Homer Simpson

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The Simpsons character
Homer Simpson
Gender	Male
Job	Safety Inspector of Sector 7-G at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant (See also List of Homer Simpson's jobs )
Relatives	Wife: Marge Children: Bart, Lisa and Maggie Parents: Abraham and Mona Half sibling: Herb Powell
Voice actor	Dan Castellaneta
First appearance
Ullman shorts	"Good Night"
The Simpsons	"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"

Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television in the Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night". He is one of five members of the titular family and has become the most popular and influential character in the series. Homer embodies several American working class stereotypes: he is crude, overweight, incompetent, clumsy, thoughtless and a borderline alcoholic. Despite the suburban blue-collar routine of his life, he has had a number of remarkable experiences. He has occasionally displayed flashes of great intellect and fitness whenever the situation calls for it, and an integrity reflecting his own values, including a fierce devotion to and protectiveness of his family. Castellaneta describes him as "a dog trapped in a man's body. He's incredibly loyal—not entirely clean—but you gotta love him."^[1]

Homer was created by cartoonist Matt Groening and named after Groening's father. He made his television debut on April 19, 1987 in the Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night". In the shorts and earlier episodes, his voice was an loose impression of Walter Matthau but eventually evolved into a more robust voice during the second and third season of the half-hour show, allowing Homer to cover a fuller range of emotions. Homer has since become one of the most influential fictional characters and has been described by the UK newspaper The Sunday Times as the greatest comedic creation of modern time.^[2] He has inspired an entire line of merchandise and his catchphrase, the annoyed grunt "D'oh!", is now included in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Contents 1 Role in The Simpsons 1.1 Biography 1.2 Personality 2 Character 2.1 Creation 2.2 Character development 2.3 Voice 3 Reception 4 Cultural influence 4.1 D'oh! 4.2 Merchandising 5 Notes 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links

[edit] Role in The Simpsons

[edit] Biography

Although The Simpsons has a floating timeline in which the characters do not age, and the show is set in the current year, certain dates have been given although sometimes these dates are contradicted. Homer was raised on a farm by his parents, Mona and Abraham Simpson. In the mid-1960s, while Homer was between nine and twelve years of age, Mona went into hiding following a run-in with the law.^[3] Homer attended Springfield High School and in his final year in 1974, he fell in love with Marge Bouvier.^[4][5] Marge became pregnant with Bart, while Homer was working at a miniature golf course and the two were wed in a small wedding chapel across the state line. After that, Homer secured a job at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.^[6] Marge became pregnant with Lisa and, soon after, the new couple bought their first house. Homer took a job as a pin monkey in a bowling alley but, unfortunately for Homer, Marge became pregnant with Maggie shortly after he started his new job and, not being able to support his family, he went back to the nuclear plant.^[7] Although past episodes stated that Bart and Lisa were born in the 1980s, the season nineteen episode "That 90's Show" contradicted all this and revealed that Homer and Marge lived without any children in the early 1990s.^[8]

Homer's age has changed as the series moved on; he was thirty-six in the early episodes,^[9] thirty-eight in season eight^[10] and forty in the eighteenth season,^[11] although even in those seasons his age is inconsistent.^[12] Part of the reason his age was changed was that during Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein's period as showrunners, they found that as they aged, Homer seemed older too, so they changed his age to 38.^[13]

[edit] Personality

Homer embodies several American stereotypes of working-class blue-collar men: he is crude, overweight, incompetent, clumsy, thoughtless and a borderline alcoholic.^[12] His personality is one of frequent stupidity, laziness and explosive anger. He has a low intelligence level, being described by director David Silverman as "creatively brilliant in his stupidity."^[14] Homer shows immense laziness towards work, is overweight and "is devoted to his stomach."^[14] Dan Castellaneta describes him as "a dog trapped in a man's body. He's incredibly loyal—not entirely clean—but you gotta love him."^[1] He suffers from a short attention span, following only his dominant impulse, which complements his short-lived passion for various hobbies and enterprises, but then "changes his mind when things go badly."^[14] Homer is prone to emotional outbursts; he is very envious of his neighbors, the Flanders family, and is easily enraged by Bart and strangles him frequently, most often yelling "Why you little...!" beforehand. He shows no compunction about this, and does not attempt to hide his actions from people outside the family, even showing disregard for his son's well being in other ways, such as leaving Bart alone at a port.^[15] These actions can be attributed to Homer not realizing he has responsibilities.^[14]

