NoHomers.net
Encyclopedia
The No Homers Club is a fan site and community devoted to the television show The Simpsons
. It was launched on August 27, 2001. Although the web page contains many features typical to Simpsons fan sites, including an episode guide and images, its primary draw is its message board, which has over 41,000 members, 82,000 threads, and 2.7 million posts.
The community has been mentioned on numerous DVD and Blu-ray audio episode commentaries
by members of the The Simpsons staff, including creator Matt Groening
and current show runner
Al Jean
. The site has also held several Q&As with staff members of the show and Bongo Comics
.
After Wirtanen shut down his "Evergreen Terrace" website in 2002 (largely due to a cease and desist
order from 20th Century Fox
), the No Homers Club became mostly independent and developed a large community. The forum's address was originally club.nohomers.net but the board moved to simpsonsforum.com within days after its creation. In October 2002, it took its current domain, nohomers.net. Since 2002, Jacob Burch has also had a significant part in the maintenance of the NHC and as of June 2006, he is the co-owner of the website. On September 29, 2008, the NHC message board logged its two millionth post. In August 2011, after a brief flirtation as a general discussion message board, the NHC re-dedicated itself to The Simpsons and became affiliated with The Simpsons Archive
. The NHC's general discussion community subsequently moved to nerdgroupies.com, whose forum remains fairly active to this day.
When the forums were first created in August 2001, the NHC ran on the YaBB forum software. However, in October 2001 (after just a few months), the NHC started using vBulletin
forum software. As of September 2011, the message board runs on the vBulletin 4.07 platform.
The staff of The Simpsons
, including creator Matt Groening
and current show runner
Al Jean
, has acknowledged the community several times on some of the DVD and Blu-ray audio commentaries. They go into detail in the episode commentary for "Homer the Great
". The producers of The Simpsons do read the website often. On the aforementioned commentary, David Mirkin
, a former show runner, joked that it should be renamed "the worst show ever weekly" forum. In response, the tagline appeared in the forum's default banner until April 2006.
In addition, in the DVD commentary for The Simpsons Movie
during a conversation regarding how die-hard fans of the series would be upset about Moe's Tavern being located adjacent to the First Church of Springfield in the film, Jean remarked "This is for you, No Homers."
Groening also mentioned the website in the June 2007 issue of Playboy Magazine, stating that NoHomers.net "has the most vocal fans [of The Simpsons]. They often act like spurned lovers if they don't like something." Wirtanen later responded to Groening by saying "Of course we often act like spurned lovers — The Simpsons hasn't satisfied some of us in years. Nevertheless, the show is still more satisfying than our imaginary girlfriends."
The staff of the show has also been in direct contact with some site administrators. Al Jean once posted a message to fans about some comments voice actor Harry Shearer
had made about the show.
The website has hosted question-and-answer sessions with three former executive producers. In early 2002, Al Jean (who had just become the show runner) answered questions for fans, and in late 2005, Bill Oakley
and Josh Weinstein
answered questions in the first of two moderated sessions, coinciding with the release of the seventh season on DVD. They also took questions in January 2006 for the commentaries for the eighth season on DVD, which they would be soon recording. Both have also occasionally contributed to other threads on the forum.
In addition, other staff such as show animators Jen Kamerman
and Sarge Morton; Bongo Comics
writers/artists Bill Morrison, Ian Boothby
, Chris Ungar, Gail Simone
and Jesse McCann
have dropped by the site to interact with users and answer any questions about some of the less-frequently addressed aspects of the show. Jesse McCann also took part in a Q&A session in late 2006 and early 2007.
In the episode, "Sleeping with the Enemy", from the show's sixteenth season, director Lauren MacMullan
confirmed that they added a sign in the bowling alley to pay homage to the website. The sign said "N.H.C. Champs! 15 Seasons" and can be seen for about a second.
", written by John Swartzwelder
and directed by Jim Reardon
. In the episode, Homer laments that years ago his peers started a "No Homers Club" and excluded him from the group, even though they let in a boy by the name of Homer Glumplich. (This is explained by the fact that it's the No Homers (plural) Club, and they're "allowed to have one.")
Boy: Hey Billy! Hey Joey! Come on in. There's plenty of room. Sorry, not you, Homer.
Homer: Why not!?
Homer: But you let in Homer Glumplich!
Homer Glumplich: [pops head out window] Hyuck hyuck!
Boy: It says no Homers. We're allowed to have one.
Homer: Oh.
— The Simpsons
episode 2F09, "Homer the Great
".
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
. It was launched on August 27, 2001. Although the web page contains many features typical to Simpsons fan sites, including an episode guide and images, its primary draw is its message board, which has over 41,000 members, 82,000 threads, and 2.7 million posts.
The community has been mentioned on numerous DVD and Blu-ray audio episode commentaries
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
by members of the The Simpsons staff, including creator Matt Groening
Matt Groening
Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama....
and current show runner
Show runner
Showrunner is a term of art originating in the United States and Canadian television industry referring to the person who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of a television seriesalthough such persons generally are credited as an executive producer...
