| 1 | [[WMG:[[center: [- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' '''[[Characters/TheSimpsons Main Character Index]]'''\ |
| 2 | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsTheSimpsonFamily Simpson Family]] ([[Characters/TheSimpsonsHomerSimpson Homer Simpson]], [[Characters/TheSimpsonsBartSimpson Bart Simpson]]) | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsExtendedFamily The Simpsons Extended Family]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsElementarySchool Springfield Elementary School]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsGovernmentJudgesLawyersPoliceCriminals Government, Judges and Lawyers, Police and Criminals]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsNuclearPowerPlantShopkeepers Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Springfield Shopkeepers]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsChurchDoctorsCelebrities First Church of Springfield, Doctors, Celebrities]] | '''Friends and Neighbors, Families''' | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsOtherRecurringCharacters Other Recurring Characters]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsItchyAndScratchyCharacters Itchy & Scratchy Characters]] | [[Characters/TheSimpsonsOneTimeCharacters One-time Characters]]]]-]]] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 5 | |
| 6 | !Flanders Family |
| 7 | [[folder:Nedward "Ned" Flanders]] |
| 8 | [[quoteright:274:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/flanders_removebg_preview.png]] |
| 9 | [[caption-width-right:274:Hidely-ho, troperinos!]] |
| 10 | |
| 11 | -->Debut: ''"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"'' |
| 12 | |
| 13 | The nice guy next door neighbor to the Simpson family. Originally, Ned was just a "better Christian" 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. As of Season 29, he has taken over his late second wife's job as the fourth grade teacher, before the job was given to Rayshelle Peyton in Season 33. Voiced by Creator/HarryShearer. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | * AbusiveDad: Not in a violent manner, rather in the over-protective variety. |
| 16 | ** Ned's sons are highly sheltered and overprotected. [[RhymeThemeNaming Rod and Todd]] are oversensitive and have poor social skills towards others. They are also religiously bigoted and seem to be sexually confused, as they plan to lose their virginities to each other in their vow of abstinence. In ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS17E14BartHasTwoMommies Bart Has Two Mommies]]'', Rod and Todd reveal that Marge makes them feel genuinely happy because she gives them more freedom than Ned. |
| 17 | ** A direct example is in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS31E9ToddToddWhyHastThouForsakenMe Todd, Todd, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me]]"; Ned disowns Todd for having a crisis of faith, he prays for God to punish Todd for his lack of faith and sends him to live with the Simpsons so they'd make Todd afraid of God. The reason why Todd had a crisis of faith was that he was missing his mother and confused about why such a tragedy would take place. |
| 18 | * TheAce: Early on, he always found success in areas where Homer failed and generally had a perfect life. [[BrokenAce Subverted in later episodes]], where he goes through multiple losses and failures that are arguably ''worse'' than anything that Homer has had to go through. |
| 19 | * AncestralName: His {{Beatnik}} dad is also named Nedward "Ned" Flanders. |
| 20 | * AffablyEvil: If he's a villain in a ''WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror'' short (such as when he turns out to be {{Satan}}, or becomes the [[BigBrotherIsWatching dictator of the world]] in an alternate timeline), he's still as genial as he usually is. |
| 21 | %%* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Is this to Homer, which is why Homer doesn't like him (add to the fact that Flanders has a prettier wife -- [[KilledOffForReal or used to]] -- and kids that aren't a pain in the ass to him). Was played up a lot more in the early seasons. |
| 22 | * AsTheGoodBookSays: Flanders quotes the Bible often. |
| 23 | * BetaCouple: With Maude, until her death, to Homer and Marge. |
| 24 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: The nicest guy you could ever wish to meet, but as his PrecisionFStrike shows, you do NOT want to push him too far. He straight-up knocks out Homer with one punch after he relentlessly teases him! On two different occasions! |
| 25 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: DependingOnTheWriter. He generally appears be a nice guy, and in some episodes he ''is'' a genuinely nice guy, but in other episodes, he's actually a obsessive religious jerk. |
| 26 | %%* BrokenAce: Officially becomes this after the episode "Hurricane Neddy" and [[spoiler: after Maude's death]]. |
| 27 | * CartwrightCurse: Ned Flanders has been twice-widowed. His first wife, Maude, was killed in a freak accident by a T-shirt cannon. Later on he married Edna Krabappel. But in an episode following the death of her voice actress Marcia Wallace, Ned is seen wearing a black armband and looking at a picture of Edna, revealing she died off-camera. |
| 28 | * CerebusRetcon: His VerbalTic is his way of expressing repressed anger. |
| 29 | * CharacterCatchphrase: "Hidely-ho, neighborino!", "Okely-dokely!" and "Diddly!" |
| 30 | * CharacterizationMarchesOn: |
| 31 | ** In his earlier appearances his personality had drifted towards being nice and meek. It's sort of funny to watch his first appearance, where he's so indifferent/oblivious to Homer's obvious financial problems that it reaches JerkAss proportions and he actually seems fully deserving of Homer's enmity. |
| 32 | ** He wasn't even a devout Christian. Season 1 makes no mention of his faith, just that he's Homer's well-off neighbor. Season 2 does have him quote the Bible on one occasion. |
| 33 | * ClarkKentOutfit: Despite appearing to be slightly paunchy when wearing his usual sweater, Ned is actually ''incredibly'' ripped, which is genuinely shown off whenever he wears a different outfit. |
| 34 | * CostumesChangeYourSize: He appears far heavier when wearing his outfit than he actually is. |
| 35 | * CrankyNeighbor: Initially averted, but began to play this more straight due to {{Flanderization}}, where he'd gradually become less tolerant of Homer. In several later-season episodes, he has reported Homer to the police for minor stuff (for example, he reports him for having sex with Marge in the treehouse in "Kamp Krustier"). |
| 36 | * DependingOnTheWriter: |
| 37 | ** Discounting [[{{Flanderization}} the trope he's named for]], he can be a perfectly nice but boring guy in one episode, someone who can be pretty fun in another (he's been shown drinking and brewing beer, hosting BBQ parties, and even plays billiards in his house), or an obnoxious [[TheFundamentalist religious fundamentalist]]. |
| 38 | ** Homer's relationship with him can range from SitcomArchNemesis to VitriolicBestBuds to outright wishing him dead. |
| 39 | * DorkInASweater: Overly cheery and dorky, and always seen wearing a bright green sweater with a pink collar. |
| 40 | * EgocentricallyReligious: Sometimes becomes this in his Christian overzeal, sometimes showing a condescending view of God's treatment towards others or praying for his good will for even minor things like winning a game of bowling. He's usually not nearly as bad as Homer thinks he is however (who actually turned into a far more prominent example in one episode). |
| 41 | * ExtremeDoormat: He's a bit of a pushover, and easily lets Homer insulting him or taking advantage of him. In their first meeting, when he asks Homer if he needs something, Homer agrees to "borrow" the TV tray that Ned has just bought for himself. Eight years later the tray is still in the Simpsons' living room. |
| 42 | * FatalFlaw: Ned's flaws are that he's [[BlindObedience robotically devoted to his faith]] and unwilling to take action. He was regularly trampled on by Homer and his family and never took the initiative to stand up for himself. When Ned does retaliate, he feels way too guilty about it and tries to be bigger person because his faith tells him to do so, regardless of the context. In ''Viva Ned Flanders'', he has a mid-life crisis when he realises he wasted his life by doing nothing exciting or thrilling. |
| 43 | * FictionalFanRealCelebrity: He's a big fan of Music/TheBeatles, partially because of their "BiggerThanJesus" comment. |
| 44 | * {{Flanderization}}: TropeNamer. Interestingly, he was flanderized ''twice''. |
| 45 | ** Pre-flanderization, Ned was a friendly, generous, ideal neighbor (although he could often come off as slightly snooty during the first two seasons), who enjoyed going to church on Sundays and had a well-behaved, friendly, generous family. He was better off than Homer, simply because he didn't spend money frivolously, which is why Homer hated Flanders - Homer was jealous of Flanders' well-earned fortune and blissful family life. While Ned certainly had inkling flaws as he appeared more, it came more from his generally goody-goody nature than his religious zeal, which while comical even by this point, this era's Ned was actually quite level headed about, having no problems drinking a few beers, making a few indulgent buys like an RV or expensive sneakers, and having a steady Pharmaceutical job. |
| 46 | ** Ned's first flanderization was into an obsessively pious, painfully generous, obnoxiously friendly milquetoast who was ''still'' a pretty decent person (perhaps unhealthily so considering the kind of people Springfieldians are in general), if incredibly boring. The episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E8HurricaneNeddy Hurricane Neddy]]" saw Ned snap and verbally attack his neighbors while explaining both his VerbalTic and obsession with being nice, and the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E10VivaNedFlanders Viva Ned Flanders]]" saw his boring, milquetoast ways get pitied, rather than celebrated. |
| 47 | ** His second - and most damning - flanderization took his obsession with Christianity and expanded it, turning him into an intolerant bigot who demanded a lot of respect for his own religion while openly mocking everyone else's, such as Apu's Hinduism (the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E6MidnightRx Midnight Rx]]" has even Homer stunned by what Ned says of Hinduism to Apu's face). This also turned "Why does Homer hate him?" into "''No wonder'' Homer hates him". He also became highly resentful of Homer mocking his faith and sponging him off (though by this time Flanders was no longer better off than the Simpsons). It's worth noting that this second Flanderization coincided with the death of Ned's wife Maude, leading to a tragic interpretation that the loss of his wife and having to be a single father led Flanders to become [[CynicismCatalyst bitter, depressed, and increasingly hostile]] to anything that goes against his increasingly fundamentalist religious beliefs. |
| 48 | ** It's worth noting that ''Maude'' was often the pious representation of the show's Christianity, seeing as she was friends with Helen Lovejoy. In "Bart of Darkness", she even went to Bible camp due to a fear of ''not being judgmental enough''. She's also highly suspicious of Marge in "Marge in Chains", despite Ned totally acting the opposite. With Maggie Roswell's departure, and Maude and Helen no longer around to "think of the children", Ned took their place. |
