Nelson Muntz
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| The Simpsons character | |
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| Nelson Muntz | |
| Gender | Male |
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| Job | Springfield Elementary School Bully |
| Relatives | Father: Mr. Muntz Mother: Mrs. MuntzSister: Unnamed |
| Voice actor | Nancy Cartwright |
| First appearance | |
| The Simpsons | "Bart the General" |
Nelson Muntz (voiced by Nancy Cartwright), is a fictional character from the animated TV series The Simpsons. He is the former nemesis and later friend of Bart Simpson.
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[edit] Profile
Nelson serves as a symbol of youth denied its potential by economic strife and social rejection. Both Marge Simpson and Lisa Simpson have picked up on this, Marge adopting him as a surrogate son, and Lisa dating him briefly until discovering that he lied to her. However, Nelson retains a degree of deference to them.
Nelson is notorious for his derivation of pleasure from the misfortune of others known as schadenfreude, invariably accompanied by his trademark "Ha Ha!" laugh (pronounced with the "ah" sound, as in father, but with a stronger emphasis on the first "Ha", hence the italics). Even in a life-or-death situation, Nelson seems not to react but instead laugh at the one in danger. Often, he makes his victim inflict self-punishment while yelling remarks like "Stop hitting yourself!", "Stop butlering yourself!", "Stop zapping yourself!", "Stop endangering yourself!", "Why you throwin' tomatoes at yourself?!" Usually it is Milhouse and Martin who are subjected to this type of cruelty, although Nelson once described Bart as having "spiky hair, soft kidneys, and always hitting himself".
His family life, though always dysfunctional, is inconsistent; while some early episodes claimed his mom left the family and/or his dad "went nuts," the canon story that eventually evolved is that he lives with his cash poor mom, who got fired from Hooters and owns a dilapidated house. She is depicted as a jailbird, a whore, a stripper or something similar. In Sleeping with the Enemy, she reveals she won the role of Lady Macbeth in the Shakespeare play by sleeping with the director, and saying "I don't have to take my top off, but I do anyway!".
Nelson's dad appeared to have left after apparently going to the store to buy cigarettes, but in the fourth season episode, "Brother from the Same Planet", he appears as the children's soccer coach and awards Nelson with a free trip to Pele's Soccer and Acting School. Nelson's dad returns in the 16th season episode, "Sleeping with the Enemy". It turns out that he did not leave Nelson deliberately; he bit into a chocolate bar, not knowing it had peanuts and had an allergic reaction. Looking like the Elephant Man, he ran out of the store and encountered a circus that made him a part of itsfreak show. At performances, circus attendees threw peanuts at him, which perpetuated his reaction, never allowing him to return to normal. When the circus came through Springfield, Bart recognized him and brought him home to rid himself of Nelson (who had been taken into the Simpson home by Marge).
Nelson is also a cigarette smoker and has a taste for things that are not meant to be edible such as drywall, tadpoles, bird eggs, and nicotine patches (he thought that they were mini quesadillas).
In one episode, Nelson represents Japan at the school's Model UN club. Another notable aspect of Nelson is that in various episodes, he seems to give off the impression that he is a lot smarter than he may first appear. Nelson often points out painfully obvious things to adults and kids alike that take them longer to grasp. Another example is a running joke where Nelson does a class assignment which is implied to be of high quality. However, he is always brushed off by the teachers before he gets to show them his work. On the other hand, he does often demonstrate stupidity. When Skinner tricks Bart and the bullies by telling them they are getting bikes but instead locks them in the closet, Nelson still believes he is going to get a mountain bike.
As well as Nelson's potential competency at school work, Nelson is also a natural athlete. In addition to physical toughness (He once blocked a punch from Jimbo intended for Bart and twisted his arm behind his back), Nelson also plays a variety of sports throughout the series. Although he lacks the great dexterity of Bart, his natural prowess compensates on multiple occasions. In the episode "Bart Star", Nelson almost singlehandedly carries the entire Springfield Pee-Wee football team. As the team quarterback, he also on one occasion catches his own pass and plows through the opposing team with extreme ease. Nelson is also a fan of many unexpected things, such as Andy Williams[1] and Snow White.[2] He is also an expert in the proper preparation of huckleberries (also probably a reference to Nelson's similarities to Huckleberry Finn, whom he portrayed in the episode, "Simpsons Tall Tales"). According to the episode, "The Monkey Suit", Nelson is apparently a master of disguise, fooling even Bart and Ned Flanders.
