The Simpsons (animation)/Characters

Oh come on. You know who these characters are...

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The Simpson Family

• Badass Family: Even though they usually deal with their own individual problems, when they work together you will see this trope in its greatest affect.
  • Badass Normal: They're just your typical everyday sitcom family, yet has established better feats than people in real life had.
  • Badass Abnormal: In The Simpsons Game, they all obtain superpowers that fit their characters while fighting entire corporations, video game characters, alien invasions, and even GOD himself!
  • Badass Adorable: Admit it, their idiocy can be endearing at times that you'd wish you were a part of them.
  • Hidden Badass
• Born Lucky: At least in the eyes of some people.
• Dysfunctional Family: Like you wouldn't believe.
• Five-Man Band: Depending on the plot or episode, the family changes their roles in this trope depending on the situation at hand, Bart and Homer are typically The Heroes though.
  • The Hero: Bart or Homer
  • The Lancer: Bart or Marge for Homer, Lisa for Bart (and vice versa)
  • The Big Guy: Homer, as he's appears to be the toughest family member, also sometimes Bart to a lesser extent. Maggie, on the other hand, has done some of the more "hands on" work with guys like Mr. Burns.
  • The Smart Guy: Lisa, as she has the most common sense and the least personality flaws (barring a few occasions).
  • The Chick: Marge and Lisa
  • Team Pet: Santa's Little Helper and Snowball (II)
• Idiot Ball/Jerkass Ball/Villain Ball: Homer and (to a far lessor extent) Bart carry these the most, but even Marge and Lisa are guilty of this trope when the plot calls for it.
• Non Standard Character Design: All of them have a rather pronounced overbite, larger eyes and, barring Marge, a less obvious hairline than other Springfielders.

Homer Jay Simpson

"Lord help me, I'm just not that bright." —Some Enchanted Evening

The father, the dope, and more or less the Main Character of the show. Homer is overweight, almost completely bald, and rather selfish and stupid, but is a good person at heart and has a bright outlook on life. Voiced by Dan Castellaneta.

• Abusive Dad: Granted, even in his Jerkass characterization, he's less so than Peter Griffin, but still. Though he's always strangled Bart.
  • And then there's the original shorts, where he's almost as bad as Peter.
  • Pits Bart and Lisa against one another a lot, a particularly toxic form of bad parenting.
  • Many one-off jokes have him agreeing with Sideshow Bob's hatred for Bart or being okay with locking his son up forever.
  • In "'Tis the Fifteenth Season", he outright admits to being abusive to his family.
  • In "Trash of the Titans", it's made clear that he intends to beat Bart if he loses the race for Sanitation Commissioner.
• Adult Child
• Angrish: Frequently lapses into this, whether he is justified or not.
• The Alcoholic: He's the king of this Trope.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Actually manages to act dumber after sometimes drinking a few too many.
• Anti-Hero: Type I, IV, or V, depending on the episode.
• Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny
  • Some of us can already hear in our heads the sound of Homer uttering that exact phrase.
• Awesome McCoolname: He once legally changed his name to Max Power.
• Bald of Awesome
• Big Eater
• The Big Guy
• Big No
• Born Lucky
• Boisterous Bruiser: He is more Falstaff than falstaff.
• Brilliant but Lazy: Would rather always be sipping Duff on the couch but he can be extremely crafty when he wants to be.
• Breakout Character: Originally Bart was the main character.
• Bumbling Dad
• Butt Monkey: Even with all his Jerkass tendencies, you do feel sympathy for what he goes through at times.
• Catch Phrase:

"D'OH!!!!" "Woo-hoo!" "Why, you little...!!!" "Mmm, [insert food here]..." "AAAH!!" "Bo-ring!"

• Charlie Brown Baldness
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: For all his flaws, he's the most loyal friend you can have, as he'll always help his friends with the problems of the today's episode they're facing. Hell, you don't even have to be a close friend of him to get his help, he'll surely help you even if he only met you just some moments ago. Even his enemies, like Mr. Burns or Selma, might get his aid if he's on a good mood.
• Comically Missing the Point: Falls victim to this a lot.
• Convenience Store Gift Shopping: Homer has a very bad habit of doing this sort of thing. It was justified in the episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", however, as he really didn't have any other option than to buy his family cheap Christmas gifts (including a dog toy for Maggie) because he really couldn't afford any regular gifts due to Mr. Burns denying his workers a Christmas bonus.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass
• Cursed with Awesome: Mr. Burns being unable to remember who he is. As much as Homer hates it, it also means that he can never be fired as Burns always forgets his screwups.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His parents' marriage was extremely rocky, his mother disappeared when he was eight, he grew up in Perpetual Poverty and he was looked down upon by pretty much everyone. No surprise that he grew into a rather Jaded Washout.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Strangling his son is a great example.
• The Ditz
  • Genius Ditz: It turn out he can be a brilliant Chessmaster against Mr. Burns in "C.E. D'oh". "Check and mate" indeed.
    • He's also a gifted polyglot, capable of speaking even Penguin.
    • He's also quite a musician, capable of composing and playing many instruments. He even had two musical careers (when he was a member of the B-Sharps in the 1980s and when he was a member of Sadgasm in the 1990s). He also composed the hit single "Everybody Hates Ned Flanders." It gained a following in Springfield and, when he co-produced with David Byrne, it became hit with many covers.
  • He's an awful blackjack player, but he's so skilled at poker that he frequently wins without realizing it.
• Eagle Land: Espouses Type 1 but he's very much a Type 2.
• Extreme Omnivore: He'll eat anything from fancy bathroom soaps ("The Front") to plastic lobsters ("New Kid on the Block") to dishwashing liquid ("Marge Gets a Job") to radioactive waste ("E-I-E-I-[Annoyed Grunt]" and "Hello Gutter, Hello, Fadder"), and on two separate occasions, has eaten live fish, and a live seal.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • In "When Flanders Failed" he briefly considers wishing for Ned's death but dismisses it as "too far".
  • Homer's far from the best husband around but he draws the line at cheating on Marge. No matter how beautiful the woman or tempting the offer he always stays faithful.
  • "There Will Be Buds" establishes that Homer dislikes strip clubs and finds them sleazy. Such is his discomfort that Marge has to goad him to going into a strip club to look for Kirk when he goes missing.
• Fat Bastard: Homer's gluttony, depending on the episode, can be taken to extremes. This can range from Homer eating to the point of being bloated and watching his belly bulge out and obscure his view of his feet, to Homer deliberately gaining weight to push past 300 lbs so that he could avoid exercising at work and doing his job at home.
• Fat Idiot
• The Fool
• Freudian Excuse: His mother left him as a kid, and his father didn't know how to raise him. It's also implied that his abuse of Bart was stemmed from being abused by his own father. That, and his father's emotional abuse may have at least contributed to his lack of intellect. He also is a glutton due to mental scars of finding Waylon Smithers Sr's corpse clogging a pipe for a lake.
• Functional Addict: Depending on the writer.
• Gasshole: Though not as extreme as Barney, Homer is depicted as no slouch in the belching department. Then there was Bart's remark in "King Sized Homer" about "Homer's butt preventing the release of toxic gas, for once!"
• Hair-Trigger Temper: It takes truly minor things to anger Homer enough to strangle his own son.
• Heteronormative Crusader: He's constantly on the look out for things that would make Bart a bit "fruity"... until he realized he could make money from hosting gay marriages.
• Hidden Depths: Despite being a blue-collar working class slob, he's shown a surprising amount of knowledge about foreign cultures and shares Bart's knack for being an Omniglot.
• Hypocrite: He ignores his father. Whenever his father ignores him, he's deeply offended and moves heaven and Earth for Abe's attention.
• Idiot Hero
• Informed Deformity: He is considered extremely fat and unfit. Actually he is only 239 lbs, and tall to start.
  • Peter Griffin's got him beat. Even in the same universe, so do Comic Book Guy, Chief Wiggum (who actually had the nerve to call Homer fat), and Mayor Joe Quimby, for starters.
  • A real-life adult with Homer's height and weight would have a BMI of 32.4. Obese, but not morbidly so.
  • Word of God says his weight fluctuates from borderline obese to merely porky.
  • He is also said to be diabetic (from when he drank too many Starbucks Frappucinos during his stint as lead singer of the band, Sadgasm), but we never visibly see him suffer any diabetic symptoms.
• Informed Flaw: His IQ is said to be 55 but he has several moments of insight and intelligence. It's generally implied that his problem, aside from having a crayon in his brain, is that he's Brilliant but Lazy. When he's given proper motivation and support in "You Only Move Twice", he becomes a great manager.
• Innocent Bigot: Homer Simpsons is not the most politically correct person on the planet but many episodes make clear that he's only repeating what he heard on FOX News without understanding their deeper meaning.
• I Taste Delicious: In a Halloween episode where his head was turned into a donut.
• It's the Best Whatever Ever!: His opinion on the Thanksgiving depicted in "Behind the Laughter" (held during a feud between the family). "I mean, emotionally, it was terrible, but the turkey was so moist!"
• Jerkass: Always.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sometimes
  • Homer has always had moments of being a horrible person and being extremely caring. In later seasons, he recreates his first date with Marge so she'll fall for him all over again, repeatedly turns down sex so he can read to Lisa, gets very involved in making Bart a good student and making Lisa popular, lives in a terribly cramped apartment by himself so his kids can go to a good school, and on and on. There's just a strong bias against the later seasons, whether people watch the episodes or not.
    • Note that the stated examples came after repeated complaints of Homer being such a Jerkass. Most likely an Author's Saving Throw.
  • He once refused a massive bribe from Mr Burns to return his childhood teddy bear Bobo to avoid upsetting Maggie.
  • Homer was the one who stood up for Ned and berated the rest of the town when they turned on him.
• Large Ham: Don't try to deny it!

"BERSERK IS RIIIIIIIGHT!!!"

• Lazy Husband
• Lightning Bruiser: In the game version, he rolls around like a cannonball and hits like a truck with his ball powers. Not to mention he can charge at enemies with a great burst of speed.
• Like Father, Like Son: In many episodes, he acts just like Bart.
  • When the crayon is pulled out of his brain, he becomes Birds of a Feather with Lisa.
• Loser Son of Loser Dad: Perhaps in part to the Simpson gene, which affects the Y chromosome.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase: "Mmmm, [blank]."
• Made of Iron
• Man Child
• Mangled Catchphrase: "Exactly. Heh, heh...D'oh!"
• Manipulative Bastard
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Subverted in an episode when Homer is playing poker with Lenny, Carl and Moe at Lenny's house. He draws four cards and curses his bad hand, before poorly trying to bluff the other players. Lenny and Carl fold, but Moe knows that Homer is bluffing and calls. Homer then reveals that he has a straight flush, and Moe becomes so frustrated at Homer beating him that he ends up choking on his own rage. It looks as though Homer cleverly tricked Moe into playing the hand, but the next morning he tells the family that he didn't even realize he was winning.
• Obsessed with Food
• Omniglot: Has spoken German, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, a little bit of French (describes "Trash Night" as "La Nuit des Poubelles"), and penguin. No. Really.

"I can understand food talk in any language."

• Papa Wolf: Call Homer what you want, he still cares about his kids. Willing to become a Helicopter Parent for them, steal chocolate eggs for his baby, throw a pie at a guy mocking Lisa.
  • In regards to Lisa, he is also such a Papa Wolf that he'll even defend her honor against Marge. A notable of this was in the episode "$pringfield", when, thanks to Marge's gambling addiction, she forgot to help Lisa with her costume (Nevada) for a school play despite promising to do so. Suffice to say, Homer was quite angered, to the extent that he drove over to the casino, located Marge, and then started shouting at her in nonsense before he shouts that he's angry because Marge broke a promise she made to her daughter.
  • Bart, whom he strangulates regularly as a running gag, however, is comparatively SOL. Even then, Homer spearheaded an effort to dig Bart out after Bart fell down a well, took some nasty physical punishment while disguised to be a battle-robot that Bart controlled, and forced crooked T-shirt manufacturer Goose Gladwell, who cheated Bart out of the ideas he'd come up with for T-shirt slogans, by threatening Goose with a portable nuclear fission reactor until Goose paid Bart the money he deserved. Skinner also learns what happens if you toy with Bart's emotion just to see him broken mentally expert Homer to show up to help Bart get even.
• Parting Words Regret: His last words to his mother were rejecting her olive branch because of how she keeps abandoning him and their family. When he decides to make amends, he finds that she's died.
• Perma-Stubble
• The Peter Principle: Inverted. When he ascends to management, he tends to perform better.
• The Protagonist
• Real Men Wear Pink: He drives a pink Sedan.
  • Subverted when Bart accidentally dyed his shirt pink and it indirectly landed him in an insane asylum.
• Sarcasm Backfire: Homer had Bart take a sanity test for him. When Bart asks Homer if he hears voices in his head, Homer, who was watching TV at the time, sarcastically says "Yes, while I'm watching TV!" Bart interprets this as a legitimate answer and checks it off. Guess what happens to Homer afterwards.
• Screams Like a Little Girl
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Manly Man to Ned's Sensitive Guy.
• The Slacker
• Stone Wall: He's not physically fit or able to fight efficiently, but his damage resistance is extremely high.
• Stout Strength: He isn't physically fit and he hates working out (he doesn't even know how to pronounce the word "gym"), but he's one of the physically strongest characters.
• Super Serum: Beer has this effect on him in at least one episode.
• Taking Advantage of Generosity: When borrowing stuff from Flanders.
• Throw It In: "I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T! I mean, S-M-A-R-T!" Castelleneta wasn't supposed to do that misspelling, but accidentally did so during the recording. As he himself reasoned, though, "Well, I'm stupid."
• Took a Level In Dumbass: Homer started out stupid, but not really more so than anyone else. Word of God admitted that he was made stupider with each passing season to try to outdo what came before and remain fresh. (This trend ended at the start of Season 13, where the writers made a conscious effort to make him smarter.)
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Post-Flanderization.
• Token Evil Teammate: Downplayed compared to Bart but it's been noted a few times, most notably in "Trouble with Trillions", that he's pretty good at being evil or engaging in underhanded situations.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Early episodes, it was pork chops and doughnuts. Later episodes, it was just doughnuts, though, being an Extreme Omnivore, Homer's appetite doesn't discriminate.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Though Marge's hotness is more Informed Attractiveness.
• Unskilled but Strong: Generally his fighting style, using his sheer bulk and strength to plow through anything.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In "Goo Goo Gai Pan", he refuses to share peanuts with a trio of Real After All Chinese dragons. The ending implies he pushed the dragons into destroying the world. Though after a thousand years of sleep.
• Villain Protagonist: On his worst days.
• Vocal Evolution: His voice was much more gruff in the show's early days.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: While he definitely neglects Grandpa, it's implied that it's due to his own neglect as a child. Occasionally Homer demonstrates he really does want his father's approval and one occasion when Grandpa angrily called him "a mistake", Homer kicked him out of the car, left him in the middle of nowhere, then completely stopped speaking to him for several weeks.
  • Well Done Half-Brother Guy: After ruining his successful half-brother's life, the next time Herb appears, now a penniless bum, Homer spends most of the episode desperately trying to make Herb forgive him.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: In the episode "Homer Goes to College," Homer is convinced his college experience will be exactly like the party atmosphere college is often depicted as in movies, not realizing he's in a satire that thoroughly subverts the trope.

Marjorie "Marge" Simpson (née Bouvier)

The mother and typically both The Straight Man and Closer to Earth, Marge is predominantly a homemaker, but does have her wilder side. Loving and supportive, her devotion to her family may be strained at times but is never broken. Voiced by Julie Kavner.

