Homer Simpson
- "Homer" redirects here. For other uses of "Homer", see Homer (disambiguation).
- "D'oh!"
- ―Homer's catchphrase
Homer Jay Simpson
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Character Information
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Homer Jay Simpson, formerly known as Max Power,[2] is the father of the Simpson family. He is an overweight, lazy, and ignorant individual, but is strongly devoted to his wife and children. His behavior is often stupid, absurd, selfish, dangerous, clumsy, idiotic, and insensitive. Despite this and his below average intelligence, he has shown moments of great intellect, and can be a caring parent and husband at times.
Homer works as a low level safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, in Sector 7G, although he is often incompetent and mostly sleeps on duty and eats donuts provided. 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 can often be found sitting on the sofa mindlessly watching TV while snacking on food and drinking Duff.
Contents
Biography
History
Homer Jay Simpson was born as the third child of Abraham Simpson, and the first (and only) child of Mona Simpson on May 12, 1956. He was raised on the Simpsons farm by his parents until they were forced to move out due to Homer spooking the cows by jumping out of a bale of hay and scaring them into giving sour milk. At some point during his childhood, Abe seemed to feed beer to Homer Simpson, but he quit drinking beer until he was older upon Barney's suggestion after he caused a multi-car pileup in his playschool car. In 1960, Homer experimented to see if he could push fifteen crayons into his nose, which resulted in one being lodged into his brain and being responsible for his current below-average intelligence. In the late 1960s, while Homer was between nine and twelve years of age, Mona went into hiding following a run-in with the law. However, before she started protesting, she took Homer and her husband to the Woodstock Music Festival, where Homer ended up briefly adopting the Hippie lifestyle (and Abe Simpson attempted to send him off to the Vietname War as punishment for wanting to be a Hippie). In 1966, Homer, along with Lenny, Carl, and Moe Syszlak, went over to a deep gorge for a nice swim, but the water was drained. When investigating why the lake was reduced to a muddy pit, he stumbled upon a decomposing corpse inside the pipe, greatly traumatizing him and leading to his occasional overeating. Homer attended Springfield High School and fell in love with Marge Bouvier in 1974.[3] After high school, Homer and Marge bought an apartment at Springfield Place. During this time, Marge gets a letter accepting her into college. To pay for her tuition, Abe gives him a job at Simpson Lazer Tag as well as this, along with Lou Lenny and Carl, Homer is part of a barbershop quartet. When Marge becomes infatuated by her professor, Homer changes the band's name to Sadgasm and they invent grunge music. Marge realizes that she really loves Homer, and she goes back to him.[4] In 1982, Marge became pregnant with Bart (after discovering this, Homer tore out half of his hair). At this time Homer was working at Sir Putts-A-Lot, turning the crank that spins the windmill. The two got married in Shotgun Pete's 24 Hour Wedding Chapel, a small wedding chapel across the state line. They spent their wedding reception alone at a truck stop, before ending up at the Bouvier's House, where they lived at the time. After failing to get a job at the newly built Nuclear Power Plant, Homer left Marge to find a job by which he could support his family. He went to work at a taco restaurant called the Gulp 'n' Blow, until Marge found him and convinced him to return home with her. As a result, Homer confronted Mr. Burns and secured a job at the Plant.[5] Two years after Bart was born, Marge became pregnant with Lisa in 1984 (after discovering this, Homer tore out all but three strands of his hair), shortly before the couple brought their first house.[6] Homer's second leap to stardom was his success as the lead singer and songwriter for the barbershop quartet the Be-Sharps, even winning a Grammy (he later complains that a Grammy isn't worth winning). 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.[7] Some time in the late 1980s, Homer drew up a budget so that he could work at his dream job, a pin monkey at Barney's uncle's Barney's Bowl-O-Rama. The budget included buying regular toilet paper and that only one of the kids could go to college. Unfortunately for Homer, Marge became pregnant with Maggie in 1990, shortly after he started his new job, and not being able to support his family, he went back to the Nuclear Plant.[8] Since then Homer has started many jobs, including being a professional astronaut for NASA, but has ended up back where he began at the Nuclear Plant. He has nearly caused the destruction of Springfield a couple of times, after a nuclear meltdown at the plant and polluting Lake Springfield with his pet pig's (and his own) waste.[9]
Jobs
When first joining the Power Plant, Homer had a nameless job handling plutonium. He was fired by Sherri and Terri's father, who was his supervisor, for creating a deadly gas leak. He was later re-hired to safety inspector for Sector 7-G, after complaining about the safety of the plant itself. Ironically, the accidents that occur at the plant double every year since Homer was made safety inspector,.
