Bart Simpson

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Template:Simpsons character Bartholomew Jo-Jo Simpson, better known as Bart, is a fictional character featured in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is the eldest child and only son of Homer and Marge Simpson, and the brother of Lisa and Maggie. Along with his father Homer, Bart is arguably the most well-known and recognizable character on the long running animated series. He is voiced by Nancy Cartwright.

According to The Simpsons Uncensored Family Album, his "birthday" is April Fool's Day. According to the show's chronology, Bart was born in 1982 as he is two years and 38 days older than Lisa, who was born during the 1984 Summer Olympics. However, in "I Married Marge", it was revealed that Bart was conceived in June 1980 (Homer and Marge had just seen The Empire Strikes Back), which would make his birthday April 1 1981. The year is probably not consistent as Bart is always described as being 10 years old. Indeed, Krusty expresses surprise when Bart tells him he voted for him (twice) for Congress: "But you're only ten."

Bart's interests include skateboarding, comic books (especially Radioactive Man), terrorizing Lisa, video games, helping Lisa solve various problems (e.g, reuniting Krusty with his estranged father), mooning unsuspecting victims, and prank calling Moe Szyslak at his tavern. Like other characters, Bart is left-handed (however, he could be ambidextrous for he wears a watch on his left hand and has been occasionally shown to write with his right hand).

Contents

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Profile

He is a self-proclaimed underachiever who begins each show in detention writing lines on the blackboard. He is pretty much distracted by anything, even, strangely enough, algebraic equations. His penchant for shocking people began before he was born: Bart "mooned" Dr. Hibbert while he performed a sonogram on Marge. He is considerably undermotivated and takes great joy in disrupting the routine at Springfield Elementary, yet his pranks are often elaborately complex, while his actions and speech frequently show considerable mental agility, street-smarts, and understanding, so he cannot be called "stupid" per se. Despite this, however, he seems to have trouble understanding even the simplest things, such as the word "irony" and what the equator is. The fact that he is the son of Homer and shares many of the same mannerisms and behaviors may account for his antics. Homer even described Bart as "a cooler, in-your-face version" of himself. There are other moments however, where it is hinted that Bart represses a startling intelligence. His inability to channel this hidden intellect at will is most-likely attributed to the Simpson gene. See below for details on this.

It had been also suspected for a long time by viewers that Bart had ADD(Attention Deficit Disorder) even before the revealing of the Simpson gene, as Bart exhibited many of the traits of a child afflicted with ADD. His extremely quick mentality, but inability to be able to keep his attention set on menial work at school such as in the episode Bart Gets an F were big hints. It was later confirmed in the episode Brother's Little Helper that Bart is indeed aflicted with ADD. This would explain a bit of his behavior as well.

A trademark of Bart, is that in the intro to every episode Bart usually writes standards on a chalkboard as punishment. The standards change with every episode. Template:See Bart caused a diplomatic incident between the United States and Australia in "Bart vs. Australia" when he placed a very long collect call to an Australian boy to find out in which direction toilets flush in the southern hemisphere. (This is an oversimplification of that phenomenon, which amusingly popularized the legend even more.)

Although he gets into endless trouble and can be rather mean or even shallow and selfish, Bart also exhibits many qualities of high integrity. He has on a few occasions, helped the love life of his school Principal Seymour Skinner and his teacher Edna Krabappel despite the fact he often terrorizes them. Although he hates his school, he has also aided in various efforts to keep it open during times where it is dangerously close to being closed or actually is. He seems moderately popular at school, but he often befriends outcasts like his best friends Milhouse Van Houten and Ralph Wiggum. One great example of his quasi sense of honor is in the episode This Little Wiggy where Bart stands up for Ralph at the cost of peer popularity. Bart even makes friends of former adversaries such as Nelson Muntz and Martin Prince. Although they have their animosity, Muntz has often helped out Bart with his various schemes, as well as when they fail. Despite his tough attitude, Bart is also a total softie towards his mother.

Perhaps his greatest friendship and example of his better qualities is his relationship with his sister Lisa. Although they often butt heads in sibling rivalry, the two have come to each other's aid countless times and often think on the same plane of thought when it comes to mutual benefit. Many times when Lisa has been left alone in her endeavors, she's found Bart to be her most trustworthy as well as only ally. In the episode Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore, when Bart's best friend temporarily moves away, his friendship with Lisa is explored greatly. Bart isn't afraid to show that he considers Lisa his best friend and she the same as well. When Milhouse eventually returns to Springfield, it seems at first that Bart forgets this, leaving a nonchalant, but secretly depressed Lisa on her own again. In the end however, he catches her before bed and lets her know that he'll always be there for her, through mock Monopoly playing cards to emphasize this.

