Homer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson [ ˈhoʊmɚ ] is one of the main characters in the animated television series The Simpsons . In the original the figure is dubbed by Dan Castellaneta , in the German translation he was dubbed by Norbert Gastell until his death in November 2015. In August 2016 it was announced that Christoph Jablonka would succeed Gastell as Homer's voice actor.
The character combines several stereotypes of the American working class , such as obesity , laziness , intolerance , incompetence and thoughtlessness. The complexity of the character, who, despite their origin from the lower class, makes numerous notable experiences in the course of the series, contributed to the fact that Homer is regarded as one of the most popular humorous creations of the present in the opinion of the Sunday Times .
Dan Castellaneta won numerous prizes for dubbing Homer, including four Emmys .
Role in The Simpsons
Fictional biography
Although the characters do not age within the series, information about Homer's biography is repeatedly given in the episodes. According to the episode No Experiments of February 18, 1993, he was born on May 12, 1956 and grew up with his father, Abe Simpson , because his mother, Mona Simpson, had left the family as a child. Homer's father raised him strictly and instilled in him an attitude of losing. Even in high school, Homer was lazy, addicted to pleasure and disinterested in politics and world affairs (such as the moon landing ). He met his wife Marge at school.
Homer came about various side jobs a meeting with Mr. Burns to his professional job as a safety inspector in sector 7G at the nuclear power station of Springfield , but does not have adequate training for this profession. Homer's incompetence is reflected in a number of near- core meltdowns for which he is responsible. He is fired several times and he even gives up his position several times to pursue the most adventurous activities (an image campaign by NASA , for example, makes him an astronaut for a short time ). In the end, however, it is always used in the power plant.
characterization
The characterization of Homer is quite complex. Although the character always attracts attention due to his rather low intelligence , laziness and egoism , he also has brilliant moments. One of the directors on the series, David Silverman , described him as "creative and brilliant in his stupidity" . His low intelligence is explained by several facts in the series: alcoholism , frequent head trauma due to various accidents, a genetic predisposition (the so-called "Simpsons gene") and a crayon that is in his cerebellum , which is why he only has an IQ of 55 (without a pencil it would have been one of 105). As a child, he stuck this crayon through his nostril into his brain without knowing the consequences.
Outwardly, Homer is shown to be very overweight, his weight fluctuates between 216 and 315 American pounds (corresponds to about 98 to 143 kilograms), his age between 36 and 40 years , depending on the sequence . He always wears blue trousers and a white short-sleeved shirt. Homer's mouth area is not drawn yellow, but light brown, which is supposed to suggest a stubble . His bald head is only interrupted by three hairs, two of which are combed across the head and another is jagged around the head. Viewed from the side, his ears and hair above them form the letters M and G , which corresponds to the initials of its creator Matt Groening.
Homer's main characteristic is his infantilism . This includes his lack of understanding, the complete lack of self-control, especially with regard to sweet food and beer, the tendency to laugh childishly, clumsiness in all practical matters, drastic emotional fluctuations even on minor occasions (especially his typical curse "D'oh!" , in German "Neinn!") and the exaggerated, choleric reactions to Bart's pranks. The fact that he still bears a great deal of responsibility for his family and his job is an important pillar of the plot.
Relation to the other characters
Homer's relationship with many of the other characters in the series is characterized by constant conflicts, the course and resolution of which often determine the plot of the episodes.
His wife Marge suffers from his laziness and irresponsibility. His part in the upbringing of the children appears to be small and his educational message questionable. There are also hardly any common interests. Marge is interested in theater , painting, and other cultural activities, while Homer spends much of his free time in infantile television amusement and in the pub . Nevertheless, she stands by him in difficult situations, and he tries again and again to win her back when the arguments are frequent.
His youngest daughter Maggie is often neglected by him, in the worsening of some episodes he even forgets her or her name. Nevertheless, he loves her, which is expressed, among other things, by the fact that he has hung all of Maggie's pictures (and only hers ) in his hated workplace.
The relationship with Lisa , the older daughter, is sometimes problematic . In contrast to her father, she is intelligent, successful at school and has an intellectual and cultural interest. Homer, on the other hand, does not even show understanding for the "noise" of her saxophone playing . The two also disagree on other fundamental issues, for example when it comes to ecology or nutrition , since Lisa is a vegetarian . On the other hand, in many episodes Homer admires Lisa for her talents , which he does not understand himself, and supports her in her interests, even if he does not approve of them himself.
