The Body Language of Homer Simpson’s DOH!

Animations are perfect for illustrating body language, as we’ll see with Homer Simpson Doh!

There are two reasons why animations like The Simpsons are so good for illustrating body language. Firstly, character artists are masters of understanding how the body communicates character. They’ve spent their lives learning how to express mood and thought through a still image.

Secondly, animations are much clearer than live action. Animations make it perfectly clear which part of a character’s expression is important.

Take Homer Simpson. You’re always 100% aware of what Homer Simpson is thinking and feeling. The reason is that his body language is clear for the eye to see, as we’ll discover as we now look at Homer Simpson’s classic poses.

Homer Simpson DOH!!!

You can immediately see that there are four important parts of Homer Simpson’s body language in this gesture:

The hand on his head: This  shows that he is dumbstruck. This hand seems to say, “What the. . . ?!”

The pinched eyes: These express pain (which could be physical or mental). When a character (or a person) pinches their eyes shut, they are showing that they don’t want to look at (or to face) something. Homer’s pinched eyes are the main “No!” part of the Doh!

The rounded and open mouth: Homer’s mouth is rounded into an “O” because he is saying DOH! However, It’s worth noting that even when a character or a person doesn’t actually say anything, they make an O with their mouth when surprised simply because they are thinking “Oh my goodness” or “Oh god” or “Oh my word.” The rounded mouth shows surprise.

Hand out in front: The exact way in which Homer is holding his left hand in this picture is important. It’s held outwards as though to get something to stop. If you look at the hand you can actually imagine him saying “Stop.” So, the left hand position expresses a desire for a situation to be over.

Put these four body language gestures together and you get: “What the.  .. ?! Oh no. .  .No! Stop!”  which, when expressed in a single moments, comes out as “DOH!”