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5a8d7341554299441c6b9fe5 | Musician and satirist Allie Goertz wrote a song about the "The Simpsons" character Milhouse, who Matt Groening named after who? | President Richard Nixon | bridge | hard | {
"title": [
"List of The Simpsons video games",
"Milhouse Van Houten",
"Los Angeles Reader",
"Lisa Simpson",
"Marge Simpson",
"List of The Simpsons guest stars",
"Allie Goertz",
"Homer Simpson",
"The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History",
"Bart Simpson"
],
"text": [
"The Simpsons is an American animated television sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its eponymous family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie. It is set in the fictional town of Springfield, and lampoons American culture, society and television, and many aspects of the human condition. The family was conceived by Groening shortly before a pitch for a series of animated shorts with producer James L. Brooks. Groening created a dysfunctional family and named the characters after members of his own family, substituting Bart for his own name. The shorts became a part of The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987 and after a three-season run, the sketch was developed into a half-hour prime time show and became a hit series for Fox. The growing popularity of the series motivated video game developers to create video games based on the series. Two pinball machines have also been produced; one self-titled, that was only made available for a limited time after the first season finale (1990) and The Simpsons Pinball Party (2003). Additionally, several handheld device games have been released, such as Bartman: Avenger of Evil (1990) and Bart Simpson's Cupcake Crisis (1991).Video games based on the series have reached multiple platforms since their debut in 1991. The Simpsons' first video game release, The Simpsons, developed and published by Konami, saw a release on the Commodore 64 and DOS, while Bart vs. the Space Mutants (1991), developed by Imagineering, expanded the franchise into new platforms, including the Amstrad CPC, NES and Master System. Over the next few years, the franchise would continue to expand, releasing system-exclusive games, such as the PC's Cartoon Studio (1996) and the PlayStation's The Simpsons Wrestling (2001). The release of The Simpsons Game (2007), developed by EA Redwood Shores (Visceral Games), further expanded the franchise, appearing on new platforms including the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Due to the series' longevity, The Simpsons video games have also spanned across many genres, such as the puzzle game Krusty's Fun House (1992), the sports game Itchy & Scratchy in Miniature Golf Madness (1994) and racing game Road Rage (2001). The Simpsons is also one of the franchises spotlighted in the toys-to-life video game Lego Dimensions (2015).\n\n\n== Video games ==\nAs of October 2020, 27 video games focused on The Simpsons series have been released. The following table showcases the correspondent title, release date, publisher, developer and the platforms on which each game was released along with any other relevant information. A detailed overview of each game can be found in their corresponding articles, with the exception of games without articles, which instead have a brief overview in a footnote.\n\n\n== See also ==\nList of video game franchises\n\n\n== Notes ==\n\n\n== References ==",
"Milhouse Mussolini Van Houten is a recurring character in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Pamela Hayden, and created by Matt Groening who named the character after President Richard Nixon's middle name. Later in the series, it is revealed about Milhouse that both his middle name and his maternal family name is \"Mussolini\". \nMilhouse is Bart Simpson's best friend in Mrs. Krabappel's fourth grade class at Springfield Elementary School, and is insecure, gullible, and less popular than Bart. Milhouse is often led into trouble by Bart, who takes advantage of his friend's naïveté, and he is also a regular target for school bullies Nelson Muntz and his friends Jimbo Jones, Dolph Starbeam and Kearney Zzyzwicz. He also has a crush on Bart's sister, Lisa, which is used as a plot element in many episodes. Milhouse and his family members are among the few residents in Springfield with visible, in fact rather thick, eyebrows.\n\n\n== Profile ==\nMilhouse is of Italian, Greek, Danish and Dutch descent, based on comments and characters introduced throughout the series. He shares the same physical features as both his parents, and his father's primary personality features (which include disappointment, insecurity, and generally depressed demeanor). He has none of his mother's confidence, except when specific storylines demand it. Milhouse is constantly bullied by Nelson Muntz, Jimbo Jones, Dolph Starbeam, and Kearney Zzyzwicz, to the point that when Bart questions Milhouse by saying \"Milhouse! I thought you had a three o'clock wedgie with Nelson\", in the episode \"Little Orphan Millie\", Milhouse simply responds \"I had to reschedule\". They do often inflict violence upon the geeky Milhouse, who wears thick eyeglasses, without which he cannot see.\nAlthough not disliked and having a moderate number of friends among other kids from school aside from Bart himself, Milhouse has made a career of getting victimized, although his overall true antagonists are the schoolyard bullies of Springfield Elementary (Nelson, Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney). In \"Sideshow Bob Roberts\", Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney wrapped Milhouse in bumper stickers and placed him in a shopping cart. After Jimbo claimed that \"the mummy's ready for his mystical journey!\", the bullies pushed the cart with Milhouse down a very steep hill. He is harmed frequently, and on some occasions is injured by dangerous hazards, e.g., being run over by a train, falling down a waterfall, receiving electrical shocks, having his head polished to bone, and having his teeth knocked out by a hockey puck. As a lead character he always survives and recovers, often with no further mention of any injuries. He frequently visited a female psychiatrist until even she could not deal with his constant calling and blocked his number.\nOn one occasion, Bart got Milhouse placed on the FBI's Most Wanted List even though they are friends, and tried to lure Milhouse into a cactus. Milhouse is not always subservient to Bart; in \"Bart Sells His Soul\", Milhouse toyed with Bart's anxiety after Bart sold his soul for $5, and Milhouse demanded $50 to return it. On another occasion, Bart introduced Milhouse to his girlfriend and had to explain why he and Milhouse are friends, but could not come up with a good answer and admitted it was due to geographical convenience. Bart did admit in \"Little Orphan Millie\" that he loves Milhouse.Homer also sometimes makes fun of Milhouse (once referring to Milhouse in the boy's presence as \"that little wiener\"). In \"Burns, Baby Burns\", Larry, Mr. Burns' son, brings Homer to eat at his house. Mr. Burns was angry and he asks Homer if his son \"brings home nitwits and make you talk to them\", to which Homer answers \"Oh, all the time! Have you ever heard of this kid Milhouse? He's a little wiener who...\", before being interrupted by Burns. In an attempt to purposefully enrage his father, Bart once stated that he felt \"a little attracted to Milhouse\", sending Homer into a rage. Bart and Milhouse appear to be the same height, but in the episode \"Radioactive Man\", it is revealed that Milhouse is at least an inch taller than Bart.\nMilhouse is frequently the butt of a variety of jokes, such as being beaten up by Nelson for delivering a love note from Lisa (which Nelson thought was from Milhouse himself), having the door slammed in his face while playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey, having his possible budding homosexuality given away by his school counselor to Homer and Marge by accidentally picking up the wrong folder while discussing Bart, making him a wanted fugitive (see above), inadvertently inheriting Bart's dismal permanent record at school through a side deal arranged between Bart, Edna Krabappel and Principal Skinner, which will disqualify Milhouse from \"all but the hottest and noisiest jobs\".\nHe is fluent in Italian (\"The Last of the Red Hat Mamas\") due to visiting his maternal grandmother in Tuscany for two weeks every year. She hates the English language and would beat him whenever he spoke English, thus he was forced to learn Italian. He also began bed-wetting that summer. He helps Lisa learn Italian, but there is no reference to his Italian background or language skills in any other episode. Milhouse's personality drastically changes when speaking Italian, becoming a suave, confident ladies' man popular with Springfield's Italian community in the episode.\nThe show's opening sequence, and various scenes of band practice suggests that Milhouse plays a brass or woodwind instrument, possibly clarinet or trumpet, but all the Springfield Elementary band members, besides Lisa, are very poor musicians.\nMilhouse is allergic to honey, wheat, dairy, mistletoe, holly, the red parts of candy canes, and his own tears.\n\n\n=== Romance ===\nMilhouse harbors a crush on Lisa, but they remain close friends, as shown in \"Lisa's Date with Density\", when she admits she liked Nelson. At the end of that episode, after she has stopped liking Nelson, Milhouse asks Lisa who will be her next crush; Lisa coyly answers that it could be anybody and Milhouse rejoices.\nLisa has always opposed the idea of going out with Milhouse (e.g. \"Lisa's Date With Density\" and \"Future-Drama\"), however in the episode \"The Last of the Red Hat Mamas\", after Milhouse starts tutoring Lisa in Italian and takes her to Springfield's Little Italy, she begins to develop feelings for him, until she catches him with a girl named Angelica, and began hitting him and cursing in Italian just like his grandmother had done.\nMilhouse's first real girlfriend was Samantha Stanky, a new student who had moved to Springfield from Phoenix, Arizona in the episode \"Bart's Friend Falls in Love\". After her father who responds to Bart's call caught her and Milhouse kissing, he sent her to a Catholic girls' school run by French-Canadian nuns. While Milhouse's official first kiss was with Samantha Stanky in the aforementioned episode, it was contradicted in the episode \"The Way We Weren't\", where Milhouse accidentally kisses Homer, during a game of spin the bottle that Homer interrupted. In the episode \"Homer Scissorhands\", Milhouse dated a 5th grader, Taffy. The relationship ended when Milhouse and Taffy caught Lisa spying on them in the bushes. Taffy told Lisa that Milhouse still loves her, and Lisa kisses Milhouse. Lisa told Milhouse that he should not give up searching for other girls and that life has unexpected things to offer.\nMilhouse and Lisa's relationship has been used in episodes set in the show's future, outside of the show's canon. In the episode \"Lisa's Wedding,\" set 15 years into the future, Milhouse is Homer's boss at the nuclear plant, and after learning of Lisa's impending marriage, Milhouse recalls an earlier date with Lisa in which she said she might never marry, then angrily prepares Homer's annual review. Later in the episode, Lisa wonders if it is acceptable to wear a white wedding dress, suggesting that she had already lost her virginity; Marge, tells her \"Milhouse doesn't count\". In the episode \"Holidays of Future Passed\" (2011), set 30 years into the future, Lisa and Milhouse are married and have a daughter, Zia.\n\n\n== Creation ==\nMilhouse was designed by Matt Groening for a planned series on NBC, which was abandoned. The design was then used for a Butterfinger commercial, and it was decided to use the character in the series. Milhouse was named after U.S. president Richard Nixon, whose middle name was Milhous. The name was the most \"unfortunate name Matt Groening could think of for a kid\". Years earlier, in a 1986 Life in Hell comic entitled \"What to Name the Baby\", Groening listed Milhouse as a name \"no longer recommended\". Milhouse is a favorite among the staff as Al Jean noted \"most of the writers are more like Milhouse than Bart\". His last name was given to him by Howard Gewirtz, a freelance writer who wrote the episode \"Homer Defined\". Gewirtz got the name from one of his wife's friends. According to Arden Myrin and Dana Gould (former writer and co-executive producer of The Simpsons), Rob Cohen (Simpsons writer) inspired Milhouse's look.\n\n\n== See also ==\n\n\n== References ==\n\n\n== External links ==\nThe Milhouse File\nMilhouse Van Houten on IMDb\nMilhouse Van Houten on Simpsons Wiki",
"Los Angeles Reader was a weekly paper established in 1978 and distributed in Los Angeles, United States. It followed the format of the (still-active) Chicago Reader. The paper was known for having lengthy, thoughtful reviews of movies, plays and concerts in the L.A. area. \nJames Vowell was its founding editor. Among its writers were Keith Fitzgerald, Nigey Lennon, Lionel Rolfe, Lawrence Wechsler, Mick Farren, Richard Meltzer, Heidi Dvorak, Chris Morris, Jerry Stahl, Steven Kane, Andy Klein, Allen Levy, Jim Goad, Kirk Silsbee, Henry Sheehan, Samantha Dunn, Natalie Nichols, Steve Appleford, Eric Mankin (also editor), Paul Birchall, Eddie Rivera (who wrote the paper's first cover story), Amy Steinberg, Henry Sheehan, Dan Sallitt, Myron Meisel, David Ehrenstein, Tom Davis, Dave McCombs, Bruce Bebb, Stuart Goldman, Ernest Hardy, Kevin Uhrich, Erik Himmelsbach, David L. Ulin, Lance Loud, J. Michael Straczynski, and Laurence Vittes (Classical Music Critic, 1991–1998). \nIt is famous for being the first newspaper to publish Matt Groening's cartoon strip Life in Hell, on April 25, 1980. James Vowell hired Groening as his assistant editor in 1979. Groening was also originally a Reader music critic. It also ran a cartoon strip by David Lynch (director of Blue Velvet) called The Angriest Dog in the World, a strip notable for having exactly the same drawing panels for its entire run. James Vowell and his wife Codette Wallace bought the Reader from the Chicago Reader in February 1989. They sold the Reader to New Times Media in 1996, which merged it with the Los Angeles View to form New Times LA.\n\n\n== References ==\n\n\n== External links ==\nAn archived article from the L.A. Reader",
"Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child and most accomplished of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa was born as a character in The Tracey Ullman Show short \"Good Night\" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening created and designed her while waiting to meet James L. Brooks. Groening had been invited to pitch a series of shorts based on his comic Life in Hell, but instead decided to create a new set of characters. He named the elder Simpson daughter after his younger sister Lisa Groening Bartlett. After appearing on The Tracey Ullman Show for three years, the Simpson family were moved to their own series on Fox, which debuted on December 17, 1989.\nIntelligent, kind and passionate about the planet and all living things, Lisa Simpson, at eight years old, is the second child of Homer and Marge, the younger sister of Bart, and the older sister of Maggie. Lisa's high intellect and left-wing political stance creates a barrier between her and other children her age; therefore she is a bit of a loner and social outcast. Lisa is a vegetarian, a strong environmentalist, a feminist, and a Buddhist. Lisa's character develops many times over the course of the show: she becomes a vegetarian in season 7 and converts to Buddhism in season 13. A strong liberal and activist for peace, equality and the environment, Lisa advocates for a variety of political causes (e.g. standing with the Tibetan independence movement) which usually sets her against most of the people in Springfield. However, she can also be somewhat intolerant of opinions that differ from her own, often refusing to consider alternative perspectives and showing a feeling of self-righteousness. In her free time, Lisa enjoys many hobbies such as reading and playing the baritone saxophone, despite her father's annoyance regarding the latter. She has appeared in other media relating to The Simpsons – including video games, The Simpsons Movie, The Simpsons Ride, commercials and comic books – and inspired a line of merchandise.\nYeardley Smith originally tried out for the role of Bart, while Nancy Cartwright (who was later cast as the voice for Bart) tried out for Lisa. Producers considered Smith's voice too high for a boy, so she was given the role of Lisa. In the Tracey Ullman Show shorts, Lisa was something of a \"female Bart\" who mirrored her brother's mischief, but as the series progressed she became a liberal voice of reason which has drawn both praise and criticism from fans of the show. Because of her unusual pointed hairstyle, many animators consider Lisa the most difficult Simpsons character to draw.\nTV Guide ranked her 11th (tied with Bart) on their list of the \"Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time\". Her environmentalism has been especially well-received; several episodes featuring her have won Genesis and Environmental Media Awards, including a special \"board of directors Ongoing Commitment Award\" in 2001. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals included Lisa on their list of the \"Most Animal-Friendly TV Characters of All Time\". Yeardley Smith won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992 and Lisa and her family were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2000.\n\n\n== Role in The Simpsons ==\nThe Simpsons uses a floating timeline in which the characters do not have physical ages; as such, Lisa is always depicted as 7–8 years old. The show itself is perpetually set in the year of broadcast (except for occasional flashbacks and flashforwards). In several episodes, events have been linked to specific time periods, although this timeline has been contradicted in subsequent episodes. Lisa's year of birth is given in \"Lisa's First Word\" (season 4, 1992) as 1984, during the Summer Olympics. The episode \"That '90s Show\" (season 19, 2008), however, contradicts much of the established backstory; for example, it presents Homer and Marge as being childless in the late 1990s. Lisa is a lover of music, with jazz as her favorite genre; she specifically singles out Miles Davis's 1957 album Birth of the Cool as her favorite album. She enjoys and excels at playing the saxophone and became friends with jazz musician Bleeding Gums Murphy, whom she regards as an idol. Murphy helps pull Lisa out of her depression in \"Moaning Lisa\" (season 1, 1990). She is later deeply saddened by Murphy's death in \"'Round Springfield\" (season 6, 1995).Lisa has had a few brief relationships with boys, including Ralph Wiggum in \"I Love Lisa\" (the fifteenth episode of season 4, 1993), Nelson Muntz in \"Lisa's Date with Density\" (season 8, 1996) and Colin in The Simpsons Movie (2007). Bart's best friend Milhouse Van Houten has a crush on her, but despite dropping unsubtle hints about his feelings, he has been unsuccessful in winning her affection. Her voice actor Yeardley Smith said Muntz would make a good match for Lisa. In 2019, Simpsons showrunner Al Jean said he saw Lisa as being \"possibly polyamorous\" in the future. In the 2011 Season 23 episode 9 episode Holidays of Future Passed Lisa is shown holding hands with an unnamed dark-haired woman in a photo, and then shown in a second photo where she is holding hands with two different women at once, suggesting polyamory; she later ends up with Milhouse. However, this episode is non-canon.Lisa is the most intellectual member of the Simpson family (she has an IQ of 159), and many episodes of the series focus on her fighting for various causes. Lisa is often the focus of episodes with \"a real moral or philosophical point\", which according to former writer David S. Cohen is because \"you really buy her as caring about it.\" Lisa's political convictions are generally liberal and she often contests other's views. She is a vegetarian, feminist, environmentalist and a supporter of gay rights and the Free Tibet movement. In a special Christmas message for the UK in 2004 Lisa showed her support for Cornish nationalism, even speaking the Cornish language to get her message across. While supportive of the general ideals of the Christian church in which she was raised, Lisa became a practicing Buddhist in the episode \"She of Little Faith\" (season 13, 2001) after she learned about the Noble Eightfold Path. An \"End Apartheid Now\" poster can be seen on her bedroom door during earlier seasons. She is extremely controlled by her ideals and noble, and she undergoes drastic changes when she or anyone else is immoral, such as renouncing Homer's last name and taking Marge's when she discovers that Homer bet against her in a crossword puzzle competition.\n\n\n== Character ==\n\n\n=== Creation ===\nMatt Groening conceived Lisa and the rest of the Simpson family in 1986 in the lobby of producer James L. Brooks's office. Groening had been called in to pitch a series of animated shorts for The Tracey Ullman Show and had intended to present an adaptation of his Life in Hell comic strip. When he realized that animating Life in Hell would require him to rescind publication rights, Groening went in another direction, hurriedly sketching his version of a dysfunctional family, named after members of his own family. Lisa was named after Groening's younger sister, but little else was based on her. In The Tracey Ullman Show shorts, Lisa displayed little of the intelligence for which she later became known. She was more of a \"female Bart\" and was originally described as simply the \"middle child\", without much personality.Lisa made her debut with the rest of the Simpson family on April 19, 1987, in The Tracey Ullman Show short \"Good Night\". In 1989, the shorts were adapted into The Simpsons, a half-hour series on the Fox Broadcasting Company.\n\n\n=== Design ===\n\nThe entire Simpson family was designed to be easily recognized in silhouette. The family was crudely drawn, because Groening had submitted basic sketches to the animators, assuming they would clean them up; instead, they just traced over his drawings. Lisa's physical features are generally unique. In some early episodes, minor background characters occasionally had a similar hairline. However, in the later seasons, no character other than Maggie shares her hairline. While designing Lisa, Groening \"couldn't be bothered to even think about girls' hairstyles\". At the time, Groening was primarily drawing in black and white; when designing Lisa and Maggie, he \"just gave them this kind of spiky starfish hair style, not thinking that they would eventually be drawn in color\".To draw Lisa's head and hair, most of the show's animators use what they call the \"three-three-two arrangement\". It begins with a circle, with two curving lines (one vertical, one horizontal) intersecting in the middle to indicate her eyeline. The vertical line continues outside of the circle to create one hair point, with two more added towards the back of her head. Three more points are then added in front (in the direction Lisa is facing), with two more behind it. Several Simpsons animators, including Pete Michels and David Silverman, consider Lisa the most difficult Simpsons character to draw. Silverman explains that \"her head is so abstract\" due to her hairstyle.\n\n\n=== Voice ===\nWhile the roles of Homer and Marge were given to Dan Castellaneta and Julie Kavner because they were already a part of the Tracey Ullman Show cast, the producers decided to hold casting for the roles of Bart and Lisa. Nancy Cartwright intended to audition for the role of Lisa, but disliked the character's bland description—Lisa was described simply as the \"middle child\"—and read for the role of Bart instead. Casting director Bonita Pietila brought Yeardley Smith in for an audition after seeing her performing in the play Living on Salvation Street. Smith was hesitant to audition for an animated series, but her agent had persuaded her to give it a try. Smith originally auditioned for the role of Bart but Pietila believed her voice was too high. Smith later recalled: \"I always sounded too much like a girl, I read two lines as Bart and they said, 'Thanks for coming!'\" Pietila offered Smith the role of Lisa instead.\n\nSmith and the show's writers worked to give Lisa a more defined personality, and she has developed greatly during the series. In her 2000 memoir My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy, Cartwright wrote: \"with the brilliant wit of the writers and the wry, in-your-eye, honest-to-a-fault interpretation, Yeardley Smith has made Lisa a bright light of leadership, full of compassion and competence beyond her years. Lisa Simpson is the kind of child we not only want our children to be but also the kind of child we want all children to be. But, at the time, on The Tracey Ullman Show, she was just an animated eight-year-old kid who had no personality.\"Lisa is the only regular character voiced by Smith, who raises the pitch of her voice slightly for the role. In some earlier episodes she provided some of Maggie's squeaks and occasional speaking parts, and has voiced other characters on very rare occasions. Usually they are derivative of Lisa, such as Lisa Bella in \"Last Tap Dance in Springfield\" (season 11, 2000) and Lisa, Jr. in \"Missionary: Impossible\". (season 11, 2000)\n\nDespite the fame of Lisa Simpson, Smith is rarely recognized in public, which she does not mind. She said, \"it's wonderful to be in the midst of all this hype about the show, and people enjoying the show so much, and to be totally a fly on the wall; people never recognize me solely from my voice.\" In a 2009 interview with The Guardian she commented that \"It's the best job ever. I have nothing but gratitude for the amount of freedom The Simpsons has bought me in my life.\" Although Smith received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992, she considers it unimportant, saying \"there's part of me that feels it wasn't even a real Emmy.\" The award is a Creative Arts prize not awarded during the primetime telecast and, at the time, a juried award without nominations. Still, Smith considers her work on the show a success. \"If I had to be associated with one character in fiction,\" she said, \"I will always be thrilled that it was Lisa Simpson.\" Matt Groening has described Smith as being very similar to Lisa: \"Yeardley has strong moral views about her character. Some lines are written for Lisa that Yeardley reads and says, 'No, I wouldn't say that.'\" Former Simpsons writer Jay Kogen praised her performance on the show, particularly in the episode \"Lisa's Substitute\", as able \"to move past comedy to something really strong and serious and dramatic.\"Until 1998, Smith was paid $30,000 per episode. A pay dispute erupted in 1998, during which Fox threatened to replace the six main voice actors with new actors, going as far as preparing for casting of new voices. The dispute was soon resolved, and Smith received $125,000 per episode until 2004 when the voice actors sought an increase to $360,000 per episode. The issue was resolved a month later, and Smith earned $250,000 per episode. New salary negotiations took place in 2008, and the voice actors currently receive approximately $400,000 per episode. Three years later, with Fox threatening to cancel the series unless production costs were cut, Smith and the other cast members accepted a 30 percent pay cut, down to just over $300,000 per episode.