Homer Jay Simpson
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Homer Simpson
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Character Information
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Homer Jay Simpson is the father of the Simpson family; Homer is overweight, lazy, and not too bright. His behavior is often absurd, selfish, dangerous, clumsy, idiotic, and insensitive. However, he has shown moments of great intellect, and can be a caring parent and husband at times. Over the years, he has evolved into an iconic symbol, recognized and understood by millions of misunderstood fathers across the globe.
Homer works as a safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, in Sector 7G, although "working" in this case refers largely to dozing and eating doughnuts. He spends a great deal of his time at Moe's Tavern with his lifelong friends Barney, Carl, Lenny, and bartender Moe. At home he is often to be found sitting on the sofa mindlessly watching TV while snacking on comfort foods and drinking cans of Duff Beer.
Homer Simpson popularized the annoyed grunt "D'oh!" (made memorable through Dan Castellaneta's distinctive voice work), which began as an abbreviated form of Jimmy Finlayson's annoyed "Dooooh" from the films of Laurel and Hardy. This modern interjection has found enough popular acceptance to be included in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Height and weight
Homer stands at 6 feet, according to the episode in which he gets a physical. He currently weighs 239 pounds, though in one episode he weighed 261 pounds and decided to lose weight to reach his current weight. He once weighed 315 pounds in the November 5,1995 episode, "King-Size Homer", too escape having to go to work, through the disability program.
Religion
As with all things, Homer's knowledge and appreciation of religion are spotty. He founds his own religion to avoid going to church on Sundays and going to work on religious holidays. In retribution for his sins, Homer's house catches fire, so he recants in fear of an angry God. He is a nominal devout Christian ("Save me Jebus!"), but thinks little of church itself. He calls Reverend Lovejoy, "Captain What's-His-Name" and tends to fall asleep in church.
Homer is (usually) a Presbylutheran, which is the name of the branch of Christianity practiced by most of Springfield. Ned Flanders explains that it separated from Roman Catholicism centuries ago over the right for parishioners to come to church with wet hair, a right they later renounced. He has also been a hedonist, a Born Again Christian, a Movementarian (a parody of the Raelians and Scientology), and a Catholic.
After seeing the movie Left Below, a parody of the novel Left Behind, Homer tries twice to correctly predict the time and place of the Rapture. The first time, the citizens of Springfield believe him and follow him, but find no Rapture. The second time he makes the correct prediction but no one believes him, so Homer goes to heaven alone. He convinces God to delay the Rapture in order to be with his family.
Homer has also been known to distort his religious beliefs to suit the needs of a particular moment. In one such instance, he tries to explain to Lisa why playing ice hockey isn't right for her. He said, "If the Bible has taught us nothing else, and it hasn't, it's that girls should stick to girl sports, and boys should stick to boy sports."
