The following is a list of recurring characters in The Simpsons. The Simpsons includes a large array of supporting characters: co-workers, teachers, family friends, extended relatives, townspeople, and local celebrities. The writers originally intended many of these characters as one-time jokes or for fulfilling needed functions in the town. A number of them have gained expanded roles and have subsequently starred in their own episodes. According to the creator of The Simpsons, Matt Groening, the show adopted the concept of a large supporting cast from the Canadian sketch comedy show Second City Television.[1]
Agnes Skinner is the mother of Seymour Skinner and first appeared in the first season episode "The Crepes of Wrath" as an old woman who embarrassingly calls her son "Spanky". However, as episodes progressed, the character turned bitter.[2] She is very harshly controlling of Seymour, and treats him like a mother would a small child, once grounding him because he did not say who was at the door after answering it, when it was "The Sugarman". She hates Edna Krabappel.[3] Agnes has married a total of four times, once with Skinner's father, Sheldon Skinner, and following Sheldon's death she then married three more times, each time, to a tow truck driver.[4] Several Springfield residents (including the Simpsons) are afraid of her.[5] In "Worst Episode Ever" she has a brief romantic relation with the Comic Book Guy and even sleeps with him. When Agnes' real son, "the real Seymour Skinner" (Martin Sheen) arrives in Springfield, Agnes turns him away, unhappy with her new living situation, largely because the true Seymour Skinner is a man who can stand up to Agnes and make his own decisions. Although she appears to not care for the fake Skinner, it turns out she really loves him, although she denies it in "Large Marge".[5]
Agnes's first name was revealed in the seventh season episode "Bart the Fink".[6] Before that, the character was known as "Mrs. Skinner".[6] In the beginning of the series, the writers made several references to Agnes and Seymour's relationship being similar to that of Norman Bates and his mother's in the film Psycho.[7] Tress MacNeille voices Agnes.[8] In "Boy Meets Curl," it is revealed that some of Agnes' resentment to Seymour may have derived from even before Seymour was born - during the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Agnes competed in the pole vaulting event while 9-months pregnant. When Seymour makes his first kick, he hits the bar, thus, making Agnes lose and subsequently crushing her dreams. In this episode, she also bonds with him more.[9] In the 1920s, Agnes performed as a wing walker.
Akira is one of the only Asian Americans characters in the show. First seen in the second season in "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish", he works as a waiter at The Happy Sumo, a Japanese restaurant in Springfield. In "When Flanders Failed", Bart trains under Akira at his martial arts academy. Homer, Bart, and Lisa go to The Happy Sumo to ask Akira about the Mr. Sparkle box in "In Marge We Trust". In "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?", Akira, Luigi, the Sea Captain, and other Springfield restaurant proprietors plot to assassinate Homer for giving their restaurants bad reviews. You can also see Akira in the Simpsons game as the Reb Barkly champion of the previous year. He also trained Marge in The Great Wife Hope and sold Homer the 'SPINEMELTER 2000' chair in Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes. Actor George Takei originally voiced Akira in "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish". Since Akira's speaking role in "When Flanders Failed", Hank Azaria has voiced the character, doing an impression of Takei for the voice.[10] In The Great Wife Hope, Akira proves to be incredibly strong, as he easily lifts Homer. Akira also makes an appearance in The Simpsons Game as the previous years winner of the Duff Beer eating contest, who won by soaking the food in milk to digest it.
Allison Taylor is Lisa's classmate, introduced in the Season 6 episode Lisa's Rival. Allison is as smart as (or smarter than) Lisa, younger (having skipped a grade) and, like Lisa, a young master of the saxophone. Regardless, Lisa tries to be her friend. In later episodes, Allison appears as a background character. Originally voiced by guest-star Winona Ryder, she has subsequently had a few small speaking parts, with her voice provided by Pamela Hayden. She appears to be on good terms with Lisa.
Artie Ziff (voiced by Jon Lovitz in all appearances, except for season four's "The Front", where he was voiced by Dan Castellaneta)[11] was first seen as Marge Simpson's high school prom date with "busy hands" in the first Homer-Marge flashback episode.[12] He returns in a later episode where he is revealed to have become a nerdy, self-centered and pretentious software billionaire.[13] He offers a million dollars to the Simpsons for one weekend with his childhood love, Marge.[13] Ziff returns for the last time in "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner", where after he gives his bankrupt company to Homer, Homer is taken away by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission as they believed he was the real owner. Ziff later turns himself in (after a romantic encounter with Selma Bouvier), where he tries to extinguish the other prisoners' cigarettes. He is Jewish, and eventually he comes to terms with the fact that his personality, not his religion, is the reason he is disliked.[13]
Animator David Silverman based Ziff's appearance and body language of a man he went to high school with.[14]
Baby Gerald, also known as "the one-eyebrowed baby", is Maggie Simpson's archenemy, known for his large unibrow. He makes his first appearance in "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song", where Lisa refers to Baby Gerald as Maggie's rival. On a few occasions, Gerald has been shown being pushed in a stroller by his mother outside the Simpson house as in "Lady Bouvier's Lover", as the two babies glare at one another. They were, however, able to put aside their differences in "Papa Don't Leech", in which we see Maggie reaching Baby Gerald via play telephone in order to share with him Lurleen Lumpkin's song of woe. On one occasion, Homer mistakes Maggie for Baby Gerald. Gerald has a history of causing large scale public incidents and was once rescued by Bart's mail-order dog, Laddie.[15] Mayor Quimby once remarks, "Baby Gerald, we can't help but wonder what mischief you'll get into next".[15] Gerald once spilled a shovel full of sand over Snake Jailbird's face.[16] The character's name was revealed in the episode "The Canine Mutiny".[17] Baby Gerald now appears in the supermarket scene of the opening credits as of "Take My Life, Please", shown glaring at Maggie as she glares back.
Benjamin, Doug and Gary are voiced by Harry Shearer, Hank Azaria, and Dan Castellaneta, respectively.[8][18] Benjamin, Doug, and Gary are geeks that were once Homer's dorm roommates at Springfield University. Gary carries a calculator on his belt, Doug is fat and wears a pocket protector, and Benjamin is black and wears horn-rimmed glasses.[19] The writer of "Homer Goes to College" Conan O'Brien partially based them on three guys he went to college with, who, he said, were "incredible nerds".[20] Because time was short, director Jim Reardon used a caricature of animator Rich Moore and colored it black for Benjamin.[21]
Bernice Hibbert is voiced by Tress MacNeille.[22] She is Julius Hibbert's wife. She enjoys watching violent car crash movies.[23] She has two boys and a girl with Julius, and laughs like her husband. Her marriage with Julius is on the rocks.[24] Bernice refuses to kiss Julius, even when an entire audience is looking at them; Julius remarks how unaffectionate she can be.[25] Her drinking has been joked about on several occasions; she faints when she reads that prohibition had been introduced to Springfield[26] and attends Springfield Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.[27]
"Bleeding Gums" Murphy (voiced by Ron Taylor and Daryl L. Coley[28]), was the jazz musician, idol, and mentor of Lisa Simpson. His significant roles were in the episodes "Moaning Lisa" and "'Round Springfield", though he appears in other episodes, such as "Bart the Daredevil" (where he is yellow), "Dancin' Homer", "Old Money", "Flaming Moe's, "Bart Gets an F", "Radio Bart", and "Lisa's Pony". In "Dancin' Homer", he was voiced by Daryl L. Coley.[28] At one point he had enjoyed a fairly successful career, releasing an album ("Sax on the Beach") and appearing on Steve Allen's Tonight Show[29] but quickly lost his money feeding his habit of purchasing and smashing Fabergé eggs.[30] He had taught Lisa to display her emotions through music, prompting Lisa to hold him as an important figure in her life.[30] His last appearance was in "'Round Springfield"[31] - after Bart ends up in the hospital, Lisa wanders off to find Murphy dying in a nearby ward. He explains about his life, family, and work to her as well as giving her advice for her upcoming school performance, giving her his saxophone. When Lisa returns she finds out that Bleeding Gums has died from circumstances which are never revealed. No one, except for Lisa, attends Murphy's funeral. Lisa soon learns that though he may be gone, he still is alive in her.[29] It was strongly hinted that Murphy and Doctor Hibbert are long lost brothers, most notably by the quote, "I don't really have a family, all I had was a little brother who grew up to become a doctor. He used to laugh at the most inappropriate times." Hibbert then laughs inappropriately and says "Hey I've got an older brother that I'll never see. He's a jazz musician or some such. Oh well, bye, bye."[29] Bleeding Gums Murphy is loosely based on Blind Willie Johnson, at whose feet the young Bleeding Gums character learned.[32] The voice of Bleeding Gums Murphy was provided by Ron Taylor, while his saxophone playing is provided by Dan Higgins.[33] As a sign of respect for the character, Murphy has been a fixture of The Simpsons opening sequence since the second season. Originally, even after his death, Bart would skateboard past him on the street.[34]
Mr. Burns' Lawyer,[35] also known as "The Blue-Haired Lawyer", is voiced by Dan Castellaneta.[36] He first appeared in the second season episode "Bart Gets Hit by a Car".[37] He is Springfield's most prominent and powerful lawyer, known for his blue hair and nasal New York accent. He also occasionally appears to serve as a prosecutor. Unlike Lionel Hutz or Gil Gunderson, he is a competent (though not necessarily ethical) lawyer. He has served as Burns' head lawyer, helping him out with threats of the Power Plant closing down and of Burns losing his money. He is a member of the Springfield Republican Party. His clients often tend to be antagonists of the Simpsons. He represented The Walt Disney Company in "Lisa the Beauty Queen" and tried to shut down the school carnival, citing infringement because Principal Skinner used Disneyland's "The Happiest Place on Earth" as the school carnival's motto (the lawyer and his goons end up getting beaten by Principal Skinner, who used the martial arts skills he learned as a Green Beret), and also in the episode Four Great Women and a Manicure where he believes that "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" was originally made by Walt Disney.[24][38] His largest role was when he assisted in Bart's emancipation.[39] He also represents the estates of Charlie Chaplin and Jimmy Durante.[40] In "Papa Don't Leech", he helps Lurleen Lumpkin (Beverly D'Angelo) win her trial.[41] He also appears as Marge's lawyer in "Behind The Laughter".
