Web comics are growing in popularity because they can be easily accessed. These animations are not advertised via commercial, on television, like many animated cartoons; however, they still attract an enormous audience. This is thanks, in part, to word of mouth. Often, people stumble across web comics and refer them to their friends via email or social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, or Myspace. Homestar Runner, a web comic site, has grown in popularity thanks to word of mouth.
I heard about this website about a week ago thanks to word of mouth. My boyfriend and his co-worker mentioned it and then actually took it upon themselves to show me the site because I had never heard about it before. The website, Homestar Runner, has collections of Flash cartoons and is made possible, in large part, to the fans. The creators are able to keep the site online thanks to merchandise sales which include t-shirts, calendars, bumper stickers, and other things. So, it is thanks to word of mouth that I am able to talk about my topic this week. Homestar Runner has a few different web cartoons but I thought it would be nice to focus on “Teen Girl Squad.”
Teen Girl Squad is a web cartoon that effectively portrays teenage girl stereotypes. These stereotypes, of course, are popular/preppy, brainy, gothic, and nerdy. The girls in the web cartoon were never given actual names. Instead, the girls are referred to in a nondescript manner “Cheerleader”, “So and So”, “What’s Her Face”, and “The Ugly One.” The series follows the aforementioned characters, throughout their teenage years, and shows how things progress and change during particular phases of their lives.
The web cartoons I am going to refer to can be found here. In both middle and high school girls of like types, stick together. Personally, I remember the popular girls keeping a certain amount of less popular girls around to do their bidding. They, more or less, would use the less popular girls to boost their self-esteem. This is made apparent in the comic. For example, “Cheerleader” announces that it is time to get some summer fashions and tells “What’s Her Face” to go to the thrift store or a junkyard. Meanwhile, she and the other girls, “So and So” and “The Ugly One,” go to the mall to try on summer fashions. The cheerleader, or stereotypical popular girl, shunned “What’s Her Face” because she is different. She appears to fulfill the “gothic” or “outside” role in middle/high school.
The comic also shows how young girls put others down in order to make themselves feel better about their choices. “Cheerleader” tried on an elephant hat, which she thought was cool and the others told her it wasn’t. She immediately responded with “well you need boyfriends” and the girls held their heads down and sulked. It is obvious “Cheerleader” has all the power in this comic which is similar to how my middle/high school experience was. The popular people seemed to always be on top while the others floundered and prayed they would make it out alive. The comic was interesting and did a good job of showing stereotypes in school.
I commented on Emily & Myca’s posts this week.
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April 26, 2010 at 12:02 pm
danyaelrose
This is interesting. It actually relates a little bit to my blog this week. It seems that animations have tried to tackle realistic situations and problems people face, to keep an engaged audience. Teenage girls can be vicious. Maybe these cartoons can help girls realize that they are in no way alone in their high school melodramas.
April 26, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Megan Pettry
I think that cartoons are pointing out these obvious stereotypes because everyone can relate. If they try to tackel a non-popular ideal or something not obvious to the vast majority of people then it would not be a popular cartoon or comic. Everyone can relate to the different types of girls in high school because there were obvious differences between the groups. More people understand the topic and can relate so there for it is a more popular cartoon or comic.
April 27, 2010 at 1:04 am
uberbaldy
I like the fact that it seems Comics have begun to take a more realistic approach to the problems of the world and also really nail down where these problems occur. While many would put down X-men as a simple fantasy title and meaningless it was really started as a commentary on segregation and discrimination. Granted it has moved outside of this realm at times for the more fantastical stories but it’s core remained this overarching commentary about the world we live in. However, the problem with this is it’s difficult to relate to since nailing down actual real world events would probably cause legal repercussions. Seeing Comics such as the one you have written about take a stab at a problem and where it occurs is refreshing because it can, hopefully, be used to help understand and shape the problem for the better.
April 28, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Cory
I used to watch stuff on Homestarrunner all the time, and it was thanks to word of mouth in fact. You did well pointing that out; the internet is a device that runs on word of mouth, it embodies it. Anyone with an opinion and working knowledge of a computer can have a website or advertise, and this definitely levels the playing field in comparison to TV or film, industries from the top down, whereas the internet is run from the bottum up. As for the show, I have a guys view on teenage girls, as did the creators, so they hit everything they needed to. The simple, crude animation adds a good nostalgia and youthfulness to the shorts.
May 5, 2010 at 11:00 pm
amartin78
Web animations are kind of like the underground comic, less regulated by the media restrictions and tend to focus more on reality. If you have the talent, patience and sustainable hard-drive, you too can be the producer of a web animation. This one liked in particular because I have 2 ‘tween’ nieces who are polar opposites and would benefit from seeing their lives played out in front of them. Stepping outside the box is how you learn and animations on the web are a great way to condone good peer practices.