Barney Gumble
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"BURRRRRRPPPP!!!" -Barney's catch phrase
Barney Gumble
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Character Information
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Barnard "Barney" Gumble is the Springfield town drunk, the most prominent of several alcoholic Springfielders and Homer Simpson's best friend.
Contents
Creation
Barney was partly based on "Crazy" Guggenheim, a character from Jackie Gleason's American Scene Magazine.[1] Matt Groening noted: "Barney was taking the standard sitcom sidekick and just making him as pathetic as possible. And also there was a sort of unspoken rule about not having drinking on television as a source of comedy. So, of course, we went right for it."[1] In "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses" Barney was sobered up, a move that many staff members were against believeing "a wide-awake, freshly showered, sober Barney just isn't as funny as an unkempt, disoriented, drunk one." Castellaneta did not change his voice after the sobering, because "[he thinks Barney's] still got 15 years of booze left in his veins."[1]
The name Barney Gumble is a parody (and near homonym) of Barney Rubble, Fred Flintstone's best friend on Hanna-Barbera's The Flintstones. In several of the episodes of the first season, Barney Gumble's hair was yellow, just like Barney Rubble's hair.
Personality traits
Barney is almost always seen in Moe's Tavern, where he is a regular. His desperation for alcohol has been the source of many jokes. He has a quavering, slightly broken voice and a distinctive loud belch (although he sings completely differently, having a beautiful "Irish tenor" type voice), as well as a characteristic wandering eye. He remains friendly and good-natured despite his unfortunate condition. Heavyset, slovenly, and unmarried (though occasionally seen with women), he lives in a very untidy and sparsely-furnished apartment. It has also been implied that he has "lived" in Moe's Tavern.
He is occasionally seen doing some sort of menial labor, such as working for his Uncle Al at Barney's Bowl-O-Rama, but has also been the owner of a successful snowplowing business and been employed by NASA as an astronaut. In the episode "A Star Is Burns", Barney states that he is 40 years old and his first name was revealed to be Barnard, although he also appears to be in the same high school class as Homer in flashbacks. When streaking at his high school prom earned him "about a decade's worth of detention", it was hinted that he was either to be held back a year, or had already repeated.
When alcohol is not readily available, Barney is seen drinking just about anything, such as turpentine, varnish, rubbing alcohol, and [[brake fluid.
Life Story
His father, Arnie Gumble, died in a 1979 parade float accident along with Sheldon Skinner, Iggy Wiggum, Etch Westgrin, and Griff McDonald, all of whom had served in Abe Simpson's WWII squad. In the episode "Simpson Tide," Barney has a near-death experience in which he expects to be reunited with "my loved ones, my dad, and that plant I never watered," perhaps implying that he did not get along with his father, though this line could also be interpreted as Barney reuniting with his "loved ones: my dad and that plant I never watered."
Barney is generally portrayed as being Homer Simpson's best friend, knowing Homer from when they went to school together. Barney first appeared in the episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", in which he worked as a department store Santa and gave Homer a tip for winning at the dog track. The Season 1 DVD indicates that the script writers originally intended for Barney to be Homer's next-door neighbor.
As a teenager, Barney showed much potential. He was Harvard-bound until Homer introduced him to beer on the night before they had to take the SATs. According to the episode "She Used to Be My Girl", he took to drinking after his high-school sweetheart Chloe Talbot left Springfield to become a successful TV reporter.
Later on, with Homer, he was a member of The Be Sharps barbershop quartet, in which his stellar Irish singing voice was discovered. It was heard again in "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" and in "Mommie Beerest". Barney showed his artistic side again in the episode "A Star Is Burns", in which Barney won top prize at the Springfield Film Festival for his moving documentary about his life as an alcoholic, unfortunately titled "Puke-a-hontas".
According to "Simpson Tide," Barney served in the United States Navy Reserve for a short time, as a submariner on the USS Jebediah with his own mother as his superior officer, although he briefly served in the U.S. Army during his youth.
Notable events
Conflicts
He has been involved in several altercations at Moe's with various visiting celebrities: after severely criticizing Joe Frazier, the two men stepped outside, with Frazier victorious in the fight. Barney was more successful with Wade Boggs, knocking him unconscious after an argument over who was Britain's greatest Prime Minister; Barney argued it was Lord Palmerston, while Boggs preferred Pitt the Elder.
In the episode "Mr. Plow", Barney was inspired by Homer's Mr. Plow business to have his own snow removal service, calling himself the Plow King and buying a snow removal truck much bigger than Homer's. He even got Linda Ronstadt to sing on his commercials. "We've been looking for a project to do together for a while," he explained. He took away all Homer's customers and earned the key toSpringfield (which was taken away from Homer). Homer eventually fools Barney into traveling to "Forbidding Widows' Peak" to plow through the snow for a $10,000 bill, but is caught in an avalanche. Homer ends up saving Barney, they become friends again and team up, only to find the snow melting (after Homer comments "When two best friends team up, not even God himself can stop them." To which a voice from the sky replies "Oh, no?" and promptly beams down a ray of light to melt the snow), and Homer's truck repossessed. Barney is seen driving his plow as the Plow King once again in "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace."
When Mr. Burns caused Moe's Tavern to close down in "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)", Barney became a major suspect for shooting Burns after Burns blocked the sun (despite his easygoing nature, Barney apparently carries around a derringer at all times).
Barney has been involved in several experiences such as exploding zeppelins, malfunctioning Jet packs, and being crushed by a falling table. Barney, like most characters on animated shows, always survives these incidents, though he is generally put out of action for the remainder of the episode.
Sobriety
In the episode "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses", Barney kicked the alcoholism habit. For his birthday, Moe gave him a gift certificate for helicopter flying lessons, not expecting Barney to actually use them. "Can you imagine this tanked-up loser at the wheel of a whirlybird?", Moe asked. This comment, coupled with a humiliating videotape of Barney's actions while inebriated, gave Barney the drive he needed. Barney attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, became sober, and took the helicopter lessons. He became fairly proficient at it, though he admitted he had not yet mastered right turns. This new skill helped Homer rescue Bart and Lisa from a forest fire.
Unwilling to lose one of his most crucial customers to his tavern, Moe figured out a way to channel Barney's tendency for addiction into a dependency on the caffeine in espressos. This led to the disappearance of his trademark belch. Barney has had relapses in "The Blunder Years" and "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can" and was back on the sauce in "My Big Fat Geek Wedding" (in a scene that was a parody of Jimmy Stewart in Harvey).
Homer encouraged Barney to drink a beer when he played Ulysses S. Grant in a re-enactment of the Battle of Springfield (though this, surprisingly, did not cause him to become alcoholic again). Early in season sixteen, though, he briefly sobered up and got back behind the controls of his helicopter to rescue his old girlfriend Chloe from a volcanic lava flow. He was also relatively sober and piloting his helicopter again in "Homerazzi". In "Co-Dependent's Day", he stated that the same rehab clinic had "cured him six times," implying that he has been switching between a current and recovering alcoholic. In "Lost Our Lisa", he seemed sober until he entered Moe's Tavern.
In The Simpsons Movie, Barney had been on and off with his sobriety. When Green Day performed in Springfield, Barney was one of the townspeople who threw beer bottles at them, and has his trademark 'drunk' hairdo. In church several minutes later, he once again has his well-combed hair. Once the Dome began descending upon Springfield, he was one of the barflies who run into the church, and even later Barney was attending an Alcoholics' Anonymous meeting and went crazy when the coffee ran out.
Episode Appearances