The character's demeanor, as well as Dan Castellaneta's voice for the character, are based on Roy Cohn, best known as Joe McCarthy's chief counsel during the Communist witchhunts in the 1950s. Animator Jim Reardon modeled the character's appearance on actor Charles Lane.[42]
Brandine Spuckler is voiced by Tress MacNeille[8] and is the partner of Cletus Spuckler. Brandine and Cletus are depicted as stereotypical hillbillies. Throughout the series, the two are shown to be brother and sister,[43] boyfriend and girlfriend,[44] mother and son,[45] and father and daughter.[46] She is apparently the daughter of Cletus and an alien. She has suffered from rabies,[47] and admitted to being illiterate. She once interviewed for a job as a stripper.[48] More recently, it is shown Brandine is fighting in the Iraq War.[49] She comes back revealing Cletus is the father of only two of the kids, casting doubt over the paternity of her other children.[49] Assuming that all of the children believed to be Cletus' are also hers, Brandine has 45 specifically named children. Brandine and Cletus were married by Homer during his brief stint as a priest, even though Cletus treats the family pig better than her.[50] On April 27, 2008, more is revealed about Cletus and Brandine in an episode entitled "Apocalypse Cow"; Brandine had married Cletus at the age of 13, and had married four times before that. Some of the most distinct features of Brandine are that she speaks in a thick accent, and wears her hair up high in red ponytail. She also became the face of baking powder company 'Auntie Oven Fresh', in the episode “All's Fair in Oven War”.[51] She was briefly under consideration as a foster mother to Bart and Lisa.[52]
Charlie (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) works at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant as the 'Dangerous Emissions Supervisor'. He was briefly replaced by Mindy Simmons, but she got fired afterwards. His first appearance was in "Life on the Fast Lane". He was briefly out of work due to a unnamed on-the-job injury, where he collected workers' compensation, however future episodes show him back to work.[53][54] He has a wife and two kids[55] as well as a sister with a wooden leg.[56] In "The Trouble with Trillions", Charlie tells Homer (who is working undercover) that he has plans to overrun the American government due to their stalling on making HDTV available; he is soon arrested by FBI agents for conspiracy. Dan Castellaneta said that he did "an imitation of Lenny" (voiced by Harry Shearer) for the voice.[57]
Cookie Kwan (voiced by Tress MacNeille), is an Asian American real estate broker.[58] She is the stereotypical competitive woman.[58] She touts herself as being "number one on the West Side", although she also works on the East Side.[58] She is very aggressive toward anyone whom she deems a threat to her business, evidenced by when she threatens Gil Gunderson.[58] She had once attempted to seduce Ned Flanders,[59] had an illegitimate baby with Mayor Quimby,[60] and flirted with Homer.[61] She is friends with Lindsey Naegle.[61] She is a Republican.[62] In her younger years, she had gone to Camp Land-A-Man with Patty and Selma Bouvier, Helen Lovejoy, Luann Van Houten, and Marge Bouvier.[63]
Eleanor Abernathy[64] (voiced by Tress MacNeille), better known as the Crazy Cat Lady, is a woman with the appearance and behavior of a stereotypical mentally ill person. She first appears in "Girly Edition". Abernathy is always surrounded by a large number of cats, and in every appearance she screams gibberish and/or throws cats at passersby.[65] She gives Lisa one of her cats, Snowball V, who looks exactly like her original Snowball II.[66]
Abernathy has an unfortunate past. When she was eight, she was a smart and ambitious young girl who wanted to be both a lawyer and a doctor "because a woman can do anything." She was studying for law school at 16, and by 24 she had earned a M.D. from Harvard Medical School and a JD from Yale Law School. However, by 32, suffering from burnout, she had turned to alcohol and became obsessed with her pet cat. By the time she turned 40, she had assumed her present state as a drunken, raving lunatic.[67] Abernathy briefly reverts to her sanity and high intelligence thanks to some pills that she shows the Simpsons, but after Marge mentions that the pills are actually Reese's Pieces, she abruptly resumes her deranged behavior.[68] When participating in a mayoral election she lucidly discusses topics such as health care, economy, public education and cats in between her screams and gibberish.[64]
Database first appeared in the episode "Bart's Comet" as a member of "the super friends". He has since had speaking parts in several episodes. His real name is not known, and he is usually seen with his fellow nerd Martin Prince. Database is a common target for Nelson, Dolph, Jimbo, and Kearney. Database is part of the group of boys who invade Shelbyville in "Lemon of Troy". He is one of the Pre-Teen Braves in the episode "The Bart of War". He is part of the school band as seen in "The PTA Disbands". Principal Skinner also chooses him, as well as Lisa Simpson, Martin Prince, and Milhouse to head the CTU operation in "24 Minutes". He is known for his annoying, nerdy voice. Database is voiced by Nancy Cartwright. Database's father is shown in "Lemon of Troy", although he utters no dialogue and is only in the background; he has not appeared since that episode.[18] Matt Groening has stated that Database is his least favorite character in the show.[69]
Dave Shutton, voiced by Harry Shearer,[8] is a reporter for The Springfield Shopper. Writer John Swartzwelder named Shutton after a friend of his.[70] His first (and most relevant) appearance was in the season two episode "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish." Since then, his roles have become less relevant and have been reduced to cameos and appearances in crowd scenes.[38][71][72][73] His latest speaking appearance was in "Old Yeller Belly", when he hooks Santa's Little Helper to the world of Duff Beer. According to "Who Shot Mr. Burns", Part 2, Kent Brockman doesn't like Dave Shutton and thinks he's unprofessional.[74][75][76]
Disco Stu, voiced by Hank Azaria,[77] is a man who is mentally stuck in the disco era.[78] He is normally featured wearing a rhinestone-encrusted leisure suit. Stu was introduced as the punchline to a joke in "Two Bad Neighbors". In a garage sale, Homer attempts to sell a jacket on which he had once tried to write "Disco Stud" in rhinestones, but having made the letters too big he did not have room for the final '"d". After Marge remarks that nobody would ever want to buy a jacket that read "Disco Stu", another customer recommends it to Stu, but Stu replies "Disco Stu doesn't advertise".[78] Stu's speech pattern is similar to that of Duffman, also voiced by Hank Azaria; he speaks in the third person, often referring to himself as "Disco Stu" (emphasizing "Stu" and then pausing before saying anything else; whatever follows usually rhymes with "Stu"). According to "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation", Stu actually is aware disco is dead, does not like disco music at all, and worries that his personality may make him a "one-note guy". He is a Roman Catholic, having gotten an annulment from Pope John Paul II after a brief marriage to Selma Bouvier.[79] In his younger years, he had a budding career as a sea captain, going by the name of "Nautical Stu".[80] He is seen flirting with Marge in "Little Big Mom", but retreats immediately after discovering she has kids.
Stu was originally voiced by repeat guest star Phil Hartman. However, when the animators remodeled the character—show runner Bill Oakley described the original Disco Stu as "a black, wrinkly John Travolta"—and Hartman was not available to dub the voice, Hank Azaria took over the role.[81] Out of 25, IGN named Stu the 24th top peripheral character in The Simpsons.[82]
Dolph (voiced by Tress MacNeille) is a bully and student at Springfield Elementary School. Dolph is recognized by his asymmetrical haircut which covers one eye and wears cutoff shorts and basketball shoes. He is left-handed and does not talk as much as the other bullies. He speaks a variety of languages including Klingon. It turns out Dolph is Jewish and attends Hebrew school. Despite the fact that he appears to be wholly Caucasian, in the episode "Little Big Girl" he shows up to multicultural day with a disked lower lip, suggesting some African or South American descent. He lied to his friends about not having a bar mitzvah, later claiming it had been "just family". He has also mentioned the fact that he has two fathers. He has the most lines out of any of the bullies in Kamp Krusty where it is also shown that he can play guitar. Dolph is a skilled equestrian and tap dancer, he has training in stage combat, and he can speak in an impeccable British accent. Dolph is named after Groening's classmate Dolph Timmerman. Groening has said that Timmerman was not a bully at all, but a “really cool guy".
Eddie and Lou, voiced by Harry Shearer[8] and Hank Azaria,[18] are Springfield police officers. They first appeared in the first season episode "There's No Disgrace Like Home".[83] The two do not have surnames, "kinda like Cher";[84] in his younger years, Lou referred to himself as "Lou the cop".[85] The two say they like being cops because "you get to run red lights, park wherever you please, hot and cold running chicks and when you go home at night, you know you've made a difference".[86]
Lou is the police sergeant and a competent officer of the Springfield Police. He is a foil to Chief Wiggum, and often takes the time to point out Wiggum's mistakes. Lou has been shown to resent Wiggum, and is aware of his chief's ineptitude.[87] In the episode "Pranksta Rap", Lou mentions that he has been writing negative letters to the editor under the pen name "Worried in West Springfield", calling for Wiggum's resignation. Lou was married to a woman named Amy.[88] In "The Bart of War", it is shown that Lou is divorced from his wife, and Eddie has been seeing her occasionally.[89] Lou is a Democrat.[90] Lou starred in "Stop or My Dog Will Shoot", where he is featured prominently as the new owner of Santa's Little Helper.[16] The episode reveals Lou has a girlfriend named Charquelle,[16] and is very independent.[16] In the episode "That 90's Show", instead of going to college, he joined a grunge band with Homer, Lenny, and Carl.[85]
Eddie is less developed as a character than Lou, and almost nothing is known about him but it is believed that Wiggum considers him the graceful one and cannot understand why he is single. Lou's birthday is March 21 (Wiggum refers to him as birthday boy in "Trilogy of Error" and the newspaper in said episode is dated March 21).
Al Jean and Mike Reiss named Lou after Major League Baseball player Lou Whitaker.[83] Azaria based Lou's voice on actor Sylvester Stallone's.[91] Though he has nearly always been African-American,[92] Lou originally appeared yellow in "There's No Disgrace Like Home".[83] In "Bart vs. Thanksgiving", Eddie was animated to Lou's voice and Lou was animated to Eddie's.[93]
Frankie the Squealer is a member of the Mafia and associate of Fat Tony. However, he does not appear to be very useful to his colleagues in criminal activity due to his uncontrollable habit of squealing (he claims that "it makes [him] feel big"), even squealing on himself one time. On several occasions, the mob has attempted to kill him for his squealing, though they have repeatedly been unsuccessful. Frankie first appeared in episode "Insane Clown Poppy" where his squealing habits are introduced after he squeals on himself for squealing. He is taken to a room by Louie and Legs who tie him to a chair and beat him up. Homer witnesses how Louie and Legs beat up Frankie and tell him to "never squeal again", almost immediately, Frankie squeals again by saying "Did you know that Fat Tony's first name is Marion?", after he says that, Legs says "You just don't get it, do ya?" and proceeds to keep beating up Frankie. In Treehouse of Horror XIV he is revealed to have a wife.
