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D'oh!

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File:D oh.jpg
Homer Simpson grunting his famous "D'oh!"

"D'oh!" is the comical catch phrase of Homer Simpson, from the long-running animated series The Simpsons. Famously accepted into the Oxford English Dictionary, it is typically used when Homer injures himself, realizes that he has done something stupid, or when something bad has happened to him. On certain occasions other characters use the phrase, the most common being Bart.

Origin

The cry of "D'oh!" is typically represented in the show's script as "annoyed grunt." When Dan Castellaneta, the voice actor who voices Homer, was first asked to voice the exclamation he rendered it as a drawn out "dooh", inspired by Jimmy Finlayson, a moustachioed actor of a number of Laurel and Hardy films. The show's creator Matt Groening felt that it would better suit the timing of animation if it were spoken faster so Castellaneta shortened it to "D'oh!"

Oliver Hardy, Edgar Kennedy, the radio show ITMA and Peter Glaze on the children's television show Crackerjack also used forms of "D'oh," as cries of pain or frustration. Glaze's rendition in particular is eerily prescient of the Simpsons version.

One interpretation claims that Homer simply uses D'oh! as a euphemism for damn. This last interpretation is supported by Castellaneta himself. On the other hand, many people think "D'oh!" is related to the expression "D'uh" uttered by the none-too-bright character of Moose in Archie Comics. "D'uh" originated as a mean-spirited attempt to imitate some mentally deficient individuals whose speech can resemble "D'uh." The correct pronunciation of "D'uh"—unlike "D'oh"—uses two syllables: first a plosive D syllable that stops abruptly as the tongue slides down off the upper front teeth, and then a prolonged uhhhh sound while exhaling.

File:Homer doh2.png
Homer writing 'D'oh!' on a chalkboard in Jaws Wired Shut.

When Homer swallows numerous hot peppers in the episode "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Homer" he experiences a vision. In that vision, he must follow a slow moving turtle. Homer, who is impatient pounds the ground with his fist in anger spelling "D'oh" in the dust cloud (which confirms the correct spelling of the phrase). Also, when Homer had his jaw wired shut in the episode "Jaws Wired Shut", he was reduced to communicating with others by writing on a blackboard, including going so far as to write "D'oh".

Many people in Homer's life (including Marge Simpson, Bart Simpson, Lisa Simpson, Montgomery Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders, Krusty the Clown, Herb Powell, Abraham Simpson Mona Simpson, and even one time neighbor Former President Gerald Ford) have been heard using the exclamation.

It was first heard on a Tracey Ullman Show short entitled "The Krusty the Clown Show," on January 15, 1989. The segment ends with Krusty shaking Bart in anger, while Marge and Homer watch TV. Homer's reaction: "D'oh!"

Variations

Variations of the catch phrase have appeared in some episodes of The Simpsons.

  • In "Burns' Heir", (1994), Mr. Burns decides to make Bart his heir and tries to convince Bart that his family doesn't want him anymore. He allows Bart to watch his "family", actually actors hired by Burns, on closed-circuit television. The Homer impersonator (who bears an uncanny resemblance to Michael Caine) drops his sandwich and exclaims "b'oh!" Bart comments that something about his family doesn't seem quite right. At this, Burns switches off the monitor, scurries onto the set and tells the actor "Homer Simpson doesn't say 'B'oh', he says...(looks through script)...'D'oh'!"; when "Homer" tries again, he says it nearly correctly (Duh-oh), if unconvincingly.
  • In "Bart of Darkness" (1994), while talking to an apparently Amish man, Homer expresses his frustration over building a barn instead of a pool. The Amish man tells him, "'Tis a fine barn, but sure 'tis no pool, English." Homer responds with a "D'oheth!"
  • In "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", part 2, (1995), Homer shouts "D'oh!" when he is arrested by Chief Wiggum. Wiggum responds, "That's what they all say. They all say d'oh".
  • In "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" (1997), Homer is disappointed that no one likes his performance as Poochie, the new character on the Itchy and Scratchy cartoon. Sitting alone after everyone else leaves, Homer says aloud, "Well, at least I liked it... didn't I?" His brain replies, in a voiceover, "Oh, you don't want to know what I think. Now look sad and say d'oh". Homer does as instructed.
  • In "Thirty Minutes over Tokyo" (1999), on a family trip to Japan, Homer said something in Japanese along the lines of "shimatta-baka-ni," which was translated in subtitles as "D'oh!" Shimatta in Japanese is roughly equivalent to "damn it!", whereas Baka ni is, by Japanese grammar, more literally taken as an adverb (pointed out by the particle ni after a na adjective radical), meaning "stupidly", with the root word baka being used traditionally to describe an idiotic or foolish person or thing. (Japanese speakers normally use baka in relation to silly animals or inanimate things; it is considered extremely rude when used in reference to humans.)
  • In "They Saved Lisa's Brain" (1999) Homer gets to meet and converse with Stephen Hawking, who he goes to have a drink with at Moe's. In an attempt to get out of paying, Homer attempts to mock Hawking's robotic "voice" to say that Hawking will pay. Hawking's wheelchair releases a boxing glove to punch Homer in the face, to which he replies in the same robotic voice a very quick "D'oh."
  • In "Kill Gil: Vols. 1 & 2" (2006), Homer asks Marge if "the boom has been lowered" in a low voice. When she responds negatively, Homer whispers in a very rough voice "D'oooooooooh" that sounded exactly the same as his normal grunt, just longer.