\n\n\n=== Development ===\n\nIn The Tracey Ullman Show shorts, Lisa was something of a \"female Bart\": equally mischievous but lacking unique traits. As the series progressed, Lisa began to develop into a more intelligent and more emotional character. She demonstrates her intellect in the 1990 episode \"Krusty Gets Busted\" (season one), by helping Bart reveal Sideshow Bob's plot to frame Krusty the Clown for armed robbery. Many episodes focusing on Lisa have an emotional nature, such as \"Moaning Lisa\" (season one, 1990). The idea for the episode was pitched by James L. Brooks, who wanted to do an emotional episode involving Lisa's sadness, to complement the many \"jokey episodes\" in the first season.In the seventh-season episode \"Lisa the Vegetarian\" (1995), Lisa permanently becomes a vegetarian, distinguishing her as one of the first primetime television characters to make such a choice. The episode was written by David S. Cohen (in his first solo writing credit), who jotted down the idea one day while eating lunch. Then-executive producer David Mirkin, who had recently become a vegetarian himself, quickly approved the idea. Several of Lisa's experiences in the episode are based on Mirkin's own experiences. The episode guest stars musician Paul McCartney, a committed vegetarian and animal rights activist. McCartney's condition for appearing was that Lisa would remain a vegetarian for the rest of the series and would not revert the next week (as is common on situation comedies). The trait stayed and is one of the few permanent character changes made in the show. In the season 13 episode \"She of Little Faith\" (2001), Lisa underwent another permanent character change when she converted to Buddhism.Lisa plays the baritone saxophone, and some episodes use that as a plot device. According to Matt Groening, the baritone saxophone was chosen because he found the thought of an eight-year-old girl playing it amusing. He added, \"But she doesn't always play a baritone sax because the animators don't know what it looks like, so it changes shape and color from show to show.\" One of the hallmarks of the show's opening sequence is a brief solo Lisa plays on her saxophone after being thrown out of music class. The Simpsons composer Alf Clausen said that the session musicians who perform her solos do not try to play at the second-grade level and instead \"think of Lisa as a really good player.\"\n\n\n=== Personality ===\n\nLisa, despite being a child prodigy, often sees herself as a misfit within the Simpson family and other children due to possessing an unusually high level of intelligence. She shows characteristics rarely seen in Springfield, including spirituality and commitment to peaceful ways, and is notably more concerned with world affairs than her life in Springfield, with her rebellion against social norms being depicted as constructive and heroic, yet she can be self-righteous at times. In \"Lisa the Vegetarian\", an increasing sense of moral righteousness leads her to disrupt her father's roast-pig barbecue, an act for which she later apologizes. Like most children her age, she thinks in images rather than words. Episodes often take shots at Lisa's idealism. In \"Bart Star\" (season nine, 1997), Lisa, who is departing from her typically more genuine nature and apparently looking for a new cause to crusade over, defiantly declares that she, a girl, would like to join the football team. In the 1990s, it was considered odd to allow a girl to play football. However, when coach Ned Flanders reveals that several girls already play for the team, she hesitates and claims football is \"not really [her] thing\". She then expresses distaste about a ball made of pig's skin, but one of the girls informs her that their footballs are synthetic and that proceeds are donated to Amnesty International. Upset by being unable to gain moral superiority, Lisa runs off. In \"She of Little Faith,\" Lisa permanently becomes a Buddhist after being appalled at how the First Church of Springfield allowed Mr. Burns to rebuild the church, which burned after being hit with Bart and Homer's rockets, with commercialism. Despite no longer following the Christian faith, she still is seen attending church in later episodes.\nLisa is said to have an IQ of 159, and in \"They Saved Lisa's Brain\" (season ten, 1999) she becomes a member of the Springfield chapter of Mensa. When unable to attend school due to a teachers' strike in \"The PTA Disbands\", (season six, 1995) she suffers withdrawal symptoms because of the sudden lack of praise. She even demands that her mother grade her for no obvious reason. In Planet Simpson, Chris Turner writes that these traits make Lisa more realistic because \"No character can aspire to realism without a few all-too-human flaws.\"Although she is wise beyond her years, Lisa has typical childhood issues, sometimes requiring adult intervention. One episode to show this is \"See Homer Run\" (season seventeen, 2005) where she goes through a developmental condition which causes her to get into trouble at school. In \"Lost Our Lisa\" (season nine, 1998), she tricks Homer into allowing her to ride the bus alone, only to become hopelessly lost and in need of aid from her father. Chris Turner writes in Planet Simpson that incidents like this illustrate that \"Even when Lisa's lecturing like a college professor or mounting yet another protest, she never becomes a full-grown adult trapped in a child's body.\" In The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer, Aeon J. Skoble states that although Lisa is an intellectual, she is still portrayed as a character who enjoys normal childhood and girl activities, plays with Malibu Stacy dolls, loves ponies, obsesses over teenage heartthrobs such as Corey, and watches The Itchy & Scratchy Show along with Bart. He writes, \"One might argue that this is typical childhood behavior, but since in so many cases Lisa is presented not simply as a prodigy but as preternaturally wise, the fondness for Itchy & Scratchy and Corey seem to be highlighted, taking on greater significance. Lisa is portrayed as the avatar of logic and wisdom, but then she also worships Corey so she's 'no better [than the rest of us]'.\" When she became depressed over being unable to pursue her dream as a musician due to inheriting her father's fingers and having to spend her time with Marge in being a homemaker, Lisa gives up on school and becomes a juvenile delinquent in Separate Vocations. She is stopped by Bart who encourages her to keep proving people wrong and pursue her dreams as a musician.\nLisa occasionally worries that her family's dull habits will rub off on her, such as in \"Lisa the Simpson\" (season nine, 1998) she worries that the \"Simpson gene\" will make her a dimwit later finding out the gene only goes through the male side. She is often embarrassed and disapproving of her eccentric family: of her father's poor parenting skills and buffoonish personality; her mother's stereotypical image and social ineptitude; and her brother's delinquent and low-brow nature. Despite this, she has good relationships with all of her immediate family members; despite their many differences, Homer and Lisa maintain an affectionate relationship, with episodes like \"Lisa the Greek\" and \"Bart on the Road\" depicting the bond between them often being cited as fan favorites. She is also concerned that Maggie may grow up to be like the rest of the family and tries to teach her complex ideas. Chris Turner writes in Planet Simpson that \"Lisa embarks on quests to find solace for her yearning spirit ... but the most reliable source of truth she finds is the one she always believed in: her family. It is from the other Simpsons that Lisa draws stability, meaning, contentment.\" Her loyalty to her family is most clearly seen in the flashforward \"Lisa's Wedding\" (season six, 1995), in which she must reconcile her love for them with the distaste of her cultured fiancé. In the episode \"Mother Simpson\" (season seven, 1995) she meets her paternal grandmother Mona Simpson for the first time. Mona is also well-read and articulate, and the writers used the character as a way to explain the origins of Lisa's intelligence.\n\n\n=== Sexuality ===\nLisa's sexuality has become the subject of speculation amongst viewers of the show.\nLisa is shown to have heterosexual crushes on Nelson Muntz and Langdon Alger in \"Lisa's Date with Density\" and \"Bart on the Road\" respectively. In some episodes Lisa is shown to have a boyfriend, such as Edmund Dracula in \"Treehouse of Horror XXI\" or Colin in \"The Simpsons Movie\". Lisa becomes engaged to, and later almost marries, Hugh Parkfield in \"Lisa's Wedding\" and the episodes \"Bart to the Future\" and \"Holidays of Future Passed\" suggest that Lisa will go on to marry Milhouse Van Houten. However, \"Holidays of Future Passed\" also show Lisa being in both a monogamous, and later polyamorous, lesbian relationships. However, all future episodes and scenes such as these are ultimately considered non-canon.\nAlthough Lisa's sexuality has never been confirmed on screen, showrunner Al Jean said in a 2019 interview with The Metro that he had always envisaged for Lisa to grow up to become bisexual and polyamorous. In a 2020 interview with the Stryker & Klein show on KROQ Radio, Yeardley Smith said that she believed that Lisa was \"still exploring her sexuality\". Smith also asked fans to stop speculating on Lisa's sexuality, as she was \"ultimately an eight-year old girl\".\n\n\n== Reception ==\n\n\n=== Commendations ===\n\nLisa has been a popular character since the show's inception. She was listed at number 11 (tied with Bart) in TV Guide's \"Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time.\" She appeared in Comcast's list of TV's Most Intriguing Characters and was also included in AfterEllen.com's Top 50 Favorite Female TV Characters. On a less positive note, she was ranked third in AskMen's top 10 of the most irritating '90s cartoon characters. Yeardley Smith has won several awards for voicing Lisa, including a Primetime Emmy Award for \"Outstanding Voice-Over Performance\" in 1992 for \"Lisa the Greek\". Various episodes in which Lisa stars have won Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program, including \"Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment\" in 1991, \"Lisa's Wedding\" in 1995 and \"HOMR\" in 2001. In 2000, Lisa and the rest of the Simpson family were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard.Lisa's environmentalism has been especially well received. In 2001, Lisa received a special \"board of directors Ongoing Commitment Award\" at the Environmental Media Awards. \"Lisa the Vegetarian\" won both an Environmental Media Award for \"Best Television Episodic Comedy\" and a Genesis Award for \"Best Television Comedy Series, Ongoing Commitment\". Several other episodes that feature Lisa speaking out in favor of animal rights have won Genesis Awards, including \"Whacking Day\" in 1994, \"Bart Gets an Elephant\" in 1995, \"Million Dollar Abie\" in 2007 and \"Apocalypse Cow\" in 2009.\n\n\n=== Cultural influence ===\nJonathan Gray, author of the book Watching The Simpsons, feels that Lisa \"is probably the best and certainly longest-running feminist character that television has had. She's the heart of the show and she quite often questions gender politics.\" Christopher Borrelli of The Toledo Blade wrote, \"Has there ever been a female TV character as complex, intelligent, and, ahem, as emotionally well-drawn as Lisa Simpson? Meet her once and she comes off priggish and one-note – a know-it-all. Get to know her and Lisa is as well-rounded as anyone you may ever meet in the real world.\"According to PETA, Lisa was one of the first vegetarian characters on primetime television. In 2004 the organization included Lisa on its list of the \"Most Animal-Friendly TV Characters of All Time\". In 2008, environmentalist website The Daily Green honored Lisa's role in The Simpsons Movie with one of its inaugural \"Heart of Green\" awards, which \"recognize those who have helped green go mainstream.\" They wrote \"young Lisa Simpson has inspired a generation to wear their hearts on their sleeves and get educated, and involved, about global issues, from justice to feminism and the environment.\" Japanese broadcasters reversed viewer dislike of the series by focusing marketing of the show on Lisa. Lisa's well-intended but ill-fated struggles to be a voice of reason and a force of good in her family and community struck a chord with Japanese audiences. Mario D'Amato, a specialist in Buddhist studies at Rollins College in Florida, described Lisa as \"open-minded, reflective, ethical, and interested in improving herself in various ways, while still preserving a childlike sense of innocence. These are all excellent qualities, ones which are espoused by many Buddhist traditions.\"Lisa and the rest of the Simpsons have had a significant influence on English-language idioms. The dismissive term \"meh\"—used by Lisa and popularized by the show— entered the Collins English Dictionary in 2008. In 1996, The New York Times published an article saying that Lisa was inspiring children, especially young girls, to learn to play the saxophone.Lisa Simpson was mentioned at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference when Senator Ted Cruz called the Democratic Party \"The Party of Lisa Simpson\", as opposed to the Republican Party being the party of the rest of the family.