Gil Gunderson is voiced by Dan Castellaneta[36] and first appeared in the ninth season episode "Realty Bites" as a real estate agent with Lionel Hutz's Red Blazer Realty.[94] He is a spoof of actor Jack Lemmon's portrayal of Shelley Levene in the 1992 film adaptation of the play Glengarry Glen Ross.[94] (Lemmon himself voiced a character similar to Levene in the eighth season episode "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson".)[95] Show runner Mike Scully said that the writers thought that Gil would be "a one-shot thing".[96] "Dan Castellaneta was so funny at the table read doing the character", Scully elaborated, "we kept making up excuses in subsequent episodes to put him in."[94] Writer Dan Greaney said that it was a great take-off on Levene to make Gil more desperate than he was. Even so, the writers like to write Gil with "a little bit of the old sparkle" left in him.[97]
Gil is at the pinnacle of bad luck and misfortune. In nearly all his appearances he utterly fails at what he does. This is usually due to being shown up by a superior co-worker, or through one of his own random acts of stupidity (such as pointing out the paint on a car he's about to sell comes off with rain water). However, despite his misfortunes, he always comes back the next time as if nothing had happened, although something bad would inevitably befall him again. He often refers to himself in the third person, as "Ol' Gil".
In 2006, "Kill Gil, Volumes I & II", the only episode to center on Gil, won a Writers Guild of America Award in the animation category.[98] The episode does show Gil, among his many incompetences, to be an excellent piano player.
Gloria (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is Snake's girlfriend. She is a meter maid. She first appears in "A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love", dating Mr. Burns. She ends up leaving him to return to her ex-boyfriend Snake. Gloria visits Snake in prison in "I Don't Wanna Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." She made a silent appearance in "The Old Man and the Key" beside her boyfriend at a drag race. She appears once again in "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes", where she is now pregnant. However in "Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words" they have broken up. Then, in "Wedding For Disaster" they seem to have gotten back together and apparently got married.
God, voiced by Harry Shearer, has had many appearances in the series, including "Homer the Heretic", "Thank God, It's Doomsday", and a quick scene with him, Buddha, and Colonel Sanders in "Pray Anything"as well as appearing in the flick across the town in the opening sequence (in the HD episodes) where he is fighting with the devil. He is portrayed in the traditional depiction of the Abrahamic God in the Western world: a gray-haired Caucasian man in a white robe with a booming voice (though it is revealed in "A Star Is Burns" that he speaks in "Flanderese", responding to Ned Flanders' "Thanks, God!" with "Okely-dokely!"). His face is only seen in a picture owned by Homer in "Pray Anything" (though this was likely an artist's depiction), a picture owned by Ned Flanders in "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily", and the opening sequence for "Treehouse of Horror XVI". In all other episodes, only his beard is seen as the camera only films him up to the shoulders (God is a head taller than everyone else in the Simpsons universe). His body is usually surrounded by a glowing light, and his robes float around him, though not always. He does not seem to be all-knowing; for instance, when referring to his son, he states that he does not know "what you people did to him" but "He hasn't been the same since". Also, in the Treehouse of Horror XIV segment "Reaper Madness" Homer tries to trick God by dressing Patty up as Marge. Another notable characteristic of him is his ability to forgive and tolerate Homer's mishaps, despite his later often heretical attitude. In fact, he is good and even friendly terms with Homer, but he would not fear to severely punish him if Homer become too obnoxious. In Mr Plow, After Homer states that "When two best friends work together not even God himself can stop them!", God gets mad and, was a punish for his arrogance, he melts the snow and ruins Homer's business. In the episode "Simpsons Bible Stories", where stories in the Bible are played by Simpsons characters, Ned Flanders plays the character of God in the story of Adam and Eve while Homer and Marge play Adam and Eve. In this episode, God's voice sounds like that of Ned Flanders; and while he is not actually seen we do see God's arm pop out of a cloud wearing Ned's trademark green sweater. One of God's distinctive features is that he is the one of two Simpsons characters to be drawn with five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot, though not always (there have been scenes where God has only four fingers like everyone else in the show).
Grady and Julio (Scott Thompson and Hank Azaria) are two gay men who become Homer's roommates when he leaves Marge in "Three Gays of the Condo." Julio reappears in "There's Something About Marrying", marrying another man, in "I Don't Wanna Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" as one of the bank robbery hostages, and makes speaking cameos in "Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind" and "E Pluribus Wiggum." His most recent appearance was in the episode "Four Great Women and a Manicure", in which he was seen as "King Julio" in Lisa's first story, "Elizabeth the First." Grady made his second appearance to date in "Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words", in which he persuades Homer to break up his (Grady's) relationship with Julio, so that he could pursue a relationship with Duffman.
Helen Lovejoy (née Schwartzbaum), voiced by Maggie Roswell and Marcia Mitzman Gaven, is Rev. Lovejoy’s judgmental and gossipy wife, and the mother of Jessica Lovejoy. She introduced herself in the episode "Life on the Fast Lane" as "the gossipy wife of the minister." In the episode "Marge in Chains", she promises to "use [her] gossip for good instead of evil." When she was younger, she went to Camp Land-A-Man with Marge Simpson, Patty and Selma Bouvier, Luann Van Houten and Cookie Kwan. A younger Helen Lovejoy is seen getting low marks as she did not put her forks in order. In the episode "E Pluribus Wiggum" it is seen that she is a Republican. Her catchphrase is "What about the children?! Won't somebody please think of the children!?" which she always says among a crowd when something bad is happening in the city. In "Treehouse of Horror XX", Marge reveals that Helen is Lisa's godmother; however the Treehouse of Horror episodes are non-canon. In "Wedding for Disaster", the Parson remarks to Reverend Lovejoy that he remembers when Helen Lovejoy was Helen Schwartzbaum and prior to that, Harold Schwartzbaum, before deciding he has said too much.
Herman, voiced by Harry Shearer,[8] is the owner of Herman's Military Antiques. He is a left-arm above-elbow amputee; he tells Bart that the other arm was lost when he stuck it out the window of a moving bus as a kid (he was mentioned as the little boy who lost his arm when he stuck it out the window of a moving bus and it was ripped off by a truck going in the other direction on the episode, "Homer's Odyssey", by Ms. Krabappel). A brilliant military tactician, Herman was instrumental in Bart’s victory in water balloon combat against Nelson and in the negotiation of the peace treaty between the two combatants in "Bart the General", which is his most significant and 1st appearance.
He is friends with Abraham Simpson, to whom he sold a fez, claiming it was previously owned by Napoleon; Herman then advertised Abe's old hat as "the hat McKinley was shot in". He also tried to sell counterfeit jeans out of the Simpsons' garage, but was foiled by Marge Simpson, though he was not put in jail because the evidence was stolen by the Springfield PD. He once captured Chief Wiggum and Snake and held them hostage with the intention of "partying" with them (in an homage to a scene from Pulp Fiction), but was thwarted (accidentally) by Milhouse Van Houten wielding a flail (which Milhouse found during his mad dash to the bathroom). The writers were pleased that Herman already existed as otherwise they would have had to create a character for his scenes.[99]
Harry Shearer does an impression of George H.W. Bush for the voice.[100] Herman's facial appearance is modeled after Simpsons writer John Swartzwelder.[100] The original idea behind Herman, said Groening, was that each time he appeared, he would give a different explanation for how he lost his arm. However, the second joke, involving Herman having stuck his arm in a ball return at a bowling alley, got cut, and the writers never pursued the idea.[101]
Jack Larson, voiced by Harry Shearer, was a slick spokesman and now president for Laramie Cigarettes and once owned the Springfield Isotopes. He also was the spokesperson in a commercial for the Little Miss Springfield pageant, with Laramie cigarettes as the main sponsor. This advertisement was seen by Homer while watching TV at Moe's Tavern, as seen in the season four episode, "Lisa the Beauty Queen". Lisa did not win but was given the position after the first winner was struck by lightning (conducted by the beauty queen's crown and sceptre). He was also seen in "Bart the Murderer", calming the crowd after a truckload of Laramie Cigarettes were stolen by Fat Tony and the Springfield Mafia and stockpiled in Bart Simpson's bedroom (much to his distaste).
Janey Powell, voiced by Pamela Hayden, first appeared in Bart the General and was once Lisa Simpson's closest friend. She has been at Lisa's sleepovers and Lisa is seen watching cartoons at her house on numerous occasions.
Her description on the Simpsons POG set described her as "Lisa's fair-weather friend". Though she is sometimes seen hanging out with Lisa, other times she teases her along with the other children. She is not portrayed as being nearly as intelligent or nerdy as Lisa. Janey may have had a crush on Milhouse Van Houten, who has a crush on Lisa. She enjoys reading babysitting books. In the episode "Flaming Moe's," Lisa and other girls were playing a party game with candle wax to predict the careers of their future husbands; Janey is dismayed to have her wax form the shape of a dustpan.
Jasper Beardly (voiced by Harry Shearer)[8] is one of the elder residents of Springfield. His most distinguishing features are his ultra-low, gravelly voice and very long beard, that was once shown to be hard. Jasper made his first appearance in "Homer's Odyssey". He is a veteran of World War II. Jasper also tried to avoid the draft by disguising himself as a woman and staying in Springfield to play in the local women's baseball league, along with his friend Abe, who was also avoiding the war (according to the episode "Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play"). However, Grampa's attempts to dodge the war were unsuccessful, and he was eventually assigned to the Flying Hellfish. In the parade scene of "Lisa the Iconoclast", Jasper is seen in uniform, wearing a shoulder patch resembling that of the 2nd Infantry Division.
In the subplot of the season nine episode, "Lisa the Simpson", Jasper was put in crude "suspended animation" in the Kwik-E-Mart's freezer, and under advice from Dr. Nick Riviera, Apu kept him frozen. When Jasper's frozen form became popular with customers, Apu started exploiting the spectacle, and transformed the Kwik-E-Mart into a special interest store dealing with weird items, or perfectly ordinary ones which had been made out to be abnormal, called the Freak-E-Mart. Jasper (or "Frostillicus", as Apu renamed him) was accidentally unfrozen, and stepped out into what he thought was a future world, just as Apu was considering selling him to the Rich Texan. In the episode "I Don't Wanna Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" Jasper mentions he is a diabetic. His left leg is prosthetic, as revealed in "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)" (though it wasn't made apparent in such past episodes as "A Streetcar Named Marge", when Jasper was able to stretch his legs during the audition for "Oh, Streetcar!", "Boy Scoutz N The Hood", when Jasper was shown naked in a tub during "Sponge Bathe the Old Folks' Day", and "The PTA Disbands" where Jasper's real feet were shown while wearing sandals during his "That's a-paddlin'" speech to Lisa's class). In “The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show,” Jasper mistakes Bart for a girl, to which Bart retorts "Are you blind?!"; Jasper answers in the affirmative.