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Personality traits

Image:HomerStranglingBart.jpg Many times, when Homer finds out that Bart has said or done something stupid or bad, he yells out, "Why you little—!" and strangles Bart in anger.

Bart will often address Homer by his first name instead of "Dad". This is parodied on an episode where Bart was a baby. Homer is trying to get Bart to say "Dad". Instead, he keeps calling him "Homer". Homer would then say "D'oh!" Bart had even addressed Homer as "Dohmer" after trying three times to call him "Dad".

Bart speaks French fluently due to a summer he spent as an exchange student in France. Illegally being worked by two men who were planning to sell wine spiked with anti-freeze, Bart became a national hero when he exposed the scheme to the police. He also was able to speak Spanish briefly on a trip to Brazil; however, he forced himself to forget when he discovered that Brazilians speak Portuguese. He also had an exchange with Homer in Japanese. In "Bart on the Road," he makes a delivery to Hong Kong where he hauls a cooler labeled "HUMAN EYES" off the plane, and brings it to a man in a white lab coat where they converse in Chinese (specifically, the variety of Cantonese spoken in the city). This may be inherited from Homer, who has also demonstrated advanced language abilities, including penguin.

Bart takes after his father in many ways. He is lazy like his father and enjoys laying around the house and watching TV. Bart also seems to be following in his father's footsteps when it comes to manners. Like Homer, Bart often burps without excusing himself and finds it amusing. The most notable occurrence of this was in the Tracy Ullman Show short "Burping Contest", in which he engaged in a burping contest with Lisa. For Lisa, however, that was a very rare occurrence and she would never exhibit such vulgar behavior again.

Bart's athletic ability is constantly shown to be quite high. Although his underachiever ways often conflict with this gift, when he has the will he either does very well, or flat out excels at what he asserts himself to. As the picture above suggests, Bart is into skateboarding and is very good at it as well, capable of numerous acrobatic feats. In various sports such as hockey and baseball, Bart also does very well and even contributes a good amount of teamwork surprisingly. His one flawed physical activity however, is football. Although his father would wish otherwise, Bart acknowledges that he's not the best at the game. Bart is also very good at dancing, although most of the time he avoids this practice due to reservations over public image. When briefly practicing Ballet, Bart was the top student in the class and amazed the school audience during a show, although he was masked during this show to conceal his identity. When it comes to general performance, acrobatics, running, fighting, Bart shows that he's quite capable of taking care of himself. Although he cannot boast Homer's near superhuman ability survive tremendous amounts of pain and injury, Bart himself has also survived a great deal of hazardous situations and injury as well. Generally, while Bart appears to not be in the best shape, he is potentially an athletic prodigy it would seem with all these potential talents.

Bart is allergic to imitation butterscotch, cauliflower, and glow-in-the-dark monster makeup. According to Marge in the episode "The Father, The Son, and the Holy Guest Star", Bart wore diapers until the age of 5 (meaning Lisa was trained before him), because he thought there was a monster in the potty.

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Origin and influence

In an interview, Simpsons creator Matt Groening stated he chose the name as an anagram of brat. As all of the Simpsons are named after, and very loosely based off of members of Groening's own family many naturally believe that Bart is specifically based off of The Simpsons creator himself. Groening has himself said in a DVD commentary that he had not so much in common with Bart when he was a child himself however, although he has never denied this claim either. Groening once said that Bart was partly inspired by a photo of a kid in a park holding a grenade. He has also said that one of the inspirations for Bart was Groening's older brother Mark. Whether any of this is true or not is up for grabs.

The name Bart may also have come from the psychotic bad-seed child Bart whom starred in V.C. Andrews’s incest romance novels which were wildly popular during the 1980s.

Image:Malta anti-EU.JPG Bart is also without a doubt the most often used character from The Simpsons to depict on various memorabilia such as t-shirts to car decals, and even graffiti. Bart and other characters from The Simpsons appeared in numerous television commercials for Nestlé's Butterfinger candy bars from 1990 to 2001, with his and its slogan "Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger!". This was parodied when in an episode when he discovered a video tape with Lisa that he partcipated in a TV Commercial for anti-odor product when he was a baby; Bart says that he doesn't remember being in a commercial, then holds up a Butterfinger and eats it.