| 49 | ** The writing staff have stated that Flanders was deliberately changed in response to the increased influence of religion in politics. So Flanders' character was essentially derailed because ''The Simpsons'' writers wanted a StrawCharacter to mock. Portrayal of Flanders reached the point of full-on anti-Christian, and later on Flanders was ratcheted back towards his first flanderization of being a nice, yet kinda boring religious man after his marriage to Edna Krabappel. |
| 50 | * {{Foil}}: To Homer. Homer is a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, Ned is a NiceGuy. The Simpson family are often impoverished and highly {{dysfunctional|Family}}, the Flanders family are well-off and loving towards each other. Homer's wife is alive while both of Ned's are deceased. Homer couldn't care less about religion to the point of sleeping in church, Ned is a [[TheFundamentalist religious fundamentalist]]. Homer is fat and bald, Ned is muscular and has a full head of hair. |
| 51 | * TheFundamentalist: In the early days, he was just a religious man who was so nice (and a bit boring) that Homer couldn't stand it. Later, it is implied by Rod and Todd in one episode that his reckless zeal is the direct result of "Daddy needing a new Mommy". |
| 52 | * GagPenis: Debatable. Homer's dating video for Ned had his penis digitally blurred. The blurs reached to the bottom of the screen. Either Flanders really is gifted downstairs or Homer did that to entice the female audience. In one episode where Flanders plays a nude Adam for a biblical video, he has a ''huge'' fig leaf to cover his private parts. In another he comments on how impractical foot-long hot dogs are (referring to actual hot dogs), while Maude adds that they indeed are "uncomfortable". |
| 53 | * GleefulAndGrumpyPairing: He's the Gleeful to Homer Simpson's Grumpy; he is very jovial and kind, even when he's being mistreated, and has two well-behaved children. Homer abhors him out of both jealousy for his good lifestyle and popularity, as well as Ned's insufferably pious and goody-goody demeanor. Homer is also quick to get angry, especially when his three children (particularly Bart) misbehave. |
| 54 | * GrewASpine: In early seasons he was a pushover at best and submissive at worst towards Homer, he'd pretty much let everyone walk over him than be a bother to them. In later seasons, he much more capable of standing up to Homer, even though he'd prefer it to be his last option. |
| 55 | * GoodCannotComprehendEvil: In "When Flanders Failed" he hilariously interprets all of Homer's blatantly JerkAss comments as well-intentioned advice about his business. |
| 56 | * HappilyMarried: With Maude, until her death, they were always a happy couple with little to no drama. |
| 57 | %%** When he was married to Edna [[spoiler: until her death off-screen]]. |
| 58 | * HatesTheirParent: Ned Flanders hates his parents, who are beatniks, because he doesn't like beatniks. Them being horrifically negligent, to the point where they couldn't even pay enough attention to their son to ''discipline'' him, probably didn't help. |
| 59 | * HiddenDepths: He has a lot of anger in him, loves the Beatles and is not above feeling envious when Homer gets undeserved praises. |
| 60 | %%* IncorruptiblePurePureness: In the early seasons at least. After Maude's death, not so much. |
| 61 | * KnightTemplar: At his worst. When it involves something he takes a religious stance about, he is unshakable in pursuing his goal. |
| 62 | * LackOfEmpathy: Will often annoy people by being relentlessly cheerful during stressful times in their lives, mostly Homer though other characters aren't immune to this. In particular it never seems to occur to him that Reverend Lovejoy may not want to frequently receive phone calls from him during his downtime about whatever sin he seems to think he's committed. |
| 63 | * LastNameBasis: Homer usually calls him by his last name. |
| 64 | * LimitedWardrobe: Lampshaded by Homer: "I'm a big four eyed lame-o. I wear the same stupid sweater everyday and…" Doubles as HypocriticalHumor on Homer's part. |
| 65 | * MinnesotaNice: While it's unknown if Ned is a Minnesotan himself, but he has a some sort Midwestern sounding accent and is a NiceGuy in general ([[BewareTheNiceOnes unless you are mean to him to the point he can't take it anymore]]). |
| 66 | * MrFanservice: Not at all normally, but whenever his physique is shown off, expect a lot of focus to be drawn towards how amazingly (and surprisingly) good shape he's in. He ''is'' the TropeNamer for StupidSexyFlanders, after all. |
| 67 | * NerdGlasses: His round, thin-rimmed spectacles denote his dorky and cheerful demeanor. |
| 68 | * NerdHoard: He has a massive, secret cache of Music/TheBeatles memorabilia. |
| 69 | * NeverMyFault: Flanders is this as a result of being EgocentricallyReligious. He will often do incredibly irresponsible things under the belief that God would protect him, such as sinking his whole life's savings into a store that only caters to 1/9th of the population in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E3WhenFlandersFailed When Flanders Failed]]" while doing nothing to promote the store himself, or not buying homeowners insurance in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E8HurricaneNeddy Hurricane Neddy]]". |
| 70 | * NiceGuy: Well before his {{Flanderization}} was established, Ned was simply the nice guy that lived next door. While his HolierThanThou attitude is played up more and more in later episodes, he is still shown to be a fundamentally good, if misguided, person no matter the circumstances. |
| 71 | %%* NobleMaleRoguishMale: Occasionally plays this with Homer. |
| 72 | * NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: 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 mocked him behind his back. |
| 73 | * NoManShouldHaveThisPower: In "To Surveil with Love", Ned takes charge of a surveillance system and he becomes insufferable and soon realises that he caused Bart and Homer to create the chaos corner. He agrees to help Homer destroy the cameras once he realises that he tried to play god by forcing people to abide by the rules by nagging. |
| 74 | * ObliviousToHatred: |
| 75 | ** He is always friendly to Homer, despite all the times he tells him to shut up or go away and borrows his stuff without returning them, and in "When Flanders Failed" interprets Homer's mocking of the Leftorium as a sincere attempt to warn him about gambling his family's future on the idea. However, if Flanders is truly oblivious varies DependingOnTheWriter since there are some episodes that show Ned is fully aware of how much Homer dislikes him, but puts up with it for the sake of being a good Christian. |
| 76 | ** [[EveryoneHasStandards Even Homer himself calls Ned out on this]]. When Ned is in the asylum getting treatment for his long-ignored anger issues, Ned just smiles and laughs off all of Homer's attempts to get him to vent. Homer eventually gets fed up. |
| 77 | --->'''Homer:''' Aw that's it! You just can't insult this guy! You call him a moron and he just sits there, [[BuffySpeak grinning moronly]]. |
| 78 | --->'''Flanders:''' [[NotHelpingYourCase Hi, neighbor!]] |
| 79 | * OddNameOut: "This is Maude, Rod, Todd, and I'm Ned!" |
| 80 | * OlderThanTheyLook: 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" -- '''c'''lean living, '''c'''hewing thoroughly, and a daily dose of vitamin '''c'''hurch. |
| 81 | * OutOfCharacterMoment: In ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E6ItchyAndScratchyTheMovie Itchy And Scratchy The Movie]]'', Flanders is seen first in line for the titular movie. Even before Ned's {{Flanderization}} into a aggressively Christian fundamentalist killjoy, he was shown to dislike the show due to its [[SadistShow mean spirited nature]] as early as [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E9ItchyAndScratchyAndMarge season 2]]. |
| 82 | * PalsWithJesus: 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" helped him win a bowling match (and shock Homer in the butt for mocking Ned) and a quick prayer to God helped save his son from being swept up by a river. |
| 83 | * ParentalFavoritism: Ned appears to favor Todd more than Rod as he shares more activities with him and entrusts with certain tasks (such as being in charge of the car while he talks to Homer in "When Flanders Failed" and asking Todd to shoot him if he tries to get back into the Bunker in "Bart's Comet"). |
| 84 | * ParentalNeglect: His parents were beatniks who, although they were frustrated with his behavior, didn't believe in rules or discipline, or pay much attention to him. He resents them for it. |
| 85 | * PartingWordsRegret: "I can't believe my last words to (Maude) were 'no footlongs'."[[note]]Maude was getting hot dogs for Ned and when she came back, the T-shirts shot in the air hit her instead of Homer, who briefly bent down to get a bobby pin.[[/note]] |
| 86 | * PhraseCatcher: "Stupid Flanders". It had gotten to the point that even Homer believes his first name is "Stupid", like in "Replaceable You". |
| 87 | -->'''Roz''': Who told you? |
| 88 | -->'''Homer''': I can't say, but his initials are S.F. |
| 89 | -->'''Roz''': [[BorrowedCatchphrase Stupid Flanders]]. |
| 90 | * PinkIsErotic: In ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E14AloneAgainNaturaDiddily Alone Again Natura Diddily]]'', Homer's dating video for Ned has shades of this; the video shows a shirtless Ned doing some gardening with pink flowers and he's wearing a pink shower cap as his [[GagPenis footlong penis]] is in full display (albeit censored). |
| 91 | * ThePollyanna: Definitely. Now that he's twice a widower, it might get worse. |
| 92 | * PrecisionFStrike: "Hurricane Neddy" has one. Well, for Flanders, anyway. |
| 93 | -->"OH, HELL, DIDDLY-DING-DONG CRAP! CAN'T YOU MORONS DO ANYTHING RIGHT?!" |
| 94 | * RageBreakingPoint: In the episode [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E8HurricaneNeddy "Hurricane Neddy"]], the Flanders' house gets destroyed by a hurricane, and he isn't impressed with the rather shoddy result of the rest of the townspeople's efforts to rebuild it for him. He tries to be nice as usual, but when his glasses break when he tries to clean them, that is the last straw: he snaps and goes on a tirade, delivering a mass TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to everyone present. Particularly notable in this case, because he'd been building up his rage for ''decades''. Hell, it's the reason he has his VerbalTic. |
| 95 | * RidiculousProcrastinator: Inverted: He manages to start, and finish, his tax returns as early as New Year's Day, which is exactly 105-106 days (depending on whether the year is a leap year or not) before the last day of taxes (April 15). 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 (even the private accountants wait the last moment), as the episode that revealed this also has what is implied to be everyone in Springfield rushing to the Post Office to get their Tax Returns in at the last possible moment. |
| 96 | %%* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Sings like one, too, which Bart finds very disturbing. |
| 97 | %%* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Sensitive Guy to Homer's Manly Man. |
| 98 | * SexGod: In one episode he has sex 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. |
| 99 | * SitcomArchNemesis: To Homer, although it often seems to be very one-sided by Homer, who despises Ned for being more successful for him with Ned often being oblivious to the former's feeling against him. |
| 100 | * StepfordSmiler: "Hurricane Neddy" reveals that his niceness and his GoshDangItToHeck VerbalTic is from being spanked every day for a full year while in therapy to curb his violent behavior brought on by his beatnik parents who didn't raise him right (or at all). |
