Coach Z

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Character in Homestar Runner

Principal characters

Others

Coach Z is a fictional character in the Homestar Runner series of animated cartoons. As his name implies, he is the coach of the athletic team on which Homestar Runner and some of his friends play. He is also green, and it is unclear whether this is skin or some kind of body suit, although he once made reference to throwing up "in his pants"^[1].

1 Character
2 Sports
3 Music
4 Alternate versions
- 4.1 20X6
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Character

Coach Z's primary gag is his thick and occasionally incomprehensible Pittsburghese/midwestern accent. An early profile suggested he came from a "foreign country". This accent causes various mutations in common English, for example, the word "job" comes across as "jorb", "jaerb", or even "jorearb".^[2] He claims to have been a hip-hop star in his home country and is a fan of the Wu-Tang Clan,^[3] Digital Underground and Flavor Flav of Public Enemy.

According to one of his trading cards, he had a record of 23 butt pats in 1984, 22 of which Homestar received and the last one he gave himself, according to Homestar.^[4]

Coach Z is older than most of the other characters. While Strong Bad, Homestar, and the others appear to be written as children or teens, the Coach Z character is written as an adult, and hence performs a variety of "adult" roles in the series (at one point Coach Z is shown to be the same age as Strong Bad and Pom-Pom, but it is shown only in a Strong Bad flashback, which tend to be sketchy at best). When Strong Bad slipped Strong Sad caffeine and the latter became hyperactive, Coach Z mistook his actions as an attempt on his life and cried, among other things, "I'm just an old man! Don't hurt me!" During the Christmas Special where the characters were represented by ornaments on a Christmas Tree, Coach Z's was a photo of himself dated 1974; he had an afro and a moustache in the photo.

His favorite piece of advice, which he suggests to Homestar at various points, is "It's like a great sports play. You can't just rush into the score zone." This little gem seems to apply to any type of situation, even the ones in which it makes absolutely no sense.

Coach Z is probably the most disturbed character in the series. He has left a message on Marzipan's answering machine in which he (presumably while drunk) professes love,^[5] and it has also been hinted that he is stalking her. While several jokes involving characters drinking have been made, he is the only character to have actually appeared on screen intoxicated, having passed out from drinking Listerine^[6] (it is uncertain whether Strong Bad's consumption of soy sauce counts as drinking per se^[7]). He lives in the locker room, and spent one Decemberween eating a TV dinner while pretending to talk to his parents on a non-functional telephone.^[8] He has also hinted he has children - more specifically, and bizarrely, he has hinted at being a mother.

[edit] Sports

The details of the sport he coaches remain unclear. While played on an American football field, it also involves basketball hoops and a baseball being kicked around. His actual knowledge of sports seems to be quite limited; in one of Strong Bad's emails he is seen with a basketball, saying, "What is this thing? A bounce thing?"^[9]One hint is left to us in a 2006's Decemberween short, where he has a clipboard with a list of plays on it, some of which being the runaround, the picket fence, the stanislaw, and the local gentry. The picket fence is a basketball play.

[edit] Music

Coach Z has had two Powered by The Cheat music videos: "Hip Hop Dance" and "These peoples try to fade me". The latter appears on the Strong Bad Sings CD.

[edit] Alternate versions

[edit] 20X6

The 20X6 version of Coach Z has a minor appearance in the site's games menu. All that can be determined from this appearance is that in 20X6, Coach Z has eyebrows and more detailed eyes. He is rumored to be the villain of the Stinkoman 20X6 video game.