In 1998, Time magazine selected Bart as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century—the only fictional character to make the list.

When he vandalizes property, Bart uses the alias El Barto, which is a Spanglish way of saying "The Bart". However, no one in Springfield has made the connection and Bart still vandalizes property without getting caught. He is also known to don a mask and cape as superhero alias Bartman.

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Attire

Bart's dress sense is fairly standard. His normal attire is an orange (or sometimes red) t-shirt, blue shorts, white socks and blue training shoes, although on most pieces of Simpsons-related merchandise, his shirt is light-blue (this is done to differentiate between counterfeit merchandise and official merchandise). His churchgoing outfit consists of a blue two-piece suit (with shorts rather than long pants), white shirt, blue tie, blue shoes and white socks (episode: 'Two Dozen and One Greyhounds'). The only other clothing "scenario" that comes up regularly is his "bed outfit", which consists of a green Krusty The Klown pajamas set (although he has been known to wear white socks on his feet to bed, he more regularly goes barefoot to bed). Bart's underwear style is of white underpants. The use of underpants over boxer shorts is commented on by the show's creators on the Series 4 DVD, where he says they were trying to be different as boxer shorts were the least taboo form of underwear on TV as they showed "less of a bulge".

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Bart-related episodes

Episodes that feature Bart extensively include:

As Bart is one of the main characters, he is featured prominently in many more episodes as well.

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Antics

  • Prank-calling (usually Moe's Tavern, but sometimes other countries)
  • Stealing a policeman's car
  • Painting the parking lines two inches narrower than normal
  • Mooning
  • Vandalizing (cars, public property, etc.)
  • Shooting a stink bomb at an entertainer
  • Pantsing a robotic version of George Washington
  • Robbing a bakery, then melting the plastic couple from a wedding cake on an electric chair
  • Strangling his father with a belt
  • Shaking Homer's beer until it exploded
  • Spraying the tag 'El Barto' in a variety of places in many episodes
  • Opening his Christmas presents two hours early
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Prank phone calls

  • Al Coholic
  • Heywood U. Cuddleme
  • Mike Rotch
  • Ivanna Tinkle
  • I.P. Freely
  • Hugh Jass (which backfired when a Hugh Jass actually accepted the call)
  • Amanda Huggenkiss
  • Bea O'Problem
  • Seymour Butts
  • Oliver Klozoff
  • Homer Sexual
  • Ollie Tabooger
  • Maya Buttreeks
  • Li Non Me
  • Wade N. Foryu
  • Anna Rexik
  • Hugh G. Recksion
  • Hal Atosis
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Relations

Bart is:

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Jobs

Bart's jobs have been:

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Future

It should be noted that the specific years listed below are probably inconsistent, given the general "timelessness" of the series. For instance, in 2010, Bart is depicted as being in his early 20s. However, this was if Bart was ten during the initial airing of "Lisa's Wedding". As 2010 is only four years away from the current time, and Bart is still depicted as a 10-year-old in 2006 this makes it impossible for him to be that age by that date. So in other words, the specific dates should be treated as very loose canon. It should also be noted that these events were depicted in years that would roughly make chronological sense when they were produced, and oddly enough, do seem to fit an odd pattern, although they are presumably not meant to be interconnected as the order shown below is not the order in which they initially appeared. Also, as these events are glimpses into the unknown future, these events may not come to pass exactly, or at all.:

