The Simpsons is one of the most famous comedy series of all time. As a cartoon, they obviously have traits of other genre colleagues. But for one character, this trait is overridden.
What trait is it? Apart from the yellow color, the characters in the world of The Simpsons also have another trait that unites them: The number of fingers and toes. If you pay attention, you’ll notice that they are missing one finger on each hand.
The only exception in this case is the god in the Simpsons universe. He is usually depicted with 10 fingers and toes. In the episode The Last Judgment
(Season 16, Episode 19), Jesus is also shown with 10 fingers, but that’s more of an exception.
The absurdity of this is highlighted again in Episode 21 of Season 5 (via YouTube). There, the family discusses the relationship between Homer’s father and Marge’s mother. Homer is against it because he would be Marge’s brother if the parents were to marry. He then talks about how his children would be monsters, with pink skin, no overbite, and 5 fingers on each hand. This idea scares Homer so much that he runs away.
That characters only have 8 fingers is not only the case with The Simpsons. Many cartoons depict their characters with only 4 fingers per hand. Why this is the case, we explain to you under the video.
It is simpler, but not stranger than 5 fingers
Why do so many cartoon characters only have 4 fingers on each hand? This is exactly the question the ChannelFrederator channel dealt with in a YouTube video. They assume that there are several reasons for this that have existed since the beginning of animation productions.
One of the main points: Hands are extremely difficult to draw due to bones and joints. Therefore, 4 fingers are easier to draw than 5. Important in this regard is also the concept of Uncanny Valley
.
This is a theory that humans develop an uneasy feeling with humanoid objects and representations like robots when they reach a certain spectrum of realism (via spectrum.ieee.org). This is particularly supposed to happen with things that are meant to look like humans. Like a poor digital representation of a real person in older animated films.
But this also leads to the reason why 4 fingers are used for cartoon characters and not 3. 4 per hand fit human anatomy and we do not find it alien. Only 3 fingers appear somewhat inhuman and are often used for aliens or monsters. In the video, the example Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is mentioned. They only have 3 fingers, as they are mutated turtles.
Even in the early days of cartoons, 4 fingers were used
4 fingers per hand are also found in cartoon history. As early as the 1920s, the 4-finger representation was established. This also leads to another reason for this representation: The way characters were drawn.
If you look at the cartoon Steamboat Willie (1928) and the first depiction of Mickey Mouse, you can see that he consists of circles. This was established by the character Felix the Cat (one of the most famous cartoon characters of the time). The fingers were also not thin, but thick and inflated.
In these designs, 4 fingers looked better than 5. Walt Disney himself supposedly said about the fingers:
Omitting the finger was a great artistic and financial advantage. Artistically speaking, five [fingers] are too much for a mouse. His hands would look like a bunch of bananas. Financially, the omission of an additional finger in each of the 45,000 drawings that make up a six-and-a-half-minute short film saved the studio millions.
Walt Disney on the number of fingers (Source: sandiegoreader.com)
This also leads to another reason: You save time and money. At that time, in order for something to be animated, you had to draw at least countless pictures yourself to create a movement. This was complex and tedious because you could only make slight changes per picture, like in a flipbook. You can save a lot of working time if you leave out a finger.
This is also suspected by the animator Butch Hartman on TikTok, who has drawn series like Danny Phantom or Cosmo and Wanda.
Another advantage at the time is suspected by ChannelFrederator in the characters. They were mostly anthropomorphic animals. It was less noticeable when a finger was missing.
Today, there are different representations, series like The Amazing World of Gumball, Bob’s Burgers or films like Zootopia still rely on the 4-finger representation. If you’re interested in animation and cartoons, we have a list for you here: 6 underrated animated films that every fan of Disney and Pixar should see
