Homer Simpson

> *D'oh!*
>
> Homer's 1st catchphrase.

> *Why you little!*
>
> Homer's 2nd cathcphrase, when strangling or trying to strangle Bart/or someone else.

> *Woo-hoo!*
>
> Homer's 3rd catchphrase when something good happens to him.

> *Mmm...* (food)... \*Drooling\*
>
> Homer's 4th catchphrase, usually when hungry.

## Homer Simpson

### Aliases

Homer Jay Simpson (full name)
Homer S. Simpson
H. J. Simpson
Homor Simpson
Homer J. Fong
Dad
Father

### Relatives

Marge Simpson (wife)
Bart Simpson (son)
 Lisa Simpson and Maggie Simpson (daughters)

### Occupation

Nuclear Safety Inspector
 Former Technical Supervisor
 Member of The Geo Mansion

## Appearances

### Appears in

The Simpsons (official)
The Adventures of Leah Thompson

### Debut

House of Geo Guy's

**Homer Jay Simpson** (born May 12, 1956) is the one of the main protangonists in the show. He is the spouse of Marge Simpson and father of Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson. Homer is overweight (said to be ~240 pounds), lazy, and often ignorant to the world around him. Although Homer has many flaws, he has shown to have great caring, love, and even bravery to those he cares about and, sometimes, even others he doesn't.

His favorite color is blue and he enjoys dancing, eating donuts, drinking, hugging, driving a sit-down arcade racer, playing the piano and horse riding. His favorite kiddie rides are "Stuart Little", "Barney Train" and "Ride the Champion Mechanical Horse".

## Biography

### Early life

Homer Jay Simpson was born on May 12, 1956 to Abraham Simpson II and Mona Olsen. He was raised on the Simpson family farm until they were forced to move out due to Homer jumping out of a hay bale and scaring the cows into giving sour milk, causing the bank to foreclose it. At some point in his childhood, Homer began drinking alcohol like his father and accidentally caused a traffic jam in a Playskool car.

His father forced him to attend Camp See-A-Tree, where he went on a date with Marge Bouvier from Camp Land-A-Man; unfortunately, he lied about his name and sustained an injury while Marge changed her appearance. Homer then accidentally stumbled into Camp Flab-Away and escaped too late to meet with her again, something that left him as heartbroken as Marge.

When Homer was around twelve, his mother went into hiding following a run-in with the law and Abe faked her death before that, she took Homer and Abe to Woodstock, where he ended up briefly adopting the hippie lifestyle, much to Abe's disapproval. Homer, along with Lenny, Carl, and Moe, went to a deep gorge to swim but the water was drained. When investigating why the lake was reduced to a muddy pit, he stumbled upon a decomposing corpse inside a nearby pipe, greatly traumatizing him.

When he was 15, Homer participated in a drinking contest by lying that he was 22. However, he became so intoxicated he ended up drinking a whole beer keg used to fill the other contestants' cups. Eventually he was so hungover he missed almost an entire month of school.

Before beginning high school, Homer convinced Barney to have a beer can while his father was asleep. Barney, an aspiring student preparing for Harvard, was annoyed and reluctantly drank it. However, he took to alcohol so quickly he nigh-permanently became a worse drunken wreck than Homer and presumably failed his SAT tests.

Homer attended Springfield High School, falling in love with an older and unrecognizable Marge after she ultimately rejected Artie Ziff. After finishing (but not graduating from) high school, Marge and Homer bought an apartment at Springfield Place together. During this time, Marge got a letter accepting her into a college. To pay for her tuition, Abe gave his son a job at Simpson Laser Tag. The couple broke up for some time after Homer started a grunge band called Sadgasm. Marge later realized that she really loved Homer and went back to him. At some point between finishing high school and marrying Marge, Homer briefly served in the U.S. Army but never saw combat. Due to a clerical error, he was discharged early, and years later, after a disastrous dinner party with his old sergeant, Homer was forced to complete his tour of duty.

In his early 20s, Homer was working at Sir Putt-A-Lot's Merrie Olde Fun Centre, turning the crank that spun the windmill. After a night out with Marge, he learned that he'd prematurely impregnated her with their first child, who they decided to name "Bart" if it was a boy. He got married with Marge at Shotgun Pete's, a small wedding chapel across the state line. They spent their wedding reception alone at a truck stop before ending up at the Bouvier house.

After failing to get a job at the power plant, Homer eventually left Marge to support his family. He went to work at the restaurant Gulp 'n' Blow until Marge convinced him to return home with her. As a result, Homer confronted Charles Montgomery Burns and secured a job at the plant. Two years after Bart was born, Marge became pregnant again with Lisa shortly before they bought their first house. 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. During his time with the group, Homer was frequently absent which put stress on his marriage. After the group broke up due to creative differences, Homer went back to Springfield.

