His solutions can be pretty shoddy sometimes, such as fixing a broken clock by taping a working clock to it. Or fixing a computer virus by shooting the computer with a shotgun!
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Bubs apparently has a sister, as he was quick to attack Coach Z when he brought up the idea of dating her.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • Until about 2004, when his voice changed, his voice was Matt Chapman's best attempt at sounding like Redd Foxx.
  • Post evolution, he voice turned into a Scatman Crothers impersonation.
• Only Shop in Town: His Concession Stand is this to Free Country, USA.
• Orange/Blue Contrast: He has a blue face and an orange body.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: His "Thnikkaman" disguise is literally a piece of paper taped to his chest and a pair of sunglasses. Oddly enough, only Homestar, of all people, can see through the disguise; even the normally sensible people, like Strong Sad and Marzipan, don't seem to see it.
• Perpetual Smiler He has a permanent toothy grin on his face which merely moves around as he talks. The only time he wears a frown is when he is red-faced pissed, such as when Homestar and Strong Bad pressed his Berserk Button as noted above.
• The Scrooge: His stinginess is the main reason why many of his products are so subpar.
• Self-Made Man: He is, he is!
• Theme Song: "Here comes the Thnikkaman!"
• Top-Heavy Guy: Strong Bad once described him as having "ample top portions."
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Coach Z. The two frequently argue, he's not above taking advantage of Coach Z, and he even made a parade float once hating on Coach Z simply because market research told him it was the "in" thing. However, the two are nonetheless both frequent collaborators, and when it seems like Coach Z's in trouble, it's often Bubs who tries to help him (often by letting him hide in the Concession Stand).
• We Sell Everything: He seems to sell anything the characters need at the moment.

Coach Z

Coach Z

"I have more than two praerblems!"

Debut: "Where My Hat Is At?"

A lonely, vaguely creepy, and quite possibly crazy coach and aspiring rap artist with an exaggerated northern Midwestern accent ("Great jaerb, Homestar!"). He was originally just someone to whom Homestar came for advice, but the Brothers Chaps have played up the seedy side of Coach Z's life to the point that it now dominates his character.