Homer rarely attends his job, and yet hardly gets fired, and always has his job waiting for him when he wants to return. He has impulsively quit occasionally to pursue other carers, although he always ends up losing or quitting these jobs. On one occasion, Homer has misinterpreted a threat about losing his job as a hint that he can take the next day off.
Appearance
His appearance is that of an overweight balding man. He has a perpetual five-o-clock shadow that can regrow itself at a very quick rate if he ever shaves. Despite his overweight status, and hate for exercise, he has on occasion shown surprising physical prowess and agility for a man of his stature, such as when training for Whacking Day and he hits several pop-up Snakes with kicks and even backflipping. His baldness is contributed by several factors. Upon finding out whenever Marge was pregnant, he would tear out a substantial amount of his hair. Another contribution is working at the nuclear plant for so many years that the exposure to radioactivity has caused most of his hair to fall out. In one episode, he learned that if he repented for all of his sins and became Catholic, he could go to Heaven when he died. During his confession, he states that he has masturbated eight billion times and that he doesn't plan to stop and that he doesn't regret it. Excessive masturbation can lead to hair loss as well.
Personality
Homer's personality is one of
While Homer's stupid antics often upset his family, he has also performed acts that reveal him to be a surprisingly loving father and husband, such as 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;[13] giving up his chance at wealth to allow Maggie to keep a cherished teddy bear;[14] spearheading an attempt to dig Bart out after he had fallen down a well, even though he hates doing physical labor[15] 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.[16]
Homer tends to derive amusement from the misfortune of others. He is a chronic petty thief and borderline kleptomaniac, stealing everything from TV trays to power tools and air conditioners, even an entire room of the Flanders House from Ned Flanders. He has also stolen golf balls from the local driving range, office supplies (including computers) from work, and beer mugs from Moe's Tavern.
Homer has a vacuous mind, but he is still able to retain a great amount of knowledge about very specific subjects. He often shows short bursts of astonishing insight, memory, creativity and fluency with many languages. Homer is also extremely confident; no matter how little skill or knowledge he has about anything he tries to do, he has no doubt that he will be successful. However, his brief periods of intelligence are overshadowed by much longer and more consistent periods of ignorance, forgetfulness and stupidity. Homer has a low IQ due to many factors: his hereditary "Simpson Gene", his alcohol problem, exposure to radioactive waste, repetitive cranial trauma, and the crayon lodged in the frontal lobe of his brain. He also implied that he would have been at least a bit smarter, if not by a substantial amount, if his father had tried to give him encouragement rather than beat him down.[17] The crayon in his brain is possibly the largest causal factor in his stupidity. Homer's intelligence was said to jump up fifty points when he had the crayon removed, bringing him to an IQ of 105, slightly above that of an average person (though he showed far above average intelligence), but he went back to his old self when he had it reinserted, presumably lowering his IQ back down to its original 55.[18] This IQ score is, however, likely a joke or oversight on the producers' part, as someone with an IQ of 55 would be unable to look after themselves and would be classified as severely mentally handicapped. Also from the level of intelligence he showed it's much more likely that his IQ was boasted to 135-155. Despite his handicap, Homer does have a degree of long term, calculated planning of what might happen, such as when, shortly before taking his "forget-me-shot" from Moe Syzslak, requested for their anniversary party to have a Moon Jump due to realizing exactly what will happen afterwards.[19]
Homer has at times debated against his brain. Occasionally, a specific body part such as his face, stomach or liver is also shown debating with his brain. In one notable scene Homer's mind actually leaves his body out of boredom, causing him to collapse. Homer is also inclined to retreat into fantasy, such as daydreaming of Germany as "the land of chocolate".[20][21]
Homer's attitudes toward woman, romance, and sex are occasionally shown. While Homer's marriage with Marge is occasionally strained, it seems generally happy. Despite this, Homer is often tempted with other women, and usually shows no qualms with gawking at (and drooling over) attractive women. Homer almost had an affair with Mindy Simmons,[22] but ended up not wanting to. He has made the occasional remark denoting his attraction to other women (including his neighbor's wife), even in front of Marge on a occasion, but always shows his devotion to Marge in the end.