| 101 | * StrawmanPolitical: 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. |
| 102 | * StrongerThanTheyLook: He is surprisingly muscular under his sweater and effortlessly caught a punch from a JerkJock. |
| 103 | * StupidSexyFlanders: TropeNamer, where in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E10LittleBigMom Little Big Mom]]", Homer couldn't get the image of Ned wiggling his well-toned Spandex-clad butt while saying "Feels like I'm wearing nothing at all!" out of his head when he was trying to remember the ski instructor's advice. |
| 104 | * TokenGoodTeammate: In the two instances where the entire town turns against the Simpsons (the movie and "At Long Last, Leave"), Ned is the only one to side in favor of the Simpsons. [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished And both times the rest of the Springfield citizens kick his ass to silence him.]] |
| 105 | * TookALevelInBadass: By the episode "The Squirt and the Whale", Ned has officially stopped taking crap from Homer. |
| 106 | * TookALevelInJerkass: In later seasons, he became more of a religious elitist who openly mocked other religions while refusing to take criticism himself. |
| 107 | * TurnTheOtherCheek: Since he's a parody of the overly religious man, he's insanely nice and forgiving even when Homer is openly antagonistic towards him for no reason. Downplayed in later episodes (like "Bull-E") where he's not always willing to forgive that easily. |
| 108 | * UnknownRival: He's often oblivious to the fact Homer is jealous about him and trying to manipulate him, making their "rivalry" pretty much one-sided on Homer's part. |
| 109 | * VerbalTic: Ned peppers ran-diddly-andom words with odd sounds like "diddly" and "doodly". Later revealed to be his way of dealing with his repressed anger. Given how often he tends to utter them, one could infer that the antics of the people around him have him seemingly locked in a state of TranquilFury. |
| 110 | * VitriolicBestBuds: With Homer. While Ned is nothing but pleasant towards his neighbor, Homer reacts with rage and jealousy whenever forced to interact with him. "Hurricane Neddy" also reveals that Ned considers Homer to be a horrible person, revealing that the hatred is at least partially mutual. Despite this, both men have been shown to genuinely care and look out for each other countless times, to a point where they could be regarded as FireForgedFriends by later episodes. |
| 111 | * YouNeedToGetLaid: |
| 112 | ** His own sons have said this to his face, agreeing that he's taking Kent Brockman's (accidental) swear too far and he's in need of "a new mommy". |
| 113 | ** ''God'' himself also appears to have this outlook, in [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E13AStarIsBornAgain A Star is Born Again]] a convenient gust of wind blows away all of Ned's bible quotes when he has trouble deciding whether or not to have sex with Sara Sloane. Ned, satisfied with the remaining quote, is eager to do the deed. |
| 114 | [[/folder]] |
| 115 | |
| 116 | [[folder:Maude Flanders]] |
| 117 | [[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maude_8.png]] |
| 118 | [[caption-width-right:150:She taught us the shame of joy, and the joy of shame.]] |
| 119 | |
| 120 | -->Debut: ''"Dead Putting Society"'' |
| 121 | |
| 122 | Ned's wife, who he was very close to, until a horrific freak accident killed her. Voiced by Maggie Roswell. |
| 123 | |
| 124 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: Consistently shown to be much meaner, judgmental and spiteful than her husband is, particularly when around Marge. Hiring {{Yakuza}} to stop Marge's pretzel business should tell you how much. |
| 125 | * CharacterDeath: In an untimely manner in Season 11's "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily". The reason why she was killed abruptly was because her voice actor had to constantly fly between Denver and Los Angeles twice a week to record for the show, which soon tired her out and only got worse with travel expenses increasing, leading to her asking the company for a $4k raise. She only got $150. [[ForegoneConclusion The rest is history.]] Ironically, later on, she did end up settling a deal with the company to revoice the other characters (Luann, Helen, etc.,) from her Denver home. |
| 126 | * ChurchLady: Can be critical of non-Christian behavior, but she has a somewhat more serene personality than fellow Church Lady Helen Lovejoy. She once had to attend a Bible camp to learn how to be ''more'' judgmental. |
| 127 | * DisneyVillainDeath: Non-villainous example. Her death isn't shown, only the fall that causes it. |
| 128 | * FalseFriend: Her relationship with Marge is almost an inverse of Homer's with Ned. While they appear to be good friends on the surface, all of their interactions are dripping with thinly-veiled contempt and back-handed compliments, to a point where they are more rivals than anything else. |
| 129 | * FieryRedhead: She is mostly a sweet behaved woman, but once she crosses into AlphaBitch or [[ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife Karen]] territory, she can be quite angry and vicious in her holier-than-thou attitude. |
| 130 | * TheFundamentalist: Just as much of one as her husband is. She once attended bible camp to learn how to be ''more'' judgmental. |
| 131 | * HappilyMarried: With Ned, until her death. |
| 132 | * LustObject: Homer is shown to have a thing for her on occasion, particularly in earlier episodes. |
| 133 | %%* MinnesotaNice: She seems to speak with a Minnesotan accent. |
| 134 | * MsFanservice: She is one of the more eye-catching women drawn in the show with makeup to accentuate her good looks and poufy red hair and a shapely figure that captured Homer's attention. |
| 135 | * ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife: Often with Helen Lovejoy, she is seen protesting anything that is indecent or offensive to her fundamentalist view and even went to Bible camp to learn how to be more judgmental and has an AlphaBitch streak when it comes to Marge. |
| 136 | * UndignifiedDeath: Abruptly killed by a rogue T-shirt cannon at a baseball game. To make matters worse, the last thing her husband said to her was "No footlongs". If that weren't bad enough, [[LastDisrespects her casket is covered in speedway promotions and the same squad of women who fired the T-shirts that killed her are obligated to preside over her funeral with a 21 T-shirt salute]]. |
| 137 | [[/folder]] |
| 138 | |
| 139 | [[folder:Rod and Todd Flanders]] |
| 140 | [[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rodtodd.png]] |
| 141 | [[caption-width-right:310:Rod is on the left, and Todd is on the right.]] |
| 142 | |
| 143 | -->Debut: ''"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"'' (Todd), ''"The Call of the Simpsons"'' (Rod) |
| 144 | |
| 145 | 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 Creator/PamelaHayden and Creator/NancyCartwright. |
| 146 | |
| 147 | * AmbiguouslyGay: |
| 148 | ** Lampshaded by Bart when he got Rod to tell Ned he was gay (though Bart tricked him into thinking "gay" means "no longer scared" rather than "homosexual"). |
| 149 | ** "Bart to the Future" pretty much revealed that the two will be gay when they grow up. |
| 150 | ** In "The Man Who Grew Too Much", [[BrotherSisterIncest they announce their plans to marry and lose their virginities to each other]] (the "Bart to the Future" episode certainly has a lot of BrotherSisterIncest subtext). |
| 151 | ** Although this is DependingOnTheWriter, some episodes give them crushes on Lisa and even Maggie. |
| 152 | * CharacterCatchphrase: "Yay!" |
| 153 | * CheerfulChild: Who see the light side of the Bible. They are often blissfully unaware of their ButtMonkey status. |
| 154 | * ChildrenAreInnocent: They don't see a lot of bad in life. |
| 155 | * CreepyChild: Homer refers to them as "creepy" in the "Everybody Hates Ned Flanders" song. While they are genuinely innocent, their upbringing made them so socially inept and EasilyImpressed that it can be off-putting. |
| 156 | * ADayInTheLimelight: |
| 157 | ** Todd shares some screentime with Bart for Season 2's "Dead Putting Society". |
| 158 | ** "Todd, Todd, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?" is centered on the Flanders, but especially Todd. |
| 159 | * DependingOnTheWriter: Their opinion of Ned varies from episode to episode; sometimes they are not aware of how protective he is of them and how socially inept they are, other times they are aware of Ned's protectiveness and are relieved when given space from him. |
| 160 | * TheDitz: They don't have many real-world skills outside domestic chores, making them look like feather-bedded idiots. |
| 161 | * DivergentCharacterEvolution: They were usually TheDividual in early seasons, but eventually grew as characters and were able to develop as their own characters, with Todd being more extroverted and vocal than Rod, who is introverted and quiet. |
| 162 | * TheDividual: The Syndividual type, the two look and sound the same with the only difference being their height. The writers and voice actresses have admitted that they have had trouble telling the two apart in the past. |
| 163 | * EveryoneHasStandards: While they may be God-fearing, just like their dad, both boys do have their limits with Ned - in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E22YouKentAlwaysSayWhatYouWant You Kent Always Say What You Want]]" both of them feel that Ned is going too far by reporting Kent Brockman to the FCC for swearing, even though nobody saw it and Brockman apologized for it. |
| 164 | * {{Flanderization}}: In their earliest appearances, somewhat like their dad, they appeared to be overall simply nice, God-biding, and approachable children. [[note]] This is more notable with Rod, who was friendly and welcoming toward Bart seemingly an otherwise normal boy.[[/note]] As the series went on, they quickly became the socially inept, overly sensitive, and "too pure for this world" kids they're now known as. |
| 165 | * FlatCharacter: Rod has the least characterisation of the Flanders clan, with his brother receiving character development in later seasons and becoming the focus of his own episodes. |
| 166 | * FreudianExcuse: Their judgmental side and naivety stems from the death of their mother, Maude Flanders. Ned became overprotective of Rod and Todd out of fear of losing them too and his sons became highly sheltered and unprepared for adulthood. According to Todd, he and Rod only have each other as they have no friends of their own. |
| 167 | * GildedCage: Both are highly sheltered by their father and are socially inept. Both are too sensitive to a point where Lisa sarcastically says "They're going to get eaten alive in middle school". They are also seemingly incestual since they plan to marry and lose their virginities to each other. In "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken" they take the adults side and sing "Why can't you be like we are?", only to be pelted with tomatoes. In "Bart to the Future" Ned mentions that they need estrogen treatments. In the comics, both brothers become cross-dressing lounge singers. Todd even admits to Lisa that he doesn't have any friends and is annoyed by Rod's constant presence. |
| 168 | * HiddenDepths: |
| 169 | ** Though just as sheltered as his brother, Todd does seem to be somewhat more outgoing than his brother, since Todd participates in activities like entering the mini-golf competition or playing the violin at a concert. |
| 170 | ** In "Home Away from Homer", Rod was able to get a girlfriend while living in Humbleton, indicating that he isn't as socially inept as he seems. |