\n\n\n=== Merchandising ===\nLisa has been included in many The Simpsons publications, toys, and other merchandise. The Lisa Book, describing Lisa's personality and attributes, was released in 2006. Other merchandise includes dolls, posters, figurines, bobblehead dolls, mugs, and clothing such as slippers, T-shirts, baseball caps, and boxer shorts. Lisa has appeared in commercials for Burger King, C.C. Lemon, Church's Chicken, Domino's Pizza, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Ramada Inn, Ritz Crackers, Subway and Butterfinger.On April 9, 2009, the United States Postal Service unveiled a series of five 44-cent stamps featuring Lisa and the four other members of the nuclear Simpson family. They are the first characters from a television series to receive this recognition while still in production. The stamps, designed by Matt Groening, went on sale in May 2009.Lisa has also appeared in other media relating to The Simpsons. She has appeared in each Simpsons video game, including The Simpsons Game, released in 2007. In addition to the television series, Lisa regularly appeared in issues of Simpsons Comics, which were published from 1993 until 2018. The comics focus on the sweeter, more naive incarnation from the early seasons. Lisa also plays a role in The Simpsons Ride, launched in 2008 at Universal Studios Florida and Hollywood.\n\n\n== References ==\n\nSources\n\nCartwright, Nancy (2000). My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy. New York City: Hyperion Books. ISBN 978-0-7868-8600-5.\nGroening, Matt (1997). Richmond, Ray; Coffman, Antonia (eds.). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family (1st ed.). New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 978-0-06-095252-5. LCCN 98141857. OCLC 37796735. OL 433519M.\nOrtved, John (2009). The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History. Greystone Books. ISBN 978-1-55365-503-9.\nPinsky, Mark I (2001). The Gospel According to The Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World's Most Animated Family. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-22419-6.\nPinsky, Mark I (2007). The Gospel According to The Simpsons, Bigger and Possibly Even Better! Edition. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-23265-8.\nSkoble, Aeon J. (1999). \"Lisa and American anti-intellectualism\". In Irwin, William; Conrad, Mark T.; Skoble, Aeon (eds.). The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer. Chicago: Open Court. ISBN 978-0-8126-9433-8.\nTurner, Chris (2004). Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation. Foreword by Douglas Coupland. (1st ed.). Toronto: Random House Canada. ISBN 978-0-679-31318-2. OCLC 55682258.\n\n\n== Further reading ==\nAlberti, John, ed. (2003). Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8143-2849-1.\nBrown, Alan; Chris Logan (2006). The Psychology of The Simpsons. BenBella Books. ISBN 978-1-932100-70-9.\nGroening, Matt (1991). The Simpsons Uncensored Family Album. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-096582-2.\nGroening, Matt; Bill Morrison (2006). The Lisa Book. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-074823-4.\n\n\n== External links ==\n Media related to Lisa Simpson at Wikimedia Commons\nLisa Simpson on IMDb",
"Marjorie \"Marge\" Simpson (née Bouvier) is a character in the American animated sitcom The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. Voiced by Julie Kavner, she first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short \"Good Night\" on April 19, 1987. Marge was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called to pitch a series of shorts based on Life in Hell but instead decided to create a new set of characters. He named the character after his mother Margaret Groening. After appearing on The Tracey Ullman Show for three seasons, the Simpson family received their own series on Fox, which debuted December 17, 1989.\nMarge is the matriarch of the Simpson family. With her husband Homer, she has three children: Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Marge is the moralistic force in her family and often provides a grounding voice in the midst of her family's antics by trying to maintain order in the Simpson household. She is often portrayed as a stereotypical television mother and is often included on lists of top \"TV moms\". She has appeared in other media relating to The Simpsons—including video games, The Simpsons Movie, The Simpsons Ride, commercials, and comic books—and inspired an entire line of merchandise.\nMarge's distinctive blue beehive hairstyle was inspired by a combination of the Bride's in Bride of Frankenstein and the style that Margaret Groening wore in the 1960s. Julie Kavner, who was a member of the original cast of The Tracey Ullman Show, was asked to voice Marge so that more voice actors would not be needed. Kavner has won several awards for voicing Marge, including a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992. She was also nominated for an Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature for her performance in The Simpsons Movie. In 2000, Marge, along with the rest of her family, was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.\n\n\n== Role in The Simpsons ==\nThe Simpsons uses a floating timeline (the characters do not physically age), and as such the show is generally assumed to be set in the current year. In several episodes, events have been linked to specific time periods, although this timeline has been contradicted in subsequent episodes. Marge Simpson is married to Homer and mother of Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson. She was raised by her parents, Jacqueline and Clancy Bouvier. She has a pair of sisters, the joyless Patty and Selma, both of whom vocally disapprove of Homer. In \"The Way We Was\" (season two, 1991), it is revealed via flashback that Marge attended Springfield High School, and in her final year met Homer Simpson, after they both were sent to detention—Homer for smoking in the bathroom with Barney, and Marge for burning her bra in a feminist protest. She was at first wary of Homer, but agreed to go to the prom with him, although she ended up going with Artie Ziff after Homer received tutoring lessons as a means to get to know her better, while knowing that she needed to sleep for a school meet. However, she regretted going with Artie when he started to pressure her to have sex after prom. At the end of the evening, while Artie drove her home after receiving a slap, she spied Homer walking along the side of the road with the corsage meant for her. After hearing her parents voicing their negative opinions about Homer, she took her own car and went back to give him a ride. She then told Homer she should've gone to the prom with him and he fixes her snapped shoulder strap with the corsage. During the ride, he tells her he will hug her and kiss her and never be able to let her go. After the two had been dating for several years, Marge discovered she was pregnant with Bart, and she and Homer were married in a small wedding chapel across the state line. Bart was born soon after, and the couple bought their first house. The episode \"That '90s Show\" (season 19, 2008) contradicted much of the established back-story; for example, it was revealed that Marge and Homer were childless in the early 1990s although past episodes had suggested Bart and Lisa were born in the 1980s.As with many Simpsons characters, Marge's age and birthday changes to serve the story. In season one (1990) episodes \"Life on the Fast Lane\" and \"Some Enchanted Evening\", Marge was said to be 34. In \"Homer's Paternity Coot\" (season 17, 2006), Marge states that Emerald would have been her birthstone if she had been born three months later, placing her birthday sometime in February. In \"Regarding Margie\" (season 17, 2006), Homer mentioned that Marge was his age, meaning she could have been anywhere between 36 and 40. During this episode (Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore), Lisa questions Homer's memory of Marge's birthday. When he cannot remember, Marge yells that it is in May. In the season eighteen episode \"Marge Gamer\" she states that she and actor Randy Quaid share the same birthdate (October 1).\nMarge has been nonworking for most of the series, choosing to be a homemaker and take care of her family. However, she has held several one-episode jobs in the course of the series. These include working as a nuclear technician alongside Homer at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant in \"Marge Gets a Job\" (season four, 1992); selling houses in \"Realty Bites\" (season nine, 1997); owning her own pretzel business in \"The Twisted World of Marge Simpson\" (season eight, 1997), and working at an erotic bakery in \"Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes\" (season 20, 2008). While Marge has never expressed discontent with her role as a homemaker, she has become bored with it. In \"The Springfield Connection\" (season six, 1995), Marge decided that she needed more excitement in her life and became a police officer. However, by the end of the episode, she became upset with the corruption in the force and quit.\n\n\n== Character ==\n\n\n=== Creation ===\n\nMatt Groening first conceived Marge and the rest of the Simpson family in 1987 in the lobby of producer James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called to pitch a series of animated shorts for The Tracey Ullman Show, and had intended to present an adaptation of his Life in Hell comic strip. When he realized that animating Life in Hell would require him to rescind publication rights, Groening decided to go in another direction and hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family, naming the characters after members of his own family. Marge was named after Groening's mother Margaret \"Marge\" Groening, who has said she bears little similarity to the character, stating, \"It's really weird to have people think you're a cartoon.\" Marge's beehive hairstyle was inspired by the titular Bride in Bride of Frankenstein and the style that Margaret Groening wore during the 1960s, although her hair was never blue.Marge debuted with the rest of the Simpson family on April 19, 1987, in The Tracey Ullman Show short \"Good Night\". In 1989, the shorts were adapted into The Simpsons, a half-hour series airing on the Fox Network. Marge and the Simpson family remained the main characters on this new show.Matt Groening believes that episodes featuring Marge are among the most difficult episodes to write. Bill Oakley believes that the \"junior\" writers are usually given Marge episodes because he and writing partner Josh Weinstein were given several to write during their first season. During the third season of the show, most of the writers focused on Bart and Homer, so David M. Stern decided to write a Marge episode, which became \"Homer Alone\" (season three, 1992). He felt that they could achieve a \"deeper vein\" of comedy in an episode where Marge has a nervous breakdown, and James L. Brooks quickly approved.\n\n\n=== Design ===\nThe entire Simpson family was designed so that they would be recognizable in silhouette. The family was crudely drawn, because Groening had submitted basic sketches to the animators, assuming they would clean them up; instead, they just traced over his drawings. To draw Marge, the animators generally start off with a sphere, similar to the way Lisa and Maggie are drawn. The eyes are then drawn, with one roughly in the middle of the sphere, and the other to the front side of the head. Then, the nose and lip are drawn. Her hair is then drawn on top as a long tube coming out of the sphere. An original idea the animators had for when Marge walked through doorways was that her hair would be forced down as she walked through, then once clear of the door, it would spring back and forth. This was never used. Groening's original plan for Marge's hair was that it would conceal large, Life in Hell-esque rabbit ears. The gag was intended to be revealed in the final episode of the series, but was scrapped early on due to inconsistencies, and also to the fact that rabbit ears would be too fictitious even for The Simpsons.\n\n\n=== Voice ===\n\nMarge's voice is performed by Julie Kavner, who also does the voices of Marge's mother Jacqueline and her sisters Patty and Selma. Kavner had been part of the regular cast of The Tracey Ullman Show. Voices were needed for the shorts, so the producers decided to ask Kavner and fellow cast member Dan Castellaneta to voice Marge and Homer rather than hire more actors. Part of Kavner's contract says that she will never have to promote The Simpsons on video and she rarely performs Marge's voice in public because she believes it \"destroys the illusion. People feel these are real people.\" Kavner takes recording sessions seriously and feels that voice acting is \"a little more limiting than live acting. And I have nothing to do with my character's movement.\"Marge's raspy voice is only slightly different from Kavner's, who has a \"honeyed gravel voice\" which she says is due to \"a bump on [her] vocal cords.\" While Marge is her most famous character, Kavner's favorite characters to voice are Patty and Selma because \"they're really funny and sad at the same time.\" In The Simpsons Movie, some scenes, such as Marge's video message to Homer, were recorded over one hundred times, leaving Kavner exhausted.Until 1998, Kavner was paid $30,000 per episode. During a pay dispute in 1998, Fox threatened to replace the six main voice actors with new actors, going as far as preparing to cast new voices. However, the dispute was soon resolved and she received $125,000 per episode until 2004 when the voice actors demanded that they be paid $360,000 an episode. The issue was resolved a month later, and Kavner earned $250,000 per episode. After salary re-negotiations in 2008, the voice actors receive approximately $400,000 per episode. Three years later, with Fox threatening to cancel the series unless production costs were cut, Kavner and the other cast members accepted a 30 percent pay cut, down to just over $300,000 per episode.