Religious Beliefs
Despite attending church every Sunday, Homer is not a committed Christian, and it is likely that he only attends church because he knows that Marge would be hurt and shocked if he did not. He does not seem to practice Christian morals and frequently sleeps in church, much to the annoyance of Reverend Lovejoy. He often mispronounces the name of the Christ, calling him "Jebus".
Homer had actually met God face to face several times and has even gotten permission from him in a dream to skip church.[23][24]
Alter egos
Homer became a superhero named Pieman when The Rich Texan makes Lisa cry. He chucks pies in the faces of evildoers or people who deserve to be pied, uses the basement as a Pie Cave and his car as the Piemobile. Bart later acted as his sidekick named Cupcake Kid.[25] He also attempted to don a graphitti alias as "El Homo", which was meant to be a Mexican take on his name, but erased it when he realized the alias was Spanish for homosexual.[26]When Homer went to prison for bribing an official, an FBI agent offered Homer a way out by infiltrating into the Springfield Mafia to spy Fat Tony. Homer was given a toupee, a wig with a microphone and a camera in and a new name, Nicky Bluepants Altosaxophony.[27]
Skills
Homer's skills seem to vary greatly. Sometimes Homer can find it difficult to run to smallest distance before passing out from exhaustion, to exceeding the prowess of gold medal Olympians. At other times he can have trouble understanding the simplest of concepts to being able to build a functional robot with a working A.I.
One skill that remains somewhat constant throughout the series is his musical talent. Homer can play the guitar amazingly well and is an accomplished singer and songwriter. He has been part of several bands which were all extremely popular. He won a Grammy for barbershop, numerous golden records for his grunge band, which is a music style he also invented, and was able to help Lisa win a music contest using songs he wrote for her.
Like Bart, Homer also displays the ability to pick up languages fairly quickly. When he and Bart were imprisoned in Japan for a seemingly short amount of time he was able to speak the language fluently by the time he left.
Health
Homer is 39, overweight and so unhealthy that his life expectancy is only 42.
Homer while varying in physical ability from episode to episode has been consistently portrayed as a binge drinking, over eating, accident prone dare devil who puts absolutely no thought into what his actions will cost him, all of which has made it impossible to get any form of insurance which concerns his health.
Homer is in hospital in at least one episode every season, and has had several life saving operations not including the one for his triple heart bypass and subsequent installation of his pacemaker which he needed after his artery's were clogged with chlorestrol.
Years of working in a sub standard nuclear facility has left his blood irriadatied enough to show up on an x-ray, as well as having rendered him sterile.
Homer loves food, he can almost always be seen eating far more than any one man could possibly eat alone. His favourites are foods which he knows are bad for him, and will blatantly refuse healthy food such as oatmeal and fruit in favour of fatty meals. He was once willing to die upon eating a poisened éclair despite knowing it would kill him, only to throw it away in horror when Lisa claimed it was low fat.
Homer also seems to have problem with his sound sense as the result of attending rock concert too much at his youth time.[28] His lack of hearing could be the reason why he didn't pay attention at any words anyone said. Both Bart and Homer have problem with concentration.[29]
Hair Loss
There are multiple theories on how Homer lost his hair. One theory suggests that Homer ripped out some of his hair when he realized Marge was pregnant with Bart, then more when he found out she was pregnant with Lisa, and all but the last few hairs when he found out she was pregnant with Maggie.
