Current WP:AID article. Could use suggestions on cleaning up and expanding the article. Gflores ^Talk 17:17, 27 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

• It's good from an in-universe perspective, but it would be better if it described Homer as a cultural artifact of our own universe. See User:BrianSmithson/Writing about fiction or User:Uncle G/Describe this universe for an idea of what I mean. — BrianSmithson 20:02, 27 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• I agree with Brian; the principles of his "writing about fiction" guide are well-founded. To address this article specifically:
  • As Brian mentioned, the article should place greater emphasis on treating Homer as a fictional character and an element of popular culture. Information on how Homer was created, how he's performed by the voice actor, every time such-and-such Magazine has named him one of the 50 Greatest So-and-So's ever, mentions of appearances outside the TV show (like the Intel and Mastercard commercials), Homer-specific merchandising, how writers and producers of the show have described him, their challenges/pleasures/whatever of writing for him, etc.
  • There needs to be some sort of clearer distinction between Homer's well-established character traits (eating too much, making poorly informed judgements, etc.), as opposed to single-episode trivia ("He runs a gossip website under the alias "Mr. X"; an IQ of 55, etc.)
  • Some better explanation of his individual relationships with his family members. The Simpsons is intended to be a show centered around a family unit as a whole, but the article makes almost no mention of how Homer connects to his wife and children. How does he interact with Lisa, with Bart, with Marge? The article doesn't say.
  • The "Names and Aliases" and "Religion" sections are just lumps of trivia without any cohesive structure. The former could be converted to a single sentence of prose (Like "In the course of his scheming, Homer has adopted numerous aliases blah blah blah examples"). There are some other sections that are just silly and uninformative (like "Homosexuality") that can be removed.
  • The construction "In episode XYZ, Homer..." is definitely better than not citing the relevant episode at all, but it appears too frequently in the article. Better to simply cite the episodes with footnotes.
  • Careful with POV, especially in statements like "As a rule, Homer's stupidity has generally increased with each passing season" (not really verifiable; in fact, the show's current executive producer, Al Jean, has actually said on DVD commentaries that he's tried to make Homer a little less dimwitted since taking over the job a few years ago).
  • Andrew Levine 03:58, 29 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
    • Andrew brings up a good point: DVD commentaries are gold for articles like this. Be sure to use them as a source as you retool this article. — BrianSmithson 13:37, 29 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
      • A major problem with this article is that people read to much into jokes etc. This is evident in sections such as Homosexuality and Religion. The truth is that Homers sexuality, attitude to relgion etc. change from episode to episode depending on what is needed for the storyline or for jokesSt jimmy 10:30, 3 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]