Homer has an unsteady relationship with his son Bart . When it comes to illegal activities or rough jokes, Bart is Homer's only ally in the family. In many cases, however, they also get into an argument, which is usually provoked by Bart's cheek. Characteristic of the relationship between the two are the choking scenes, which have developed into a running gag .
The relationship between Homer and the neighboring Flanders family is tense. Ned Flanders is a religious person and believes in the good in people, which Homer mercilessly exploits; It is pointed out several times in episodes that the Simpsons house is full of valuable things that Homer "borrowed" from Flanders a long time ago. The kind-hearted Ned does not adjust his behavior and continues to lend Homer equipment without ever getting it back. Homer also often berates Ned ("stupid Flanders").
Homer also has an ambivalent relationship with his father, Abraham 'Abe' Simpson (Grampa). The two were never very close, but his father tried to re-establish contact with his son as he got older. Abe was (that in the Springfield Retirement Castle nursing home deported), where he leads a miserable life. Homer tries to avoid him as much as possible so as not to have to listen to his anecdotes from earlier times.
figure
Emergence
Matt Groening named Homer after his own father. The J. in his initials (which was later resolved into Jay ) is said to be a tribute to a character named Rocky J. Squirrel from the show Rocky and Bullwinkle , who Groening himself was a fan of as a child.
synchronization
Ever since the early days in the Tracey Ullman Show took Dan Castellaneta synchronization of Homer's English voice here but whose character made a conversion by. It was originally intended to be a parody of the voice of US actor Walter Matthau . In the second and third seasons of the Simpsons short films, Castellaneta withdrew this characteristic more and more in favor of a more robust voice, partly because he found it too time-consuming to imitate this type of voice during the nine to ten hour long recording sessions, but partly because to give the voice more character and more humorous potential. Norbert Gastell dubbed Homer Simpson's voice in Germany from 1991 until his death in November 2015. In contrast to Castellaneta, this is very high and often turns into squeaky when excited. The name Homer was initially pronounced Huhmer in the German dubbed version until the mistake was noticed. Since 2016, Homer Simpson has been dubbed in the German version by Christoph Jablonka .
| Original speaker | Season | shorts | Movie | Period |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dan Castellaneta | 1- | Yes | Yes | April 19, 1987 - |
| German speaker | Season | shorts | Movie | Period |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norbert Gastell | 1-26 | Yes | Yes | December 20, 1991 - March 15, 2016 thereof January 5 - March 15, 2016 posthumously |
| Christoph Jablonka | 27– | No | No | August 30, 2016 - |
Reception and criticism
The character of Homer Simpson is mentioned in several best lists of international media, including in the 50 most popular cartoon characters 2002 of the magazine TV Guide as well as number 5 of the TV characters of the TV channel Bravo . He was voted the most popular television character of all time in a poll by British television station Channel 4 . Between July and November 2007, the online opinion portal Sozioland carried out an extensive survey on the subject of “Simpsons”, in which over 4,500 people took part. The poll found that Homer is the most popular Simpsons family member with 55% of the vote.
The figure was also mostly received positively in the criticism of renowned media. Thus, the described The Sunday Times him as the greatest creation of the modern comedy and raised primarily his "amiable mediocrity" and his "hope" out.
Dan Castellaneta won numerous prizes for dubbing Homer, including four Emmys . In 2004, Castellaneta and Julie Kavner , who dubbed Marge Simpson , won a Young Artist Award for “Most Popular Mother and Father Characters in a TV Series”.
The figure received negative criticism mainly from conservative political circles. In 1999, Republican MP Joseph R. Pitts said that Homer Simpson was not a role model for fathers and was partly responsible for the decline of the American fatherhood.
Cultural influence
Homer's exclamation D'oh (replaced by No! In the German version ) became so popular that it was included in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2002 , albeit without an apostrophe. The exclamation, portrayed in the script as annoyed grunt (for example: angry grunt ), originated in the early days of the series on the Tracey Ullman Show , when Dan Castellaneta was instructed to improvise a longer D'ooooh , but it was shorter at Matt Groening's suggestion pronounced. Over time, the exclamation became a trademark of the series, was mentioned repeatedly in episode titles and is now protected by 20th Century Fox as a sound mark.