A cut scene in "In Marge We Trust" revealed that Jasper was minister of First Church of Springfield before Lovejoy came to town.
Jebediah Springfield (aka Hans Sprungfeld) is the founder of the town of Springfield. He is voiced by Harry Shearer.[8] According to legend, Springfield, along with his partner Shelbyville Manhattan, led a band that left Maryland in search of "New Sodom" (a misinterpretation of the Bible), but they parted ways over political differences: Manhattan wanted to found a town where people were free to marry their cousins, but Springfield wanted a town devoted to chastity, abstinence, and a flavorless mush called "rootmarm", so Manhattan went on to found the rival town of Shelbyville.
Springfield had many famous quotations, such as "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man". He also wears a coonskin cap. The Springfield Marathon commemorates an occasion on which he ran across six states in order to avoid his creditors. In "The Telltale Head" Bart beheaded the statue, thinking that this would make him more popular. In reality, the town became depressed and angry, leaving Bart to endure "The Tell-Tale Heart"-style guilt before replacing it. This episode is referenced in the video games The Simpsons Road Rage and The Simpsons Hit & Run, where characters can kick or ram Jebediah's head off.
Many Jebediah legends have been debunked during the run of the series. For instance, "The Telltale Head" repeatedly refers to Jebediah killing a bear with his bare hands, but on the news, Kent Brockman reveals that recent historical evidence suggests the bear actually killed Jebediah. On an expedition to Springfield's historic "Fort Springfield", Bart uncovers other inconsistencies in the Jebediah legend, such as that he invaded an Indian village the same day as the first Whacking Day. Springfield's "secret confession" includes an admission that he never tamed the wild buffalo after all (as his legend tells); it had already been tame, and he "merely shot it." And even though Jebediah founded the town, in "Marge vs. the Monorail" the cabin where he was born is actually located in Springfield.
Most of Springfield's biography is revealed in the 1996 episode "Lisa the Iconoclast", wherein Lisa Simpson discovers Jebediah Springfield's biggest secret: he was actually a bloodthirsty pirate named Hans Sprungfeld, who once brawled with George Washington and lost after Washington crushed Sprungfeld's genitals in one of his sets of iron false teeth. Sprungfeld fled and changed his name in 1795 to hide his identity. He was well known for his "silver tongue" (literally; a metal prosthetic tongue, his original tongue having been bitten off by a Turkish pirate in a grog house fight). Before he died, he wrote his confession on a scrap of canvas that he hid in a fife. The canvas scrap formed the "missing piece" of the famously incomplete 1796 portrait of George Washington; Sprungfeld picked it up during a fight against Washington which occurred while the latter was having his portrait painted. Lisa decides not to reveal this secret to the people of Springfield, seeing that the myth of Jebediah has brought out the good in everyone and that the true story will cause them to lose hope and morale within themselves.
James Corky "Jimbo" Jones is voiced by Pamela Hayden[8] but was originally voiced by Tress MacNeille in his first appearance in the first season episode "The Telltale Head".[102] A real lowlife, he wears a purple knit cap and a black T-shirt emblazoned with a menacing skull. He can often be seen hanging around Kearney, Dolph, and sometimes Nelson. He is generally acknowledged as the leader of this clique. He enjoys intimidating his schoolmates and shoplifting. It is hinted that he comes from a well-off family, most notably in season six's The PTA Disbands when — with the school closed for a teacher's strike - he and his mother watch soap operas and sip tea together in a very nice living room. A running joke with this character is that his mother, called Carol, is said at various points to be sexually promiscuous, possibly working as a prostitute. She sometimes walks around topless, which impresses Jimbo's friends. In season seven's Bart the Fink, Bart discovers that Jimbo's real name is Corky (though in season eight's Lisa's Date with Density, Nelson refers to Jimbo as "James" when Nelson is defending Lisa, implying that "Corky" could be a nickname or a pseudonym). Jimbo's other known aliases are Jamesbo, Dr. J and Hector Guterriez (as revealed in season 18 episode 24 Minutes). Jimbo is named for executive producer James L. Brooks.[102] Jimbo runs for mayor in the Season 17 episode "See Homer Run", with a campaign slogan of "Tough on Nerds. Tougher on Dorks."
Johnny Tightlips, voiced by Hank Azaria, is a member of the Mafia and associate of Fat Tony. He says very little, which spares him from accusations of being a "squealer", but his reticence tends to be unhelpful to others and even himself. In "Insane Clown Poppy", there is a shoot-out in Fat Tony's mansion and Tightlips is shot by accident. When asked where he's injured, he says "I ain't sayin' nuthin'!", and when asked what to tell the doctor he says, "Tell 'em to go suck a lemon."[103] He is so determined to say as little as possible that he even refuses to acknowledge whether he has a mother. He is based on the real-life Chicago gangster Frank Gusenberg who, after being shot fourteen times in the Saint Valentine's Day massacre and asked by the authorities who shot him, replied "Nobody shot me".
Constance Harm is voiced by repeat guest star actress Jane Kaczmarek. She is a harsh, unforgiving disciplinarian.[104] She enjoys creating cruel punishments for criminals in her court and frightening them with a miniature guillotine on the bench. She might be a transsexual based on her statement in "The Parent Rap": "you remind me of me, when I was a little boy". Her name is a play on "constant harm". The character is a parody of Judge Judy. Judge Harm first appears in "The Parent Rap", and a season later in "Barting Over", assisting in Bart's emancipation. In "On a Clear Day I Can't See My Sister", she revealed she has a husband. Another appearance was in "Rome-old and Juli-eh", telling Homer that he could not file for the "cool kind" of bankruptcy that he was expecting to solve all his problems. Although Judge Snyder resolves court cases, Judge Harm has mainly been used for handing down negative verdicts, such as sentencing a family member to prison. She also appears in "Brawl in the Family", "The Wandering Juvie", "Brake My Wife, Please" and "Chief of Hearts".[105] Judge Harm is not to be confused with the unnamed female judge from earlier seasons who was voiced by Maggie Roswell. Her most recent appearance was in "Chief of Hearts", when she sentenced Homer to community service when he attempts to smuggle a candy apple in to a bank, but everybody thinks it's a gun.
Roy Snyder is voiced by Harry Shearer.[22] He is a Springfield judge known for his lenient punishments. The character was originally named "Judge Moulton", but show runners Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein did not know that, and called him "Snyder".[106] His appearance is modeled on Robert Bork.[106] Snyder's skin color has gone back and forth between yellow and brown repeatedly throughout the series.[107] Lionel Hutz repeatedly ran over Judge Snyder's son and believes Snyder to have a bias against him as a result.
Kearney Zzyzwicz (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) is one of Springfield Elementary's many bullies. He has a buzz cut, and wears a torn white T-shirt, blue shorts, and studded wristbands. Although he looks and sounds to be around Jimbo or Dolph's age, Kearney is actually older. He was alive during the Watergate scandal and the 1976 Bicentennial (according to Principal Skinner), was in Otto the bus driver's third-grade class (according to Otto), owns a car (even though he rode the school bus on "A Milhouse Divided", "The Mook, the Chef, the Wife, and Her Homer", and "How the Test Was Won"), regularly shaves, has custody of a child from a divorce, is old enough to vote in a general U.S. election, and went to prison (though Bart imagined Kearney as one of the juvenile hall inmates in "Marge Be Not Proud" and in "Lisa the Skeptic", Kearney is seen working alongside Jimbo and Dolph in a juvenile hall chain gang).
In "She of Little Faith", Kearney dated Jimbo's mother (even though Kearney claimed that "she came on to me," he ends up getting pummelled by Dolph, Jimbo, Nelson, and Bart). In the same episode, it is revealed that he is on the church council of the First Church of Springfield and is "a teenager and the parent of a teenager" (despite evidence mentioned above proving that he is not a teenager and the revelation in "A Milhouse Divided" that his son is not teenaged).[108] Kearney often relies on (or tricks) Homer into procuring alcohol for himself and his friends (as seen in "The Springfield Connection", "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious", and "Last Tap Dance in Springfield"), and once used a fake ID (as seen in "Much Apu About Nothing"), though it is heavily implied that Kearney is of the legal age to buy alcohol for himself (as in "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer", in which he is seen drinking at Moe's Tavern). It is also heavily implied that Kearney has no job nor receives any means of income (in "Kill Gil, Volumes I & II", Kearney asks a department store Santa for a vibrating video game chair for Christmas and Kearney's son tells his father that they cannot afford it), though Kearney had a temporary job as a camp counselor in the season four episode, "Kamp Krusty", along with Dolph and Jimbo, and once applied to be a nanny for The Simpsons (of whom Homer approved, but Marge did not).
Kearney's last name (Zzyzwicz) was revealed in a computer file in season 18's "24 Minutes" (prior to that episode, Kearney's surname was never mentioned). In season 20's "Mypods and Boomsticks", Kearney reveals that he is part of a cult where Moe Szyslak is praised as a god. In "Lisa the Drama Queen", Kearney is the only one of the three bullies interested in Lisa and Juliet's fantasy stories about Equalia, and defends the girls when Dolph and Jimbo go to attack them (even though Kearney imagined himself beating up Dolph and Jimbo). In "Bart Gets a 'Z'", Kearney can be seen sitting in the back row of Bart's classroom, implying that Kearney is a fourth grader (and, because of his bad grades and behavior, has been one for many years). Kearney's father was shown on the season eight episode "The Homer They Fall," in the scene where Homer gets beaten up by Dolph's, Jimbo's, and Kearney's fathers after Bart gets his novelty belt stolen by Dolph, Jimbo, and Kearney, but in "O Brother, Where Bart Thou?", Kearney reveals that both of his parents are incarcerated (one is in prison; the other, an insane asylum) and they only meet when the prison and insane asylum have their annual mixer.
