Episode 45 - Our Internet Time Capsule

- Tune in every Monday for a new episode of "The Saints That Serve Podcast" -

💾 Dial-Up Days & Flash Files: Growing Up on the Early Internet (2000–2005)

Remember when the internet felt like uncharted territory - full of mystery, pixelated avatars, and auto-playing music? This week, Jarus and Jonny fire up the modem and take you back to the weird, wild web of the early 2000s.

From building glittery MySpace profiles to accidentally crashing browsers with too many animations, they dive into the early digital playgrounds that shaped a generation. Jonny even tells a shocking story of meeting an online friend… in real life… at a middle school musical 👀

They also explore the games and platforms that raised us:

🪙 Neopets - low-key teaching us economics before we knew it
❄️ Club Penguin - where snowball fights and dance parties ruled
⚔️ RuneScape - the original grind, and the birthplace of online scams
🔥 Homestar Runner - Flash animation gold featuring Trogdor, Strong Bad emails, and early internet meme culture

Whether you lived through dial-up or never had to wait for AIM to load, this episode is a digital time capsule packed with nostalgia, humor, and insight into how those early online experiences still shape us today.

🕹️ Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe – and let us know: were you a Neopets kid, a RuneScape grinder, or a Club Penguin party host?

#EarlyInternet #2000sKids #NeopetsLife #ClubPenguinForever #RuneScapeMemories #HomestarRunner #StrongBadEmails #InternetNostalgia #DialUpDays #MySpaceEra #SaintsThatServe #FlashAnimation #DigitalDiscipleship #ThrowbackTech #PreYouTubeInternet #FaithAndFandom

If you want to send us a question or a comment you can by texting us by clicking this link!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Welcome to the Saints that Serve, podcast where, each
week, your hosts dive into thecrossroads of faith, culture and
the unknown.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Christ is Lord and the kingdom is now.
We are the Saints that Serve.
Hello, welcome to the Saintsthat Serve podcast.

(00:41):
This is episode 45 of theSaints that Serve podcast.
I am your host, jairus.
Joining me today is JonathanDing.
Got him Got him.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
That was really good, thank you.
Have you thought about goinginto an acting career?

Speaker 1 (01:02):
No, no, but have I ever talked about how I am the
voice of a multi-million dollarcompany?

Speaker 2 (01:10):
hello there I don't know why I did that one, that
one, because I said hello, yeah,yeah, no, that's really cool
yeah, like legitimate, you are abig deal.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
I am a big deal.
I'm not gonna call out mycompany's, but I work for an IT
department for a company and weimplemented a new phone system
and I had the opportunity torecord my voice as the intro,
like thank you for calling thecompany, press one for this, two
for this.
I am the directory voice for amultimillion-dollar company.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Nationwide or international?

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Nationwide.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
If it's in Canada, it's international.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
We aren't really in Canada, we're only.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Mexico.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Not really, no.
No, okay, southeast, a couplelocations in Texas, Florida, up
north Georgia.
But yeah, this is episode 45.
45, baby Of the Saints thatServe podcast.
Five episodes to go and we'llbe over the hill.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, we'll be old.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
We'll be old.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
We'll be looking hard at retirement.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
That's right.
We're, in the next 10 episodes,at the age of episode 50, we'll
be really heavily consideringretirement.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, yep.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Us as people, not the show.
We're going to always do theshow.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
The show is always going to go.
We, as people, will always dothe show.
The show will look atretirement.
Oh right, right, right,seriously, seriously considering
always do the show.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
The show will look at retirement.
Oh right, right, right.
Seriously, seriouslyconsidering retirement.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
The show but then it'll realize that it will just
never financially recover.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
So it's going to have to work until it dies.
Yep, Yep, Imagine, I was justthinking.
Imagine being us at episode1,000.
Oh dude.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
How many years is that?

Speaker 1 (03:07):
it can't be too many like maybe, like I'm gonna say
like seven years because westarted releasing in august of
2024.
That's right and we're comingup on our one year anniversary
of the podcast and we'll becoming up on, you know, episode

(03:28):
50 ish, I think it's gonna be 52, if I had to guess 52 weeks is
in a year no and we've releasedevery week except one, except
for one.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
So 51 weeks or 51 episodes what day did you say
august?

Speaker 1 (03:48):
I don't know what day it was.
Sometime in august it wasaugust.
Well, we'll have to do researchand probably do something
special for the 50th, for ourone year anniversary yeah, maybe
we'll do like uh like uh, we'lldo like a live stream podcast
episode where y'all can see ourfaces and whatnot, where we

(04:08):
promised that we would do thatby episode 50 anyways.
Yeah, that's true.
So we'll do it on episode not50, but our one year anniversary
episode.
We'll do a live recording ofthe episode.
We should get two people inhere.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Just have four people .
Have four people come in, sincethat's the max amount we can do
anyways.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
There you go, so look forward to once we do the
correct math, we're going tohave a live stream of the
episode, and then there'll be avideo of the episode.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
And then the audio is .
What we're trying to say isjust tune in every week.
Every week something'shappening on the saints to serve
podcast, yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Every Monday we release an episode and you know
that.
We don't even have to tell you,you already know.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
And what time does it release?
On Mondays, 4am, 3am Dang, Ichanged it.
I changed it to 3am so thatwhen you, uh, you know you,
sunday night, you laid down youryour, you laid down your
precious little head on yourpillow, and you wake up and you
say I wish I had some ray ofsunshine in my morning, that ray

(05:15):
of sunshine is us, the Saintsthat Serve podcast.
That's right, so that you knowyou wake up and you just spend
the time with the Saint boys inthe morning.
Who's up at 3 o'clock in themorning?
Some hardworking fellas andladies, yeah, I guess.
So there's people at my company.
People do come in at three andstart working.

(05:35):
Production starts, yeah, butthat's like third shift though
there is.
There's technically not a thirdshift because we do shut down,
oh Like it's not a third shiftbecause we do shut down, oh Like
it's not a constant open.
You know, rotating shift.
It's just that is their work.
I don't know, man, anyways,anyways, you got any

(05:56):
announcements?

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Live worship night on August 1st at 6.30 pm.
Join us on YouTube andhopefully Twitch no.
No.
At 6.30pm.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Join us on YouTube and hopefully Twitch no it was
YouTube and hopefully Facebook,if we get enough people, and
maybe last week, twitch wentdown on us.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
The week before that, youtube went down on us.
So we're hoping that YouTubewill stay the same and we're
hoping that Twitch will getbetter.
And I've almost just given upon Facebook, because nobody's no
one uses Facebook anymore.
Nobody's using it and nobody'slike yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
It is a bit of a I get why they do it, but it is
also a bit of a sillyrequirement at the same time,
because it's like I meanchildren cover your ears, but
like the adult inappropriatestuff that pops up on Facebook.
For me, a lot of the times islike how did you get past the

(06:52):
vetting system?

Speaker 2 (06:54):
I mean, nobody likes Mark Zuckerberg, so I guess he
just does stuff he's like noone's gonna like me anyway, so
I'm just gonna do what I want.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
That's my opinion.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
So like, so let that.
Or they're blocking theChristians like something crazy,
you know.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
They could be blocking the Christians.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
They see it right there, big Saints, saints.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
And it's not football .

