Cletus Spuckler
Cletus Spuckler
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Character Information
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Cletus Del Roy Spuckler, (voiced by Hank Azaria), also known as Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel is a stereotypical hillbilly/redneck, though usually good-natured, he is thin, has brown hair in an indeterminate style but shaved in the back, a meager attempt at a moustache, and several fewer teeth than even the average Springfield resident. He is nearly always depicted wearing a white tank top or "wifebeater" which exposes a tattoo of a snake and skull on his left arm.
Contents
Biography
Cletus was introduced during the fifth season in "Bart Gets an Elephant". He is shown as one of the "slack-jawed yokels" gawking at Bart's elephant Stampy. Cletus' voice is slightly deeper in this initial appearance than in later episodes. He, like the Sea Captain before him, was the go-to character for a quick laugh on the show, and is a staff favorite. He was introduced as a character in "22 Short Films About Springfield". The episode featured bluegrass music played on a banjo accompanied with different taglines stating the abnormal things Cletus has done including eating a skunk and losing a toe.
Cletus has seemed to be suffering from some sort of illness caused by drinking mercury out of a thermometer. It badly affected his memory. He whittles what he observes into wood with a penknife. Chief Wiggum was able to track down Bart and Gina after they escaped from jail through Cletus' wood carving of them. Cletus also possesses a form of precognitive vision through whittling. He predicted that Chief Wiggum would be mauled by a bear later in that episode.
Growing up, Cletus developed a loving relationship with his mother, whom he addresses as 'Maw.' He has always been social and hard working. Cletus isn't bothered by other the opinions of him. He isn't ashamed by his marriage to his apparent relative, Brandine Spuckler[1]. Cletus has several hobbies which include whittling "piney babies" for children, searching for roadkill, digging through garbage, and spending time with everyone in his family except Brandine. In "Lost Our Lisa" he admits his favourite food is fresh skunk and raccoon. Cletus had a "smell-hound" named Geech.
Cletus and Brandine have a happy relationship, however they are often shown having disagreements. Cletus had an apparent stronger love to a pig, rather than Brandine. In "Stop, Or My Dog Will Shoot! Brandine wielded a shotgun at him for giving the pig "a day of beauty and make-up" instead of herself. In the episode "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife", both Cletus and Brandine are rejected from coming to Lenny's party after they are both afraid to use the "uppity box" (an elevator).
Cletus works as a fifth generation dirt farmer. He also owns a successful chain of moonshine stills, and was delighted when it was decided that his drink would be used to flavor the latest version of Southern Cracker[2]. As seen in "A Star Is Torn", he and Brandine operate a vegetable shack near the Kwik-E-Mart. He is currently in the process of opening a family business that sells miscellaneous animal parts. In "Yokel Chords" Cletus took advantage of the money his children were making and used it to his own personal satisfaction.
Relationships
Cletus has an ongoing relationship with Brandine, who is generally represented as his wife, although the nature of their exact relationship is somewhat vague. It is often implied that the two are siblings. In "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily" at an auto racing event, Brandine remarks "Dang, Cletus! Why'd you have to park so close to my parents?" to which Cletus responds, "Now honey, they's mah parents too!" however, he may mean that they are his in-laws. This plays into the stereotype that incest is prevalent among hillbillies.
In the Season 16 episode, "There's Something About Marrying", Homer, who was ordained over the Internet as a minister, is preparing to marry Cletus and Brandine. Looking at a form, he asks "Wait a minute… are you two brother and sister?" Brandine replies, "We's all kindsa thangs." To complicate the issue further, Brandine remarks to Cletus in another episode ("The Italian Bob") "Yer tha best husband – and son – I've ever had." If all this is correct it is to be assumed that "Maw" is his stepmother and Brandine is his natural mother, his father being Brandine's father making him her half-brother and son. Further confusing matters, the episode "Little Big Girl" features a hand-drawn family tree created by one of Cletus' sons. According to this diagram, Brandine is the child of Cletus and an alien. Cletus and Brandine have thirty-nine children, which include a sheep and a walking hot dog.
Children
Cletus seems to be the father of a large number of children. When he presents Marge with 300 coupons for free pretzels from her pretzel business, he calls out to Tiffany, Heather, Cody, Dylan, Dermot, Jordan, Taylor, Brittany, Wesley, Rumer, Scout, Cassidy, Zoe, Chloe, Max, Hunter, Kendall, Caitlin, Noah, Sasha, Morgan, Kyra, Ian, Lauren, Q-Bert, and Phil. Cletus and Brandine also have a daughter named Condoleezza Marie, who was somehow switched with a bag of sugar that Homer was carrying as part of a parenting exercise, and a daughter named Rubella Scabies, whose middle name was inspired by a word spelled by Lisa in her audition for the annual spelling bee. They have another daughter, Gummy Sue, introduced in "Helter Shelter". In the episode "Lost Our Lisa", Lisa encounters Cletus gathering up roadkill for a hillbilly wedding feast. In the short dialogue that ensues, Brandine is implied to be giving birth to a new child in the truck's cab.
In a "Treehouse of Horror" issue of Simpsons Comics, Brandine (off-panel) is attempting to give birth to a child to completely fill out a set of Seven Dwarfs costumes. The episode "Yokel Chords" features seven Spuckler children, named Birthday, Crystal Meth, Dubya, Incest, International Harvester, Jitney, and Witney, as central characters. However, Brandine reveals that Cletus is the father of only two of these children (casting doubt on the paternity of the other children of the Spuckler household). In one episode Brandine was seen to give birth in a car, apparently with very little pain, and asking Cletus to cut the "Umbrellical cord." In "Marge Gamer", after one of his children is accused by Homer of cheating at soccer, Cletus says of his children, "I have sired a dumb-dumb, a mush-head, a whatsit, a dogboy, and something with a human face and fish body what we called Kevin. But my young'uns is not dirty players!"
Last name
Cletus' family name is "Spuckler"; in the episode "Sweets and Sour Marge", Cletus signs this as his name (in surprisingly elegant cursive, which is reminiscent of the signature of John Hancock) to Marge's petition to ban sugar from Springfield, and in "Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays" his name is given as "Cletus Spuckler" in a news report. A mailbox standing outside Cletus' shack in the video game The Simpsons: Hit and Run reads "Spuckler". But his last name was given as "Del Roy" in the episode "Behind the Laughter". In "All's Fair in Oven War", Brandine (his child-bearing partner)'s surname is said to be "Nolastnamegiven". In "Yokel Chords" Brandine refers to him as Cletus Del Roy Spuckler, implying that Del Roy is his middle name.
- ↑ 'Cletus Spuckler Dashdingo.com. URL accessed on 14 December 2006
- ↑ 'Cletus Spuckler Dashdingo.com. URL accessed on 14 December 2006
