Comic Book Guy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Simpsons character | |
 |
|
| Jeff "Comic Book Guy" Albertson | |
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Job | Proprietor of The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop |
| Relatives | Unknown |
| Voice actor | Hank Azaria |
| First appearance | |
| The Simpsons | "Three Men and a Comic Book" |
Jeff Albertson, better known as Comic Book Guy, is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria, and first appeared in the episode "Three Men and a Comic Book". He is the proprietor of a comic book store, The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop. Comic Book Guy is based on "every comic-bookstore guy in America"[1] and represents the stereotypical middle-aged, comic-book collecting nerd.
Contents |
[edit] Role in The Simpsons
[edit] Profile
Comic Book Guy is obese, nerdy, and perhaps best known for his sarcastic quips. As implied in his nickname, he is obsessed with collecting comic books and is a very avid science fiction buff. He holds a master's degree in folklore and mythology (he translated The Lord of the Rings into Klingon as part of his thesis,[2] has an IQ of 170 and is a member of the Springfield branch of Mensa.[3] His catch phrase is the declaration "Worst... (Noun)... ever", sometimes to the point of breaking the fourth wall. For example, in the episode "Saddlesore Galactica", he wears a T-shirt saying "Worst Episode Ever" while criticising the ideals behind the Simpson family such as keeping a horse since it had already been done.[4] Despite his solitary life, in The Simpsons Movie, minutes before his likely death, Comic Book Guy says that his obsessive comic book collecting is a "life well spent". However, in "Treehouse of Horror VIII", when a nuclear bomb hones in on him, he says to himself "Ohh, I've wasted my life." In the 19th season finale, "All About Lisa", it is revealed that he has long, beautiful, overflowing hair.
[edit] Romance
Comic Book Guy was once married—in an online role-playing game. He and his Internet wife contemplated having children, but that would have severely drained his power crystals. He was shown paired with a woman during a mass-marriage that occurred when a cult took over Springfield, and presumably the two were wed in the mass ceremony. While part of an intellectual junta that briefly ran Springfield, he proposed plans to limit breeding to once every seven years (a reference to the Vulcan blood fever of mating, called Pon Farr), commenting that this would mean much less breeding for most, but for him, "much, much more"[3]. He was a virgin well into his forties[5] when he became romantically involved with Principal Skinner's mother Agnes (Chief Wiggum was notably repulsed when he and his officers stumbled upon the couple "in the act").[6] He later dated Edna Krabappel and was shown with the Superman logo tattooed on his upper right buttock.
[edit] The Android's Dungeon
Comic Book Guy is the owner of The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop, a local comic book store. Many of the comics and toys he sells are of poor-quality, and often for very high prices (for example, "The Ultimate Pog", $500). His store is his sanctuary, where he holds some level of self-esteem, imperiously lording over pre-teen kids, like Bart Simpson and Milhouse Van Houten, using a heavily sarcastic tone and often banning certain customers for minor infractions. His store contains a section full of illegal videos (which include Mr. Rogers drunk, Alien Autopsy, Illegal Alien Autopsy, a "good version" of The Godfather Part III, and Kent Brockman picking his nose).[6]
In Husbands and Knives, the store was finally closed, and there Marge opened "Shapes", a fictional gym for regular women. Though having been gone for a few episodes (And thought to have been "retired"), Comic Book Guy made an appearance in an episode that aired later in the season, Any Given Sundance. He was seen in the audience after Lisa's documentary played, writing a review of it on his blog; Uncharacteristically, it was very positive. In All About Lisa, his store seems to be open again, although it is unknown what remains of its rival, Coolsville.
[edit] Character
[edit] Creation
Comic Book Guy was partly inspired by a clerk at the Los Angeles Amok book shop who often "[sat] on the high stool, kind of lording over the store with that supercilious attitude and eating behind the counter a big Styrofoam container full of fried clams with a lot of tartar sauce."[1] Matt Groening noted that: "I can't tell you how many times people have come up to me and said, 'I know who you based that comic book guy on. It's that comic-book guy right down the block.' And I have to tell them, "No, it's every comic-bookstore guy in America".[1]
Hank Azaria based Comic Book Guy's voice on a student who went by the name "F", and lived in the room next door at his college, Tufts University.[7] Azaria also "loves that the character is an adult who argues with kids as if they're his peers."[1]
Comic Book Guy's catch phrase is said to be mocking certain Simpsons fans who will race to the Internet to criticize the producers and writers of an episode they have just finished viewing and declare such episode to be the "Worst Episode Ever." Simpsons fans started this sometime in 1992 on the alt.tv.simpsons USENET newsgroup, and later on the Web, leading to an on-air reference to "alt.nerd.obsessive".
[edit] Name
A long-running gag on the show was never to reveal the character's name, with other characters referring to him as "Comic Book Guy". Finally, in the February 6, 2005 episode, "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass," Comic Book Guy nonchalantly told Ned Flanders, "My name is Jeff Albertson, but everyone calls me 'Comic Book Guy'".[8] Show runner Al Jean remarked, "That was specifically done to make people really mad. We just tried to pick a generic name. It was also the Super Bowl show, so we did it so the most people possible would see it." Groening stated that he had originally intended him to be called Louis Lane and be "obsessed and tormented by" Lois Lane, but was out of the room when the writers named him.[9]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Joe Rhodes. "Flash! 24 Simpsons Stars Reveal Themselves", TV Guide, 2000-10-21. Retrieved on 2007-08-15.
- ^ "Three Men and a Comic Book"
- ^ a b "They Saved Lisa's Brain". Selman, Matt; Michels, Pete. The Simpsons. Fox. No. 22, season 10.
- ^ "Saddlesore Galactica". Long, Tim; Kramer, Lance. The Simpsons. Fox. No. 13, season 11.
- ^ "Mayored to the Mob". Huage, Ron; Scott III, Swinton O.. The Simpsons. Fox. No. 9, season 10.
- ^ a b "Worst Episode Ever". Doyle, Larry; Nastuk, Matthew. The Simpsons. Fox. No. 11, season 12.
- ^ Azaria, Hank. (2004). The Simpsons The Complete Fifth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass". Steven Dean Moore, Tim Long. The Simpsons. Fox. No. 8, season 16.
- ^ Larry Carroll. "'Simpsons' Trivia, From Swearing Lisa To 'Burns-Sexual' Smithers", MTV, 2007-07-26. Retrieved on 2007-07-29.
[edit] External links