Speaker 1 (07:18):
It's not football.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Hey, there you go, yeah, but that's it.
I mean just you know we're onall social media pretty much.
You know Instagram, threads X,facebook, youtube, we're on all
that stuff.
So make sure you're followingus or subscribed, and outside of

(07:41):
that we're praying for youevery Friday.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
Every single Friday In your prayer just reach out.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
You can email us at saintsatserve at gmailcom, or
you can message us through adirect messaging link at the
bottom of the description forthis show.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Also, we have a website and we have a website
saintsatservepodcom.
Saintsatservepodcom andsaintsatservecom.
We have two domains.
Com.
We have two domains.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
Uh, that's all I got for announcements awesome.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
So then, tyler, this is your transition into the main
topic, which is we didn'treally give this a name yeah, we
don't.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
We don't really have a name for it, just nostalgic
internet usage, early internet.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
Well, but it our early internet, our early
internet yeah, which for a lotof people is like crazy to like
like ancient.
For a lot of kids who are soused to youtube, yeah, but in
the grand scheme of things, likein our lives and just the
internet in general, youtube isnot that old.

(08:48):
No, I mean we have content onthere that's like 10 years old.
I think 2006 was when YouTubebecame a thing.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
I'm looking it up right now 2005.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
I was close, yeah.
So I guess for us, I guess forus we'll be talking about our
early internet experience beforeYouTube, yeah, and what we did
to entertain ourselves on theinternet Interwebs.
So yeah, I would say the agerange is probably from like

(09:25):
probably 10 to 15 in that agerange.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
So there you go.
So I said, johnny, bring forthtwo websites that you used a lot
, your most formidable website,bring forth your most formidable
websites, but.
And just let's talk about them.
And then there is one that wewere kind of just kind of made a

(09:50):
joke about our last one and I'mlike have we ever talked about
that on the podcast?
And that's what kind of broughtup?
Yeah, so we both brought two ofours and then we're going to
talk about the third together,because we both know about the
third one and we've utilized thethird one in our life as
entertainment a lot we have sobecause it's entertaining so

(10:12):
let's jump into it um members.
Do you remember myspace?
I do remember my okay I'm justwondering, if you remember,
myspace is all.
Yes, I have like a list ofwebsite community kind of stuff
that people got on all the time.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
And if I this one steps on your toes, I just want
to call them out and see if youremember them.
Okay, and if this steps on yourlike on your list, we'll stop
and we'll go from there.
Okay, but do you rememberMySpace?
I do remember MySpace.
My goodness MySpace.
I do remember MySpace.
My goodness MySpace.
Do you remember LiveJournal?

Speaker 2 (10:47):
I don't remember LiveJournal.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
LiveJournal, or as it was called later, on Zanga.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Oh, okay.
Zanga yeah that's something Iwas going to talk about.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
And do you remember Newgrounds?
Yeah, newgrounds.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
I remember Newgrounds .

Speaker 1 (11:01):
And E-Bombs World and E-Bombs World and E-Bombs World
.
Yep, oh my gosh, I should havechecked before we did this to
see if any of these sites thatwe were talking about still
exist.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
Guess what.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
I think Newgrounds, we're jumped into the internet.
We are, I know.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
Newgrounds still exists.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Newgroundscom yeah, and it comes up, it's and it's
all.
It's the orangey, yellow andblack.
Goodness, the theming yeah it'sstill yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, ebum's world let's notworry about it.
But ebum's world was kind oflike just a bunch of flash video

(11:40):
hosting games and flash videosites.
So was newgrounds, you know.
Yeah, it was the way that mediawas created before youtube,
before these easily accessiblevideos existed.
You had to make things on.
Flash, whether it be games oranimations or just videos in
general, was generated throughwhat is it's like a internet

(12:05):
file creation format.
It's called Flash, yeah, andit's gone.
Now Flash it's not reallysupported, but it was made by
Adobe Good old Adobe, good oldAdobe.
And then, of course, zynga andMySpace was the big social media
platforms back in the day.
Myspace was the big socialmedia platforms back in the day.

(12:29):
Where Zynga was.
I always attribute this toZynga was middle school, myspace
was high school and Facebookwas a college type thing.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Would you agree with that?
I guess so, but I think it'smore of just the generation
where they were at, because itcame out that way.
It came out Zynga first andthen MySpace and then Facebook,
yeah, and people justtransitioned over as it went on.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
It's crazy because for me, I used a lot of Zynga
and then it took me forever totransition to MySpace.
I was like I'm not going tomake another one of these and I
eventually did, and MySpacelasted for a while, yeah, and
then Facebook came along andFacebook is still around, yeah,
but a lot of people have kind oftransitioned to Instagram and
to TikTok.

(13:17):
But, yeah, it's not like where,if you go to MySpace, nobody's
really on MySpace, no, and Idoubt Zynga is even a website
anymore.
I know MySpace.
Last time I looked, myspacestill existed.
Yeah, myspace still exists.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
As far as Zynga goes, I think it's technically still
around, but it's like prettymuch been shut down.
But yeah, dude, I remember forMySpace, because it was, it was
all it was really big aboutcustomizing your page.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
Yeah, you could put in your music and your.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
You could make a playlist that just starts
playing whenever someone comesto your page.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
You can make a page that was so covered in little
animations and colors andflashes and all this stuff that
would crash your computer.
Yeah, like I remember going onto like, like some pages, or
like some chick made it, and itwas just super over glittery and
it crashed my website.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Uh-huh.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
Like it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
I'm trying to see if MySpace has a listing of how
many users they have.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
Probably not, they probably.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
It doesn't look like they do.
Also, it is very different fromwhat it used to be.
Yeah, Describe it.
It's just a ton of articleslike articles so it must have to
do with music.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
I know that myspace really got into the big music
scene there for a minute.
Yeah, so that makes sense yeah,it makes sense that music is on
there where is your uh grandedel, uh del tortuga or whatever
it was grande tortuga.
Yeah, was that on MySpace orwas that on Facebook?

Speaker 2 (14:47):
Facebook.
Oh, okay, it got uploaded toFacebook like kind of privately.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
And I mean, that shows how old Facebook is.
Yeah, you were just a boy.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Just a boy, just a little boy.
Yeah, I guess MySpace is juststraight up music now.
I tried to search my name tosee if I was still on here.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
And it's just music stuff.
Imagine the one person who isstill on MySpace trying to
utilize it.
And they just get on one dayand it's just all.
Of it's gone.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah, they can't even socialize with people.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
What people?
Yeah, exactly On the side ofcommunication, because we were
kind of talking about thosesocial sites.
Do you remember what was usedbefore social media to
communicate with people?
Email Besides email oh no,instant messengers.
Oh no, instant messengers.

(15:46):
Oh yeah, aim or MSN messengeryeah, I'm sure there was a
couple others, but those werelike the direct messaging back
and forth platforms beforethings like Zoom and Teams and
what's the one I'm trying tothink of that was used.
Man, what was it?

(16:09):
Are you talking about the onethrough Microsoft?
Yeah, skype, I couldn't thinkof Skype, yeah, so, yeah, skype
just got taken down recently.
It no longer exists because itwas.
Microsoft owned both Teams andSkype and it was like, well,
we're not going to have twocompetitors.
Yeah, back when I was doingprank phone calls my YouTube

(16:34):
channel for prank phone callsyes, that's what I used to call
people because you were able toactually buy a phone number
through Skype.
Yeah, and then it was a digitalcall that I was then able to
record straight from thecomputer.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
So I use that for a lot of my videos for a long time
.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah, some of those are pretty funny.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
Eagle Pranks on YouTube.
If anybody is interested, yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
Go check out Eagle Pranks.
I need to apologize to theaudience.
I am congested for some reasonand I got stung by a bunch of
yellow jackets today, so I'm alittle fatigued.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
Johnny earlier said I got stung by yellow jackets.
I said wear, show me.
He's like I'm not showing you.
You're going to poke them.
And the thing was is I wasgoing to poke them.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yeah, I didn't want to get poked on the belly.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
So, anyways, that was kind of just us talking about
some brief experiences.
But what is your number firstone?