When in his 30s, Homer prepared a budget so that he could work at his dream job, a pin monkey at the Bowlarama Bowling Alley, owned by Barney's uncle Al Gumble. The budget included buying regular toilet paper and that only one of the kids could go to college. Unfortunately for Homer, Marge became pregnant once more with Maggie around this time, and he reluctantly went back to the nuclear plant in order to support his family. Since then, Homer has started many jobs, but in the end, he always comes back to his job at the Nuclear Plant.

## Characteristics

### Personality and Traits

Homer is a pure moron who can go back and forth from being downright horrible to an extremely caring and loving man. Homer's personality is one of frequent immaturity, frequent stupidity, selfishness, laziness, and explosive anger; one might say it's that of 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. Despite his family flaws, he is a loving father and husband, even if he can be ignorant or oblivious to his family's feelings and ideas. When he thinks he's let anyone he loves down, it really does affect him, and in the end, will do anything for them. Another contribute to his "Working Joe" persona is that he has also shown to be sensitive about his masculinity; being initially upset over Marge becoming a police officer as he thought it made her "the man of the house", as well as refusing to call a contractor when Marge wanted her kitchen remodeled as to not emasculate his pride.

### Physical Appearance

Homer's appearance is that of an overweight balding man. Despite his overweight status, and hate for exercise, he has on occasion shown surprising physical prowess and agility for a man of his body type, such as when training for Whacking Day and he hits several pop-up Snakes with kicks and even back-flipping. His baldness is contributed by several factors, such as 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. Another frequent topic on Homer's obesity is his large posterior which is often joked about by Bart. His eyes are blue and he is 6 feet tall (183 cm). While his weight is debatable, the most common weight given is 239 pounds (though many jokes about his weight would suggest he is much heavier). He wears a white polo shirt, blue jeans, white underpants, and gray loafers.

### Character development

Homer is named after Matt Groening's late father Homer Groening. In a series of interviews in 1990, Groening reportedly stated that he named the character after the Homer Simpson in The Day Of the Locust, a 1939 novel by Nathanael West according to Planet Simpson, but neither explanation is considered definitive.

## Relationships

#### 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. The pair have a very strong marriage which has survived cheating, amnesia and many arguments. They have been in love since their high school senior year.

### Children

Homer's relationship with his children fluctuates greatly from episode to episode.

#### Bart Simpson

Homer's relationship with Bart is a strange one indeed; Homer has threatened Bart with murder before, yet at other times, the two get along better than anyone else. Homer usually refers to Bart as "the boy" and has mentioned spanking and beating Bart before. All that is ever shown, however, is either Homer growling and lunging for Bart, chasing him, or else strangling him. Homer was held in a mental hospital once due to his aggression with Bart, although, once the doctors realized that Bart was, in fact, real, they released him. It is implied that Bart is the reason that Homer is bald. Homer blames most of his misfortunes on Bart and is the strict abuser of Bart in the strict abusive family. As a result, Bart usually takes advantage of his father's stupidity to humiliate him (as he does with most authority figures). Because of their often turbulent relationship, Bart commonly refers to Homer as Homer instead of Dad, especially when Bart is humiliating him. Homer has also implied that he wouldn't mind if Bart changed 100% and that he isn't very attached to him as he is.

Homer and Bart share the same sense of humor and adventure and therefore are almost always partners during wild escapades, such as when Homer became a truck driver or when they were arrested together in Japan. They spend a lot of time together watching TV, and although they spend a lot of time together, Homer doesn't take much of an interest in his life while Bart mostly ignores Homer. Whenever Homer does partake in a father-son activity with Bart, it is usually to beat Flanders at something, although, interestingly, Homer is truly offended when Bart gets a "big brother" to spend time with. Although Bart oftentimes acts resentful of Homer, he really loves when his father shows an interest in him, in fact, when he cheated on an IQ test and was labeled a genius, consequently winning Homer's affection, he was reluctant to admit he had cheated (even though he was miserable at school) simply because he didn't want matters to go back to how they had been with Homer and his greatest fear is Bart becoming a homosexual.

A possible explanation for Homer's frequent mistreatment or neglecting of Bart was provided in "Barthood". There, Homer states that the day he found out about Bart was the day his life of youthful independence was over, which frightened him as it meant he had to become a breadwinning patriarch despite his unreadiness. Truth be told, Homer admits to being just as insecure and misunderstood as his son and also like him, only wants to be accepted by his loved ones.

However, Homer also frequently shows genuine care for Bart and has expressed that he loves him, in spite of their differences and treatment of one another. He truly is ashamed whenever he embarrasses Bart and he tries to be a better father to Bart than Abe was to him, for example, he overly supports Bart when he is on the football team because his father never once supported him. Homer has even risked his life to impress Bart, such as taking a cannonball to the stomach because he realized that doing so caused Bart to idolize him. He was even willing to jump across Springfield Gorge to help Bart understand the stupidity of risking one's life for short-lived thrills and glory. At times, Homer can also be protective of Bart. As when George Bush spanked him, Homer, in a rage, started a pranking war that led to a brutal fight against the former president. When Bart was trapped down a well, his father stopped at nothing to dig a hole to find and save him. He was even enraged that Bart's former therapist strangled him and sued the man. In addition, Homer has also "protected" Bart from the horrible sight of a nude Patty by bleaching his son's eyes, something that his son appreciated. Also, when he took note of Bart's rather merciless mimicking of Abe's "Gorgeous Godfrey" persona on other children, Homer berated his father for this.

