Homer Simpson

Homer J. Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Dan Castellaneta. He has become a popular character and an American icon; his signature annoyed grunt "D'oh!" has been included in the Oxford English Dictionary.^[1] Homer is named after and loosely based on show creator, Matt Groening's father. In the commentary of an episode on the Season 9 DVD, he mentioned that his father did not look like Homer Simpson. His voice was originally based on that of Walter Matthau.^[2]

The early seasons of the show focused primarily on Homer's son , Bart, but as the series went on and "Bartmania" died down, Homer became more of a focus. Homer embodies several working class American stereotypes. He is crude, overweight, intolerant, clumsy, and a borderline alcoholic. Despite being gluttonous, lazy, and often simple-minded, Homer has displayed flashes of brilliance. He also sometimes appears on his couch drinking beer in his briefs. In spite of his apparently blue-collar status, he has had a number of remarkable adventures. Although often inept, he is a caring and devoted husband and father and has come to be known as a lovable oaf.

Character origins

Homer was first conceived by Matt Groening in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. Groening was going to try to pitch his comic strip Life in Hell. However, he realized that doing so would force him to give up the rights, so he created a family of characters in literally fifteen minutes. He named the characters after various members of his own family, with Homer being named after his father.^[3] Homer made his debut with the rest of the Simpsons clan on April 19, 1987 in the Tracey Ullman short "Good Night".^[4] In the Ullman Shorts, as well as the first season of the show, Homer's voice was based on Walter Matthau but Dan Castellaneta found it hard to have a complete emotional range and around the season 2 episode "Blood Feud", his voice began to evolve into what it is today.^[5]

When Groening first designed Homer, he drew his initials (M.G.) in Homer's head (the patch of hair lining the back of his head made the "M" and his ear made the "G") when he was viewed in profile. Groening soon realized this was distracting, however, and redesigned Homer's ear to be more realistic and similar to the other characters. When making sketches for fans, Groening currently draws Homer the way he was originally designed, with the initials showing.

Homer shares his name with a character in the novel Day of the Locust. However, this may be just a coincidence.

Biography

In the episode "Duffless", Homer's license said he was born on May 121956. 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. According to one source, Homer Simpson was born c. May 12, 1955^[2] in Winnipeg, Manitoba,^[6], which makes him a Taurus,^[7] and was raised on a farm with his parents, Mona and Abraham Simpson (although Homer said in one of the newest episodes that he and the Rich Texan are both from Connecticut). 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.^[8] Homer attended Springfield High School and fell in love with Marge Bouvier in 1974.^[9][10] Marge became pregnant with Bart in 1980, while Homer was working at a miniature golf course, turning the crank that spins the windmill (sometimes too quickly). The two were wed in a small wedding chapel across the state line,^[11] spent their wedding reception alone at a truck stop,^[12] and the rest of their wedding night at Marge's parents' house. After failing to get a job at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Homer left Marge to find a job by which he could support his family. He briefly worked at a taco restaurant called the Gulp n' Blow, until Marge found him, and convinced him to return. As a result, Homer confronted Mr. Burns and secured a job at the Plant. Homer's salary is only $6,000 a year.^[11] Marge became pregnant with Lisa in 1983, shortly before the new couple bought their new house. In 1985 and 1986, Homer saw brief success as the lead singer and songwriter for the barbershop quartet the Be Sharps, even winning a Grammy. During his time with the group, Homer was frequently absent from home, which put stress on his marriage. After the group broke up due to creative differences, Homer went back to Springfield to continue his old life.^[13] Some time in the late 1980s, Homer and Marge carefully budgeted so Homer could work at his dream job, pin monkey in a bowling alley. Unfortunately for Homer, Marge became pregnant shortly after he started his new job, and not being able to support his family, he went back to the Nuclear Plant.^[14]

According to comments made on The Simpsons DVDs by the writers and producers, Homer's age was initially 34, but as the writers aged, they found that he seemed a bit older too, so they changed his age to 38.^[15] Some episodes have different ages. In "The Homer They Fall", he is 38 years old; in "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace", he is 39; and in "Springfield Up", he is 40.

Homer's baldness is often the subject of small jokes. Homer will sometimes lose the two strands of hair from the top of his head and exclaim "I'm bald!". Homer's baldness is not normal male pattern baldness, but is due to his children. Every time Marge informed him she was pregnant, he screamed, tore out some more hair, and ran upstairs to his room. Oddly, in the episode "Brother, can You Spare Two Dimes", Homer is seen sitting on his couch in several different years(1980, 1986, and 1989). He is shown balding in the typical male pattern, having a near-full head of hair in 1980, a full horseshoe in 1986, and his trademark thin horseshoe and two hairs in 1989.^[14]

Personality

Homer's personality is one of frequent stupidity, laziness and explosive anger, one might say the "Average Joe." He also suffers from a short attention span which complements his intense but short-lived passion for hobbies, enterprises and various causes. Homer is prone to emotion, gets very envious of his neighbors, the Flanders family, is easily enraged at his son Bart, and strangles him in an exaggerated manner. He shows no compunction about this, and does not attempt to hide his actions from people outside the family, even leaving Bart alone at a port.^[16] While Homer has repeatedly upset people and caused all sorts of mayhem in Springfield, these events are usually caused by either his explosive temper or a lack of foresight. Except for expressing annoyance at Ned Flanders, Homer's actions are usually unintentional. Most of his explosive anger is targeted on Bart, because of something stupid or bad he had said or done. Despite their disadvantages, these common outbursts save Homer from dying of a pent-up rage induced heart attack.^[17]