Speaker 2 (17:33):
Well, my first one was Zanga.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
Oh, it's Zanga, yeah, so let's talk about that a
little bit more then.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yeah.
So I remember Zanga beingintroduced from my friend group.
Like hey, we're all on Zyngaand we're all talking to each
other there and I was like, oh,okay, cool.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
Cool, but what do you do on it?

Speaker 2 (17:54):
You make a profile.
That's the thing I watched myother friend on his computer
because no one had phones thatwere smart On his computer get
on to Zyanga and messagesomebody and was just talking
with them.
But he could also, you know,share on a general page his

(18:14):
thoughts or whatever, yeah, andso I was like that's pretty cool
, and everybody else is alreadyon there that I know, so might
as well give it a shot, yeah, uh.
So yeah, I downloaded it andstarted messaging friends and I
actually did.
It was my first experience withtalking to a stranger online.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
It was through Zynga.
Yeah, how old was he?
It's funny because there was avery good chance it could have
been a he, but it was a her.
So yeah, it was weird.
Like you know, it is thetypical middle schooler.
Like I'm trying to flirt,you're not very good at it, uh
but I was in musical theater atthe time and I invited her to

(18:57):
come see the show and I was likeshe's not gonna come, like
we've never met each other inperson, and then she showed up
with her dad and her mom.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
What the hell and.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
I was like what are you doing here?
Why are you here?
You invited me, yeah, so I mean, she ended up being cool.
We ended up being friends for alittle while, but it was so
funny because that's my firstexperience being a stranger
online, yeah, and it ended upactually being a normal person,
right, who wasn't crazy?

Speaker 1 (19:27):
right, like that's crazy to me to think that you
that happened and it was just.
It was actually a person youmet online yeah because, like
and I'm going to try to keepthis as kid friendly as possible
but there are people on thosetypes of sites that would
pretend to be Something they'renot, something they're not to

(19:51):
hurt.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yeah, Other people.
Other people or to getsomething for themselves, so
that's the go-to right Is likeoh, you met a stranger online.
That's weird.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
Which is funny because, like as a grown man,
that's how I met my wife.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, yeah, but that's a little different
because that's through that wasthrough a dating app yes you
know, like this was just arandom like hey saw this person
on a social media website, saw Imessaged them and became
friends with them and and youknow it's like, and then we
started talking.
So, yeah, like you think aboutdoing that like, especially like

(20:30):
Zynga was, even though it wasmaybe the popular thing at the
time, by no means likemainstream, you know.
So it was like kind of fringe.
And here you are making friendswith random strangers on a
fringe website.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
I know, you know it's just like and because of what
you did, I mean there was a huge, massive push from people like
Chris Hansen to really catchthose bad people that were doing
this Like it was and it stillis a major issue still happening
, yeah, where?
But it kind of started withthose instant message chat rooms

(21:07):
and, you know, social mediasites and that's why we as a
society really push for, youknow, kids to not be on these
things unsupervised.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah, well, because, like the internet and online,
communication has eliminatedconsequences, so people can act
however they want to act or saywhatever they want to say, and
not face immediate consequences,unless they have some kind of
following.
And the following is like wedon't like that, goodbye.

(21:42):
And then they stop followingthem.
Yeah, like we don't like that,goodbye, and then they stop
following them.
Yeah, you know, if you're anobody, you can say whatever you
want to say on the internet andno one's going to be able to do
anything about it.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
At worst, you're going to have somebody who, in
the comments, opposes what yousay.
Well, I mean before theinternet and talking to people
online.
You know, if you said somethingthat was out of line, you got
put back into line.
You know, I remember that beinga thing Like if, if I said
something to somebody and theydidn't immediately like attack
me or hit me or something, itwas brought to my parents and my

(22:17):
parents put me back in line.
Yeah, you know.
So now it's like yeah, you cansay whatever you want to say and
get away with it Whatever youwant and always get away with it
.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
And then you have these people who get away with
these things online and that'swhy you have such nasty people
like rude, awful and disobedient, awful children you see
everywhere, because they see itonline now and they have that
free voice with no consequences,like you said.

(22:50):
Yeah, and it just allows themto build up confidence.
And we also kind of live in asociety when you can't
discipline somebody else's child.
If they came up and hit you,you can't do anything about that
.
Yeah, I mean you can, but it'snot going to end well for you,

(23:12):
unfortunately, and I'm nottalking about you knock the kid
out or anything, but even to getonto them to tell them to stop.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
Yeah, I think that the worst community online is
Xbox live chat.
Yeah, I think that the worstcommunity online is Xbox live
chat.
Yeah, it's funny, but it ispretty bad.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
I would never let my child communicate with anybody
in any form or fashion online.
Yeah, which is really funnybecause me and you both had such
free reign of that.
Yeah, because me and you bothhad such free reign of that.
Yeah, but I'll be honest, itwasn't as a general way.
I'm sure the awful things werethere, yeah, but in a general

(23:55):
sense it wasn't bad like it isnow.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
Yeah, well, and it was brand new to you.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
You know what I mean?
Our parents didn't really knowwhat was going on because it was
so new.
And then, to top it off, likeculture was still had a little
bit of the like hey, you need tobe respectful the way you talk
to people.
That was still kind of there,yeah, when it first started.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
So you get on there and you get within, like Onzanga
, part of your communities andyour groups that were meant for
kids that would communicate withone another were just that
nobody in there pretending to besomething they're not.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, I know.
For us as kids, that was whatsocial media was.
It was just another outlet totalk to my friends.
I didn't have to call them onthe phone.
If I had a thought or somethingI wanted to say to them, I
could just message them rightaway.
If they respond, great.
If they don't, they will later.
You know that's what it was.
It wasn't about trying to findfriendship, like I already had

(24:56):
friends.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
I just wanted to talk to them more.
And nowadays Facebook feelslike you're screaming into an
empty void.
Yeah, zango, really wasn't that?
People were actually stillthere, interested in to see what
you had to say and communicatewith you about what you were
saying.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
Facebook has become kind of a video platform.
It's mostly videos, ads andevery now and then somebody you
know saying something.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
If you're scrolling through it, the rest of it's
just mindless scrolling I thinkthat facebook has been trying
really hard to push peopletowards the meta.
They want people as far associal interaction goes.
They want people to go to metaand the facebook thread they
just fill with yeah,advertisements and reels.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
That's where their money's at.
Yeah, yeah, because that'susually.
I'll go on to see what peoplehave to say.
Still today, yeah, nobody'sever really saying much, and I
end up getting stuck on theirreels just swiping through on
their version of TikTok.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
Yeah, and that's what social media is.
That's what social networkinghas become.
Now there's no more typing outyour thoughts.
You know it's all video form.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
And so no one's going to listen to what you have to
say, unless you make a videoabout it.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
Right or a podcast.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Or a podcast.
Apparently, people want to hearmore about Mormonism.
I heard yes, apparently, peoplewant to hear more about
Mormonism.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
I heard, yes, the most views we've ever got in a
short period of time on ourepisode 44.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, almost 100 views in like two days.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
I know which for us is crazy, crazy.
Yeah, we're just a little oldpodcast.
I mean, this is fun to me.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
I enjoy it.
I enjoy it.
I enjoy sitting here talking toyou about Zynga.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, so speaking of Zynga, my number one.
All right, no, I'm kidding.
Do you have anything else tosay about Zynga?

Speaker 2 (26:54):
This is totally my hat.
No, that was a big thing Iwanted to bring up is that?
You know, that was just theintro to communicating with
others online.
Mm-hmm, intro to communicatingwith others online.
Uh, and, and that was myexposure to speaking to a
stranger on the internet.
Yeah, that was the very firsttime it happened.
So, yeah, it was.
It was pretty fun while itlasted and, to be honest, I

(27:17):
think life would be a little bitbetter if we could go back to
the simplicity of zanga yeah butthat will never happen.
No, no, it won't.
Do you want to tell the quicklittle story about the strangest
friendship developed over theinternet that we heard?
Do you remember the wedding?