Another theory is that Homer's hair was once squirted with some kind of acid, thus causing permanent hair loss.[30]
Relationships
Romantic
Despite being married to Marge, throughout the entire show Homer has had a number of romantic encounters.
Marge Simpson
Homer is the husband of Marge Simpson. They met when they were younger without learning who each other was before meeting again properly in high school. They have had three weddings.[16][31][32] The two have a very strong marriage which has survived cheating, amnesia and many arguments. They have been in love since high school.[3]
Mindy Simmons
Mindy Simmons was an attractive employee at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant who has nearly everything in common with Homer. They attended a conventions together and nearly had an affair.[22] After Homer turned her down, he later says that she "hit the bottle pretty hard and got fired."
Lurleen Lumpkin
Lurleen Lumpkin is a waitress who Homer helped in launching a successful singing career. She attempted to seduce him with no success.[33] She's been married multiple times to men that all look like Homer.[33]
Amber
Amber was Homer's Vegas wife who Homer accidentally married in Las Vegas.[34] They managed to get her drunk and made her believe she married Abe which made her run back to Vegas.[35]
Julia
When Homer becomes a famous Opera singer he attracts the attention of horde of fans including a stalker by the name of Julia. She confesses to Homer that she is his to do with as he wants, becoming his personal assistant and attempting to seduce him at every turn. When he proclaims that his heart belongs to Marge she attempts to kill him with no success.[36]
Friendships
Barney Gumble
Barney Gumble is one of Homer's best friends. They were both born in 1956 making Homer the same age as Barney. They have been best friends since high school. Homer was the one who convinced him to become an alcoholic.[37]
Lenny and Carl
Lenny and Carl are Homer's co-workers at the Nuclear Power Plant, and they knew Homer back in their childhood.[38][39]
Non Canon Appearance
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The contents of this article or section are considered to be non-canon and therefore may not have actually happened or existed. |
Future
In 2013, Homer's and Marge's relationship has finally ended, after Homer blew the family savings on an underwater house. She started dating Krusty the Clown, and eventually Homer fought him to win her back. Homer was beaten, but Marge still decided to go back to him.
Behind the Laughter
Creation
Matt Groening first conceived 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. He hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family and named the characters after members of his own family, with Homer being named after his father. Homer then made his debut with the rest of the Simpsons clan on 19 April 1987 in the Tracey Ullman short "Good Night". Homer's middle initial "J", which was revealed to stand for "Jay",[40] was a "tribute" to Bullwinkle J. Moose from Rocky and Bullwinkle, a show Matt Groening loved as a child.[41]
According to Matt Groening, the whole family was designed so that they would be recognizable in silhouette.[42][43]
Voice
Homer's voice sounds different on the shorts than the later half-hour show. Dan Castellaneta's earliest portrayal began as a loose impression of Walter Matthau, but developed into a more robust and humorous voice during the second and third season of the half-hour show, allowing Homer to convey a wider range of emotions.[44] Castellaneta changed the voice, as he could not sustain his Matthau impression for the 9-10 hour long recording sessions and had to find something easier.[45] During an interview with the cast of the show on Inside the Actors Studio, Castellaneta stated that Homer's voice was based in part on his own father who often spoke with an exuberant tone.
Foreign Dubs
Homer's name is rarely translated, though exceptions occur. In the Arabic version Homer becomes Omar, and it was heavily modified, with alcohol and pork being removed. The Latin American version translates Homer to Homero.
Catchphrase
Homer popularized the annoyed grunt "D'oh!" (made memorable through Dan Castellaneta's distinctive voice work), which began as an abbreviated form of James Finlayson's annoyed "Dooooh" in Laurel and Hardy films and other comedy shorts. This modern interjection has found enough popular acceptance to be included in the Oxford English Dictionary.
