The Simpsons creator Matt Groening has spoken about what it felt like to finally hit the nail on the head as he was choosing his characters’ skin color. Apparently, Groening’s main motivation was simple: He wanted to make the Springfield residents look memorable and interesting. With all of the other animated series on the air, Groening felt it was important to make sure that Homer, as well as his family and neighbors, stood out from the crowd. Although he considered other colors, yellow was the one that shone through in the end.
Although choosing yellow was perhaps just a stroke of genius for Groening and his team of animators, the color yellow also is known to have a psychological effect on the human brain. YouTube creator ChannelFrederator has explained that many of our most beloved cartoon characters (the residents of Springfield, Tweety Bird, and SpongeBob SquarePants, for example) are yellow because of color theory. Yellow is known to be a color that represents optimism and joy. Knowing this, it makes total sense that the Simpson family, who have spread so much joy in their 30-year history, are painted this color!
A television uses the red-green-blue color wheel rather than the standard red-yellow-blue model. With the RGB scale, yellow and blue are complementary colors. That's why characters like The Simpsons stand out so well against various backgrounds. Yellow is also the most visible color in the entire visual spectrum because of how the cones in our eyes process light and the order in which the signals for red green and blue light reach our brain. This is why taxis and warning signs are yellow.
Bart and Lisa Simpson have a bit of a quirk about their character models, and I’d bet it’s one you’ve never really thought about. Care to guess? There’s no distinction between their hair and their heads! Which is a little strange, right? According to Reiss’s memoir, Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons, an animator many years ago decided that a yellow skin tone would be close enough to skin and hair colors to be reasonable, and it stuck.