D'oh!
D'oh! is the comical catch phrase of Homer Simpson, from the long running animated series The Simpsons. It is typically used when Homer realizes that he has done something stupid.
Origin
The cry of "d'oh!" is typically represented in the show's script as "annoyed grunt". When Dan Castellaneta, the actor who plays Homer, was first asked to voice the exclamation he rendered it as as a drawn out "dooh", inspired by Laurel and Hardy. The show's creator Matt Groening felt that it would better suit the timing of animation if it was spoken faster so Castellaneta shortened it to "D'oh!"
Variations
Variations of the catch phrase have appeared in some episodes of The Simpsons. On a family trip to Japan Homer said something in Japanese that was translated in subtitles as D'oh!. When Homer had his jaw wired shut in the episode Jaws Wired Shut he was reduced to communicating with others by writing on a chalkboard, including going so far as to write "D'oh". In the episode Bart of Darkness, while talking to an apparently Amish man, Homer expresses his frustration with a cry of "D'oheth!". In the episode Burns' Heir, Mr. Burns decides to make Bart his heir and tries to convince Bart that his family doesn't want him anymore, hiring Simpsons-family lookalikes, including a badly-trained false Homer who says cl'oh! instead of d'oh!.
Episode names
"D'oh!" never features in The Simpsons scripts. Instead it is written as "annoyed grunt". In recognition of this, several episodes feature the phrase "annoyed grunt" in the episode title where one would expect the term "d'oh". Such episodes include I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot (instead of I, D'oh-bot, a play on I, Robot), Simpsonscalifragilisticexpeali(annoyed grunt)cious (a parody of Mary Poppins) and E-I-E-I-(annoyed grunt).
Three episodes do have the term "d'oh" in their names. These are season 10's D'oh-in' in the Wind, season 11's Days of Wine and D'oh'ses, and season 14's C.E. D'oh.
Usage
The term d'oh! has been adopted by many Simpsons fans. The term has become commonplace in modern speech and serves to demonstrate the reach of the show's influence. Recently, "d'oh" was put into Webster's Millennium Dictionary of English.