Here's a thought:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w 
use strict;

my $work={
       "host1" => { userid=>"user1",args => [ "thing1" , "thing2, "red
+ thing" , "blue thing" ] } )
       "host2" => { userid=>"user2",args=> [ ] }
       "host3" => { userid => "user3", args=>[] }
#etcetera
};
foreach $host(keys %$work){
      my $uid=$work->{$host}->{userid};
      my @args=@{$work->{$host}->{args}};
      if ( fork() == 0 ) {
          my $cmdline=sprintf("ssh %s\@$s /tmp/start %s",$uid,$host,jo
+in(" ",@args));
          system($cmdline)
      }
}
wait() ;   Wait here until the children exit 

exit(0);
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