Talk:Homer Simpson

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Article Creation and Improvement Drive Homer Simpson was the Article Creation and Improvement Drive for the week starting on Sunday, 19 March 2006.

For more details, see the Article Creation and Improvement Drive history.
To-do list for Homer Simpson: edit · history · watch · refresh
  • Send this article to peer review to get input for the AID-collaboration
The article is being peer reviewed at Wikipedia:Peer review/Homer Simpson
  • Article is massively long; edit to remove sub-trivial information
  • There's lot's of garbage in there, an enormous amount of stuff to verify
  • Expand introductory paragraph per WP:LEAD
  • Cultural influence of homer (d'oh, etc)
  • More images if possible (from tv show, toys, etc) should we include pic of voice actor?
Peer review Homer Simpson has had a peer review by Wikipedia editors which is now archived. It may contain ideas you can use to improve this article.
Homer Simpson appeared on The Simpsons Portal as the selected article from 23 June 2005 to 22 December 2005
Homer Simpson is a former good article candidate. There are suggestions below for which areas need improvement to satisfy the good article criteria. Once the objections are addressed, the article can be renominated as a good article. If you disagree with the objections, you can seek a review.

Date of review: No date specified. Please edit template call function as follows: {{FailedGA|insert date in any format here}}
Please add comments to the bottom of the page
Use the "+" tab link instead of the "edit this page" tab link above to add comments. Make sure to add four tildes (~~~~) to sign your name at the end of your comment. As of now, go to the article checklist at the bottom of this page to see the most recent addition. J. Finkelstein 21:43, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
Also, PLEASE ADD RELEVANT CULTURAL INFORMATION TO THE ARTICLE
Or at least, post a link to a source that has cultural information on this talk page so that somebody else can put it into the article. When we get some good cultural information, we can start cutting out some useless list-y information. J. Finkelstein 02:08, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
Archives

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Contents


[edit] Contradictory Comedy

I think a lotta this stuff may be fruitless. The Simpsons is full of contradictions, plotholes and bad continuity - something which is often played upon by the writers for much of the humour in the later series.

[edit] Rewrite

I am going to slowly work my way through each section and rewrite them. I will remove anything that is POV, pointless, extraenous, original research, overly trivial, uncited and generally odd. -Localzuk (talk) 19:48, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm up to the Health Issues section but am giving up for the night. I will be back tomorrow to carry on. I am hoping to get this article at least back up to Good Article status. If anyone can go through and add <ref></ref> style references to particular episodes where needed that would help a lot.-Localzuk (talk) 23:13, 15 September 2006 (UTC)
Right, I have made a lot of changes to the article. It still needs a lot more work to reduce the over-reliance on his fictional details and increase the information about his influence on society, his creation, how his voice is produced etc...-Localzuk (talk) 16:29, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Trivia section

I am moving the trivia section onto the talk page so that anything useful can be worked into the rest of the article. As it stands, it has very little value in the article as it is difficult to read, too long and contains a lot of pointless things. Take a look at WP:TRIVIA and WP:AVTRIV for information on how to use trivia more effectively.-Localzuk (talk) 22:42, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Trivia

