The Cheat (Homestar Runner)
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| This article is about a character in the Homestar Runner series. |
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The Cheat is a character in the Homestar Runner animated cartoon series, and is Strong Bad's "sidekick" and primary partner in crime. When his name is invoked, it is always as "The Cheat" (with the definite article), as in "Hey, The Cheat" instead of "Hey, Cheat".
The Cheat is small and requires protection from larger predators. Although primarily provided by Strong Mad this protection is apparently from everybody except Strong Bad, who occasionally engages in "Kicking The Cheat". His appearance has been described as a cross between a Pikachu, a wedge of cheese, and an anvil. The Cheat has a gold tooth, although it is rarely seen. Though his yellow fur has some black spots like a Cheetah, his name also fits his passion for scheming and finding ways to cheat. Although this is supposed to be a name, there are some situations where "The Cheat" might be a species name ("...and the egg cracked open and out popped a lifetime supply of fishsticks... And a The Cheat!" [1]) He lives in a charcoal grill belonging to the King of Town.
The Cheat speaks almost entirely in a language of high-pitched squeaks and growls (called "The Cheat", appropriately enough), which only the other characters can understand. He is, however, noted as being the voice actor in his home-made cartoons, which could lead viewers to believe that he indeed can speak English, but normally chooses not to. Evidence against this theory include the fact that Matt Chapman does the voice of The Cheat while Mike Chapman does voices in the Powered by The Cheat cartoons, and the fact that The Cheat wouldn't say "Douglas" in the Strong Bad E-mail cheat talk.
The Cheat's cheating includes ransacking houses (usually Homestar's) and smoking (which he said he was going to quit as his New Year's resolution). A running gag is that The Cheat's head explodes for various reasons, with no apparent lasting effects. For example, Strong Bad once typed, "make Homestar's head explode.exe" into his computer. Instead, it resulted in The Cheat's head exploding.
The Cheat enjoys many kinds of music, especially techno and music that Strong Bad enjoys. He owns a keyboard, which he uses to make his own songs (such as "Song about Sibbie", "Everybody to the Limit", "The Cheat Theme Song", "The Geddup Noise," and "Everybody Knows It") with assistance from the various characters from the Homestar Runner cast. The Cheat is also the DJ of Club Technochocolate. The Cheat seems more computer savvy than Strong Bad (he uses a fourth generation iMac rather than the very outdated computers Strong Bad does). On the other hand, he is also known for designing various amateurish Macromedia Flash movies. The Cheat is also an experienced graphic designer as seen in the Strong Bad email "redesign".
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[edit] Alternate versions
[edit] 1936 - The Sneak
The Sneak is a small rodent or opossum with a striped tail. He communicates via waggling his nose. His exploits tend to be more violent than those of The Cheat, such as dropping The Homestar Runner from a plane.
[edit] 20X6 - Cheatball
Originally, The Cheat's 20X6 form was going to be the spaceship glimpsed briefly flying behind 1-Up when you highlight "Toons" on the 20X6 main menu. In Strong Bad Email 157 "trading cards" the 20X6 version of The Cheat is shown as "Cheatball". As its name suggests, Cheatball is essentially a spherical version of The Cheat with large blue eyes which can only say its own name, in the style of a Pokémon; this is however most probably a refference to the spherical Haro robots in the Gundam series, which look nearly identical.
[edit] Cheat Commandos
The Cheat Commandos are a series of action figures by Cheap As Free toys that mimic G.I. Joe, complete with a merchandise-driven tie-in TV show. The Commandos all have the appearance of The Cheat and only differ from him by their facial expressions, usage of English, and clothing. The Commandos started in the Strong Bad E-mail "army", when The Cheat wanted Strong Bad to call him by the codename "Firebert", despite Strong Bad's insistance that this wasn't a good commando name. An easter egg in the E-mail showed a "Firebert" action figure. The idea eventually transformed into a full cartoon in the form of a mock commercial for the "Cheat Commandos" and their cartoon. This, in turn, led to a series of cartoons that were ostenibly episodes of the Cheat Commandos cartoon show. The "Cheat Commandos Adventures" cartoons are a parody of many Saturday-morning cartoons from the 1980s that existed primarily for the purpose of advertising products (One line of the theme song encourages the viewers to "Buy all our playsets and toys!"). Cheat Commandos is remarkable for being the only consistent usage of The Cheat's name without the definite article in the Homestar Runner universe.
[edit] Trivia
- Suudsu (Skim milk with gummi bears) is The Cheat's favorite drink. He drinks it to help himself fall asleep as part of his bedtime routine.
- The Cheat is sometimes considered to be a parody on the Pokémon Pikachu, although The Cheat was created before Pokémon was imported to America. The Brothers Chaps modified his design to give him more resemblance to a Pikachu after the Pokémon made its debut. His screen name, cheatachu72, is an inside joke to The Cheat's and Pikachu's resemblance. In The Cheat's theme song, after the words, "who's the guy who looks like The Cheat," a picture of Pikachu is shown along with two The Cheats.
- The Cheat also bears strong resemblances to Eugene the Jeep from the Popeye comics and cartoons. In addition to obvious similarities in both name and physical appearance, they additionally share a limited vocabulary, strange diet (Eugene the Jeep eats only orchids), and are both of uncertain origin and species.