| 171 | * InnocentSwearing: Todd picks up Homer's bad language in "Bart the Lover", and in "Homer Loves Flanders", the two exchange rude words when they get hooked on Pixie Stix. |
| 172 | * KidHasAPoint: There are good reasons why they see Bart and Homer as worse than they are, Homer constantly mocks their father which did take a toll on them and Bart has played some nasty pranks such as giving them sugar despite their refusal and ransacking their house, and has stolen money from Rod. Their perception is based on what they see. |
| 173 | * MeaningfulName: Their names (just like their mom's name) all rhyme with God, fitting the religious family. |
| 174 | * NearAndDearBabyNaming: "Manger Things" reveals that Todd's middle name is Homer, after his father's neighbor, Homer Simpson (since he assisted in Todd's birth). |
| 175 | * NewTransferStudent: Edna pulls them out of private Christian school and enrolls them in Springfield Elementary in "Ned 'N' Edna's Blend", though "Bart the Lover" and "I Love Lisa" shows both Rod and Todd in Springfield Elementary (Todd gets poked in the eye with Bart's paper airplane in the former and they are two of the students that sing the "Mediocre Presidents" song in the latter) and a lot of later episodes before "Ned 'n Edna's Blend" imply that Rod and Todd are home-schooled, yet they have been seen around the school on a few occasions. In fact, Ned is even a member of the school's PTA. |
| 176 | * NumberOfTheBeast: In ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E6BartStar Bart Star]]'', Rod's football shirt has a 66 on it and Todd has a 6. |
| 177 | * OddFriendship: Downplayed but, despite being polar opposites, they seem to get on well with Bart. While this is largely due to their own optimism, Bart doesn't seem to have any animosity towards either, though he's happy enough to mess with them. In ''Dead Putting Society'', Todd and Bart are even able to agree to end the tournament when they see the damaging effect it's having on one another and do so on mutually respectful terms. |
| 178 | * OlderThanTheyLook: [[KiddieKid They are said to actually be 8 and 10]], though Todd has gone from 8 to 6 [[{{Retcon}} as of Season 32]]. |
| 179 | * PureIsNotGood: Because of their religious upbringing by their father, they are judgmental towards the faiths and ideals of others. |
| 180 | * RedOniBlueOni: Todd appears to be the most extroverted and vocal of the pair, while Rod seems to be the more introverted and quiet. Todd is able to branch out and make friends, while Rod keeps to himself and seems to have been able to get a girlfriend in "Home Away from Homer". |
| 181 | * SatelliteCharacter: While Todd has occasionally gotten more focus, Rod is mostly defined by his interactions with Todd and the rest of his family. |
| 182 | * ScrewYourUltimatum: Homer and Flanders bicker back and forth about the outcome of a miniature golf tournament featuring their respective sons. Todd and Bart confer and both decide to quit the tournament on good terms. |
| 183 | * SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome: In reverse. In his first appearance, Rod was a teen, almost the same height as Maud. Todd was Bart's age. |
| 184 | * ThoseTwoGuys: The two aren't often seen apart. |
| 185 | * VagueAge: In earlier seasons, their ages were inconsistent with Todd being the eldest brother, while Rod is the youngest. Sometimes this would switch around until they were confirmed to be 8 and 10 years old, with Rod being 10 and Todd being 8. Season 32's "Manger Things" {{Retcon}}s Todd to six years old, four years younger than his brother and two years younger than Lisa (in "Lisa's First Word," he was already alive when she was born). |
| 186 | * WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: The two are shown to be so sheltered that a simple moth can put them into a pure panic, followed by [[BringMyBrownPants night time bedwetting]]. They're even ''more'' terrified of ladybugs. |
| 187 | * WideEyedIdealist: They are naively devoted to their faith and don't realise how socially inept and sheltered they are. |
| 188 | * WiseBeyondTheirYears: Todd is shown to be more aware of Ned's overprotective nature and feels suffocated by it. Rod is aware of it too but is not as vocal about it, as shown when he appreciated Marge as his babysitter due to giving him and Todd independence from their father. |
| 189 | [[/folder]] |
| 190 | |
| 191 | !Spuckler Family |
| 192 | [[folder:Cletus Spuckler]] |
| 193 | [[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cletus_1.png]] |
| 194 | [[caption-width-right:220:"Hey, what's goin' on on this side?"]] |
| 195 | ->''Some folk'll never eat a skunk,'' |
| 196 | ->''But then again, some folk'll,'' |
| 197 | ->''Like Cletus,'' |
| 198 | ->''The Slack-Jawed Yokel!'' |
| 199 | |
| 200 | -->Debut: ''"Bart Gets an Elephant"'' |
| 201 | |
| 202 | A local redneck. Voiced by Creator/HankAzaria |
| 203 | |
| 204 | * BerserkButton: Do not insert anything up his butt; the aliens in ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsGame'' found this out the hard way when he learned that he was [[AnalProbing probed]]. |
| 205 | * BestialityIsDepraved: He admits in "To Surveil with Love" that he has sex with animals. |
| 206 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: Despite generally being a pleasant enough (if dimwitted) guy, he does have a more threatening criminal streak at times. In "The Joy of Sect", for instance, he [[AssholeVictim robs the Movementarian leader at gunpoint.]] |
| 207 | * CharacterCatchphrase: "Hey Brandine!" |
| 208 | * DeepSouth: Embodies most of the traditional redneck/trailer trash stereotypes. |
| 209 | * TheDitz: Or so it seems. In the movie he appears every time the others need a stupid person. |
| 210 | * HiddenDepths: An inbred hillbilly, but incredibly good in [[https://simpsonswiki.com/wiki/File:Cletus%27s_Signature.png writing signatures]]. |
| 211 | * HillbillyIncest: Cletus and Brandine are have frequent jokes about how they're related. NegativeContinuity means their exact relation changes for [[RuleOfFunny whatever's funniest]]. They're either [[KissingCousins cousins]], [[BrotherSisterIncest brother and sister]], or [[ParentalIncest mother and son]]. |
| 212 | * HillbillyMoonshiner: He's occasionally seen moonshining. |
| 213 | * IconicSequelCharacter: One of the supporting characters who didn't appear in the first season, as he's introduced in season 5. |
| 214 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: [[DownplayedTrope He's not even that much of a jerk to begin with]], with most of his jerkish attitude coming as a result of DeliberateValuesDissonance. Once you get past that, he can be genuinely friendly and helpful to those around him. |
| 215 | * LowerClassLout: He's uneducated, perpetually unemployed, and he and his wife are stereotypical hillbillies, living in a run-down shack with 26 children, and occasionally some other relatives as well. |
| 216 | [[/folder]] |
| 217 | |
| 218 | [[folder:Brandine Spuckler]] |
| 219 | [[quoteright:164:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brandine_spuckler.png]] |
| 220 | |
| 221 | -->Debut: ''"Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily"'' |
| 222 | |
| 223 | Cletus's wife who is heavily hinted to be his relative as well. Voiced by Creator/TressMacNeille. |
| 224 | |
| 225 | * DeepSouth: Like her husband. |
| 226 | * HiddenDepths: In Season 33 it's revealed that she is actually smarter than what was portrayed of her and she was just faking it so Cletus could like her. |
| 227 | * HillbillyIncest: Cletus and Brandine are have frequent jokes about how they're related. NegativeContinuity means their exact relation changes for [[RuleOfFunny whatever's funniest]]. They're either [[KissingCousins cousins]], [[BrotherSisterIncest brother and sister]], or [[ParentalIncest mother and son]]. |
| 228 | * LowerClassLout: Along with her husband. Brandine is (variously) a stripper, a Dairy Queen worker, or a soldier fighting in the War on Terror. |
| 229 | * ReallyGetsAround: She is able to get her kids back from Krusty, who made Cletus sign a contract where he can exploit them as kid actors, by bringing up only two of the kids are Cletus' ("The one who can't sing and the one who can't adlib"). She was also married four times and may or may not be Cletus mother if some gags are to be believed. |
| 230 | * SatelliteLoveInterest: She appears only in scenes with Cletus. Subverted in Season 33 though |
| 231 | * TooManyBabies: The overall number of children she has is inconsistent. |
| 232 | * WhyDoYouKeepChangingJobs: Seems to be the primary breadwinner for her family. She is variously described as working as a stripper, a Dairy Queen worker, and a soldier fighting in the UsefulNotes/WarOnTerror. |
| 233 | [[/folder]] |
| 234 | |
| 235 | [[folder:Dia-Betty Spuckler]] |
| 236 | |
| 237 | -->Debut: ''"Sweets and Sour Marge"'' |
| 238 | |
| 239 | Cletus's obese cousin. Voiced by Creator/TressMacNeille. |
| 240 | |
| 241 | * {{Expy}}: Of Bonnie Grape in ''Film/WhatsEatingGilbertGrape''. |
| 242 | [[/folder]] |
| 243 | |
| 244 | [[folder:Mary Spuckler]] |
| 245 | [[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mary_spuckler_official_image.png]] |
| 246 | |
| 247 | -->Debut: ''"Apocalypse Cow"'' |
| 248 | |
| 249 | Voiced by Creator/ZooeyDeschanel |
| 250 | |
| 251 | * ArrangedMarriage: In her debut episode, because Cletus misinterprets Bart's gift of a pet cow to their family, he sets up a marriage between the two kids. Everybody in the Spuckler family and their hillbilly acquaintances behaves as if the marriage between two kids were absolutely legal. It is, of course, annulled by the episode's end. |
| 252 | * GirlishPigtails: Has pigtails in most of her appearances ("Apocalypse Cow" and "Love is a Many-Splintered Thing"). |
| 253 | * ItsAllAboutMe: Mary is this in "Love is a Many-Splintered Thing" given the AllTakeAndNoGive aspect of her and Bart's relationship. She gets mad at Bart for getting bored after listening to her play music for hours or even an entire day, finally breaking up with him when he'd rather do something else besides watch her flirt with some guy over music. Yet she won't even do something Bart enjoys for a half an hour. |
| 254 | * OldMaid: According to her, she's close to being this by hillbilly standards when she's still unmarried at thirteen. |
| 255 | * ParentalFavoritism: She was named "Mary" after what her parents perceived as her likely destiny (marriage, which is pretty good when you consider that one of her brothers is named "Stabbedinjail") and, according to Bart, is the only one of her siblings to have been fed real milk as a child instead of white paint. |
| 256 | * PromotedToLoveInterest: Because of the above, she is brought back in Season 24 as Bart's "past love interest", despite the fact that they were merely friends who were forced into an ArrangedMarriage that neither of them wanted. |
| 257 | * SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome: For some reason, she ages up between "Apocalypse Cow" and "Moonshine River." |
| 258 | * TheUglyGuysHotDaughter: Lampshaded by Milhouse. |
| 259 | -->'''Millhouse (looking at a photo of her from Bart)''': She looks pretty cute for Cletus' daughter. |
| 260 | * WhiteSheep: She's a lot smarter than the rest of the Spuckler family. Justified as she is the one that was given milk when she was young (not as in she was breastfed, but more as in the others drank paint). |
| 261 | [[/folder]] |
| 262 | |
| 263 | [[folder:Dubya Spuckler]] |
| 264 | |
| 265 | -->Debut: ''"Yokel Chords"'' |
| 266 | |
| 267 | Voiced by Creator/TressMacNeille. |
| 268 | |
| 269 | %%* EyepatchOfPower |
