Chief Wiggum

The Simpsons character
Clancy Wiggum
Gender	Male
Job	Police Chief of Springfield
Relatives	Wife: Sarah Son: Ralph Father: Iggy Cousin: Mark[1]
Voice actor	Hank Azaria
First appearance
The Simpsons	"Homer's Odyssey"

Chief Clancy Wiggum is a fictional character from the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Hank Azaria. He is the chief of police in the show's setting of Springfield. He is the father of Ralph Wiggum and the husband of Sarah Wiggum.

The character's comedic value relies heavily on his incompetence and irresponsibility as a police officer, and his laziness and gluttony. Chief Wiggum's more responsible fellow officers Eddie and Lou play the straight men to his shenanigans.

Biography

Chief Wiggum was born in Ireland and moved to Springfield at an early age.^[2] In the episode "Mother Simpson", a teenaged Wiggum was a trainee security guard at Springfield University when Homer's mother Mona sabotaged the University's laboratory, which Mr. Burns was using for biological weapons. Antibiotics used to kill the weapons cured Wiggum's asthma, allowing him to join the police force.

Many episodes have dealt with the back story of how Wiggum, despite his incompetences, occupies such a high role in the police force. As with those of most supporting characters on the show, they are jokes for one episode and contradict each other. Wiggum was temporarily promoted to Commissioner of Police for Springfield's state in the 2005 episode "Pranksta Rap".

Chief Wiggum is the father of Ralph Wiggum, whom he loves and is patient of, but he sometimes does not understand his son's eccentricities.

Positive qualities

He does on occasion even help various other characters, such as helping Homer find his wife in "Marge on the Lam", helping Lisa Simpson find Mr. Burns' assailant in "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" as well as helping backing her up in a school protest on one occasion in "The President Wore Pearls", and arriving just in time during a crucial moment such as the various times Sideshow Bob has attempted to kill Bart Simpson. Perhaps the best example of this is the episode "Mother Simpson", where it is implied that he leads the FBI astray in their search for Mona Simpson, allowing her to escape in gratitude for curing his asthma. Although Wiggum can often antagonize others as well, it is heavily implied that it is not out of malice but merely because he is doing his job or because he is ignorant of the situation.

Incompetence

Wiggum's descriptions of suspects, evidence and location is often very poor. He also has been known to arrest people impulsively, disregarding their involvement of a determined situation or crime, evident in "Brother from Another Series" where he arrested Sideshow Bob by the incidents of the episode, despite Bart and Lisa (the main witnesses) confirming his innocence, and in "The Frying Game" where he gleefully condemns Homer and Marge to death for murder without using a lie detector or making a DNA examination.

Wiggum also often fails to comply with his police duties in a real emergency, and sometimes does not take emergency calls seriously. Occasionally, he turns off his receiver when he is not in the mood to fight crime, or makes an excuse that he is too busy to help and it is then shown that the police are taking part in a trivial activity. He has demonstrated a lack of respect for firearms safety, having sold parts of his service pistol after losing his job ("Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment") and eaten donuts off its barrel (The Simpsons Movie).

Despite often not being bothered to do his work, Wiggum is emotionally attached to his occupation and his colleagues. On the few occasions where Wiggum loses his commission, he breaks down shockingly fast (as seen in "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge"), even becoming a mugger (as seen in "Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment"). Once in a while, Wiggum will have an argument with his fellow officers, which often end in dramatic, tearful moments of reconciliation. On one occasion, Lou had thought about leaving the force to pursue a career in home security, which leaves Wiggum nearly a tearful mess.

Creation

His surname "Wiggum" is Matt Groening's mother's maiden name.^[3] As "a conscious pun", Wiggum was designed to look like a pig.^[4] Hank Azaria first based his voice for Wiggum on David Brinkley, but it was too slow and he switched it to an Edward G. Robinson impression.^[4]

Hank Azaria

In the Italian version of the show, his name is changed to Clancy Winchester, and he speaks with a thick Neapolitan accent.

References

1. ↑ "The Italian Bob"
2. ↑ See "In the Name of the Grandfather"
3. ↑ Joseph Rose (2007-08-03). "The real people behind Homer Simpson and family". The Oregonian. Retrieved 2008-01-19. 
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Joe Rhodes (2000-10-21). "Flash! 24 Simpsons Stars Reveal Themselves". TV Guide. 

External links

• Chief Wiggum at the Internet Movie Database