Slashdot Mirror
Homer Simpson Named Greatest TV Character
A survey by Entertainment Weekly has named Homer Simpson the greatest character created for television or film in the past 20 years. Everyone's favorite beer-swilling, donut-eating dad beat out Harry Potter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the top spot. From the article: "'People can relate to Homer because we're all secretly propelled by desires we can't admit to,' Groening was quoted as telling Entertainment Weekly. 'Homer is launching himself head-first into every single impulsive thought that occurs to him. His love of whatever ... is a joy to witness.'"
Weird, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, evil stuff.
And I want in.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
If by "great" you mean "iconic", sure. And in TV land the two are probably synonymous. But back in my day, you had to conquer Asia-Minor to be considered "great".
A fat, balding, selfish, stupid, bad-skinned, horrible-father-figure is voted as being "great". Welcome to America.
You have to realize, the reason he's great is _because_ he embodies those "fat, balding, selfish... etc. (I'm going to add irreverent to this)" qualities on so many levels.
Not only is he as lazy and ignorant as we all at least on SOME occasions have wanted to be, but he's also the embodiment of irony and self-deprecating humor in that respect too.
There's a reason why other countries that hate America still love the Simpsons and love Homer. And no it's not because they're stupid enough to think that character actually represents America (maybe Hank Hill from King of the Hill, though =P). Sure America might take many (too many? most?) of those qualities too far, especially in how stubbornly we present ourselves politically to the rest of the world. But The Simpsons, in its decades long run, is our attempt to not just revel in that attitude, but also constantly remind everyone in the world, including and _especially_ ourselves that we are nowhere near as perfect as we claim to be.
If anything, the Simpsons has been a great lesson in finding the good with the bad, a little bit of the bad in the good, and a lot of funny in everything.
That's the least of their problems. Number 2 (Harry Potter) was created for a book. Number 5 (Joker) was created for comics in the 1960s. Numbers 8 (Hannibal Lecter) and 9 (Carrie Bradshaw) were originally created for books as well. So this is really the list of the top characters appearing in television or film in the last 20 years.
Actually, everyone is quoting TFA and TFS, but if you actually go to the source, it doesn't actually use the words "created" or "TV". It's simply "The 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years". They specifically refer to the "100 greatest characters in pop-culture" and state "(w)hether the fictional women, men, ogres, muppets, babies, and cartoon rockers who made our list were initially created before 1990 didn’t matter so long as they made a lasting impact in the culture after 1990."
"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein
The reason Homer is so appealing to us is because he is Everyman, at his worst. Whenever he does something I either have done it, thought about doing it or know someone who did it.