The Eye-Popping Amount Of Medical Debt Homer Simpson Racked Up Over The Years
One of the biggest differences between real people and cartoon characters is that cartoons require much less medical attention to recuperate from even the most serious injuries. Sometimes, Wile E. Coyote or Elmer Fudd will spontaneously generate bandages, crutches, or other medical appendages for a quick gag, but more often they will simply bounce back from any injury after a quick cut in the editing.
Homer Simpson, patriarch of "The Simpsons," doesn't exist in quite the same level of cartoon unreality as "Looney Tunes," but he's still pretty lucky compared to most of us in the real world. For one thing, he tends to be very accident prone, both on the job and at home, but most of the time his medical recuperation is kept off-screen, as well as the bills that come with it.
But the people at the Downtown LA Law Group decided to do a deep dive into Homer's accident history in order to calculate the total cost of his medical debt. And the number might surprise even diehard fans of the show.
Homer Simpson has suffered tens of millions of dollars worth of injuries
The law firm says that they "studied a sample of 50 memorable incidents from the 31-season-long TV show, with the purpose of shedding light on the dangers and potential cost of not having life insurance." In doing so, they calculated a total series run of $143 million in injuries, accidents, failed stunts, and other mishaps suffered by America's Favorite Dad. They also broke down the top five most expensive of Homer's myriad injuries:
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Brain damage: $1,525,500
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Paralysis: $508,904
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Radiation exposure: $150,000
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Skull Fracture: $100,000
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Loss of Consciousness: $80,000
The medical costs were tabulated under the assumption that Homer was a real human being with no medical insurance, without the cartoon superpower of recovering from injuries immediately. Farid Yaghoubtil, Senior Trial Attorney at Downtown L.A, had this to say about the study: "Whilst Homer Simpson is a fictional character, his injuries are very real, and examples of incidents that many people are entitled to compensation for. We hope this medical bill rap sheet encourages anyone who is considering it, to get health insurance and avoid paying the price." D'oh!