Cheerfulbear - PLAY ME is a short forum adventure that was made in the earlier days of MSPA, specifically January 22, 2008, on the Gangbunch Fora forums, which later became the MSPA Forums. It was created when a user named "Jigsaw" (an alternate account created by Michael Firman dedicated to roleplaying on this topic as the Jigsaw Killer of Saw fame, with Metalbourne having come up the initial idea for the joke) started a thread request that asked the user Cheerfulbear to draw pornography starring the Muppet Babies, Cheerfulbear never responded to this invitation. While the original post was viewed in disdain, Andrew Hussie himself decided to take it upon him to begin the adventure and play along with this mysterious user, inciting others to do the same.
The adventure lasted for two pages with the third page dedicated to commenting on the previous pages, one of KC Green's Bee Power comics, and a thread bump in 2011.
Preservation[]
As a forum thread most of the images and links were spread across multiple sites and had no maintenance, resulting in many of the images in the original thread dying. However there have been multiple attempts at reconstructing the thread.
- Wayback Machine - The Internet Archive trawled the thread in February 2011 soon after the thread was bumped. Many images had died but the archive preserved some which have since been lost from the original thread. While other forum features represent the forum at that time period and not when the thread was in progress.
- B.J. Schaffner's archive - Two missing images which have been replaced with a black box indicating their loss. Hussie's dead link to an image of a cow is changed to a local image, however his link to another blog is preserved, although the image on the blog page is dead. The 3rd page is not included with the exception of the KC Green comic. As of 2018, this archive is no longer accessible.
- Dropbox archive - Possesses a variant that blocks out Hussie's avatar due to potential spoilers. Similar to the B.J. Schaffner archive but the missing images are not noted. Like B.J. Schaffner's archive, Hussie's dead link to an image of a cow is changed to a local image. Unlike B.J. Schaffner's archive, Hussie's link to a blog is changed to a locally hosted version where the dead image is preserved. As of 2018, this archive is no longer accessible.
- MrCheeze's archive - A copy of the Internet Archive's version with all the files now hosted locally. The third page is not included.
Allusions in Homestuck[]
- Bro, and therefore to some extent, Dirk, has repeatedly shown an obvious obsession with puppet pornography.
- His room contains two suggestive (at least, suggestive when out-of-context) Muppet pictures, including one with Gonzo's nose censored.
- Dave finds a note with a comic on the back that shows baby Rowlf standing over the body of baby Animal. This was one of the comics Andrew drew in this adventure.
- Lil Cal and his red cheeks appear to be an open reference to the puppet Billy from Saw. This, and many other Saw references, appear frequently in Homestuck as a result of this forum adventure.
- The Cherubs have spirals on their cheeks in a similar manner before predominating their bodies.
- Caliborn features many similarities to the Jigsaw Killer, most obviously his obsession with playing everything by an obscure set of rules and often-used phrase "I WANT TO PLAY A GAME". By extension, he once asks Dirk to draw him pornography, though his definition of the word is rather alien.
- A recurring speech pattern frequently referenced in Homestuck takes origin from this adventure.
- A line from the forum adventure when baby Rowlf is imploring his imagination to find a place to hide the body is referenced in this page and in this flash where you can find a carved tablet that reads "I want to carve something, but I can't think of what to wish for. Maybe some delicious bugs? Think, imagination! The one time I really need you." Also this flash when you talk to Hussie and he says "Gotta make a plan. Think, imagination, think. Argh, the one time i really need you!"
- This panel from the first Intermission uses part of a picture posted in "PLAY ME".
- Jigsaw's puppet Billy has a cameo on the Prospitian battleship.
- [S] MSPA Reader: Mental breakdown is inspired by the endings to the Saw films, even using the Saw same theme song "Hello Zepp". Also referenced by a video posted by Michael in the thread labeled saw.wmv.
- Yet another excerpt appears when Dirk and Dave discuss the post-scratch Dave.