While Homer's thoughtless antics often upset his family, he has also revealed himself to be a surprisingly caring father and husband: in "Lisa the Beauty Queen", he sold his cherished ride on the Duff blimp and used the money to enter Lisa in a beauty pageant so she could feel better about herself; in "Rosebud", he gave up his chance at wealth to allow Maggie to keep a cherished teddy bear; in "Radio Bart", he spearheaded an attempt to dig Bart out after he had fallen down a well, even though Homer generally hates doing physical labor; and in "A Milhouse Divided", he arranged a surprise second wedding with Marge to make up for their lousy first ceremony, even going so far as hiring one of The Doobie Brothers as part of the wedding band, and getting a divorce from Marge, which essentially made their second wedding a "real" one. In You Only Move Twice, Homer gives up his new job, which he is successful at and enjoys, to fulfill his family's desire to move back to Springfield.

Homer has a low IQ of 55 due to his hereditary "Simpson Gene,"^[16] his alcohol problem, exposure to radioactive waste, repetitive cranial trauma,^[17] and a crayon lodged in the frontal lobe of his brain.^[18] Homer's intelligence was said to jump fifty points when he had the crayon removed, bringing him to an IQ of 105, slightly above that of an average person, however he had the crayon reinserted, lowering his IQ back to its original 55. The amount of Homer's brain which still functions is also questionable. At one point in the series, Homer apparently lost 5% of his brain after a coma and lost 20% when a pipe fell on his head at the nuclear power plant. Homer often debates his own mind; moments like these are expressed in voiceover. Homer's brain has a dubious record of advice, either helping Homer make the right decisions or failing completely. It has even become completely frustrated and, through sound effects, walked out on him in the episode "Brother from the Same Planet". In the episode "When You Dish Upon a Star", Homer confessed to being illiterate, claiming to understand text by logos. He is also diabetic, as revealed in the episode 'That 90s Show'.

[edit] Character

[edit] Creation

Matt Groening first conceived Homer and the rest of the Simpson family in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. He had been called in to pitch a series of animated shorts, and had intended to present his Life in Hell series. When he realized that animating Life in Hell would require him to rescind publication rights for his life's work, Groening decided to go in another direction^[19], hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family and named the characters after members of his own family. Homer was named after Groening's father Homer Groening^[20][19] but very little else, such as Homer's behavior and appearance, was based on him.^[21] Homer's middle initial "J," which was revealed to stand for "Jay",^[22] was a "tribute" to Bullwinkle J. Moose from Rocky and Bullwinkle, a show Matt Groening loved as a child.^[23] Homer then made his debut with the rest of the Simpsons clan on April 19, 1987 in the Tracey Ullman short "Good Night".^[24]

The whole family was designed so that they would be recognizable in silhouette.^[25] The features of Homer's character design are generally not used in other characters, for example, in the later seasons, no characters besides Homer and Lenny have a similar beard line.^[26] When Groening drew Homer, he put his initials into the character's hairline and ear: the hairline resembles an 'M', and the right ear resembled a 'G'. Groening decided that this would be too distracting though, and redesigned the ear to look normal. He still draws the ear as a 'G' when he draws pictures of Homer for fans.^[27] In some early episodes, Homer's hair was rounded rather than pointy because Wes Archer felt it should be mixed up. Homer's hair is now consistently pointy.^[28] During the first three seasons, Homer's design for some close-up shots included small lines which were meant to be eyebrows. Matt Groening strongly disliked them and they were eventually dropped.^[28]

Groening decided to have Homer work at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant because he liked the idea of Homer working at a place that could potentially cause a lot of damage.^[29]

[edit] Character development

Homer's behavior has changed a number of times through the run of the series. In early seasons, Homer is concerned that his family is going to make him look bad. This was later changed so that he would not care how he was perceived by other people.^[30] In the early seasons, he was portrayed as sweet and sincere, but later he became ruder and meaner. Fans have dubbed some later incarnations of the character "Jerkass Homer".^[31] When editing The Simpsons Movie, several scenes were changed or otherwise toned down to make Homer more sympathetic.^[32] Homer has also become dumber over the years. Writers explain this was not done intentionally, but something that simply happened over the years because of a need to top previous jokes.^[33] In "When You Dish Upon a Star", the writers had a scene where Homer admits that he can not read. This was debated amongst the writers because the joke would undo the previous times that viewers had seen Homer read, but eventually they decided to keep the joke because they found it humorous. The writers often had debates about how stupid Homer could be, one suggestion was "he can never forget his own name".^[34]