• Abusive Parents: Not to the extent of Homer, but she is sometimes emotionally abusive to Bart, her Disappointed in You attitudes shutting him out when he needs her emotional support the most. And most of the time, she's not exactly rushing to save him when he's being strangled by Homer.
• Action Mom
• Badass Driver: "Canyonero-ooooo! Canyonero!"
• Beehive Hairdo
• Catch Phrase: "Hmmmmmm..."
• The Chick
• Closer to Earth: Though admittedly she is only sane in comparison to Homer as seasons progress. In many cases even he is shocked at some of her actions.
• The Comically Serious: Noted for her rather dull and no-risk demeanor, occasionally getting dizzy thrills out of monotonous activities like household chores (she does desire excitement and diversity every once in a while however, which is revealed to be a partial reason she likes Homer).
• Control Freak: When her world view and slice of normalcy is challenged, she reveals herself to be one, seeking to either shut down whatever new fangled thing has shown up (in "The Great Wife Hope", she all but admits to this) or drag Lisa back into line such as in "She of Little Faith" or "D'oh Canada".
• Culture Police: Can often take this stance, though she's a much more benevolent version of this trope.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose In Life: Post-The Simpsons Movie she can often be found in this role, growing bored with being just a housewife and wanting something more out of life.
• Education Mama: Especially with Bart, she even home-schools him for a period of time.
• Feminine Women Can Cook:
  • Marge seems to buy into this quite a lot, as she does take a lot of joy in preparing household meals. But a long-running background joke is that Marge can be a pretty bland cook, once claiming that her secret ingredient was salt.
  • Though averted in one episode, where she apparently made bad-tasting sundaes.

Marge: What's wrong with my sundaes?!

• Flanderization: In the first few series, Marge was the family's Only Sane Man and, despite being seen as a bore, had more than a few Not So Above It All moments. By around Season 11 or so, Marge shifted into an utterly humourless character who was excited by the mundane and her well-intentioned oversight of her children's lives had evolved into full blown nosiness.
• Friendless Background: A fact made clear several times is that Marge has little to no actual friends, for a variety of reasons. One big reason is Homer himself, who it's implied has routinely (accidentally, mind) driven away anyone who might want to socialize with her. A secondary reason is due to being a card-carrying wet blanket, as shown at the beginning of "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson".
• The Friend Nobody Likes: The few times she's shown to have friends, Marge is generally seen as the group's outsider. Usually because they're either shown to be extremely judgmental of her for either her parenting style or marriage, or find her to be extremely dull and too boring or too polite for the Gossipy Hens.
• The Fundamentalist: Downplayed but episodes that focus on Marge's religious beliefs, Protestant Christianity, show them to be unshakable. When Lisa became a Buddhist, or Bart became a Catholic or Homer stopped attending church, Marge's reaction was, shall we say, not calm.
• Gag Boobs: She briefly had a case of this in "Large Marge" in which she was accidentally given breast implants. Amusingly the first gag about it comes from her, no less, in which she describes that her "maguppies became bazongas!"
• The Gambling Addict: In the episode where a casino is built in Springfield, Marge loses quite a fortune at the slots. Since then, her gambling is mostly under control, though it is mentioned every now and then.

Comic Book Guy: Hey, I'm watching you!

• Gossipy Hens: She does love her gossip, like when Maggie's baby monitor picks up on phone calls, she becomes addicted to listening to it.
• Hammerspace Hair
• Happily Married: For most of the show's run.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Occasionally, though she's normally more of a social drinker.
• Hartman Hips: Depending on the Artist, Marge is depicted with a rather large bottom that bulges outwards. This tends to be best seen when she's wearing a swimsuit.
• Hazel Eyes
• Hikikomori: Spends a period like this in "Strong Arms of the Ma". She eventually overcame this after using the weight-lifting set Homer bought from Rainier Wolfcastle.
• Hot Mom: Not only are there many references in-universe to her being attractive, but she's actually appeared on the front cover of Playboy in Real Life.
• Housewife: While she does have a few jobs over the show's run, she spends most of her time as a housewife.
• Hypocrite:
  • In "There's Something About Marrying", Patty calls out the fact that, while Marge may parrot left-wing acceptance and values, and call out those who don't, she's actually got a pretty conservative mindset and is slow to accept anyone in her immediate circle deviating from the norm.
  • In "The Simpsons Guy", she calls out Lois Griffin for not wearing a bra. This coming from the woman who wears a strapless dress that fully exposes her shoulders.
• I Want Grandkids: Her greatest fear is dying without grandchildren.
• Impossibly Low Neckline: Her regular dress. It's even commented on in one episode.

Warden: NOTHING IS KEEPING UP HER DRESS! ONLY HER MELONS!!!

• Incredibly Lame Fun: Her idea of fun incudes household chores.
• Informed Attractiveness: Said to be one of the hottest women in Springfield but is drawn in a not particularly attractive or exceptional style.
  • Per Word of God, Marge was initially designed to be unattractive but after learning of some fans' Perverse Sexual Lust towards her, the writers made people attracted to her as a Fandom Nod. But they've never changed her appearance to match.
• Mama Bear: Any attack against her children, even though her son is a well-known troublemaker; Marge will go on the war path... even if you’re part of the 99 percent of Springfield. Don’t mess with the Simpson children in general. It also helps to know this same rules applies to Homer... most of the time.
• Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher: Her advice to Bart and Lisa generally manifests as this.
• Mom Brings Milk and Cookies: Or Tang and cookies.
• Moral Guardian: In her more insufferable moments, she forces her sense of morality onto others when she does not possess the authority to do so.
• Morality Chain: Whenever Homer and Bart disappoint Marge, they know they've gone too far.
• Nervous Wreck: The antics of her family sometimes drive her to nervous breakdowns.
• Parents Walk in At the Worst Time
• Progressively Prettier: Although Marge's appearance hasn't changed, how attractive she is stated to be has changed from housewife to centerfold.
  • Also present in the original Tracy Ulman show shorts. Marge started out as quite dumpy, but quickly began slimming down.
• Series Continuity Error: During the episode "The Blue and the Gray" Marge is shocked to see gray hairs in her blue hair, even though it was established seasons before that her natural hair is gray and that she dyes it blue. The writers then make her hairstylist explain her blue hair dye causes partial memory damage.
• Stepford Smiler: Although considering Homer's increasing Jerkassness, it's rather understandable.
• "Stop Having Fun!" Guys: Essentially Marge's role in both the family and Springfield as a whole. In "$pringfield" the town outright expects her to protest to the idea of legalizing gambling.
• Token Religious Teammate: The only firm believer in organized religion in the family. If not for Marge, it's clear that Homer, Bart and Lisa wouldn't attend church.
• Vocal Dissonance: Marge looks like she's in 30s to 40s but sounds much older. This became more apparent when Julie Kavner's voice became raspier with age.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Hot Wife to Homer's Ugly Guy.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Bartholomew "Bart" Jo-Jo Simpson

The original protagonist of the show in early seasons, a self-professed hellion and mischief-making little punk, though not incapable of good things for the right reason. Voiced by Nancy Cartwright.

• Aesop Amnesia: Bart has learned several times that Evil Is Not a Toy but it never seems to stick.
• Anti-Hero: Type III/IV --> Type V
• Anti-Villain: Type I
• Arch Enemy: To Sideshow Bob and Doctor Demento.
• Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: He has some manner of hyperactivity disorder.
• Attention Whore: Many of his pranks are merely for recognition or approval from his friends. In "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy", he outright calls for people to pay attention to him.
  • May stem from the fact that when he started school he was taught by the current lunch lady who constantly told him he was a failure. When this was brought to his parent’s attention they completely ignored it and instead brought Lisa a saxophone.
• Ambiguous Disorder: A few episodes suggest that Bart's problem is less that he's unintelligent and more that he may have some form of ADHD.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty: Cowabunga: Although Bart admittedly said it twice in early seasons, it was far from a Catch Phrase.
  • The reason people think it's a Catch Phrase is because lots of merchandise has him saying it. This is reflected in the DVD commentaries now and then. In fact, on the commentary for "Bart Gets an F," the writers actually express surprise when he does say it - thinking they never had him say it at all.
• Berserk Button: Severely injure Santa's Little Helper, and he certainly would have a good enough reason for wanting to severely injure the person who did it.
  • Bart puts up with a lot under the appalling conditions at Kamp Krusty, making it through the day with firm belief that "Krusty is coming". When it becomes clear that Krusty isn't coming, Bart channels Colonel Kurtz and takes over the camp.

Bart: All right, that's it! I've been scorched by Krusty before! I got a rapid heartbeat from those Krusty Brand vitamins, my Krusty calculator didn't have a 7 or an 8, and Krusty's autobiography was self-serving with many glaring omissions... but this time he's gone too far!

• Big Brother Instinct: He mocks Lisa all day and night but the second someone else mocks her, he has no issue jumping right to fisticuffs.
• Blond Guys Are Evil: Or at the very least Anti-Heroic.
• Book Dumb
• Bratty Half-Pint: His first name is an anagram of "brat" after all.
• Brilliant but Lazy: It's hinted at various points in the series that he could actually be very bright, he just isn't interested in schoolwork or applying himself seriously.
  • This could actually tie in with him being an attention whore. Helping Bart in school would be too much of a hassle so his parents ignore him. You’ll notice that every time his parents show the least bit attention in his school work his grades sky rocket. Even just asking him if he has homework and making sure he does is enough as "The Parent Rap" has shown us.
  • It’s shown that like all male Simpsons he’s affected by the Simpsons gene, which makes them lazy. However, the gene did not have an impact on his intelligence based on how creative his pranks are.
• Butt Monkey / The Chew Toy: Not as much as Homer, but he still attracts a lot of slapstick.
• Catch Phrase

"Eat my shorts!" "Don't have a cow, man." "I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?" "Get bent" "¡Ay, caramba!" (That last bit was actually his first words, in fact)

• Class Clown
• Clueless Chick Magnet
• Deadpan Snarker: Easily one of the snarkiest characters on the show, second only to Comic Book Guy.
• Depending on the Writer: Not quite as bad as his sister but many of his traits shift from episode to episode.
  • Sometimes he's the most popular kid in school by a huge margin, other times, Milhouse is his Only Friend or he can be anywhere in between depending on what best suits the story.
  • In some episodes, Bart is, objectively, Too Dumb to Live and has no hope for anything but "the hottest and noisiest jobs" in his future. In others, Bart is simply Brilliant but Lazy, lacking a teacher/authority figure who can give him the proper guidance to channel his gifts constructively.
• Dumb Blonde: Averted, he's remarkably intelligent for a male Simpson. Though he has been affected by the Simpsons gene otherwise.
• Enfant Terrible
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Marge seems to be the only member of the family Bart doesn't drive crazy on a regular basis. Granted, he's a headache for being such a brat, but he doesn't go out of her way to bother her like Homer and Lisa. Many of the times he thinks a prank has gone too far is if it genuinely upsets her.
  • On that note, he also defended her on at least one occasion. One notable occasion being when Ned Flanders went into a total breakdown in regards to what happened and lashed out at everyone, and tried to defend her telling Ned to back off. Later leads into an Even Evil Has Standards moment below.
• Everyone Has Standards: There are some things that even Bart won't do, such as stealing from church collection plates. One episode has him expressing worry that he's turning into a criminal when all he really wants to be is a petty thug.
  • Also hurting animals, at least above insects. He genuinely loves and cares for his dog, as well as his once-pet elephant Stampy and at one time a horse he owned. Then there was the time he not only refused to shoot a bird, but when he accidentally did shoot it much to his horror, he raised the bird's eggs by himself. So, Bart can be a Jerkass to people, but he will never be one to animals.
  • Also, after trying to defend Marge from a breaking down Ned Flanders, Flanders eventually started violently tearing him down, and even suggested a new Catch Phrase when he is an adult: "Hey, buddy! Got a quarter?!". Bart even states that he is "both shocked and appalled" at Ned's statement.
  • Also, when Homer had him doing a grease racketing job, and Homer was shoveling the grease into the back of Marge's car (without any containers), Bart objects and says "Mom's going to kill you!"
  • He absolutely hates it when someone severely injures his pet dog, and had Mr. Burns not happened to have brought his gun, he certainly would have attempted to brutally beat him up when he arrived at the town meeting discussing Mr. Burns's vile behavior.
  • No matter how much he treats Lisa, he never does the same with Maggie.
  • In "Homer Simpson in Kidney Trouble", he calls out on Homer refusing to give a kidney of his to his father, saying he wouldn't do that to him.
  • In "The Simpsons Guy", even he can't swallow Stewie Griffin's level of moral depravity.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Bart's main Aesop Amnesia. Even on his worst days, he'll never be more than a Jerkass with some anarchist tendencies. When he tries to rub shoulders with the mafia, Mr. Burns, Stewie Griffin or Loki, it clearly shows that he doesn't have what it takes to truly be considered evil.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The foolish to Lisa's responsible.
• Freudian Excuse: He showed a lot of creativity when he first started school, but was beaten down by the teachers and written off as a failure for not conforming to standards. When he was 5. This is probably why he is Book Dumb and a Class Clown.
  • His father could also count.
    • Repeatedly being told you were never wanted does that to you.
  • "Lisa's First Word" implies that a good amount of his disdain for his sister comes from being ignored by Homer and Marge when she was first born.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Something Lisa calls him out on in "Barthood". He may have been the Unfavourite at home but she was the Unfavourite everywhere else and she managed to make something of her life.
• Future Loser: Invariably. And the worst part of it is, it's all by choice. He really could make something of himself but he's too lazy. When he finally gets motivated, he manages to become a US Supreme Court Justice.
• G-Rated Drug: Once went on a "Squishee bender" that greatly resembled an alcoholic binge. Was also put on Ritalin Expy, Focusyn, and then Ritalin itself, for his ADD.
• Hidden Depths: Practically prides himself on being Book Dumb, but has consistently managed to outwit Sideshow Bob on several occasions. He's also shown to have latent artistic ability and an untapped intellectual potential almost on par with Lisa's.
• Instant Expert: Whenever he picks up a new hobby, he thrives in it in almost no time.
• Jerkass: Always.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Though he loathes to admit it.
• The Lancer: To Homer and to Lisa, depending on the episode.
• Lovable Rogue: Most of the time (there are cases when he is genuinely just being a Jerkass however, especially later on).
• Manipulative Bastard
• Momma's Boy: There is an episode where he briefly flirts with becoming one, but Marge realizes that she doesn't want that kind of relationship with him.
• Mouthy Kid
• My God, What Have I Done?: Bart experiences this Trope whenever he realizes that one of his stunts has gone too far.
• Naughty Is Good
• Never My Fault: The root of his conflict with his family. For all that the toxic family dynamic has warped him, he never acknowledges that he is a perpetuator of that dynamic and keeps making bad decisions. "Barthood" has Lisa outright call this out, noting that he chose to keep fighting her and squandered his own gifts for years out of some self-elected duty to be an anti-intellectual foil to her. Homer's favoritism towards Lisa didn't help, but she wasn't wrong to say that a lot of what goes wrong in Bart's life is down to his own spiteful short-sightedness.
• Omniglot: Has spoken French, Vietnamese ("Mau! Di di mau!"), Japanese, and Spanish ("¡Ay, caramba!").
  • In fact, he once learned fluent Spanish during a plane trip to Brazil.
• Out of Focus: Still a Main Character, but was the Main Character early on.
• Pet the Dog:
  • At the end of the 500th episode, when Skinner's been forgotten in Springfield, Bart comes to get him on a wooden helicopter bike. Sure, Skinner hits the Jebediah statue and both of the nuclear plant's pylons (or whatever), but it was still pretty nice of Bart.
  • In "Special Edna" he nominates Krabappel for a teacher of the year award just to help her get over her depression after one too many breakups with Skinner.
• Plucky Comic Relief: His main role in the series. Though averted in The Simpsons Movie where, while he still has some comic moments, has one of the heaviest arcs.
• Screwy Squirrel: Bart enjoys pulling pranks on authority figures ranging from the town priest to his teacher and principal to his own father. That said, he's more interested in driving these same authority figures nuts rather than causing any genuine harm.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Manly Man to Milhouse's Sensitive Guy.
• Shipper on Deck: Not a full-blown example, but when Lisa started showing interest in Nelson, Bart did stick up for Milhouse.
• Taking Advantage of Generosity
• Then Let Me Be Evil: It's often hinted that he operates on this. People always expect the worst from him and any good deed he does is viciously examined from every angle for the ulterior motive. He may as well play the part.
• Totally Radical: During the early years of the show. He actually did say "Cowabunga" a couple of times.
• The Unfavourite: Quite so. Though it seems to largely stem from the fact that he's high maintenance. When he's not pissing Homer off, he actually seems to be the favorite.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist
• Villain Protagonist: On his worst days.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist / No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Sometimes when he does something with the legitimate intent of helping someone "chill out", it backfires. A notable instance was when he got Mrs. Krabappel fired when he and the other students attempted to get her to become cooled down by spiking her drink with alcohol, because of Bart's experiences with his dad.

