Lisa Simpson

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Elisabeth "Lisa" Marie Simpson (voiced by Yeardley Smith) is a fictional character on the animated television series The Simpsons. Matt Groening, the creator of the series, named her after his sister.

Lisa's age is 8 years old; according to her brother Bart, Lisa is 2 years and 38 days younger than him. This makes her birthday May 9, as Bart's birthday is April 1. She was shown being born during the 1984 Summer Olympics in a flashback episode ("Lisa's First Word"), but since The Simpsons characters generally don't age, no specific year for her birth can be given (besides "always" being born "about 8 years ago" except in future-themed episodes).

Lisa is an extremely bright girl, with an IQ of 159 (she is a member of Mensa, a society for the high IQ people). The first thing she did that showed her intelligence was changing her own diaper as an infant. Other signs of intelligence at a young age include building a giant castle fort out of Legos, spelling the word "star" on her letter blocks and putting together a jigsaw puzzle of the Taj Mahal. Officially, her highest grade is an A+++, which she earned by cheating on a test about The Wind in the Willows (She later re-marked the test as an F). Once, when she was unable to attend school due to a teachers' strike, she suffered a sort of "school withdrawal" and invented a perpetual motion machine; Homer chastised her for this, telling her that in the Simpson household "we obey the laws of thermodynamics!" She also organized a student strike when she learned Principal Skinner was exploiting her.

Image:Happiness-intelligence-lisasimpson.jpg

Her musical abilities are extensive: she sings with a powerful voice, and has been seen playing both the acoustic six-string, electric bass guitar and piano proficiently. However, her great love is jazz performed on her baritone saxophone, although sometimes the actual sound of her saxophone is that of a tenor. She uses a 4½ reed, a highly stiff reed even for high level players, especially on the baritone. Her musical inclinations were greatly nourished through her relationship with the late jazz musician Bleeding Gums Murphy. She is fluent in Swedish. She is also fluent in Italian (which she learned from Milhouse Van Houten) and a little French and some German verbs. She understands Chinese as seen from listening to Yao Ming (though she can't read it) as well as Spanish. Although she is not known for her athletic abilities, she does play soccer and excelled as a goaltender in pee-wee hockey. She is also an excellent gymnast, because her large head gives her perfect balance: however, she proved particularly devoid of dancing talent.

Lisa Simpson is more intelligent than many people older than her, even adults. The only other person within Lisa's same age group who can rival or surpass her in intellect and achievements is perhaps Allison Taylor. Allison, in the episode "Lisa's Rival," managed to frustrate Lisa with her ability to play anagrams, her superior saxophone skills and diorama construction. Lisa Simpson has few close friends; one exception may be Janie.

For all of, or because of, her talents, her character was gradually remodeled as an outcast whose intelligence and principles the other children, and many adults, cannot appreciate. This is a far cry from an earlier Lisa who actually held a sleepover with a group of friends who helped her torment Bart.

Coupled with her intelligence is a strong sense of leftist political and social conviction she is ever ready to advance. For example, Lisa is a vegetarian (she has stated she plans on becoming a vegan) and a practicing Buddhist in one episode, although she pays lip service to her family's Christian denomination. In addition, she is a supporter of the Free Tibet movement and the anti-apartheid campaign. She has also revealed to be a Wiccan in one episode. She also has a strong skepticism against the supernatural, applying Occam's Razor when the rest of the family fails to. Her skepticism in the supernatural is further shown by her disbelieving in a so-called angel when the whole town believes that the specimen in question is in fact an angel, stubbornly seeking out scientific disproof of this "angel" from Stephen Jay Gould (which she eventually finds although the hoax's startling climax momentarily fools her). She is seen by some to whine at times or to have a persistent sense of superiority that often grows into self-aggrandizement, but she retains a childlike impressionability despite her intelligence, for example, she would love to have a pony and enjoys her mother's homemade waffles (and is disappointed when they turn out to be square pancakes). She has solved various problems around Springfield, often in tandem with her brother Bart.

Lisa is someone who is very eclectic in her knowledge and shows a deep understanding of the world around her. She may be seen as a child prodigy. Critics have also pointed out that the character of Lisa is a hint to the slighting of children in the real world though they may be a lot more knowledgeable and perceptive than the adults. Lisa shares her intellect and over-achieving personality with many other female members of the Simpson family (it has been revealed that male Simpsons inherit a gene that causes stupidity and under-achieving, which is carried on the Y chromosome).

Lisa, along with the rest of her family, is Caucasian, although one would hesitate to say white because of the show's Caucasian characters having yellow complexions. The Simpsons have no immediately known ethnicity, but it has been revealed that they are English on Homer's side and, judging by her maiden name, French on Marge's side. Lisa is therefore of Anglo-French decent, but her family is more so identfied with typical Anglo-Saxon American culture, attending a Protestant church, being suspicious of Catholics, and often holding stereotypical, and sometimes prejudiced {in Grandpa's case}, views on non-English ethnic groups such as the Irish and Italians. Liberal Lisa, however, holds none of these views.

Lisa generally wears the same outfit, like her brother Bart. Her outfit consists of a red dress, red shoes, and a string of pearls. Lisa usually wears a light blue night gown and slippers. She sometimes goes barefoot to bed, but usually wears the slippers. For church attendance and special occasions, Lisa wears a pink sundress with matching shoes and white socks (and sometimes a matching hat).

