Character foils on The Simpsons.
- Marge to Homer. While Homer is goofy, aggressive, and unintelligent, Marge is serious, calm, and rather smart. Typically she's the one who prevents Homer from doing anything too foolish.
- Lisa to Bart. Lisa is a well-mannered, responsible, Book Smart nerd who hates breaking rules and is an outcast at school. Bart is a Book Dumb prankster who causes mayhem at school and is very popular for his Class Clown antics. This is especially ironic given that Lisa started out as essentially a Distaff Counterpart to Bart before being rewritten as his polar opposite.
- Ned Flanders to Homer. Ned is everything Homer isn't — intelligent, well off financially, with a loving family that supports him. Homer is strongly implied to be jealous of Ned's good fortune, hence his hatred towards "stupid Flanders." As highlighted on "Viva Ned Flanders", Ned is also cautious to a fault, unlike the recklessly impulsive Homer.
- Hugh Parkfield from "Lisa's Wedding" is this to Mr. Bergstrom from "Lisa's Substitute". At first glance, they're both everything Lisa wants from a companion: witty, intelligent, cultured, sensitive, putting her at odds with her seemingly oblivious father Homer. But while Mr. Bergstrom helps Lisa understand that Homer does love her, Hugh tries to cut him out of her life, which makes Lisa realize that Hugh doesn't really care about her.
- Superintendent Gary Chalmers has been described by writer Bill Oakley
as a foil to Frank Grimes of all people in "Steamed Hams". Chalmers knows everyone in Springfield is crazy, but he's developed a system where he gets by via not asking too many questions, hence why he indulges Skinner's lies, whereas Frank Grimes simply wouldn't let it go and is driven insane, eventually resulting in his death. - The Blue-Haired Lawyer to Lionel Hutz. The Blue-Haired Lawyer is much more competent than Lionel Hutz, but even more amoral. Also, Lionel Hutz is charming and friendly, despite his incompetence, and is almost always on The Simpsons' side, while The Blue-Haired Lawyer often serves as a No-Nonsense Nemesis to the Simpsons, and is usually seen working for Mr. Burns.
- Ms. Melon is calm and nurturing to her students and encourages independence and creativity in a pedagogically progressive environment, which heavily contrasts Mrs. Krabappel.
- Artie Ziff to Homer. Being a genius, he got rich, powerful and earned respect, but he lives alone and the collection of Marge-resembling art around his mansion shows that he never got over Marge rejecting him. Unlike Homer, Artie only likes Marge for her aesthetic appeal and doesn't respect her opinions.
- In "The Principal and the Pauper", the real Seymour Skinner represents everything the representing fake Skinner fails to be, having a strong backbone and sense of pride and ethics (if naively so). He cares about the school faculty teaching its children properly, and thinks independently from his mother, whose shrill browbeating completely fails to beckon him. Expectedly everyone in Springfield soon decides they like him a lot less than the fake Skinner.
- Audrey McConnell displays a certain degree of cheerfulness, confidence and competence (at least until she witnesses a failure of the buddy system), as opposed to being downbeat or exasperated like Edna Krabappel and Elizabeth Hoover, both of whom McConnell dislikes.
- Lindsey Naegle to Marge ("Occupation?" "...Hrrmmm... Homemaker.") Simpson. While Marge comes across quaint and out-of-date, even according to Matt Groening himself, Naegle epitomizes everything wrong with the late eighties/early nineties businesswoman: androgynous hair, shoulder pads, a patronizing attitude and an utter disdain for children and families in general.
- Gavin, the Spoiled Brat at Try-N-Save, is Bart sans any and all redeeming qualities, with a few he doesn't even display revved up. Arguably, he's Bart if Marge had completely given up on raising Bart at an early age.
- Mona to Abe. Abe is a senile, cranky, and unpleasant old man who goes off on wild tangents and generally annoys Homer and his family, albeit his wear and tear largely coming from all he has gone through with his family. Mona has aged with dignity, retained all of her faculties, and is someone Homer and his family loves to have around, though is left with a incredibly distant relationship due to her occupation.
- Frank Grimes is clearly meant to be the exact opposite of Homer in every way, even down to their character designs.
- Played for laughs with the mafia gangsters Johnny Tightlips and Frankie the Squealer.