Lisa Marie Simpson

The smart one and the middle child, Lisa is both a bookworm and something of the "hippie" of the family. Her intelligence, as seasons roll on, can sometimes make her into an annoying know-it-all. Has trouble fitting in with other kids her age. Voiced by Yeardley Smith.

• Age-Inappropriate Dress: She's an 8-year-old wearing a strapless dress and pearls. Even she lampshades it in "Puffless"; her substitute teacher in "Black-Eyed, Please" questions her about it.

Mrs. Cantwell: What eight-year-old wears pearls?

• All Girls Like Ponies: So much.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: She had a crush on Nelson once, and he was her first kiss.
  • Parodied in one episode where she reveals her crush on a boy who works at the library. His "bad boy" behavior is pretty much limited to being annoyed at people who confuse the juvenile and young adult sections.

Lisa: Ooooh...if only someone could tame him...

• Ambiguously Bi: While most Flash Forwards show her married to Milhouse, those same Flash Forwards establish that she had a few college girlfriends, though it's never said how serious those relationships were. In the credits of "Mother and Child Reunion" when Lisa asked if any of the vision of the future is true, the oracle (Nate Silver) said, among other things, that Lisa will have 47% chance of a boyfriend and 72% chance of a girlfriend, Lisa is ecstatic about the odds (not at all bothered about the possibility of being a lesbian). In "No Loan Again, Naturally," when Bart misunderstands the phrase "family outing" and claims that Lisa is gay, she doesn't refute it, saying that it only makes sense she'd want to be gay as several of her idols are.
• Anti-Hero: Type II.
• Author Avatar: Many of Matt Groening's political views are reflected in her.
• Baby Got Back: A bit of a running gag for Lisa is for her alleged big butt to be commented on. Most of the time, it seems just an Informed Deformity, though in "Lisa's Date With Density", Lisa at one points examines her bottom in concern when Nelson mocks it. This shot reveals Lisa's bottom is indeed very fat.
• Be Yourself: Most of her plots can be boiled down to her (re)learning this. Lisa may be ostracized for his views and beliefs, but she is who she is and happy with the choices she's made.
• Bi the Way: During "Holidays of Future Passed", she's shown in the family picture having been with three different women.
• Big Brother Worship: "Lisa's First Word" shows that she had this towards Bart when she was born.
• Bratty Half-Pint: In her original form, she was almost as childish and mischievous as Bart. Toned down as Divergent Character Evolution kicked in, though she still has her moments.
• Bob Haircut: Gets this hairstyle, complete with dyeing her hair brown, in the subplot of "To Surveil With Love".
• Catch Phrase: Lisa didn't have a Catch Phrase since the beginning of the show until she said "If anyone wants me, I'll be in my room.", which is said in the end of the episode "Bart Gets Famous". Lisa also said this in "Lisa the Vegetarian", "Grift of the Magi", and "Dude, Where's My Ranch?".
  • She's also frequently yells out a shrill "MOOOOMMMM!!!" in response to Bart's antics.
  • And, of course, there is "Meh."
• Cute Bookworm
• Daddy's Girl: She's probably the only one of Homer's kids whom he makes a conscious effort to be a good father to. In addition, if anyone, even his wife, somehow hurts her in some way, he gets intensely angry.
  • It is implied that Lisa was neglected by Homer as a baby, when Homer observes some old videos of him completely ignoring her early talents, he is driven to tears in guilt.
• Dangerously-Short Skirt: Lisa's red sundress, apparently. In "Pork and Burns", she states her dress is "mighty short" (because she's not wearing any underwear due to giving away everything else but her saxophone). A few times the hemline is shown to reach mid-thighs.
• Depending on the Writer: Generally, Lisa is a hard-left intellectual who is unpopular around town and at school. But the specifics can change greatly.
  • While Lisa is generally in the unpopular crowd, it can vary whether she has friends but her group is simply low on the social ladder or if she's the least popular child in school, disliked by everyone.
  • Some episodes cast Lisa as a genuine genius on par with Professor Frink and a member of MENSA at eight years old while others have her being a Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond, her high IQ being the product of looking good next to her Sucky School and she's only a B or C student if challenged.
  • Sometimes blood is Thicker Than Water. Other times Lisa is just waiting for the chance to abandon her family for something better.
• Divergent Character Evolution: Lisa started out more or less as a Distaff Counterpart of Bart.
• Does Not Like Men:
  • Downplayed. In "See Homer Run", the school authorities believe that Lisa has a development disorder that will make her hate men for the rest of her life if Homer doesn't start acting like a father to her. While Lisa is known to be more aggressive to men, it's either because she and Homer have fallen out or it's because she's trying to prove herself to other feminists. When she's acting independently on her beliefs, Lisa believes women can take responsibility for themselves and the worst thing she'll say about men is that women can save themselves.
  • In "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge", when her aunts attempt to teach her the truth about men, Lisa asked if it's because "they're pigs". The aunts are impressed.

Patty: The bitterness is strong with this one.

• Dumb Is Good: Averted, as she is easily the nicest character on the show.
  • She does however have occasional moments of immense arrogance and vindictiveness fueled by her intellect (and her obvious awareness of it) to remind us she's Not So Above It All.
• First Kiss: A "Shut Up" Kiss from Nelson Muntz. Lampshaded.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The responsible to Bart's foolish.
• Granola Girl
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She is blonde, and before Flanderization took over she was a very respectful and considerate person most of the time. Post-Flanderization, it's Depending on the Writer.
• Hartman Hips: Briefly in "Lisa's Date With Density", where at one point Lisa examines her own bottom, revealing it to be very fat and bulging outward like a Victorian bustle.
• Hypocrite:
  • Lisa may encourage people to pursue their artistic and/or intellectual talents but if someone else's gifts outshine her own, she'll go right to sabotaging them. See episodes such as "Lisa's Rival", "Jazzy and the Pussycats" or even "The Simpsons Guy" for this attitude.
  • Episodes such as "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade" and "Waverly Hills, 9-0-2-1-D'oh" establish that, contrary to what she says, Lisa does not in fact like being challenged intellectually.
• I Can't Dance: She eventually mastered jazz dancing, but she's terrible at tap and ballet.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: At least twice it's acknowledged that she has blue eyes. The first in "Lady Bouvier's Lover" where Homer imagines them as "horrible freaks with pink skin, no overbites and five fingers on each hand", she and her siblings shown with blue irises.
• Innocent Prodigy: Usually rather level headed and one of the most intelligent people in Springfield, however her brattiness and childlike naïveté pops up many times, especially where her Sibling Rivalry with Bart is involved.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: One of the smartest kids in town, smarter than most adults, but very few friends.
• Japan Loves Lisa: Lisa actually has a fan-based in Japan. Considering that Lisa takes her education very serious, many in Japan can relate to her. She’s also a Buddhist, which it’s the second most common religion in Japan, just behind Shinto.
• Jerkass: Has moderated but profound moments of this trope. She calls Bart's friend Andy a "loser" even after he gets to write for Krusty.
  • A lot of the things Lisa does is just so she can be praised which could tie in well with Bart being an Attention Whore. In fact she is a bigger one than Bart. Bart's problem was difficult so it was ignored yet all they needed to do for Lisa was buy her stuff and praise her success. You'll notice from "The PTA Disbands" and "The Joy of Sect" that if she is not given constant positive reinforcement she goes insane. "MoneyBART" has shown us that she is not above taking attention away from Bart himself.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover
• Impossibly Low Neckline: Lisa wears an off-the-shoulder dress with the same neckline as her mother's, and there doesn't appear to be anything holding hers up.
• Magic Skirt: Lisa's trademark red sundress; especially egregious as it's a dress with no waist, which should logically fall all the way down to her shoulders whenever she's upside down.
• The Messiah: The closest equivalent the Crapsack World of Matt Groening has, anyway.
• Middle Child Syndrome: She often has trouble fitting in with her family, and they often have trouble understanding her. Several episodes explore this dynamic in detail. The most notable aspect is that, as she's a genius, her accomplishments largely go uncelebrated because's she expected to excel.
• Mouthy Kid
• Miss Exposition

Lisa: Dad! The flash [of the camera] must have scrambled [the robots'] circuits! Homer: What are you, the narrator? Lisa: (an Itchy robot comes towards her) Aah, just keep taking pictures!

• Honor Before Reason: Lisa is willing to bend the rules, but only if she comes to that conclusion by herself. If someone tells her to lie, cheat, or even just conceal the truth, she will refuse, even if lying, cheating or concealing the truth would be to everyone's advantage.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: More than a few episodes have suggested this about Lisa. Though an equal number have suggested she does genuinely have high intelligence.
• Not So Above It All: Though often priding herself on her intelligence and stoicism, she is still a kid and enjoys some of the same things as Bart (such as Itchy & Scratchy or prank-calling Moe). And as noted above, she is not above bending the rules completely.
• Not So Different: It's shown many times that she shares quite a lot in common with Bart. The difference is that Lisa is consistently a rational and empathetic person.
• Only Sane Man: Albeit with frequent Not So Above It All moments.
• Panty Shot: There had been a few rare moments where we see under her skirt. The recent one being in "Mother and Daughter Reunion".
• Ping-Pong Naivete: Lisa's depth of knowledge can easily go back and forth.
• Positive Discrimination: She is intelligent and good, while Bart is a Jerkass and Dumb. There are occasional aversions to this however (see above).
• Proud to Be a Geek: Though she may lapse depending on the episode.
• Ridiculously Successful Future Self: Flash forwards are very kind to her.
• Skilled but Naive: Her main flaw. Everything in her head is book knowledge with little to no practical experience. She can list off a litany of facts about Ancient Egypt but struggles to decipher the bus routes.
• The Smart Guy
• Snap Back: Averted. The only way to get Paul McCartney on the show was to promise him that Lisa would stay a vegetarian forever.
• Soapbox Sadie
• The Stool Pigeon: Lisa is this in "Bart the Daredevil", "My Pods and Broomsticks", and in "22 Short Films About Springfield" when she told the Tall Guy who drove his car where Nelson is hiding after his "HA-HA" backfired on him.

Lisa: He's down there. Nelson: Crud!

• Smug Snake: On her bad days.
• Token Good Teammate: Depending on the Writer and Flanderization make it a tad unclear if Lisa truly is good or merely A Lighter Shade of Black but she's easily the nicest member of her family.
• Too Clever by Half: Frequently done. Lisa is a genius, but occasionally arrogant and misguided about it, not to mention lives in quite the Crapsack World.
• Took a Level In Dumbass: Played for Laughs in "Bart of Darkness"; the Simpsons get a pool, and Lisa gains popularity among the kids of Springfield. Her intelligence fortunately comes back.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: For a while in the later seasons Lisa could be quite rude and pushy about her beliefs. Post-movie seasons have mostly fixed this by having Lisa focus on self-improvement and making friends instead of political activism.
• The Unfavourite: Easily the least popular Simpson outside 742 Evergreen Terrace with some episodes suggesting that she's only Homer and Marge's token favourite because she's so low maintenance.
• Vague Age: In "Lisa the Beauty Queen":

Homer: Lisa's aged 7 to 9!

• Wise Beyond Their Years

Margaret "Maggie" Simpson

The youngest of the children. Typically a marginal figure, but does get her share of scenes. Most famous for turning out to have accidentally(?) shot Mr. Burns in the series' first two-parter episode. Voiced by Elizabeth Taylor, Jodie Foster, James Earl Jones, Nancy Cartwright, and Yeardley Smith.

• Ambiguously Evil: How quickly Maggie jumps to violence can leave one wondering...
• Advertised Extra: She appears in all major advertisements for the series and in the opening credits but she really doesn't do very much. Milhouse is arguably more of a main character than she is. She does get more of a limelight in Disney+ original shorts.
• Anti-Hero: Type IV, as demonstrated with her competence with firearms and occasional similarities to Alex DeLarge.
• Badass Adorable: Saved Homer's life on four separate occasions and shot Mr. Burns.
• Berserk Button: Losing her pacifier.
• Brainy Baby: Numerous episodes have implied she's very smart for her age. She may be more intelligent than the rest of the family. Yes, even Lisa, as demonstrated when two-year-old Maggie effortlessly played her sax.
• Daddy's Girl: Which is odd considering that there a number of times where Homer forgets she even exists.
• Drop the Hammer: When she saw Itchy bonk Scratchy on the head with a mallet, she did the same thing to Homer. The blow knocked him out cold.
• Enfant Terrible
• Kid Hero
• Little Miss Badass: For an infant, she sure knows her way around a firearm. And then there was the time she knocked Homer unconscious by bonking him on the head with a mallet.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: Particularly notable in that characters born after her, Ling Bouvier and the Nahasapeemapetilon octuplets, have grown up into toddlers while Maggie is still a baby.
• Oral Fixation Fixation: Her pacifier.
• Out of Focus: Understandably so. As a baby, she can't contribute much to the plot.
• Satellite Character: She's generally a Living Prop to Marge.
• Silent Snarker
• Suddenly Voiced: By Elizabeth Taylor, James Earl Jones, Jodie Foster, Nancy Cartwright (who usually does vocal effects, like Maggie's cooing and crying), and even Meg Ryan.
• The Speechless: Until her first word.
• The Voiceless: Even flash forwards go out of their way to make sure that she never utters a word.

Extended Family

Grampa Abraham "Abe" Simpson

Homer's elderly, cranky, senile father, a sergeant in World War II. For all Homer's failures as a father-figure, his father has proven he was worse. Voiced by Dan Castellaneta.

• Abusive Parents: There's at least one flashback that shows him strangling young Homer just like Homer now does to Bart.
• Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Several flashbacks show that he did make a lot of sacrifices, with little hesitation, to keep a young Homer happy.
• Badass Grandpa: It turns out he's a World War II veteran and his stories about his fighting days are generally true. It resurfaces when Burns threatens Bart.
• Berserk Button: For god's sake, don't attempt to threaten any members of his family when he’s around. Just ask Mr. Burns, even he’s fair game.
• Butt Monkey: Is often ignored, treated with contempt, and otherwise left to rot at the nursing home by his own son.
  • Considering how he raised him, this may be justified.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Partly due to his senile disposition, though he seems on par with most other Simpsons.
• December-December Romance: Has had several, with Marge's mom, Beatrice, and a hoochie dancer named Zelda.
• Depending on the Writer: In some episodes, he was World War II hero. In others, he was so incompetent that he honored by the Germans for services against the Allied forces.
• Doting Grandparent: Not quite "doting" but he treats Bart much better than he ever treated Homer or even Homer's treatment of Bart.
• Generation Xerox: Shift through all his ramblings and it turns out that, like his son, he's lived quite a life of bizarre adventure.
• Grandparental Obliviousness
• Grumpy Old Man
• I Was Quite a Looker: "I was once the handsomest man in Buffalo!"
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: At times, particularly in his younger days, despite being a gruff, uninterested father figure, he did dress up as Santa Claus for Christmas to cheer up Homer, and sold his house in order to allow Homer and Marge to buy a place of their own.
• May-December Romance: Is briefly married to Selma, but they eventually realize it won't work and get divorced.
• The Munchausen:
  • Although there is the occasional implication that his rambling and nonsensical stories are actually true. There is also at least one implication that he is actually aware that he is rambling nonsense, but does it anyways because he thinks his grandkids don't actually pay attention to his stories anyways.

"You mean I have to think of an ending to this nonsense?!"