Speaker 1 (27:37):
Oh yeah, Go ahead.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
Okay, so I think the most interesting I don't want to
say strange.
I think we've talked about thison the podcast.
We've talked about it before.
We went to a friend's weddingthe groom and the best man the
way that they talked to youwould have thought that they
were childhood friends.
It seemed really close.
And then the best man gave hisspeech.
There's no other groomsmen, itwas just the best man.

(28:02):
I think that was intentional.
I think they just wanted it.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
Minimal wedding.
But come to find out, the bestman had met the groomsman
through a—.
No, the best man met the groom,you said groomsman.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
Oh sorry, the best man met the groom through World
of Warcraft in a chat, and theybuilt a friendship through World
of Warcraft and they lived inseparate states and they became
real close and to the pointwhere it's like, hey, we don't
live in the same state, but Iwant you to come and be my best
man at my wedding.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
Which is crazy.
I do wish that we did live in asociety where that was more
readily available to happen.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Yeah, that's.
The positive side to theinternet is that you can build
relationships that are not boundby your immediate geographical
location.
So that is.
I mean we like to poke at it alittle bit and make fun a little
bit, but the true essence of itis really awful.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
Yeah, Like just because of it, not how it
happened, but just the joke ofit being World of Warcraft yeah,
that's the only thing that'sthe only connecting thing.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
It's just because it's World of Warcraft.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
If it was anything else, any other video game, it
wouldn't be as funny, or even,yeah, any social networking or
any other video game.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
so we're not making fun of their friendship, we're
making fun of world of warcraftand why do you think people do
that?
Why do you think people dogworld of warcraft so much?

Speaker 1 (29:34):
I have an answer, but I want to hear what yours is.
My personal answer is that itit is something that doesn't.
It happens all the time in allgames now, but at the time at
least for me, is like you haveto buy a game and then have a
subscription to pay that playthe game.
For me it was like that wasalways the thing, making fun of

(29:54):
it.
It's like there's things that Ido that are way nerdier in
video game format than world ofwarcraft, but it was just like
that stigma that was around,like it's a subscription as well
, but we have so many otherforms of quote-unquote
subscription and stuff withmicrotransactions and dlc and
yeah, all these other kind ofthings that it's just like it's

(30:14):
probably the lesser of evils inentertainment now is world of
warcraft yeah, I uh, I thinkit's leroy jenkins.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
Oh yeah, I think that's why people dog it so much
, even people that don't evenreally know anything about it,
because they've seen the leroyjenkins clip all right, that's
enough of this, yeah I, I thinkthat's what it is.
I think people, people are likeoh, this is just funny, this is
just silly.
Yeah, you know so way to go,leroy Jenkins, you ruined World

(30:49):
of Warcraft for all thenon-World of Warcraft.
Wow, people.
Wow, all the non-wow people.
Wow, all right, what's at thetop of your list?

Speaker 1 (31:06):
I wouldn't say it's top of my list, but we're just
heading towards it.
Numero no my, my first one, isneopets, neopets, you remember?

Speaker 2 (31:13):
neopets my guy uh, I never did it, but I think my
wife brought up that she did itoh yeah, yeah, it was just like.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
I feel like at least for mine as well is that it's
all flash, it's all game andcommunity.
Right, that's all it was.
But you had the, you would geta pet.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
And it'd be just a pitcher that was your pet.
It'd have a status like it washungry or whatever, and you just
took care of this creature.
They were all random creaturesand it was a massive craze.
It looks like neopets is still.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
Yeah, it is still around, but it does not look
these are not pets.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
No, no, not really it .
Uh, these are all like fairiesand stuff yeah, I mean they had
portions of it that like, okay,so you had your pets and you
played like flash games andwhatnot, to um earn money,
because there were shops in itthat you could buy stuff of food
for your pet to feed it andcostumes and all this stuff,

(32:18):
okay, and you just explored thewebsite.
There was always little hidden,little things and it just was a
.
There was chat rooms andmessage boards and stuff, uh-huh
, and everybody was there justtaking care of their pet.
You know, yeah, what's crazy isit got deep and there's
actually like you can investyour coins into a fake stock
market and earn money on theironline stock market on neopets

(32:42):
Dang.
It was launched in 1999.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
1999.
The year that the earth wassupposed to end.
Yeah, that was year 2000.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
The first of the 2000 .
Yes, sorry, it was marketed asa virtual pet site but was
secretly a gamified intro toeconomics, coding and gambling,
which there was.
There was a lot of gamblinginvolved and all this stuff.
So it was just like thischildren's website that was kind
of like this, almost kind oflike posed as a way to teach

(33:19):
kids things in an educationalway.
Yeah, but not really at thesame time, but not really but
not really.
Yeah, but not really at thesame time, but not really, but
not really Really, but notreally.
But you know it was all.
Just it was a built-in websiteeconomy.
Yeah, so it was a lot of fun todo that, like you could do the
stuff where you could go in andcode and customize your web page

(33:43):
the same way that you couldwith zanga and myspace, where
everything would be flashy andchanging and customize every
little aspect of it.
And yeah, it's just reallynostalgic for me because I was
on there a lot having fun.
Yeah, just on the chat boards,just talking about does anybody
have this map piece that I canfinish to get this paintbrush to
change my, my neopet?

Speaker 2 (34:05):
Oh man, that's funny.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
There was like over 50 of them, though it was like
so many different pets, yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
Like so many crazy my crazy, but like it was funny
because I remember getting on.
It's like your pet would behungry, but I found out pretty
early on that that didn'tactually mean anything, cause
your pet couldn't die.
Yeah, so you just didn't wasteyour coins on this food for this
pet so you, your pet, would bestarving to death for decades

(34:35):
what, uh, what was the keychainthing?

Speaker 2 (34:38):
that your pet would die if you didn't feed it?
That was a tamagotchi tam.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
Which was a physical little thing that you could have
.
Yeah, a physical little puckwith 8-bit this is picture
Tamagotchi.
But a lot more you could dowith it online.
Yeah, yeah, so I had just ablast.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
Just a real blast.
Now do you want to go ahead andtalk about your other one?
Because I did play that one, myother one.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
Yes, let us talk about Club.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
Penguin, club Penguin .

Speaker 1 (35:11):
Again, this one's a little bit different because it
kind of has the Neopets vibe tosome degree.
Yeah, but it was just a singlegame, yes, single game.
Yes, that had a huge like.
It was just like.

(35:31):
It was a free to play mmo game,yes, where you played as a
penguin on an island and youplay, and you just hung out with
other penguin friends andplayed games and earned coins
and decorated your house, whichwas an igloo yeah, yeah, it was
customization.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
It was almost like uh sims light yeah, you know, to
some degree.
Yeah, you could customize yourhouse, you could get things for
it.
Uh, and I remember there beinglike a big like across the
platform game, like they dothemed things, like yeah, they
would always have like partiesand all this stuff.

