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Things in cartoons don’t always look realistic. Shocking, we know! It’s not always bad, though. Some people feel like foods look tastier in animated form. An animated burger or maybe an animated cupcake, they look like the best, brightest, cheeriest version of themselves. However, not everything in animation tracks as being better. Right now, we’d like to pour one out for Homer Simpson. For decades, he’s been wearing what seem to be the most-uncomfortable shoes in existence.
When the Simpson family was designed, animation was not where it is today. Plus, the budget for The Tracey Ullman Show was not exactly lofty when it came to animation. Hey, for decades we watched Fred Flintstone or the Scooby Gang run in front of repeating backgrounds. It is what it is. Early Simpsons characters kept those rudimentary aesthetics, even as the animation improved. You can see it in their clothing. Marge and Lisa’s dresses have wild necklines. Then, there’s Homer’s shoes.
You can picture them in your mind, right? It’s part of the overall look of Homer. He wears a white collared shirt and bright blue pants, and then black shoes. The shoes, though, look so uncomfortable. What’s their deal? Are they dress shoes? They seem rigid. They look like they are, like, hard. Homer’s shoes look like plastic or something. They have those slight heels as well. Maybe that helps with his posture, but they don’t help make his shoes seem any more comfortable. We can’t recall any animated character having shoes that look half that cumbersome to wear.
And yet, Homer has worn them for decades! He’s had to spend so much time in those awful shoes (that also lack laces. Slip-ons perhaps?), walking around town, going to work, you name it. Occasionally, Homer has put on other shoes, including famously his Assassins sneakers that got chewed up by Santa’s Little Helper, but he always goes back to the black shoes that almost look like clogs. Sure, he’s animated. Homer Simpson feels no pain or discomfort. The dude fell down Springfield Gorge multiple times and survived. Even so, we can’t help but feel for his feet.
