Maggie Simpson

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Template:Simpsons character Margaret "Maggie" Simpson is a fictional character featured in the animated cartoon television series The Simpsons. She is the youngest child of their household, eternally a baby.

Maggie was born in 1993, according to the show's chronology (though the fact she appears in 1987 and is still a baby as of 2006 confuses this). Her exact birthday is unknown, but she was conceived on November 18, thus making her birthday around September 1.

Her claim to fame is falling down frequently as she struggles to walk and sucking on her pacifier, reputedly voiced by Matt Groening during the Tracey Ullman era and by Nancy Cartwright during the regular series. However, during the series, the sound effect is called from a sampler, making any voice attributions moot. She was named after Margaret "Maggie" Groening, youngest sister of Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons.

Little Maggie has gotten herself into many dangerous situations. However, she has always depended on the help of other creatures to get her out of these fixes, like other imprisoned babies when she wanted to escape from a daycare center, or a group of grizzly bears when she was lost in the forest. The most significant of Maggie's allies is the town barkeeper Moe Szyslak, who proved himself an unlikely hero in Season 14 ("Moe Baby Blues") when he saved her life twice (once from falling off a bridge and drowning and a second time from an Italian-American-Mexican Standoff).

Maggie is also a crack shot. She shot Charles Montgomery Burns in the "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" cliffhanger, gunned down the mobsters who had the intention of killing Homer Simpson in Papa's Got a Brand New Badge, and killed Groundskeeper Willie (although this was in a Halloween episode) making a total of eight shots, excluding Groundskeeper Willie. In Bye Bye Nerdie Maggie fires a nailgun several times at Homer with sharpshooter accuracy. Maggie also appears to own several handguns and shotguns. She appears to know how to play the saxophone better than her sister Lisa, but Lisa is the only person who knows this and shows no intention of telling anyone. She has a seemingly limitless supply of pacifiers that she distributes to people and animals who are sad or otherwise seem to need them.

Some fans have suggested that Maggie will probably be the real Simpson genius of the family ahead of Lisa. For example, at age one, Maggie could spell EMCSQU (E=MC²) with her toy building blocks whereas Lisa at three considered it impressive that she could spell STAR with her building blocks even if the rest of her family did not. Another example is her knowledge of using a gun. She has already shot both Mr. Burns and Fat Tony.

Episodes set in the far future make a few predictions about Maggie. In "Lisa's Wedding", she seems to take after her brother in being a rebel. She is a sullen teenager who has won a motorcycle trophy at some point. She also wears her pacifier around her neck. She also has a picture of Homer with her, in her room, revealing that perhaps the member of the family that she most loves, is its father. She will apparently have an "amazing" singing voice, but her voice is not actually heard in the episode, save for a throat-clearing and a heavily-muffled attempt over a mouthful of food during dinner with the family; ironically, Homer says about her when he catches her on the phone, "Doesn't that kid ever shut up?" The episode "Bart to the Future" revealed that Maggie has become an astronaut and has a daughter called Maggie Junior, who is identical to as she was as a baby. "Future-Drama" shows her in a dried-out Alaska, complete with a malnourished polar bear. Whether these predictions are reliable is questionable, not least because The Simpsons characters never age, but the success of the two female Simpson children – Lisa goes onto become President – and the relative failure of the male Simpson child – Bart works in demolition in "Lisa's Wedding" and is an unemployed musician in "Bart to the Future", although he is Chief Justice of the United States in further possible future depicted in the vague epilogue of Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie, so he may not be totally lost – is consistent with the episode "Lisa the Simpson", which reveals that genetically, the Simpsons are incredibly intelligent, but the male Simpsons carry a defective gene which reduces their intelligence dramatically.

Image:Adultmaggiesimpson.jpg

Note: In many episodes, Maggie can be seen imitating Bart when he does some type of body language or hand gesture. Her taking after Bart (in terms of attitude or personality) may also be attributed to an episode where Marge and Homer describe their first kiss. Marge gives a poetic and romantic portrayal to Lisa (who sighs in content) while Bart and Maggie sigh happily as Homer describes it as a violent explosion involving cluster bombs.

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Maggie talking

With a few exceptions, Maggie does not speak. However, she is keenly aware of events around her and emotes with subtle gestures and facial expressions. Unfortunately, these are the easiest parts to clip out of an episode for syndication, so they may be missed by most people.

Maggie's first word ever spoken in the normal continuity of the series was in "Lisa's First Word", and was voiced by three-time Academy Award winner Elizabeth Taylor. However, it was not heard by the Simpson family:

Homer: The sooner kids talk, the sooner they talk back. [tucks Maggie in] I hope you never say a word. [exits and shuts door]
Maggie: [taking her pacifier out] Daddy.

In one early episode, Homer attributes Maggie burping as "burlap" after being chastised earlier in the episode for missing many of Bart's and Lisa's early achievements.

Maggie did say "Good night" in "Good Night", the very first Simpsons short on the Tracey Ullman show, broadcast on April 19, 1987. On that occasion, Liz Georges (later a star of As Told By Ginger) provided the voice.

Maggie has talked during fantasy sequences and Halloween episodes of The Simpsons. In one Halloween show ("Treehouse of Horror V"), she was played by James Earl Jones. "Her" line was "This is indeed a disturbing universe," said after killing Groundskeeper Willie. This line is also Matt Groening's favorite line in the entire series (as revealed in the Season 6 DVD box-set).

In "Brother Can You Spare Two Dimes?", Maggie makes a wider-than-usual range of noises which are rendered as speech by an electronic baby translator invented by Homer's half brother Herb. And in "Brother from the Same Planet" her burp is interpreted as the word "Bart" (intended to remind Homer that he must pick up Bart after a soccer game). In "Flaming Moe's" Homer imagines everyone saying "Moe" all at once, including Maggie.

Fans generally agree that her second spoken word in the normal continuity of the series was "Daddily-doodily" (voiced by Yeardley Smith, in "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily"). However, since in the sequence she then turns her head around 180 degrees ala The Exorcist, this can also be thought of as a hallucination of Bart and Lisa.

In most cases, crying and giggling noises have been made by Nancy Cartwright or Yeardley Smith occasionally.

She has said "It's your fault I can't talk" in a hallucination in the Thanksgiving episode.

Bart also tricked Marge and the audience in Radio Bart by putting a microphoned radio under Maggies pillow and saying: Bart (as Maggie): Mama, mama. Marge (surprised): Huh? Maggie, you talked, can you say "mama" again? Bart (as Maggie): Sorry lady, show's over!"

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