| 270 | * NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: His name is taken from 43rd President UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush, whose nickname is "Dubya". |
| 271 | [[/folder]] |
| 272 | |
| 273 | !Skinner Family |
| 274 | |
| 275 | [[folder:Seymour Skinner]] |
| 276 | See Characters/TheSimpsonsElementarySchool |
| 277 | [[/folder]] |
| 278 | |
| 279 | [[folder:Agnes Skinner]] |
| 280 | [[quoteright:239:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/agnes_81.png]] |
| 281 | -->Debut: ''"The Crepes of Wrath"'' |
| 282 | |
| 283 | Seymour's [[MyBelovedSmother eternal beloved smother]] who is constantly nagging about his existence and actions. Voiced by Creator/TressMacNeille. |
| 284 | |
| 285 | * AbusiveParents: She's rude and treats her son poorly. [[spoiler:In "The Principal and the Pauper", when when her actual son shows up, she can't stand him because he refuses to bend to his whim and she has him expelled from town.]] |
| 286 | * AllTakeAndNoGive: She expects her son to wait on her hand and foot, all the while treating him very rudely. |
| 287 | * AmbiguousSituation: Whether or not "The Principal and the Pauper" is canon adds a level of ambiguity if she's really Seymour's mother or not. Since the episode, the show is really keen on retconning her back into being Seymour's biological mother, with him shown living with her as a teenager, a child, and even a fetus. |
| 288 | * AManIsAlwaysEager: She once called Seymour a sissy because he wasn't using the internet for porn. |
| 289 | * CharacterizationMarchesOn: When we first see Agnes in "The Crepes of Wrath", she is the stereotypically sweet, frail old lady who embarrasses her son by calling him "Spanky". Afterwards, she was rewritten into a cruel matriarch who controls every aspect of her son's life starting in season 8. It's implied that reason of her cruelty is likely because of Bart's cherry bomb prank during her debut episode. |
| 290 | * DeadpanSnarker: Lampshaded in the episode where she dates the equally snarky Comic Book Guy. |
| 291 | -->'''Comic Book Guy:''' We're a perfect match. Her sneer just lights up my day. |
| 292 | -->'''Agnes:''' And we're always finishing each other's insults! |
| 293 | * DirtyOldWoman: Agnes has exhibited "cougar" tendencies in several episodes. Among the younger men she has been in a relationship (or possibly had sex) with include Superintendent Chalmers, Otto Mann and Comic Book Guy. |
| 294 | * EvilMatriarch: To Seymour, but she's more {{Jerkass}} than evil. |
| 295 | * EvilOldFolks: She isn't blatantly evil, but she's still a nasty old woman who treats Principal Skinner with condescension at best and open cruelty at worst. |
| 296 | * FinancialAbuse: Skinner makes mention in one episode that Agnes is forcing him to pay for every single meal he ever had since he was a child now that he has a paying job. He hopes that once he's caught up, he'll be able to start saving to buy a car (of course, [[DependingOnTheWriter in other episodes he does have a car]]). |
| 297 | * {{Foil}}: To Abe. While Abe was cold and distant towards Homer growing up, [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold he definitely has a soft side]], having made several sacrifices for Homer's well-being and [[CharacterDevelopment getting onto significantly better terms with him over the course of the series]]. Agnes, on the other hand, is always cruel to her son and [[HateSink has no redeeming qualities]]. |
| 298 | * HairTriggerTemper: She's always blowing up at others, usually her son, over trivial things. |
| 299 | * HateSink: One of the most horrible characters in the series. |
| 300 | * IHaveNoSon: Her treatment of her son borderlines with this, though it comes to happen in ''The Principal and the Pauper'' when [[spoiler:her real son turns up but she decides to shut her off from both of them... and then she despises her real son so much that she begs the other to take his place]]. |
| 301 | * IronicName: As Agnes herself points out in "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson", her name means "lamb", an animal [[SweetSheep typically associated with gentleness and calmness]]. Agnes, however, is a bitter jerk with a HairTriggerTemper. |
| 302 | * IWasQuiteALooker: In Season 29's ''Gone Boy'', Bart finds an old Playdude in an abandoned missile silo. On the cover? "Agnes Skinner: Ms. Cold War!" |
| 303 | * {{Jerkass}}: She is a bitter and unpleasant old woman who's always rude to everyone. |
| 304 | * MyBelovedSmother: Part of the TropeNamer with her son. She shares an unhealthy relationship with him which often borders on psychosis. When Seymour is out of the house, Agnes phones him regularly demanding to be taken out of the bath, shielded from the glare of car lights on the street, and other such petty requests. Agnes actually plays around with the trope rather darkly when it is revealed Seymour is an impostor, and she actually disowns her real son primarily because [[ControlFreak he isn't subservient to her]]. ([[RetCon Of course, this never happened though]], [[DependingOnTheWriter maybe]].) |
| 305 | * ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife: While older than most examples, she does fit a lot of the criteria: rude, pushy, expects others to do favors for her with no reward, makes ludicrous demands to retail workers (she once asked a grocery bagger [[ImpossibleTask to put all her items in one bag, but not to make it heavy]]), and to top it off, she's [[MyBelovedSmother a total helicopter mom]] towards her son Seymour. |
| 306 | * ObnoxiousInLaws: She hates Seymour's choice in women, especially Edna Krabappel. |
| 307 | * PinkGirlBlueBoy: Her sleepwear is pink, while Seymour's is blue. |
| 308 | * PregnantBadass: "Boy Meets Curl" revealed that she was a pole-vaulter in her youth, and competed in the Olympics while heavily pregnant with Seymour. And her pregnancy itself didn't hinder her ability to make it over the pole- instead, she was done in by a poorly-timed [[FeelingTheBabyKick kick from the baby]]. |
| 309 | * ScrewPolitenessImASenior: Absolutely rude and snarky. |
| 310 | * SerialSpouse: She has married a total of four times. |
| 311 | * TookALevelInKindness: A few episodes show some examples where she was nice: |
| 312 | ** "Boy Meets Curl": After Seymour accidentally broke his broom, Agnes told him whether or not they win, they're still going out for pizza and ice cream. |
| 313 | ** "Yellow Subterfuge": Agnes helped Bart and Homer teach Seymour a lesson for unfairly not letting Bart ride the submarine. |
| 314 | ** "Looking for Mr. Goodbart": While Bart walked her to the bus, Agnes told him she wished she had grandchildren. |
| 315 | * UsedToBeASweetKid: She was nicer years ago until Seymour ruined her chances of winning a Pole Vaulting Tournament while she was pregnant with him which explains why she's often harsh on Seymour. |
| 316 | * WickedStepmother: If you consider "The Principal and the Pauper" canon, she is arguably this, given that she is controlling and abusive to a man she knows isn't really her son; then again, she actually prefers him to her real son and is only treating him the way she would have treated her real son anyway. ([[RetCon Of course, that episode never happened; later episodes show Skinner living with Agnes as a teenager, child, and even a fetus]].) |
| 317 | [[/folder]] |
| 318 | |
| 319 | !Nahasapeemapetilon Family |
| 320 | [[folder:Apu Nahasapeemapetilon]] |
| 321 | See [[Characters/TheSimpsonsNuclearPowerPlantShopkeepers Springfield Shopkeepers]] |
| 322 | [[/folder]] |
| 323 | |
| 324 | [[folder:Manjula Nahasapeemapetilon]] |
| 325 | [[quoteright:128:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/manjula.png]] |
| 326 | -->Debut: ''"Much Apu About Nothing"'' (flashback), ''"The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons"'' (in-person) |
| 327 | |
| 328 | A beautiful Indian woman, and wife of Apu. Voiced by Jan Hooks (seasons 9-14), Creator/TressMacNeille, and Maggie Roswell. |
| 329 | |
| 330 | * AwfulWeddedLife: The longer the series has gone on, the worse Apu and Manjula's marriage has become, particularly after the birth of the octuplets. In later seasons, their marriage has weathered infidelity, a dead bedroom, and. constant exhaustion and arguments caused by raising eight babies at once. |
| 331 | * AscendedExtra: Makes her debut as a child in "Much Apu About Nothing", where she only appears for a small gag. Since her first appearance as an adult in "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons", she has become a recurring character. |
| 332 | * BetaCouple: With Apu to Homer and Marge in later season. |
| 333 | * DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Apu's side of the awful marriage is just [[DeadpanSnarker the occasional snide quip]] and spending as much time as he can working on the Quik-E-Mart to stay away from the house (and sleeping with the Squishee delivering woman, but he stopped and performed a number of humiliating things for Manjula to forgive him). Manjula has been showcased to get physically violent with Apu (to the point that Apu is grateful that, after lots of couples' therapy, she has changed from punching him in the face to the gut), taking all of the money (at least partially justified that maintaining the octuplets is a severe money pit) and humiliating him when possible (long after she allegedly forgave him). |
| 334 | * OlderThanTheyLook: Though it depends on the episode, she still looks pretty darn young for a 38-year old woman. |
| 335 | * PerfectlyArrangedMarriage: Zig-zagged. While at first this seems to be the case, their relationship seems to zig-zag between loving and affectionate and strained and full of resentment. Later episodes suggest it works out. |
| 336 | * WomanScorned: When she discovers that Apu once had an affair with a Squishee lady and kicks him out of the house. With some help from the Simpson family, Manjula eventually agrees to give Apu another chance after he completes an often-vengeful list of bizarre grueling tasks fashioned by her, such as performing "My Fair Lady" with the octuplets and eating a lightbulb. |
| 337 | [[/folder]] |
| 338 | |
| 339 | [[folder:The Nahasapeemapetilon Octuplets]] |
| 340 | [[quoteright:440:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_nahasapeemapetilon_octuplets.png]] |
| 341 | -->Debut: ''"Eight Misbehavin"'' |
| 342 | |
| 343 | -->Voiced by: Creator/PamelaHayden (Poonam, Uma, Nabendu), Creator/NancyCartwright (Pria, Sandeep), and Creator/TressMacNeille (Sashi, Anoop, Gheet) |
| 344 | |
| 345 | * BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: Averted. Throughout the rest of the series, the octuplets are generally shown to be a handful, much to the stress and chagrin of Apu and Manjula. Because of this, Apu has to hold on to them with child harnesses whenever he takes them out in public. According to Apu, they act as a ravenous swarm of locusts that always eat, scream, grab, poke, pull, and drool. |
| 346 | * MassiveNumberedSiblings: The eight octuplets consist of four girls and four boys. |
| 347 | * YourSizeMayVary: As the cast are stuck in a [[NotAllowedToGrowUp floating timeline]], the Octuplets have been shown to have aged ''slightly'', but their height is inconsistent compared to Maggie, especially in "Moe Letter Blues" where they are almost as tall as Lisa, compared to their parents. |
| 348 | [[/folder]] |
| 349 | |
| 350 | [[folder:Sanjay Nahasapeemapetilon]] |
| 351 | -->Debut: ''"Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment"'' |
| 352 | |
| 353 | Apu's brother and co-owner of the Kwik-E-Mart. Voiced by Creator/HarryShearer. |
| 354 | |
| 355 | * RedOniBlueOni: The blue oni to Apu's red oni. |
| 356 | * SatelliteCharacter: Almost always seen alongside Apu. |