Speaker 1 (36:03):
So, like you would start out you're a penguin, but
then it's like, as youprogressed on the island, just
going and doing stuff,eventually you could become like
a secret agent and you'd haveto hunt down like this, like
rogue polar bear, yeah, and youknow how they had like the sea,
uh, pirate captain, that wouldcome like there would be a

(36:23):
telescope on the beach and you'dlook out and you could see a
ship coming in and this would beover a span of real world days.
You'd see him getting closerand then all of a sudden his
ship was there.
You'd get a new costume pieceand then they would actually
have like a member of the ClubPenguin staff controlling the
actual pirate walking around theisland.
Yeah, yeah, I remember that.
Yeah, and it's just like I'dcall you up and like captain

(36:46):
neckbeard is here.
Is that his actual name?
No, it was captain somethingbeard, I think, penguin beard or
something let's, let's, look itup.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
I gotta, I gotta know what it is but you know, it
launched in 2005.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
it ran for two years.
Then Disney bought it Boo, andI say yes, I agree to that boo,
because in 2017, disney shut itdown, even though it was booming
Captain.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
Rockhopper.
Rockhopper, that was the nameof the pirate.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
No, he's actually Captain Neckbeard.
Now I can say that because it'sshut down and no one plays it
now.
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Yeah, you know they should have.
I don't know why they shut itdown.
There should have been anactual reason for it.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
I think that the last time I had played it, which was
probably like 2010 or somethinglike that, they were already
updating and changing it the waythat we used to play it,
because they would always.
It would dynamically change andthe world would change, and I
didn't like the visually how itwas going.
Anyways, I think, really, it'sjust the people who played it
enjoyed it in 2007, 2005 to 2007.

(37:59):
Yeah, fell off, and a new crowdgot on, and it probably wasn't
as big as the when we played it.
So, over time, it just lost itsfan base, and then it they had
and they just shut it down.
It was probably not worthhosting and keeping up and all
that fun stuff, yeah.
What's funny, though, is is itgoing back to world of warcraft?
On it?

(38:19):
It had a subscription on it.
Yeah, it you could pay to,because it was like the shops
had clothes you could buy withyour coins, but only if you had
the premium subscription.
Yes, and every now and thenthey would give you a free piece
of clothing.
Yeah, like a beanie or like,every now and then, a shirt.

(38:43):
Yeah, so I actually.
So there was a lighthouse inthe game and so I had.
My color scheme was red andwhite.
I had a red, white stripedshirt because the the lighthouse
was like a candy cane stripedyeah, lighthouse, and I always
like my character.
For the longest time I'd hangout around the lighthouse and
I'd be like the spirit of thelighthouse or something like

(39:04):
that the spirit of thelighthouse or something like
that, the spirit of thelighthouse you know what I mean?
it's just, yeah, just beingstupid.
Yeah, uh, funny enough.
There is still like anunofficial server that hosts the
game where you can play itreally yeah, I'm not going to
play.
I don't know.
Would you do it for a livestream, like for one live stream
?

Speaker 2 (39:22):
play club penguin again yeah, I guess, so I guess
I would play club penguin for alive stream.
Play Club Penguin again?
Yeah, I guess, so I guess Iwould play.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
Club Penguin for a live stream.
There you go.
Look forward to that ClubPenguin live stream for the
Saints that Serve Nostalgicedition.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
Nostalgia.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
I feel like there's a lot of better nostalgic games
we could play the problem withnostalgia is that it makes
things seem better than theyactually were.
Yeah, yeah uh, going into itreal quick, because it was
something I was looking at today.
Uh, ozzy osbourne died, yes.

(40:00):
So I was looking at an old gameI played back when I was like
still in high school, calledBrutal Legend, okay, and it was
like a heavy metal rock and rollgame and it starred Jack Black
and it had like Ozzy actuallyvoicing a character that looked
like him, that was like the headof a faction in this world.

(40:21):
Okay, there's a bunch of otherheavy metal singers also in it.
I was like, oh, oh, I wonder ifI could just kind of check out
heavy, uh, brutal legend again.
And I found I'm like, oh, thisgame looks gross.
It is not the way I remember.
it was an xbox 360 game okay soit's not that old, but like what
?

Speaker 2 (40:41):
type of game was it.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
It was like a mixture of like a hack and slash and
RTS combined.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
Okay, so it wasn't like a Guitar Hero game.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
No, so like you like.
Yeah, your character carried aguitar.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
But you would hop in and control these troops and
kind of tell them where to goand battle the other troops, but
you could also hop in at thesame time and be battling and
fighting these groups of ofminions.
But it would be kind of like,you know, like halo wars, where
you were opposing one faction,yeah, and it was troop, uh,
troop management, but you werealso in it fighting the troops,

(41:19):
do you think this came outbefore or after the movie Role
Models?
Brutal Legend came out in 2009,I think.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
Okay, so that was before, but I don't know why I
thought of Role Models.
I guess it's just because theydo, because they LARP, they LARP
and there's different factions,but they also incorporate Kiss
into it.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
Yeah, Not Kissing the band Kiss.
Yeah, the band Kiss.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
But anyways, yeah, club Penguin, dude into it.
Yeah, not kissing the band kiss, yeah, the band kiss.
But anyways, yeah, club penguin, dude, club penguin, are you?

Speaker 1 (41:54):
ready to talk about mine?
Yes, what is your number two?

Speaker 2 (41:55):
it's the other.
Okay, before I'm talking aboutminiclip games oh, that okay.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
Yeah, so I know what you're about to talk about.
So hosted.
So there was a website calledminiclips and they had several
online games on this site, inthe same way that new grounds we
talked about at ebum's worldhosted these games, and club
penguin was like I used to.
I'd go to miniclipscom, thenfind the link to club penguin,

(42:20):
yep, and then learn fairlyquickly that you could just go
to clubpingwincom yeah, yeah,and go from there.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
But it's the same way with your game yeah, so that
you know, they hostedclubpingwin and runescape
runescape, so I didn't play.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
Oh, I played runescape, yeah, but I I feel
like that is like our twodifferent personalities there,
yeah, where, like you, wereplaying the medieval kind of
like night kind of type game.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
And I was over there playing a penguin game.
It's not that I love penguinsor anything.
I was like I was always playingthe obscure game, yeah, like.
And you were playing the onethat always kind of fit into
your niche and genre, of sortsSure and RuneScape's fun.
But I couldn't get past over.
I couldn't look past.

(43:09):
The graphics on it were kind ofbad.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
Yeah, because it was like boxy, but not like
Minecraft boxy.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
Yeah, it wasn't pixelated, it was like polygons.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
Yeah, yeah, I liked it just because it's.
I mean it was, it was a MMORPG.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
You know those are always fun, but I think it was
one of the first ones.
I can't say that for sure.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
I'm pretty sure there's others.
But yeah, it was like the firstmajor internet one.
Like in the sense it was a freeto play game.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
And it was.
Yeah, it came out in 2001.
You could do free-to-play onceagain.
I mean it also had asubscription.
But yeah, I liked it becausejust the sheer variety of things
you could do, like you couldfocus, you could level up your
different skills.
So it's like if you wanted to,you could focus on just baking

(44:05):
and be a baker in the game andlevel up and then trade with the
other players.
You know your goods for theirstuff.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
Bread.
I've got bread here.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Yeah, I'll trade you a bread for your iron sword yeah
, exactly, so it was like it wasthings like that.
It was like you could focus onbeing a smith or you could focus
on being a hunter, you couldfocus on being a baker or a
fisher, whatever.
So, yeah, it was, it was prettyfun.
But you know, it was one ofthose games where I played for a
little while and then I'd setit down and I'd come back and

(44:35):
play for a little while and thenI'd set it down and now they
rebooted it or revamped it andit's.
You can play the nostalgicoriginal graphics or, you know,
the modern graphics for it.
They did a remaster of it.
Remaster of it and made it amobile game, so you can play on
your phone.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
But is it the exact same world?
Just they updated the graphics.
Yes, yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
It plays the exact same way.
It's just updated graphics.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
So same story within the game, same, you know,
characters so part of that livestream, what we'll do is we'll
play club penguin and then we'llmove over to runescape.
See which one's better now, allright, but we have to play in
crappy graphics.
It's fine, original, yeah yeah,I like how you correct me, not

(45:24):
crappy.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
Original Original.
Yeah, nostalgic, I think it'show they say it Nostalgic.
I just did a quick Googlesearch and this says that the
first commercial multiplayerMMORPG was Neverwinter Nights,
released in 1991 by StrategicSimulations Incorporated.
I've heard of Neverwinter OnAOL.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
AOL I've heard of Neverwinter, but I'm not sure
what it is.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
Yeah, I don't know.
I've never heard of this gamebefore, but apparently it's the
first MMORPG.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
Mom leave me alone, I'm playing MMORPG.
Mom leave me alone, I'm playingMMORPG.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
Yeah, whatever that is yeah, yeah, just shouting
that across the room Like whatare you doing?
What?