He also popularized the catchphrase "Mmm...". Many examples of other "mmm...s" are "Mmm...candy", "Mmm...pointy" from or "Mmm...hug". He has used it less lately.
He also has another catchphrase- woo hoo. He says this when something goes right for him. When something goes wrong for him he says d"oh.
Reception
On May 30, 2003, Homer was made an honorary citizen of Winnipeg, Canada, in recognition of Matt Groening's father Homer Groening, who is believed to be from the Manitoba capital.[46]
Homer placed second on TV Guide's 2002 Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters, behind Bugs Bunny.[47] In 2005, Homer was listed fifth on Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters, one of only four cartoon characters on that list.[48] British TV viewers voted him as the greatest TV character of all time.[49] In 2007, Entertainment Weekly placed Homer ninth on their list of the "50 Greatest TV icons".[50]
The Simpsons has been recommended for use in the teaching of sociology to modern-day college students. The journal Teaching Sociology appraised it as "particularly effective for illustrating sociological themes and encouraging critical thinking among today's undergraduates".[51] The non-academic book The Simpsons and Philosophy, the D'oh! of Homer includes a chapter analyzing Homer's character from the perspective of Aristotelian virtue ethics.
Homer was ranked the second greatest cartoon character by TV Guide, behind Bugs Bunny, and was voted the greatest television character of all time by Channel 4 viewers. For voicing Homer, Castellaneta has won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance and a special-achievement Annie Award. In 2000, Homer and his family were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Homer Simpson syndrome
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".[52] 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.[52]
Merchandising
Homer's inclusion in many Simpsons publications, toys, and other merchandise is evidence of his enduring popularity. He has played central roles in the Simpsons Comics series. The Homer Book, written about Homer's personality and attributes, has been published and is commercially available. Numerous other items such as bottle openers, alarm clocks and other merchandise are widely available for purchase.
Trivia
- His social security number is 568-47-0008.
- His blood type is B positive.
- His earmuff size is XL.
- He often writes fist-like.
- In one episode he was the only character in the show to say bullshit but "shit" was censored by a honk sound.
- It's implied in Homer's Triple Bypass that Homer's bloodstream has a continuous regulation of radioactivity, as Dr. Hibbert was explaining to Marge Simpson that they injected Homer with a Radioactive Dye to see his circulatory system from an X-ray until he learns that the nurse hadn't even injected the dye yet (resulting in Hibbert saying "good lord" in a shocked manner).
- He seems to be almost exactly the same as Peter Griffin, whom appears in Family Guy, which premiered 10 years after The Simpsons began. In Treehouse of Horror XIII, one of his clones was Peter Griffin.
- Homer owns the Denver Broncos, despite wanting to own the Dallas Cowboys.
- It is believed that Homer is diabetic as mentioned in "That 90's Show". However if this was true, Homer would most likely be dead because he has never been seen taking insulin and the amount of food that Homer eats would just ensure that would already be dead by the point the episode "That 90's Show" was shown.
- In Fear of Flying it is shown his favorite song (at the time) was "It's Raining Men".
- Homer has in fact, died twice. As shown in Homer's Triple Bypass, when he died of a heart attack, but was revived when Mr. Burns mentioned a ham. And again in Million Dollar Maybe, when he was trying to calm himself down after stressing about being rich and not being able to tell Marge, but was revived when he realized he was dead and made a desperate attempt to return to his body. He dies countless times in the Treehouse of Horror segments, but they are non-canon.
- According to The Blunder Years, his constant eating was a direct result of his trauma from finding Waylon Smithers, Senior's corpse.
Appearances
See also
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Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to Homer Simpson. |
- Simpson family: more info on Homer's family.
- 742 Evergreen Terrace: more info on Homer's house.
- Marge Simpson: more info on Homer's wife.
- Bart Simpson: more info on Homer's oldest child.
- Lisa Simpson: more info on Homer's middle child.
- Maggie Simpson: more info on Homer's youngest child.
- Abraham Simpson: more info on Homer's father.