• Papa Wolf: Do not raise hands against Bart when he's around. Mr. Burns found that out the hard way.
  • It's implied, but never confirmed, that at least part of his anger towards his ex-wife Mona is that she abandoned Homer, not him.
• Rambling Old Man Monologue: "So I tied an onion to my belt. Which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Gimme five bees for a quarter, you'd say. Now where was I... Oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion tied to my belt, which was the style at the time. You couldn't get white onions...."
  • Actually parodied twice: The first was in "Double, Double, Boy In Trouble", where in the middle of Grampa's ramble, "Bart" (actually Simon Woosterfield) exclaims shock and pride that Grampa shot a buffalo. Grampa then turns around and expresses shock that "Bart" was even listening to his ramble, and complains about now having to find an ending to his nonsense. The second is after Homer saves his life from an ax-crazy humanitarian journalist trying to kill him, and rewards Homer with the opportunity to have his "first ramble," indicating that its a family tradition to have the Simpson males do rambling.
• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!
• Senior Sleep Cycle
• Shell Shocked Senior
• Strong Family Resemblance: If not for his wrinkles, he'd be damn identical to Homer.
• Unexplained Recovery: He recovers from a variety of disturbing conditions.
• Vague Age: God only knows.
  • To make it especially confusing, in one episode, Mayor Quimby is trying to determine the oldest person in town by having everyone stand up and then sit down when Quimby calls out a number greater than their age. At about eighty, Grampa sits down, and then at ninety, he stands up again.
  • One episode says he's 83.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Homer is suggested to be scarred by Abe's Abusive Parenting (which is portrayed as eerily similar to Homer's own treatment of Bart). In turn Homer stuffed him in a nursing home at the first call and often attempts to ignore his existence. They do get genuine moments of bonding at times however.
• When I Was Your Age: He loves these.

Grandma Mona Simpson

A militant hippie in her youth, she had to leave Homer and her husband alike when Homer was young because she made an enemy of Mr. Burns and fled into the hippy underground. Sincerely loves her family, and desperately wants to be with them. Dies in her third appearance. Voiced by Glenn Close, Maggie Roswell, Tress MacNeille and Pamela Hayden.

• Cool Old Lady
• Dying Alone: *sniff*
• Granola Girl
• Missing Mom/Parental Abandonment/Mommy Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You: Let's just say that she can't see Homer without putting him and his father at risk (due to her becoming wanted by the Law due to her and some hippies ruining a germ lab run by Mr. Burns).
  • Although there is an episode where it implies she was negligent towards Homer when she was around.
• New Age Retro Hippie
• The Other Darrin: Voiced by four actresses in various appearances.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right
• What Happened to the Mouse?: A meta example. "Mother Simpson" aired during the seventh season and averting the trope was the initial impetus to producing the episode. Showrunners Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein admitted surprise that in all those years the status of Homer's mother had never been given on-screen.

Patricia "Patty" and Selma Bouvier

Marge's twin sisters, addicted to smoking and notoriously crabby. Both dislike Homer intensely, and neither of them is interested in the male gender itself much (so much so that it is eventually revealed that Patty is a lesbian), though Selma does want to have a child. Voiced by Julie Kavner.

• The Beard: Selma is this to Troy McClure for a period of time. She divorces him when he tries to have a baby with her, saying she couldn't bring a child into a loveless marriage.
• Berserk Button: Be kind to MacGyver in their presence or pay the price.
• Covert Pervert
• Deadpan Snarker
• Divergent Character Evolution: While they started out as pretty much identical, Patty evolved into someone largely uninterested in romance while Selma was portrayed as more of a lonely woman longing for a stable relationship. Patty is also a good deal crueler than Selma, almost bordering on being a Hate Sink, while Selma has at least been able to have a few friendly interactions with Homer.
• Does Not Like Men: Patty especially, but Selma applies as well.
• Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male): Especially where Homer is concerned.
• Gossipy Hens
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Patty in particular.
• Hates Being Touched: Patty.
• Hypocrite: For all that they mock Homer for being a fat loser, they're not exactly slim and live in worse conditions than he does. And for all the mud they sling at Homer, they expect him to just stand there and take it, despite how much they lose it whenever he snarks at them.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Their dresses and hairstyles distinguish them.
• Jerkass: Both but Patty is by a long shot the most embittered and spiteful of the two.
  • They tried to murder Homer Simpson.
• Looking for Love In All the Wrong Places: Selma has about four or five failed marriages under her belt. Patty is a subversion in that, while she occasionally laments being the only single girl left in the family, when she sees Homer stuffing his face full of hors d'oeuvres she realizes that it could be worse.
• Obnoxious In-Laws
• Maiden Aunt: Both embody the "bitter spinster" archetype to a T.
• The Mistress: Selma becomes this to Fat Tony for an episode, although she has been led to believe she's actually his wife. She is heartbroken and angry with Fat Tony when she finds out...but then gets into a Cat Fight with another woman who also claims to be Fat Tony's wife.
• Of Course I Smoke
• Pet the Dog: Selma, who is shown to be much more likely to do this than Patty due to her craving for someone to love, which she eventually achieves by adopting Ling. She's also the one most able to act in kind towards Homer, even though such a thing is very rare.
• Promotion to Parent: With some help from Homer (and a sympathetic Chinese bureaucrat), Selma adopts a baby girl named Ling. (Patty does help take care of Ling, too.)
• Single-Minded Twins: Initially.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: Used by Selma.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Simpson Family Pets

Snowball II

Lisa's pet cat.

• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: She only wears a collar and she doesn't even wear one all the time.
• Female Feline, Male Mutt: The female cat.
• Furry Confusion: When she and Scratchy show up together in "Treehouse of Horror" IX segment, "The Terror of Tiny Toon."
• Humanoid Female Animal: Inverted to the point of Furry Confusion when she and Scratchy show up together in "Treehouse of Horror IX" segment, "The Terror of Tiny Toon."
• Legacy Character: As the name implies, she replaced the original, white Snowball, who was run over by a car. And then she herself was replaced after being run over, with the replacements being run over too. The newest cat (Snowball V) was simply called Snowball II to save money on changing the food bowl.
• Living Prop: Compared to SLH, Snowball has very little to do in the show.

Santa's Little Helper

Bart's pet, a greyhound abandoned one Christmas due to his never winning any races. Though Homer had just lost a bundle betting on him instead of the dog that Barney tipped him off to bet on, Bart took such a shine to him that Homer brought him home and the family adopted him. Once ran away and was taken in as Mr Burns' new guard dog, while another prominent interact with Mr. Burns was when he ended up purchasing the 22 pups he had fathered on a champion racing female greyhound, which all turned out to be world champions. As a result, Mr Burns can remember Santa's Little Helper, but not Homer.

• A Dog Ate My Homework: Santa's Little Helper does this once, much to Bart's surprise. "The Ned-Liest Catch" reveals that Bart has been using this as an excuse but SLH instead spits out the paper and smooths it out.
• Canine Companion
• Cone of Shame: Comes with doggy-wheelchair.
• Dogs Are Dumb: It varies.
• Female Feline, Male Mutt: The male dog.
• Go Fetch: He can be distracted by sausages, along with Homer.
• Heroic Dog: From time to time, especially when Bart is concerned.
  • Subverted, where the Simpson house is on fire, and Homer is asleep on the couch, it appears that Santa's Little Helper is trying to rouse Homer, but rather he is getting a candy bar from Homer's pocket. Once the candy bar is out, Santa's Little Helper leaves Homer to his fate.
• Kick the Dog: Gets treated pretty bad often (usually by Homer). He actually runs away in "Dog of Death" when the entire family condemns him due to the financial burden caused by a needed operation.
• Morality Pet: Literally one to Bart.

Friends and Neighbors

Nedward "Ned" Flanders

The nice guy next door neighbor to the Simpson family. Originally, Ned was just a "better American" than Homer, being affable, polite, intellectual, friendly, and sincerely religious. As the seasons went on, his "sweetness" and his religiosity grew until he became a byword for fanatical religious faith and doormat-like pleasantry. His being a doormat in the name of being nice to others faded. The religious zeal, however, remains. Voiced by Harry Shearer.

• The Ace
• Always Someone Better: Is this to Homer, which was why Homer would be such a jerk. Was played up a lot more in the early seasons.
• As the Good Book Says...
• Badass Grandpa: Good thing he's such a nice guy. Otherwise, he would've kicked Homer's butt all over the place years ago.
• Badass Moustache: Look at it and soak in its glory.
• Berserk Button
• Beware the Nice Ones
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He has his moments, usually when he displays a profound intolerance for any other religion.
• Catch Phrase: "Hidely ho!"
• Conservatives Love Flanders: Though meant to be as a mockery, Flanders actually ended up having a fanbase among conservative groups.
• Flanderization: Trope Namer. He started out as a Nice Guy with religious tendencies but steadily became a pious Extreme Doormat who barely had a life outside of religion.
• The Fundamentalist
• Gag Penis: Shown in a dating tape Homer made to show Ned off to women. Ned was also upset with Homer for doing so (as well as publicly displaying his social security number).
• Heroic BSOD: The episode "Hurricane Neddy" shows exactly what happens when Ned Flanders' breaking point is reached in terms of his sanity, as well as what caused his mannerisms.
  • Also, in the episode "Home Away from Homer", as soon as he realizes that not only were two college girls taking advantage of his kindness by renting out one of his rooms for them by making a softcore webcam series, but also that the entirety of Springfield mocked him behind his back and took advantage of his kindness despite his attempts at being a very kind neighbor to them, he undergoes a very deep depression, to the extent that he actually decides to go to a place in Pennsylvania that made Humble Figurines despite earlier having a belief that he shouldn't move to places based on logos.
• Hippie Parents: Or Beatnik, in this case.
• Knight Templar: When it involves something he takes a religious stance about, he is unshakable in pursuing his goal.
• Limited Wardrobe: Lampshaded by Homer: "I'm a big four eyed lame-o and I wear the same stupid sweater everyday...".
• The Messiah/Only Sane Man: Alongside Lisa Simpson, he is probably one of the few Springfielders who is not amoral or terrible.
• Nice Guy: Well before his Christian background was established, Ned was simply the nice guy that lived next door.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He does attempt to follow the Christian faith and be a kind neighbor, even renting out his room to people who need it. Unfortunately for him, many of the people of Springfield have a tendency to take advantage of his kindness and make it even worse. This eventually reached a breaking point when, after he allowed some college girls to rent out one of the guest rooms in his house, they ended up repaying his kindness by filming a softcore webcam video called "sexy slumber party" without Ned's knowledge, and Homer also leaked this to every single person in the town, to the extent that, when Ned Flanders ousts the college girls out of the room upon finding out about this, they cheer the girls on, thus shocking him about how all this time, the townspeople actually mock him behind his back.
• Older Than They Look: Ned looks around Homer's age, but he's actually sixty years old.
  • How does he retain his youthful appearance? By following the "three Cs" — clean living, chewing thoroughly, and a daily dose of vitamin church.
• The Other Darrin: Parodied in the episode "Homer to the Max".

Homer: Networks like animation 'cause they don't have to pay the actors squat! Ned: (voiced by Karl Wiedergott) Plus, they can replace them, and no one can tell the diddley-ifference!

• Overprotective Dad: Orders satellite TV, only to have all the channels locked out.
  • It's Justified, however, when one remembers when, after Bart, Lisa, and Maggie were placed in the Flanders home and watched an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon, even seeing the cartoon was more than enough to mentally scar Rod and Todd.
  • Another episode deals with Marge babysitting them repeatedly and seeing how ridiculously over-protective he is, with Ned admitting that he's afraid of losing them because they're all he has after Maude's death.
  • That said, he was willing to hire Lisa, even after or maybe because Her disastrous job looking after Bart.
• Pals with Jesus: Even though his religious zeal didn't develop until later seasons, even the early seasons had Ned being in obvious favor with God, to the point that politely stating skyward "It's me, Ned" had his golf ball suddenly jolt forward to give him a hole-in-one and he once called down a lightning bolt with a prayer to God to save Todd, after which God gave him the "OK" hand sign and told him it was no problem.
• Parting Words Regret: "I can't believe my last words to (Maude) were 'no footlongs.'" It Makes Sense in Context.
• Precision F-Strike: "Hurricane Neddy" has one. Well, for Flanders, anyway.

"OH, HELL, DIDDLY-DING-DONG CRAP! CAN'T YOU MORONS DO ANYTHING RIGHT?!"

• Rage Breaking Point
• Ridiculous Procrastinator: Inverted: He manages to start, and finish, his tax returns as early as New Years Day, which is exactly 105-106 days (depending on whether the year is a leap year or not) before the last day to file taxes (April 15th). It should also be noted that he is the only one, or at least one of the few, Springfielders to actually deliver their taxes before the deadline, as the episode that revealed this also had what is implied to be everyone in Springfield rushing to the Post Office to get their tax returns in at the last possible moment.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Sings like one, too, which Bart finds very disturbing.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Sensitive Guy to Homer's Manly Man.
• Sex God: He has sex once with a movie star who is in town to shoot a film. He tells her that the first one's free, but if she wants any more she'll have to marry him. She almost does.
• Stepford Smiler
• Strawman Political: In later episodes. It's justified, however, when you take into account that a few times, his attempts at being a good neighbor often result in his good nature being exploited.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: Is it any wonder?
• Took a Level In Badass: By the episode "The Squirt and the Whale", Ned has officially stopped taking crap from Homer.
• Ver-diddly-erbal Tic

Maude Flanders

Ned's wife, who he doted upon, until a horrific freak accident killed her. Voiced by Maggie Roswell.

• Beware the Nice Ones: See below.
• Hot Mom
• Killed Off for Real: In an untimely manner in Season 11
• McLeaned: Maggie Roswell left over pay disputes, as her pay wasn't covering the travel expenses to get to the recording studio (she lived out of state). Maude was killed off in response.
• Nice Gal
• The Other Darrin: After Roswell left, Marcia Mitzman-Gaven took over for what would be Maude's remaining episodes.
• Out-of-Character Moment: She's not all that nice when she's not around her family. Why, she and the other women voted Marge out of the Investorettes for being a wet blanket, and when Marge made her own franchise around pretzels (with Homer's indirect help by hiring Fat Tony and his cronies to stop all other businesses behind her back), they hired Yakuza to stop her. It didn't work, apparently, and everything was forgotten about that incident.

Rod and Todd Flanders

Ned's two children, innocent to the point of being naive due to their upbringing and easily misled by the more worldly Bart. Voiced by Pamela Hayden and Nancy Cartwright.

• Ambiguously Gay
  • Lampshaded by Bart when he got them to tell Ned they were gay.
• Catch Phrase: "YAAAAAAAY!!!!"
• Cheerful Child
• Children Are Innocent
• Rod and Todd Flanders Have Standards: While they are just as god-fearing like their dad, Ned, they do draw the line on some of his actions. In "You Kent Always Say What You Want", they thought Ned's demands of having Kent Brockman punished for his reflexive Precision F-Strike, for having hot coffee dumped on him, while interviewing Homer pushing it. They forgive Brockman for the incident, unlike Ned.

Hans Moleman

A dwarfish, heavily wrinkled elderly man with thick glasses and terrible luck, who repeatedly shows up in the series. Voiced by: Dan Castellaneta

• Back From the Dead: He died many times, yet he still returns.
• Born Unlucky
• The Chew Toy: Is The Simpsons' answer to Kenny on South Park (read: he gets killed or injured in every episode just for laughs)
• Iron Butt Monkey: Up to Eleven.
• Off-Model: Some episodes have Moleman with yellow skin; others with brown
• Shout-Out: In his first appearance in season 2's "Principal Charming", Moleman was actually called Ralph Melish (as seen on his driver license). The latter is a reference to Monty Python.
• Sword Cane: "You call that a knife? This is a knife. Whoooa, down I go."
• They Killed Kenny
• Younger Than They Look: In season four's "Duffless," Moleman reveals that he's 31 years old, despite looking like an old man. The reason: Moleman's an alcoholic. Thanks to Canon Discontinuity, Moleman's age has been projected to be at least in the ballpark of 80 and above (although one episode still hinted at the younger than they look trope when Moleman was doing a wheelbarrow race with his Dad at the Springfield Retirement Castle).

Ruth Powers

Voiced by: Pamela Reed

• Action Girl
• Hikikomori
• Hot Mom
• Looking for Love In All the Wrong Places: Implied, at least.

Laura Powers

Voiced by: Sara Gilbert

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: To Jimbo Jones until she breaks up with him thanks to Bart's crank call.