  • According to Simpson and Delilah, Homer's social security number is 668-47-8008.
  • According to Blood Feud, Homer's blood type is A-positive and his earmuff size is XM.
  • According to Duffless, Homer's eye color is blueish greenish yellowish.
  • Homer appears to eat Comic Books from the Silver Age
  • Homer's age is also given as 36 years in Homer the Vigilante and Homer the Heretic.
  • In a few episodes Homer is seen playing the lottery and he always gets two liberty bells and one cherry.
  • A 55 I.Q. would serve 25 points below the border of mental retardation (which is 80, but in English law is set at 70), the Forrest Gump character portrayed by Tom Hanks had an I.Q. of 75, 20 points above Homer's. A 55 I.Q. in reality would be considered extreme mental retardation and an individual with that I.Q. would in most cases have difficulty speaking, a very short memory and find it hard to purchase everyday items and above all, would never be able to drive a car, which Homer does often. Homer's idiocy in reality would be defined by an I.Q. between 70 and 90, rather than 55.
  • Creator Matt Groening incorporates his initials (M.G.) into Homer; the "M" being the hair on the side of Homer's head and the "G" being Homer's ear.
  • According to The Dad Who Knew Too Little, Homer's e-mail address is chunkylover53@aol.com.
  • Once Homer bought a $1.00 package of Drake's Yodels instead of a lottery ticket that was $1.00 that he knew was a $500.00 winner.
  • Homer is addicted to painkillers, mentioned in Behind the Laughter.
  • Homer's favorite movie is Look Who's Oinking.
  • His favorite band is Grand Funk Railroad.
  • Also enjoys listening to The Rolling Stones, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and Cheap Trick.
  • In a few episodes he is portrayed as a skilled guitarist.
  • Helped his softball team win the championship game by getting knocked unconscious by a pitch with the bases loaded.
  • Dreams of one day owning the Dallas Cowboys
  • Owner of the Denver Broncos
  • Has Don Ameche's Academy Award on his trophy shelf.
  • Middle name is Jay.
  • Proposed to his wife Marge with an Onion Ring.
  • Has dislikes for: New York City, Mountain Dew, President George H.W. Bush and son George W. Bush, Hippies (although he was one in one episode)
  • Once mistaken as Big Foot
  • Served in the Naval Reserve
  • Has been to: Japan (Thirty Minutes over Tokyo), Australia (Bart vs. Australia), Cuba (The Trouble with Trillions), Brazil (Blame It on Lisa), England (The Regina Monologues), Scotland (Monty Can't Buy Me Love), France (Bart-Mangled Banner), Italy (The Italian Bob), the Netherlands (Burns' Heir), China (Goo Goo Gai Pan), Canada (Midnight Rx), Sweden (Homer's Barbershop Quartet), Africa (Missionary: Impossible), India (Homer and Apu and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore), and outer space (Deep Space Homer).
  • Other than being a Nuclear Power Safety Technician, he has also been: a country music manager, a clown, an astronaut, a minor league baseball mascot, a newspaper reporter, the owner of the Denver Broncos, a navel commander, a body guard, the owner of an internet providing company, a snow plow driver, an artist, a boxer, a circus freak, a server at a fast food restaurant, a grave digger, a missionary, a self-proclaimed inventor, the mayor of "New Springfield", a vigilante, the union representative of his power plant, a public safety advocate, the inventor of tomacco, a black jack dealer, the voice for an animated character, the inspiration for a bumbling policemen on a sitcom, the father figure for an orphan child named Pepe, inventor of the Flaming Homer, grand master of a secret society, a snitch, a 'Guitar Hero’, an employee of the Kwik-E-Mart, a greeter at Sprawl-Mart, and also a series of get rich quick schemes that never panned out.
  • A character named Homer Simpson appears in Nathanael West's 1939 novel "The Day of the Locust".

[edit] Top Ten on Late Show

Homer appeared as himself on the February 13, 2003 episode of The Late Show with David Letterman to present his Top Ten reasons as to why he was excited to be on the show. The list:

10. I'm happy to reunite with my college lover Biff Henderson.
9. Free crackers in the Green room. Mmm... Crackers.
8. I can take advantage of low, low New York prices.
7. Uh, couldn't come up with this one.
6. I love the Dancing Itos.
5. I finally get to be on a real network.
4. Your minimum guest payment is the most money I've ever seen in my life.
3. Marge always puts out on vacation.
2. I get to raid your writing staff.
1. Paul and I have the same barber. Give me my money, Letterman. I want my money.

[edit] Likes

Homer is a fan of music by Grand Funk Railroad, Steve Miller Band, The Who, Queen, possibly KISS, and The Beatles. He's also a fan of Sheriff Lobo, enjoys bowling and is also a fan of Rex Morgan, M.D.

[edit] Trivial information being added and more information required

Please can we try not to add little snippets of trivia unless it is absolutely necessary. For example, we do not need to know the name of the hair re-growth formula. If we don't keep the trivia out then the article is never going to be a good or featured article.

