Editing Sideshow Mel

:''Sideshow Mel redirects here. For the chocolate, see [[Sideshow Mel (chocolate)]]''
{{Quote|Lisa, applause is an addiction, like heroin - or checking your e-mail.|Sideshow Mel|All About Lisa}}
{{Character
|name = Melvin Van Horne
|image = [[File:Sideshow Mel.png|200px]]
|gender = {{Male}}
|hair = Green
|age = 45<ref>"[[Covercraft]]"</ref>
|status =  Alive
|job = Children's entertainer<br>TV personality
|relatives = '''Wife:''' [[Barbara Van Horne]]<br>'''Son:''' Unnamed<ref>"[[Moe Letter Blues]]"</ref><br>'''Father:''' [[Norman|Norman Van Horne]]<ref name="TSOOSM">''[[The Secret Origin of Sideshow Mel!]]''</ref><br>'''Mother:''' Lucille Van Horne<ref name="TSOOSM"/><br>'''Sister:''' Unnamed<ref>"[[Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play]]"</ref>
|appearance = "[[Itchy & Scratchy & Marge]]"
|voiced by = [[Dan Castellaneta]]
}}
'''Melvin Van Horne''', better known as '''Sideshow Mel''', is [[Krusty the Clown|Krusty]]'s sidekick on ''{{Krusty show}}''. 
When not in character, Mel speaks in a grandiose/posh Shakespearean accent and owns poodles.

== Biography ==
[[File:Sideshow Mel Every Simpsons Ever.png|thumb|left|250px]]
Mel joined the cast of ''{{Krusty show}}'' to replace Sideshow Bob, who was sent to prison for attempting to frame [[Krusty the Clown|Krusty]] for armed robbery the previous month. It seems that Krusty unceremoniously replaced Bob with someone even stranger-looking than he was.

Sideshow Mel uses a slide whistle to communicate on camera. When not in character, Mel speaks in a grandiose British/Shakespearean accent and owns poodles. His main accomplishment so far has been successfully removing [[Waylon Smithers, Jr.]] from suspicion of having shot [[Mr. Burns]].<ref>"[[Who Shot Mr. Burns?]]"</ref> Off-screen, Mel is generally very eloquent, educated, poetic and intelligent, with a beautiful singing voice-it is implied that, as with Sideshow Bob before him, his true talents are wasted on Krusty's show. When Lisa Simpson won the "Entertainer of the Year Award"; it was revealed that Melvin also won the award previously for his portrayal of Biff in Death of a Salesman, but his desire to keep his stardom eventually led him to become the sidekick he is today.<ref>"[[All About Lisa]]"</ref> He was once forced to conduct an orchestra of kazoo-playing monkeys. When he pleaded with Krusty to not force him to do it, Krusty simply shouted at him to "shut up and conduct!"

=== Religion and Education ===
Little is known about Mel. He is a Cornell University graduate and an Atheist (though he is occasionally seen at the Presbylutheran church). It is also shown that Mel could be a recovering alcoholic as he had attended several Alcoholic Anonymous meetings.

=== Hair ===
Aside from the bone, Mel has curly green hair in a sort of beehive-like style similar to Marge's only shorter and rounded at the top,his hair also appears to be "fashioned/poised/set" in an upward position because it seems to sit atop his head showing that he has no sideburns or even a hair "tail".  Mel perpetually wears a bone in his hair which may or may not be permanently affixed. He once warned [[Lisa Simpson]] not to use a bone to try and get gum out of her hair, as he did and it became permanently stuck there.<ref>"[[22 Short Films About Springfield]]"</ref> However, he was once seen removing the bone and using it as a weapon during a duel. When Springfield was trapped under a dome by the EPA, he was also seen removing the bone and whacking it at the dome.<ref>''[[The Simpsons Movie]]''</ref> Bart also took the bone out of his hair pranking [[Martin Prince, Jr.]]. He indicated that he could feel meteorological conditions in the bone, such as incoming storms.<ref>"[[Skinner's Sense of Snow]]"</ref> Before he got his bone, Mel was famous in both London and Hollywood and was able to comb his hair.

=== Disabilities ===
[[Bart Simpson]] found out that Mel is lactose-intolerant. Krusty once poured liquid nitrogen down Mel's pants and cracked his buttocks with a hammer.

=== Family ===
He may be married to or living with a woman named [[Barbara Van Horne|Barbara]] with whom he wished to purchase a house from [[Marge Simpson]].<ref>"[[Realty Bites]]"</ref> Mel once complained that Barbara no longer pleasured him with the French Arts.<ref>"[[I'm with Cupid]]"</ref> Mel also has a son (that looks exactly like him but has no bone in his hair) who's name was/is never mentioned directly or indirectly. Mel's last name of Van Horne may suggest his family is of Dutch/Afrikaner origin.

Krusty reveals to Mel that he has been secretly dating Mel's wife, and that he wants to dump her after 11 years since the thrill is gone.<ref>"[[The Great Wife Hope]]"</ref>

Despite being married he has been seen with [[Lindsey Naegle]]<ref>"[[Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens and Gays]]"</ref> and [[Princess Kashmir]].<ref>"[[Homerazzi]]"</ref>

=== Other jobs ===
After Krusty's show was cancelled following the rise of Gabbo, Mel worked at a taco stand where he initially refused Krusty's pleas to return to his show.