Legs, voiced by Karl Wiedergott (formerly voiced by Hank Azaria), and Louie, voiced by Dan Castellaneta, are the two Springfield Mafia hitmen who accompany Fat Tony at all times. Fans often get the two confused due to neither of them having any real definitive characteristic and because they are almost always seen together. Legs has a dark blonde short haircut and raspy voice. Louie has a slight black afro and a more high-pitched, even squeaky tone. Castellaneta based the voice on actor Joe Pesci, one of the several references to Goodfellas used in the episode "Bart the Murderer".[109] Louie says that tear gas is "[his] one weakness," though this is likely an embellishment.
Legs' appearance and mannerisms are strongly evocative of the character actor Frank Sivero, who has played gangster roles in films such as Goodfellas and The Godfather Part II. It has also been established that Joseph Kennedy, father of President John Kennedy, had something to do with Legs acquiring his nickname, though this is never properly explained. Legs is an accomplished mob surgeon as referenced in "Trilogy of Error", where he sews Homer's thumb back on as a part of Lisa's science project.
Lewis is an African American character, and student at Springfield Elementary School in Bart's class. He can be seen playing the bassoon in the opening sequence of the show. Although one of the most minor characters in the show, Lewis appears frequently in scenes involving the Springfield children, and occasionally speaks. He is usually seen with Richard. While Lewis has never had significant dialogue, he has been voiced by Nancy Cartwright, Jo Ann Harris, Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, and Russi Taylor throughout the series.
Lindsey Naegle is voiced by Tress MacNeille[22] and first appeared in the eighth season episode "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show".[110] In that episode, she had no name and was known only (at least on the Internet) as "The Generic Female TV Executive".[19] She appeared again in "Girly Edition", also as a generic female TV executive (only her hair and facial features differed from her first appearance).[111] In "They Saved Lisa's Brain", she was introduced as "Lindsey Naegle", a member of the Springfield Chapter of Mensa, and has since become a recurring character.[110] The writers modeled Naegle on a number of network executives that they have encountered while working on the show.[112] The character gets her last name from Hollywood talent agent Sue Naegle, president of HBO Entertainment and wife of Simpsons writer Dana Gould.[113][114] Writer Matt Selman chose the first name "Lindsey" because he thought it sounded like the name of an annoyingly talkative woman.[113] Naegle prototypes have appeared throughout the series, such as the OmniTouch Rep from "Make Room for Lisa" and Laramie executive Mindy from "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)".[115] In "Blame It on Lisa", it is revealed that she frequently changes jobs because she is a sexual predator. Chris Turner, author of the book Planet Simpson, called Naegle "an excellent allegory for the modern corporate age: you don't see through her because there's nothing else to see."[116] Her political allegiances are not concrete: In "You Kent Always Say What You Want," she is shown at the Republican Party headquarters; in "E Pluribus Wiggum," Naegle is conversely depicted as a Democrat.
Lois Pennycandy is the executive assistant to Krusty the Clown.[117] She swayed Krusty into visiting Bart after he saved Krusty from jail time,[118] and later reunited him with his estranged father the Rabbi Hyman Krustofski.[117] She was at Krusty's side during the auditions in which Robert Terwilliger became Krusty's new sidekick,[119] and was at Krusty's "funeral" when he was presumed dead after crashing his private plane into a cliff.[120] In a phone conversation, Marge once asked her, "How can [Krusty] hurt someone who loves him so?" While looking at a framed photo of Krusty, Pennycandy replied, "Oh, Mrs. Simpson, I've wasted my womanhood asking that same question."[117] At a charity bachelor auction for the Springfield Fire Department, she combined her bid with four other women to share the same bachelor.[121] Her only speaking roles are in "Like Father, Like Clown" and "Krusty Gets Kancelled", in which she was voiced by Pamela Hayden. Pennycandy made her most recent appearance in "G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)", dressing Krusty in an anti-PETA fur coat.
Luigi Risotto, voiced by Hank Azaria,[36] is the proprietor of Luigi's, a Springfield Italian restaurant. He is a parody of the "Italian pasta/pizza chef" stereotype (and in fact is on a bowling team called "The Stereotypes" along with Cletus Spuckler, Captain Horatio McCallister, and Groundskeeper Willie), but seems to be aware of his status as a stock character. He is polite to his customers and treats them with respect when they order and then loudly insults and belittles them to his cook Salvador, apparently unaware that they can heard him from the kitchen. In the episode "The Last of the Red Hat Mamas," he reveals that he does not speak Italian ("I speak-a, how you say, fractured English. It's what my parents spoke at the home."). It is hinted that Luigi is an illegal immigrant, even though he tried to run for mayor, telling Springfielders, "I make-a you the good government, just how-a you like it!" The animators copied Luigi's appearance from a chef that was on the front of a pizza box.[122]
Dr. Marvin Monroe is a psychotherapist who first appeared in the first season episode "There's No Disgrace Like Home". Homer pawns the family television in order to afford a session with Monroe for him and his dysfunctional family. The failed attempt at therapy culminates with the Simpsons electroshocking each other endlessly, to the point of causing a blackout. Unable to help the Simpsons, Monroe refunds double what the Simpsons paid, and the Simpsons buy a new TV.
Monroe appears in "Some Enchanted Evening" in which 70% of that episode's original animation had to be redone, although the scenes involving Monroe were mostly untouched, said co-director David Silverman.[123] The script of "Some Enchanted Evening" describes Monroe as "a heavy, chain-smoking, compulsive eater."[124] The original idea behind the character, said Matt Groening, was that he was born Marilyn Monroe and was "very caught up over that", which is why he became a therapist.[125] Monroe's voice is based on psychiatrist David Viscott's.[126] Among Monroe's works is Dr. Marvin Monroe's Guide to Etiquette, which Bart receives as a birthday gift in "Radio Bart".
Since the seventh season, the character Monroe has been retired. This is because voicing the character strained Harry Shearer's throat and, eventually, the voice became too annoying for Groening, which, he acknowledges, is the point.[127][128] The character's retirement was marked by the broadcast of a Dr. Marvin Monroe Memorial Hospital over Lou's walkie-talkie in "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", Part Two.[129] Since then, several references to Monroe being dead have been made: a glimpse of his gravestone in "Alone Again, Natura-diddily", a Dr. Marvin Monroe Memorial Gymnasium seen in "Bye Bye Nerdie", and an interstitial in the "138th Episode Spectacular". However, Monroe is seen alive in the fifteenth season in "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife" to purchase a copy of Marge's novel "The Harpooned Heart", stating simply that he has "...been very sick" when asked about his absence by Marge.
The Old Jewish Man or Crazy Old Man (according to "Krusty Gets Kancelled") is Grampa Simpson and Jasper Beardly's friend. Mayor Quimby once referred to him as "Old Jewish Man"; also, a list of heart recipients in "Homer's Paternity Coot" listed him as "Old Jewish Man".
He speaks with a stereotypical Jewish accent, and curses in Yiddish in one episode. He is apparently friendly with Krusty the Clown and Krusty's father, according to "Simpsons Christmas Stories". He is often seen yelling at people, and as seen in "Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores", owns a store called Zip Boys, a parody of Pep Boys (although the Treehouse of Horror episodes in which the short was featured are not considered Simpsons canon). He once had a brief period of stardom after his act of dancing on a street corner singing "The Old Gray Mare" with his pants down became a hit on television. In "Natural Born Kissers", it was revealed that he worked as a studio executive during the making of Casablanca and suppressed an alternate ending to the film (which Bart and Lisa later found buried outside of the Aztec Theater). He was also responsible for a "Killing Spree Ending" to It's a Wonderful Life. He observes that the quality of studio management has changed over the years.
Manjula Nahasapeemapetilon is the wife of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon and the mother of their eight children. She first appeared as a little girl in Apu's flashback in the seventh season episode "Much Apu About Nothing", in which Apu tells her that he is sorry that their arranged marriage will not happen, before getting on a plane departing for the U.S. to pursue the American Dream. Her first adult appearance is in the ninth season episode The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons.[130] She claims that Fried Green Tomatoes is her favorite book, movie, and food. She has excellent culinary skills, demonstrated by her ability to make a wide variety of dishes using only chickpeas, lentils, and sometimes rice. She is also one of Marge's best and only friends, who often walk their babies together.
In "The Sweetest Apu", Apu has an affair with the Squishee lady. After Homer discovers this, he and Marge confront Apu, who caves under the guilt and vows to apologize to Manjula, who sets him a number of grueling tasks in penance.[130]
Writer Richard Appel had pitched the idea of Apu marrying years before he wrote "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons" for season nine.[131] For that episode, it took several attempts by the character designers to model Manjula because making women look appealing in Matt Groening's drawing style is hard for the animators to do.[132][133] Writer David Cohen named Manjula after a friend of much of the staff.[130] Manjula has been voiced by former Saturday Night Live cast member Jan Hooks[134] and, on two occasions, by Tress MacNeille and Maggie Roswell.
Martha Quimby is the wife of the Mayor of Springfield Joseph Quimby. She wears a pink outfit and a pillbox hat similar to the outfit worn by Jackie Kennedy on the day of the Kennedy assassination. According to Mayor Quimby, the couple met while Martha was working at the "Maison Derrière", a local burlesque house. She first appeared in "Bart Gets Famous",[135] when she walks in on Mayor Quimby in bed with another woman, an event she laughs off when he defends himself with "I didn't do it." She is humiliated when Marge accidentally uncovers her husband's lothario ways in "The Last of the Red Hat Mamas" and kicks Marge and her friends out before they can have tea. In "No Loan Again, Naturally" Quimby is at Homer Simpson's Mardi Gras party when Martha calls him. He tries to tell her he has bad reception and is in another country but then he remembers they took the same car. Martha Quimby is voiced by Maggie Roswell.
Mary Bailey is the Democratic governor of Springfield's state. She is voiced by Maggie Roswell.[8] She ran against Mr. Burns in "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish", winning in a landslide after Mr. Burns spit out a piece of baked Three eyed Fish during a photo-op at the Simpsons' home. Mary Bailey would later appear briefly in the episode "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade" when Bart and Lisa's class visit Capital City. They show Bailey their class projects (designing a new State flag). Mary Bailey wails in disgust after unfurling Lisa's flag. Bart had redesigned it to look like a butt with "Learn to Fart" underneath. She also appears in "The Seven-Beer Snitch" where a prison is built out of a defunct concert hall. She decides to release all the abused prisoners to a garbage barge where they would "bare-knuckle box until one of you emerges as king of your floating hell." She looks nearly identical to Bea Simmons, Abe Simpson's former girlfriend.