Speaker 1 (46:17):
game.
Are you playing MMORPG 2.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
Yeah, oh man.
But yeah, I liked RuneScape agood bit.
It was quite enjoyable to play.
But it was one of those thingsyou also got the shock of like,
if you don't have thesubscription, you've got to
grind really hard.
Really it's To make it in thegame.

Speaker 1 (46:41):
They really do make it so that when you're playing
this game, you really have topay that subscription.
They really bog you down in thegame and it's like, yeah, you
can be really diligent and justplay the game for fun, yeah, but
yeah, that is a tactic thatthey use in all mobile games now

(47:03):
, where it's like, oh, yeah, youcan play the game for free, but
it's like once you play, liketwice, you have to wait three
days and then you can playanother level.
Yeah, exactly, or pay 16 bucksfor three coins that get you to
play another level yeah, yeah,it's uh, so it was frustrating
in that sense.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
I think that's why I would keep on stopping, because
it was like so it wasfrustrating in that sense.
I think that's why I would keepon stopping because it was like
I've got to sit here foranother four hours to be able to
move up a level.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
Yeah, it's like oh, you can't start this quest until
you're level 20, but it takes awhole year to go up three
levels.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
Yeah, exactly.
They just make it they bog youdown so much that you can't
progress.
And there were some areas ofthe game that like you had to be
.
Yeah, you could not enter themap unless you were like a level
40 something or whatever youknow.
So it was like to get to level40, it's either I've got to
spend my entire life on the gameor I get the subscription to

(48:00):
level up faster, or choice three, don't play it or don't play it
yeah, so there you go.
All right, you ready to get toour main one?

Speaker 1 (48:08):
Yeah, let's get into it.
This is just like my kind ofcomedy, my kind of humor.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
Definitely an influence on our lives, big
influence on our lives.
So what is it?
Homestarwonder.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
HomestarWnernet.
It's com.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
The poopsmith's not a bad guy, he's just got a crappy
job.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
I'm going to break out my yellow shades.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
Yeah, dude, homestar Runner is pretty funny.

Speaker 1 (48:43):
So for those not in the know, team girl squad, team
girl squad.
What is homestar runnercom?
Because that's what it's called.
You know what I mean.
Like they even reference it onthe site.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
It's homestar runner, but everybody references it as
homestar runnercom like it wasjust a website, but it had a ton
of videos and it had a mockvlog on it, and then it had some
games, some games.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
Some games, if you want to really call them games,
except for one of them was anactual, real game.
Yeah, so homestarunnercom isagain a flash animation site.
Yeah, and it was just thestories of these wonky, wacky
characters.
Yes, and it's just like theyhad all the dumbest names.

(49:34):
It's like his name, the maincharacter, was Homestar Runner.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
Yeah, do you remember his girlfriend's name, marzipan
?
Do you remember the coach'sname, coach Z?
Do you remember the?

Speaker 1 (49:49):
villain in air quotes .
I mean is that, are you talkingabout strong, bad?
Yeah, okay, just make sure Inever saw him as a villain, even
though he was the villain.
He's technically the villain,but yeah, he's not the villain.
What's the name of his?

Speaker 2 (49:59):
uh, two brothers strong mad and strong sad and
their-hmm and their pet.

Speaker 1 (50:06):
The cheat, the cheat, yeah, the cheat is not dead.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
Yeah, I actually.
I met a customer that he hadcustom made a guitar and the
body of the guitar was the cheat.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
All right, where's this man's house and how can we
break in?

Speaker 2 (50:19):
But yeah, dude, hold on, I'm trying to think what was
.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
I Hold on, I'm trying to think what was?
I'm trying to think there'slike one more character.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
What was the name of the king of the town?
It was King.
I can't think.
I can't think of his name.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
You're going to be really mad.
What was it?
King of the town, king of thetown.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
And then there was the poop smith.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
The poop smith, who was always shoveling the poop
for the King of Town, yeah, andthen are we missing somebody.
I really feel like there's onemore character there is, and I
can't remember who it is.
If you show me a picture of allthe characters, I would be able
to name them all, but there'sone more.
There's always like the little,weird, small side characters
that they would mention one timein an animation.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
Like Little Brother.
Here comes Little Brother,weird small side characters that
they would mention one time inan animation.
Like a little brother.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
Like here comes little brother, he's got one leg
up on the line Just one.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
All right, I'm going to the Wicca Homestar.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
Homestar, which was like the alternate universe
version of Homestar.
Yeah, it was just like he wasversion of Homestar.
Yeah, it was just like he waskind of like oh Pom.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
Pom, pom, pom, pom, pom Jeez.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
That's it.
It was Homestar Runner's bestfriend, yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
Man can't believe we messed that one up.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
It's okay, we'll be all right, but it was a Flash
site, cartoons on it right andand games.
Yes, we're gonna get to thegame in a second, because we all
know what it is sorry, I justgot distracted.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
I was trying to pull up characters and it pulled up
an actual homestar like websitething.
What do you mean?
It pulled up like a video fromHomestar.
Oh gotcha.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
But so there was two things on HomestarRunnercom that
was great, yeah, and one ofthem stemmed from the other.
So do you want to talk aboutStrong Bad Emails, because
that's why everybody really wentto the site?
Yeah, bad emails, becausethat's why everybody really went
to the site.
Yeah, yeah, so strong bademails was animations, where it

(52:29):
was like the villain characterstrong bad, yes, who he wore
boxing gloves and wore aluchador mask the luchador,
luchador mask.
But he was strong, bad, but he,uh, he would just sit at his
computer and answer emailquestions people could actually
send into the website and theywould ask some kind of question

(52:50):
and then kind of turn it into asilly cartoon.
Yeah, so it'd be like the onethat was major was can you show
me how to draw the dragon?
Yes, and so it's like sure.
So then it kind of cuts overand him shy, doing you know a
tutorial on how to draw a dragon, and he'd be like all right, so
we start with a, a letter s,and do another letter s.

Speaker 2 (53:14):
We're gonna draw on us and then and then another one
go ahead and put one of thembeefy arms in there and then put
a little beefy arm on it andthen, just like, for some reason
, the dragon now has a big oldmuscular arm popping out of it,
the back Of his back.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
Yeah, it's coming out , and now let's check on how
everybody else is doing.
And he'd go over and he's likeall the other characters trying
to draw a dragon.
He's like no, I said consonantV's.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
Consonant V's.
I said consonant V's, so whatwas the name of the dragon?
Trogdor, trogdor.

Speaker 1 (54:00):
So Trogdor got its own kind of line of spinoff type
stuff.
Right, yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:09):
And got so big it got so big, made it into Guitar
Hero.