When a French study found a connection between intelligence and weight - obese people are said to have a lower memory performance - this phenomenon was dubbed by the media as Homer-Simpson syndrome , as an allusion to the low intelligence of the shown in the series obese Homer Simpson.
The figure is partly parodied in other cultural products. For example, in the X-Files - The FBI's Scary Cases episode The Beginning (Season 6, Episode 1), a surveillance employee named Homer also works in a nuclear power plant, the "Rolling Hills Nuclear Power Plant". This Homer not only has the same job, he is also very lazy and is woken up and admonished by a colleague. In addition, he blames a fault in the cooling system on a fault in the monitoring system in order to avoid a patrol (which then becomes his undoing).
Merchandising
Homer appears in various forms as merchandising items (for example on T-shirts and baseball caps). Sometimes the figure also appears as an advertising icon, for example in a 2004 spot for the Mastercard at the Super Bowl or in a 2010 spot for the sporting goods manufacturer Nike .
In 2003, the episode The Father Who Knew Too Little from the series published an alleged email address for the character. According to reports, some fans who wrote to this address actually received a response.
literature
- Irwin, William; Mark T. Conrad; Aeon Skoble (Ed.) (1999). The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer . Chicago: Open Court. ISBN 0-8126-9433-3 .
- Mark I Pinsky: The Gospel According to The Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World's Most Animated Family , ISBN 0-664-22419-9 .
Web links
- Homer Simpson in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Facts and information in the Simpsonspedia article
Individual evidence
- ↑ Revealed: This is Homer Simpson's new German voice. In: quota meter. Retrieved August 26, 2016 .
- ↑ a b There's nobody like him ... except you, me, everyone. Archived from the original on May 15, 2008 ; Retrieved July 20, 2007 .
- ^ Nancy Basile: 'The Simpsons' Voices. Cast List and Characters. Retrieved June 30, 2013 .
- ^ Follow Looking Back at Marital Happiness , December 26, 1991
- ↑ Original quote: "creatively brilliant in his stupidity", from: Groening, Matt; Scully, Mike; Jean, Al; Brooks, James L .; Silverman, David. (2007). The Simpsons Movie: A Look Behind the Scenes [DVD]
- ↑ Larry Carroll: Simpsons' Trivia, From Swearing Lisa To 'Burns-Sexual' Smithers , MTV , July 26, 2007.
- ^ The Cartoon Society. Using "The Simpsons" to Teach and Learn Sociology . in: Teaching Sociology, Issue 28 (2): pp. 127-139.
- ↑ Revealed: This is Homer Simpson's new German voice. In: quotenmeter.de. August 26, 2016. Retrieved August 26, 2016 .
- ↑ TV Guide's 50 greatest cartoon characters of all time. CNN , accessed August 25, 2007 .
- ↑ The 100 Greatest TV Characters. Bravo, archived from the original on July 17, 2007 ; Retrieved August 25, 2007 .
- ↑ 100 Greatest TV characters ( Memento from June 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Primetime Emmy Awards Advanced Search. (No longer available online.) Emmys.org, archived from the original on February 15, 2009 ; Retrieved January 18, 2008 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ 25th Annual Winners and Nominees. Retrieved January 18, 2008 .
- ↑ Bullyrag ( Memento of the original from December 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , archived from the original ( Memento of the original from December 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , "Homer's Myth", ( Princeton University publication )
- ↑ No Sacred Cows for Groening , Todd Anthony (1999) ( Memento of the original from September 9, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ It's in the dictionary, d'oh! BBC, June 14, 2001, archived from the original on December 3, 2002 ; Retrieved August 16, 2007 .
- ↑ Jeremy Simon: Wisdom from The Simpsons' 'D'ohh' boy (interview), The Daily Northwestern. February 11, 1994.
- ↑ Latest Status Info. TARR, accessed August 25, 2007 .
- ↑ Obese people lose IQ through 'Homer Simpson Effect' , Thisislondon. October 15, 2006. Archived from the original on January 21, 2010 Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved August 15, 2007.
- ↑ Kathleen Sampey: Homer Simpson Is 'Priceless' for MasterCard , Adweek. January 30, 2004. Retrieved July 28, 2012.
- ^ Simpsons fans get emails from Homer , BBC News, Jan. 30, 2003