\n\n\n=== Personality ===\nMarge is generally a stereotypical sitcom mother, and she also plays the \"long-suffering wife\" who puts up with the antics of her children and her oafish husband. While she usually takes her family's problems with good humor, in \"Homer Alone\" (season three, 1992), her workload and resultant stress caused her to have a mental breakdown. After spending time at \"Rancho Relaxo\", during which her family barely coped with her absence, she returned refreshed and everyone promised to help out more often. Marge often provides a grounding opinion for Homer and their marriage has often been shaky. Marge admits that she \"put[s] up with a lot in [their] marriage,\" and has left Homer or thrown him out of the house on several occasions. One of the first such episodes to depict this is \"Secrets of a Successful Marriage\" (season five, 1994), where Homer starts teaching an education class on how to build a successful marriage. He is at first unsuccessful, but gains the interest of the class when he starts giving away family secrets, many of which concern Marge. Upon finding this out, Marge is incensed and throws him out of the house. The next day, Homer is dirty and disheveled, and begs Marge to take him back, saying the one thing he can offer her that nobody else can is \"complete and utter dependence.\" At first, Marge does not see that as a benefit, but eventually admits that he \"really [does] make a gal feel needed.\" Episodes that depict marital problems have become more frequent in recent seasons of the show. Through it all, Marge has remained faithful to Homer, despite temptations to the contrary such as the one in \"Life on the Fast Lane\" (season one, 1990), where she resists the charming Frenchman Jacques and instead chooses to remain with Homer.\n\nMarge is more caring, understanding, and nurturing toward Bart than Homer, but she refers to him as \"a handful\" and is often embarrassed by his antics. In \"Marge Be Not Proud\" (season seven, 1995), she felt she was mothering Bart too much and started acting more distant towards him after he was caught shoplifting. In the beginning of the episode, Bart protested her \"over-mothering\", but as she started acting more distant towards him, he felt guilty about it and made up with her. Marge has expressed understanding for her \"special little guy\" and has defended him on many occasions. She once said \"I know Bart can be a handful, but I also know what he's like inside. He's got a spark. It's not a bad thing ... Of course, it makes him do bad things.\" Marge has a good relationship with Lisa and the two are shown to get along quite well. Marge over-mothers Maggie, which causes her to become too clingy and dependent on Marge.\nMarge maintains a good relationship with her mother Jacqueline and her sisters Patty and Selma, though they disapprove of Homer and are vocal about it. Marge has tolerated their criticism, but has occasionally lost patience with them, once referring to them as \"ghouls.\" Marge's late father Clancy is rarely referred to in the series and has had speaking parts in only two episodes. It was revealed in \"Fear of Flying\" (season six, 1994) that Clancy told Marge that he was a pilot, but in reality, he was a flight attendant. Marge discovered this one day and developed aerophobia. In \"Jazzy and the Pussycats\" (season 18, 2006), Homer casually mentions that they once attended his funeral. It was finally revealed that Clancy died of lung cancer in season 27 episode \"Puffless\".Marge believes she has higher morals than most other characters, once leading a family values crusade against the violent The Itchy & Scratchy Show and being a prominent member of the \"Citizens' Committee on Moral Hygiene.\" She often provides a voice of reason for the town itself, but many of the townspeople are frustrated or contemptuous of her failure to recognize or react correctly to breaches of social norms. Marge is the only member of the family who encourages, and often forces, church attendance. In \"Homer the Heretic\" (season four, 1992), Homer starts skipping church and Marge tells him \"don't make me choose between my man and my God, because you just can't win.\". Yet, in some episodes, Marge's stereotypical attitude seems to affect her relationship with her daughter, Lisa, who is a feminist.\nIn \"Lisa the Skeptic\" (season nine, 1997), an \"angel skeleton\" is discovered, much to the skepticism of Lisa. As Lisa rants about the people who believe it is an angel, Marge informs her that she also believes it is an angel. She tells Lisa, \"There has to be more to life than just what we see, everyone needs something to believe in.\" In spite of her highly debatable moral stances, Marge struggles with vices, such as a gambling addiction. While Marge has learned to cope with her addiction, it has never completely disappeared and remains an underlying problem that is referenced occasionally on the show. Marge also has a bit of a drinking problem with wine, though not nearly as problematic as her husband Homer's drunkenness, it is still a prevalent topic in quite a few episodes.\nPolitically, Marge generally aligns with the Democratic Party, having supported the candidacy of her state's progressive governor Mary Bailey, and voted for Jimmy Carter in both of his presidential elections. She was also deeply affected by the death of Lyndon B. Johnson, to the point where she wanted him to be alive so badly that she kept seeing him everywhere she looked.\n\n\n== Reception ==\n\nAt the 44th Primetime Emmy Awards, Kavner received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for voicing Marge in the season three episode \"I Married Marge\". In 2004, Kavner and Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer) won a Young Artist Award for \"Most Popular Mom & Dad in a TV Series\". For her performance in The Simpsons Movie, Kavner was nominated for \"Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature\" at the 2007 Annie Awards, but lost to Ian Holm from Ratatouille. Kavner's emotional performance in the movie got positive reviews and one critic said she \"gave what must be the most heartfelt performance ever.\" Various episodes in which Marge is prominently featured have been nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program, including \"The Way We Weren't\" in 2004 and \"Life on the Fast Lane\", which won the award in 1990. In 2000, Marge and the rest of the Simpson family were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard.Marge has been ranked highly in lists of the top television mothers of all time. She was ranked first on Entertainment Weekly's list in 1994; first on Fox News' list in 2005; eighth on CityNews' list in 2008; and was included in Time's list of the \"10 Best Moms Ever\". In a 2004 poll in the United Kingdom, Marge was named the \"most respected mother\" by respondents. Still in 2004, Marge was ranked third in a poll conducted by the Opinion Research Company. In May 2012, Marge was one of the 12 moms chosen by users of iVillage on their list of \"Mommy Dearest: The TV Moms You Love\". AOL has named Marge the 24th \"Most Memorable Female TV Character\". Her relationship with Homer was included in TV Guide's list of \"The Best TV Couples of All Time\".Religious writer Kenneth Briggs has written that \"Marge is my candidate for sainthood ... She lives in the real world, she lives with crises, with flawed people. She forgives and she makes her own mistakes. She is a forgiving, loving person ... absolutely saintly.\"\n\n\n== Cultural influence ==\n\nThe edition of October 1, 1990 of People included an interview with then-First Lady of the United States Barbara Bush. The article included the following passage: \"She loves America's Funniest Home Videos but remains baffled after sampling The Simpsons. \"It was the dumbest thing I had ever seen,\" she says, \"but it's a family thing, and I guess it's clean.\" The writers decided to respond by privately sending a polite letter on September 28 to Bush where they posed as Marge Simpson. On October 9, Bush sent a reply: \"Dear Marge, How kind of you to write. I'm glad you spoke your mind ... I foolishly didn't know you had one. I am looking at a picture of you ... depicted on a plastic cup ... with your blue hair filled with pink birds peeking out all over. Evidently, you and your charming family — Lisa, Homer, Bart and Maggie — are camping out. It's a nice family scene. Clearly you are setting a good example for the rest of the country. Please forgive a loose tongue.\"In 2002, opponents of the Seattle Monorail Project planned on showing the episode \"Marge vs. the Monorail\" at a protest event. Following complaints, 20th Century Fox sent a letter to the event organizers ordering that the episode not be shown due to copyright laws. In 2004, Marge appeared on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom for the Alternative Christmas message, which is annually broadcast at the same time that Queen Elizabeth II gives her Christmas message.\n\nOn April 9, 2009, the United States Postal Service unveiled a series of five 44-cent stamps featuring Marge and the four other members of the Simpson family. They are the first characters from a television series to receive this recognition while the show is still in production. The stamps, designed by Matt Groening, were made available for purchase on May 7, 2009.\n\n\n=== Merchandising ===\nMarge is depicted in much The Simpsons-related merchandise, including T-shirts, baseball caps, bumper stickers, cardboard stand-ups, refrigerator magnets, key rings, buttons, dolls, posters and figurines. She has appeared in each of The Simpsons video games. Besides the television series, Marge regularly appears in issues of Simpsons Comics, which were published from 1993-2018. Marge also plays a role in The Simpsons Ride, launched in 2008 at Universal Studios Florida and Hollywood.Marge appeared in a 2005 advertisement for Dove Styling, where her normal beehive hair was exchanged for a more stylish look for a series of ads featuring several popular cartoon women.In April 2004, Marge appeared on the cover of Maxim. She also appeared on the cover of the November 2009 issue of Playboy, becoming the first cartoon character to appear on the cover. The cover and a three-page picture spread, as well as a story inside entitled The Devil in Marge Simpson, commemorated the 20th anniversary of The Simpsons, but as also part of a plan to appeal to younger readers, a decision which has been criticized due to a page in which the character is depicted nude. Darine Stern's picture on the October 1971 cover served as the inspiration for Playboy's November 2009 cover.\n\n\n== References ==\n\n\n=== Bibliography ===\n\n\n== External links ==\nMarge Simpson on IMDb",
"In addition to the show's regular cast of voice actors, celebrity guest stars have been a staple of The Simpsons, an American animated television sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company, since its first season. The Simpsons focuses on the eponymous family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie. The family was initially conceived by Groening for a series of animated shorts, which originally aired as a part of The Tracey Ullman Show between 1987 and 1989. The shorts were developed into a half-hour prime time series which began in December 1989. The series' 33rd season debuted on September 26, 2021, and 710 episodes of The Simpsons have aired. A feature film adaptation of the series called The Simpsons Movie, was released in 2007.\nGuest voices have come from a wide range of professions, including actors, athletes, authors, musicians, artists, politicians and scientists. In the show's early years most guest stars voiced original characters, but as the show has continued the number of those appearing as themselves has increased.\nThe first credited guest star was Marcia Wallace who appeared in \"Bart the Genius\" in her first stint as Bart's teacher Edna Krabappel. Singer Tony Bennett was the first guest star to appear as himself, appearing briefly in the season two episode \"Dancin' Homer\". Several guest stars have featured as recurring characters on the show, including Phil Hartman, Joe Mantegna and Kelsey Grammer. After Wallace, Hartman made the most appearances, guest starring 52 times. Mantegna has appeared over thirty times, Grammer, Maurice LaMarche, Jon Lovitz and Frank Welker have appeared twenty times or more; Glenn Close and Jackie Mason have appeared over ten times, while Albert Brooks, Michael Dees, Dana Gould, Terry W. Greene, Valerie Harper, Jan Hooks, Jane Kaczmarek, Stacy Keach, Kipp Lennon, Dawnn Lewis, J. K. Simmons, Sally Stevens, George Takei and Michael York have made over five appearances.\nThree guest stars, Ricky Gervais, Seth Rogen and Pete Holmes, earned writing credits for the episodes in which they appeared. Grammer, Mason and three-time guest star Anne Hathaway all won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for guest voice roles on the show. The show was awarded the Guinness World Record for \"Most Guest Stars Featured in a TV Series\" in 2010. As of October 17, 2021, there have been 913 guest stars on the show[A], with this figure rising to 917 if The Simpsons Movie is included.\n\n\n== History ==\nGuest stars have appeared on The Simpsons since its first season, in addition to the show's main cast of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer and supporting cast of Tress MacNeille, Pamela Hayden, Maggie Roswell, Chris Edgerly, Grey Griffin, Alex Désert, Eric Lopez, Tony Rodríguez and former supporting cast members Russi Taylor, Marcia Mitzman Gaven, Karl Wiedergott, Doris Grau, Jo Ann Harris, Susan Blu and Christopher Collins. Kevin Michael Richardson started as a recurring guest star in the twenty first season, but joined the supporting cast in the twenty eighth, starting with the episode \"The Last Traction Hero\".