The Homer Simpson bush meme is a reaction gif The Simpsons dad Homer backing into his neighbor’s hedges and disappearing. It’s a highly popular meme that expresses a desire to extract oneself from a situation out of horror or shame or to depict someone being a specific kind of creepy.
The gif became such a sensation over the years that it’s been the subject of many articles, at least one museum exhibit, and was referenced in a much newer Simpsons episode. It's perhaps the most popular of all the many Simpsons gifs and memes, including the "Bart hitting Homer with a chair" gag.
The reaction gif shows Homer slowly backing away with a wide-eyed, blank look on his face and into the hedge bush maintained by his next-door neighbor Ned Flanders. The leaves of the bush envelop him until they completely obscure him from view.
Social media users originally deployed the gif in the 2010s to react to posts that made alarming or bizarre statements. Others used it as part of a story to show how they did or would exit an uncomfortable situation, escape after doing something embarrassing, or get away from someone who appeared to be a threat in some way.
As time went on, the meme became so popular that it was remixed with many other meme formats, beloved gifs, and altered so that other characters were backing into a bush. Sometimes, Homer is seen emerging from the bushes as someone or something else, or wearing a different outfit.
The gif comes from the episode of The Simpsons titled “Homer Loves Flanders,” which aired on March 17, 1996. In this episode, Homer becomes friends with the neighbor he normally hates after the highly religious man shows him a lot of kindness. Soon, however, Flanders begins to tire of Homer’s constant presence and annoying habits.
One day, as Ned is playing with his sons in the driveway, Homer bursts through the hedge and asks him if he wants to play a round of mini golf. Ned makes up an excuse for why he can’t, and Homer, disappointed, backs out the way he came.
The oldest entry on any gif website containing this Homer Simpson meme is on December 8, 2010, by Gif Garage.
Twenty-five years later, during season 30 of The Simpsons, the writers included a scene that depicted Homer using the gif of himself on his phone, reacting to feeling embarrassed in front of his daughter Lisa.
In the scene, Homer texts Lisa that he can't find his phone, and she responds that he's texting her with it. Embarrassed that he forgot he was holding his phone, he replies with the iconic gif of himself backing into the bushes.
The official Simpsons Twitter account made that new scene into a gif and posted it on January 13, 2019.
This Homer Simpson meme became such a sensation that it ended up as an exhibit in the Museum of Moving Images from March 12 to May 15, 2014. Additionally, Vulture did a deep dive on the reaction gif, interviewing a Simpsons showrunner to learn more about the scene, even going over samples from the script and storyboard.
David Mirkin was the showrunner for the hit series back in 1994, and for "Homer Loves Flanders," he put special effort into making sure that the moment from the gif looked just right.
"I’m really proud of it because I had to have the animators do that motion — both coming out and going back in—about five times to get it slow enough and detailed enough so that it felt right to me, because I wanted it to be a kind of a magical, creepy thing," he told Vulture.
How that animation was eventually used as a meme caught Mirkin by surprise, since the intent of Homer's face and motion as he backs away was so different from the emotion it was used to convey so many years later.
"What’s really interesting is the meme really has nothing to do with the way it was used in the show, because it’s not a retreat or an embarrassment, as it’s used — it was really just an ominous, threatening look and a very weird backing up while never breaking eye contact with Flanders."
That's meme culture for you—it takes on a life of its own.
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