| 357 | * YoungerThanTheyLook: He is indicated to be younger than Apu, yet he could be mistaken for being older due to his receding hairline. |
| 358 | [[/folder]] |
| 359 | |
| 360 | !Van Houten Family |
| 361 | [[folder:As a whole]] |
| 362 | * AbusiveParents: |
| 363 | ** Luann and Kirk are quite selfish with their treatment of Milhouse. They objectified him in the divorce, are indifferent to Milhouse's suffering and Milhouse seems to be [[KiddieKid emotionally stunted and oversensitive]] because of their actions as Luann is quite smothering with Milhouse. Before remarrying Kirk, Luann could be classed as a narcissistic parent as she constantly smothers Milhouse and bases her decisions on how it impacts her than how it impacts Milhouse. |
| 364 | ** In fact, in the episode ''Little Orphan Millie'', where Milhouse is thought to be orphaned, he actually becomes genuinely confident and popular once free from his parents' influence, after getting over his grief that it. Naturally, he regresses back to his normal self once they prove to be alive and return home. |
| 365 | * DivorceIsTemporary: Kirk and Luann had a pretty nasty divorce, but eventually get back together and have remained together since. |
| 366 | * IconicSequelCharacter: While Milhouse is introduced in the first season, his parents don't appear until season 3. |
| 367 | * KissingCousins: They all look so similar that Bart once asked Luann and Kirk if they are siblings. In the Season 26 episode "Let's Go Fly a Coot", Milhouse tells Bart that his parents are actually cousins. They were born in Shelbyville and this follows Shelbyville custom, as the town was founded by early dissenting Springfielders who wanted to inbreed. |
| 368 | * LookalikeLovers: Luann and Kirk look so similar to each other, their own son is half-sure they're brother and sister. A later episode, however, has Milhouse state that they are cousins. |
| 369 | * StrawLoser: Kirk might get the worst of it, but Milhouse is depicted as this too. Luann's life isn't anything to envy either. |
| 370 | * SiblingRivalry: There's a rivalry between the Dutch Van Houtens (Blue hair, coke-bottle glasses and generally losers), and the Danish side, such as Kirk's brother Norbert, a confident, Indiana Jones-esque adventurer with pretty much none of the typical Van Houten traits. |
| 371 | * TookALevelInJerkass: While Kirk and Luann weren't presented as the nicest people, the episodes under Matt Selman's tenure as showrunner pushed them into outright HateSink antagonists on multiple occasions, with Kirk displaying many alt-right beliefs and tendencies. |
| 372 | [[/folder]] |
| 373 | |
| 374 | [[folder:Milhouse Van Houten]] |
| 375 | See [[Characters/TheSimpsonsElementarySchool Springfield Elementary School]] |
| 376 | [[/folder]] |
| 377 | |
| 378 | [[folder:Kirk Van Houten]] |
| 379 | [[quoteright:168:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kirk_2.png]] |
| 380 | -->Debut: ''"Bart's Friend Falls in Love"'' |
| 381 | |
| 382 | Milhouse Van Houten's father. Voiced by Creator/HankAzaria. |
| 383 | |
| 384 | %%* BumblingDad: After the divorce, he becomes this. |
| 385 | * ButtMonkey: After the divorce, Kirk became a stereotypical middle-aged male loser and deadbeat dad, suffering depression after his divorce from Luann. He does some humiliating jobs and all see him as a loser (nearly rivaling Gil). Even after [[ThrowTheDogABone remarrying Luann]] Kirk has not gotten rid of this status, with many jokes revolving around how he gets no respect from his own family. |
| 386 | * ChickMagnet: He is usually portrayed as an unattractive deadbeat, but when he was unfairly thrown in jail for kidnapping Bart, [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys it made him an idol to many ladies]]. |
| 387 | * EmbarrassingMiddleName: Kirk '''Evelyn''' Van Houten. |
| 388 | * {{Flanderization}}: He started out as a cracker factory manager with a vaguely defined personality apart from hints that his marriage to Luann was on shaky ground. After Kirk and Luann divorced in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E6AMilhouseDivided A Milhouse Divided]]", the writers took the idea of him becoming a depressed deadbeat and ran with it... all the way to the horizon. He became a [[StrawLoser pathetic, friendless loser]] who couldn't hold down a job and who was only able to retain weekend custody of Milhouse in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E12MilhouseDoesntLiveHereAnymore Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore]]" because the judge felt ''that'' sorry for him. Even getting back together with Luann in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS17E3MilhouseOfSandAndFog Milhouse of Sand and Fog]]" and re-marrying her in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E6LIttleOrphanMillie Little Orphan Millie]]" has done nothing to turn him around; he remains a magnet for bad luck and contempt from everyone he knows, even (and especially) Luann. |
| 389 | * GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity: After his divorce, Kirk Van Houten was actually fired from the cracker company for being single. Though since Kirk apparently got the job from Luann's father he may have only have gotten to stay there as a favor, or possibly the firing was to get back at him for the divorce. |
| 390 | * IncompetenceInc: Kirk's firing from the cracker factory may have been in part to get back at him for the divorce, but it was also justified on its own. According to Luann, the Southern Cracker Company was initially the leading cracker brand in Springfield, but under Kirk's incompetent management it fell to ''[[EpicFail sixth]]'' in the marketplace. |
| 391 | * {{Jerkass}}: He was a pretty lousy husband to Luann, not helping with chores, and often driving Luann to borrow money from her sister, [[JerkassRealization something he admits to Homer]]. |
| 392 | * NewJobAsThePlotDemands: After being fired from the Cracker Factory, he struggled to hold down a job. |
| 393 | * StrawLoser: He is such a hard-core example of this after the divorce that it's been a plot point in at least two occasions: when Bart faked being kidnapped Kirk agreed to be part of the cover-up because living in prison was an actual improvement over his regular lifestyle, and when Luanne tried to move to Capital City and take Milhouse away, [[StatusQuoIsGod Kirk was able to maintain shared custody rights (thus keeping Milhouse in Springfield)]] because the judge [[InUniverse felt]] ''that'' sorry for him. Even then, there's an awful lot of jokes done at his expense, such as the only home he can afford being a place for deadbeat depressed divorced dads that sees suicides on an ''hourly'' basis. |
| 394 | * StrawmanPolitical: Under Matt Selman, Kirk became the show's representative of alt-right MAGA republicans, with references to him having books on the "white genocide" myth, protesting against a COVID-19 allegory, and outright attempting to rewrite history and consequently becoming Springfield's tyrannical dictator. |
| 395 | * ThrowTheDogABone: After some years, he and Luann decide to marry again. Earlier he was also able to convince a judge to let him keep custody rights of his son when his wife tried to take him away because the judge felt ''that'' sorry for him. |
| 396 | * VisitByDivorcedDad: During their divorce, Kirk had visitation rights, though he doesn't like to be billed as a "weekend dad". |
| 397 | [[/folder]] |
| 398 | |
| 399 | [[folder:Luann Van Houten]] |
| 400 | [[quoteright:176:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/luann_1.png]] |
| 401 | -->Debut: ''"Homer Defined"'' |
| 402 | |
| 403 | Milhouse Van Houten's mother. Voiced by Maggie Roswell (1991-1999, 2002-), Marcia Mitzman Gaven (2000-2002). |
| 404 | |
| 405 | * AbusiveParents: Luann's a decidedly harmful influence on her son. Unlike Kirk, who is mostly just pathetic and inept, Luann's manipulative and controlling towards Milhouse. |
| 406 | * FanservicePack: Starting with "A Millhouse Divided", Luann's character design was revised, dropping her modest dress for flirtier clothing. |
| 407 | * {{Jerkass}}: Was as much a lousy wife to Kirk as he was a lousy husband. Only Luann acts as though it was all his fault, while Kirk at least admits he was a bad husband. She even goes out of her way to tell Kirk he's a deadbeat. |
| 408 | * LethalChef: She is heavily implied to be a bad cook in "A Milhouse Divided". When Luann mentions the time some high school punks egged her husband's Bonneville, Kirk (the husband) snarks that the punks should have hurled some bacon so he could have a decent breakfast for once. |
| 409 | * MyBelovedSmother: She can be very smothering towards Milhouse and is pretty much the reason for his overly emotional personality. |
| 410 | * NeverMyFault: Once she divorces Kirk, Luann's more than happy to act like their marriage's failure was all on him instead of owning up to her contributions. |
| 411 | * ReallyGetsAround: She has dated many men after the divorce. Otto tells Kirk "even I hooked up with your old lady" before apologizing to Milhouse. |
| 412 | * TheUnfairSex: She had numerous boyfriends and romantic affairs after she dumped Kirk, and made sure he knew about them. After she remarries Kirk, she's outraged when she finds out he dated other women while they were divorced. Although she has some right to be angry since Kirk lied about his other relationships, Luann still comes across as hypocritical. |
| 413 | [[/folder]] |
| 414 | |
| 415 | !Hibbert Family |
| 416 | [[folder:Dr. Julius Hibbert]] |
| 417 | See [[Characters/TheSimpsonsChurchDoctorsCelebrities First Church of Springfield, Doctors, Celebrities]] |
| 418 | [[/folder]] |
| 419 | |
| 420 | [[folder:Bernice Hibbert]] |
| 421 | [[quoteright:202:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bernice_hibbert2.png]] |
| 422 | -->Debut: ''"Bart's Dog Gets an F"'' Voiced by: Creator/TressMacNeille (From season 8 to season 31), Creator/DawnnLewis (Season 32 onwards) |
| 423 | |
| 424 | Bernice Hibbert (née Dupree) is Dr. Hibbert's recovering alcoholic wife. |
| 425 | ---- |
| 426 | * TheAlcoholic: She is somewhat a heavy drinker. This has been joked about on at least one occasion and she has also stated once that she was too drunk to remember marrying her husband. In "Homer Vs. The Eighth Amendment" she is one of several people who pass out in shock at reading Springfield became a dry county. She is a member of AA; however she is seen drinking alcohol at several times, meaning she might have a reoccurring problem. |
| 427 | * FlatCharacter: One of less notable characters. Aside from the alcohol joke and [[DeadpanSnarker occasional snarky comments]], she never displays any particular traits. |
| 428 | * FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Responsible one, since her brother Chester is slacker and doesn't apparently have a job. |
| 429 | * HiddenDepths: Who knew that Bernice is an expert when it comes to running a successful charity? |
| 430 | * ImpossibleHourglassFigure: Her skirt and shoulder pads highlights it even more. |
| 431 | * IronicAllergy: She loves gardening, but The Simpsons: Tapped Out reveals that she is severely allergic to roses. |
| 432 | * LimitedWardrobe: Bernice always wears the same shoulder padded suit and skirt. |
| 433 | * NoblewomansLaugh: She [[SignatureLaugh laughs like her husband]], but it comes more as this. |
| 434 | %%* PinkMeansFeminine: Fuchsia in her case. |
| 435 | * ReplacementFlatCharacter: Sort of; after Maude's death she seems to have taken her spot in Springfield's woman circle, usually she is there with Helen Lovejoy. Before that she was only seen with her husband. |
| 436 | * SatelliteCharacter: She appears only with her husband or as part of some female groups. |
