Hans Moleman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Simpsons character | |
 [citation needed] |
|
| Hans Moleman | |
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Job | Various jobs |
| Relatives | Wife: (Unnamed) |
| Voice actor | Dan Castellaneta |
| First appearance | |
| The Simpsons | Principal Charming |
Hans Moleman is a recurring character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta[1], and first appeared in the episode "Principal Charming". He normally appears in a running gag, where he usually suffers unfortunate, nearly always tragic, events.
Contents |
[edit] Role in The Simpsons
[edit] Biography
Hans Moleman is the retconned name of the character. He is a mole-like man with extremely bad luck.[2] Although apparently elderly, he claims to be only 31 years old (his driver's license says he was born August 2, 1961; this episode aired in the early 1990s, and birth years have been changed in the series to keep characters the same age), but due to his heavy drinking, he appears much older. Yet in episode entitled Little Girl in the Big Ten he is stated to be an 80 year old attempting to pass as a freshman.[3]. He has cataracts and is almost entirely blind[4] (which has severely impaired his reading ability), and has used medical marijuana. He carries a brown cane with him everywhere, which has once been shown to contain a hidden sword. In the episode "Burns' Heir", Hans is mistaken for Bart and accidentally "de-programmed" (Homer and Marge had hired a cult de-programmer, hoping to convince Bart to move out of Mr. Burns' mansion and back in with them), apparently leading him to believe he is the son of Homer and Marge. Homer greets the news with enthusiasm, encouraging his wife to kiss Hans on the head with the well-known line "Come on Marge, it's like kissing a peanut!"
His home address is 920 Oak Grove, Springfield. He has also been seen living at the Springfield Retirement Castle and (in a deleted scene) he is shown to live in a small house directly below the dam that was erected (and subsequently destroyed) in "Brother from Another Series".
[edit] Careers
Like many recurring characters, Hans Moleman has had a wide variety of careers over the course of the series. He runs an early morning radio show, on Springfield's jazz station KJAZZ-FM, in which he introduces himself as "This is Moleman in the Morning, Good Moleman to you". One of his other jobs was driving a truck filled with sugar (which he subsequently flipped onto its side, spilling its contents, much to Homer's delight). He is often seen driving other types of trucks as well. In one episode, he flattens Homer with a car falling from his vehicle transport truck. In another episode, he is seen transporting the birthplace of Edgar Allan Poe in a truck. He also teaches an orange-eating class at the Adult Learning Centre in Springfield ("The eating of an orange is a lot like a good marriage"). On another occasion, it is implied that he works at a bird sanctuary, as he has to order "the biggest bird seed bell you have" ("No, that's too big"). He once worked as a postal worker. He was also a librarian for the Springfield jail. He once worked as a janitor at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and received a severe head wound ("Oh no, my brains.") from Mr. Burns when Moleman asked Burns for seventeen dollars for a push-broom rebristling; Burns, high on ether, mistook him for the Lucky Charms leprechaun and went to his skull with a power drill. He has also been seen representing a Solar Power company in The Last Temptation of Homer. In Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder, in a reference to the supervillain Mole Man, Homer stumbles across Hans Moleman as the leader of a race of Mole People in an underground fortress complete with earthquake machines ("There is no escape from the fortress of the Moles!"). He also has been spotted in episode 274 in a kissing booth with Agnes Skinner and Seymour. He was temporarily an Olympic gold medalist due, in part, to a set of replacement mechanical legs (which he wore in the episode "Moe 'n' a Lisa" but was never seen in again.)
Most recently, he has been sighted working as a teller at the First Bank of Springfield. Aside from these, Hans has a tendency to be a cheery man, and has made a living of giving people compliments; though in a deleted scene from season 8, Hans threatens God at gunpoint, and forces him to keep it raining money.
[edit] Accidents
Much of the humour associated with Hans has involved him cheating death innumerable times, usually highly improbably. He survived his car blowing up, catching on fire due to the powerful magnifying effect of his glasses, Montgomery Burns drilling into his brain, capital punishment (in a local jail) after Homer eats his last meal, being buried alive, and being engulfed by the "anti-escape bubble (orb)" that was attempting to catch Marge (a parody of a similar device from the 60s show the Prisoner). Many times people will totally disregard him, usually leading to something like death, or simply imprisonment, but since he appears, even after "dying", those later appearances could indicate he survived. He has also had several accidents where he was not severely injured. He further angered the crowd at Bart and Lisa's junior hockey final because he fell down the steps then shouted 'We paid for blood!'. He also crashed his 1959 Cadillac into the side of Springfield's Planet Hype restaurant (which Marge mistook for a clever decoration). Recently in E Pluribus Wiggum, he was crushed by debris of fast-food boulevard, and three episodes later in The Debarted, suffocated by a car's airbag.
Hans Moleman appears in The Simpsons Movie holding a sign reading 'YOU SUCK!'. He points it at Homer, who then runs over Hans with his pink car and seriously injures him as a result.
[edit] Character
[edit] Origins
Moleman first appeared as a character model for the season two episode "Principal Charming", but he looked so shriveled and unrealistic that some one proclaimed to look like a "mole man". However, he was used in several episodes and later became a recurring character.[5] According to the episode "Principal Charming", his name was Ralph Melish, which is a reference to the Monty Python sketch "The Adventures of Ralph Melish: Hot Dog and Knickers" from The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief.[6] According to a DVD commentary for one episode, some number of viewers were offended by Moleman's appearance, and he was reused in order to annoy people of such a viewpoint.[citation needed] Matt Groening has claimed that Hans Moleman was inspired by Tex Avery's Droopy, who shares many of Moleman's deadpan and unassuming mannerisms[citation needed]. According to the DVD commentaries, Matt Groening allegedly did not care for the character initially and told the writers to "get rid of him." This began what then developed into the running gag of Moleman's many "deaths."[citation needed]
[edit] References
- ^ Lawson, Tim (2004). The Magic Behind the Voices: A Who's Who of Cartoon Voice Actors. University Press of Mississippi, 118. ISBN 1578066964.
- ^ Snyder, S. James (2007-07-20), Delving Deep ‘Simpsons' Universe, New York Sun, <http://www.nysun.com/article/58795?page_no=2>. Retrieved on 17 November 2007
- ^ "Duffless". Stern, David M.; Reardon, Jim. The Simpsons. Fox. 1993-02-13.
- ^ Turner, Chris (2005). Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Defined a Generation. De Capo Press, 269. ISBN 030681448X.
- ^ Silverman, David. (2004). The Simpsons season 7 DVD commentary for the episode "Secrets of a Successful Marriage" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ Mirkin, David. (2004). The Simpsons season 7 DVD commentary for the episode "Secrets of a Successful Marriage" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