Mr. Costington, voiced by Hank Azaria,[77] is the president of Costington's Department Store. He first appeared as "Chairman"[136] in the season nine episode "Trash of the Titans", in which he invented "Love Day", and later in "Homer vs. Dignity". He is one of very few characters on the show who has eyebrows. Costington's catchphrase is "You're fiiired!", delivered while shaking his jowls. In "The Boys of Bummer", he hires Homer with a jowl-shaking "You're hiiired!" Homer has worked for him on three occasions: as a Thanksgiving Day Parade Santa Claus, mattress salesman, and model for top-brand jeans. He also employs the Yes Guy, who is seen working at the store in most of his appearances. In "Kill Gil, Volumes I & II", Costington fires Gil for giving Lisa the Malibu Stacy set he had put aside for his (Costington's) daughter. In "Crook and Ladder", Mr. Costington thanks the volunteer fire department for putting out the fire in his store.
Mrs. Glick is an elderly shut-in for whom Bart did chores in "Three Men and a Comic Book"; he didn't get paid very well, so he started to hate her. She had a brother named Asa, mentioned in the same episode, who died during World War I; he was killed by his own grenade, which he held for too long. Doctor Hibbert once confessed to leaving his car keys inside her. She is occasionally seen in the background of various episodes, often with a toothless laugh. She is a stereotypical lonely old woman, who spends her days "watching her stories." She was originally voiced by Cloris Leachman[137] and later by Tress MacNeille.
Mrs. Muntz is voiced by Tress MacNeille.[22] She is Nelson Muntz's mother. Nelson receives his trademark laugh from her. Early on in the series, Nelson would often mention his parents, and it was often implied that Nelson's mother does not care for him. In "A Milhouse Divided", Nelson tells Milhouse that his mom is addicted to cough drops, which is why his father left the family (even though it was revealed in "Lisa's Date with Density" that Nelson lives alone and hasn't let anyone else in his house because his father went insane and in "Bart the Mother," it's revealed that Nelson's parents still live together, despite that Nelson's father is in jail and that his mom "has bigger problems"). In "Bart Star", it's revealed that Mrs. Muntz works at Hooters (and a later episode revealed that she got fired for gaining weight). She owns a dilapidated house and is depicted as a jailbird, a prostitute, a stripper, or something similar. (In "Marge in Chains", when Marge is in prison, Nelson says to Bart: "Ha-ha! Your mom's a jailbird." Bart replies: "So's yours.") She was first heard (but not seen) in the Season 10 episode "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken" when Nelson goes to break curfew and she yells, "We're out of Skoal!"
In "'Tis the Fifteenth Season", she appears, telling Nelson that his father simply did not like him, and he left with her golden tooth. Nelson's mother was fully introduced in "Sleeping with the Enemy", after years of being mentioned. A loud, high-pitched contemptuous woman, she neglects Nelson. She implies she misses Nelson's father. At the end of the episode, the three Muntzes reunite, and she receives a new job as Lady Macbeth, with "the third director she slept with". Since then, she is often seen around in Springfield. Curiously, in Season 18's "The Haw-Hawed Couple", she appears with brown hair. As revealed in "Dial 'N' for Nerder", Nelson even refers to her as Mrs. Muntz. In "Any Given Sundance", Nelson creates a film about his dysfunctional relationship with her and how her personal vices are getting in the way of being a mother to her son. In "O Brother, Where Bart Thou?", it is revealed that Nelson's mother tried to trick Charles Barkley into having a baby with him. She also appeared in The Simpsons Movie.
Ms. Albright is voiced by Tress MacNeille.[8] She is the First Church of Springfield Sunday school teacher. She speaks with a soft Southern accent. She appears to be good friends with Helen Lovejoy. She is occasionally seen in the background of various episodes as well as in church scenes (such as in “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star”).
The Old Barber[138] originated in one of the Tracey Ullman shorts, "Bart's Haircut".[139] In the short, he cuts Bart's hair not to his liking and Bart tries several ways to hide it. Dan Castellaneta, voiced the Old Barber in that short and in subsequent episodes in the series, based the voice on comedian Bob Elliott's.[140]
The Old Barber later appears in The Simpsons in "Simpson and Delilah" cutting Homer's hair.[141] In "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk", Homer daydreamed spending the $25 he earned from selling his stock on a haircut from the Old Barber. In "Radio Bart", the Old Barber shaves Bart's hair for his birthday, and in "22 Short Films About Springfield", he cuts gum out of Lisa's hair. The Old Barber made his last appearance in the twelfth season episode "Lisa the Tree Hugger", paying Bart for his work with hair, which scared Bart. He was voiced by Harry Shearer in that episode.[142] David Silverman had to create a model sheet of the Old Barber for Jim Reardon, who directed "22 Short Films about Springfield." Before then, there was no model sheet for the character.[143]
Patches and Poor Violet are two of Springfield's orphans, voiced by Pamela Hayden and Tress MacNeille, respectively. Introduced in “Miracle on Evergreen Terrace,” Patches gives the dollar they were saving to Bart, which was their vitamin money. They have since had cameos in “I'm Goin' to Praiseland” and “Simple Simpson,” but are seen in many other episodes. Poor Violet often has a cough, while Patches seems to vaguely resemble Tiny Tim from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Their skin color is not the “healthy” yellow of the Simpson family, but rather a more sallow, sickly tone.
Princess Kashmir, real name "Shauna Tifton" (and occasionally known as "April Flowers" when performing at strip clubs), is an exotic dancer. She was introduced in the first season episode "Homer's Night Out".[135] She is voiced by Maggie Roswell.[8] Bart, using a toy spycam at a restaurant, captures an image of a drunk Homer cavorting with the belly-dancer at a bachelor party. The incriminating photo is distributed all over town, making Homer famous, but also getting him in trouble with his boss at work (who really wants his advice on how to attract women) and threatening his marriage to Marge (who saw the photo during an exercise class). After a night at Barney Gumble's house, Homer comes home and apologizes to Marge, but, before Marge can fully forgive him, she makes Homer take Bart to find Princess Kashmir and apologize in front of Bart for his lewd behavior (as Marge fears that the picture and the infamy behind it will make Bart think it's okay to treat women like sex objects instead of human beings).
Princess Kashmir has appeared as a background character in the episodes after her role in "Homer's Night Out". She has dated Apu on the season three episode "Lisa's Pony", danced in Moe's Tavern on two occasions ("Flaming Moe's" and "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment"), was a performer at the Maison Derrière on "Bart After Dark" (which had Homer once again ogling her and Bart seeing Homer ogle Princess Kashmir), and was in two couch gags (the couch gag for "Marge vs. The Monorail" where The Simpsons sit on the couch, followed by three rows of secondary characters and the couch gag for "Bart After Dark" where the living room is a Simpson-style remake of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album). Kashmir/Tifton has also appeared on the game show Springfield Squares on the season four episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled" and the season eleven episode "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder." On season three's "Radio Bart," she was one of the people singing "We're Sending Our Love Down the Well." She also appeared as a member of the bowling team The Homewreckers seen in "Team Homer" which included Jacques Brunswick, Lurleen Lumpkin, and Mindy Simmons (all four of whom have done something to spell doom for Homer and Marge's marriage).
Harlan Dondelinger was Springfield High School's principal, first seen in the episode "The Way We Was", a flashback to Homer and Marge's senior year in high school. He later appeared in the episode "The Front" at Homer and Marge's high school reunion and in "Half-Decent Proposal" when Artie Ziff, Marge's high school prom date, recreated their prom. Dondelinger made his most recent appearance in the twentieth season episode "Take My Life, Please".
Hyman Krustofski is the father of Krusty the Clown. He first appeared in the third season episode "Like Father, Like Clown".[144] In this episode, in season fifteen's "Today I Am a Clown", and season twenty-one's "Once Upon a Time in Springfield" he is voiced by comedian Jackie Mason (because in the three episodes, he was a major character, while in cameo speaking appearances, he is voiced by Dan Castellaneta).
In "Like Father, Like Clown", Rabbi Krustofski had been estranged from his son for several years. He disowned Krusty when the young man chose to become a clown when Krustofski had wanted him to follow the family tradition of becoming a rabbi. Years later, after much exchanging of Talmud passages between Bart Simpson and Rabbi Krustofski, Bart read the Rabbi a quote from Sammy Davis, Jr. admiring the Jews, which finally convinced Rabbi Krustofski to accept his son for his career in entertainment. He and Krusty reunited on the air of Krusty's show. The episode is a parody of the film The Jazz Singer. The parody was writer Jay Kogen's idea.[145] He thought it would be a funny parallel—and a chance to do a lot of easy jokes—if it were a clown instead of a singer who gets rejected by his father.[146] The character's casting was fitting in that the real-life Mason, like Krusty, also came from a family of rabbis but rejected his destiny in order to become a comedian.
Jackie Mason won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his performance as Krustofsky in "Like Father, Like Clown" in 1992.[147] The Phoenix named Mason one of the show's 20 best guest stars.[148]
The Rich Texan is voiced by Dan Castellaneta.[36] He is a stereotypical rich, callous but gregarious business owner. He is an active member of the Springfield Republican Party and speaks with a heavy Texas drawl. He is based on the Texan oil tycoon character from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. In the fifth season episode “$pringfield” (the Rich Texan's debut, though a similar character once appeared in the season two episode "Old Money"), Homer addresses the Rich Texan as Senator, although this was never again referenced. Rich Texan sports a bolo tie and a white cowboy hat. He is also obsessive-compulsive, as revealed in "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story". He has stated in "Marge's Son Poisoning" that he enjoys moonlight walks on the beach; in the same episode he held Homer and Moe at gunpoint while forcing them to walk along with him after being tricked by the two. He is well known for pulling out a pair of revolvers and firing them into the air while yelling "Yee Haw!" whenever he is happy or excited, and once in "Pray Anything" he went over the top and lost his mind after doing something generous for Ned Flanders. He has a gay grandson, as revealed in "Million Dollar Abie" and a daughter named Paris Texan (who looks and acts like hotel heiress Paris Hilton, and whose name is a play on Paris, Texas) according to "Homerazzi". In "Midnight Towboy", he shot a man dressed as Santa Claus because of his pogonophobia (fear of facial hair, particularly mustaches and beards). In the episode "Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Three Times", it is revealed that the Rich Texan is originally from Connecticut, despite his brash, stereotypically Southern persona (in an oblique reference to George W. Bush, who displays a Texan persona despite being from New England).
