What inspires the cartoonist?

This guy's avatar simply had to be the inspiration for the cartoon character of Homer Simpson: http://www.eccie.net/member.php?u=3141

This guy's avatar simply had to be the inspiration for the cartoon character of Homer Simpson: http://www.eccie.net/member.php?u=3141 Originally Posted by ufriend2912

I know, I know... This is a joke... I'm failing to parse an invisible smiley or embedded "<humor></humor>" tags, but...

The Simpsons as cartoon characters started out in short animations embedded in Fox's The Tracey Ullman Show back in 1987 (they got their own show a bit over two years and ten months after that).

Just because I can, here's a picture (from Wikipedia Commons), showing the "evolution" of Homer; he's changed a bit over the years:



From left to right, that's Homer in 1987 (the Tracey Ullman Show years), Homer in 1989 (First year of The Simpsons), and Homer in 2007.

I did a quick search of that avatar image on Google Images (ok, I confess, I wanted to try their "drag and drop" image search function, so I dragged the avatar photo from the ECCIE profile into Google Images). Google Images identified it as Homer Simpson (one of the things the drag n' drop search tries to do is identify the person in the picture, then pull similar pictures as well as links to other webpages where that exact picture was posted). As far as I can tell, Google can't retrieve any postings of that image earlier than 2008 or so, with the image appearing to go viral on blogs, etc., in 2010 (i.e., the vast majority of hits that can be dated are dated sometime last year).

It's much, much more likely that Homer inspired that avatar, and not the other way around (though if you can prove that avatar photo dates to 1987 or before, I'll gladly reconsider that). Sorry if I'm raining on your parade, or worse, spoiling a good joke by going all geek on you.

ObHobby: I need to play around with that drag 'n drop search, though; it looks like it may be a supplement to TinEye for doing searches on TGTBT Backpage ads, etc., when you're doing your hobby research. At least it does seem to have some promise...

Cheers,

bcg (never one to resist the temptation to go all geek...)

I did a quick search of that avatar image on Google Images... Google Images identified it as Homer Simpson Originally Posted by bluffcityguy

I love when tech confirms !!

It's much, much more likely that Homer inspired that avatar, and not the other way around (though if you can prove that avatar photo dates to 1987 or before, I'll gladly reconsider that). Originally Posted by bluffcityguy

That's too much work. I just wanted a laugh.

Sorry if I'm raining on your parade, or worse, spoiling a good joke by going all geek on you. Originally Posted by bluffcityguy

The geek in you has also made me laugh !!

Don't worry, you didn't spoil a joke, rather your "research" of my assertion that it "had to be the inspiration" simply adds to the humor !!

I love your thoroughness, and I mean that sincerely. Who else would have even considered trying to research this matter??


BCG, I love ya (platonically, that is) !!

Don't worry, you didn't spoil a joke, rather your "research" of my assertion that it "had to be the inspiration" simply adds to the humor !!

BCG, I love your thoroughness, and I mean that sincerely.

Who else would have even considered trying to research this matter?? LOL Originally Posted by ufriend2912

Psychoanalysts call it "sublimation".

Ordinarily, I'd expend my energies by just taking a couple hundred or so, choosing a lady on my "to do" list (actually, I have a certain candidate in mind... ), and making a "play date".

However, I've got a planned trip to Chicago in about 10 days which has that money committed. Mostly as a contingency (it would be A Very Bad Thing if I ran out of gas on I-57 outside of Urbana, Illinois).

The trip itself isn't bad; I'll get to see an old friend I've not seen in a while, and I'll get to see Bill Maher in concert. But because I'm staying with that friend, who is fairly strait-laced and totally ignorant of my "hobby', the chance I'll be able to play in Chicago (if it winds up that I manage to spend wisely, and keep enough extra money on hand) is zilch. So instead, I've got to expend my extra energy geeking out instead of having someone "[give] me a boner!".

Glad you got some amusement out of it.

Cheers,

bcg

Here is the avatar image: