Difference between revisions of "Joe Quimby"

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Joseph Fitzgerald O'Malley Fitzpatrick O'Donnell The Edge "Joe" Quimby,^[1] a.k.a. "Diamond Joe" Quimby, or simply Mayor Quimby is the Mayor of Springfield. He appears as a slick, opportunistic politician whose chief priorities seem to be keeping himself in office, womanizing, and various other forms of corruption, including embezzling tax money, taking bribes from Fat Tony, the local Mafia Don, and giving monthly kickbacks to Police Chief Wiggum. The seal on the wall of his office reads "Corruptus in Extremis", which means "extremely corrupt". He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta

Origin of name

Joe Quimby's name partly comes from NW Quimby Street in Portland, Oregon, the hometown of show creator Matt Groening. The rest of the character's name is from Portland mobster and chief of police, "Diamond" Jim Purcell.

Profile

Despite being mayor for such a long time, Quimby does not know or care much about his city, often privately (or even publicly) showing his outright contempt for Springfield's citizens. He frequently takes overseas vacations, which take him out of town for extended periods of time, leading to the headline "Mayor Visits City" in the Springfield Shopper. He once referred to Springfield as Springfeld at a public meeting. However, he makes frequent, albeit short, public appearances for local festivities, events, business openings, etc.

If bending the law will suit Quimby's purposes, he will likely do so. He once arranged Marge Simpson's release after she was arrested for blocking traffic on a bridge after suffering a nervous breakdown, claiming that if she went to jail, Quimby could kiss the "chick vote" goodbye. He also resorted to bribing witnesses when assault charges were brought against his nephew, leading Bart Simpson to observe that "the system works: just ask Claus von Bülow".

His catch phrase is "Vote Quimby", which he always finds an opportunity to say, even in situations where it would be disadvantageous to identify himself, like inadvertently being caught by Homer in a motel room with his mistress.

Quimby was elected Mayor of Springfield in 1986. He has been re-elected several times since, despite rather open admissions of fraud and wrongdoing. In one episode, he admits to using taxpayer dollars to fund the murder of his enemies, but thanks to a clever use of a popular Gabbo catch phrase ("I'm a bad wittle boy"), he is re-elected in a landslide. His political stranglehold on Springfield has earned him the hatred of Springfield's small but vocal Republican elite, themselves portrayed as mostly dark, ghoulish figures who meet in a castle.

When the party nominates Sideshow Bob as its mayoral candidate, Bob rigs the election, briefly deposing Quimby. He is re-instated when Bob is found guilty of fraud and imprisoned. Later, he is briefly deemed to have "abandoned office" and is replaced by a short-lived "council of learned citizens" headed by Lisa Simpson, Professor Frink, Comic Book Guy, Lindsey Naegle, Dr. Hibbert, and Principal Skinner. He also survives a recall election, with no candidate in the race against him (candidates include Rainier Wolfcastle (another Schwarzenegger reference), Kent Brockman, and even Homer Simpson) garnering the five percent necessary to force a recall.

Elections

Quimby was elected Mayor of Springfield in 1986. He has been re-elected several times since, despite rather open admissions of fraud and wrongdoing. He once admitted to using taxpayer dollars to fund the murder of his enemies, but thanks to a clever use of a popular catch phrase ("I'm a bad wittle boy"), he was re-elected in a landslide. Further evidence of his apparent political ideology, Quimby has earned himself the hatred of Springfield's small but vocal Republican elite, themselves portrayed as mostly dark, ghoulish figures who meet in a castle.

When the party nominated Sideshow Bob as its mayoral candidate, Bob rigged the election, briefly deposing Quimby. He was re-instated when Bob was found guilty of fraud and imprisoned. He also survived a recall election in 2005, with no candidate in the race against him (candidates included Rainier Wolfcastle (another Schwarzenegger reference), Kent Brockman, and even Homer Simpson) garnering the 5% necessary to force a recall.

He was replaced by Snowball II for a brief period, until she fell asleep during the whole British Invasion of Springfield.

In Lisa's Wedding, he is later seen as a Taxi Driver. It's implied in the episode that he was thrown out of Office, and he has to try and deflect the embarrassment and shame of the event by falsifying his Drivers License by claiming that his name is Mohammad Jafar.

Comparisons to the Kennedy family

There are many things about Quimby and his family that are similar to Ted Kennedy and the Kennedy political family such as:

• He speaks with a Boston accent, in a style most resembling that of Ted Kennedy, commonly separating words with "er" and "ah".
• The mayor is a Democrat, like the Kennedys.
• He enjoys lavish wealth.
• He lives on a coastal estate (the "Quimby compound") with his family—not unlike the Kennedy Compound in Hyannisport, Massachusetts.
• Quimby is married to a woman who wears a pink suit and pillbox hat similar to one Jacqueline Kennedy made famous, whom he met while she was working in Maison Derrière. She may be also related to actor Rainier Wolfcastle, who is modeled after Arnold Schwarzenegger (husband of Ted Kennedy's niece, Maria Shriver); Wolfcastle has been spotted at Quimby family functions.
• The Kennedy family is Irish and so is Joe Quimby.
• The mayor's nephew, Freddy Quimby, was once tried for assault (a reference to the William Kennedy Smith rape trial) during which Mayor Quimby tried to bribe witnesses.
• One of his many middle names is Fitzgerald, which was president John F. Kennedy's middle name.

During the USAToday.com contest to choose which Springfield would host the Simpsons Movie premiere, Ted Kennedy himself appears in a video in which he invited "Diamond Joe" Quimby to Springfield, Massachusetts, and even mocked his own oft-mocked pronunciation of the word "Chowder" (as "Chow-Dah").

Episode Appearances

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References

External links

• Official site of Joe Quimby's 2000 presidential election campaign
• Mayored to the Mob: A Mayor Quimby Tribute

See Also

• Politics in The Simpsons