Difference between revisions of "Bart Simpson"

Revision as of 13:57, January 5, 2008

Characters

Episodes

Cast and crew

Guest stars

Tapped Out

Comics

Affiliates

"¡Ay, caramba!"
"Don't have a cow, man!"
"I didn't do it!"
"Eat my shorts!"

-Bart's catch phrases.

Bartholomew "Bart" Jojo Simpson voiced by Nancy Cartwright.^[1] is a ten year old child of Homer and Marge Simpson, and is the brother of Lisa and Maggie. Bart's most prominent character traits are his mischievousness, rebelliousness, disrespect for authority and sharp tongue. During the first two seasons of The Simpsons, Bart was the show's main character; while later episodes started to focus more on Homer, Bart remains one of the most enduring characters on the series, and has proven to be one of the most iconic characters in the history of American television animation.

Personality

Bart is a self-proclaimed underachiever who begins each show in detention writing lines on the blackboard. He is easily distracted (even, strangely enough, by algebraic equations). His penchant for shocking people began before he was born: Bart "mooned" Dr. Hibbert while he performed a sonogram on Marge, and moments after being born he set fire to Homer's tie.

He is considerably motivated in disrupting the routine at Springfield Elementary, and his pranks are often elaborately complex, while his actions and speech frequently show considerable mental agility, street-smarts, and understanding. In "Separate Vocations" when Bart becomes hall monitor, his grades go up, showing that he only struggles because he does not pay attention, not because he is dumb. This is reinforced in the episode "Brother's Little Helper", in which it is revealed that Bart suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder. In the episode "Jazzy and the Pussycats" he also turns out to be musically gifted by becoming an excellent drummer. On the other hand, he often seems to have trouble understanding even the simplest concepts, such as the word "irony", what the equator is and that the logo on his globe ("Rand McNally") is not actually a country. The fact that he is the son of Homer Simpson and shares many of the same mannerisms and behaviors may also account for his antics. Homer even described Bart as "a younger, more in-your-face version" of himself. It is often joked that Bart is a pawn of the devil due to his mischievous behavior, such as when Lisa calls him "the Devil's cabana boy", a role which Bart seems to relish. In one Halloween episode, the Devil actually makes an appearance in the form of Ned Flanders, saying "Hey, Bart" like they are old friends.

Although he gets into endless trouble and is mean, 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, and he often befriends outcasts like Milhouse Van Houten. One great example of his quasi sense of honor is in the episode This Little Wiggy where Bart stands up for Ralph Wiggum at the cost of peer popularity.

Due to Bart's mischievousness and Homer's often uncaring and incompetent behavior, the two have a turbulent relationship. Bart will often address Homer by his given name instead of "Dad", while Homer in turn often refers to him as "the boy". Whenever Homer finds out that Bart has said or done something stupid or bad, he yells "Why you little–!" (and then strangling him) or simply "BART!". In The Simpsons Movie, Homer and Bart's relationship reaches a breaking point following Homer's pollution of Lake Springfield, with Bart even going so far as to say "I wish you weren't my father! I wish I was Flanders's kid!" Nevertheless, the two really do love each other deep down. Marge, who calls Bart her "special little guy", is much more caring, understanding and nurturing than Homer, but she also refers to Bart as "a handful" and is often embarrassed by his antics.

Bart shares a sibling rivalry with his younger sister, Lisa, but has a buddy-like relationship with his youngest sister Maggie (due to her infant state). While Bart has often hurt Lisa out of jealousy, and even fought her physically, they are very close, he cares for her as deeply as she does for him, and has always apologized for going too far. He also believes Lisa to be his superior when it comes to solving problems, and frequently goes to her for advice. He is often protective of her when she is threatened or insulted by others, though he frequently insults her himself. Both siblings formed a dynamic crime-solving duo during many of their encounters with Sideshow Bob, Bart's nemesis.