\n\nGuest voices have come from a wide range of professions, including actors, athletes, authors, musicians, artists, politicians and scientists. In the earlier seasons, most of the guest stars voiced characters, but eventually more started appearing as themselves. The first male guest star was actor Sam McMurray, who voiced a worker at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant in \"Homer's Odyssey\", the show's third episode, and Marcia Wallace was the first female guest star on the show starting from Bart the Genius as Edna Krabappel and Ms. Melon. Singer Tony Bennett was the first guest star to appear as himself, appearing in the season two episode \"Dancin' Homer\" while Aerosmith were the first band with their cameo in the third season's \"Flaming Moe's\"\nSeveral guest stars have made multiple appearances on the show, often as recurring characters. Actress Marcia Wallace guest starred 176 times, making her the most recurring female guest star on the show, until her death in 2013. Edna Krabappel was then retired from the show, but sometimes appears as a ghost, and actor Phil Hartman guest-starred in 52 episodes, more than any other male actor, although his initial role in the second season episode \"Bart Gets Hit By a Car\" in 1991 was intended to be a one-off. He voiced the recurring characters Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz as well as numerous other one-time characters, until his death in 1998. McClure and Hutz were subsequently retired from the show. Actor Kelsey Grammer first appeared as Sideshow Bob in the first-season episode \"Krusty Gets Busted\" while actor Joe Mantegna made his first appearance as Fat Tony in the third season episode \"Bart the Murderer\". The two have appeared in 21 and 28 episodes respectively; Mantegna also appeared in the film. Both roles were originally written for other actors: Bob was originally to be voiced by James Earl Jones, who later guest starred three times on the show, while Fat Tony was written for Sheldon Leonard. Other repeat guest stars include Albert Brooks, Glenn Close, Jan Hooks, Maurice LaMarche, Jon Lovitz, Jane Kaczmarek, Jackie Mason, Charles Napier and Frank Welker.\nAccording to Groening, guest star choices \"come from the writers saying, 'Wouldn't it be cool to have [such a person on the show]?'\", while showrunner Al Jean has stated the reasoning is \"we want to meet our heroes.\" Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, showrunners of the seventh and eight seasons, favored guest stars with what they felt were unique and interesting voices such as actors R. Lee Ermey, Donald Sutherland, Kirk Douglas and Lawrence Tierney. In 2014, Jean stated that fewer people would be appearing as themselves, as the staff did not want it to become a \"crazy roster\".Many guest stars come into the show's recording studio to record their parts, although some are recorded over the telephone. Three guest stars have been credited with writing the episode in which they guest starred. Comedian Ricky Gervais wrote the episode \"Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife\", while actor Seth Rogen co-wrote the episode \"Homer the Whopper\" with Evan Goldberg, and comedian Pete Holmes wrote the two-part \"Warrin' Priests\" episodes. Two guest stars were credited with pseudonyms. Actor Dustin Hoffman was credited as \"Sam Etic\" for the episode \"Lisa's Substitute\" while musician Michael Jackson was credited as \"John Jay Smith\" for the episode \"Stark Raving Dad\". After the latter episode, the producers decided that if a celebrity wished to guest star on the show, they had to be willing to be credited under their real name.Numerous people have rejected the chance to appear on the show. Actor William Shatner has been described as the first person to reject the show. The producers have consistently failed to persuade any former President of the United States to appear. Musicians Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan have also rejected multiple invitations to guest star on the series. Other people to turn the show down include actors Michael Caine, Tom Cruise, Clint Eastwood and Anthony Hopkins and director Quentin Tarantino. Musician Prince turned down a role in a sequel to \"Stark Raving Dad\", which meant the script was never produced.Others have accepted the offer, but have been unable to record a role. Musician Frank Zappa and actor Anthony Perkins both became too ill to record their parts, while Jim Carrey had to drop out due to time constraints, and Faye Dunaway cancelled. Christopher Walken originally agreed appear as himself in \"Insane Clown Poppy\". However, he then decided to demand a lot more money than the producers were willing to pay. Instead, Jay Mohr provided the voice of Walken. In the end credits, Jay Mohr is actually credited with the voice of Christopher Walken, the credit says \"Jay Mohr as Christopher Walken\". This is the first time this has ever been done.\nRobby Krieger of The Doors recorded a cameo for the episode \"The Great Money Caper\", but his part was cut because the writers felt his appearance seemed too forced. The scene was later included on the season's DVD release. Similarly, actress Catherine O'Hara recorded the voice of Colette the waitress in \"Flaming Moe's\", but was redubbed with Jo Ann Harris who the producers felt was a better fit. Ron Howard, in what would have been his third appearance on The Simpsons, was advertised as guest starring on \"Children of a Lesser Clod\". However, he did not appear for any recording sessions. Similarly, Werner Herzog was advertized as guest starring in \"Thanksgiving of Horror\", in what would have been his third appearance as Walter Hotenhoffer, but didn't appear in the final episode.\nMason, Grammer and Anne Hathaway have each won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for their guest voice roles on the show. The show was awarded the Guinness World Record for \"Most Guest Stars Featured in a TV Series\" on May 23, 2010, with Guinness estimating that the show has featured \"at least 555 as of series 21\". As of October 17, 2021, there have been 913 guest stars on the show, totaling 1556 guest spots.[A] These figures rise to 917 and 1564 respectively if The Simpsons Movie is counted as well.\n\n\n== Guest stars ==\nThe color of the season number in the first column corresponds to the color of that season's DVD boxset or digital purchase image for the seasons which have not been released in physical format.\nIn the No. column:\nThe first number refers to the order it aired during the entire series.\nThe second number refers to the episode number within its season: i.e. 1506 would be the sixth episode of the fifteenth season.\nThe production code refers to the code assigned to the episode by the production team. The first two characters refer to the season the episode was made for. The first season is 7Gxx, the second is 7Fxx, the third is 8Fxx and the fourth is 9Fxx. After that, the fifth season started with 1F and continued in order until season nine (which was 5F). Starting with season ten, the production codes started with AABF, with the first letter changing for each season (i.e. BABF, CABF, etc.). The number at the end of the code is the order in which that episode was produced during that production run.\nGuests with \"(archival)\" after their names refer to cases where roles were not recorded specifically for the episode, but instead archival audio and/or footage from independent sources was used in the episode. In most cases these appearances have been uncredited and are usually not considered as proper guest stars given the circumstances.\n\n\n== Upcoming scheduled guest stars ==\nThe following have been announced as guest stars for upcoming episodes that have not yet aired. This however is subject to change as sometimes in the past announced guest stars have had their appearances cut for time, been removed or replaced, or for some other reason have not appeared in the final episode.\n\nAdditionally, the staff have written a part in mind for Dwayne \"The Rock\" Johnson. According to Al Jean there is the introduction of a character who was born deaf played \"by an actor who is appropriate\" in an upcoming episode.\n\n\n== Guest stars with multiple appearances ==\nThe following people have guest starred on the show twice or more.\n 1 Indicates the figure includes an appearance in The Simpsons Movie\n 2 Indicates the figure includes an appearance in the Butterfingers commercials\n 3 Indicates the figure includes an appearance in \"Do the Bartman\" music video\n 4 Indicates the figure includes an appearance in a The Simpsons Game\n 5 Indicates the figure includes an appearance in \"The Simpsons Ride\"\n 6 Indicates the figure includes an uncredited appearance\n 7 Indicates the figure dictates appearances as a recurring guest star up until joining the regular supporting cast\n\n\n== Other media ==\nBeyond the television series and the movie, there have been other media products of The Simpsons where guest stars have provided vocal talents in addition to the regular cast. From music videos, to video games, commercials and theme park rides, the following guest stars have appeared in various Simpsons-related media.\n\n\n== Guest animators ==\nThe show has also had several guest animators who will do their own version of the show's opening credits, from just a couch gag to the whole introduction. Starting from the 22nd season, these following guest animators have contributed to the show:\n\n\n== Potential guest stars that didn't happen ==\n\n\n== Notes ==\n\n\n== Citations ==\n\n\n== References ==\nOfficial episode guide at the Fox website The Simpsons.com. Retrieved March 26, 2012.\nSeason 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25\nBates, James W.; Gimple, Scott M.; McCann, Jesse L.; Richmond, Ray; Seghers, Christine, eds. (2010). Simpsons World The Ultimate Episode Guide: Seasons 1–20 (1st ed.). Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-00-738815-8.\nTurner, Chris (2004). Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation. Foreword by Douglas Coupland. (1st ed.). Toronto: Random House Canada. ISBN 978-0-679-31318-2. OCLC 55682258.\n\n\n== External links ==\nGuest star list at the Internet Movie Database",
"Allison Beth \"Allie\" Goertz (born March 2, 1991) is an American comedy musician, writer and former editor for Mad magazine. Goertz is known for her satirical songs based on various pop culture topics. Her videos were originally posted on YouTube under the name of \"Cossbysweater\", which has been changed to simply \"Allie Goertz.\"\n\n\n== Career ==\nIn December 2015, Goertz released a concept album based on the Adult Swim series Rick and Morty, Sad Dance Songs, with the album's cover emulating the animation and logo of the series. The album was made possible through Kickstarter. She is co-host, along with Julia Prescott, of the Everything's Coming Up Simpsons podcast (formerly known as Everything's Coming Up Podcast), a Simpsons-focused podcast.\nSubjects of her songs have included the film The Room, the character Milhouse from the television show The Simpsons, and the game Dungeons & Dragons. Her style has been compared to that of Bo Burnham.\n\n\n== Affiliations and memberships ==\nGoertz has served as a social media producer for shows including @midnight for Comedy Central. In 2018, Goertz became an editor at Mad magazine, leaving in June 2019, midway through production of issue #9.\n\n\n== Personal life ==\nGoertz grew up in Long Beach, California, the daughter of an elementary school teacher mother and a web graphic designer father.\n\n\n== In popular culture ==\nThe band Nerf Herder released a song entitled \"Allie Goertz\" on their 2016 album Rockingham.\n\n\n== References ==\n\n\n== External links ==\nOfficial website \nAllie Goertz at IMDb",
"Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character and one of the main characters of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short \"Good Night\" on April 19, 1987. Homer was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called to pitch a series of shorts based on his comic strip Life in Hell but instead decided to create a new set of characters. He named the character after his father, Homer Groening. After appearing for three seasons on The Tracey Ullman Show, the Simpson family got their own series on Fox, which debuted December 17, 1989. The show was later acquired by Disney in 2019.\nAs patriarch of the eponymous family, Homer and his wife Marge have three children: Bart, Lisa and Maggie. As the family's provider, he works at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant as safety inspector. Homer embodies many American working class stereotypes: he is obese, immature, outspoken, aggressive, balding, lazy, ignorant, unprofessional, and addicted to beer, junk food and watching television. However, he is fundamentally a good man and is staunchly protective of his family, especially when they need him the most. Despite the suburban blue-collar routine of his life, he has had a number of remarkable experiences, including going to space, climbing the tallest mountain in Springfield by himself, fighting former President George H. W. Bush and winning a Grammy Award as a member of a barbershop quartet.\nIn the shorts and earlier episodes, Castellaneta voiced Homer with a loose impression of Walter Matthau; however, during the second and third seasons of the half-hour show, Homer's voice evolved to become more robust, to allow the expression of a fuller range of emotions. He has appeared in other media relating to The Simpsons—including video games, The Simpsons Movie, The Simpsons Ride, commercials, and comic books—and inspired an entire line of merchandise. His signature catchphrase, the annoyed grunt \"D'oh!\", has been included in The New Oxford Dictionary of English since 1998 and the Oxford English Dictionary since 2001.\nHomer is one of the most influential characters in the history of television, and is widely considered to be an American cultural icon. The British newspaper The Sunday Times described him as \"The greatest comic creation of [modern] time\". He was named the greatest character \"of the last 20 years\" in 2010 by Entertainment Weekly, was ranked the second-greatest cartoon character by TV Guide, behind Bugs Bunny, and was voted the greatest television character of all time by Channel 4 viewers. For voicing Homer, Castellaneta has won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance and a special-achievement Annie Award. In 2000, Homer and his family were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.\n\n\n== Role in The Simpsons ==\nHomer Jay Simpson is the bumbling husband of Marge, and father to Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson. He is the son of Mona and Abraham \"Grampa\" Simpson. Homer held over 188 different jobs in the first 400 episodes of The Simpsons. In most episodes, he works as the nuclear safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant (in Sector 7-G), a position which he has held since \"Homer's Odyssey\", the third episode of the series, despite the fact that he is totally unsuitable for it. At the nuclear plant, Homer is often ignored and completely forgotten by his boss Mr. Burns, and he constantly falls asleep and neglects his duties. Matt Groening has stated that he decided to have Homer work at the power plant because of the potential for Homer to wreak severe havoc. Each of his other jobs has lasted only one episode. In the first half of the series, the writers developed an explanation about how he got fired from the plant and was then rehired in every episode. In later episodes, he often began a new job on impulse, without any mention of his regular employment.The Simpsons uses a floating timeline in which the characters never physically age, and, as such, the show is generally assumed to be always set in the current year. Nevertheless, in several episodes, events in Homer's life have been linked to specific time periods. \"Mother Simpson\" (season seven, 1995) depicts Homer's mother, Mona, as a radical who went into hiding in 1969 following a run-in with the law; \"The Way We Was\" (season two, 1991) shows Homer falling in love with Marge Bouvier as a senior at Springfield High School in 1974; and \"I Married Marge\" (season three, 1991) implies that Marge became pregnant with Bart in 1980. However, the episode \"That '90s Show\" (season 19, 2008) contradicted much of this backstory, portraying Homer and Marge as a twentysomething childless couple in the early 1990s.Due to the floating timeline, Homer's age has changed occasionally as the series developed; he was 34 in the early episodes, 36 in season four, 38 and 39 in season eight, and 40 in the eighteenth season, although even in those seasons his age is inconsistent. In the fourth season episode \"Duffless\", Homer's drivers license shows his birthdate of being May 12, 1956, which would have made him 36 years old at the time of the episode. During Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein's period as showrunners, they found that as they aged, Homer seemed to become older too, so they increased his age to 38. His height is 6' (1.83 m).\n\n\n== Character ==\n\n\n=== Creation ===\nNaming the characters after members of his own family, Groening named Homer after his father, who himself had been named after the ancient Greek poet of the same name. Very little else of Homer's character was based on him, and to prove that the meaning behind Homer's name was not significant, Groening later named his own son Homer. According to Groening, \"Homer originated with my goal to both amuse my real father, and just annoy him a little bit. My father was an athletic, creative, intelligent filmmaker and writer, and the only thing he had in common with Homer was a love of donuts.\" Although Groening has stated in several interviews that Homer was named after his father, he also claimed in several 1990 interviews that a character in the 1939 Nathanael West novel The Day of the Locust was the inspiration for naming Homer. Homer's middle initial \"J\", which stands for \"Jay\", is a \"tribute\" to animated characters such as Bullwinkle J. Moose and Rocket J. Squirrel from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, who got their middle initial from Jay Ward.Homer made his debut with the rest of the Simpson family on April 19, 1987, in The Tracey Ullman Show short \"Good Night\". In 1989, the shorts were adapted into The Simpsons, a half-hour series airing on the Fox Broadcasting Company. Homer and the Simpson family remained the main characters on this new show.\n\n\n=== Design ===\nAs currently depicted in the series, Homer's everyday clothing consists of a white shirt with short sleeves and open collar, blue pants, and gray shoes. He is overweight and bald, except for a fringe of hair around the back and sides of his head and two curling hairs on top, and his face always sports a growth of beard stubble that instantly regrows whenever he shaves.\n\nThe entire Simpson family was designed so that they would be recognizable in silhouette. The family was crudely drawn because Groening had submitted basic sketches to the animators, assuming they would clean them up; instead, they just traced over his drawings. By coincidence or not, Homer's look bears a resemblance to the cartoon character Adamsson, created by Swedish cartoonist Oscar Jacobsson in 1920. Homer's physical features are generally not used in other characters; for example, in the later seasons, no characters other than Homer, Grampa Simpson, Lenny Leonard, and Krusty the Clown have a similar beard line. When Groening originally designed Homer, he put his initials into the character's hairline and ear: the hairline resembled an 'M', and the right ear resembled a 'G'. Groening decided that this would be too distracting and redesigned the ear to look normal. However, he still draws the ear as a 'G' when he draws pictures of Homer for fans. The basic shape of Homer's head is described by director Mark Kirkland as a tube-shaped coffee can with a salad bowl on top. During the shorts, the animators experimented with the way Homer would move his mouth when talking. At one point, his mouth would stretch out back \"beyond his beardline\"; but this was dropped when it got \"out of control.\" In some early episodes, Homer's hair was rounded rather than sharply pointed because animation director Wes Archer felt it should look disheveled. Homer's hair evolved to be consistently pointed. During the first three seasons, Homer's design for some close-up shots included small lines which were meant to be eyebrows. Groening strongly disliked them and they were eventually dropped.In the season seven (1995) episode \"Treehouse of Horror VI\", Homer was computer animated into a three-dimensional character for the first time for the \"Homer3\" segment of the episode. The computer animation directors at Pacific Data Images worked hard not to \"reinvent the character\". In the final minute of the segment, the 3D Homer ends up in a real world, live-action Los Angeles. The scene was directed by David Mirkin and was the first time a Simpsons character had been in the real world in the series. Because \"Lisa's Wedding\" (season six, 1995) is set fifteen years in the future, Homer's design was altered to make him older in the episode. He is heavier; one of the hairs on top of his head was removed; and an extra line was placed under the eye. A similar design has been used in subsequent flashforwards.\n\n\n=== Voice ===\n\nHomer's voice is performed by Dan Castellaneta, who voices numerous other characters, including Grampa Simpson, Krusty the Clown, Barney Gumble, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby and Hans Moleman. Castellaneta had been part of the regular cast of The Tracey Ullman Show and had previously done some voice-over work in Chicago alongside his wife Deb Lacusta. Voices were needed for the Simpsons shorts, so the producers decided to ask Castellaneta and fellow cast member Julie Kavner to voice Homer and Marge rather than hire more actors. In the shorts and first season of the half-hour show, Homer's voice is different from the majority of the series. The voice began as a loose impression of Walter Matthau, but Castellaneta could not \"get enough power behind that voice\", or sustain his Matthau impression for the nine- to ten-hour-long recording sessions, and had to find something easier. During the second and third seasons of the half-hour show, Castellaneta \"dropped the voice down\" and developed it as more versatile and humorous, allowing Homer a fuller range of emotions.Castellaneta's normal speaking voice does not bear any resemblance to Homer's. To perform Homer's voice, Castellaneta lowers his chin to his chest and is said to \"let his I.Q. go\". While in this state, he has ad-libbed several of Homer's least intelligent comments, such as the line \"S-M-R-T; I mean, S-M-A-R-T!\" from \"Homer Goes to College\" (season five, 1993) which was a genuine mistake made by Castellaneta during recording. Castellaneta likes to stay in character during recording sessions, and he tries to visualize a scene so that he can give the proper voice to it. Despite Homer's fame, Castellaneta claims he is rarely recognized in public, \"except, maybe, by a die-hard fan\".\"Homer's Barbershop Quartet\" (season five, 1993) is the only episode where Homer's voice was provided by someone other than Castellaneta. The episode features Homer forming a barbershop quartet called The Be Sharps; and, at some points, his singing voice is provided by a member of The Dapper Dans. The Dapper Dans had recorded the singing parts for all four members of The Be Sharps. Their singing was intermixed with the normal voice actors' voices, often with a regular voice actor singing the melody and the Dapper Dans providing backup.Until 1998, Castellaneta was paid $30,000 per episode. During a pay dispute in 1998, Fox threatened to replace the six main voice actors with new actors, going as far as preparing for casting of new voices. However, the dispute was soon resolved and he received $125,000 per episode until 2004 when the voice actors demanded that they be paid $360,000 an episode. The issue was resolved a month later, and Castellaneta earned $250,000 per episode. After salary re-negotiations in 2008, the voice actors receive approximately $400,000 per episode. Three years later, with Fox threatening to cancel the series unless production costs were cut, Castellaneta and the other cast members accepted a 30 percent pay cut, down to just over $300,000 per episode.\n\n\n=== Character development ===\nExecutive producer Al Jean notes that in The Simpsons' writing room, \"everyone loves writing for Homer\", and many of his adventures are based on experiences of the writers. In the early seasons of the show, Bart was the main focus. But, around the fourth season, Homer became more of the focus. According to Matt Groening, this was because \"With Homer, there's just a wider range of jokes you can do. And there are far more drastic consequences to Homer's stupidity. There's only so far you can go with a juvenile delinquent. We wanted Bart to do anything up to the point of him being tried in court as a dad. But Homer is a dad, and his boneheaded-ness is funnier. [...] Homer is launching himself headfirst into every single impulsive thought that occurs to him.\"Homer's behavior has changed a number of times through the run of the series. He was originally \"very angry\" and oppressive toward Bart, but these characteristics were toned down somewhat as his persona was further explored. In early seasons, Homer appeared concerned that his family was going to make him look bad; however, in later episodes he was less anxious about how he was perceived by others. In the first several years, Homer was often portrayed as dumb yet well-meaning, but during Mike Scully's tenure as executive producer (seasons nine, 1997 to twelve, 2001), he became more of \"a boorish, self-aggrandizing oaf\". Chris Suellentrop of Slate wrote, \"under Scully's tenure, The Simpsons became, well, a cartoon. ... Episodes that once would have ended with Homer and Marge bicycling into the sunset... now end with Homer blowing a tranquilizer dart into Marge's neck.\" Fans have dubbed this incarnation of the character \"Jerkass Homer\". At voice recording sessions, Castellaneta has rejected material written in the script that portrayed Homer as being too mean. He believes that Homer is \"boorish and unthinking, but he'd never be mean on purpose.\" When editing The Simpsons Movie, several scenes were changed to make Homer more sympathetic.The writers have depicted Homer with a declining intelligence over the years; they explain this was not done intentionally, but it was necessary to top previous jokes. For example, in \"When You Dish Upon a Star\", (season 10, 1998) the writers included a scene where Homer admits that he cannot read. The writers debated including this plot twist because it would contradict previous scenes in which Homer does read, but eventually they decided to keep the joke because they found it humorous. The writers often debate how far to go in portraying Homer's stupidity; one suggested rule is that \"he can never forget his own name\".