In 2005, The Simpsons was adapted for Arabic television. Homer was renamed Omar Shamshoon and several staples of his character were changed: he drank "juice" instead of beer, didn't eat bacon, didn't visit Moe's Tavern^[35] and ate kahk instead of doughnuts.^[36] The series did not fare very well and only 34 of the 52 adapted episodes aired.^[35]

[edit] Voice

Homer's voice is performed by Dan Castellaneta, who also voices several other characters, including Homer's father Abe. Castellaneta had been part of the regular cast of The Tracey Ullman Show and had done some voice over work in Chicago alongside his wife Deb Lacusta. Voices were needed for the shorts, so the producers decided to ask Castellaneta and fellow cast member Julie Kavner to voice Homer and Marge rather than hire more actors.^[1][37] Homer's voice sounds different in the shorts and earlier episodes of the half-hour show. His voice began as a loose impression of Walter Matthau, but Castellaneta could not "get enough power behind that voice"^[1] and could not sustain his Matthau impression for the 9-10 hour long recording sessions and had to find something easier.^[38] Castellaneta "dropped the voice down"^[37] and developed it into a more robust and humorous voice during the second and third season of the half-hour show, allowing Homer to cover a fuller range of emotions.^[39] To perform Homer's voice, Castellaneta lowers his chin to his chest^[1] and he is said to "let his IQ go".^[40] While in this state, he has ad-libbed several of Homer's stupid remarks^[40] such as the line "I am so smart, s-m-r-t" from the episode "Homer Goes to College" which was a genuine mistake made by Castellaneta.^[41]

Up until 1998, Castellaneta was paid $30,000 per episode and, following a pay dispute, he was paid $125,000 per episode until 2004. In 2004, there was another pay dispute and the voice actors demanded that they be paid $360,000 an episode.^[42] The issue was resolved a month later^[43] and Castellaneta now earns $250,000 per episode.^[44]

[edit] Reception

Homer was placed second on TV Guide's 2002 Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters, behind Bugs Bunny;^[45] fifth on Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters, one of only four cartoon characters on that list,^[46] and British TV viewers voted him as the greatest TV character of all time.^[47] In 2007, Entertainment Weekly placed Homer ninth on their list of the "50 Greatest TV icons".^[48] Homer has been described by the UK newspaper The Sunday Times as the greatest comedic creation of modern time who wrote "Every age needs its great, consoling failure, its lovable, pretension-free mediocrity. And we have ours in Homer Simpson" and "Homer is good because, above all, he is capable of great love. When the chips are down, he always does the right thing by his children - he is never unfaithful in spite of several opportunities."^[49] Homer was also the runaway winner in a British poll that determined which fictional character people would like to see become the President of the United States.^[50]

Dan Castellaneta has won several awards for voicing Homer, including three Primetime Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Voice-Over Performance" in 1992 for "Lisa's Pony"; 1993 for "Mr. Plow" and 2004 for "Today, I am a Clown" although in this case it was for voicing "various characters" and not solely for Homer.^[51] In 2004, Castellaneta and Julie Kavner (the voice of Marge) won a Young Artist Award for "Most Popular Mom & Dad in a TV Series".^[52] In 2005, Homer and Marge were nominated for a Teen Choice Award for "Choice TV Parental Units".^[53] Various episodes that heavily featured Homer have won Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program, including "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment" in 1991, "Lisa's Wedding" in 1995, "Homer's Phobia" in 1997, "Trash of the Titans" in 1998, "HOMЯ" in 2001 and "Three Gays of the Condo" in 2003.^[51]

[edit] Cultural influence

The Simpsons has been recommended for use in the teaching of sociology to modern-day college students.^[54] The book The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer includes a chapter analyzing Homer's character from the perspective of Aristotelian virtue ethics.^[55] In 2003, Matt Groening revealed that his father, after whom Homer was named, was Canadian, and said that this made Homer himself a Canadian.^[56] He was later made an honorary citizen of Winnipeg, Canada, because Homer Groening was believed to be from the Manitoba capital, although some say he was actually born in Saskatchewan.^[57]

