The Simpsons is one of the best-animated sitcoms out there always grabbing the attention of the spectators. But why are The Simpsons yellow? If you also thought about this thing just sitting there wondering the reason behind them having yellow skin, then we have a bunch of possibilities for you. The creator and writers of the animated sitcom revealed the real reasons behind The Simpsons being yellow. Being a satirical depiction of American life The Simpsons has gained massive popularity.
The show follows the infamous Simpson family that includes Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie living in the fictional town of Springfield. This animated show has been in the industry for decades. The story revolves around the family and their day-to-day activity. Did you know the creator featured this dysfunctional family and named the characters after his real family members?
Now that makes this sitcom more engaging. The Simpsons received a lot of promising titles including longest-running American sitcom, longest-running American animated series, and more. This sitcom is famous since its golden age [initial release]. Now let us get down to the real question of the entire characters in the series being yellow.
Creator Matt Groening Revealed The Real Reason For ‘The Simpsons’ Yellow Outlook
The creator of the series Matt Groening revealed that The Simpsons are yellow because of an animator. He explained that an animator came up with the brilliant idea of making the entire character’s outlook yellow. Matt wanted the animated sitcom to be eye-catching for the audience. And by the yellow-colored characters, everyone should be able to recognize the series with a glimpse.
We all know that yellow is one of the most attractive and eye-catching colors. Yellow also symbolizes hope and happiness! Plus, the yellow color feels upbeat and bright. At the time of the 1980s and early 1990s, the viewers used to just flip the channels and Matt wanted to stand out.
Matt Groening explained, “An animator came up with the Simpsons’ yellow, and as soon as she showed it to me I said, ‘This is the answer!’ When you’re flicking through channels with your remote control, and a flash of yellow goes by, you’ll know you’re watching The Simpsons.”
Along with that, there are also speculations that the reason behind the characters being Yellow in the series is because of the radioactive dump in the fictional town of Springfield. But that’s just a theory. There’s another thing that came to light to the spectators.
During the time of the production, the cartoonist drew the characters in yellow color so that it’s easier for the team to see and understand. Matt got the idea that if we could see and get attracted to it then the viewers will draw towards it. At that time, there was a lot of competition going on too. But The Simpsons wanted to stand out and be a kind of show that’s both entertaining for kids and adults.
Here’s Another Reason Why ‘The Simpsons’ Have Yellow Skin
Of course, Matt wanted to catch the attention of the audience. In a documentary of his life and career Matt Groening said, “Yellow skin: why… if you’re flicking around with your channel changer very fast and you zoom by The Simpsons there’s nothing else that looks like them on TV, so therefore we stand out.”
But there’s another interesting reason behind The Simpsons’ yellow skin. According to the former show writer Mike Reiss the characters of the sitcom especially Lisa, Bart, and Maggie they have no hairlines. Now you might be wondering what’s the relation between the hairline and them being yellow. Well, the characters don’t have any hairline and there’s no line that separates their hair from the skin. So the yellow skin is kind of skin and kind of hair. Mike Reiss also mentioned this in his book.
He noted, “Bart, Lisa, and Maggie have no hairlines — there’s no line that separates their skin from their hair points. So the animators chose yellow — it’s kinda skin, hair.”
The Creator Explained How The Yellow Color Attracts People
Again in the documentary, Matt said that the yellow color “looks like there’s something wrong with your TV set.” And he “thought that was appropriate to The Simpsons symbolically.” This thing made him closer to the decision of making the Simpsons’ skin yellow. The creator also didn’t want to select “conventional cartoon colors.”
Well, the famous Wes Archer that co-directed a bunch of episodes mentioned in the latest documentary titled “Icons Unearthed: The Simpsons” that The Simpsons were supposed to be black and white. Imagine that, we can’t! Wes explained, “Initially it was supposed to be black and white. But it just kinda screamed out for color.”
Kovacs-Peluce was consulted for the color palette of the animated series. She mentioned, “I did not want to do flesh color, because the characters were such as … they didn’t fit in anywhere. Yellow is, it’s kind of universal. I wanted to unite the characters.”
On this co-director David Silverman said, “She had a weird, wonderful sense of color design. A really interesting sense of color. I think she did that because Bart, Lisa, and Maggie had no hairlines, and if you made them flesh-colored it would look very strange. It wouldn’t work. To Matt [Groening]’s credit, he looked at it and said, ‘Marge is yellow with blue hair? That’s hilarious — let’s do it!“
There’s A Psychological Reason Too Behind The Yellow Cartoons
You might have noticed there are more famous cartoons out there like SpongeBob SquarePants, Pac-Man, and more that have featured yellow skin. According to research, the yellow color theory greatly influences people’s attention. Most people are attracted to yellow because it’s the ‘most visible’ color. With the help of yellow color, it’s easier to grab anyone’s attention. The color also gives a feeling of warmth.
Conclusion:
There you have it! Lastly, we all can agree that this amazing idea worked for the team and The Simpsons is to date one of the most recognizable animated series. Now we don’t tend to confuse The Simpsons with other animated series because of their bright yellow color. The Simpsons are drawing all of our attention from being yellow.
Can you believe a color had a great influence on the series’ popularity? It’s a wonder! A lot of famous cartoonists think of these reasons as brilliant. You are welcome to drop your opinion on this in the comment section. If you have more questions feel free to drop them below.
While sipping coffee, you can find Ayman writing about various topics like movie recommendations, gaming, and tech. She has always loved writing and is now following her passion. Ayman is constantly pushing herself to achieve new heights of success and is always ready to take on new challenges and explore new opportunities.