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• The Alcoholic: Unconventional, as he prefers to get his alcohol from Listerine, of all things.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He tried to get into prison so he'd get three square meals a day. Once he did end up there (possibly wrongfully), he was practically begging to get out.
• Beware the Silly Ones: As funny and pathetic as he seems, he all but admits to having committed premeditated murder in I Killed Pom Pom!
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": "Z" on his medallion.
• Butt-Monkey: Things very rarely ever go well for Coach Z. At best they'll go slightly less bad.
• Character Catchphrase: "You can't just rush into the score zone!"
• Cloudcuckoolander: His grasp on reality can be pretty tenuous, such as the time he had a conversation on a broken phone. Deconstructed in that he acknowledges he is mentally ill, and has "more than two prablems".
• Creepy Gym Coach: He has a very blatant obsession with Marzipan and he is known for "butt-patting".
• Disco Dan: He rivals Strong Bad in this department, as much of the technology he uses is really outdated.
  "I'm so old-school / They tore the school down!"
• Dreadful Rapper: Some of his lyrics just consists of counting.
• Elderly Ailment Rambling: Coach Z apparently has a bad habit of talking about his collection of "embarrassing physical problems" at inappropriate times.
  Coach Z: And my back still hurts, and my knees still hurt, and my head still hurts...
• Everyone Has Standards: As bad as his hygiene is, even he thinks drinking melonade from a toilet with slippers is too gross. And he also finds Senor Cardgage and Marshie creepy.
• Extreme Omnisexual: In keeping with his creepiness, he seems to have shown interest in not only Marzipan, but also Bubs, Bubs' sister, Homestar, Pom Pom, and even a drawing. And he apparently had a crush on "a hot blonde" at one point.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Nobody in the main cast seems to enjoy his company (and it's hard to blame them most of the time), but they still hang out with him on a fairly regular basis. Bubs notes We Used to Be Friends and even had a rap group called "The Two-O Duo".
• Funny Foreigner: He's "a crazy man from another country," at least according to this old character page. Might help explain his ridiculous accent, at any rate.
• Giftedly Bad: With a few exceptions (like his verse in "Loading Screens"), his raps are rather lackluster.
• Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: Flashbacks show him sporting a large brown afro and mustache.
• Informed Attribute:
  • It is well known in the H* R universe that Coach Z is The Pig-Pen. It's just not that obvious to us. Averted later in the series where his poor hygiene is made more explicit.
  • There's an in-universe version, where Coach Z likes to boast about having "fairly good teeth" despite having No Mouth.
• Informed Flaw: He's supposed to be a pretty bad rapper. In reality, while his freestyle skills are nonexistent, when he has actual material to work with, he does pretty well, as seen in the likes of "Loading Screens" and "Fish-Eye Lens."
• Jive Turkey: And unlike Bubs, he doesn't make it sound cool.
• Long-Lost Relative: One Halloween episode showed Bubs and Coach Z finding out they are very distantly related, though Bubs doesn't believe it.
• Long Pants: It's unknown if the green part of his body is supposed to be his skin or a jumpsuit.
• Memetic Loser: In-Universe. When Strong Sad is indulging in some Revenge via Storytelling in "Doomy Tales of the Macabre", Coach Z asks why he doesn't get a doomy fate. Strong Sad replies he's already Coach Z, and there's no reason or way to make things worse for him. Coach Z agrees without hesistation.
• Minnesota Nice: Both aspects are Zig-Zagged.
  • He normally speaks with an Upper Midwestern accent, but there are times when he either tones it down or loses it completely.
  • His personality can also range from helpful to creepy. He has also frequently gotten into spats with Bubs.
• Mister Seahorse: He alludes to being a mother (both by buying up a bunch of "great for baby" items and by claiming it's okay for him to use a "mom joke") in "garage sale," and in "Flash is Dead!" he claims Bubs let him into his fallout shelter, along with a bunch of other male characters, because "somebody's gotta carry on the human race." The implications thoroughly creep Strong Bad out.