Barney Gumble

Voiced by: Dan Castellaneta

• The Alcoholic: Was arguably worse than Homer early on. He has tried to overcome it, but does relapse now and then.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: As expected, he's done a few acts that can be attributed to this.
• Catch Phrase: Sort of. His famous belch.
• He Cleans Up Nicely: His hair is neater when he isn't drinking.
• The Ditz: Justified, as he's usually drunk.
• Fat Best Friend
• Hidden Depths: He's often shown to be artistically talented, skilled at drawing, and at one point even putting together an artistic short film.
• Naked People Are Funny: Went streaking at the Springfield High School senior prom in 1974.
• Off the Wagon
• Out of Focus: There was a time when he was Homer's best and most frequently seen friend.
• Pink Elephants
• Singing Voice Dissonance: Although he has an odd-sounding conversational voice, Barney has a beautiful singing voice (much like Jim Nabors).
• The Smart Guy: Was studying for the S.A.T exam, hoping to go to Harvard, when Homer introduced him to beer. He started drinking more as a result of his high school girlfriend Chloe leaving him to pursue her journalism career.
• Status Quo Is God: In a rare subversion on the show, Barney sobered up in season 11 and stays that way for several seasons.
• Too Dumb to Live: Once charged a tab to Mr. Burns. He later woke up in a landfill.

"Yeah, but it was worth it."

• Trash of the Titans: His apartment is such a mess that he can't find his dog.

"He's in here somewhere."

Cletus Spuckler

• Berserk Button: In the game, the aliens found this by having him probed

Cletus: But, I ain’t going nowheres. Those green fellas started a feud that won’t be over until I poke something in their bullet holes. Homer: Gross but fair

• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass

Springfield Nuclear Power Plant

Mr. Charles Montgomery Burns

File:Mrburns.jpg

Excellent.

An extremely elderly man (over one hundred years ago by the more recent seasons, though in the earliest seasons he was only in his eighties) and the corrupt, malevolent owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. Always has his eyes on the greatest profit to himself. Voiced by Christopher Collins [aka Chris Latta] (1989-90); Harry Shearer (1990-present).

• Affably Evil: Sometimes.
• Angry Guard Dog: "Release the hounds".
• Ambiguously Human: Usually Played for Laughs but some moments suggest that Burns may be some kind of Humanoid Abomination.
• Anti-Hero: Type V, whenever he happens to be on the same side as the good characters (which is not that often.)
• Antiquated Linguistics: He does this all the time in his version of Two Decades Behind. In one example, he went to the post office in order to send a letter to the Prussian consulate in Siam by the 4:30 auto-gyro. The person working at the post office even informed him how much he Did Not Do the Research.
• Anti-Villain: Occasionally, such as when he started a recycling business. And recycled sea life into slurry.
• Bad Boss
• Big Bad: Whenever the show needs one, anyway.
• Bunny Ears Lawyer: He may be senile, but he is a brilliant businessman.
• The Caligula: Mr. Burns usually treats his workers, and even his own workplace, far too shabbily to even be considered a sane boss, never mind a good one.
  • Caligula's Horse: He has a canary act as the owner of the Power Plant (meaning, even Mr. Burns is at a lower level than the canary), namely as a way to avoid responsibility if someone tries to investigate anything within the plant thats against the law. This tendency was also implied in earlier episodes when he made a Dog vice president (even after nominating a far more eligable person Vice President), and made a carbon rod Employee of the Month above Homer.
• Card-Carrying Villain: At least whenever declaring his own evil doesn't compromise its effectiveness. Or sometimes, even when it does.
• Catch Phrase: "Excellent."
  • "Release the hounds!" could be his second Catch Phrase.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive
• Cruella to Animals
• Depending on the Writer: Outside of the Simpson family, he's probably the character most affected by this.
  • How cruel he is. Sometimes he's a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk who goes out of his way to crush whomever he can. Other times, he's shown to be rather lonely with his backstory painting him more as Forced Into Evil and would like to have friends.
  • His state of mind. Sometimes he's just a few years out of touch, sometimes he thinks he's in the late 19th century, other times he's barely aware of the world around him.
  • Sometimes, he actually does know who Homer Simpson is.
  • Does he pay taxes? Among the answers offered are: No; he does but he viciously exploits loopholes to the point of paying virtually nothing; or he's one of the few that does.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: His moral compass is so far off kilter that when he's actually trying to do something good, he's even more evil than when he's trying to be evil.
• Evil Is Hammy
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Although it varies Depending on the Writer he has been shown to care about Smithers. In one episode it's revealed he raised him after his father's death.
  • He also thought of Smithers Sr. as a friend and was saddened by his death.
  • When recounting the fate of Larry's mother Burns is actually saddened as he recalls how he never saw her again after she was sent off to South America.
  • Burns seems to have a spot spot for his various animal companions such as his loyal hounds and he once seriously considered leaving his entire fortune and estate to his pet tortoise Sheldon who he's apparently had for most of his life.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • He did get upset with Homer for throwing pudding cup at Carl after doing it to Lenny. Mr. Burns asks Homer do the latter for his enjoyment because he asked and didn't say anything about the former.
  • In the "Tell Tale Head" he cries at the sight of the statue's head being cut off.
  • In "Simpson Tide" he was ready to let Homer off the hook given that, he thought, it was Homer's first day at the plant.
  • Had enough decency to attend Frank Grimes' funeral.
  • Truly considered Smithers Sr. his friend and tried to bar him from entering the reactor. He held deep regret over his friend's demise and wasn't too proud of how he lied to Smithers Jr. about the whole thing.
  • If Burns thinks he owes someone something, he'll pay them back. Though he decides the value of what they're getting.
• Faux Affably Evil
• Fiction 500
• Flanderization: He was a lot more human in the early seasons before evolving into more of a caricature of a Corrupt Corporate Executive.
• Forgot to Feed the Monster: His league of evil.
• Hero with an F In Good: As Lisa lampshades, doing good somehow results in him being even more evil.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: This is how he views his relationship with Smithers, much to the latter's dismay.
• Horned Hairdo: Sported one in "Lisa the Buddhist".
• Jerkass: From time to time.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Almost every time Burns does something nice he almost aways goes back to being a Jerk.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Extremely rarely but very Depending on the Writer, he does have some kind hearted moments like how he cares somewhat of Smithers.
• Looks Like Orlok
• Manipulative Bastard
• Mega Corp: He seems to run one. He has a monopoly on every power source in Springfield (bar the Sun), has holdings in a variety of other industries (such as construction) and if he were to automate his workforce, 99% of Springfield would be unemployed. Him being one of the few people in town who pays taxes keeps many public services running.
• Pet the Dog:
  • In "Simpson and Deliah" he allowed Homer to keep his job out of sympathy for his hair loss problems.
  • He paid for Homer's liposuction surgery in gratitude for Homer saving the plant.
  • In "The Seemingly Never Ending Story" Burns willingly pulls a Go Through Me to protect Lisa from a goat.
  • In "The Blunder Years" it's revealed Burns raised Smithers after his father's death.
  • In "Homer Goes to College" he makes sure Homer gets an education so he can keep his job when it would be far easier to just fire him.
  • In "The Old Man and the Lisa", Burns fully paid Lisa her share of the profits when she helped him regain his fortune despite her openly voicing her hatred of his methods.
  • In "Rosebud" he lets Maggie keep his beloved childhood Teddybear Bobo.
  • After realising Homer loved Marge just as much as he did Burns decided he wanted her to be happy so he had Tom Jones kidnapped to perform for her.
  • In "Homer the Smithers" Burns saves Smithers from a suicide attempt and happily insists he take a vacation to recover. When Smithers calls to ask how things are going Burns tells him to stop worrying and to just enjoy his holiday.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money: His default solution to anything is bribery.
• Smug Snake
• The Other Marty: Only for the first few episodes, Mr. Burns was voiced by Christopher Collins, before being replaced by Harry Shearer.
• The Power of Hate: It's keeping him alive.
• Up to Eleven: His villainy goes into this level when he does things like block out the sun.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The episode "Last Exit to Springfield" implies that the reason why he wanted to end the Nuclear Worker's Union was because he believes unions are inherently corrupt, based on something an atom worker said when he was with his grandfather.
• Would Hurt a Child: Once crippled Milhouse to inspire his football team. And he promised Milhouse that he'd come back if his team lost.

Waylon Smithers, Jr.

Yes, Mr. Burns.

The second-in-command and most competent minion of Mr. Burns, Smithers is fanatically devoted to his master (fortunately for Burns, who is so physically feeble and out of touch with the modern age he depends on Smithers to do everything for him), which is eventually revealed to be due to him being in love with him. Voiced by Harry Shearer.

• Anti-Villain
• Battle Butler
• Even Evil Has Standards: Though usually a bit of a doormat to Burns, some of the schemes Burns comes up with will have Smithers objecting to them at the risk of losing his own job.
• Extreme Doormat: Most of the time. See above.
• Flanderization: Smithers was originally just the Yes-Man to Burns, though after a couple seasons, the writers began playing the idea that he was attracted to him. Al Jean has referred to this as Smithers being "Burns-sexual" and this was pretty consistent for years. Recently, however, throwaway jokes have portrayed him as more openly gay and not interested in just Burns.
• The Dragon / The Lancer: It varies if Burns is, in the episode, in the good side or the bad side.
• Race Lift: In his earliest appearance ("There's No Disgrace Like Home"), Waylon is black. The creators then worried that the role of Yes-Man to a rich white man falling to a black man could have Unfortunate Implications, and so the next time around, they drew him as white instead.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Production later joked that Smithers had just returned from vacation and still had a tan.
• Only Sane Man
• The Renfield: Again, see above.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Smithers admires Mr. Burns to a way-past-Ho Yay degree.
• Single-Issue Psychology: It was implied in one episode that Smithers' sexuality was caused by Mr. Burns telling him, when he was young, that his father died in the Amazon, killed by a tribe of savage women.
• Invisible to Gaydar
• Subordinate Excuse
• Yes-Man

Lenford "Lenny" Leonard and Carlton "Carl" Carlson

File:Lenny n Carl 6405.jpg

Carl is on the right, Lenny is on the left. Remember that, now.

Homer's two workmates and closest buddies. Lenny is voiced by Harry Shearer. Carl was voiced Hank Azaria for the first thirty-one seasons before Alex Désert took over.

• Alliterative Name
• Ambiguously Gay: The show has often raised the question about how close they are.
• Ascended Extra: They were initially just background characters that appeared at the plant. Over time, they became some of Homer's most frequently seen friends.
• Bad Boss: Parodied when Mr. Burns lost his fortune, the bank took over the Nuclear Plant and put Lenny in charge. We never really see what goes on, but Homer gets sent home early to think about a bad mistake he made and Smithers describes him as "a real bear on tardiness." Even Mr. Burns takes notice, and the whole thing is referred to as "Lenny's reign of terror."
• Department of Redundancy Department: "I'm Lenny. This is Carl and Homer. I'm Lenny."
• Depending on the Writer: Pretty much everything about them varies on what the plot needs. They've been wealthy and well-educated just as many times as they're shown to be dumb losers.
• The Dividual: They're so much alike that Homer has to consciously remind himself which of the two is the yellow one and which is the brown one.
• Eye Scream: Lenny is way too prone to this type of injuries.

"Ow, my eye! I'm not supposed to get [object name] in it!"

• False Friend: Carl reveals himself as one in "The Saga of Carl" before coming to consider Homer, Lenny and Moe to be his true friends.
• Genius Ditz: Both may seem no smarter than generally anyone else, but they did earn master's degrees in nuclear physics.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: With a heaping dose of Ho Yay.
• Mistaken for Gay
• Only Sane Man: Well, Carl is.
• Repetitive Name
• Salt and Pepper
• Those Two Guys
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Every now and then, mainly on Carl's side.

Frank Grimes

File:Grimey Franks 622.jpg

Look at me! I'm Homer Simpson!

A new employee at the plant who is annoyed by Homer's behaviour. Goes insane because of this and ends up killing himself. Not very well received by the fans. Voiced by Hank Azaria.

• Absurdly Youthful Father: Given Grimes' age when he died and Junior's own, Grimes really couldn't have been that old when he fathered him.
• Angry White Man: Shows shades of this during his infamous rant to Homer, parroting the anti-affirmative action talking point of how lazy workers, like Homer, leech off of hard workers like him.
• Berserk Button: Homer is a big fat button. Also Grimey doesn't like to be called Grimey. Or Stretch.
• Chew Toy: Bordering on Cosmic Plaything.
• Everyone Has Standards: Much as he hated Homer, he at least stopped Homer from accidentally drinking a beaker full of sulphuric acid.
• Expy: Frank is based on Michael Douglas' character Bill Foster from Falling Down. They both wear glasses, white shirt, black tie, black pants. They both even have the same haircut.
• Genre Refugee: Essentially what he is, a character from the real world, or at least a realistic(ish) show, who finds himself in the madcap world of The Simpsons.
• Giving Up on Logic: Angrily did this after his Sanity Slippage and began imitating Homer's stupid antics. It took him about a minute to get himself killed.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood: His Backstory describes a ridiculous amount of misfortune that he's had to overcome.
• In-Series Nickname: "Grimey."
• It's All About Me: Seems to believe that everyone in Sector 7G, who've known Homer for years, will automatically take his side in his complaints about Homer.
• Killed Off for Real: "I don't need safety gloves, because I'm Homer Simp..." (electric shocks)
• Knight of Cerebus: He's hardly a Knight of Cerebus but whenever he's given focus, the stakes do get more serious.
• Only Sane Man: He's the only person to point out that Homer shouldn't be half as successful, popular, or even alive given his behavior and is driven mad when no-one else cares. Even the universe is against him, as he's trying to apply real-world logic to a cartoon world.
  • Oakley and Weinstein summed it up best by referring to Grimes as what would happen if someone from the real world met Homer.
• Parental Abandonment: Was abandoned by his parents at age four (as in dropping him off in the middle of nowhere and drive away).
  • "The Great Louse Detective", shows that the life of Grimes hadn't always been harsh as that he was able to find some relief with a prostitute, resulting in him having a son, who tried to have Homer killed for the events in "Homer's Enemy".
• Unknown Rival: Until Grimey spells it to him, Homer had absolutely no idea that Frank hated him.
• What Could Have Been: The writers originally saw Grimey as an ex-mariner with a crew cut. Also Hank Azaria based Frank's voice on that William H Macy before changing to Michael Douglas.
  • Azaria was actually in favor of Macy doing the voice. Though it was considered, showrunners Oakley and Weinstein thought someone with a better understanding of the show would do a better job.

Springfield Shopkeepers

Jeff "Comic Book Guy" Albertson

File:Comicbookguy.jpg

Worst character image ever.

Overweight and extremely nerdy owner and proprietor of the local shop, "The Android's Dungeon", which sells comics and similar paraphernalia. Legendary for his sarcastic, cynical outlook on life. Voiced by Hank Azaria.

• Berserk Button: See the article on Canon.
• Broken Pedestal: "I Am Furious (Yellow)" rather soured his opinion of Stan Lee.
• The Cyber Bully
• Deadpan Snarker: And how! Comic Book Guy seems to live by the philosophy "If you can't say something snarky or sarcastic, don't say anything at all."
• Entitled Bastard: Like make toxic fandoms, he feels media must adhere to what he thinks it should be and reacts violently when new media doesn't fit with his headcanons.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": For over a decade, he was just known as "Comic Book Guy" until he gave his real name out in random conversation in "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass." (Word of God says that episode was chosen for the task because it was post-Super Bowl and thus would have such a large audience.)
• Everyone Has Standards: He's a Fat Bastard who delights in cruelty against others but draws the line at political corruption.
• Fat Bastard
• Freudian Excuse: It is heavily implied, if not outright stated, that the reason why Jeff Albertson often is sarcastic and insulting to people is because he himself is a victim of it in regards to his obesity.
  • "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm heading back to my own store, where I dispense the insults rather than absorb them".
• Hollywood Nerd: Type 1.
• Insufferable Genius
• Likes Older Women: Once dated (and lost his virginity to) Agnes Skinner.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase: Worst/Best __ Ever.
• Proud to Be a Geek: "Life well spent!"
  • Although in one "Treehouse of Horror" episode, Comic Book Guys admits "I've wasted my life" the instant before he's killed by a neutron bomb.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness/Canis Latinicus:

Bart: How come I've never seen that Itchy and Scratchy before? Comic Book Guy: Perhaps because you are prepubescent ignoramus.

• Straw Fan
• Take That: The writers of the Simpsons sometimes use Comic Book Guy to lampoon the show's Unpleasable Fanbase.

