Happy birthday Mr. Simpson: 10 of our favourite Homer moments

It’s Homer Simpson’s birthday, so here are some of his finest moments

Concrete details about the life and times of the characters from The Simpsons have been hard to come by, most of the time, but in one particular episode, where Homer is getting his driver’s licence revoked, we get to see his date of birth: May 12th, 1956.

That means today is the birthday of one of the greatest TV characters there has ever been, and there was no way we could let it pass without marking the occasion. While Homer’s adventures over the years have gotten a little bit weirder and more surreal, he has always at heart been a lovable buffoon and a good dad, if not somewhat misguided. He might not help out around the house and he definitely eats and drinks too much, but when it’s really counted, he’s been there for Bart, Lisa, Maggie and Marge…and sometimes Abe too. In a way, he’s also been there for us in our everyday lives, so here are a few of his phrases and moments that we still use on at least a bi-weekly basis:

When flicking a light switch:

Every time we see a trampoline:

That’s a typo:

He taught us everything we know about maths:

Neeerrrrd:

Silencer. Loudener:

Neddy? Neddddyyyy!:

Save me Jebus, save meeee!:

Statistics can prove anything:

The frogurt is also cursed:

Remember when we took that home wine-making course?

We’re not sure if a week goes by without us using one of those phrases, but we couldn’t leave without looking at the moments when something that Homer did touched us deeply. There have been plenty, such as in ’The Way We Was’, when he gives a speech to Marge about why he thinks they were meant to be together and tells her "How can the one thing I've never been more sure about in my life be wrong?", or when he tells Maggie that he hopes she never talks so that she can never talk back, before she utters her first words, out of earshot, "Dada". However, few have made us claim that we were just cutting onions or that there’s something in our eye more than the episode ’And Maggie Makes Three’. It gets us every time.

Although the episode shows Homer panicking about having a child and having to give up his dream job and go crawling back (literally) to the power plant where he hates it, we see a softer side of the family father when the plaque that’s nailed to his wall reminding him he’s here forever gets a few adjustments.