He was the jury foreman for the [[Mona Simpson]] trial. The jury was sequestered at a Quality Inn which "more than lived up to its name." <ref>"[[My Mother the Carjacker]]"</ref>

== Non-canon ==
{{Noncanon}}
=== The Simpsons Game ===
In "The Simpsons Game" Sideshow Mel is a security guard at Springfield Museum and serves as an enemy in "[[Bartman Begins]]". He is also one of the previous enemies sent by [[God]] in "Dance Dance Revolution".

=== The Simpsons: Tapped Out ===
{{Transcluded|The Simpsons: Tapped Out characters/C-List Celebrities}}
{{TranscludeSection|The Simpsons: Tapped Out characters/C-List Celebrities|Mel|options=nointro}}

== Appearances ==
{{Incomplete}}
{{scroll|
*{{ep|Itchy & Scratchy & Marge}}
*{{ep|Old Money}}
*{{ep|Brush with Greatness}}
*{{ep|Colonel Homer}}
*{{ep|Separate Vocations}}
*{{THOH|Treehouse of Horror III}}
*{{ep|22 Short Films About Springfield}}
*{{ep|Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)}}
*{{ep|Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)}}
*{{ep|Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming}}
*{{ep|I'm with Cupid}}
*{{ep|My Sister, My Sitter}}
*{{ep|Skinner's Sense of Snow}}
*{{ep|Sweets and Sour Marge}}
*{{ep|The Frying Game}}
*{{ep|My Mother the Carjacker}}
*{{ep|Bart-Mangled Banner}}
*{{ep|All's Fair in Oven War}}
*{{ep|Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens and Gays}}
*{{ep|Day of the Jackanapes}}
*{{ep|Bart Has Two Mommies}}
*{{ep|The Wettest Stories Ever Told}}
*{{ep|Regarding Margie}}
*{{ep|Jazzy and the Pussycats}}
*{{THOH|Treehouse of Horror XVII}}
*{{ep|Ice Cream of Margie (with the Light Blue Hair)}}
*{{ep|Kill Gil, Volumes I & II}}
*{{ep|The Wife Aquatic}}
*{{ep|Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Three Times}}
*{{ep|Little Big Girl}}
*{{ep|Springfield Up}}
*{{ep|Rome-Old and Juli-Eh}}
*{{ep|Marge Gamer}}
*{{ep|Homerazzi}}
*{{ep|Crook and Ladder}}
*{{ep|24 Minutes}}
*{{ep|Dial "N" for Nerder}}
*{{ep|All About Lisa}}
*{{ep|The Great Wife Hope}}
*{{THOH|Treehouse of Horror XX}}
*{{ep|The Devil Wears Nada}}
*{{ep|Rednecks and Broomsticks}}
*{{ep|Once Upon a Time in Springfield}}
*{{ep|The Color Yellow}}
*{{ep|Moe Letter Blues}}
*{{ep|The Bob Next Door}}
*{{ep|Judge Me Tender}}
*{{ep|Treehouse of Horror XXI}}
*{{ep|The Fool Monty}}
*{{ep|A Midsummer's Nice Dreams}}
*{{ep|Love Is a Many-Strangled Thing}}
*{{ep|The Great Simpsina}}
*{{ep|The Real Housewives of Fat Tony}}
*{{ep|Homer Scissorhands}}
*{{ep|The Falcon and the D'ohman}}
*{{ep|Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts}}
*{{ep|The Food Wife}}
*{{ep|The Man in the Blue Flannel Pants}}
*{{ep|The Ten-Per-Cent Solution}}
*{{ep|Politically Inept, with Homer Simpson}}
*{{ep|The D'oh-cial Network}}
*{{ep|Moe Goes from Rags to Riches}}
*{{ep|At Long Last Leave}}
*{{ep|Exit Through the Kwik-E-Mart}}
*{{ep|How I Wet Your Mother}}
*{{ep|Whiskey Business}}
*{{ep|Clown in the Dumps}}
*{{ep|The Wreck of the Relationship}}
*{{THOH|Treehouse of Horror XXV}}
*{{ep|Opposites A-Frack}}
*{{ep|Simpsorama}}
*{{ep|Covercraft}}
*{{ep|The Musk Who Fell to Earth}}
*{{ep|Walking Big & Tall}}
*{{ep|My Fare Lady}}
*{{ep|The Princess Guide|(name seen)}}
*{{ep|Every Man's Dream|(hallucination)}}
*{{TSG}}
*{{mov}}
*{{game|The Simpsons Road Rage}}
*{{game|The Simpsons: Hit & Run}}
*{{game|The Simpsons Game}}
*{{game|The Simpsons: Tapped Out}}
*{{bon|Comics Fan No More!}}
*{{bon|Hanukkah at Schtickfair}}
*{{bk|The Krusty Book}}
}}

== Gallery ==
{{Images|Sideshow Mel}}
<gallery>
File:Mel (1).png|Mel's natural hair.
File:SideshowMelSon.png|Mel's son.
File:Mel and Barbara.png|Mel's wife.
File:Mel's family.png| Mel with his family, [[Tina Ballerina]], [[Arthur Crandall]] and [[Gabbo]].
</gallery>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Krusty the Clown Show}}
{{Krusty Comeback Special}}
{{Bowling Teams|sidekicks=yes|team=no}}
{{Stonecutters|others=yes}}
{{Tapped Out characters|c-celebs=yes}}
{{Simpsons characters|media=yes}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mel, Sideshow}}

[[Category:Recurring characters]]
[[Category:Adults]]
[[Category:Krusty's sideshows]]
[[Category:Characters voiced by Dan Castellaneta]]
[[Category:Characters introduced in season 2]]
[[Category:Celebrities]]