By Robert Scucci
| Published
Homer Simpson’s “d’oh!” is one of the most iconic catchphrases to come out of the ‘90s, but most people don’t know its origin, or how voice actor Dan Castellaneta actually coined the phrase himself while he was still working out the character during the early days of the series as it was developing during its run on The Tracey Ullman Show.
Originally appearing in The Simpsons scripts as “annoyed grunt,” d’oh was invented by Dan Castellaneta after consulting Matt Groening about what the annoyed grunt should actually sound like, to which Groening shrugged and said “whatever you want it to be.” As you know, the rest is history, and “d’oh” became a part of the cultural zeitgeist because Dan Castellaneta had the creative freedom to explore Homer Simpson as he saw fit at the time, resulting in “d’oh” becoming his signature catchphrase.
Conan O’Brien Pulls The Curtain Back
During an interview with Conan O’Brien in the year 2000 (in the year two thousaaaaanddd!) O’Brien, who worked on The Simpsons during its Golden Era, talked shop with Dan Castellaneta about the early days of the series. During this conversation, Castellaneta was gracious enough to run through his repertoire of characters, including Homer, Krusty the Clown, Grandpa Simpson, Barney Gumble, and Groundskeeper Willie before breaking down the evolution of Homer’s voice, and how he stumbled upon “d’oh” as the proper utterance to use in place of “annoyed grunt.”
According to Castellaneta, Homer Simpson’s original voice closely mirrored that of Walter Matthau, but since the Simpson patriarch’s voice needed much more range to emote properly, he had to work his diaphragm to be able to be more dynamic with his delivery depending on whatever situation Homer found himself in, resulting in the slightly deeper, more guttural delivery that we all became familiar with when the Simpsons mania of the early ‘90s began to take hold.
He’s Just Saying Damn
In regard to the proper spelling of “d’oh,” Dan Castellaneta explained to Conan that the phrase was only ever written in scripts if somebody was acknowledging that Homer said it frequently, and staff writers often debated whether it was spelled “doe” or “d’oh” during these instances (like when Homer says “now look sad and say d’oh” to himself).
Clarifying that it was always written as “annoyed grunt,” Castellaneta revealed that he was inspired by Jim Finlayson of Laurel and Hardy fame, who would say “D–ohhhh,” as a way to get away with saying “damn” in the 30’s. In other words, Finlayson, who played a number of different antagonists across 33 Laurel and Hardy films, would start to say “damn,” catch himself in the midst of uttering what was considered a profanity at the time, and end with “ohhhh.” That’s right, thanks to common censorship practices in the 1930s, Homer Simpson started saying a much more immediate “d’oh” in 1988.
Thanks to Dan Castelllaneta’s love for Laurel and Hardy, Matt Groening’s willingness to allow him to explore Homer Simpson’s character on his own terms, “d’oh” quickly became the juggernaut of a catchphrase that we know and love, and still celebrate to this day.