• Monochromatic Eyes: His eyes are completely white.
• Perpetual Poverty: He lives in a locker room, he wants to go to prison so he can have three square meals a day, and then there was that time he ran out of power.
  "Aw, crackles! I forgot to pay my bills again this year."
• The Pig-Pen:
  • He has been known to have questionable hygiene. At one point, he also leaked what could only be crude oil after taking off a ratty thong in the swimming pool.
    Strong Mad: PUT IT BACK ON! PUT IT BACK ON!!
  • He also makes an offhand comment in Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People that implies that the track's showers are so disgusting and poorly cleaned that the CDC has to step in periodically to bleach the place to prevent a biological disaster.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Originally, he just called himself a coach because he thought "Coach Z sounds cooler than just Z", but this idea has been pretty thoroughly abandoned. Doesn't stop him from doing just as much rapping and janitorial work as coaching nowadays, though.
• Piss-Take Rap: He's made dozens of songs, only two of which could be considered "good" ("Fisheye Lens", a collaboration with Strong Bad, and "Loading Screens", a collaboration with Homestar and Strong Bad). One of his songs consists entirely of him counting to four and counting to two.
• Pretentious Pronunciation: The Z in his name is pronounced as "Zee" like in America, not like "Zed" in the UK, Commonwealth, and Canada. Lampshaded in "Where My Hat is At" when his name is spelled as "Coach Zee" and in "Do Over" where Strong Bad jokes that a Canadian viewer would probably call him "Coach Zed".
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Subverted. He tries to be, but he's not very fly at all.
• Speech Impediment: Established in "A Jorb Well Done" in that he has trouble pronouncing the word "job" and other similar words, which might explain how strange his accent is.
• Stalker with a Crush: Shown in the Answering Machine tapes. He has probably broken into Marzipan's house at least once, and as of one episode in Marzipan's Answering Machine, she actually has a restraining order on him.
• Sudden Anatomy: Coach Z, while dressed as DMC from Run–D.M.C., has fingers in "2022 Costume Pack Now Available", much to Strong Sad's horror.
• Totally Radical: He desperately tries to sound cool with bad rap and dated slang.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Bubs. He and Bubs often argue, and Bubs even once made a Thanksgiving float solely to call Coach Z a jerk, but the two are nonetheless always seen hanging out and chatting. (Not to mention, in the DVD commentary for "Fall Float Parade," The Brothers Chaps explained that Bubs only made that float because market research told him hating Coach Z was cool—they're still friends.) Best put by Coach Z himself:
  He loves me like a brother! Hates me like a brother too, come to think of it.
• Vocal Evolution: His accent. It was an Upper Midwestern dialect initially, but then evolved into its own accent.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: It's speculated, in fact, that his accent may be entirely his own, as Marzipan referred to his speech as "speaking 'Coach Z'". The Brothers Chaps themselves say that his accent is supposed to be a heavily corrupted parody of a "Midwestern-Canadian" accent. Suffice to say, it's very, very corrupted. His accent is so strange that other characters occasionally accuse him of making it up.
  • For example, when he and Bubs go trick-or-treating in "Three Times Halloween Funjob":
    Coach Z: Trick 'er trort!
    Bubs: Come on, man...
    Coach Z: Okay, trick 'er treat...
  • Then, in the same scene, if given a packet of Swedish Fish:
    Coach Z: Ooh, the Swordish Forsh!
    Bubs: What did I just tell you?
    Coach Z: Cut me some slack! It's a crowd pleaser.
• Your Answer to Everything: His advice to Homestar is always "It's like a great sports play — you can't just rush into the score zone", regardless of whether it actually applies to the situation. This is even lampshaded in "The Best Decemberween Ever":
  Coach Z: Buying a Decemberween present for Strong Bad is like a great sports play.
  Homestar: (listlessly) Lemme guess: I can't just rush into the score zone.
  Coach Z: Hey, that's right!
  Homestar: (annoyed) Coach, that's your answer for everything!

