Allergies
- "I'm only allergic to honey, wheat, dairy, non-dairy and my own tears!"
- ―Milhouse Van Houten[src]
Allergies are a medical condition where people react badly to substances such as foods or things in the environment such as plants or animals. Depending on the person's degree of sensitivity, a wide variety of reactions is possible, including sniffles, itching, swelling, rashes or even life-threatening anaphylactic shock. Common allergies include sensitivity to bee stings, milk, peanuts, seafood and hay fever (sensitivity to one or more types of pollen).
People with allergies
Bart Simpson
Bart has been mentioned to be allergic to various things. He is allergic to cauliflower,[1] butterscotch, imitation butterscotch, glow-in-the-dark monster make-up[2] and shrimp.[3] However, Bart has been seen eating shrimp before[4] and once stated that he "ate so much shrimp"[5] so it is unknown why he was allergic to shrimp.
Bart fell into a vat of "Peanut Shrimp" with Principal Skinner, causing him to have an allergic reaction.[3]
Bart has occasionally been shown eating shrimp voluntarily and with no ill effects. It is possible that he found out that he was allergic to shrimp later and it wasn't actually shrimp he ate, but just something he thought was shrimp or looked like shrimp.
Lisa Simpson
Lisa is allergic to pollen and gets hay fever. She seemed to have a bad reaction to some plants, but her sensitivity may be specifically to the plants in Cypress Creek as she is unaffected elsewhere.[6]
Marge Simpson
Marge is allergic to sea food, including shrimp.[7] Allergies can be hereditary, so it's possible that Bart got his shrimp allergy from Marge.
Maggie Simpson
Maggie is allergic to strained peas.[8]
Seymour Skinner
Seymour Skinner is allergic to peanuts.[3] He banned any peanuts from being brought into Springfield Elementary School once as a result. He fell into a vat of "Peanut Shrimp" with Bart, causing him to have a reaction.[3]
Milhouse Van Houten
Milhouse is allergic to honey, wheat, dairy, non-dairy and even his own tears.[3] He also says that real milk can kill him, though he often drinks it, meaning he may have been wrong.[9]
In the future, Milhouse is mentioned to be allergic to holly, mistletoe and the red part of candy canes.[10]
Mr. Muntz
Mr. Muntz is allergic to peanuts. When he left to get some milk, he bought a chocolate bar, not knowing it had peanuts in it. He bit into the chocolate bar and instantly swelled up, which made him look like the Elephant Man. As a result, Muntz was taken into a circus's freak show, where the people who went to see him threw peanuts at him. The continued exposure to peanuts made him stay swelled up until Bart found him and took him away from the show.[11]
Waylon Smithers, Jr.
Smithers is allergic to bee stings. A bee once stung him in the eye when he was on a tandem bike with Mr. Burns. Burns then made Smithers cycle to the hospital, where they crashed outside.[12] However, he was once stung by bees with nothing happening at all.[13]
Jimbo Jones
Jimbo Jones is allergic to bee stings. When he and Kearney tried to get Bart by siccing a hive of bees on him, the bees couldn't sting Bart because he was wearing a bulletproof vest. The bees instead went after Jimbo and Kearney, and Jimbo ended up in the hospital due to an allergic reaction.[14]
Clancy Wiggum
While most people will have a reaction to contacting poison oak (rash being a very common result within hours of exposure), Chief Wiggum seems to be more sensitive than the norm. As a youth, Wiggum ate a few leaves of poison oak while he was at Camp Flab-Away and then immediately collapsed from an allergic reaction.[15]
Behind the Laughter
Discontinuity with allergies
There is some discontinuity with allergies throughout the series. Notably, Waylon Smithers, Jr. has been stung by bees after in "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk" and didn't show a reaction. Lisa has also never shown having hay fever at all anywhere else, and even though it may have just been Cypress Creek's plants, she should have shown at least some symptoms elsewhere. Bart has also been shown eating shrimp before, despite the fact he is allergic to it.
While it is possible to lose allergies as you grow older, the characters in The Simpsons do not age so that can not be used as an excuse. The only logical explanation for this discontinuity is that it is a result of oversights from the producers and writers.
Appearances
Episode – "Blood Feud" (mentioned)- Episode – "Homer Alone" (mentioned)
- Episode – "New Kid on the Block" (mentioned)
- Episode – "Lisa's First Word" (mentioned)
- Episode – "22 Short Films About Springfield"
- Episode – "You Only Move Twice"
- Episode – "Sleeping with the Enemy"
- Episode – "The Heartbroke Kid" (mentioned)
- Episode – "The Way We Weren't"
- Episode – "Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em"
- Episode – "Holidays of Future Passed" (mentioned)
Comic story – How the Vest Was Won!
References
- ↑ "The Heartbroke Kid"
- ↑ "Blood Feud"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em"
- ↑ "Mommie Beerest"
- ↑ "The Frying Game"
- ↑ "You Only Move Twice"
- ↑ "New Kid on the Block"
- ↑ "Homer Alone"
- ↑ "Lisa's First Word"
- ↑ "Holidays of Future Passed"
- ↑ "Sleeping with the Enemy"
- ↑ "22 Short Films About Springfield"
- ↑ "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk"
- ↑ How the Vest Was Won!
- ↑ "The Way We Weren't"
