Bart Simpson
Bartholomew Jojo "Bart" Simpson
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Character Information
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Bartholomew Jojo "Bart" Simpson is the eldest child of Homer and Marge Simpson, and the brother of Lisa and Maggie Simpson. Mischievous and rebellious, with a disrespect for authority and a sharp tongue, 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. He is voiced by Nancy Cartwright.
Contents
Appearance
He has yellow / blonde spikey hair (revealed to actually be naturally red, but dyed). He wears a red short-sleeved shirt, blue short pants, and blue-white shoes. In earlier seasons he would sometimes wear his "lucky" red baseball cap and carry around his skateboard or a slingshot.
Personality
Bart is a self-proclaimed underachiever who begins each show in detention as part of the opening sequence. His birthday is also April 1st. 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.
Bart's interests include Krusty the Clown (he is "Krusty Buddy" number 16302), skateboarding, reading comic books (especially Radioactive Man), watching TV (especially the Krusty The Clown Show and The Itchy & Scratchy Show), terrorizing Lisa, playing video 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). Bart also sprays graffiti under the alias 'El Barto', and regularly frequents the Kwik-E-Mart (for bubblegum and Squishees) and The Android's Dungeon.
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 "Bart the General", Bart hinted that his favorite movies are Jaws and the Star Wars trilogy. His best friend is Milhouse Van Houten.
Bart can speak several language's with varying degree's of fluency. 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.
He is the most misunderstood Simpson, constantly frustrated by the narrow-minded people of Springfield, who judge him merely by his thoughts and actions. At heart, he is just a good kid with a few bad ideas (and one or two that are still being reviewed by the Springfield District Attorney) - Basically, Bart is no different from any ordinary 4th grader. When Bart is about to do something mischievous, he does an evil chuckle.
In his book Planet Simpson, Chris Turner describes Bart as a nihilist. Bart's character traits of rebelliousness and disrespect for authority have 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.
Behaviour
Bart 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 turns out to be musically gifted by becoming an excellent drummer. On the other hand, Bart 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.
Labeled an "underachiever" by authority figures, Bart rides an academic rollercoaster, his grades, running the Loop-the-Loop from "F" to "D-," and back again. But he can be ingenious when the chips are down -- as long as his ingenuity is never applied to anything school-related. He even learned portions of the Talmud to help reunite his idol, Krusty the Clown, with Krusty's father, Rabbi Krustofsky.
Although he gets into endless trouble and is sometimes 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 and his teacher, despite the fact he often terrorizes them, and he often befriends outcasts like Milhouse. 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.
Alter Egos & Aliases
Bart sprayed graffiti around Springfield using the name "El Barto", and his superhero alter-ego is Bartman. He called himself The Cupcake Kid when Homer became Pie-Man.
Future
As with other characters, his future follows no defined and logical pattern and simply changes to suit the episode. At the age of 18, Bart is a high school senior at Springfield High School. He styles his hair and wears an earring. He speaks three languages, apparently one being armpit noises, and one is hinted to be French. He pursues a relationship with a girl named Jenda who denies his proposal. As a result, Bart pursues a career at the Kwik-E-Mart: Whether he kept the job is not mentioned. At the age of 25, he is a building demolisher and vehicle crusher, and also attends law school. He is more kind in general, as opposed to his modern-day disposition. At age 32, he is taken to the hospital after eating too many fish logs. He seems to have lost his building demolishing company and works at a construction site. He got the "Mother" tattoo which Marge prevented him from getting, as well as a tattoo of Krusty the Clown on his chest. He receives a digestive tract transplant from Uter Zorker which saves his life. At age 40, he is a poor guitarist and alcoholic that dropped out of the DeVry Institute. He lives in a beach house alongside Ralph, the only other member of Bart's band. He is addicted to a form of drug, likely marijuana. At age 50, Bart appears to have straightened up and graduated law school, as he is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. At the age of 70, he lives at the Springfield Retirement Castle with Milhouse. At the age of 83, he finds true love, and dies one minute later.
Relationships
Family
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–!" (often followed by throttling 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 saying that he wishes Flanders was his father. 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 is also 2 years and 38 days older than Lisa (As revealed in "My Sister, My Sitter").
The bullies
Bart's schoolyeard nemesis is Nelson Muntz. His other nemesises are Nelson's cronies, Jimbo Jones, Kearney Zzyzwicz, Dolph Starbeam, and The Weasels. Bart repeatedly tries to impress them, but still generally ends up on the receiving end of their abuse.