  • 2010 (four years from "now"): Is a demolition contractor. He "can't believe [he's] finally getting paid to do this" and mentions that he's "just getting all [his] aggression out before [he goes] to law school". Bart has a receding hairline and stubble, just like Homer. He's been married twice, and is considering getting married again. (Depicted in "Lisa's Wedding")
  • 2030 (twenty-four years from "now"): Bart lives with Ralph Wiggum and they have an unsuccessful band, the Tequilla Mockingbirds. Dropped out of the Devry Institute. Mooches off of Lisa, now the President of the United States, and criticizes her for no longer being cool and promotes his band during her address to the nation. (Depicted in "Bart to the Future")
  • 28 years from "now": Is now Chief Justice of the United States (incorrectly referred to in the episode as "Chief Justice of the Supreme Court." Finally sees "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie" with Homer. (Depicted in "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie")
  • One minute before death (at the age of 83): Finds true love, according to Professor Frink. His brain is put into a pauper's grave. (Mentioned in "Future-Drama")
  • 1000 years later: Having been revealed as God's last prophet, is the cause of holy war. According to one army of followers, the ones who wear Bart wigs and call him Bart Simpson, he preached a message of tolerance and love. By the other army, who dress in Bartman purple masks and call him by the same name, he preached a message of understanding and peace, before he was betrayed by his follower Milhouse and was pulled apart by snowmobiles until he died. This stemmed from a present-day scene when Bart tells paintball-warring Catholics and Protestants, "It's all Christianity". (Depicted in "The Father, The Son, and The Holy Guest Star")
  • 1000 years later: Reanimated using future technology, through a name carved by him into wet cement. Only a daydream sequence, not factual.
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Bartman

Image:Nes bartradioactive.jpg Bartman is a comic book title and the alter ego of Bart Simpson. Essentially, in addition to his normal clothes, Bart wears a purple mask and cape to become Bartman. The name, when written, bears a striking resemblance to the name Batman, and Bartman is indeed supposed to be a superhero of some sort. Bartman makes a short appearance in the Simpsons episode "Three Men and a Comic Book".

This alter ego is the basis for the short-lived Bongo Comics series (1993-1995), which saw the young Bart adopt the mantle of crimefighting. He was aided by Milhouse, as the Robin-like Houseboy. Like Bart's costume, Milhouse's was simplistic, involving only a green mask and cape in addition to his ordinary clothing. The series only lasted 6 issues.

Bartman and Houseboy make a brief appearance in the Simpsons book The Simpsons Holiday Humdinger, published in 2004 by HarperCollins. In a parody of the story How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Bartman takes on Gil, who is stealing Christmas presents in hopes of destroying the holiday.

Bartman is also featured in the video game Bartman Meets Radioactive Man (1992-1993). Bartman also appears in the video game "Bart's Nightmare" for the SNES when you jump into a sheet of lost homework and enter an almost "mini-game" featuring the Bartman. A comic book produced by Bongo also featured Bartman and Radioactive Man teaming up to defeat a managerie of super powered members of the regular cast, along with both Itchy and Scartchy, as well as Kang and Kodos.


Bartman recently appeared again in the Simpsons super spectacular alongside another two Bart Simpson alter egos: Stretch Dude, and the Cupcake Kid. Stretch Dude appeared in one of the Simpsons treehouse of horror specials, with Lisa as Clobber Girl (and featuring a guest appearance by Lucy Lawless), while the Cupcake Kid is a variation of Bart as a superhero which is entirely exclusive to the comic book. The three Barts battle against and defeat an evil version of Bart who has begun working to control the world. The three heroic Barts are recruited by a good version of Sideshow Bob, who is shortly thereafter vaporized.

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Trivia

  • Matt Groening drew Bart next to the words "Class of '72, Matt Groening" on the sidewalk of SW 18th Avenue in downtown Portland, Oregon, behind Lincoln High School (which he attended) and across from Kings Hill Station in 1996 after the new sidewalk was laid following the construction of the Station. The city has opted not to remove the "graffiti" or cite Groening for vandalism.

Image:SP-s10e04-wall.jpg

  • Bart Simpson made an appearence in the South Park episode Cartoon Wars Part II. He appeared at first trying to get Family Guy pulled off the air. His reason is never mentioned, it could be either because of the supposed antagonism between the Simpson and Family Guy, or simply because he just doesn't like it himself. He speaks with Cartman at first, comparing their antics to each other... although Bart seems to fully acknowledge that he isn't nearly as bad as Cartman, who is quite nearly evil. Upon meeting Kyle later, who is trying to stop Cartman from taking the show off the air, Bart knocks him out and holds him captive along with Cartman in order to stop any interference in Cartman's devious plan. Later however, Kyle speaks with him (off screen) and convinces him of Cartman's wrongdoings, and he changes his ways and defends Family Guy by coming to Kyle's rescue. Although it seems he came straight out of The Simpsons, it is interesting to note that neither his name nor where he came from is ever mentioned. He is treated very much like a homage and a crossover, Kyle and Cartman seeing him as just another random kid rather than a famous character. So Bart may not necessarilly be breaking the fourth wall in this episode.
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See also

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