Homer J Simpson

Probably the Simpson's star, Homer is head of the family. As Safety Inspector at the nuclear power plant he does his job with an absolute minimum of effort. It's a miracle that Springfield hasn't become the second Chernobyl. Homer is incredibly lazy and slothful, his idea of the ideal day being to lie on the couch and drink beer while Marge cleans up around him. Some(some?) may find him merely offensive and rude, but generally they do not look hard enough to see his good qualities. Despite the way he sometimes treats them, he loves his family greatly, even taking on extra jobs to prevent the kids being disappointed at Christmas time, he has a keen sense of right and wrong. A fine example of his family values is in "Rosebud" - Maggie gets Burns' long lost teddy bear Bobo, and Homer demands $1,000,000 to give it back. Burns aggrees, but when Homer sees that Maggie has become very attached to Bobo, he refuses to give Burns the bear because it would upset Maggie. He values the happiness of his family over money, and despite the way he sometimes treats them he would do anything for any of them. Maggie eventully gives Burns back the bear for free, but it was the thought that counted.

This is not always the case - sometimes Homer is merely offensive and rude. Nasty Homer turns up often in series's five and six - this Homer has favourites amoung his children, teases Bart when he joins the Junior Campers, and proves obnoxious to everyone. This is not the real Homer - merely a poorly written one. Also, for a while Homer seemed (and sometimes still seems) to be getting stupider. In the first few seasons you could just say that he was just below normal intelligence. In some later episodes it seems like he has suffered brain damage. Luckily, in season nine he appears to be starting to recover from whatever caused this.

Future Echoes

"Lisa's Wedding" keeps Homer in familiar territory - fifteen years later he is still working at his old station in sector 7G. In fact he's the only human worker left - Lenny and Karl have been promoted to management, and everyone else has been replaced by robots. Worse still, Milhouse is his supervisor, and makes his life hard because Lisa dumped him! Unbeliveably, Homer is even fatter in 2010. We also know from "Itchy and Scratchy the Movie" that he'll live another 40 years.