Richard is a gray-haired student at Springfield Elementary School and is one of Bart's good friends. He is first seen in "Bart the Genius". He is usually seen with Lewis and has a leather jacket and a shirt with a small diamond embroidered on the center. As one of the most minor characters in the show, Richard appears frequently in scenes involving the Springfield children, and in the early seasons was often involved with mischief. Because he rarely speaks, he has no specific voice actor assigned to him. Therefore, he's been voiced over the course of the series by Nancy Cartwright, Jo Ann Harris, Pamela Hayden, and Maggie Roswell. In early seasons he was commonly seen hanging out with Bart, Lewis, and Milhouse, but in recent years he is only seen in the classroom and in crowd scenes. He had a brief speaking part in "The Haw-Hawed Couple", in which he was voiced by Pamela Hayden. His hair color changes from black to gray, to brown, and then to blue throughout the course of the show. However, in Simpsons Comics, his hair always appears gray. In "How the Test Was Won" he was voiced by Nancy Cartwright and was singing with Martin, Milhouse and Lewis.
Ruth Powers is the Simpsons' next-door neighbor, introduced when she moves to their neighborhood in the episode "New Kid on the Block". She is divorced and has a daughter, Laura Powers. According to "New Kid on the Block", Ruth divorced her husband because his career got in the way with his family life, but in "Marge on the Lam", Ruth tells Marge that all her husband ever did was "eat, sleep, and drink beer" and never gave her money for child support (which led to Ruth stealing her husband's convertible). She is usually seen as a background character, sometimes in events that occurred even before she moved next door (such as the baby shower for Maggie in "And Maggie Makes Three"). She even continues to be a background character despite her later imprisonment. She nearly always wears a red headscarf (she is seen wearing a headband in "Mayored to the Mob"). In the episode "The Cartridge Family" she was part of the NRA. She was voiced by Pamela Reed in her first two speaking appearances.
The episode "Marge on the Lam" features Ruth and Marge going on the run from the law in a stolen convertible, a parody of Thelma & Louise. Ruth makes an appearance in the episode "Strong Arms of the Ma", as a huge female bodybuilder, advising Marge (who is taking up weightlifting) to use steroids. She reveals during her time in prison, she was "Miss Mexican Mafia". In The Simpsons Movie, she is seen in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting along with Barney Gumble, but she retained her normal non-muscled form.
David Mirkin said that Pamela Reed would always give great performances and that he does not know why they did not use her more.[149]
Sam and Larry, also known as "Barfly #1" and "Barfly #2", are the two barflies usually seen at Moe's Tavern. Their first appearance is in "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". Virtually nothing is known about them, except that Sam always wears a cap and glasses and Larry has an orange jacket and a balding head and either looks extremely drunk or very depressed. Sam has spoken only a few times throughout the series; on the season three episode "Lisa the Greek", Sam asks Homer who he bet on during the Super Bowl. Larry hasn't spoken, except for in fantasy sequences (i.e., the "Christmas in Juvenile Hall" on "Marge Be Not Proud" where Larry [or a man who resembles him] says, "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" after Bart gets a soiled wig and the fantasy sequence on "Simpson Tide" where Apu thinks of his cigarette machine and Larry says, "This stupid machine took my money!"). Sam was last seen in "Worst Episode Ever" getting shot by Moe for paying in Sacagawea dollars.
Sanjay Nahasapeemapetilon (Bengali) is voiced by Harry Shearer[22] and is Apu Nahasapeemapetilon's younger brother and uncle of Apu's eight children. He has a daughter named Pahusacheta and a son named Jamshed. Sanjay has a wife, as he asked Apu to promise not to sleep with her (Apu's response to this request was a cheery "I promise nothing!"). Sanjay was shown as Apu's business partner at the Kwik-E-Mart in the earlier episodes, but hasn't been seen since season nine's "Lisa the Simpson".
Sarah Wiggum (née Kanickee) is voiced by Pamela Hayden.[22] She is the wife of Clancy Wiggum and mother of Ralph Wiggum. She first appeared in the fourth season episode "Duffless".[150] Like Bernice Hibbert and Martha Quimby, she is one of the less notable characters who hardly ever speaks; however in The Simpsons Game she only ever says "Clancy!", whether hit or in Marge's mob. In the episode, "A Star Is Born-Again", at the Jellyfish Dance, Clancy mentions she was more beautiful at that moment than the day he arrested her, to which she giggles in reply. He then mentions he only planted the crystal meth on her so she would "notice" him. Sarah (according to Clancy) is his "home force" and he affectionately calls her "Poppin' Fresh". In the episode, "Grade School Confidential", she immediately dials the authorities to Clancy's command. Ralph apparently gets his appearance from her, as the two look very similar. In "Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind", it is revealed that Marge does not like Sarah Wiggum (for reasons unknown) and purposely did not tell Chief Wiggum about Homer's boat party because Chief Wiggum would have told Sarah about it. Despite this in "The Great Wife Hope" she is seen with Marge as part of a group of concerned women that protest against mixed martial arts (MMA) in Springfield. In "Chief of Hearts" Sarah is in the hospital when Chief Wiggum is shot, crying but does not speak.
Horatio McCallister, more commonly known as "The Sea Captain", is voiced by Hank Azaria.[18] Azaria modelled the voice on actor Robert Newton, who played pirates in several movies.[151] The writers' "love of sea talk" is what inspired them to invent the Sea Captain.[152] His character is based on the stereotype of sailors and pirates, including the stereotypical pirate catchphrase, "Yarr!" He is a member of the Springfield Alcoholics Anonymous and has a peg leg in which he keeps liquor. In "The Bart of War" he uses his wooden leg to have a vicious sword fight with Sideshow Mel's bone.[89]
As an entrepreneur, McCallister is equally incompetent. On several occasions, he acknowledges his incompetence with a depressed: "Yarr, I don't know what I'm doin'." His restaurant, The Frying Dutchman, is a failing business venture that does not generate enough income to support its owner. In the episode "Lisa Gets an "A"", the captain appears as a penniless bum. When seeing Homer and Marge walking Homer's pet lobster at the beach, he approaches them and claims that he runs a "small academy for lobsters". However, when Marge refuses to send the lobster away to "some snobby boarding school", McCallister asks her for spare change instead. He attacked a giant squid in "Homer's Barbershop Quartet", looking for gold he believed was in its belly. He once also proposed to Mr. Burns in the episode “$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)” an expedition around the Cape Horn, "and return with spices and silk, the likes of which ye have never seen." When Burns angrily reminds him that this was a casino that he's building, he replied, "Arr...can you give me five minutes?" In “Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?” the Frying Dutchman (as well as all the other restaurants in Springfield) briefly enjoyed an upswing in their fortunes because of the universally positive reviews of new Springfield Shopper food critic Homer Simpson, but when Homer listens a little too well to colleagues who criticize his methods, in the words of Captain McCallister, "His bad reviews are sinkin' our businesses." The Frying Dutchman is in the same episode revealed to be (one of many) local structures that is potentially hazardous to the health of patrons and operators, as the Sea Captain confesses that in his front window, he prominently displayed a negative review of his restaurant, courtesy of Homer, because "It covered up the ‘D’ from the health inspector."
His only main roles were in episodes "New Kid on the Block" and in "The Wettest Stories Ever Told". In the former, Homer sues his restaurant The Frying Dutchman because they kicked him out at the restaurant's closing time before Homer had eaten all he could eat. In the latter, he cannot bring the Simpsons their food for numerous reasons like the "chef having problems with tonight's special", which was an octopus. He later offers to bring them food from another restaurant; Marge asks if he could bring food from Red Lobster but he says "yar, not that good a restaurant". He then ignores the family while playing pickup basketball games with the restaurant's staff. His rare appearances are referenced in The Simpsons Game, where The Sea Captain tells Bart and Lisa "I almost never appear this much in the series", before hurriedly adding "of events that constitute your lives" when the children seem confused by his statement. He also made an appearance in The Simpsons Movie where his house turned out to be a boat, which he sailed away to avoid hearing Lisa's environmentalist lectures.
In "I'm with Cupid" it is hinted Captain McCallister has homosexual tendencies for living so much time on the sea with only seamen, but is attempting to resist it. In "Bart's Inner Child" he takes pictures of Selma and Patty naked, and in "A Star Is Born-Again" he says that he "does not do that sort of thing ... on land". In "The Mansion Family" McCallister marries a man to a cow in international waters on Mr. Burns' yacht. In "Faith Off", it is said that he actually suffers from chronic depression, and seeks the help of Bart.
Sherri and Terri, voiced by Russi Taylor, are identical twins with long purple hair and pale skin. They perpetually reinforce their identities as twins, with things such as making up their own 'twin' language. They are in the same class as Bart at Springfield Elementary School. In "Homer's Odyssey" it is revealed that their father is Homer's supervisor at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. He fires Homer for causing an accident while waving to Bart from a cart during a school tour of the plant. Homer, however, had the last laugh when he was promoted above the twins' father to safety inspector. Their mother is shown in "Bart Sells His Soul" and looks just like her daughters. Sherri is two seconds older than Terri;[153] they share their birthday with Rod Flanders.
The girls themselves dress identically, reinforcing their "twin-ness". They are quite snobbish, and never miss an opportunity to berate Bart. Bart appears to have a crush on one of them, as admitted in "Hungry, Hungry Homer". Sherri referred to Bart as an ugly, smelly dork, but was persuaded by Homer to go on a date with Bart after he told her that she could not do much better. One of the twins stated that her sister had a crush on Bart in "Bart Star". Another time, in "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder", Homer openly addressed Terri as "the girl Bart has a crush on". In The Way We Weren't, they introduce a cousin who has a crush on Bart.
In the flash-forward episode Future-Drama, Sherri and Terri were both impregnated by Nelson Muntz, both bearing their own set of identical male twins. Nelson abandoned them almost immediately after.
Snake Jailbird is voiced by Hank Azaria.[18] He is Springfield's resident recidivist felon, always getting arrested but rarely appearing to stay in jail. He speaks with a "Valley Boy" accent. He is partial to fast cars and fast women, and has a knack for reckless abandon. He had a car called Li'l Bandit, which Homer won at a police auction (as seen in Realty Bites).