While Homer's stupid antics often upset his family, he has also performed acts that reveal him to be surprisingly loving father and husband: selling his cherished ride on the Duff blimp and using the money to enter Lisa in a beauty pageant so she could feel better about herself; giving up his chance at wealth to allow Maggie to keep a cherished teddy bear; using a portable nuclear pile to get Bart's money back from the crooked businessman who had swindled him; spearheading an attempt to dig Bart out after he had fallen down a well, even though Homer generally hates doing physical labor; and arranging a surprise second wedding with Marge to make up for their lousy first ceremony, even going so far as to hire one of the Doobie Brothers as part of the wedding band and getting a divorce from Marge, essentially making their second wedding a "real" one.^{[citations needed]}

Homer tends to derive amusement from the misfortune of others. He is a chronic petty thief and borderline kleptomaniac, stealing from Ned Flanders everything from TV trays to power tools and air conditioners, even an entire room of the Flanders' house (often, he will take advantage of Ned's good nature, borrowing things he has no intention of ever returning). He has also stolen golf balls from the local driving range, office supplies (including computers) from work, and beer mugs from Moe's Tavern.^[18]

Homer has a vacuous mind, but he is still able to retain a great amount of knowledge about very specific subjects. He shows small bursts of astonishing insight, memory, creativity, and fluency with many languages in nearly every episode. (Example: "You can't sell that! Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos"). In some episodes, he has displayed a polished talent for singing and songwriting.^[13] However, his brief periods of intelligence are overshadowed by much longer and consistent periods of ignorance, forgetfulness and stupidity. Homer has low IQ due to his hereditary "Simpson Gene",^[19] his alcohol problem, exposure to radioactive waste, repetitive cranial trauma,^[20] and a crayon lodged in the frontal lobe of his brain.^[21] The crayon in his brain is one of the main factors, and possibly the biggest, that causes his stupidity. Homer's intelligence was said to jump fifty points higher when he had the crayon removed, bringing him to an IQ of 105, slightly above that of an average person, but he went back to his old self when he had it reinserted, presumably lowering his IQ back to its original 55. However in one episode when the audience viewed inside Homer's head when Homer is choosing whether or not to punish Bart it is shown that the Aggressive part of Homer's personality had long ago killed his intelligence.^{[citation needed]}

It has been suggested in some episodes that Homer's normal functions do not require the use of his brain. Homer has, at times, debated against his own brain. Occasionally, a specific body part is portrayed debating with his brain, such as his face, stomach or liver. He has also been known to think of himself as two people. This is first hinted at in "Treehouse of Horror IV", in which Homer eats his emergency donut and leaves a note for himself saying "Dear Homer, I.O.U. one emergency donut, Signed Homer". After reading the note, he refers to himself as a bastard who is always one step ahead. He also frequently confuses himself with ontological paradoxes, in which he intermixes others' lives with his own. He has been known from time to time to grow uncertain about the boundary between persons in large conversation groups that have rapid exchanges.^{[citations needed]}

Homer's various talents include playing softball and bowling. He is also apparently talented at golf, songwriting, drawing, playing the piano and the trumpet. He can play poker to the point where he often wins without realizing it. He sang in a barbershop quartet, has the ability to hear pudding, retains a thorough knowledge of the politics of Iran and United States Supreme court justices, speaks certain languages including Klingon and Chinese, and can eat tremendous amounts of food, enough to nearly put the owner of one all-you-can-eat restaurant out of business and make another "sorry he ever saw the likes of me". Homer's capacity for food is almost superhuman. He has eaten things that are not normally meant to be consumed, such as an entire ten-pound bag of flour and the prop plastic lobsters used by the seafood restaurant which he nearly ruined. Perhaps most notably, he consumed an unspecified amount of plutonium, after which Marge observed his glowing gums. Other unusual eating habits include flowers (which he calls his 'secret shame') and, in the episode Treehouse of Horror IV he is sent to Hell where, in the 'Department of Ironic Punishments' he is forced to eat all the doughnuts in the world, which he completes successfully and then demands "more". He was also skilled at spelling before the Simpson Gene destroyed his abilities. It could be possible that Homer might have some traits of autism or another pervasive developmental disorder since Homer sometimes bangs his head when he feels he has done something stupid.^{[citations needed]}

Although bald and fat, Homer has a hidden quality that is very attractive to women. Although he is hated by Marge's sisters Patty and Selma Bouvier, many one time characters have fallen in love with Homer, such as Edna Krabappel, fellow workmate Mindy Simmons,^[22] country singer Lurleen Lumpkin (whom Homer briefly managed),^[23] and many others.

Criticism

Homer can be accused of child abuse(he frequently strangles Bart)

Accolades

In 2002, Homer placed second on TV Guide's Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters,^[24] after Bugs Bunny, as well as 14^th on its List of the 50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time. In 2005, Homer Simpson was listed fifth on Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters.^[25] He is one of only four cartoon characters on the list, along with Eric Cartman (#19) and Rocky & Bullwinkle (#54). Furthermore, viewers of the UK television channel Channel 4 have voted Homer first place in 2001's 100 Greatest TV Characters. On May 30, 2003, Homer was made an honorary citizen of Winnipeg, Canada. This was to recognize the fact that Matt Groening's father — Homer Groening — was likely from the Manitoba capital.^[26]

References

Wikipedia information about Homer Simpson This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Homer Simpson". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.