who is your favorite simpsons character and why

Santa's Little Helper because he makes me lol quite a bit.

It was Lionel Hutz but the actor who played the voice died :(

Gil, you can laugh at his pain.

Has to be Homer. Funniest Simpsons character.

Mr. Burns (his power is maximum!)

Never really had a favorite.

Generally it all depends on the era, the writer, the director. Different writers are better at writing certain characters than others (for example Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein were brilliant at writing Burns). Also some characters act different with different show runners. Homer was much more crazy under David Mirkin, more of jerk under Mike Scully, and a bit flat under Al Jean (who's currently running the show).

Certain showrunners will also use certain characters much more than others, for example Mirkin loved the Sea Captain, and when Al Jean/Mike Reiss were a pair they used Barney a lot.

In short - I don't have one.

Either the Capital City Goofball or Lenny.

Disc Stu ("Disco Stu doesn't advertise!") or Ralph Wiggum.