The King of Town

The King of Town

"Now, despite rumors to the contrary, I did not just buy a crown at the costume palace and ask people to start calling me the King of Town. I earned my title the same way I earned a free combo meal: by purchasing one of equal or lesser value. I also did not ever try to eat my own mustache."

Debut: "Marshmallow's Last Stand"

The self-proclaimed ruler of Free Country, USA, who's really just a fat, gluttonous old man who happens to have a crown, a castle, a retainer of servants, and a painful awareness of how unpopular he is with the other characters. He's tried to make himself more popular, with limited success, by doing things such as learning to play the guitar and trying to get his very own quite popular cartoon show.

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• A Day in the Limelight: The King of Town's Very Own Quite Popular Cartoon Show
• Authority in Name Only: The only people he's the king of are his loyal servants. Everyone else just considers him a lame old man. He even used to be the Trope Namer. However, the Poopsmith often keeps the rest of the cast in line. He also has his own army. When Marzipan mentions that he has the authority to try people for treason and execute them, he's more than pleased (later having Homsar guillotined.)
• Benevolent Boss: He's shown to be pretty nice to his servants, such as defending the Poopsmith when Strong Bad made fun of his costume.
• Berserk Button: Do not steal or tax his food. Strong Bad uses this to get King back in the castle in SBCG4AP by raising the tax on snack food.
• Big Eater: He's a huge glutton and can put away large amounts of food. Some of his feats include eating an entire Thanksgiving banquet and drinking a pool filled with jello and people.
• Butt-Monkey: Nobody likes him except for his loyal servants.
• Character Catchphrase: "Doo hoo hoo!"
• Does Not Like Spam: The only thing he won't eat is peas. He used to have an aversion to "whatsit", but later toons heavily imply he eats that too now. In "Halloween Hijinks" he is shown also to disdain Ding Dongs, calling them "Devil's Food hockey pucks".
• Drunk with Power: A running gag in later cartoons and SBCG4AP is the King steadily increasing his power throughout Free County with the aid of "The Municipality", his own private goon squad.
• Eats Babies: An easter egg in the sbemail rated has him demand the Poopsmith to pack his bags for Transylvania because he heard Strong Bad say that you're required by law to eat puppies for breakfast there.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: His middle name is Wad. Both Strong Bad and Bubs made fun of him when they found out.
• Extreme Omnivore: He's eaten toilet paper, lightbulbs, and even piles of whatsit, among other inedible objects. In "Later That Night", he claims he eats Scrubbing Bubbles to clean his insides of the previous inedible objects. Strong Bad is Genre Savvy enough that to get a world record, he just waits for King to eat because whatever he eats will be at least disgusting enough to warrant a record no one will want to break.
• Flanderization: Had little to no personality at first, but then his unnatural appetite and unpopularity became his main character traits.
• Formerly Fit: In the Strong Bad email "flashback", he is depicted as the "svelte, young Prince of Town", looking much slimmer and having a visible chin. An Easter Egg at the end of the cartoon shows him claiming a lifetime supply of fish sticks for himself — presumably, this was his first step towards becoming the morbidly obese King of Town we know today.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Though he's ostensibly part of the main friend group, nobody likes or respects him barring maybe his servants (who aren't really characterized enough to give opinions). It's been suggested a few times that this unpopularity even extends to reality.
• Informed Deformity: His morbid obesity. While he is rather round, so is a substantial chunk of the rest of the cast.
• He Really Can Act: In-Universe. When playing mob boss Perducci in Strong Bad's "Dangeresque" movies, he notably gets much more into his role than the other characters, and while their performances are rife with Bad "Bad Acting", he gives it his all and is clearly getting into it.
• Intangible Theft: The King of Town's gluttony has sometimes enabled him to eat intangible concepts like holidays.
• Invisible Anatomy: Much like Homestar and Marzipan, he has no arms.
• Jabba Table Manners: Among other examples, he eats cake batter straight out of the bowl and simply inhales a pile of salt.
• Luke, I Might Be Your Father: Mixed with Early-Installment Weirdness. Early character bios listed him as being Marzipan's father, but this was never brought up in the videos and was quietly dropped. In "Marzipan's Answering Machine V.17.2", the King of Town leaves a message to Marzipan revealing that he read something online that said that he was, at least at one point, her dad. He himself can't remember whether this is true or not and claims that performing a DNA test would be impossible since he had all of his DNA replaced by MSG.
• Manipulative Bastard: In the second episode of SBCG4AP, he uses a surprisingly well-thought-out plot to trick Strong Bad into usurping him, allowing the KOT to take over Strong Bad's email show.
• Masochist's Meal: Some of the things the King of Town has eaten are downright hazardous to normal people, such as automotive fluids, deodorant products, tapeworms, a Wii Remote, and even the Poopsmith's pile of whatsit. Once, he gulped down a heaping plate of salt, which caused him to seemingly hiccup repeatedly (according to the King, they were heart attacks).
  Strong Bad: "I can't believe I ate that entire pile of whatsit!" said the King of Town.
  King of Town: I wish that were fiction.
• Pathetically Weak: It's been shown or suggested more than a few times that the King is badly out of shape, though he rarely does anything involving physical fitness. In the Super Kingio Bros Unwinnable Joke Game, he moves like a slug and struggles to jump more than an inch off the ground.
  "My life is a joke."
• Pet the Dog: He'll sometimes offer to share his food, though often it's inedible junk.
• Really 700 Years Old: He claims to be about 300 years old in "Which 'Ween Costumes?", and is implied to have been around for the first Decemberween in "A Decemberween Pageant".
• Satellite Character: He has a group of these: most notably the Poopsmith, but also the rest of his retinue: the Blacksmith, the Hornblower, the Knight, the Cleric, and the Little Chef Guy.
• Show Within a Show: The above "Quite Popular Cartoon Show".
• Smarter Than You Look: Episode 2 of SBCG4AP shows that he's more than capable of outsmarting and manipulating Strong Bad. The "2nd Annual Homestarloween Awards" also shows the King of Town being able to read the prompt held upside-down with little effort.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: His eating ability came in handy when Strong Bad and Homestar were drowning inside a pool of Jell-O. One thick straw later, both were freed.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: In-Universe. In Strong Bad's Dangeresque movies, he plays mob boss type Perducci, and unlike all the other characters, he actually seems to get into his role and gives it his all. He has less Bad "Bad Acting" than them and even hams it up a little.