Episode names

"D'oh!" is not often written as such in The Simpsons scripts. Instead, it is written as "annoyed grunt." In recognition of this, several episodes feature the phrase "annoyed grunt" in the episode title where one would expect the term "d'oh". Such episodes include "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot" (instead of "I, D'oh-bot", a play on I, Robot), "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" (a parody of the song supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in Mary Poppins), "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)" (a parody of Old MacDonald Had a Farm), and "G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)" (a parody of G.I. Joe).

However, "d'oh" is always uttered in the show's promos that are run by Fox.

Four episodes so far have "d'oh" in their titles: season 10's "D'oh-in' in the Wind," season 11's "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses," season 14's "C.E. D'oh," and season 17's "We're on the Road to D'ohwhere".

Usage

The term d'oh! has been adopted by many Simpsons fans. The term has become commonplace in modern speech and demonstrates the reach of the show's influence. "D'oh" has been added to the Webster's Millennium Dictionary of English, the Macmillan Dictionary for Advanced Learners and the Oxford English Dictionary. It is defined as: "expressing frustration at the realization that things have turned out badly or not as planned, or that one has just said or done something foolish. Also (usu. mildly derogatory), implying that another person has said or done something foolish (cf. DUH int.)." The OED etymologizes the word as "popularized by" The Simpsons, but lists usages as early as 1945.

In the German-dubbed version, d'oh! is translated to Nein! (No! - pronounced like the number 9). In the Spanish-dubbed version, d'oh! is changed to ¡Ou! (pronounced like the letter O), the same as Ouch! (replaced in later episodes with D'oh, at least in Latin America). The pronunciation, with the proper Homer-like intonation, has entered as well in the popular culture of many Spanish-speaking countries. The closed captions for the program (at least in the U.S.), spell D'oh as D-ohh!. In Italy, the parts where Homer utters the word are left unedited, thus still bearing Castellaneta's voice.

The Arrested Development episode "Sword of Destiny" references Castellaneta's role as the voice of Homer in a way typical of that series' subversive humor: his character (Dr. Stein) utters the word "D'oh", but in about as flat and un-Homerlike a delivery as can be imagined.

After being popularized by The Simpsons, the expression has been used widely in computer and video games as well as other media.

Twentieth Century Fox has filed for a trademark for "the spoken word 'D'OH'" [1].

Usages in video games

  • Nintendo uses it in several of the games for their various home video game consoles:
    • In Advance Wars: Dual Strike in the history record there is a part that says "You've been ambushed 50 times! D'oh!"
    • In Baten Kaitos Origins, the quest magnus of Dull Times' description reads "What? You're bored right now? D'oh."
  • In the PC game Guildwars, you can type "/doh" as one of the emotes and the character you control slaps his/her head. This also occurs in World of Warcraft, but only as a text emote.
  • In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, the game's protagonist, Phoenix Wright, thinks "D'oh!" to himself, after having presented the wrong piece of evidence to the judge during a case.
  • In Super Smash Bros Melee, when Mario dies, he yells "D'OH!!"
  • In the first disc of Final Fantasy VII, talking to a guard at a soon- to- be- obliterated building has him say, "D'oh!"
  • In Crash Bandicoot 2, Cortex is seen looking at a crystal, only to exclaim "D'oh!" when his candle goes out.
  • In Super Mario 64 whenever Mario hits a wall at a fast enough speed he yells "D'oh!".

Usages in other media

File:Dailymirror.jpg
The Daily Mirror, November 4, 2004

The top of The Daily Mirror's cover on November 4, 2004 read, "DOH! 4 MORE YEARS OF DUBYA" as an editorial comment on the re-election of George W. Bush.

A remix of Linkin Park's One Step Closer song, called "One D'oh Closer". Also in Limp Bizkit's song "Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle)", it is said at one point during the song.

The term has appeared in Simpsons creator Matt Groening's Life in Hell comic strip (twice in the same strip), written "D'ohh! [after the manner of Homer Simpson]".

In an issue of the comic book Star Trek: Deep Space Nine published by Malibu Comics, the alien character Jadzia Dax was seen to exclaim "D'oh!" after making an error.

In feature films

In television

See also

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