Like every young girl, Lisa has also gone through periods of rebellion. For a short time, she smoked cigarettes with older girls in the school bathroom, and even told her teacher, Elizabeth Hoover, to "shove it" when she did not feel like sprinkling sparkles on her art assignment (a parody of the 1953 film The Wild One).

Lisa only watches TV for The McLaughlin Group and Itchy & Scratchy. In "Home Away From Homer," it is also revealed that Lisa is a fan of National Public Radio and David Sedaris. In "Milhouse of Sand and Fog" it is revealed that she enjoys watching The O.C.

Though she is a vegetarian, she claims to enjoy the smell of lobster. According to Homer, her favorite candy is Red Vines. Her favorite food is couscous, unbeknownst to Marge. In "She Used to Be My Girl," Marge implies that Lisa's favorite cereal is Cap'n Crunch. She also likes Olive Garden.

Lisa has a Jewish imaginary friend named Rachel Cohen who "just got into Brandeis in the episode "Today I am A Clown". Her favourite album is Miles Davis' The Birth of the Cool. Her favorite song is "The Broken Neck Blues". Her e-mail address is given as "smartgirl63_\@yahoo.com" in "The President Wore Pearls". Her favorite movie is The Little Mermaid. Her shoe size is 4B.

In Japan, the broadcasters of the series found they were able to turn the apparent viewer dislike of the series around by focusing marketing attention on Lisa. Apparently, her struggles to be a voice of reason and a force of good in her family and her city struck a chord with the Japanese.

1 Notable accomplishments
- 1.1 Interesting Facts
- 1.2 Embarrassing/shameful moments
2 Relations
- 2.1 Crushes
3 See also
4 External Link

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Notable accomplishments

She has been offered a scholarship to a Seven Sisters college of her choice
Plays baritone sax
Won the regional Reading Digest essay contest
Served brief term as Little Miss Springfield
Co-invented the Lisa Lionheart doll
Invented a perpetual motion machine in her spare time
All-star goalie in pee-wee hockey
Discovered Jebediah Springfield was a murderous pirate named Hans Sprungfeld
Helped Charles Montgomery Burns recover his fortune, which made Burns $120 million with the "Li'l Lisa" recycling plant. She was offered 10% of the profit but turned down the offer, giving Homer five heart attacks: four simultaneously for giving up the "$12,000" that Homer had mistaken it to be, and another for learning the real value of the 10%
Passed with "satisfactory completion" of the second grade as the first female cadet at Rommelwood Military Academy
First straight female president of the United States.
Is an accomplished babysitter
Anchor of Channel 6's "Kidz News"
Tree-sat a redwood
Won Li'l Starmaker singing competition
In addition to being fluent in English, her native language, she is also fluent in Italian and Swedish. She knows a little French and a little German and understands Chinese and Spanish
Is a member of Mensa
Was co-mayor of the town along with the rest of the Springfield charter of Mensa which included Professor Frink, Dr. Hibbert, the Comic Book Guy, Seymour Skinner and Lindsey Naegle
She was once promoted to the third grade.
Only female member of the Springfield Elementary club "The Superfriends." She is also the only member without a nickname
Series creator Matt Groening claims Lisa is his favorite character, because she is the only member of the Simpsons family capable of escaping Springfield
Published her own newspaper, titled The Red Dress Press
Helped solve the attempted murder of Mr. Burns
Plays an important role at Springfield Elementary School
Was working on a novel titled "They Promised Me Ponies" until Bart destroyed it
Successfully prevented light pollution
Got main part in The Nutcracker school play
Had a cameo in Barney Gumble's film "Pukahontas"

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Interesting Facts

Lisa remains 8 years old despite having 3 birthdays.
The birth of Lisa tripled the Simpson house's average I.Q
Marge being pregnant with Lisa was the cause of Homer's baldness.
Her e-mail cannot be smartgirl63_/@yahoo.com because it is impossible because they don't allow the character "/" in the email address

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Embarrassing/shameful moments

Once cheated on a test after faking sick ("Lisa Gets an "A"")
Faked being sick to keep being able to play Dash Dingo ("Lisa Gets an "A"")
Once barfed on a dentist ("Bart on the Road")
Helped sabotage her father's award video ("Children of a Lesser Clod")
Got diarrhea on a family trip to Carlsbad Caverns ("Bart vs. Lisa vs. The Third Grade")
Got a B in a report card, supposedly her lowest ever grade ("Kamp Krusty")

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Relations

Lisa is:

Granddaughter to Abraham Simpson, Mona Simpson, Clancy Bouvier and Jacqueline Bouvier.
Daughter to Homer J. Simpson and Marjorie Bouvier Simpson.
Younger sister to Bartholomew Jo-Jo Simpson and older sister to Margaret Simpson.
Niece to Herbert Powell, Abbie, Patty Bouvier and Selma Bouvier Terwilliger Hutz McClure.

Her former uncles-by-marriage include Robert Underdunk "Sideshow Bob" Terwilliger, Lionel Hutz, Troy McClure, and Disco Stu.

Her cousin by adoption is Ling Bouvier.

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Crushes

Despite the fact she has had so many, Lisa keeps referring to them as "her first crush", perhaps because of the timelessness of the Simpsons. In this aspect, it seems though that the fact that Lisa is only 8 is dismissed.