Snake first appeared in the season two episode "The War of the Simpsons" as one of the partygoers during Bart and Lisa's wild house party. His name was first mentioned by Sideshow Bob in "Black Widower" when Sideshow Bob was saying goodbye to his prison friends after being granted parole. The character was originally named Jailbird. The animators assigned him to the role of Snake in season three's "Black Widower" and the character has gone by that name ever since.[154] Whenever Snake appears in prison, his prison number is always 7F20, the production code of the episode in which he first appeared.[97] Hank Azaria's voice for Snake was based on a roommate he had while in college.[91]
In the episode "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story", Lisa tells a story in which Snake refers to himself as Professor Jailbird, an Indiana Jones-like archeologist who turned to robbing convenience stores as revenge for the theft of valuable coins he had excavated. Snake attended Princeton University, and turned to a life of crime during his year off. Snake also apparently attended Middlebury College, as he robs Moe's Tavern to pay off his student loans and is shown wearing a Middlebury shirt in "22 Short Films About Springfield". He also played lacrosse at Ball State University, according to Treehouse of Horror IX[155], though these episodes are considered non-canon. He has a casually hostile relationship with Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, whose convenience store he robs so frequently that Apu considers the continual robberies perfectly normal. He is often used as a cutaway foil for Apu; often, when Apu mentions his absence from the Kwik-E-Mart, Snake is shown robbing it, with various snide remarks. In the episode "Marge in Chains", he literally "shoplifts", stealing the entire Kwik-E-Mart shop via a flat-bed truck, declaring "I'm taking this baby to Mexico!". In "Yokel Chords", he and Apu are seen in a psychiatrist's office, bickering about Snake's robberies and shootings in the manner of an unhappily married couple.
Snake has a son named Jeremy, who looks just like him (who was introduced in "Pygmoelian") and likes to steal bicycles, a trait that Snake encourages. Unlike his father, Jeremy is rather timid as seen in The Seemingly Never-Ending Story. Snake has another child on the way; however, it has been implied he and the mother--Gloria--are no longer an item in the episode "Homer and Lisa Exchange Crosswords". In the episode "Wedding For Disaster" Snake and Gloria are seen getting married at city hall. In the episode, "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes", he was seen with the pregnant Gloria driving a car.
Squeaky Voiced Teen, aka Pimple-Faced Teen, real name Jeremy Freedman (voiced by Dan Castellaneta),[22] is one of few teenagers on the show and is perpetually trapped in a series of dead-end jobs, usually working at Krusty Burger (as a cashier or, in the case of "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy", a supervisor in charge of training new employees), the grocery store (as a bagboy, as seen in "Selma's Choice" and "Simpson Safari"), or at a movie theater (as either the ticket master, concession stand clerk, or usher). The Squeaky Voiced Teen has acne vulgaris, and his voice is in the process of breaking. The Squeaky Voiced Teen's personality is shy, pathetic, miserable, and awkward. He is often concerned about others and usually reports them to his boss; however, when he very rarely is the boss himself, he seizes opportunity and becomes stubborn and evil.
The Squeaky Voiced Teen has appeared in two couch gags: one for the season 12 episode "Worst Episode Ever" where, as a valet, he pushes a couch in for The Simpsons to sit on, but walks off angrily when he does not get a tip, and again in "The Lastest Gun in the West" where he makes out with a blond teenage girl on the couch before The Simpsons come in and scare the two of them. In "Fraudcast News" he attempts suicide because FOX cancelled Futurama. In "Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays", he loses his squeaky voice to "become a man," after Lindsey Naegle suggests that the adults "kill every child...-friendly thing in town." Seymour Skinner refers to the character as "Jeremy" in a deleted scene on The Complete Fifth Season DVD. In "The Bart of War", he is seen fighting the Sarcastic Middle-Aged Clerk character (another character with a series of dead-end jobs).[89] He appears on the 10th season DVD box on both the front and side, as well as the plastic cover for the limited edition Bart Simpson head box. In the episode "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy" the teen is referred to as 'Old Man Peterson' and 'Mr. Peterson' by Grampa while working for him, and is called 'Mr. Freedman' in G.I. (Annoyed Grunt). Beginning with Team Homer, it is revealed that the Squeaky-Voiced Teen's mother is Lunchlady Doris (who disowns him after refusing to give her a lane on League Night).
Castellaneta lifted his voice for the character from actor Richard Crenna's as Walter Denton in the sitcom Our Miss Brooks.[156] Several different models of Squeaky-Voiced Teen have been used throughout the series, featuring counterparts in Mexico, Australia and England. Steven Dean Moore uses them all as waiters at the ice cream parlor the Simpsons eat at in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge".[157] Matt Groening called Squeaky-Voiced Teen his second favorite "unnamed" character after Comic Book Guy, whose name was finally revealed to be "Jeff Albertson" in the episode "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass".[158]
Üter, (pronounced OO-ter) voiced by Russi Taylor, is an overweight German foreign exchange student with a sweet tooth, and odd habits such as offering his already-licked lollipops to others as a sign of friendship, and eating marzipan candies (called Joy Joy) fortified with iodine. He was left behind on the Civil War field trip, according to the season six episode "The PTA Disbands". His subsequent disappearance from the show for a significant period of time has become a running joke. In "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?" his parents asked Skinner where their missing son was, and in "24 Minutes" he is seen stuck in a cobweb in the school air vents. It is revealed in the episode "Jazzy and the Pussycats" that he can play the trumpet quite well. He even made a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory diorama, but he eats it before it can be marked in "Lisa's Rival". In the German dub of the show, Üter is an exchange student from Switzerland. His uncle is a proud owner of a bubblegum-factory in Düsseldorf according to the season seven episode, "22 Short Films About Springfield" (In the German dub of this episode, the line was changed to "...a chocolate factory in Basel").
Wendell Borton is a perpetually nauseated and extremely pale boy with worried eyes and curly hair, who first appeared in Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire. His first speaking appearance was in Homer's Odyssey. He makes frequent appearances at the School Nurse's Office at Springfield Elementary School. He is a classmate of Bart Simpson, though he is most seen with classmates Richard and Lewis, and voted for Martin Prince, thus making Bart lose in the class election, and ensuring Martin's victory. He becomes especially sick on field trips, with a tendency to become even paler than usual. He once died in a freak accident with a pencil in a Treehouse of Horror episode (which are not canonical to the main series). He is one of the few characters (like Bart, Lisa, & Maggie) whose hair is the same color as his skin. Although a friendship with Bart is hinted (Bart choosing to say his apparent last words to him in Das Bus), Wendell is commonly mistaken for Lewis, despite the difference in their skin color.
Throughout the series, he has been voiced by Jo Ann Harris, Pamela Hayden, Nancy Cartwright, and Russi Taylor. This is because he rarely speaks and thus has no specific voice actor.
The Winfields were an elderly couple who lived next door to the Simpson family and often talk about how crude and uncivilized the family is. They first appeared in the season one episode "Homer's Odyssey", cracking jokes about Homer (who is lugging a rock chained to him to a bridge so he can commit suicide) "taking his rock out for a walk." The couple eventually moved away to Florida in the season four episode "New Kid on the Block" and haven't been seen since. The couple appeared in the season two episodes "Simpson and Delilah" and "Bart's Dog Gets an F", in which the wife is revealed to be named Sylvia. She also had a small speaking role in the Season 3 episode Separate Vocations when she mistakenly thinks Bart is being arrested by the Springfield police. The couple also appear in the pre-2009 opening credits of The Simpsons during the segment where Marge and Maggie pass many characters while driving home. Matt Groening named the Winfields after friends of his.[159]
Wiseguy is voiced by Hank Azaria.[77] He first appeared as the chauffeur in the second season in "The Way We Was", but he has held numerous other jobs in the series.[160] Simpsons sound editor Bob Beecher commented on alt.tv.simpsons that, "He doesn't have one name. His character's name always fits the scene so he's gone by many names, 'Clerk', 'Shopkeeper', etc. But in the script the direction given to the voice is 'Wiseguy Voice'. So call him 'Wiseguy' if you want."[161] Azaria does a Charles Bronson-impression for the voice.[91] In "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious", Al Jean and Mike Reiss had Azaria voice a Simpsonized Charles Bronson as a reference to this.[162] Wiseguy has been dubbed "The Sarcastic Middle-Aged Man" by the show's Internet fans.[163] In "Day of the Jackanapes", Sideshow Bob calls Wiseguy by the name "Raphael".[164]
A Wiseguy action figure, under the name "Sarcastic Man", was released in September 2003 in the World of Springfield series.[165]
The Frank Nelson Type,[166] also known as "The Yes Guy", is voiced by Dan Castellaneta.[77] He first appeared in season ten's episode "Mayored to the Mob" as the maître d΄ at the Springfield Dinner Theater. He is a character known for bellowing "Yeeeees?!" in a falling, then rising intonation, and appears to be highly eccentric in both his speech and appearance. In his first appearance, Homer asks why his voice is always stretched, and the Yes Guy replies by saying "I had a stroooooke".[167] He also appears in "Homer vs. Dignity". He works at Costington's department store,[168] works as juror number twelve of the Springfield Panel of Jury,[169] and as an executioner at the Springfield Penitentiary.[52] Homer refers to him as "that jerk who always goes Yessss!"[170] A Brazilian version of him was seen in "Blame It on Lisa", uttering "Siiiiim?!" meaning Yes in Portuguese. He is a tribute to the recurring Frank Nelson character from The Jack Benny Program, I Love Lucy, and Sanford and Son, whose trademark greeting in all his characters was a loud, drawn-out "Yeeeees?!" Inexplicably, the original character could always be found working behind the service counter of whatever shop Benny or Fred Sanford might be patronizing, and his Simpsonian counterpart is similar.
| The Simpson family and relatives | |
|---|---|
| Homer Simpson · Marge Simpson · Bart Simpson · Lisa Simpson · Maggie Simpson Abraham Simpson · Patty Bouvier · Selma Bouvier · Mona Simpson · Santa's Little Helper · Snowball |
|
| Around Springfield | |
| Kent Brockman · Comic Book Guy · Ned Flanders · Professor Frink · Barney Gumble · Dr. Julius Hibbert · Lionel Hutz · Itchy and Scratchy · Krusty the Clown · Reverend Lovejoy · Troy McClure · Hans Moleman · Apu Nahasapeemapetilon · Mayor Quimby · Dr. Nick Riviera · Cletus Spuckler · Moe Szyslak · Chief Wiggum | |
| Springfield Elementary School faculty, staff, and students | |
| Seymour Skinner · Edna Krabappel · Otto Mann · Groundskeeper Willie · Nelson Muntz · Martin Prince · Milhouse Van Houten · Ralph Wiggum | |
| Springfield Nuclear Power Plant | Villains |
| Montgomery Burns · Carl Carlson · Lenny Leonard · Waylon Smithers | Sideshow Bob · Kang and Kodos · Fat Tony |
| Families | Miscellaneous |
| Simpson family · Flanders family · Van Houten family | Recurring characters · Animals · Celebrities · Fictional characters · One-time characters · Guest stars |