The Poopsmith

The Poopsmith

"..."

Debut: "Marshmallow's Last Stand"

The King of Town's most prominent (and disgusting) servant, the Poopsmith is an odd fellow who, as the name suggests, shovels whatsit for a living. Also, for some reason, he has taken a vow of silence. According to Homestar, "The Poopsmith is a good guy. He's just got a crappy job."

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• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: He doesn't wear anything except for those big orange gloves.
• Berserk Button: Do not steal or eat the Poopsmith's pile of whatsit.
• Beware the Nice Ones: The Poopsmith is the King of Town's personal law enforcement agent.
• Elective Mute:
  • He doesn't speak because he has taken a vow of silence, which seems to be a requirement for his job. Until he broke that vow in email thunder, in which he finally sings. And he is voiced by John Linnell.
  • He breaks his vow of silence again in Marzipan's Answering Machine 17.2. In his message to Marzipan, he reveals that he's disillusioned with his vow of silence and his occupation as the Poopsmith. He also wants to be a different type of -smith.
    The Poopsmith: It was nice talking to you. It was nice... talking.
• Everyone Has Standards: In "Halloween Hide & Seek", he admits that not even he would hide inside Senor Cardgage's bush.
• Four-Fingered Hands
• Hidden Depths: He consistently dresses as characters from science fiction works on Halloween.
• The Lancer: He's the more controlled Number Two to The King Of Town.
• The Pig-Pen: Considering his job, he always has some whatsit on his gloves.
• Satellite Character: He doesn't have much personality other than being The King of Town's Poopsmith and sometimes, enforcement officer.
• The Silent Bob: He doesn't have much difficulty communicating with the other characters despite his vow of silence.
• Talking with Signs: Despite the fact that he doesn't talk, he has, on rare occasion, used this to communicate.
• Toilet Humour: Basically all the humor that revolves around him either involves this or his unexplained vow of silence.

Homsar

Homsar

"I'm a song from The '60s!"

Debut: "Email homsar"

A short, pudgy fellow that vaguely resembles Homestar, and speaks in warbling non-sequiturs. He came to be when a fan e-mailing Strong Bad misspelled "Homestar". He's apparently capable of defying the laws of physics whenever he feels like it and is an even bigger Cloudcuckoolander than anyone else in the cast (or maybe anyone else in the world).

