Nelson Muntz
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Nelson Muntz
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Character Information
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Nelson Muntz is Springfield Elementary School's main bully. He is the former arch-nemesis (and later best friend) of Bart. His parents are Mr. Muntz and Mrs. Muntz. Nelson's cronies in bullying are Jimbo Jones, Dolph Starbeam, Kearney Zzyzwicz, and The Weasels (in Bart the General). Nelson's catch phrases are "Ha-ha!", "Stop hitting yourself!", "Stop butlering yourself!", "Stop zapping yourself!" and "Stop endangering yourself!". He is voiced by Nancy Cartwright.
ProfileNelson is introduced in the first season, Bart the General as a bully and arch-nemesis of Bart, best identified by his signature laugh. Over the years, Nelson has terrorized virtually everyone in Springfield.Nelson shows the occasional glimpse of humanity however, and other characters have occasionally warmed to him; Lisa dates him briefly in the episode, "Lisa's Date with Density," Marge informally adopts him in "Sleeping with the Enemy," and Bart befriends him in "The Haw-Hawed Couple."Even in a life-or-death situation, Nelson laughs at the one in misfortune. Often, he makes his victim inflict self-punishment while yelling remarks like "Stop hitting yourself!", "Stop butlering yourself!", "Stop zapping yourself!", or "Stop endangering yourself!". Usually, it is Milhouse and Martin, who are subjected to this type of cruelty, although Nelson once described Bart as having "spikey hair, soft kidneys, and always hitting himself".His family life is dysfunctional. While some early episodes offer inconsistent histories the canon story that has evolved is that he lives in a dilapidated house with his mother who works on the fringes of the sex industry, either as a waitress at Hooters or in a topless bar. The character design and voice portrayal of both parents has varied throughout the course of the series.It is shown in many episodes that Nelson's father abandoned him and his mother at an early age when he "went to pick up some Poptarts". Although, later on in the series, he was said to have gone to pick up a pack of cigarettes. This may or may not be a reference to Stephen King's childhood, as King's father also left for a pack of cigarettes and never returned. In the fourth season episode, "Brother from the Same Planet" Nelson's father appears as the children's soccer coach and awards Nelson with a free trip to Pele's Soccer and Acting School. Nelson's father returns in the 16th season episode, "Sleeping with the Enemy". It turns out that he did not leave Nelson deliberately; he bit into a chocolate bar, not knowing it had peanuts and had an allergic reaction. Looking like the Elephant Man, he ran out of the store and encountered a circus that made him a part of its freak show. At performances, circus attendees threw peanuts at him, which perpetuated his reaction, never allowing him to return to normal. When the circus came through Springfield, Bart recognized him and brought him home to rid himself of Nelson (who had been taken into the Simpson home by Marge). As revealed in "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish"", his grandfather is a judge.In one episode, Nelson represents Japan at the school's Model UN club. In various episodes, he gives off the impression that he is a lot smarter than he may first appear. Nelson often points out painfully obvious things to adults and kids alike that take them longer to grasp. Another example is a running joke where Nelson does a class assignment which is implied to be of high quality. However, he is always brushed off by the teachers before he gets to show them his work.Nelson is also a natural athlete. In the episode "Bart Star", Nelson almost singlehandedly carries the entire Springfield Pee-Wee football team. As the team quarterback, he also on one occasion catches his own pass and plows through the opposing team with extreme ease. Nelson is also a fan of many unexpected things, such as Andy Williams[1] and Snow White.[2] He is also an expert in the proper preparation of huckleberries. According to the episode, "The Monkey Suit", Nelson is apparently a master of disguise, fooling even Bart and Ned Flanders.Although Nelson is still as violent as ever, he has also been known to beat people up for arguably noble reasons (usually it is Bart who is subjected to this type of punishment). In one episode, he punched Bart in the stomach, saying "That's for taking credit for other people's work!", when Bart (truthfully) claimed to have been Krusty the Clown's assistant or when Bart wrecked Hitler's vehicle at a carnival ("You wrecked Hitler's car! What did he ever do to you?!"). He also beat up Bart for "Wasting teacher's valuable time!", when Bart constantly raised his hand with the wrong answer to answer a question Mrs. Krabappel asked, and "Besmirching an innocent girl's name!" when Bart tried to flaunt his relationship with Jessica Lovejoy to the other kids. However, in The Simpsons Movie, when Milhouse claims to care about the environment in order to impress Lisa, Nelson stands over him with a fist raised and demands he "Say global warming is a myth!" Milhouse does so, but mentions that further study is needed, and Nelson punches him telling him "That's for selling out your beliefs!" Nelson himself was subjected to a beating at the hands of Kearney and Jimbo at the racetrack when he used the word "guff" instead of shit in the Season 11 episode "Saddlesore Galactica". Contrary to this, however, in the episode 24 Minutes, Bart is shown to be capable enough to beat Nelson up. He's shown to have at least one other redeeming quality-a segment in the 2008 Treehouse of Horror episode shows him to be against racism. While confronting the orange Grand Pumpkin he sees the Pumpkins indifference to Nelsons holding a yellow pumpkin hostage. The Grand Pumpkin promptly swallows him up, but only after Nelson declares "I'd rather die than hate!"In the episode "Little Big Girl", it is revealed that Nelson is of German descent. However in the episode "Much Apu About Nothing", Nelson picks on Üter Zörker for being German, during a time when the town was in an anti-illegal immigrant hysteria. At times Nelson is depicted as having master answer sheets to various tests and assignments at school. In one episode he has an "office" located in a toilet stall where he has the answer sheets hidden in the toilet cistern. He also has a framed picture of himself mounted on the cubicle wall with "Employee Of The Month" stenciled below it.