Comic Book Guy: Last night's Itchy & Scratchy was, without a doubt, the worst episode ever. Rest assured I was on the Internet within minutes registering my disgust throughout the world. Bart: Hey, I know it wasn’t great, but what right do you have to complain? Comic Book Guy: As a loyal viewer, I feel they owe me. Bart: For what? They’ve given you thousands of hours of entertainment for free. What could they possibly owe you? If anything, you owe them. Comic Book Guy: Worst. Episode. Ever.

• This Loser Is You: He's a rather unflattering depiction of the average nerd.
• You're Not My Type: Was ultimately on the receiving end of this from Mrs. Krabappel in "My Big Fat Geek Wedding." He was oddly okay with it.

"There are a million valid reasons. Which one did you choose?"

Apu Nahasapeemapetilon

Owner of the local convenience store, "The Kwik-E-Mart", which is open 24/7 and cheap and so attracts plenty of customers despite its rather lacking standards of quality. Renowned as a workaholic, he is eventually partnered off with an arranged marriage and ends up the father of octuplets. Voiced by Hank Azaria until 2020.

• Ascended Extra: Was simply the convenience store clerk that only knew the family cause they shopped there. Over time, his screentime grew and he got several focus episodes.
• Asian Store Owner: Indian, specifically.
• Bollywood Nerd: Doesn't come up a lot, but he graduated as top of his class in computer science back in Calcutta.
• Catch Phrase:

"Thank you, come again!" "I can't believe you don't shut up!"

• Determinator: In one early episode, Apu says that the town government should hire more police officers, since he'd been shot eight times that year. As a result, he almost missed work. Almost.
  • And then there was the time when he managed to work a 96-hour shift without having a break. It ended when he started thinking he was a hummingbird and tried to drink nectar out of his brother's head.
• Funny Foreigner
• Henpecked Husband
• Immigrant Patriotism
• Massive-Numbered Siblings: When he and Manjula could not conceive a child they underwent IVF and Manjula had octuplets.
• Out of Focus: Following The Problem with Apu and Hank Azaria retiring from the role, Apu has largely been a non-vocal background presence.
• Your Cheating Heart: Cheats on Manjula with the Squishee lady.

Moe Szyslak

Famously ugly, surly and hateful owner of Moe's Tavern, the Local Hangout that Homer, Carl, Lenny and Barney frequent. Has a softer side under his crustiness. Voiced by Hank Azaria.

• Accent Relapse: Even though he is not a spy.
• Alien Blood: He bleeds green though he claims it turns red later on.
• Back-Alley Doctor
• The Bartender
• Deep-Fried Whatever: Uncle Moe's Family Feedbag.
• Driven to Suicide: Not quite, but later episodes do have Moe trying to kill himself so much that Suicide Prevention has blocked his number. It is also implied at least once that the only reason why he constantly attempts to commit suicide is because Reverend Lovejoy keeps on telling him that he has nothing to live for.
  • In "Whiskey Business", Moe almost goes though it until Homer, Lenny and Carl hears a noise from his storage room. Marge is told about it.
• Flanderization: His grouchiness and seediness eventually blossomed into him using his bar as a front for many illegal activities such as smuggling wildlife and hosting Yakuza meetings.
• Friend to All Children: He is probably the nicest guy to ever babysit Maggie.
  • Moe also reads classic literature to children at a homeless shelter on Wednesday nights.
• Gonk
• I Was Quite a Looker: Then he started boxing, which is the explanation for why he became so ugly that women find him repulsive.

"They called me Kid Gorgeous. Then I was Kid Presentable. Then Kid Gruesome. Then finally, Kid Moe."

• Informed Deformity: While Moe is quite odd-looking compared to other characters, people act like he's hideous and even inhuman.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his somewhat angry attitude at times, he does show a soft spot towards children and his close friends and customers.
• The Other Marty: Originally voiced in his first appearance by Christopher Collins, but Azaria dubbed over all his lines as Moe.
• Parental Neglect: Implied with, "Oh Papa, why didn't you ever hug me? I've seen you hug everybody - even the mailman!"
• Punny Name: Not Moe himself, but he's always being asked for Al Koholik, Ivana Tinkel, and Hugh Jass.
• Stalker with a Crush: On Midge... er, Marge.
• Think of the Children
• Trapped by Gambling Debts

Springfield Celebrities

Kent Brockman

"Now, at the risk of being unpopular, this reporter places the blame squarely on you, the viewers!" —"$pringfield (Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Legalised Gambling"

The primary reporter for the local TV News channel. Voiced by Harry Shearer.

• Delusions of Local Grandeur
• Kent Brockman News: The Trope Namer himself.
• The Quisling: In "Deep Space Homer", he memorably "welcome(d) our new insect overlords".

Herschel "Krusty the Klown" Krustofsky

The most famous celebrity in Springfield, due to being the host of the city's favorite children's entertainment program, "The Krusty the Klown Show". Born an Orthodox Jew, he was estranged from his Rabbi father due to his wanting to be a clown instead of following in his father's footsteps. Originally an optimistic fellow who just wanted to help people laugh, years in the ugly reality of showbusiness have left him grizzled, sarcastic, jaded and indifferent, striving only to make as much money as possible. Voiced by Dan Castellaneta.

• Ambiguously Jewish: Later confirmed.
• Berserk Button: Krusty had dealt with a lot in his life but to set him off, just throw an urinal cake at him. Lenny found this out.
• Catch Phrase: "Hey hey, kids!"
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: "Let's just say that (Burns' film) moved me...TO A BIGGER HOUSE!"
• Hates the Job, Loves the Limelight
• The Hyena: He has a very hard time staying serious during an interview with Kent Brockman; he is issued a First Name Ultimatum.
• Manipulative Bastard
• Monster Clown: Krusty has the uncanny ability to sometimes cause heart attacks in people with pacemakers. He even has one himself.
  • One episode had him show his audience what he would like in HD. They screamed.
• OOC Is Serious Business: What happens when Krusty is framed.

Melvin Van Horne (Sideshow Mel)

Krusty's sidekick on his TV show, a replacement for Sideshow Bob, Melvin Van Horne plays the part of an inarticulate caveman on stage, but is actually a very refined, dignified intellectual in his private life. Voiced by Dan Castellaneta.

• Butt Monkey: He gets his moments, mainly with Krusty and the Krusty show. He doesn't learn to give up though and look for the good things in life.
• Classically-Trained Extra: Like Sideshow Bob before him.
• Genre Savvy: In the "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" episodes:

Smithers: Mr. Burns was the closest thing I ever had to...a friend. But he fired me! And now I spend my days drinking cheap scotch and watching Comedy Central! (later) Sideshow Mel: Hmm...at the town meeting, [Mr. Smithers] mentioned that he watched Comedy Central. I made sure to note that, as it seemed quite unusual.

• Nice Guy
• The Voiceless: When he first showed up in Season 2, he only communicated with his horn. He starts speaking in Season 3, with his first voice-over being triumphantly singing in "Radio Bart."
• Walking Shirtless Scene: And pants-less too!

Rainier Wolfcastle

A German who moved to Springfield and became an action movie star, Rainier Wolfcastle is legendary for the over-the-top nature of his movies and his bad acting. Voiced by Harry Shearer.

• The Ahnold: Of the man the trope is named after no less. He is one of the best known examples and currently the image on the trope page.
• Catch Phrase: Mendoooozaa!!!
• Chewing the Scenery: Inverted. He's almost hilariously deadpan and monotonal in most of his appearances. Perhaps as an enforced case of Bad Bad Acting.
• Goggles Do Nothing: The Trope Namer
• I Am Not Shazam: He is sometimes called McBain by those not too familiar with this character. (In-Universe similarly.) See Show Within a Show.
• Show Within a Show: Type II. A hilariously well-hidden example that spoofs hardboiled Cowboy Cop and 80's action flicks.

Troy McClure

An aging actor who starred in an incredibly wide variety of B-movies and short-lived serials, who frequently reminds people of the flicks he has starred in as a way to try and cling to a sense of still being a bigshot actor. Voiced by Phil Hartman.

• But You Screw One Goat!: It's thought that he gives "sleeping with the fishes" a new name.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: All of Hartman's characters were retired after his death, as production thought it would be in poor taste to simply replace him. (The fact that his children would be watching was often cited.) There is the very rare occasion where they will turn up in the background, though.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase: "Hi, I'm Troy McClure! You may remember me from such [genre he's currently appearing in]s as [title X] and [title Y]." A few episodes play with this:
  • In "Das Bus", he only appears in-character on a TV movie based on the story of Noah's Ark. When Marge walks in and tells the family to get to bed, Lisa had this line:

Lisa: You let us stay up to watch Troy McClure in such other bible epics as David vs. Super-Goliath and Suddenly Last Supper!

• • In "Treehouse of Horror IX", he was supposed to host a special on executions. When he was replaced with guest star Ed McMahon after Phil Hartman died, we get this greeting:

McMahon: Hi, I'm Ed McMahon! Tonight on FOX, from the producers of When Skirts Fall Off, and Secrets of National Security Revealed, it's World's Deadliest Executions!

• The Other Darrin: In an early episode, Dan Castellaneta did a line of dialogue for him (presumably because Hartman was unavailable or the cost to just have him do one line).
• Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Because he's an actor. A number of his appearances are simply different projects he's done.
• You Might Remember Me From: The Trope Namer.

Drederick Tatum

Voiced by: Hank Azaria

• Badass: He manages to stop a prison riot by politely asking that everyone quiet down. (Even the guards back away out of fear.) In a later episode, Homer breaks his jaw getting punched in the face by a statue of him.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: He's a dead ringer for Mike Tyson.

Springfield Elementary School

Principal W. Seymour Skinner a.k.a. Armin Tamzarian

"Elementary school is where I wound up, and it's too late to do anything about that!" —"Lisa's Rival"

The highly put upon principal of Springfield Elementary School, a former Army officer and Vietnam survivor, harassed by Bart Simpson, put upon by his Superintendent, challenged by his groundskeeper, and under the thumb of his domineering, overbearing mother. It's eventually revealed that the real Seymour Skinner went missing in action in Vietnam and he is actually a boy who Skinner saved, who took up Skinner's identity and came back to America. This revelation is not popular, and is even ignored in-series. To the point where when the real Seymour Skinner returns, he's put on a train and everyone agrees to keep calling Armin Tamzarian, Seymour Skinner. Voiced by Harry Shearer.

• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: You don't believe that a momma's boy like him can beat up two of Disney Corporation's goons.
• Dean Bitterman
• Determinator: Once parodied The Terminator. See "Non-Giving-Up-School Guy"
• Former Teen Rebel: Was a worse prankster than Bart in his youth.
• Malaproper: He was quite prone to these in his early appearances:

Skinner: Welcome kindergartners, I'm Principal Sinner-- Skinner! (kindergartners laugh) Well, that's it. I've lost them forever.

• Momma's Boy: Which leads to...
• My Beloved Smother: Trope Namer; he lives with, and is co-dependent with, his mom.
• Non-Giving-Up-School Guy: Trope Namer.
• Noodle Incident:

Skinner: I've been hoping I could find something that would be named after me. Bart: And you've never found anything? Skinner: Once. But by the time I got to the phone, my discovery had already been reported by Principal Kohoutek. I got back at him, though... him and that little boy of his.

• Refugee From Time: As time has passed, it's becoming more and more implausible that he fought in the Vietnam War.
• Retired Badass: Former army sergeant.
  • He also mentions in one episode that he's an ex-Green Beret (US Army Special Forces).
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Parodied. Frequently has flashbacks to his experiences in Vietnam.
• Skinner Has Standards: While he’ll put up with destroyed self-esteem, absurd lessons to be taught, but he won’t put up with anyone attacking a child on his watch.
• Stern Teacher: He has it in for Bart Simpson, but it's hard to blame him when you realize just what Bart's put him through for so long. He's generally a lot nicer to the other students, and can even be civil to Bart when the latter isn't pranking him.
• That Came Out Wrong: "This is our last chance to bone up. And bone we will!"
  • After the kids trap him in the dodgeball sack and the class hamster Nibbles helps rescue them. "Good work Nibbles! Now, chew through my ballsack!" The hamster gives him a squicked expression, then runs away.

Edna Krabappel

The emotionally scarred, bitterly sarcastic teacher unfortunate enough to teach the very class that Bart Simpson attends. The two are fierce enemies, but their relationship is not totally hostile, and Bart has tried to help her on a few occasions. She even receives an award and recognition among the education circles when Bart reveals he is not merely some urban myth and that Mrs. Krabappel has survived being his teacher. Voiced by Marcia Wallace.

• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Seymour.
• Broken Bird: She hasn't been the same since Mr. Krabappel left her, and teaching Bart for the past 20 years hasn't helped.
• Catch Phrase: "Ha!"
• Christmas Cake
• Happily Married: Though she and Ned had some bumps, they ultimately were very happy together.
• Hot Teacher: Arguably. She was presented this way mostly in seasons 2 and 3, but eventually this characterization faded, as she became more sarcastic and bitter.
• Knight in Sour Armor
• Lady Drunk: "Dinner for one, wine for three..."
• Meaningful Name: "Krabappel" is clearly a reference to "crab apple", a species of apple notorious for its bitter, sour taste — and which is also used in America to denote a person who is extremely bitter, sour, cranky or generally bad-tempered.
• Mrs. Robinson: Also lampshaded to hell and back.
• The Character Retires with Her: Due to the death of Marcia Wallace, Edna died offscreen. Al Jean decided this is was right thing to do because he felt it would be irresponsible to simply find a replacement. "Four Regrettings and a Funeral" was dedicated in her memory.
• The Snark Knight
• They Do and Official Couple: Nedna won.

Elizabeth Hoover

Dispassionate teacher of the class that houses both Lisa Simpson and Ralph Wiggum. Voiced by Maggie Roswell (1991-1999; 2002-present); Marcia Mitzman-Gaven (1999-2002).

• The Alcoholic: Once graded the kids' "Wind in the Willows" tests with flavored liqueurs (Kahlua and Drambuie).
• Broken Bird: Has zero passion for her job.

Groundskeeper William "Willie" MacDougal

Cantankerous Scottish groundskeeper of Springfield Elementary. Voiced by Dan Castellaneta.

• A Day in the Limelight: "My Fair Laddy"
• Ascended Extra: Thought to be a one-shot character for "Principal Charming," but Dan Castellaneta's performance led to him coming back and becoming a fixture in the recurring cast.
• Badass: In "Marge Gets a Job", he fights a timber wolf with nothing but his bare hands.
  • Brave Scot: It doesn't take much prove it.
• Bonnie Scotland
• The Caligula: Was implied to have tendencies of this when he decides to run for Mayor in one episode (don't ask). During his election speech, he admits that the very first thing he's going to do when he is elected Mayor is kill everyone in Springfield and then torch the town itself to the ground. And yes, he definitely was aware that the mic was still on, so he was honestly promising this to the public and not just joking.
• Cannot Tell a Joke: His comedy routine about Scottish golfers.
• Covert Pervert: Was revealed in the season six episode "Homer Badman" (the episode where Homer is accused of sexually harassing a babysitter by grabbing her butt and calling her "Precious Venus") to be a camera-toting Peeping Tom. ("But every Scotsman does it!")
• Culture Equals Costume: Frequently seen in a kilt and plaid hat.
• Fan Disservice: His kilt is often portrayed as this.
  • Although his occasional shirtless scenes reveal he's ripped like no one else in Springfield (except for maybe Ned).
• Fiery Redhead
• Funny Foreigner
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Oh, so many examples of this.

Willie: Brothers and sisters are natural enemies like Englishmen and Scots, or Welshmen and Scots, or Japanese and Scots, or Scots and other Scots! Damn Scots! They ruined Scotland! Skinner: You Scots sure are a cantankerous bunch. Willie: Ya just made an enemy for life!

• Multiple Choice Past He hails from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Loch Ness, and North Kilt-Town.
  • Once while recounting a miner's strike and cave-in: "Nobody made it out alive, not even Willie!"
  • He also claimed his father was hung for stealing a pig, but his father is shown to be very much alive in a later episode.
• Scotland Loves Willie: Despite being a mockery, Willie is well liked in Scotland and has a huge fan-base.
• Third-Person Person: Occasionally.
• Unwitting Pawn: After he finds out Skinner made up Scotchtoberfest as a sting for Bart.

