Teen Girl Squad

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
I mean SO GOOD!

Teen girl squaaaaaaaaad! the teenage girls between the ages of 13 and 19!

"Owww! My the fact that I was alive a second ago!"
—The Ugly One, Issue 12

Teen Girl Squad is a spinoff sub-series of Homestar Runner, in which (canonically) Strong Bad draws, in comically bad style, a stick-figure cartoon depicting the misadventures of four "teenage girls between the ages of thirteen and nineteen". The main characters include Cheerleader (the de facto leader of the group, an Alpha Bitch wannabe whose popularity is all in her head), So and So (an overachieving brainiac who lacks common sense), What's Her Face (the cynic of the group, as well as the token poor person, and by far the least popular of the four girls), and The Ugly One (who seems to possess suspect hygiene and a strained relationship with reality among other things, but is more popular than What's Her Face).

There are fifteen toons in the main series, and a number of other appearances elsewhere (most notably, the first three episodes of Strong Bads Cool Game for Attractive People each feature an exclusive TGS toon, the first two of which are interactive).

Generally speaking, the characters go on various bizarre misadventures, which usually lead to them dying or otherwise being affected in very strange ways (usually announced loudly) in every episode, which include such things as...

  • being "lathe'd" by a miniature samurai with a naginata;
  • being run over by a race car that makes the sound "TIIIIIIINES" driven by a fork;
  • being "arrowed" by a giant man who shoots arrows from his mouth;
  • dying...somehow.

The series is best known for spawning several minor memes, including "ow! my [something unusual]!", and being pwned by something with the caption "[said something]'D!", "It's over!", and others. It also makes fun of various stereotypical high-school/teen/young-adult activities, such as prom, sweet sixteen birthday parties, and Valentine's vamlumtimes day, with a gradually increasing ratio of directed, ridiculing humor to simple absurd humor.

A (so far oneshot) spinoff of this spinoff was created based on the several characters named "Greg" in the series. 4 Gregs is a misadventure of four such characters who each embody some sort of nerdy/geeky/dorky stereotype.

Teen Girl Squad is the Trope Namer for:
Tropes used in Teen Girl Squad include:

"What time is it?"
"It's valentimes!"
"What time is it?"
"It's valentimes!"
"What we gonna get?"
"Several boys!"
"How we gonna get 'em?"
"Erm. Um. Uh..."

Sci-Fi Greg: Tonight, new Earthlings... tonight, we go... TO A VARSITY FOOTBALL GAME!
(everyone else gasps)
D n'D Greg: Into the dragon's lair?
Japanese Culture Greg: Into the robotic dragon's lair?
Open Source Greg: Into the Apple store?

Strong Bad: Whoa! Did I draw that new hotness?

Tompkins: "Aw, come on, Prinicpal [sic] Strong Bad! I only stole one Sega tape!"
Prinicpal [sic] Strong Bad: "That's just it, Tompkins. You could have stolen upwards of one Sega tape!"

Cheerleader: I'm Kissyboots, and she plays bass.

  • Family-Unfriendly Violence: Several deaths are shown as graphic as you can get in poorly drawn stick figures.
    • Like an old guy's remains being exposed as he is eaten by vultures, or the 10thiversary where What's Her Face gets lathed.
  • Four-Girl Ensemble
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: What's-Her-Face is explicitly called the "pity friend" and is the one the other three are most likely to ditch or relegate to least-desired roles.
  • Girlish Pigtails: Cheerleader.
  • Gretzky Has the Ball: A Scotsman caber-tosses Cheerleader in Issue 10 and is disgusted that his throw only goes 23 meters. Success in the caber toss is measured by straightness, not distance. The creators point out their mistake in the DVD commentary.
  • Her Codename Was Mary Sue: Creator Strong Bad inserts himself into several of the comics, often as the love interest of one of the girls.
  • Hollywood Nerd: So and So. The 4 Gregs definitely qualify.
  • I Fell for Hours: "When you fall in a bottomless pit, you die of starvation."
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The Gregs' reaction to seeing What's Her Face date the Wireless Wizard.
  • Jumping the Shark: Invoked in the "tenthennial extravaganza":