| 437 | * SilentSnarker: She might not speak much, but she is prone to give a disapproving glare if someone is foolish. |
| 438 | * TheVoiceless: In most of her appearances she doesn't speak at all. From her debut it took six seasons to have her even say a word. |
| 439 | [[/folder]] |
| 440 | |
| 441 | !Wiggum Family |
| 442 | [[folder:Ralph Wiggum ]] |
| 443 | See [[Characters/TheSimpsonsElementarySchool Springfield Elementary School]] |
| 444 | [[/folder]] |
| 445 | |
| 446 | [[folder:Clancy Wiggum ]] |
| 447 | See [[Characters/TheSimpsonsGovernmentJudgesLawyersPoliceCriminals Government, Judges and Lawyers, Police and Criminals]] |
| 448 | [[/folder]] |
| 449 | |
| 450 | [[folder:Sarah Wiggum]] |
| 451 | [[quoteright:172:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sarah_wiggum.png]] |
| 452 | -->Debut: ''"I Love Lisa"'' Voiced by: Creator/PamelaHayden (From season 15 to season 31), Creator/MeganMullally (Season 32 onwards) |
| 453 | |
| 454 | Chief Wiggum's wife and Ralph's mother. |
| 455 | |
| 456 | * TheAlcoholic: Hinted to be one by Ralph: "You look like my mommy after her box of wine." |
| 457 | * BewareTheQuietOnes: The quiet and loving wife of the police chief is also a very competent ex-thief. |
| 458 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: According to Clancy, she had a history of being arrested by him and in possession of meth. He does admit the first time was him placing the drugs to have an excuse to talk to her. |
| 459 | * FlatCharacter: One of less notable characters and rarely speaks. |
| 460 | %%* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Among the Springfield wives due to what they think is her flat personality. |
| 461 | * HiddenDepths: Before meeting Clancy, she used to be part of a gang of jewel thieves. She's also shown to be more emotional and talkative when she's not with a lot of people. |
| 462 | * HoneyTrap: During her time as a thief, she was the "honeypot" of the team, and she met Clancy when she was seducing him for a job. |
| 463 | * InformedAttribute: Marge once said she doesn't want her at her party because they don't connect. |
| 464 | * TheQuietOne: She has very little dialogue, even when she's in a scene with a family. She discusses this in her ADayInTheLimelight episode, where she has a much easier time speaking with Marge when it's just the two of them. Sarah admits she's naturally shy and just doesn't feel comfortable talking in a group. |
| 465 | * SatelliteCharacter: She only appears with her family or a group of women. It wasn't until the Season 32 episode "Uncut Femmes" that her backstory was revealed. |
| 466 | [[/folder]] |
| 467 | |
| 468 | !Muntz Family |
| 469 | [[folder:Nelson Muntz]] |
| 470 | See [[Characters/TheSimpsonsElementarySchool Springfield Elementary School]] |
| 471 | [[/folder]] |
| 472 | |
| 473 | [[folder:Mrs. Muntz]] |
| 474 | [[quoteright:212:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mrs_muntz_0.png]] |
| 475 | -->Debut: ''"Wild Barts Can't Be Broken"'' (voice), ''"Sleeping with the Enemy"'' (full body) |
| 476 | |
| 477 | Nelson's mother. She is an alcoholic and a stripper. Voiced by Creator/TressMacNeille |
| 478 | |
| 479 | * AbusiveParents: She's unbelievably neglectful to Nelson, makes no attempt to hide that she's a stripper from her pre-teen child, and is pretty much constantly inebriated and in a bad mood. |
| 480 | %%* TheAlcoholic |
| 481 | * DependingOnTheArtist: Her weight is inconsistent, as she either appears overweight or thin in each of her appearances. |
| 482 | * ParentalNeglect: She neglects Nelson. |
| 483 | * ReallyGetsAround: She is shown to be very promiscuous, with Nelson indicating that she often wakes up with a different man. |
| 484 | * SingleMomStripper: Although she isn't very attractive. One episode had her getting cast as [[Theatre/{{Macbeth}} Lady Macbeth]]: "I don't have to take off my top... but I do anyway!" |
| 485 | * UnnamedParent: Her name is unknown. |
| 486 | [[/folder]] |
| 487 | |
| 488 | !Albertson Family |
| 489 | [[folder:Comic Book Guy]] |
| 490 | See [[Characters/TheSimpsonsNuclearPowerPlantShopkeepers Springfield Shopkeepers]] |
| 491 | [[/folder]] |
| 492 | |
| 493 | [[folder:Kumiko Nakamura]] |
| 494 | [[quoteright:202:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kumiko_95.png]] |
| 495 | -->Debut: ''"Married to the Blob"'' |
| 496 | |
| 497 | A Japanese manga fan and artist from Osaka. She is the girlfriend (and later wife) of Comic Book Guy. Voiced by: Creator/TressMacNeille (pre-Season 32) and Creator/JennyYokobori (season 32-onwards) |
| 498 | |
| 499 | * CheeryPink: She wears primarily pink, and she’s a blithe and perky woman. |
| 500 | * CosplayOtakuGirl: In her debut episode, we see her dressed up as a MagicalGirlWarrior at a convention. |
| 501 | * DatingWhatDaddyHates: Her father didn’t approve of Comic Book Guy when they first met. Eventually, [[InVinoVeritas after getting drunk]], he realized he was being too controlling towards his daughter and allowed her to marry him. |
| 502 | * EarlyBirdCameo: She appeared in ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsTappedOut'' to promote her debut in the show proper. |
| 503 | * FunnyForeigner: She is a Japanese mangaka and manga fan. |
| 504 | * GleefulAndGrumpyPairing: Her and her husband. |
| 505 | * HappilyMarried: With CBG at the end of her episode. |
| 506 | * ManicPixieDreamGirl: She’s a perky and bright young lady who gives Comic Book Guy a new lease on life. |
| 507 | * MeaningfulName: "Kumiko" means "long-time beautiful child" and "Nakamura" can mean "center town" or "in town". Her first name reflects how she’s the first beautiful woman to notice Comic Book Guy in a long time, and her last name reflects how in her debut appearance, she’s an artist from another country visiting Springfield; someone who’s "in town". |
| 508 | * UglyGuyHotWife: The hot wife to the CBG, a balding and obese basement dweller. |
| 509 | * WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: At first, Comic Book Guy found it weird that she liked him so much given that... well, he's an overweight, overly sarcastic and abrasive nerd. She explains that the freedom he has to insult things is a welcome contrast to [[JapanesePoliteness her uptight, politeness-fixated homeland, Japan]]. Add in that they share a similar obsession with "nerdy" paraphernalia (comics for him, manga for her) and they have the mutual interests to understand and appreciate each other. |
| 510 | [[/folder]] |
| 511 | |
| 512 | !Other Friends and Neighbors |
| 513 | |
| 514 | [[folder:Barney Gumble]] |
| 515 | [[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/220px-Barney_Gumble_2686.png]] |
| 516 | [[caption-width-right:220:*BUUURP*]] |
| 517 | |
| 518 | -->Debut: ''"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"'' |
| 519 | |
| 520 | The town drunk and Homer's best friend since high school. Voiced by Creator/DanCastellaneta. |
| 521 | |
| 522 | * AchillesHeel: Barney is an incredibly gifted and competent person...but he also has a ''crippling'' weakness to alcohol. Just a sip of alcohol, or even non-alcoholic versions of boozy drinks, pretty much destroys him. |
| 523 | * AddictionDisplacement: During the brief period when he gave up alcohol, Barney became addicted to coffee instead. |
| 524 | * AddledAddict: He's an alcoholic and is living a dysfunctional life apparently brought on by said alcoholism. |
| 525 | * TheAlcoholic: Barney started bad and got worse and worse as the show went on, to the point where he'd lick beer up off the floor while claiming he still had dignity. This got stale enough that he nearly ended up being written as "Who Shot Mr Burns" just to send him to prison for a while, but instead the writers swung over to him trying to fight his alcoholism. It depends on the writer as to how well he's doing in any given episode. |
| 526 | * AlcoholInducedIdiocy: As expected, he's done a few acts that can be attributed to this. It's generally portrayed that when Barney kicks the bottle he becomes insanely smart and capable. He was a genius in school before he took up drinking, and when he kicks the habit during Astronaut training he positively crushes it. |
| 527 | * AmbiguouslyBi: He complains when crowded in a closed bomb shelter that someone is touching him, but he's okay with it when he learns it was Skinner. |
| 528 | * TheArtifact: Early in the show, Barney was Homer's best friend. However, when Lenny and Carl took over as Homer's main friends, Barney was left with little purpose and essentially [[DemotedToExtra became a background character]]. Later seasons attempted to give him additional relevance by having him give up drinking, but this didn't last. |
| 529 | * BerserkButton: |
| 530 | ** Ruining his beer or otherwise preventing him from drinking it will cause him to get enraged. |
| 531 | ** Do not, under any circumstances, claim that anyone other than Lord Palmerston was England's best prime minister. Barney will make sure you aren't conscious enough to regret it. |
| 532 | * BewareTheSillyOnes: One thing Barney can still do very well when he's drunk is fight. He knocked Homer out with one punch in an early episode, and a couple of seasons later did the same to Wade Boggs. The original version of his fight with Joe Frazier would have ended with him winning. |
| 533 | * BrilliantButLazy: Quite a few episodes suggest that Barney is actually very talented: he easily produces the best film in Springfield's film festival, crushes Homer's plow business as the Plow King, proves the most talented singer in the Be Sharps, and gets through astronaut training without a hitch. One even suggests he could have gotten into Harvard if he hadn't started hitting the bottle. |
| 534 | * BrokenAce: Barney is incredibly gifted at everything from academics to filmmaking to music to art to business management to athletics. Unfortunately, if he has so much as a sip of alcohol, or even non-alcoholic drinks that are usually alcoholic, he pretty much falls to pieces. He doesn't really care all that much, though. |
| 535 | * CarpetOfVirility: Type 2, with chest hair usually coming out the neck of his shirt. |
| 536 | * CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: He is actually an exceptionally talented person when sober, being both surprisingly intelligent and athletic. |
| 537 | * ADegreeInUseless: In one episode Barney is seen standing in line at an unemployment agency. Barney claims that he hasn't been able to find a job in years, and when Kent Brockman asks him what his qualifications are, Barney replies "Five years of modern dance, six years of tap." |
| 538 | * DemotedToExtra: In the early seasons, he was Homer's best friend. However, in later seasons, Lenny and Carl took over as Homer's buddies while Barney was mostly relegated to appearing at Moe's. |
| 539 | * DisappearedDad: His father is dead, according to the episode "Mr. Plow" ("Ah, dying's not so bad. I'll be reunited with my loved ones, my dad, and that plant I never watered."). Later we learn that Arnie Gumble was one of the deceased Flying Hellfish. |
| 540 | * TheDitz: Justified, as he's usually [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy drunk]]. |
| 541 | * EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: In the first season, Barney was blond and wore an olive-green shirt with purple shoes. Starting with the second season, Barney was depicted as a brunette and wore an orange shirt with blue shoes. |
| 542 | * EruditeStoner: Or drunk, in this case. At a certain stage in his drinking, Barney can be surprisingly eloquent and thoughtful. This happens often enough that his friends describe this stage as "Professor Barney." |