Also, can we try and add some more 'real world' information, such as his cultural impact, details of his creation etc...?-Localzuk(talk) 16:58, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sexuality

The entire section on sexuality seems a little redundant. There's never really been any dispute over Homer's sexuality, so I don't see the point of listing every joy-inspired kiss and throwaway joke relating to homosexuality in the show's run.

The section claims that Homer is "severely homophobic". His predjudice has hardly been mentioned since Homer's Phobia, which is where all the evidence the section provides comes from. Since the ending to that episode centers around Homer accepting gay people, coupled with the acceptance he's shown in later episodes, I believe this is irrelevant. Shiro Sirius 21:29, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

Also, is fantasizing about making out with a clone of yourself considered homosexual or just self-centered? Or masturbation? ;-) 65.95.157.80 06:32, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removing "unsourced" template

Excuse me if I have missed out on previous discussions concerning this topic, but isn't the show itself the source for most of the statements in this article? I'm removing the "unsourced" template because of this. --Impaciente 19:21, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

Each claim still needs a citation to their episodes. Else it is 'unreferenced'. Don't get unverifiable confused with this.-Localzuk(talk) 19:43, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] 105 IQ

Is an IQ of 105 really that smart? I've heard that the average is either 100 or 120, which certainly doesn't seem to fit how smart he was in that episode. 65.95.157.80 06:34, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

The average IQ in any of the scales is 100. I believe they choose 105 as Homers higher intelligence just to illustrate how low it originally was. 85.225.24.12 14:46, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] mysterious tv commercial

The seen from an episode where homer becomes a limo driver, it shows lisa reading a gag newspaper & outta the blue a limo ad mystyreously apperes on the screen when the tv is supposedly off, what happened?

Wikipedia is not a fan site. You would be better asking that sort of question elsewhere. Thanks, Localzuk(talk) 06:38, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A little more work needed!

The article is shaping up quite well I think, although it still needs more 'real life' information. I have now added a brief summary of the 'Dream Jobs' section - this is likely in need of some work to improve it.

The only other thing that remains, as I see it, is that we need to put down the last couple of citations to episodes that are requested.

We still need to make more an effort to split the general character traits from the individual episode bits. We also need to remove as much of the 'reading into jokes' as possible and reduce the amount of examples we use. Any ideas anyone?-Localzuk(talk) 11:33, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

  • I've removed a few episode details, including his flask hidden in the hollowed out bible, and his pie crust with cloves experiment. ----Raenbow

[edit] Gay episode

Which episode did Homer think Bart was gay? Homer made a friend with a homosexual, then he found out he was gay. Homer though Bart was acting gay, so he took him out and made him do manly stuff with him. -71.224.24.99 19:19, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

LOL I dont recall any episode like that. Although it's not beyond an animated comedy like the Simpsons. TέΉ ѕΡίɗΣR ( ŢάḶκ | ÇόηṬŕĺβs ) 21:51, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Homer's Age

The article states that Homer was 36 through seasons one through ten; I've never heard his age to be 36 in any episode, but the article mentions that it was initially 36 in DVD commentary. I've heard ages 38, 39, and in one episode, Homer was given the age 37 during a season eight episode, proving the statement of Homer being 36 for the first ten seasons wrong. Plus the article says in seasons 14-17, he was 36 again, which is also wrong. Here are episodes/sources that mention Homer's age:

16:46, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, there was an episode where he reminisced his time at summer camp sometime "in the late 50's, the 60s, or the early 70's,", which would place him to be somewhere in his thirties or forties. TέΉ ѕΡίɗΣR ( ŢάḶκ | ÇόηṬŕĺβs ) 21:50, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Indeed! Include this info please. The info box should now read 36 - 39 (depends on episode) instead. Cheers, Localzuk(talk) 22:22, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Listitous starting to re-grow

We appear to be suffering from a bad case of 'list-itous' or 'example-itous' - where we seem to be continually adding items to each are of the article as examples of Homer's habits, abilities etc... The main problem with this page is these lists. Most of these items do not add anything to the discussion of his character and just seem to be coming from fans who remember far too much about the episodes. Wikipedia is supposed to be an encyclopedia. This means we provide a collection of information that summarises a subject according to its important and interesting points. The key words here being 'summarise', 'important' and 'interesting'.-Localzuk(talk) 23:09, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Born in Canada?