Al Jean
Al Jean
Al Jean is an award-winning American screenwriter and producer, best known for his work on The Simpsons. He was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and graduated from Harvard University in 1981. Jean began his writing career in the 1980s with fellow Harvard alum Mike Reiss...
. The site has also held several Q&As with staff members of the show and Bongo Comics
Bongo Comics
Bongo Comics Group is a comic book publishing company founded in 1993 by Steve and Cindy Vance, Bill Morrison, and Simpsons and Futurama creator Matt Groening. It publishes comics related to the animated television series The Simpsons and Futurama, along with original material...
.
History
The No Homers Club (aka the NHC) was created by Eric Wirtanen in 2001 with assistance from Jonah Flynn and Tino Persico. It was originally a part of the "Evergreen Terrace" Simpsons fan site (online from February 1998 to August 2002), which first held the domain. Although at that time the Internet had dozens of Simpsons discussion websites, the NHC quickly gained the support of other fan sites and their webmasters.After Wirtanen shut down his "Evergreen Terrace" website in 2002 (largely due to a cease and desist
Cease and desist
A cease and desist is an order or request to halt an activity and not to take it up again later or else face legal action. The recipient of the cease-and-desist may be an individual or an organization....
order from 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
), the No Homers Club became mostly independent and developed a large community. The forum's address was originally club.nohomers.net but the board moved to simpsonsforum.com within days after its creation. In October 2002, it took its current domain, nohomers.net. Since 2002, Jacob Burch has also had a significant part in the maintenance of the NHC and as of June 2006, he is the co-owner of the website. On September 29, 2008, the NHC message board logged its two millionth post. In August 2011, after a brief flirtation as a general discussion message board, the NHC re-dedicated itself to The Simpsons and became affiliated with The Simpsons Archive
The Simpsons Archive
The Simpsons Archive, better known as snpp.com or simply SNPP , is a Simpsons fan site that has been online since 1994...
. The NHC's general discussion community subsequently moved to nerdgroupies.com, whose forum remains fairly active to this day.
When the forums were first created in August 2001, the NHC ran on the YaBB forum software. However, in October 2001 (after just a few months), the NHC started using vBulletin
VBulletin
vBulletin is a proprietary Internet forum software produced by Jelsoft Enterprises and vBulletin Solutions, both subsidiaries of Internet Brands. It is written in PHP and uses a MySQL database server.-History:...
forum software. As of September 2011, the message board runs on the vBulletin 4.07 platform.
Simpsons episode reviews
The site lets users critique individual episodes of The Simpsons. Users can rate, review, and discuss each episode. Criticism ranges from the harsh to the approving. One constant debate concerns the difference in quality between old and new episodes.Simpsons staff involvement
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, including creator Matt Groening
Matt Groening
Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama....
and current show runner
Show runner
Showrunner is a term of art originating in the United States and Canadian television industry referring to the person who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of a television seriesalthough such persons generally are credited as an executive producer...
Al Jean
Al Jean
Al Jean is an award-winning American screenwriter and producer, best known for his work on The Simpsons. He was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and graduated from Harvard University in 1981. Jean began his writing career in the 1980s with fellow Harvard alum Mike Reiss...
, has acknowledged the community several times on some of the DVD and Blu-ray audio commentaries. They go into detail in the episode commentary for "Homer the Great
Homer the Great
"Homer the Great" is the twelfth television episode of The Simpsons sixth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 8, 1995. In the episode, Homer discovers that Lenny and Carl are members of the ancient secret society known as the Stonecutters...
". The producers of The Simpsons do read the website often. On the aforementioned commentary, David Mirkin
David Mirkin
David Mirkin is an American feature film and television director, writer and producer. Mirkin grew up in Philadelphia and intended to become an electrical engineer, but abandoned this career path in favor of studying film at Loyola Marymount University. After graduating, he became a stand-up...
, a former show runner, joked that it should be renamed "the worst show ever weekly" forum. In response, the tagline appeared in the forum's default banner until April 2006.
In addition, in the DVD commentary for The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons Movie is a 2007 American animated comedy film based on the animated television series The Simpsons. The film was directed by David Silverman, and stars the regular television cast of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Tress...
during a conversation regarding how die-hard fans of the series would be upset about Moe's Tavern being located adjacent to the First Church of Springfield in the film, Jean remarked "This is for you, No Homers."
Groening also mentioned the website in the June 2007 issue of Playboy Magazine, stating that NoHomers.net "has the most vocal fans [of The Simpsons]. They often act like spurned lovers if they don't like something." Wirtanen later responded to Groening by saying "Of course we often act like spurned lovers — The Simpsons hasn't satisfied some of us in years. Nevertheless, the show is still more satisfying than our imaginary girlfriends."
