Many of Homer Simpson's most memorable, funniest lines are of a similar ilk: an opinion or half-truth proudly and emphatically stated as if it were stone-cold and infallible. To whit: "Roads are just a suggestion, Marge, like pants," and, "A gun is not a weapon, it's a tool, like a hammer or a screwdriver or an alligator." They provide a laugh as well as insight into how Homer thinks and manages to operate in the modern, adult world.
Homer's musings ground the non-canonical "Treehouse of Horror" Halloween episodes of "The Simpsons" in the show's semblance of reality. In the Season Five special, Homer tells a worried Lisa, "Vampires are make-believe. Just like elves, gremlins, and Eskimos." Technically, and inadvertently, Homer is actually correct — none of those things are real. That E-word is now considered a slur, used as an umbrella term for a person from one of the many ethnic and cultural groups native to Alaska and northern Canada. Because English is constantly evolving along with the society that speaks it, the preferred term is now Inuit, as many northern peoples are from that lineage.
