Why do all the characters in the Simpsons….?
A five finger hand is harder to draw and wouldnt look right on simpsons-styled characters. With five skinnier digits, their hands would look cluttered and would be visually distracting. Hands and hand gestures are also very expressive and with only three fingers and a thumb, a viewer could right away see how the hands are oriented without having to visually process all the little fingers that would result from giving them more anatomically correct hands. Fewer, fatter fingers are also easier to see on small tvs, low resolution prints, and grainy film. Also, cartoons have a long history of three-plus thumb hands. Just look at Mickey Mouse. If you look through old Calvin and Hobbes comic strips. Bill Watterson used to draw pads on Hobbes’ paws for realism but soon abandoned them, giving him plain white “hands” for much the same resons why cartoonists stick with three fingers and a thumb. The Simpsons also acknowledged this on-screen. Lisa once was seen reading out loud a paranormal magaz