The staff of the show has also been in direct contact with some site administrators. Al Jean once posted a message to fans about some comments voice actor Harry Shearer
Harry Shearer
Harry Julius Shearer is an American actor, comedian, writer, voice artist, musician, author, radio host and director. He is known for his long-running role on The Simpsons, his work on Saturday Night Live, the comedy band Spinal Tap and his radio program Le Show...
had made about the show.
The website has hosted question-and-answer sessions with three former executive producers. In early 2002, Al Jean (who had just become the show runner) answered questions for fans, and in late 2005, Bill Oakley
Bill Oakley
Bill Oakley is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Oakley and Josh Weinstein became best friends and writing partners at high school; Oakley then attended Harvard University and was Vice President of the Harvard Lampoon...
and Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans High School; Weinstein then attended Stanford University and was editor-in-chief of the...
answered questions in the first of two moderated sessions, coinciding with the release of the seventh season on DVD. They also took questions in January 2006 for the commentaries for the eighth season on DVD, which they would be soon recording. Both have also occasionally contributed to other threads on the forum.
In addition, other staff such as show animators Jen Kamerman
Jen Kamerman
Jen Kamerman is a former animation director on The Simpsons. She is married and has one son.-Simpsons episodes:She directed the following episodes:Season Eleven*"Kill the Alligator and Run"Season Twelve*"Tennis the Menace"...
and Sarge Morton; Bongo Comics
Bongo Comics
Bongo Comics Group is a comic book publishing company founded in 1993 by Steve and Cindy Vance, Bill Morrison, and Simpsons and Futurama creator Matt Groening. It publishes comics related to the animated television series The Simpsons and Futurama, along with original material...
writers/artists Bill Morrison, Ian Boothby
Ian Boothby
Ian Boothby is a multiple Shuster Award, Harvey Award and Eisner Award nominee and an Eisner Award–winning comic book creator best known for his work as one of the main writers on Simpsons Comics and Futurama Comics for Matt Groening's Bongo Comics. Boothby has written more Simpsons Comics than any...
, Chris Ungar, Gail Simone
Gail Simone
Gail Simone is an American writer of comic books. Best known for penning DC's Birds of Prey, her other notable works include Secret Six, Welcome to Tranquility, The All-New Atom, and Deadpool. In 2007, she took over Wonder Woman...
and Jesse McCann
Jesse Leon McCann
Jesse Leon McCann is an American comic book and children's book author. He wrote most of the stories for the Pinky and the Brain comic series, edited two out of the four Simpsons episode guides, and wrote all of the Smiley the Psychotic Button comics for Chaos! Comics...
have dropped by the site to interact with users and answer any questions about some of the less-frequently addressed aspects of the show. Jesse McCann also took part in a Q&A session in late 2006 and early 2007.
In the episode, "Sleeping with the Enemy", from the show's sixteenth season, director Lauren MacMullan
Lauren MacMullan
Lauren MacMullan is an animation director. Her first primetime TV job was on The Critic, followed by directing for King of the Hill. She went on to become the supervising director and designer for Mission Hill. After the show was cancelled quickly, she got a job directing on The Simpsons, and...
confirmed that they added a sign in the bowling alley to pay homage to the website. The sign said "N.H.C. Champs! 15 Seasons" and can be seen for about a second.
Origin of No Homers Club
The website took its title from an episode of The Simpsons, "Homer the GreatHomer the Great
"Homer the Great" is the twelfth television episode of The Simpsons sixth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 8, 1995. In the episode, Homer discovers that Lenny and Carl are members of the ancient secret society known as the Stonecutters...
", written by John Swartzwelder
John Swartzwelder
John Swartzwelder is an American comedy writer and novelist, best known for his work on the animated television series The Simpsons, as well as a number of novels. He is credited with writing the largest number of Simpsons episodes by a large margin...
and directed by Jim Reardon
Jim Reardon
Jim Reardon is an animation director and storyboard consultant, best known for his work on the animated TV series The Simpsons. He has directed over 30 episodes of the series, and was credited as a supervising director for seasons 9 through 15...
. In the episode, Homer laments that years ago his peers started a "No Homers Club" and excluded him from the group, even though they let in a boy by the name of Homer Glumplich. (This is explained by the fact that it's the No Homers (plural) Club, and they're "allowed to have one.")
Boy: Hey Billy! Hey Joey! Come on in. There's plenty of room. Sorry, not you, Homer.
Homer: Why not!?
- [boy points to sign, "No Homers Club"]
Homer: But you let in Homer Glumplich!
Homer Glumplich: [pops head out window] Hyuck hyuck!
Boy: It says no Homers. We're allowed to have one.
Homer: Oh.
— The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode 2F09, "Homer the Great
Homer the Great
"Homer the Great" is the twelfth television episode of The Simpsons sixth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 8, 1995. In the episode, Homer discovers that Lenny and Carl are members of the ancient secret society known as the Stonecutters...
".