Difference between revisions of "Bumblebee Man"

Revision as of 13:02, October 27, 2007

The Bumblebee Man, voiced by Hank Azaria, appears on a television show on "Channel Ocho" dressed in a bumblebee costume. In the episode "Team Homer," his bowling shirt bears the name "Pedro". He works at the same studio as Kent Brockman.

Biography

The Bumblebee Man, voiced by Hank Azaria, appears on a television show on "Channel Ocho" dressed in a bumblebee costume and does insane slapstick comedy. In the episode "Team Homer", his bowling shirt bears the name "Pedro". He works at the same studio as Kent Brockman.

Bumblebee Man never takes off his costume, even when by himself; the sole exception is the episode "22 Short Films About Springfield", in which his private life is shown. In this short segment, he is portrayed as innately clumsy rather than simply acting as such. In the end, his house is destroyed and his wife leaves him, not wanting to deal with his maladroit nature any longer.

In "Bart Gets Famous", he speaks with an articulate "English" accent, but this was mentioned in an episode commentary as a mistake. In general, Bumblebee Man only speaks in simple, over-enunciated (and inaccurate) Spanish sentences. His catchphrases of choice are typically “¡Ay, ay, ay, no me gusta!” (“I don’t like it!”), “¡Ay, ay, ay, no es bueno!” (“That’s not good!”) and “¡Ay, Dios no me ama!” (“God doesn’t love me!”) Quite commonly, his phrases will be intentionally sloppy Spanish. For example, in the episode "22 Short Films about Springfield", there are several words used that are not real (woodpecker in Spanish is not "wudpequero"; it is "pájaro carpintero"). The crude Spanish was used so that English-speaking viewers would still understand what was being said.^[1]

Creation

Bumblebee Man is a caricature of "El Chapulín Colorado" ("The Red Grasshopper"), a character created and portrayed by Mexican television comedian Roberto Gómez Bolaños (aka "Chespirito"), and his show consists of simple skits, often involving heavy slapstick. The staff have said that whenever they watched Telemundo, this character was always "on", thus they created Bumblebee Man, who is also always "on".^[2] His costume was based on one used in the Saturday Night Live sketch "Killer Bees".^[3]

Character traits

Bumblebee Man never takes off his costume, even when by himself; the sole exception is the episode "22 Short Films About Springfield", in which his private life is shown. In this short segment, he is portrayed as innately clumsy rather than simply acting as such. In the end, his house is destroyed and his wife leaves him.

In "Bart Gets Famous", he speaks with an articulate British accent, but this was mentioned in an episode commentary as a mistake. In general, Bumblebee Man only speaks in simple, over-enunciated (and inaccurate) Spanish sentences. His catchphrases of choice are typically “¡Ay, ay, ay, no me gusta!” (“I don’t like it!”), “¡Ay, ay, ay, no es bueno!” (“That’s not good!”) and “¡Ay, Dios no me ama!” (“God doesn’t love me!”) Quite commonly, his phrases will be intentionally sloppy Spanish. For example, in the episode "22 Short Films About Springfield", there are several words used that are not real (woodpecker in Spanish is not "wudpequero"; it is "pájaro carpintero"). The crude Spanish was used so that English-speaking viewers would still understand what was being said.

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