"Ya used me Skinner! YA USED ME!"

• • In "The Great Money Caper," Willie stands trial and is found guilty for stealing Homer's car. Homer and Bart had actually been grifting, lost the car to a better grifter and lied about it. However, everything was a con by Marge, Lisa and the townspeople to teach them a lesson about grifting.

Homer: I can't believe everyone was in on it. Willie: WILLIE WASN'T!

• Violent Glaswegian

Superintendent Gary Chalmers

The Board of Education superior to Principal Skinners, and thus the man who has to show up at Springfield Elementary to investigate the goings on there. Voiced by Hank Azaria.

• Big Word Shout
• Catch Phrase: "SKIN-NER!"
• Genre Savvy: He calls out virtually every single trick or excuse that Skinner tries to pull on him.
• Only Sane Man: The writers have noted unlike other characters, Chalmers is above the zaniness of the other characters and is a (relatively) normal guy, aside from his pathological habit of bellowing any word that sounds even remotely like 'SKI-NEEER!. Per Word of God, he's smart enough to know that he lives in a Crapsack World inhabited by lunatics but, for the sake of his sanity, he never asks follow-up questions.
• Say My Name

Otto Mann

Bart and Lisa's bus driver. Although he seems to be an unambitious loser, Bart idolizes him. Voiced by: Harry Shearer.

• A Day in the Limelight: "Otto Show".
• The Alcoholic: When introducing himself to an Alcoholics Anonymous group, Otto says "My name is Otto, I love to get blotto!"
• Berserk Button: He doesn't mind being called a bum, but a sponge... IT SET HIM OFF.
• Catch Phrase: "All right!"
• Defictionalization: Otto's Bus Man comic from "Three Men and a Comic Book" was later made into a back-up story in Simpsons Comics
• Genius Ditz: Although he's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, it is shown from time to time that Otto has artistic talent. He is a very skilled guitar player, and he even created his own comic book called "Bus Man" about a bus driver who fights vampires in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. He's also an excellent bowler. And he almost got tenure at Brown.
• Last-Second Word Swap: From "The Mook, the Chef, The Wife and Her Homer": "Fuuuuu...nk."
• Metalhead: Otto is passionate about Heavy Metal and Classic Rock music, to the point where he actually left his bride at the altar because she tried to make him give up Heavy Metal.
• Military Brat: Otto's father is an Admiral in the United States Navy who disapproves of his lazy, pot-smoking son.
• Species Surname: Rare human example.
• The Stoner: When viewed under a microscope in "The Seven-Beer Snitch", Otto's urine sample contains so many illegal drugs that it resembles a scene from The Beatles film Yellow Submarine.

Students:

Nelson Muntz

Originally the worst bully in Springfield Elementary, the closest thing Bart had to an archnemesis of his own age and the leader of Jimbo, Kerney and Dorf. As the seasons passed, though, he became more sympathetic and eventually began to clean up his act. As a result, his broken home started mending itself. Voiced by Nancy Cartwright.

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: His short-lived romance with Lisa.
• Anti-Hero: Type IV or V.
• Catch Phrase: "Haw haw!"
• Character Development: Though it lead to Menace Decay, Nelson has become softer and is often one of Bart's friends now, while the position of bullying tormentor have been passed onto Jimbo, Kerney and Dorf. Nelson's mother meanwhile cleaned up her act, and his Disappeared Dad came back.
• Enemy Mine: A couple of times has had to work with Martin - much to his chagrin.
• Even Nelson Has Standards: He maybe a bully, but there are some things not even Nelson would do. He would only attack girls if they deserve it, like what happened to Sherri and Terri for picking on Lisa. Sure, he'll go after Bart, but at least, he's a Worthy Opponent.
• Freudian Excuse: The main reason why Nelson is the way he is is because he is from a poor neighborhood, is neglected by his mother, has a Disappeared Dad, and is looked down upon by his peers and teachers even though he is implied to have high potential.
• Genius Bruiser: He is large, and noted above, he is implied to have high potential (although the school fails to recognize it). He also was once shown to be very good at planning, actually giving Marge some tips on how to organize a method to get rid of a sport when she decided to get rid of mixed wrestling.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold
• Kids Are Cruel: Initially.
• Menace Decay: The Nelson of today is wimpy and pathetic compared to the Nelson of the earlier episodes. In a very early episode he was so fearsome Bart had to band together an army to stand up to him because the school was so terrified of him, and before that he regularly beat Bart bloody after school.
• Parental Abandonment
• Pet the Dog: Usually towards Lisa. When he goes to live with the Simpsons for a time, he sees that Sherri and Terri's constant teasing has really affected her, so he proceeds to bully/prank them.

Ralph Wiggum

Police Chief Wiggum's only son, heavily implied to be mentally disabled to some degree. Voiced by Nancy Cartwright.

• A Day in the Limelight: "I Love Lisa", "This Little Wiggy", and, to an extent, "E. Pluribus Wiggum".
• Ambiguously Gay: "I like men now!". Though he did love Lisa...
• Because You Were Nice to Me: His crush on Lisa
• Determinator: Ralph is too scared to enter the abandoned prison in "This Little Wiggy", until the bullies steal the police master key and throw it in. Ralph ignores his fear and enters the prison to get the key. Bart congratulates him for it.
• The Ditz
• Flanderization: Ralph actually had an intelligent side in the early seasons but this disappeared in later episodes.
• Genius Ditz: Despite being...well...The Ditz, Ralph is an amazingly talented actor (I Love Lisa), tap dancer (Last Tap Dance in Springfield) and nose flutist (Round Springfield).
• Throw the Dog a Bone: At the end of "This Little Wiggy," Bart, Homer and Marge congratulate Ralph for saving the day, even though it was Lisa's plan. Lisa goes along with it after Bart says, "C'mon, let him have this one, Lis. After all, it's Ralph."
• Vague Age: In "The Simpsons Spinoff Showcase", Chief Wiggum describes him as "between the ages of six and ten".

Terri and Sherri

Voiced by Russi Taylor

• Alpha Bitch
• Creepy Twins
• Flanderization: While Sherri and Terri weren't exactly the nicest girls, nowadays they seem to pretty much hate anyone who's not them. They didn't even become suddenly afraid when Michael turned out to be the son of Fat Tony.
• Single-Minded Twins

Martin Prince

The school's biggest nerd, regarded as being even more of a geek and a teacher's pet than Lisa Simpson. Voiced by Russi Taylor.

• Bi the Way: In an Imagine Spot, he sees himself as the star basketball player, with a female cheerleader on one arm and a male cheerleader on the other.
• School Newspaper Newshound: Sometimes.
• Spock Speak
• TV Genius

Milhouse Van Houten

Bart's closest friend, who acquires a bit of protection from his nerdy nature by being so close to the class clown and mayhem expert. Voiced by Pamela Hayden.

• Anchored Ship: Lisa recently admitted that she may or may not have feelings for him. We all know how this goes.
• Butt Monkey: Milhouse has suffered everything from inheriting Bart's permanent record (which will disqualify him from all but the hottest and noisiest jobs) to being beaten into a coma by Nelson after he mistakes a love note Milhouse passes him from Lisa as coming from Milhouse himself, to having his manliness insulted in an episode set in the future when an adult Lisa is about to get married:

Lisa: I feel kind of weird wearing white, Mom. You know, Milhouse... Marge: Oh, Milhouse doesn't count. They both laugh

• Dogged Nice Guy: Towards Lisa.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Mussolini.
• Forced Meme: Was one on 4chan for a while, leading to the meme "Milhouse is not a meme."
• Future Badass: First subverted but then straight. "Bart to the Future" reveals that he'll look just as his father in his adult years. Then the episode "Future-Drama" reveals that Milhouse'll become a muscular, shorter version of He-Man in his teens.
• Hollywood Nerd
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Sensitive Guy to Bart's Manly Man.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Jimbo Jones, Dolph Starbeam, and Kearney Zzyzwicz

Just like Nelson, they’re often bully students at Springfield Elementary, but they also in engage criminal activity around town like shoplifting, petit and grand larceny, breaking and entering, vandalism, destruction of property, and child endangerment just to name a few.

• Ambiguously Jewish: In “24 Minutes”, we learn Dolph is a Jew.
• Even Bullies Has Standard: In “Diggs”, Jimbo and Kearney thought making fun of the mental ill was all time low, also see below.
• Evil Counterpart: To Bart and Nelson:
  • They're the example of what would happen to Bart if he didn't have his family and their love and care to keep him in line, warts and all.
  • To Nelson, who is already a foil to Bart, they lack his very buried heart of gold and understandable rage and want of attention out of actual neglect and society's failings, compared to their cheap borderline sociopathic thrills and misdeeds out of nothing but boredom and self made delinquency. Nelson has also gotten some character development over the years, while the trio remains the lowlives they've more or less always been.
• Hate Sink: Anytime these guys pop out of the woodwork, it's not wrong for anyone to keep their eyes out for them and think they will bring nothing but bad news. Just as everyone of The Simpsons and Springfield represent some archetype of society in their own way, Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney are meant to represent lowlife loser bullies who have nothing better to do than throw their weight around, seek out the next time they can get a cheap thrill at any cost, and follow the next popular thing to be posers around and ruin it for the rest.
• Older Than They Look: Despite being grade schoolers, Jimbo and Dolph are old enough to be in college, and Kearney is an adult.
  • Kearney was a student during the Watergate scandal and the 1976 Bicentennial happen. He’s also has a valid driver’s license and a car, seen in “Lisa’s Date with Density” though he’s sometimes is seen on the school bus with Otto, a former classmate. He’s has a criminal record as he has been to jail, is a divorced father, smoke tobacco products, drink in a bar, votes in U.S. elections, and pays taxes.
• Pet the Dog: During Lisa on Ice Kearney is the first to congratulate Lisa on her success at hockey.
• Real Men Wear Pink: In the “PTA Disbands”, Jimbo watches soaps with his mother.
• Straw Loser: The main underlying joke about the trio is that despite getting away with just about all of the crap they pull of on Springfield and its inhabitants, at the end of it all, they're still lowlives and scumbags who will probably amount to nothing but for the rest of their lives. This is especially emphasized by them having not even graduated grade school and still stuck in the same children level grade. Kearney especially is at the end of this stick, as despite having a son, lives in absolute squalor and poverty.
• Toxic Friend Influence: They will sometimes let Bart hang around them, but this comes at him being open to suggestions from Jimbo to do stuff that is more morally reprehensible than what he is used to doing.
• Villain with Good Publicity: The trio of thugs strongly evoke this, as their petty criminal "quasi-thug bad boy" acts make them popular with teenagers, and are charismatic and clever enough to dupe any adult to not think of them as the creeps and lowlives they really are.
• Would Hurt a Child: Kearney… well, except for his son.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: In “Bye Bye Nerdie”, it’s reveal they’re limited to male students like Bart since girls are among their weaknesses.

First Church of Springfield

Reverend Timothy Lovejoy

The preacher at the church that the Simpsons family and the Flanders family attend. He really doesn't care much about his job or his "flock" at all, and can even be read as not actually being that religious, is often no more reasonable on religious matters then Springfield's other religious characters — he just usually has ulterior motives, typically relating to increasing the money he gets from the church. It's revealed that his original caring nature and sincere drive to help his congregation was basically eroded by coming into contact with Ned Flanders and his fixation on being a "proper" Christian. Voiced by Harry Shearer.

• Badass Preacher: Has saved Homer's life on at least one occasion, as well as Flanders in another occasion.
• Christianity Is Catholic: Averted. Although he wears a clerical collar, the church the Simpsons belong to is a weird pastiche of Protestantism.
  • In fact, he does get into a nasty brawl with an Irish Priest after the two quarrel about the subject of Catholic vs. Protestant practices.
• Hiding Behind Religion
• Jade-Colored Glasses: After Ned's constant whining got to him, he just stopped caring.
• Let's Get Dangerous: His description of his fight with the baboons at the zoo.

And that's when I got mad.

• Parental Neglect: Apparently the reason why Jessica Lovejoy was not a good girl.
• Playing with Fire: It is implied throughout the show that he has pyromaniac tendencies: Namely, he is overly enthusiastic about burnings (such as burning Krusty merchandise when Krusty was framed, or when he got a van that was used solely for burning books besides the obvious use of actually driving it), and was also hinted to have set gasoline in the church and set it on fire possibly to get the insurance covered on it at least once beforehand.
• Preacher Man
• Rail Enthusiast
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes

Helen Lovejoy

Reverend Lovejoy's snooping, interfering, gossipy busy-body of a wife. Voiced by Maggie Roswell and Marcia Mitzman Gaven.

• Bifauxen: The Pastor, when visiting Reverend Lovejoy to break the bad news that he was, for three months, acting as Minister without a license, implies that Helen Lovejoy may have been a transsexual. Of course, this is contradicted by her giving birth to Jessica, not to mention her being a girl at age 10.
• Think of the Children: Trope Namer
• Gossipy Hens

Jessica Lovejoy

Reverend and Helen Lovejoy's daughter, who feigns being as sweet and pleasant a girl as one would expect of a Reverend's daughter, but who is actually such a bad girl she unnerves Bart. Voiced by Meryl Streep.

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
• Freudian Excuse: Apparently the reason she acts like a total bad girl is because she craved attention, due to her father not giving her any.
• Manipulative Bitch
• Preacher's Kid
• Smug Snake
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes

The Itchy and Scratchy Show

Itchy

The psychotic mouse member of the cartoon duo, a clear expy-cum-parody of Jerry at his most Jerkass. He is usually the antagonist, and always brutally slaughters Scratchy in the show, no matter how little Scratchy may have done to deserve it.

• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal
• Karma Houdini
• Rodents of Unusual Size
• White Gloves
• You Gotta Have Blue Fur

Scratchy

The cat member of the Tom and Jerry-parodying Show Within a Show, Scratchy is almost never a bad person in his depictions, but invariably suffers nightmarish deaths at Itchy's hands.

• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: He only wears White Gloves
• Cruel and Unusual Death: He suffers one Once Per Episode
• Furry Confusion: When he and Snowball II show up together in "Treehouse of Horror IX" segment, "The Terror of Tiny Toon."
• Humanoid Female Animal: Inverted to the point of Furry Confusion when he and Snowball II show up together in "Treehouse of Horror IX" segment, "The Terror of Tiny Toon."
  • But played straight in the "Grand Theft Scratchy" segment of The Simpsons Game. The orange female prostitute cats look more humanoid than Scratchy.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: There was an episode where he finally got even with Itchy, featured in "Homer Goes to College". Unfortunately, Bart and Lisa, and consequently the viewer, don't get to see it as the television is unplugged by one of the nerds currently living with the Simpsons (they needed the outlet for their rock tumbler). Once they got the TV plugged back in, the short is over and Krusty excitedly claims, "They'll never let us show that again! Not in a million years!"
• The Chew Toy
• They Killed Kenny
• White Gloves

Poochie

Homer's attempt at designing a new character to boost interest in the Itchy & Scratchy Show, who became loathed by the fanbase and was promptly removed with all speed.

• Barefoot Cartoon Animal: When he is not wearing shoes.
• Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: When he is wearing shoes.
• Nice Hat
• Remember the New Guy?
• Shoo Out the New Guy: Former Trope Namer of The Poochie.
• The Scrappy: In-Universe.
• Totally Radical: Parodied

"TO THE EXTREME!"

Others

Robert Underdunk Terwilliger (Sideshow Bob)

A man cursed to have both huge feet (standard floppy clown shoes fit him perfectly) and a natural hairstyle like a palm tree while also having the mind of a keen intellectual, he was, while originally not interested in becoming a performer, coaxed into joining the Krusty The Clown Show with the prospect of appealing to a huge audience of children with his own brand of edutainment. To his horror, though, his ideas were all ignored and he became the abused straight-man for Krusty's lowbrow slapstick. Jealousy and resentment eventually led to him framing Krusty and then assuming control over the show while Krusty was imprisoned, but Bart Simpson exposed him and sent him to prison. As a result, he carries a murderous grudge against both his former "partner" and the Simpson boy. Voiced by Kelsey Grammer.