Although Nelson is still as violent as ever, he has also been known to beat people up for arguably noble reasons (usually it is Bart who is subjected to this type of punishment). In one episode, he punched Bart in the stomach, saying "That's for taking credit for other people's work!", when Bart (truthfully) claimed to have been Krusty's assistant (the show's credits were too small to read to prove this claim) or when Bart wrecked Hitler's vehicle at a carnival ("You wrecked Hitler's car! What did he ever do to you?!"). He also beat up Bart for "Wasting teacher's valuable time!", when Bart constantly raised his hand with the wrong answer to answer a question Mrs. Krabappel asked, and "Besmirching an innocent girl's name!" when Bart tried to flaunt his relationship with Jessica Lovejoy to the other kids, although she ignored him. However, in The Simpsons Movie, when Milhouse claims to care about the environment in order to impress Lisa, Nelson stands over him with a fist raised and demands he "Say global warming is a myth!" Milhouse does so, but mentions that further study is needed, and Nelson punches him telling him "That's for selling out your beliefs!" Nelson himself was subjected to a beating at the hands of Kearney and Jimbo at the racetrack when he used the word "guff" instead of shit on the Season 11 episode "Saddlesore Galactica".
Although Nelson is usually portrayed as straight, in the episode, "Smart and Smarter", Nelson called Lisa gay which led to her to point out that accusations of homosexuality are made by people trying to cover up their own latent homosexuality. After this, he panicked and jumped out of the bus while shouting "Bullies rule!" In the episode "Little Big Girl", it is revealed that Nelson is of German descent. However, ironically, in the episode "Much Apu About Nothing", Nelson picks on Üter Zörker for being German. At times Nelson is depicted as having master answer sheets to various tests and assignments at school. In one episode he has an "office" located in a toilet stall where he has the answer sheets hidden in the toilet cistern. He also has a framed picture of himself mounted on the cubicle wall with "Employee Of The Month" stenciled below it. Nelson's most embarrassing moment was in the episode "22 Short Films About Springfield", when he was forced to march down the street with his pants pulled all the way down to his ankles to a jeering crowd for his years of torment, while Bart and Milhouse squirt ketchup and mustard on him from a highway overpass. In the end, Nelson has come a long way in development from a generic bully terrorizing Bart and other Springfield Elementary School children, to a rather complex character.
[edit] Relationships with other characters
Although in the first season, Nelson seemed to be Bart's antagonist, he becomes Bart's friend in later episodes. In the earliest episodes, Lisa became the target of Nelson's bullying, which prompted Bart to defend her. Bart's actions resulted in frequent beatings by Nelson and his gang, but finally ended when Bart received help from Herman, who came up with the idea of standing up to Nelson and his gang by pelting them with water balloons. From that point on, Nelson gained respect for Bart, though he occasionally reverts back to his past behavior towards him, though much less severe.
Although still prone to violence, Nelson occasionally hangs out with Bart and his outcast friends such as Milhouse Van Houten and even common bullying target Martin Prince, more often than delinquents Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney. Around Season 6, Nelson is not seen with the bully trio very often, hinting that his friendship with them is superficial. In a recent episode, it is shown that Nelson has become Bart's "other best friend", along with Milhouse.
Nelson has many other moments where he displays his hidden good nature, such as his brief amorous relationship with Lisa. Although he cannot control his delinquent tendencies, he treats her with respect and even tries to change for her, although both of them realize that he is not being true to himself by doing so. In "Lisa's Date With Density", Nelson kisses Lisa, only to be berated by Jimbo, Kearney, and Dolph, who believe that kissing girls is gay (despite the fact that Jimbo kissed Laura Powers in "New Kid on the Block").
He also punishes Sherri and Terri for tormenting Lisa about her butt. Another curious example of his "good side" is with Martin, a boy whom Nelson picks on perhaps more so than any other kid in town. Despite the utter cruelty, there are occasional hints that Nelson does not harbor any hate towards Martin, and does not want to pick on him. In the episode, "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can", both Nelson and Martin attend Space Camp and it is implied that Martin had helped Nelson quite a bit and the two may have been friendly. Due to the peer pressure of maintaining his bad-boy image at school however, he seems to deliberately go back to his antagonism toward a rather dismayed Martin. In another episode, when it is believed that Martin has died, Nelson seeks out to learn the truth and find Martin's killers. When it is revealed that Martin is alive, Nelson does mock and punch him, but also states that he is glad Martin is not dead.
[edit] Future
The episode "Future-Drama" depicts Nelson to have dated and impregnated identical twin sisters Sherri and Terri, becoming the father to two sets of twins. He then claims to be going out to the store for a pack of cigarettes, and then ran away when the twins questioned that the excuse he gave was the very same excuse that Nelson's father gave when he ran away from Nelson. Ironically, in "Bart to the Future" Nelson is shown to be a rich, powerful businessman or mob boss, who owns a bar/club; although, this might have been in a far greater future. His power at the time was so great he managed to have everyone replace goodbye with his personal farewell "Smell ya later."
[edit] Name
According to the DVD commentary on the Season 5 episode "Lady Bouvier's Lover", Nelson's first name comes from the wrestling hold, the full nelson.
[edit] References
- ^ Revealed in the episode, "Bart on the Road"
- ^ Revealed in the episode, "The Dad Who Knew Too Little"
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