In 2007, an image of Homer was painted next to the hill figure, the Cerne Abbas giant in Dorset, England as part of a promotion for The Simpsons Movie. This caused outrage amongst local neopagans who performed "rain magic" to try and get it washed away.^[58]

A five-year study of more than 2,000 middle-aged people in France found a possible link between weight and brain function, dubbed the "Homer Simpson syndrome".^[59] Results from a word memory test showed that people with a BMI of 20 (considered to be a healthy level) remembered an average of nine out of 16 words. Meanwhile, people with a BMI of 30 (inside the obese range) remembered an average of just seven out of 16 words.^[59]

[edit] D'oh!

It has been suggested that D'oh! be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

Main article: D'oh!

Homer's ubiquitous catch phrase "D'oh!" was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2002, without the apostrophe.^[60] The spoken word D'oh is a trademark of 20th Century Fox.^[61] When Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer, was first asked to voice an "annoyed grunt", he rendered it as a drawn out "d'ooooooh". This was inspired by Jimmy Finlayson, the mustachioed Scottish actor who appeared in 33 Laurel and Hardy films. Finlayson had used the term as a minced oath to stand in for the word "Damn!"^[62] Matt Groening felt that it would better suit the timing of animation if it were spoken faster. Castellaneta then shortened it to a quickly uttered "D'oh!"

The word was first used in the Ullman short "The Krusty the Clown Show", and its first usage in the series was in "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".^[63] It is typically represented in the show's script as "(annoyed grunt)", and is so spelled out in the official titles of several episodes.^[64] Some episodes feature variations of the word such as "Bart of Darkness", when Homer says "D'oheth"^[63] or The Simpsons Movie when Homer shouts "d'oooome!"^[65]

[edit] Merchandising

Homer's inclusion in many Simpsons publications, toys, and other merchandise is evidence of his enduring popularity. A book written about Homer's personality and attributes has been published and is commercially available.^[66] Other merchandise includes dolls, posters, figurines, bobblehead dolls, mugs, alarm clocks and clothing such as slippers, T-shirts, Baseball caps and Boxer shorts.^[67] In 2004, Homer starred in a Mastercard Priceless commercial that aired during Super Bowl XXXVIII.^[68]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Richmond, Ray; Antonia Coffman (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to our Favorite Family. Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 0-00-638898-1. 
• Turner, Chris. Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation. ISBN 0-679-31318-4. 

[edit] Further reading

• Irwin, William; Mark T. Conrad; Aeon Skoble (eds.) (1999). The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer. Chicago: Open Court. ISBN 0-8126-9433-3.
• Pinsky, Mark I. The Gospel According to The Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World's Most Animated Family. ISBN 0-664-22419-9. 

[edit] External links

• Homer Simpson at TheSimpsons.com
• Homer Simpson at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e The Simpsons characters
The Simpson family and relatives
Homer Simpson · Marge Simpson · Bart Simpson · Lisa Simpson · Maggie Simpson · Abraham Simpson · Patty and Selma Bouvier · Mona Simpson · Santa's Little Helper · Snowball
Around Springfield
Comic Book Guy · Ned Flanders · Professor Frink · Barney Gumble · Dr. Hibbert · Lionel Hutz · Rev. Lovejoy · Hans Moleman · Apu Nahasapeemapetilon · Mayor Quimby · Dr. Nick Riviera · Cletus Spuckler · Moe Szyslak · Chief Wiggum
Springfield Elementary School faculty and students
Seymour Skinner · Edna Krabappel · Otto Mann · Groundskeeper Willie · Nelson Muntz · Martin Prince · Milhouse Van Houten · Ralph Wiggum
Media personalities
Celebrities · Itchy and Scratchy · Kent Brockman · Krusty the Clown · Troy McClure · Radioactive Man · Rainier Wolfcastle
Springfield Nuclear Power Plant	Families
Montgomery Burns · Carl Carlson · Lenny Leonard · Waylon Smithers	Simpson family · Flanders family · Van Houten family
Villains	Miscellaneous
Kang and Kodos · Sideshow Bob · Springfield Mafia · Fat Tony	Recurring characters · Fictional characters · One-time characters · Animals · Guest stars