Sideshow Bob
Bart (sometimes aided by Lisa) has foiled many of Sideshow Bob's evil schemes, which has lead to him becoming Bart's nemesis. Bob has a tattoo saying "Die Bart Die" on his chest, and one of Bart being decapitated on his back. Many of these schemes, as a central point or as a bonus, involved killing Bart - However, when Sideshow Bob finally got the chance to kill him (in "The Great Louse Detective"), he found he is "accustomed to [Bart's] face" and cannot do it. After that he left the country, but after The Simpsons exposed his nefarious past, and he returned to his old ways.
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 force him to rescind publication rights for his life's work, Groening decided to go in another direction. 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, as he decided it would have been too obvious for him to have named the character Matt. Bart then made his debut with the rest of the Simpsons clan on 19 April, 1987 in the Tracey Ullman short "Good Night". The name "Bart" is an anagram of the word "brat". 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. Groening's older brother Mark provided most of the inspiration for Bart. 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.
Voice & Catchphrases
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. 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. His other catchphrases included "¡Ay, caramba!" and "Don't have a cow man!" - the former being his first words after seeing Homer and Marge 'enjoying themselves' in bed - but these dropped out of use as the series progressed (as mentioned in "Summer of 4 Ft. 2", when Bart complains that Lisa stole his line).
Reception
In 1998, Time magazine selected Bart as 46th of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century — the only fictional character to make the list. He had previously appeared on the cover the December 31 1990 edition. Both Bart and Lisa ranked #11 in TV Guide's "Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time".
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.", to which Bart replied with "Hey, we're just like the Waltons. We're praying for an end to the Depression, too."
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. 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."
Bart is the most depicted Simpsons character on various memorabilia such as toys, books, comics, T-shirts, car decals, and even graffiti art. Bart, and other Simpsons characters, appeared in numerous commercials for Nestlé's Butterfinger candy bars from 1990-2001, with the slogan "Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger!". This association was parodied in an episode when he discovered that he was 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 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, but the character specifically mentions the events of The Telltale Head when Cartman asks him to name the "most badass thing" he has done.
Appearances
NOTE: The only episode Bart doesn't appear in and isn't mentioned is Four Great Women and a Manicure.
See Also
References
- ↑ Richmond, Ray; Antonia Coffman (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to our Favorite Family. Harper Collins Publishers, pg. 178. ISBN 0-00-638898-1
- ↑ Cantor, P: "The Simpsons: Atomistic Politics and the Nuclear Family", page 738. Political Theory, Vol 27 No 6, Dec 1999.
- ↑ BBC. (2000). 'The Simpsons': America's First Family (6 minute edit for the season 1 DVD) (DVD). UK: 20th Century Fox.
- ↑ Groening, Matt: Jean, Al. (2007). The Simpsons Movie: A Look Behind the Scenes [DVD]. The Sun.
- ↑ Richmond, p. 14
- ↑ Groening, Matt. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "My Sister, My Sitter" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ↑ Paul, Alan. "Life in Hell", Flux Magazine, 1995-09-30.
- ↑ Groening, Matt. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Ninth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Bart Carny" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ↑ Groening, Matt. (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode "Two Bad Neighbors" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ↑ Bart's voice tells all. BBC News (2000-11-10). Retrieved on 2007-05-16.
- ↑ Larry Carroll. "'Simpsons' Trivia, From Swearing Lisa To 'Burns-Sexual' Smithers", MTV, 2007-07-26. Retrieved on 2007-07-29.
- ↑ Bart Simpson. Time (1998-06-08). Retrieved on 2007-05-16.
- ↑ TIME Magazine Cover: Bart Simpson. Time (1990-12-31).
- ↑ CNN - TV Guide's 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters. CNN (2002-07-30). Retrieved on 2007-03-14.
- ↑ Turner, Chris. Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation, p. 25. ISBN 0-679-31318-4
- ↑ Turner p. 61
- ↑ Griffiths, Nick. "America's First Family", The Times Magazine, 2000-04-15, pp. 25, 27-28.
- ↑ Chen, Raymond (1994-10-10). SNPP.com "Stark Raving Dad" episode capsule. Retrieved on 2008-02-28.
- ↑ Don't lay a finger on his Butterfinger - Nestle USA Inc. Nestle Chocolate and Confections' television advertisements - Brief Article. Prepared Foods at Find Articles. Retrieved on 2007-05-17.
- ↑ Goldman, Eric (2006-04-13). South Park Recap: Cartoon Wars: Part 2. IGN.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-17.
- ↑ revealed in No Loan Again, Naturally