#### Lisa Simpson

Homer is very protective of Lisa and shows a soft side to her that Bart has never seen. She is his little girl and when Homer disappoints her or makes her sad he will often times go to the end of the earth to make things right. Homer sometimes does activities with Lisa which he doesn't enjoy simply to make her happy, such as attending the ballet. That being said, Lisa and Homer do not get along very well. When Homer does accompany Lisa on such intellectual trips he oftentimes embarrasses her, usually by either falling asleep, saying something rude or unintellectual, or else displaying disgusting habits (scratching his butt, burping, etc.). When Lisa becomes upset, Homer can't usually figure out what it is he did wrong. They have little to talk about because of their differences in interests and intellectual caliber, so Homer far prefers to do tasks with Bart and leave Lisa alone.

He is often annoyed by her love of her saxophone and constantly yells at her to tell her to stop making a racket. Lisa is also the moral center of the family, which leads to further clashes between her and Homer, who doesn't really care about the ethics of the various situations he has been involved in. Lisa's intelligence is likely the largest cause that Homer and she do not get along better. Whenever Lisa does make an attempt to protest or explain something to her father, she usually uses such advanced vocabulary that Homer simply nods and replies, "Yes, sweetie," even though it makes no sense whatsoever in the context of the conversation.

However, Homer is very proud of Lisa's intelligence and will brag about it to friends and co-workers. Lisa acknowledges her father's shortcomings but does love him and appreciates when he puts in the effort to better himself for her sake. Although he is often insensitive to her and her needs (once turning her room into a cellular tower without a second thought and then forcing her to bunk with Bart- also without a second thought), Homer does try to be a good father and puts her happiness above anything else. For example, when he was first told that she was gifted and that she should find a mental stimulation to help with her gift, he gave up the $200 dollars the family had saved for a new air conditioner to buy her saxophone instead and earned gratitude from her. In Homer Is Where the Art Isn't, Lisa secretly got an art painting out while switching the painting with a bag, and Lisa wanted to be closer with Homer.

#### Maggie Simpson

Homer forgets Maggie exists—frequently. Once, when talking about their "two" children, Marge interrupted and told Homer that they had three children, to which he replied that the dog didn't count as a child before recalling Maggie. Similar dialogue is recurrent throughout the series. Also, whenever Maggie is referred to by her full name, Margaret, Homer has no clue as to who is being referenced. When Homer does try to interact with Maggie, he oftentimes frightens her unintentionally.

Homer is highly irresponsible with Maggie, often giving her dangerous objects to play with and once completely losing her because she crawled out of her crib. Maggie was an accident baby (as was Bart and Lisa) and having her meant that Homer had to quit his dream job at the bowling alley and instead take his job back at the nuclear power plant so that he would make enough money to support a third child. This was not ideal for Homer because he had only recently quit from the power plant in a very rude and flamboyant fashion. When he returned, Smithers and Burns had a good gloat that he was crawling back and, to further depress him, installed a plaque dead center in front of his desk that read, "don't forget, you're here forever."

Because of all this, Homer fiercely resented the prenatal Maggie, but, as soon as he first laid eyes on her, he immediately fell in love. There are no baby pictures of Maggie in the Simpson household because Homer hangs them "where he needs the most cheering up"-- at work. In his office, he has created a mural of Maggie's baby pictures which strategically cover up one half of the N and the entire T of don't, the GET of forget, the YOU'RE, the E of here, and the FOREVER on his plaque with pictures of Maggie, so that it reads "do it for her." It can be argued from this that Maggie cheers up Homer more than his other two children.

Although they don't communicate well, Homer and Maggie share a special bond and he loves her deeply. Maggie's first word was "daddy", which he couldn't hear (due to being out of Maggie's room and shutting the door as he exited). Maggie once saved a captive Homer, who was impressed and grateful to his daughter. He has shown love for Maggie as he protected her from bullying babies in Eeny Teeny Maya, Moe and earned a hug from his daughter who punched out a baby that knocked him down. Homer later saved her from being carried off by a bald eagle and made sure to hold her close, while punching the bird so it wouldn't try to take her again.

## Trivia

* A character named Homer Simpson in The Day of the Locust, a 1939 novel by Nathanael West, may have been another inspiration for Homer's name.
* His Social Security number is 568-47-0008.
* Originally, Bart was the character the show focused on, but by Season 3 they focused more on Homer instead of him