I suppose that begs the question, who was ancient Greece's Homer Simpson?
Socrates, I'd say.
Nooo...it has to be Margites from Homer's Margites :)
Diogenes of Sinope is maybe closer? He was sort of a living meme and there's a significant volume of apocryphal anecdotes of hijinks and pseudepigraphical writings, going on long after his death.
Definitely Diogenes, 100%
Mainly βωμολόχος, I think? But also ἀλαζών in some episodes?
Simpson, eh? I'll remember that name!
Ergo, Matt Groening.
It has been argued that Sam Simons was the one that really honed in the characters of The Simpsons. Groening would throw out all kinds of weird ideas, like Marge was secretly a rabbit (thus the high hair), but Simons kept grounding the characters back into a form of reality.
Sam was a pretty awesome guy. There’s a real sincerity and earnestness to early Simpsons which came from the vision you’re describing.
He left the show after only 4 seasons, but I like to think his influence on the writing was a big contributor to the shows golden years.
I always found it relevant that in Spanish-dubs they translate the name of Homer to "Homero" which would be basically how you would refer to the classic author rather than to some american layman. (as if e.g. in France I translated Homer as Homère instead of plainly Homer).