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• Ascended Extra: He was originally a one-off gag. He's now one of the main cast members.
• Armless Biped: Just like Homestar, he has no arms, yet has no trouble doing any activities that require them.
• Black Bead Eyes: His eyes are just black dots.
• Brick Joke: Homsar was "raised by a cup of coffee" and "the son of a Chipwich". One Easter egg shows a picture of his "parents" (coffee, Chipwich), which also appear on the Homsar Reservation Flag.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": "Homsar" is written on his shirt.
• Characterization Marches On: In his early depictions, Homsar's ramblings actually made sense. Notwithstanding his drawling accent, his first-ever spoken line was, "What is it, Strong Bad?" and his appearance in Marzipan's Answering Machine v5.0 (which went up a month later) had him thanking Marzipan for visiting him at the hospital in perfect, coherent English. Nowadays, any sense of logic with his words seems to have left him. Of course, this is eventually lampshaded in Marzipan's Answering Machine v17.2, where a coherent Homsar discovers he only makes sense when on the phone and even laments over the fact he'll have to go back to spouting nonsense eventually.
• Cloudcuckoolander: A definite resident. And only seems to speak in his native tongue too.
• The Ditz: Practically everything Homsar says has no sense of logic. Played with in that, depending on what you view as canon, he is either speaking a different language, or is physically incapable of speaking coherently unless it's over the phone, and is completely aware of that fact.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: His genesis was a misspelling of "Homestar", and his physical appearance and personality all follow suit, being a distorted and exaggerated take on Homestar's looks and ditziness.
• Eloquent in My Native Tongue: As seen in episode 2 of SBCG4AP, his nonsensical phrases all apparently translate.
  "I'm a knock-knock jokes about jogging suits!" = "Hello, Strong Bad, what's the haps?"
  "Sign me up for soccer class, Debra!" = "Why are you talking gibberish, Strong Bad? You sound like a two-years-old boy."
  "Pucker up, dice man! I'm as upholstered as I wanna be!" = "Why should my people risk open war for you and your considerable style?"
• Hidden Depths:
  • Once Strong Bad learns to understand him (through copious use of Noodle Implements), Homsar turns out to be soft-spoken and intelligent. The fact that his country apparently has free health care may be a sign.
  • As Marzipan's Answering Machine v17.2 reveals, he's able to talk coherently when speaking over the phone and is perfectly aware that he talks gibberish otherwise. He's also not happy about it, and would really like to have a proper conversation with someone.
• Inherited Illiteracy Title: He was created to poke fun at a fan's misspelling of "Homestar," then stuck around.
• Invisible Anatomy: If he does have arms, then they're invisible.
• Long Pants: Just like the character he's based on.
• Magical Native American: A parody of this in episode 2 of SBCG4AP. Despite still being voiced by Matt, he even somewhat sounds like John Redcorn for a few minutes of gameplay.
• Nice Guy: He's the only main character who has never been a Jerkass, and being a Reality Warper, that's probably a good thing.
• No-Sell: Homsar is immune to a lot of things. For example, he doesn't get the Jibblies; in fact, he gives the painting the Jibblies. He's also apparently immune to a 90's revamp as he's the only one who doesn't change designs in Xeriouxly Forxe.
• Oddball Doppelgänger: Not that Homestar himself wasn't already an oddball, but Homsar takes it to a completely new level.
• Older Than They Look: Assuming anything Homsar says can be interpreted as sane, he claims to be a "song from the 60's."
• Only One Name: Unlike Homestar Runner.
• Reality Warper: One of his defining traits. Gravity has no power over him, he's shown to be able to warp the world around him by yelling and, according to Strong Bad, anyone who makes physical contact with him gets warped horribly as well.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: He owes his very existence to this trope.
• Silly Walk: His pigeon-toed feet oscillate rapidly whenever he walks, regardless of his actual walking speed. It even comes with its own sound effect.
• Talkative Loon:
  • Almost everything he says is a word salad, minus the things he says early on before Strong Bad drops the Heavy Lourde on him, possibly implying the injury caused him to speak in word salads. He occasionally drifts back into sense-make (more or less) for a few seconds, as seen in the sbemail "for kids":
    Homsar: That's a real popular song! Who wants to hear of it fifty times more?
  • Apparently, calling Marzipan's answering machine allows him to make sense for a few minutes, according to the 2016 April Fools' toon.
• They Killed Kenny Again: One of his powers seems to be coming back from the dead. His death was highly implied at the end of "A Decemberween Mackerel," which was one of the last toons before the website's 4-year hiatus. Then he reappeared unharmed in the 2014 Halloween Toon, "I Killed Pom Pom", only for him to apparently be executed without trial in the 2015 Halloween Toon, "The House That Gave Sucky Tricks", before coming back again in "Marzipan's Answering Machine 17.2".
• Verbal Tic: He prefaces almost everything he says with a drawn-out "A-a-A-a-A-a-A!"
• Vocal Dissonance: When Strong Bad is briefly able understand him in episode 2 of SBCG4AP, Homsar's voice changes to that of a stereotypical Magical Native American.
  Homsar: Hello, Strong Bad. What's the haps?
  Strong Bad: Hey, I can understand you now! Your voice is so soothing!
  Homsar: Thank you. I do radio ads for local jewelry and watch repair shops.
• Your Costume Needs Work: Inverted. Homsar once took part in a Strong Sad Lookalike Contest and dressed as Strong Sad. However, his costume was so good Coach Z mistook him for the real Strong Sad and was disqualified. It was not until his hat pops out and his mouth becomes large while speaking that Homsar reveals his identity, but Coach Z was already walking away and did not realize this.
  Coach Z: [mistaking him for Strong Sad] Strong Sad, you're not eligible for this contest! I thought I told youse to go on home!
  Homsar: A-a-A-a-A-a-A I'm cryin' on the inside...

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