Sideshow Mel
Melvin Van Horne
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Character Information
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Sideshow Mel real name, Melvin Van Horn is one of the many sidekicks to Krusty the Clown on The Krusty the Clown Show. He is deep voiced and is usually spotted in big mobs or crowds pointing faults out.
Contents
Role in The Simpsons
He replaced Sideshow Bob after Bob was incarcerated for framing Krusty for armed robbery. Mel's hiring was never explicitly shown in the series. He first appeared in "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge", shortly after Sideshow Bob was sent to prison, filling the exact role that Bob once did.
Known Information
Little is known about Mel.
Education and Religion
He is a Cornell University graduate and an atheist (though he is occasionally seen at the Presbylutheran church).
Usual Communication
Sideshow Mel uses a slide whistle to communicate on camera just like Bob.
Voice
When not in character, Mel speaks in a grandiose British/Shakespearean accent (Castellaneta's play on Kelsey Grammer's character, Sideshow Bob) and owns poodles.
Hair
Mel perpetually wears a bone in his hair which was revealed in "22 Short Films About Springfield" to be from a failed attempt to remove gum from his hair, however, in Skinner's Sense of Snow he takes it out of his hair and uses it as a weapon. In The Wettest Stories Ever Told the bone is taken out and revealed to be an army knife (though this may have been non-canon, for it occurred in a story told by Homer).
Conflicts
In "Bart Gets Famous" it was revealed that Mel is lactose intolerant. In "Homerazzi" it was revealed that he was in a bitter custody battle.
Family
In "I'm With Cupid", he reveals he has a wife (or at least a girlfriend) called Barbara, who appears in Realty Bites.
Accidents
Sideshow Mel is often subject to abuse by Krusty, just as Sideshow Bob was before him. Such occurrences include 'Krusty's Slide', where he is forced into a mixture of laundry detergent and rancid Bearnaise sauce; another unseen one is in "Krusty Gets Kancelled" where he states that Krusty once poured liquid nitrogen down his pants and cracked his buttocks with a hammer.