Speaker 1 (54:11):
There is a secret song you can unlock in Guitar
Hero 2 and it's the Strong Badtheme, I'm sorry, the Trogdor
theme song, which is crazy.
It is, it's massive.
It's just like they have a gamewhich is based off.
There is an old school style ofgame called Point and Click
Adventure.
Yeah, where you would go aroundon a map, you would click up to

(54:31):
something and then you wouldtype what you want to do.
It was very freeform type game.
They made a parody game withthat kind of style with Trogdor,
where you it was calledPeasant's Quest, where you were
a peasant trying to survive theattack of Trogdor.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
No, Trying to defeat Trogdor.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
But why?
Because he attacked yourvillage.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
Yeah, the intro is he's already attacked the
village and so now you're tryingto-.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
To go and defeat Trogdor because he burninated
and that was the phrase theyused was he would burninate.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
Yeah, all right, pom Pom and.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
Bubs were the two that were.
Bubs was the other one.
Yeah, bubs was the salesperson.
Like you would go to Bubs store.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
Yeah, so we got the main characters Homestar, runner
Strong Bad, the Cheat, strongMad, strong Sad, pom Pom,
marzipan, coach Z Bubs, the Kingof the Town, the Poopsmith and
Homestar.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
And Homestar would kind of show up in just random
moments, so he wasn't there allthe time but he would and then
through Strong Bad Emails youknow what else spun off what Was
like a fake band, that kind ofactually put out an album and
performed live, which wasLimousine.

Speaker 2 (55:53):
Yeah, I forgot about that.

Speaker 1 (55:54):
Yeah, all of this was .

Speaker 2 (55:56):
It was because the video was him coming up with
band names.
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
And then just over time, you know, they kind of
formed a fake real world bandthat actually went and did one
show.
And they did.
You know where they did it?
Where Atlanta.

Speaker 2 (56:11):
Oh really.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
Yeah, I kind of got mad Like I would love to have
been there, it was like just ata local kind of small club type
thing, because they were,they're in Atlanta, they are
local, like to Georgia.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
So do they have the rights to the burninator song?
Trying to go to burninator?
Probably that's funny.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
Yeah, I had no idea about that I mean the, the
members of limousine are thecreators of homestar runner.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So they were just up there justdoing things, but they put out
an album.
It was a Strong, bad Singsalbum.

Speaker 2 (56:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
So it was just a bunch of parody songs and
there's a few limousine songs onthat album.
That's funny.
So they actually have realsongs.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
Yeah, because didn't.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
Strong Bad sing a Christmas song, or did a couple
of Christmas songs and put out amock, a mock christmas album or
something, yeah, something likethat, I think so, yeah, and
then they put out to the companythat made their like point and
click adventures, a legitimategame company called telltale.
Yeah, they made the walkingdead series of games.
They did some for game ofThrones, back to the Future,
jurassic Park, but they're alllike you would kind of do a

(57:29):
point and click adventure games.
Yeah, they made one for StrongBaddest.
There was a series of fiveepisodes in one game and it was
a legitimate Homestar Runnerpoint and click adventure game
where you were going around theI think it's like town Freetown,
usa is the name of their littlecity town and so you would go
around and you would just besolving puzzles Interesting,

(57:52):
it's a real video game.
Yeah, yeah, and you're StrongBad.
Okay, because even thoughHomestar Runner was the main
character, strong Bad over timekind of became the main face and
character of Homestar Runner.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
Yeah, because everybody liked him instead.
I think outside of the actualwebsite, strong bad was the main
character, but when you go tothe website home, star runners
is the main character.
But yeah, strong bad's the mostwell-known.
I agree with that.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
Yeah yeah, and I would love to look up and see
how many times he's referencedin pop culture outside of
Homestar Runner.
Yeah, like, do research intoseeing how often people
reference him.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
Yeah, because you can still find Homestar Runner
videos on.
Youtube and stuff.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
Well, the website still exists too.
The website's still up.
So what's cool, too, is likeyou would watch their flash
videos, yeah, and just like you,after it's over, you kind of
hover around on the on the pageand you could find secret little
endings and stuff on the on thevideos.
Yeah, yeah, you would find alittle secret place and you
click on it and it'd just be aeaster egg.

(59:03):
Yeah, that would be in all thevideos, all the email, like they
call them.
Uh, strong, bad email videosand, yeah, all their regular
cartoons.
They'd be everywhere, and butwhen they did it on youtube,
they just kind of uploaded thatif you just wait a minute, it'll
play automatically play thesecret video, and it's like it
kind of takes away somethingfrom the site when you do stuff
like that yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
Didn't they get contracted with, like with
disney, to do something for alittle while?

Speaker 1 (59:28):
they got contracted to do something with somebody
and that's why we stoppedgetting strong.
Uh, homestar runner videos,yeah, but they still do make
them at least once a year,because they were real big about
having a halloween episodecoming out every year.
Oh really, yeah.
So they still make cartoonsevery now and then It'll just be
an out-of-the-blue randomrelease.

(59:48):
Yeah, yeah, that's cool, though.
I mean, if you go to theirwebsite and you go look, it'll
tell you the last time it wasupdated on the top of it.
So let's see Hold on Homestar.
Ripping it up HomestarRunnercom.
And what was their big song?
Open it up, homestarunnercom.

(01:00:09):
And what was their big song?
Everybody, everybody.
I forgot about that song.
It says they're celebrating 25years.
The system is down.
The system is down, the systemis down.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
The chain is not there.
Celebrating25.com.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
That's pretty neat.
They have removed how oftenthey update on the front page,
so it's not there anymore.
Well, dang, well, gosh darn it.
And I'll be honest, I feel likehomestar runner is something
that you could let anybody canwatch it.
Yeah, it's not like it's notparticularly.

(01:00:53):
Oh, my, sorry, that was loud.
Yeah, yeah, if you hovered onstuff it'd make noises on the
front page and stuff.
Yeah, uh, click on one that,like will actually have homestar
say things.
Like.
At the bottom, bottom leftthere's like a little directory
numbers.

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
There it is Nodes, characters, characters.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
So the front page is just Homestar Runner and anytime
you hover over a differentthing you want to go to, like
games, tunes store, he wouldjust shout it out yeah, oh, man,
man, I miss it.
You know what I'm doing.
You know what I'm doing, I'mgoing home.

Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
You're going to go get on Homestar Runner.
Homestarrunnercom.

Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
Before the store shut down for a long time, because
there was a time frame wherethey just weren't selling
anything anymore.
Yeah, they might be now.
I bought all of the dvds forthe cartoons really.
Yeah, so I have all the homestar runner because they had the
strong bad email dvds and thenthey had so it's strong bad
emails and then everything else.

(01:01:59):
Yeah, it was.
The cartoon dvds were calledeverything else.
Yeah, so I owned at one point.
I don't, they might haveanother volume, but I have all
the Everything Else DVDs.

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
Interesting, I did not know that, that they had
DVDs.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
Mm-hmm Crazy, they also have a board game, the
Trogdor board game.
Oh really yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
That's something that Munchkin should do.
They should do a homestarrunner themed uh expansion,
expansion yeah, that would befunny I would 100 buy it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
I want a full homestar runner themed game,
though yeah, not just anexpansion yeah, yeah, yeah,
that'd be good, all right.
Well, that's all I've got forthe main topic I mean, yeah,
it's just just it's fun, likeold internet's fun, and I'm.
It's one of those things whereyou kind of almost kind of chase

(01:02:52):
that high where it's like it'snot going to ever be the same
like it was for us as kids yeah,the it's, it's nostalgia.

Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
But when you go back to look at all that stuff you're
just like, uh, this is not ascool as I remember it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
Personally, I wonder what today's version of Homestar
Runner is for kids.
What are they watching that in20 years they're going to say,
oh, I missed that so much.
Bluey Bluey.
No, I don't know, but you knowwhat I mean.
Skippity Ohio Riz.
Skippity Ohio Riz.
Skippitytoiletcom.

(01:03:25):
Skippitytoio riz.
Skippity ohio riz is skippitytoiletcom.