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20020720/simpons_canadian_020719?s_name=&no_ads=

Quote from the article:

In Montreal for a performance of The Simpsons - In the Flesh stage show at the Just for Laughs comedy festival, Groening noted Thursday his dad was born in Canada and Homer is named for him so . . . .

"That would make Homer Simpson a Canadian," Groening said in an interview. "I hope Canadians won't hold it against the show now that they know.

[edit] How to Improve the Article

This article has been graded as a Top priority within the Simpsons WikiProject and has been chosen by the Article Improvement Drive in an effort to upgrade it to at least Good Status. It needs some work, some sections will have to be sourced, others will have to be cleared. So does anyone have any ideas? -- Scorpion0422 21:36, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

I have proposed a reorganization on the Simpsons Featured Article Drive I would like comment on. Natalie 21:40, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
(edit conflict) I've said it before, and I'll say it again - end the lists!!! If we can get past the obsession of having to give 10 examples for every minor detail of Homer's character then it should be much easier to sort out.
Also, the last drive said that we need less focus on the character traits and more focus on real world things (ie. more in the cultural influence section).
Finally, we need to analyse things from a more 'non-fiction' manner - for example, it is not enough to say that Homer is a fat lazy slob, instead we need to show the reasons why this is done etc... Relate it to the real world.
As it stands the article looks like a fan listing.-Localzuk(talk) 21:43, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
Well, I haven't taken a full look at everything yet, but most of the lists will go. Pages with a lot of lists generally don't become Good Articles. -- Scorpion0422 21:54, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
I've been through the article twice and done major culls in the last 6 months, but the lists re-grow. I think that Natalie's ideas regarding structure are correct - I think the structure we have at the moment leads to this list problem. If we can move away from it then the problem should sort itself out really. (Much like reducing the trolling in a criticism section by merging the criticism throughout an article - if it isn't shiney, people aren't attracted to it).-Localzuk(talk) 22:08, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
Very true Localzuk. But if you think Homer's lists are bad, check out Bart Simpson. Natalie 22:57, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
The first thing I thought when I looked at that page is 'argh, my eyes!!', this was closely followed by 'it looks just like Homer Simpson's article did a year ago'. Boy does that one need work. Lets hope we get cleared up here quickly.-Localzuk(talk) 23:49, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Do we need a General Biography

I noticed that Homer no longer has a general biography because its been merged into various sections. He needs a short one, but how big should it be? Because it could just turn into "In [Random Episode] Homer [Did random thing]." which won't get it featured.

I have suggested at the project page (linked above) that we remove any one-episode information, unless it is given as a reason for a theme of Homer's personality. An example of things that would go out: all of Homer's one-episode jobs, any one-episode changes in appearance. Things that would stay in: how he apparently lost his hair (given in a flashback episode), the crayon in his brain (since this is, AFAIK, the only reason given for his wide swings in intelligence). Natalie 22:45, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
Indeed, all single episode info should go - as it is not relevant to 'Homer as a whole'.-Localzuk(talk) 23:49, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How should we do it?

I've been looking through some pages and I've been wondering how much of the page should be dedicated to Homer in the show. Shoul we write basically a biography of Homer based on the show with some stuff on his real life impact, or should we do the reverse and focus on his real life impact?

I do think it is important to note most of whats there, but I've been looking at pages for some (liek Bugs Bunny) which focus more on Bugs Bunnys impact than anything. Of course, Bugs Bunny is far older and has gone through many more changes than Homer. -- Scorpion0422 00:22, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cultural Influences

At prior peer reviews it was mentioned that this section needed more content. How can we increase the content (as most of the additions I made to it have now been removed)?-Localzuk(talk) 13:49, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

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