Herbert "Herb" Powell is a fictional character on The Simpsons television show introduced in the episode Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, first released on February 21, 1991. Herb (voiced by Danny DeVito) is Homer Simpson's half-brother, a product of an encounter between Homer's father Abraham and a carnival girl. He was put up for adoption shortly after birth, and was kept secret from Homer. However, Herb pulled himself up from the bottom, working his way up (it is a misconception that he went to Harvard) and eventually founding Powell Motors, a car company of which he was CEO. He always found an emptiness in his life, however. Later, after Homer was told of his existence and sought out and found him; he lost his entire fortune and became a homeless person when he unwisely asked Homer to design his new model car for him. Homer managed to virtualy duplicate the commercial failure of the Edsel.
Herb apparently spend the following year living as a street vagrant. He re-appeared in Brother, Can you Spare two Dimes, first released on August 27, 1992. He briefly settles in the Simpson household despite his intense dislike of Homer due to the car fiasco. Herb borrows some of the family money to develop a device that can analyse baby speech and translate it into comprehensible English language. Herb tests his invention on Maggie and it proves to be functional. He proceeds in the distribution of his new product and thus manages to regain his fortune. Herb left the Simpson residence and has yet to make a third appearance.
See: Characters from The Simpsons