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
Skippity toiletcom.
Don't.
Don't look that up, if you are.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
I mean, skippity toilet itself is not actually
bad like the first couple ones,but have you been to skippity
toiletcom no okay, don't, don'tgo to skippity toiletcom.
I'm talking about the youtubevideo.
Skippity, it's just a guy'shead in a toilet going.
Skippy Toilet, skippy Toilet,like it's stupid.
It's stupid, oh my gosh.
So, before we close out thisepisode, you said that you want

(01:03:54):
to play a quick littleMarketplace Madness.
Is it Marketplace Madness?
Yep, I've got two.
Okay, I thought you said yousent me a picture to look at.
Yeah, yeah, that's one of them.
That's one of the.
Okay, cool, so we're playingmarketplace madness.
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
So open up.
I sent you the picture.
This is the cover picture forwhat is being sold.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
Okay, what All?

Speaker 2 (01:04:18):
right.
So from the picture, what doyou think is being listed on
Facebook marketplace?

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
Well, real quick.
Before I do that, let medescribe this photograph.
Yes, it is a young woman,Correct Standing in a field,
correct Wearing a white dressand cowboy boots.

Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
And cowboy boots, and I think that's correct.
I think that yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
So do I have to guess what it is, then guess the
price, or just guess what it isin this particular case, just
guess what it is, because youwon't really know how to price
it unless you know what it is.
Gotcha.
Is she selling the field?
No, hold on, give me two moreguesses here.
Okay, is it?
She's wearing a wig and she'sselling the wig no a wig and

(01:05:09):
she's selling the wig no, okay,is it a tractor not pictured?
It's not a tractor not pictured.

Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
No, is the tractor pictured, and it's a no, there's
no tractor, there's no tractorokay what is it?
She's advertising for aroommate.
She's she's renting a room,what.
She put a picture of herselfand she's like hey, I've got a
room, I want a female roommateand this is how much it is a
month.
These are the requirements.
What?

(01:05:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
what is?
This is me.
I'm your roommate.
You're getting me.
What room am I staying in,doesn't?

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
matter, you get me.
I was scrolling through and Isaw the.
I saw the wording first likewhatever, something, a month,
whatever.
And then I saw the picture.
I was like wait a minute, whatis going on here?

Speaker 1 (01:05:57):
and and legit it was, she was renting a room out like
she don't even like she lookslike she's maybe 15 in this
picture, by the way.

Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
Yeah, she yeah, like, don't advertise that on
Facebook.
Like, try and find somebodyelse.
Yeah, okay, all right, I gotone more.
Are you ready?
Yes, okay, the title isMid-Century Porcelain Cabinet
Door Pulls from Japan.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
So they are the handles?
Yes, and they're made ofporcelain on a cabinet.
Is the cabinet from Japan orjust the handles?
It's?

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
just the handles there are.
It looks like 19 of them.
They're orange and really shiny.

Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
Orange and really is that in the description or are
you just describing them?
They said it's orange andreally shiny Orange and really
shiny 18 of them.
I'm going to price that at $662.
Wow, that was really close.

Speaker 2 (01:06:55):
Yeah, how much you were off by $104.

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
You were off by $600?

Speaker 2 (01:07:01):
It's $808 for all of them.
808?
Put it 808.
That all of them?
That's 808.
Put it 808.
That's so stupid.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
yeah, so there you go let me give you my quick little
marketplace madness.
Okay, so when the switch twocame out, yes, gamestop got in
trouble.
One, one particular gamestopgot in trouble.
One particular GameStop got introuble because they were
stapling their receipts to thebox, like, first off, why would

(01:07:31):
you do that in the first place?
But what they were doing isthey were stapling the receipts
to the game console box, likehere's yours, boom, and slam it
down, yeah, and it was puttingthe staple through the screen of
the Switch.
Oh, slam it down, yeah, and itwas putting the staple through
the screen of the Switch.
Oh, so, like it became a hugememe, yeah, and so, after like

(01:07:54):
the meme was over, they replacedthe Switch to took it back.
You know, everything wassettled.
It's just like it was oneemployee who was doing something
stupid, yeah, and GameStop madeit right.
But it was just, you know, ahuge ordeal online, yeah, yeah.
So, to make it right, gamestophas now listed GameStop's

(01:08:16):
Staplegate charity auction.
What you get in this auction,you get the Nintendo Switch 2
that was stapled.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
And the stapler that did it, and it's encased in a
plastic box.
So this is for charity.
I took this screenshot July11th.
Okay, how much do you think atthat time the bidding was?
And then we can go look and seehow much it sold for.

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
I'm going to say the bidding was probably at like 800
bucks.

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
At the time of this picture screenshot, it was 307
bids.
It ends in five days.
Okay, $218,401.
Is what it sold for?
Is what it currently that bidwas of this screenshot?
Jeez.

Speaker 2 (01:09:17):
What did they?
Get listed at.

Speaker 1 (01:09:19):
Probably starting bid , probably like a thousand or
something like that.
Oh my God.
So, it was for charity.
Yeah, I'm looking up right nowthe sold price, so bear with me.

Speaker 2 (01:09:32):
All right, I've got one more for you.

Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
It ended up selling for the max amount that was set
for the bids, which was $250,000.
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (01:09:48):
Why would someone do that?
Why would someone spend thatkind of money on that?
They did it for the meme andcharity.
What's the charity?
What is the charity?
Is it the Clinton Foundation?
No, it's fun.

Speaker 1 (01:10:02):
Yeah Fun.

Speaker 2 (01:10:04):
All right, are you ready for this last one?

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
yes it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
It's labeled as a benson gyrocopter what is a
benson?
Gyrocopter.
It is a one-man helicopter oh,it's a natural no cockpit.
Okay, I can picture that likeit's a totally open, like
there's a seat, there's a steerthing, and then the propellers
above you, the motors are behindyou.

(01:10:28):
Fifteen thousand dollars,fifteen thousand dollars, yes,
sir, is what you're locked in atlocking in fifteen thousand
dollars two thousand dollarsyou're gonna go get us a
helicopter tonight?
Yeah, I don't want to drivethat.
I don't know something'stelling, telling me maybe don't
do that.

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
You just like you get really excited.
I saw a bird and you're justgone, and then you're done.
Yeah, all right.
Well, thank you for joining uson this segment of Facebook.
Marketplace Madness oh sorry,just Marketplace Madness.
Fum, fum or fum Depending onFum.
Fum or fum, depending on Fum.

Speaker 2 (01:11:07):
Fum.

Speaker 1 (01:11:07):
Fum, and thank you for joining us on this episode
of the Saints that Serve podcast, episode 45.
Thanks for hanging out with youguys Episode 45.

Speaker 2 (01:11:17):
Thanks for being a part of what we're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:11:19):
Mm-hmm, and in the comments section, let us know
what your nostalgic website is.
Yeah, what was your go-to as achild and why was it
homestarrunnercom?

Speaker 2 (01:11:29):
wow yeah, yeah, let us know what was your
entertainment on the internet inthe early 2000s from 2000 to
2005.

Speaker 1 (01:11:40):
Yeah, that would have been our before youtube times.
Yeah, yeah.
And then YouTube ruined it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:47):
Yeah, YouTube got really cool and really big and
then it got too big and then itgot lame.
Yeah, and we still use it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:56):
We're now going to get a strike for that, for
talking bad about it on theplatform that we're hosting this
podcast.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:12:04):
All right, well, that's all I've got.
That's all I've got.

Speaker 1 (01:12:06):
That's all I've got.

Speaker 2 (01:12:07):
So I guess the only thing left to say is Christ is
Lord.

Speaker 1 (01:12:10):
And the kingdom is now.
We are the saints that serve.
We are the saints that serveEverybody, everybody, everybody,

(01:12:44):
everybody.
That is not how that song goes.
No, definitely not.