• Actor Allusion: He and his family are voiced by cast members from Frasier
  • When hired as school announcer, he claims to have always had an interest in a radio career.
  • In "The Bob Next Door," Homer and Marge note that Sideshow Bob sounds like "Frasier on Cheers" and "Frasier on Frasier" and "Tom Dodge in Down Periscope".
• Affably Evil
• Anime Hair
• Arch Enemy: To Bart.
  • And rakes.
• Ax Crazy
• Butt Monkey: Many of his appearances involve some physical or mental suffering. "Cape Feare" may be the best example, given what he goes through under the car or when a parade (complete with several elephants) tramples him.
• Catch Phrase: "Hello, Bart".
• Camp Straight
• Classically-Trained Extra: Much to his dismay.
• Complexity Addiction: Something that Lenny lampshades in "The Great Louse Detective". Bob could just pick up a knife and kill Bart but he always goes for the Gambit Roulette with six million moving parts.
• Even Evil Has Standards
• Eviler Than Thou: His brother Cecil.
• Evil Redhead
• Expy: Some viewers see Sideshow Bob as an awful lot like Frasier Crane. Only he doesn't have a radio show, he's more successful at romance, and he's a crazy maniac (albeit one with very good manners) who wants to kill Bart.
• Failure Is the Only Option: His plans to kill Bart.
• Hates the Job, Loves the Limelight: This trope is what led to Bob's Start of Darkness. He accepted Krusty's job offer because he originally wanted to do a show that would be both entertaining and enlightening to the children who watched it, but his talents were utterly wasted on Krusty's lowbrow slapstick. Finally having enough, he framed Krusty for armed robbery so he could take over the show and remold it into what he wanted to do. Bob had finally realized his dream, and his show was earning great ratings... and then Bart exposed him for framing Krusty. Ouch.
  • And while he hated the indignity of being the put-upon sidekick, when Krusty accidentally erased all those old episodes, Sideshow Bob vowed revenge for him erasing his past.
• Heel Face Revolving Door: Does he still want Bart dead or not?!

Bob: You...you saved my life. Bart: Yeah, I guess that means you can't ever try to kill me again! Bob: Oh, I don't know about that... Joking, joking!

• Hypocrisy Nod: "I'm aware of the irony of appearing on TV in order to decry it, so don't bother pointing that out."
• Knight of Cerebus
• Large Ham
• Manipulative Bastard
• Monster Clown: Well, ex-clown.
• Motive Decay: While he's almost always intended to kill Bart out of revenge for foiling his schemes, he goes so far as to side with his brother against him, even though his brother tried to kill him, embezzle a lot of money, destroy the town, and frame Bob for the latter two. Meanwhile, Bob and Bart seemingly made up during that period. If anything, he should want revenge on Cecil.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He saves Bart's life from his brother in "Brother From Another Series".
  • When Krusty's father dies Bob comes to the funeral to comfort him.
  • At the end of "Bobby It's Cold Outside" he cheers Burns up with the Christmas spirit.
• Phrase Catcher: AAAGH! Sideshow Bob!
  • "Oh, please children. We've known each other so long, just call me Bob."
    • AAAGH! Bob!
• Reformed but Rejected: Sideshow Bob really tried to live a honest life in "Brother from Another Series", but Chief Wiggum stubbornly refused to believe him to be innocent regarding Cecil's plot in that episode.
• Status Quo Is God: He will always have a venomous hatred of Bart and Krusty, despite having made up with each of them at least once. He interestingly holds nothing against the rest of the Simpson family despite a increasingly similar amount of suffering they have caused (Lisa has arguably became more pivotal in foiling his plans than Bart), and even publicly states his desire to kill Bart and only Bart. He's even sided with his brother Cecil against Bart, even though Cecil tried to frame and murder him and Bart saved Bob's life from Cecil.
• Too Dumb to Live: In one episode, while on a houseboat, he honors Bart's last request to sing the entire score to the H.M.S. Pinafore. During this time, they pass the cops.
• Vile Villain Saccharine Show
• Villain Decay: Averted, but lampshaded. Bob is always devious and brilliant, but Bart has foiled his plans so often he isn't as afraid of him as he was in his first few appearances.

Bart: "Oh, it's you Bob. How ya doin'?" Bob: "No scream? Not even an 'eep'?" Bart: "Hey I'm not afraid of you, every time we tango you end up in jail, I'm 6-0."

• • Actually, this is played straight in modern seasons, after his funeral scheme he goes downhill, in his next major role, he's outsmarted by Chief Wiggum, Chief fucking Wiggum and after that, his roles are limited to mere cameos where he gets abused.
• Villainous Friendship: Bob and Snake are quite chumny.
• Wicked Cultured
• You Meddling Kids: "Krusty Gets Busted".

Gil Gunderson

Voiced by: Dan Castellaneta

• Alliterative Name
• Ascended Extra: Ol' Gil was expected to be a one-shot character in "Realty Bites." However, Dan Castellaneta was reportedly so funny at that episode's table read, the writers wanted to keep bringing the character back.
• Butt Monkey
• The Chew Toy
• Expy: In his original appearances, he was a parody of Shelly "The Machine" Levene from Glengarry Glen Ross.
• Straw Loser: Say what you will about Moe or Comic Book Guy, but at least they have a steady income and a roof over their heads. Gil will never have the former, and he's lucky whenever he gets the latter. He really seems to be at the bottom of the social ladder nearly all the time.

Gil: Oh, Ol' Gil's gonna collect big from insurance. I'll be eating food tonight!

• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Since Phil Hartman's death, the Simpson family has been hiring Gil as their lawyer instead of Lionel Hutz.
• Unexplained Recovery: Gil was shot and apparently killed in Season 19's "I Don't Wanna Know Why The Caged Bird Sings." No explanation is given for his return/survival.

Professor John Frink, Jr.

Local mad scientist and nerdy genius. Voiced by Hank Azaria.

• Bungling Inventor: Several of his inventions have malfunctioned, with hilarious results.
• Depending on the Writer: Sometimes Professor Frink's inventions malfunction, and other times they work perfectly well, depending on the needs of the plot. The self-tapping dance shoes he invented for Lisa ended up going out of control, but the auto-dialling machine that Homer used in his electric panhandling scheme worked just fine.
• Expy: Of Jerry Lewis' character in The Nutty Professor. To the point where Lewis himself voiced Frink's father, John Frink Sr., in "Treehouse of Horror XIV".
• Hollywood Nerd
• Mad Scientist
• Verbal Tic: The "Frink noise"

Shauna Tifton A.K.A. Princess Kashmir

• Background Character: Is usually this, except for the "Homer's Night Out" episode
• Belly Dancer: She's dressed as a belly dancer for a bachelor party on the season one episode, "Homer's Night Out" and has often appeared in her belly dancer garb in other episodes.
• Hidden Depths: Homer introduces Bart to her (at Marge's request), to show him that women are not mindless sex objects.
• What Exactly Is His Job?: Works at every gentlemen's club in Springfield, under several different stage names.

Kang and Kodos

Cyclopian aliens resembling giant green heads on writhing octopus tentacles, these two aliens from Rigel IV make guest appearances in some episodes but are most prominent in the "Simpson's Halloween" episodes, which are non-canonical horror anthologies.

• Aliens Speaking English: Rigellian coincidentally sounds just like English
• Cyclops
• Halloween Episode: Traditionally, they've appeared in every installment, whether cameo appearance or part of the plot in a Halloween story(TOH I: "Hungry are they Dammed", TOH VI: "Citizen Kang", TOH IX: "Starship Poopers").
• Naughty Tentacles: Averted. They impregnate Marge by zapping her with a special ray gun instead of actually having sex with her.
• Starfish Aliens
• Weaksauce Weakness: Moe simply uses a board with a nail through it. It works as one of their kind, Rigellians, are weak to it.
• What Could Have Been: Interviews revealed that they were originally going to be regulars and only Homer could see them, but that proved "too weird," so they were moved to the Halloween specials. This is occasionally alluded to when they express bitterness at only showing up on Halloween, and eagerly accept a contract to do a commercial for Old Navy clothing when they decide that "work is work".

Rich Texan

• Americans Are Cowboys
• Catch Phrase: Yeeeeahaw!
• Corrupt Corporate Executive
• Everything Is Big in Texas
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Subverted. Rich Texan is his actual name. He even has a teenaged daughter named Paris Texan. (It helps that "Rich" as a name is short for "Richard".)
• Fat Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit
• Guns Akimbo
• Reckless Gun Usage
• Rich in Dollars, Poor In Sense: In one of the first episodes he appeared in, he was representing a group of oil tycoons who make foolish purchases. Some of their past "investments" included a stained-glass bathrobe, and the world's fattest racehorse.
• Strawman Political: Along with post-Flanderization Ned, he serves as the show's primary target for Take Thats directed at Republicans/conservatives.
  • How much he is one is debatable, as he did once mention that he's going to tell his gay son that he loves him.
    • Truth in Television: Dick Cheney (one of the most conservative Republicans around) loves his gay daughter dearly and is a big supporter of gay marriage as a result.

Chief Clancy Wiggum

Chief of Springfield Police Department, Chief Wiggum is portrayed as lazy, gluttonous, out of shape, incompetent (if not mildly corrupt) and dim-witted. Voiced by Hank Azaria.

• Anti-Hero: Type I
• Brilliant but Lazy: The episode "Pranksta Rap" reveals that if he's motivated enough, he can make some great police work.
• Dirty Cop
• Doting Parent/Good Parents: Which trope depends on the episode. His saving grace is his interactions with Ralph: Wiggum is very encouraging of his son, and they have a very close and healthy relationship. Arguably, they're the most well-adjusted parental relationship on the show.
• Fat Idiot
• I Owe You My Life: In "Mother Simpson," flashbacks reveal Wiggum had asthma, but Mona and her group's releasing Burns' germs cured him - allowing him to join the police academy. Years later, he repaid the favor by tipping Homer off about the authorities coming for Mona.
• Inspector Javert: Sometimes.
• Inspector Lestrade: When Bart or Lisa play Amateur Sleuth.
• Police Are Useless
• Stripper Cop Confusion: Went along with it for the money.
• Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Sometimes, when played sympathetically.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Earlier in the show, he had black hair. Became blue as the show evolved in later seasons.

Joseph "Diamond Joe" Quimby

Springfield's mayor and head of a rich and politically influential clan. Known for his womanizing, general corruption and for changing his political stance at the drop of a hat if he thinks it will increase his popularity with the voters. Voiced by Dan Castellaneta.

• American Accents: Joe Quimby and his family speak in a broad Boston (Kennedese) accent, humorously picked up on by Jon Stewart whenever he's discussing the Kennedys.
• Corrupt Politician
  • Even Corrupt Politicians Has Standards: Quimby maybe just as corrupt as Mr. Burns, but he even was upset with Burns' plot to block out the sun in order to power the city from his nuclear plant for a price.
• Fat Idiot
• I Take Offense to That Last One: Diamond Joe would have you know that though he is a tax-cheat, a wife-swapper and a pot-smoker, he is no longer illiterate.
• Mayor Pain: Trope Namer for Type B.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: The Quimby clan displays many of the hallmarks of the seamier sides of the Kennedys, although Diamond Joe in some stories also resembles other Democratic politicians, most notably Dukakis in Sideshow Bob Roberts. Mrs. Quimby dresses like Jacqueline Kennedy.
• Strawman Political: As the series' most prominent recurring Democratic politician, he serves as primary target for Take Thats aimed at Democrats/Liberals.
• Your Cheating Heart: Has a wife, but has had several gazillion different mistresses throughout the series.

Fat Tony

Head of the Springfield Mafia. Voiced by Joe Mantegna.

• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Fat Tony loves his son Michael despite their complicated relationship.
  • He is a widower and misses his wife deeply.
  • In Season 33 Tony becomes godfather to Maggie. He grows fond of her but when he realises how his infulence is affecting her behavior he backs out of the arrangement to give her a chance at a better life.
• Exact Words: Fat Tony loves invoking these tropes: One instance is when, after Homer lost some money he borrowed from him in a football bet, Fat Tony, who learned of this, stated that Homer shouldn't worry, as he's sure that they'll "hammer out a payment plan." When he said "hammer out" a payment plan, he meant this literally, and certainly wasn't kidding, as he meant that he was going to have his goons restrain Homer and whack his right hand with a hammer multiple times.
• Faux Affably Evil
• Killed Off for Real: But replaced by his cousin.
• The Mafia
• My Sibling Will Live Through Me: Because Status Quo Is God, when he is killed off his cousin replaces him, soon becoming an exact copy of him.
• The Other Darrin: Phil Hartman voiced him for one line in "A Fish Called Selma".
• Retcon: His name. It was eventually changed to Fat Tony D'amico.
• They Killed Kenny: See Killed Off for Real.

Snake Jailbird

A recurring petty thug and minor crook, most often seen mugging people or holding up the Kwik-E-Mart. Voiced by Hank Azaria.

• Affably Evil: In post-movie seasons.
• Anti-Villain: Again, in post-movie seasons.
  • "Goodbye, student loan payments!"
• Catch Phrase: "Bye!"
• Despair Event Horizon: In "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story", Moe Szyslak stole Maya coins that Snake was going to bring to the Springfield museum, which caused him to turn to a life of crime as shopkeepers and cashiers. Snake was an archaeologist when it happened, so his life of crime is revenge on convenience stores.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Has a Generation Xerox son, and a long-term girlfriend.
• Known Only By Their Nickname: He's has been called Snake Jailbird since he was a teenager, first by Clancy Wiggum.
  • Embarrassing First Name: His real name is Chester, but he's likely got used to being called Snake.
• Perma-Stubble
• The Smart Guy: Is actually an archaeologist, but became a thief
• Surfer Dude: Well, he has the accent, anyway.
• Unholy Matrimony: Is often seen with his girlfriend, Gloria, who left him for Mr. Burns, but then came back when she saw that Mr. Burns was truly evil, not just a bad boy like Snake.
• Villains Out Shopping

Lindsey Naegle

Voiced by: Tress MacNeille

• The Alcoholic
• Children Are a Waste: Believes this, and even starts a group for the child-free citizens of Springfield
• Corrupt Corporate Executive
• Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Because she's a sexual predator.

Lionel Hutz

Voiced by: Phil Hartman

• The Alcoholic: As implied in "Marge in Chains." He even argued his case before the court and was then informed he wasn't wearing any pants.
  • He's also seen drinking scotch at nine-thirty in the morning. In front of clients, no less.
• Ambulance Chaser: In "Bart Gets Hit By a Car," Homer says upon meeting him, "You were the guy chasing Bart's ambulance."
• Bunny Ears Lawyer: Averted. He's eccentric, odd and sleazy. And really, really bad at his job.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: All of Hartman's characters were retired after his death, as the production team thought it would be in poor taste to simply replace him. (The fact that his children would be watching was often cited.) There is the very rare occasion where they will turn up in the background, though.
• Frivolous Lawsuit: His usual thing. Heck, he once sued the makers of The Neverending Story for false advertising.
• Make the Dog Testify: Does this occasionally
• Ultimate Job Security: Frequently lost his cases, but kept getting hired by Homer and Marge regardless. Lampshaded:

Marge: You know, we should really stop hiring him.

• Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: He started as a lawyer and later became a real estate agent (As many of his clients end up losing their houses).

Judge Roy Snyder

• Bunny Ears Lawyer: He has a clown desk figurine on the branch when he’s there, but he’s treated with respected, even by criminals.
  • At the end of “The Parent Rap”, just as Harms was about to send Bart away for defending his parents, Snyder arrives and tells her the clown is down, saving Bart in the process.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Everyone, including the Simpsons, is fair game when it comes to his sentencing, but he’s respected since he won’t take bribes, his sentences are sensible, and knowledgeable.
  • Screw the Money, I Have Rules

Judge Constance Harm

Voiced by Jane Kaczmarek

• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: She's hands out harsh sentence, goes after anyone who feels bad for her victims, and... Hey Homer, what was that thing she said about Bart spitting?

Homer: (to Marge in an intimidating tone) What did she say about cupcakes?

• Disproportionate Retribution: Just go ask Bart and Homer...
• Hanging Judge
• Meaningful Name: Note the name is a play on constant harm... well, even the adults are fair game including papa wolves and mama bears as Marge would explain.
• Jerkass: What does anyone expect from her?
• Transgender: Offhandedly reveals that she used to be a little boy.

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