Cheerleader: "It's our tenth issue-versary! Let's do a clip show!"
So And So: "Let's have a wedding!"
The Ugly One: "Let's have a baby!"
What's Her Face: "Let's kill someone off!"
Narrator Strong Bad: (beat) "Okay!" *All four die*

  • Kill'Em All: Usually. On rare occasions, one or two will survive. On even rarer occasions (issues 2, 3, and 6), none of them die.
  • Lighter and Softer: The other three girls attempt to take the group in this direction following Cheerleader's death in Issue 9. It doesn't work.
  • Makes Just as Much Sense in Context: Pretty much the whole series.
  • Mind Screw: The ending of "4 Gregs." So basically, Strong Bad was drawing the Teen Girl Squad drawing the four Gregs drawing the girls drawing the Gregs drawing the girls drawing the Gregs drawing the girls drawing the Gregs drawing the girls drawing the Gregs!
    • And it's a SUPER Mind Screw if you count the Brothers Chapman, so that means the Chaps are drawing Strong Bad drawing the Teen Girl Squad drawing the four Gregs drawing the girls drawing the Gregs drawing the girls drawing the Gregs drawing the girls drawing the Gregs drawing the girls drawing the Gregs!
  • Negative Continuity
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: Issue 13 introduces a rapper named Peacey P, a parody of Snoop Dogg (with visual cues from Ludacris).
  • No Inner Fourth Wall
  • "No Respect" Guy: What's Her Face
  • Occidental Otaku: Japanese Culture Greg
  • Oh Crap: The ending of episode 8, verbatim. "Everybody died 'cept me!" *CHOMP* "Aw, crap!"
  • One Million BC: Strong Badia the Free's Cave Girl Squad.
  • Only Sane Girl: What's Her Face is probably the only one with any common sense. For example, she is the only one who refuses to jump into a lion's mouth for the secret Santa.
  • Or So I Heard: In episode 8:

The Ugly One: Worldwide starlets get much boys!
Cheerleader: Or so I have read.

Man, sometimes wizards are so awesome, it hurts.

  • Running Gag
  • Serious Business: Valentime's Day (issue 12). Apparently, Cheerleader risks losing her "Mindy cred" if she doesn't get enough Valentine's cards from enough boys.
  • She Cleans Up Nicely: The Ugly One: "Whoa! Did I draw that new hotness?"
    • And Dn'D Greg looks awful good in a tux.
  • Shown Their Work: All of Dn'D Greg's references to Dungeons & Dragons are accurate and well-researched.
    • Averted with the 12-sided die that looks nothing like a dodecahedron. This is likely because of Strong Bad not doing the research.
  • Show Within a Show
  • Spear Counterpart: The four Gregs.
  • Spinoff Babies: Issue 7 has Teen Girl Squad as toddlers--"Teeny Tiny Girl Squad".
  • Stylistic Suck: The girls are stick figures on a looseleaf backdrop. Strong Bad provides all the voices himself, so they all speak in falsetto.
  • Summer Campy: Camp Firstbassawassa in Issue 11.
  • Sure Why Not: What's Her Face suggests killing someone off in the tenth episode. Strong Bad complies (as if he needed What's Her Face's suggestion as an excuse).
  • Talking to Himself: Matt Chapman aside, Strong Bad voices all of the comics' characters.
  • They Killed Kenny Again: Some number of the Teen Girl Squad almost always die by the end of almost every episode, the exceptions being episodes 2 and 3 and the Decemberween special.
  • Title Drop: Done straight by Strong Bad at the start of every toon. Played with in issue 9:

So And So: "You guys, I think this might be the start of a kinder, gentler squad of teen girls."

IT'S OVER!

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