Bart's interests include Krusty the Klown, skateboarding, reading comic books (especially Radioactive Man), watching The Itchy & Scratchy Show, terrorizing Lisa, playing video games/computer games, helping Lisa solve various problems (e.g. reuniting Krusty with his estranged father), and pulling off various pranks (such as mooning unsuspecting people and prank calling Moe Szyslak at his tavern). In "Bart the General", Bart has hinted that his favorite movies are Jaws and the Star Wars trilogy. His best friend is Milhouse van Houten. Though he has not demonstrated the ability since the episode in which he learned, he speaks near-perfect French. He also learned Spanish in a matter of hours in preparation for the family's trip to Brazil. Upon learning that Brazilians speak Portuguese and not Spanish, Homer orders his son to forget what he learned, prompting Bart to strike himself over the head until he forgot the language. Bart also speaks Japanese (which he also learned in a couple of hours in prison along with Homer, and is also shown speaking Japanese in 'A Star is Burns'), Cantonese and Latin. His advanced linguistic skills may be inherited from Homer, who also speaks advanced languages, including penguin. Bart can also drive, having his own driving license, given to him in "Little Big Girl" after saving Springfield from a fire, although he has been seen driving before with a fake license, particularly in the episode "Bart on the Road". He still possesses it, using it to great effect in "24 minutes", stealing Principal Skinner's car to get to Jimbo's house.He is a player in the Mighty Pigs Peewee Hockey League Team.

In his book Planet Simpson, Chris Turner describes Bart as a nihilist. Bart's character traits of rebelliousness and disrespect for authority has been likened to that of America's founding fathers, rendering him an updated version of American icons Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, rolled into one."^[2]

Character

Creation

Matt Groening first conceived the Simpson family in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. He had been called in to pitch a series of animated shorts, and had intended to present his Life in Hell series. When he realized that animating Life in Hell would require him to rescind publication rights for his life's work, Groening decided to go in another direction.^[3] He hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family, and named the characters after various members of his own family, substituting "Bart" for his own name,^[3] as he decided it would have been too obvious for him to have named the character Matt.^[4] Bart then made his debut with the rest of the Simpsons clan on 19 April, 1987 in the Tracey Ullman short "Good Night".^[5] The name "Bart" is an anagram of the word "brat".^[4] Groening conceived Bart as an extreme version of the typical misbehaving child character, merging all of the negative traits of characters such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn into one person.^[4] Groening's older brother Mark provided most of the inspiration for Bart.^[6][7][8]

Groening has also said that he found the premise of Dennis the Menace disappointing and was inspired to create a character who was actually a menace.^[9]

Nancy Cartwright originally auditioned for the role of Lisa, but soon thought that her voice would be better suited voicing Bart. Matt Groening let her try out for the part, and upon hearing her read, gave her the job on the spot; thus the yellow-skinned orange-shirted boy was born. ^[10] Bart's catchphrase "Eat My Shorts" was an ad-lib by Cartwright in one of the original table readings, harking back to an incident when she was at college.^[11]

Cultural influence

In 1998, Time magazine selected Bart as 46th of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century (he ca—the only fictional character to make the list.^[12] He had previously appeared on the cover the December 31 1990 edition.^[13] Both Bart and Lisa ranked #11 in TV Guide's "Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time".^[14]

Bart's catchphrases, "¡Ay, caramba!," "Don't have a cow, man!" and "Eat my shorts!" were featured on t-shirts in the early days of the show's run.^[15] The latter two phrases were rarely actually spoken on the show itself until after they became popular through merchandise, and the use of many of these catchphrases has declined in recent seasons. The use of catchphrase-based humor was mocked in the episode "Bart Gets Famous" in which Bart gets famous on the Krusty show for saying the line "I didn't do it."^[16] During the show's early years, Bart was rebellious and frequently escaped without punishment, which led some parents' groups and conservative spokespeople to believe he provided a poor role model for children. This prompted George H. W. Bush to rally, "We're going to keep trying to strengthen the American family. To make them more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons."^[17]

Bart is the most depicted Simpsons character on various memorabilia such as T-shirts, car decals, and even graffiti art. Bart, and other Simpsons characters, have appeared in numerous television commercials for Nestlé's Butterfinger candy bars from 1990-2001, with the slogan "Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger!"^[18] This association was parodied in an episode when he discovered a video tape with Lisa that he participated in a TV commercial when he was a baby; Bart says that he doesn't remember being in a commercial, then holds up a Butterfinger and eats it. Bart briefly appears in the entrance video used by World Wrestling Entertainment Superstar Shawn Michaels in 1995. Bart has appeared in several other shows. He is featured in the South Park episode "Cartoon Wars Part II"; he is not referred to by name, nor do any of the characters react to him as if he were a well known personality.^[19] The character specifically mentions the events of The Telltale Head when Cartman asks him to name the "most badass thing" he has done.

See also

• Bart's chalkboard gags
• Do the Bartman

External links

• Bart Simpson at The Simpsons.com