Undoubtedly one of the most successful toon websites of the noughties, Homestar Runner was a cult phenomenon in almost every aspect imaginable. It had clever and very funny episodes, it had extremely profitable merchandise ranges, it even had a video game. The website followed the adventures of the lovable but dimwitted Homestar, surrounded by a universe of increasingly ridiculous characters. Key to the success and popularity of the website was the spin-off series of toon episodes which interacted directly with the viewers; Strong Bad Emails (sbemails). This was a tool used masterfully, where fans would send an email to Strong Bad, an inexplicably wrestle-man-faced, boxing-glove-handed angry man, who would then answer them in brilliantly ludicrous fashion. The emails would often take in huge tips of the hat to eighties pop culture, particularly hair metal, something which Strong Bad sees as being extremely cool, despite being alone in this view. The very fact that the fans could actively shape the course (or at least the foundation) of each episode was a masterstroke, as the...shall we say, less grammatically friendly contributors were essentially free material for the animators. Exploiting the very people who are making the website so popular, but all in the name of pure hilarity: that's genius, right there. Sadly, like a great deal of the other entries on this list, this website went mysteriously silent in 2010, which was bizarre, as it appeared that their popularity was rising all the time. But, once again, thanks to the magic and laziness of the internet, you can still view every single episode, short, toon and music video the Homestar Runner website ever produced right where they'd always been, here at Homestarrunner.com. Go ahead, click it, play the intro music and try your best to not feel immediately happy inside. What websites have can you remember from days of internet yore? Do you have any memories of the ones mentioned? Let us know in the comments section below.