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Contents
Relationships with other characters
Although in the first season, Nelson seemed to be Bart's antagonist, he becomes (sort of) Bart's friend in The Haw-Hawed Couple.
In the earliest episodes, Lisa became the target of Nelson's bullying, which prompted Bart to defend her. Bart's actions resulted in frequent beatings by Nelson and his gang, but finally ended when Bart received help from Herman, who came up with the idea of standing up to Nelson and his gang by pelting them with water balloons. From that point on, Nelson shows a grudging respect for Bart, though he occasionally reverts back to his past behavior towards him.
Although still prone to violence, Nelson occasionally hangs out with Bart and his outcast friends such as Milhouse Van Houten and even common bullying target Martin Prince. In "The Debarted", it is shown that Nelson has become Bart's "other best friend", along with Milhouse.
Nelson has many other moments where he displays his hidden good nature, such as his brief amorous relationship with Lisa. Although he cannot control his delinquent tendencies, he treats her with respect and even tries to change for her, although both of them realize that he is not being true to himself by doing so. In "Lisa's Date With Density", Nelson kisses Lisa, only to be berated by Jimbo, Kearney, and Dolph, who believe that kissing girls is "gay".
He also punishes Sherri and Terri for tormenting Lisa. Another curious example of his "good side" is with Martin, a boy whom Nelson picks on perhaps more so than any other kid in town. Despite the utter cruelty, there are occasional hints that Nelson does not harbor any real hatred towards Martin and only does so to maintain his 'tough guy' reputation. In "Dial 'N' for Nerder", when it is believed that Martin has died, Nelson seeks out to learn the truth and find Martin's killers. When it is revealed that Martin is alive, Nelson mocks and punches him, but also states that he is glad Martin is not dead. In this same episode however, when Lisa tries to bribe him to not rat her out by offering to get back together with him, he denies it.
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The episode "Future-Drama" depicts Nelson to have dated and impregnated identical twin sisters Sherri and Terri, becoming the father to two sets of twins. He then claims to be going out to the store for a pack of cigarettes, and then flees, later explaining himself in a similar manner to his father.
In "Bart to the Future" Nelson is shown to be a rich, powerful businessman or mob boss, who owns a bar (a reference to the alternate Biff Tannen of the Back to the Future movie series).
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The show's creator Matt Groening named Nelson after the Nelson wrestling hold.
The idea of Nelson dating Lisa Simpson had been around for a while, and by that time, the writers had begun to explore the show's secondary characters. "Lisa's Date with Density" was the first episode to center Nelson and was used to explain why he acts the way he does.
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Name
According to the DVD commentary on the season five The Simpsons episode "Lady Bouvier's Lover", Nelson's first name comes from the wrestling hold, the full nelson. However, others stated that it was named after actor Judd Nelson, who portrayed John Bender. Both Bender and Nelson have a similar appearance, personality and delinquencies.
Relationships with other characters
Although in the first season, Nelson seemed to be Bart's antagonist, he becomes Bart's friend in later episodes. Although still prone to violence, he occasionally hangs out with Bart and his outcast friends such as Milhouse Van Houten and even common bullying target Martin Prince, more often than delinquents Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney. Many have noted that around season 6, Nelson is not seen with the bully trio very often, hinting that his friendship with them is superficial. Nelson has many other moments where he displays his hidden good nature, such as his brief amorous relationship with Lisa. Although he cannot control his delinquent tendencies, he treats her with respect and even tries to change for her, although both of them realize that he is not being true to himself by doing so. In Lisa's Date With Density, Nelson kisses Lisa, only to be berated by Jimbo, Kearney, and Dolph, who believe that kissing girls is gay despite the fact that Jimbo kissed Laura Powers in New Kid on the Block. He also helps Lisa punish Sherri and Terri for tormenting Lisa about her butt. Another curious example of his "good side" is with Martin, a boy whom Nelson picks on perhaps more so than any other kid in town. Despite the utter cruelty, there are occasional hints that Nelson does not harbor any hate towards Martin, and does not want to pick on him. In the episode, I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can, both Nelson and Martin attend Space Camp and it is implied that Martin had helped Nelson quite a bit and the two may have been very friendly. Also in the episode Lemon of Troy Nelson does save Martin from getting beaten up by a Shelbyville kid, even though he is clearly embarrassed by doing it. Due to the peer pressure of maintaining his bad-boy image at school however, he seems to deliberately go back to his antagonism toward a rather dismayed Martin.
Future
The episode Future-Drama depicts Nelson to have dated and impregnated identical twin sisters Sherri and Terri, becoming the father to two sets of twins. He then claims to be going out to the store for a pack of cigarettes, and then ran away when the twins questioned that the excuse he gave was the very same excuse that Nelson's father gave when he ran away from Nelson.
Episode Appearances
Comic Appearances