| 543 | * FakeHigh: When celebrating his victory over Homer to go to space, he drinks some champagne in celebration, which undoes all his sobriety efforts in under a minute. This confuses the scientist overseeing the tests, as the champagne was non-alcoholic. |
| 544 | * FanDisservice: Similarly to Comic Book Guy, his shirt is not quite big enough to completely cover his beer belly. |
| 545 | %%* FatBestFriend: To Homer. |
| 546 | * FatIdiot: Mostly because he drinks a lot. One flashback depicts him as Harvard-bound — until Homer gives him a beer. |
| 547 | %%* FatSlob: Except in the episodes where he's sober. |
| 548 | * {{Flanderization}}: He was introduced as a [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones Barney Rubble]] {{Expy}} who always hung out at Moe's. However, as Lenny and Carl filled in his role as Homer's best friend, his drunkenness was emphasized more in later seasons. In newer episodes, he's usually seen lying around in drunken stupor or hung over. He did sober up in Season 11, but the writers aren't very consistent about whether that stuck. |
| 549 | * {{Gasshole}}: His signature belch is practically his catch phrase. See a compilation [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI2jeeFPp9M here]]. It even turned into ''the'' belching sound effect on the show. |
| 550 | * GeniusDitz: |
| 551 | ** In "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" we learn that even though Barney has a strange speaking voice, he has a beautiful singing voice. This was likely inspired by actor Jim Nabors (better known as Gomer Pyle from ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'' and ''Series/GomerPyleUSMC''), who despite his best-known character had a rich, baritone singing voice. |
| 552 | ** In "A Star Is Burns" he manages to create an independent film so moving that it drives the film festival judges to tears. |
| 553 | * HeCleansUpNicely: His hair is neater, his shirt tucked in, and his diction clearer when he isn't drinking. |
| 554 | * HeterosexualLifePartners: He and Homer have been best friends since they were children. |
| 555 | * HiddenDepths: Despite being a drunk, he created a short film about how his alcoholism has ruined him that became so popular that he was featured on ''Entertaiment Weekly'', has amazing drawing ability, and teamed up with Linda Ronstandt for his "Plow King" commercial. When he's sober, he can fly a helicopter. What's worse is that Barney in his teens was a Harvard-bound honors student who became a drunk after Homer offered him a beer. |
| 556 | * InTheBlood: His belching ability is evidently his strongest inheritable trait, according to the gag in "Selma's Choice", where it's shown that all of the countless babies he's sired through donated sperm - sons and daughters alike - can all burp just like him. |
| 557 | * KarmaHoudini: In "Duffless", Homer manages to sneak out of work and go to the Duff Brewery with Barney. At the brewery, Homer and Barney both partake in free samples, with Barney consuming more than Homer. Barney is so drunk that Homer becomes the designated driver, and when Chief Wiggum, Lou and Eddie pull the car over, Homer does well on the sobriety test, which consists of touching his nose with his fingers while standing on one foot and reciting the alphabet. Barney, who is more drunken than Homer, tells the cops to use the breathalyzer on Homer, and as a result, Homer's license is suspended and he is ordered to attend traffic school and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, while Barney gets off scot-free with no comeuppance in spite of his blood-alcohol content being noticeably higher than Homer's. To add insult to injury, when the cops arrest Homer and leave Barney to drive home, Barney ''runs his car into Wiggum!'' |
| 558 | * LowerClassLout: He is an alcoholic, never seems to hold down a job for very long, is perpetually single, and lives in a run-down apartment. |
| 559 | * MadeOfIron: Barney shrugged off Homer punching him in the face, bashing him over the head with a crowbar, and ''repeatedly slamming his head with a car door''. He's also survived crashing a jetpack, getting run over by a marshmallow truck and getting caught in the machinery of Moe's speakeasy. |
| 560 | * MassiveNumberedSiblings: The Season 4 episode "Selma's Choice" reveals he regularly donates sperm to the Springfield IVF clinic, which results in a panning shot revealing dozens, maybe hundreds of women marching out of the clinic carrying babies letting out Barney's signature belch, making their parentage obvious. |
| 561 | * MeaningfulName: '''Bar'''ney spends most of his time in a bar. It may be a coincidence, since he is apparently named after Barney Rubble from ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones''. |
| 562 | * MilitaryBrat: His mother is a naval officer and his father was a Private Fifth Class in the Flying Hellfish. |
| 563 | * MustHaveCaffeine: He actually managed to sober up for a few seasons, but he switched his dependency to coffee. Moe promptly started serving it to keep making money off Barney's addictions. |
| 564 | * NakedPeopleAreFunny: Went streaking at the Springfield High School senior prom in 1974, had his diaper blown off (in bone-chilling winter weather) while passing out flyers for a baby furniture store called "Lullabuy$", woke up naked when the Springfield Cat Burglar was terrorizing the city, and took a job as a male stripper when Mr. Burns replaced everyone who worked at the nuclear plant with robots because ''The Full Monty'' taught him that, during times of economic hardship, ugly people will strip for money (and if that doesn't work, he can always play "Three-Card Full Monty" where players have to find his penis underneath one of three shuffling hats). |
| 565 | * OffTheWagon: Barney is shown as being trying to keep his alcoholism under control often enough for it to matter that he usually isn't. |
| 566 | * OneSteveLimit: An interesting variation with the recurring "Barney's Bowlarama". Originally Barney ''was'' to be the proprietor, but the creators couldn't plausibly visualise someone like Barney being able to run the business. As something of a MythologyGag, the Bowlarama ''is'' run by his Uncle Al Gumble in later episodes, and in ''Tapped Out'', placing the Bowlarama unlocks Barney. |
| 567 | * PinkElephants: Literally (although they also fit the trope). One of them is named Stampy (no relation to the elephant Bart got as a pet) and protects him from demons who don't normally appear in his alcoholic hallucinations (like the ones he saw when he drank the peyote-spiked hippie juice Homer was churning out). |
| 568 | %%* RealMenWearPink |
| 569 | * SingingVoiceDissonance: Although he has a slurred speaking voice (from years of drinking), Barney has a beautiful singing voice (much like Jim Nabors). |
| 570 | * SmarterThanYouLook: Was studying for the [=SAT=] exam, hoping to go to Harvard, when [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Homer introduced him to beer]]. He started drinking more as a result of [[spoiler: his high school girlfriend Chloe leaving him to pursue her journalism career.]] |
| 571 | * StatusQuoIsGod: In a rare subversion on the show, Barney sobered up in Season 11 and stayed that way for nearly three years. |
| 572 | * StrawLoser: His alcoholism was flanderised to the point that he was pretty much stripped of every scrap of dignity. He finds out in "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses" that his friends at Moe's see him as a "tanked up loser" and, after Barney decides to give up alcohol, they try to make Homer the new Barney, because every bar needs "a world class drunk. Someone who makes our alcoholism seem less raging". |
| 573 | * TooDumbToLive: Once charged a tab to Mr. Burns. He later woke up in a landfill. |
| 574 | -->"Yeah, but it was worth it." |
| 575 | * TrashOfTheTitans: His apartment is such a mess that he ''can't even find his dog''. |
| 576 | -->"He's in here somewhere." |
| 577 | * UndiscriminatingAddict: Barney is primarily an alcoholic, but when shot with a tranquilizer dart in "Much Apu About Nothing", he pulls it out to ''drink'' the rest of the liquid inside. During the few years he stopped drinking alcohol, he switched his addiction to coffee instead. |
| 578 | * WhatDidIDoLastNight: Barney's gotten so sloshed (even by his standards!) that he's forgotten everything from crossdressing at his own birthday party to making a film so popular it got him on the cover of ''Entertainment Weekly''. |
| 579 | [[/folder]] |
| 580 | |
| 581 | [[folder:Ruth Powers]] |
| 582 | [[quoteright:182:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ruth_powers.png]] |
| 583 | |
| 584 | -->Debut: ''"New Kid on the Block"'' |
| 585 | |
| 586 | The Simpsons' next-door neighbor and a single mother. Voiced by Creator/PamelaReed |
| 587 | |
| 588 | * DemotedToExtra: She appears prominently in Season 4's "New Kid on the Block" and Season 5's "Marge on the Lam", but was otherwise relegated to background appearances for many seasons. She made a return speaking appearance in "Strong Arms of the Ma"[[note]]The one where Marge becomes a bodybuilder after being traumatized by a mugger[[/note]], revealing that Ruth went to prison ([[NoodleIncident for an unknown crime]][[note]]remember that she was acquitted for stealing her ex-husband's car, as her ex hired Lionel Hutz[[/note]]), became a bodybuilder, and won a beauty pageant called "Miss Mexican Mafia". |
| 589 | * {{Foil}}: To Marge. Marge is a modest, feminine housewife and Ruth is a feisty, gun-loving, abrasive, and cynical {{Ladette}}. |
| 590 | * TheLadette: She smokes, drinks, curses, fights with men, and likes guns. Also, when she comes back from prison in one episode, Ruth has become a bodybuilder. |
| 591 | * LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: Implied, at least. In "Marge on the Lam", she tells Marge that she divorced her husband because he was lazy ("All he ever did was eat, sleep, and drink beer") and never paid her for child support, though "New Kid on the Block" implies that she divorced her husband because he was too into his career to be a family man. |
| 592 | * NiceGirl: While she's very rough around the edges and has a love for thrill-seeking, she's actually a very affable and friendly lady. |
| 593 | * OddFriendship: She's probably the most genuine friend that Marge has ever had despite how different they are. |
| 594 | * {{Retcon}}: The flashback episode about Maggie's birth shows Ruth Powers had already met Marge before moving next door. Although it could be a mistake on the animator's part. |
| 595 | * TomboyAndGirlyGirl: When she befriends Marge, she acts as the Tomboy in contrast to feminine housewife Marge. |
| 596 | [[/folder]] |
| 597 | |
| 598 | [[folder:The Winfields]] |
| 599 | [[quoteright:1000:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mr_and_mrs_winfield.png]] |
| 600 | -->Debut: ''"Homer's Odyssey"'' |
| 601 | |
| 602 | The Simpsons' elderly next-door neighbors, Sylvia Winfield and Mr. Winfield. They are very grumpy and can't stand Homer. They moved to Florida in "New Kid on the Block" and have not appeared again. Ruth Powers moved into their house. Voiced by Maggie Roswell and Creator/DanCastellaneta (Creator/TraceyUllman voiced Sylvia in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E16BartsDogGetsAnF Bart's Dog Gets An 'F']]"). |
| 603 | |
| 604 | * {{Jerkass}}: They were once excited when Homer attempted suicide, just because they have a slight grudge against him. |
| 605 | * PutOnABus: They moved to Florida in "New Kid on the Block" and have (barring some background cameos) not appeared since. |
| 606 | [[/folder]] |
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