\n\n\n=== Personality ===\nThe comic efficacy of Homer's personality lies in his frequent bouts of bumbling stupidity, laziness and his explosive anger. He has a low intelligence level and is described by director David Silverman as \"creatively brilliant in his stupidity\". Homer also shows immense apathy towards work, is overweight, and \"is devoted to his stomach\". His short attention span is evidenced by his impulsive decisions to engage in various hobbies and enterprises, only to \"change ... his mind when things go badly\". Homer often spends his evenings drinking Duff Beer at Moe's Tavern, and was shown in the episode \"Duffless\" (season four, 1993) as a full-blown alcoholic. He is very envious of his neighbors, Ned Flanders and his family, and is easily enraged by Bart. Homer will often strangle Bart on impulse upon Bart angering him (and can also be seen saying one of his catchphrases, \"Why you little—!\") in a cartoonish manner. The first instance of Homer strangling Bart was in the short \"Family Portrait\". According to Groening, the rule was that Homer could only strangle Bart impulsively, never with premeditation, because doing so \"seems sadistic. If we keep it that he's ruled by his impulses, then he can easily switch impulses. So, even though he impulsively wants to strangle Bart, he also gives up fairly easily.\" Another of the original ideas entertained by Groening was that Homer would \"always get his comeuppance or Bart had to strangle him back\", but this was dropped. Homer shows no compunction about expressing his rage, and does not attempt to hide his actions from people outside the family.\n\nHomer has complex relationships with his family. As previously noted, he and Bart are the most at odds; but the two commonly share adventures and are sometimes allies, with some episodes (particularly in later seasons) showing that the pair have a strange respect for each other's cunning. Homer and Lisa have opposite personalities and he usually overlooks Lisa's talents, but when made aware of his neglect, does everything he can to help her. The show also occasionally implies Homer forgets he has a third child, Maggie; while the episode \"And Maggie Makes Three\" suggests she is the chief reason Homer took and remains at his regular job (season six, 1995). While Homer's thoughtless antics often upset his family, he on many occasions has also revealed himself to be a caring and loving father and husband: in \"Lisa the Beauty Queen\", (season four, 1992) he sold his cherished ride on the Duff blimp and used the money to enter Lisa in a beauty pageant so she could feel better about herself; in \"Rosebud\", (season five, 1993) he gave up his chance at wealth to allow Maggie to keep a cherished teddy bear; in \"Radio Bart\", (season three, 1992) he spearheads an attempt to dig Bart out after he had fallen down a well; in \"A Milhouse Divided\", (season eight, 1996) he arranges a surprise second wedding with Marge to make up for their unsatisfactory first ceremony; and despite a poor relationship with his father Abraham \"Grampa\" Simpson, whom he placed in a nursing home as soon as he could while the Simpson family often do their best to avoid unnecessary contact with Grampa, Homer has shown feelings of love for his father from time to time.Homer is \"a (happy) slave to his various appetites\". He has an apparently vacuous mind, but occasionally exhibits a surprising depth of knowledge about various subjects, such as the composition of the Supreme Court of the United States, Inca mythology, bankruptcy law, and cell biology. Homer's brief periods of intelligence are overshadowed, however, by much longer and consistent periods of ignorance, forgetfulness, and stupidity. Homer has a low IQ of 55, which would actually make him unable to speak or perform basic tasks, and has variously been attributed to the hereditary \"Simpson Gene\" (which eventually causes every male member of the family to become incredibly stupid), his alcohol problem, exposure to radioactive waste, repetitive cranial trauma, and a crayon lodged in the frontal lobe of his brain. In the 2001 episode \"HOMR\", Homer has the crayon removed, boosting his IQ to 105; although he bonds with Lisa, his newfound capacity for understanding and reason makes him unhappy, and he has the crayon reinserted. Homer often debates with his own mind, expressed in voiceover. His mind has a tendency to offer dubious advice, which occasionally helps him make the right decision, but often fails spectacularly. His mind has even become completely frustrated and, through sound effects, walked out on Homer. These exchanges were often introduced because they filled time and were easy for the animators to work on. They were phased out after the producers \"used every possible permutation\".Producer Mike Reiss said Homer was his favorite Simpsons character to write: \"Homer's just a comedy writer's dream. He has everything wrong with him, every comedy trope. He's fat and bald and stupid and lazy and angry and an alcoholic. I'm pretty sure he embodies all seven deadly sins.\" John Swartzwelder, who wrote 60 episodes, said he wrote Homer as if he were \"a big talking dog ... One moment he's the saddest man in the world, because he's just lost his job, or dropped his sandwich, or accidentally killed his family. Then, the next moment, he's the happiest man in the world, because he's just found a penny — maybe under one of his dead family members ... If you write him as a dog you'll never go wrong.\" Reiss felt this was insightful, saying: \"Homer is just pure emotion, no long-term memory, everything is instant gratification. And, you know, has good dog qualities, too. I think, loyalty, friendliness, and just kind of continuous optimism.\"\n\n\n== Reception ==\n\n\n=== Commendations ===\n\nHomer's influence on comedy and culture has been significant. In 2010, Entertainment Weekly named Homer \"the greatest character of the last 20 years\". He was placed second on TV Guide's 2002 Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters, behind Bugs Bunny; fifth on Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters, one of only four cartoon characters on that list; and first in a Channel 4 poll of the greatest television characters of all time. In 2007, Entertainment Weekly placed Homer ninth on their list of the \"50 Greatest TV icons\" and first on their 2010 list of the \"Top 100 Characters of the Past Twenty Years\". Homer was also the runaway winner in British polls that determined who viewers thought was the \"greatest American\" and which fictional character people would like to see become the President of the United States. His relationship with Marge was included in TV Guide's list of \"The Best TV Couples of All Time\".Dan Castellaneta has won several awards for voicing Homer, including four Primetime Emmy Awards for \"Outstanding Voice-Over Performance\" in 1992 for \"Lisa's Pony\", 1993 for \"Mr. Plow\", in 2004 for \"Today I Am a Clown\", and in 2009 for \"Father Knows Worst\". However, in the case of \"Today I Am a Clown\", it was for voicing \"various characters\" and not solely for Homer. In 2010, Castellaneta received a fifth Emmy nomination for voicing Homer and Grampa in the episode \"Thursdays with Abie\". In 1993, Castellaneta was given a special Annie Award, \"Outstanding Individual Achievement in the Field of Animation\", for his work as Homer on The Simpsons. In 2004, Castellaneta and Julie Kavner (the voice of Marge) won a Young Artist Award for \"Most Popular Mom & Dad in a TV Series\". In 2005, Homer and Marge were nominated for a Teen Choice Award for \"Choice TV Parental Units\". Various episodes in which Homer is strongly featured have won Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program, including \"Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment\" in 1991, \"Lisa's Wedding\" in 1995, \"Homer's Phobia\" in 1997, \"Trash of the Titans\" in 1998, \"HOMR\" in 2001, \"Three Gays of the Condo\" in 2003 and \"Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind\" in 2008. In 2000, Homer and the rest of the Simpson family were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard. In 2017, Homer Simpson was celebrated by the National Baseball Hall of Fame, to honor the 25th anniversary of the episode \"Homer at the Bat\".\n\n\n=== Analysis ===\nHomer is an \"everyman\" and embodies several American stereotypes of working class blue-collar men: he is crude, overweight, incompetent, dim-witted, childish, clumsy and a borderline alcoholic. Matt Groening describes him as \"completely ruled by his impulses\". Dan Castellaneta calls him \"a dog trapped in a man's body\", adding, \"He's incredibly loyal – not entirely clean – but you gotta love him.\" In his book Planet Simpson, author Chris Turner describes Homer as \"the most American of the Simpsons\" and believes that while the other Simpson family members could be changed to other nationalities, Homer is \"pure American\". In the book God in the Details: American Religion in Popular Culture, the authors comment that \"Homer's progress (or lack thereof) reveals a character who can do the right thing, if accidentally or begrudgingly.\" The book The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer includes a chapter analyzing Homer's character from the perspective of Aristotelian virtue ethics. Raja Halwani writes that Homer's \"love of life\" is an admirable character trait, \"for many people are tempted to see in Homer nothing but buffoonery and immorality. ... He is not politically correct, he is more than happy to judge others, and he certainly does not seem to be obsessed with his health. These qualities might not make Homer an admirable person, but they do make him admirable in some ways, and, more importantly, makes us crave him and the Homer Simpsons of this world.\" In 2008, Entertainment Weekly justified designating The Simpsons as a television classic by stating, \"we all hail Simpson patriarch Homer because his joy is as palpable as his stupidity is stunning\".In the season eight episode \"Homer's Enemy\" the writers decided to examine \"what it would be like to actually work alongside Homer Simpson\". The episode explores the possibilities of a realistic character with a strong work ethic named Frank Grimes placed alongside Homer in a work environment. In the episode, Homer is portrayed as an everyman and the embodiment of the American spirit; however, in some scenes his negative characteristics and silliness are prominently highlighted. By the end of the episode, Grimes, a hard working and persevering \"real American hero\", has become the villain; the viewer is intended to be pleased that Homer has emerged victorious.In Gilligan Unbound, author Paul Arthur Cantor states that he believes Homer's devotion to his family has added to the popularity of the character. He writes, \"Homer is the distillation of pure fatherhood. ... This is why, for all his stupidity, bigotry and self-centered quality, we cannot hate Homer. He continually fails at being a good father, but he never gives up trying, and in some basic and important sense that makes him a good father.\" The Sunday Times remarked \"Homer is good because, above all, he is capable of great love. When the chips are down, he always does the right thing by his children—he is never unfaithful in spite of several opportunities.\"\n\n\n== Cultural influence ==\nHomer Simpson is one of the most popular and influential television characters by a variety of standards. USA Today cited the character as being one of the \"top 25 most influential people of the past 25 years\" in 2007, adding that Homer \"epitomized the irony and irreverence at the core of American humor\". Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University's Center for the Study of Popular Television, believes that \"three centuries from now, English professors are going to be regarding Homer Simpson as one of the greatest creations in human storytelling.\" Animation historian Jerry Beck described Homer as one of the best animated characters, saying, \"you know someone like it, or you identify with (it). That's really the key to a classic character.\" Homer has been described by The Sunday Times as \"the greatest comic creation of [modern] time\". The article remarked, \"every age needs its great, consoling failure, its lovable, pretension-free mediocrity. And we have ours in Homer Simpson.\"Despite Homer's partial embodiment of American culture, his influence has spread to other parts of the world. In 2003, Matt Groening revealed that his father, after whom Homer was named, was Canadian, and said that this made Homer himself a Canadian. The character was later made an honorary citizen of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, because Homer Groening was believed to be from there, although sources say the senior Groening was actually born in the province of Saskatchewan. In 2007, an image of Homer was painted next to the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset, England as part of a promotion for The Simpsons Movie. This caused outrage among local neopagans who performed \"rain magic\" to try to get it washed away. In 2008, a defaced Spanish euro coin was found in Avilés, Spain with the face of Homer replacing the effigy of King Juan Carlos I.On April 9, 2009, the United States Postal Service unveiled a series of five 44-cent stamps featuring Homer and the four other members of the Simpson family. They are the first characters from a television series to receive this recognition while the show is still in production. The stamps, designed by Matt Groening, were made available for purchase on May 7, 2009.Homer has appeared, voiced by Castellaneta, in several other television shows, including the sixth season of American Idol where he opened the show; The Tonight Show with Jay Leno where he performed a special animated opening monologue for the July 24, 2007, edition; and the 2008 fundraising television special Stand Up to Cancer where he was shown having a colonoscopy.On February 28, 1999, Homer Simpson was made an honorary member of the Junior Common Room of Worcester College, Oxford. Homer was granted the membership by the college's undergraduate body in the belief that ″he would benefit greatly from an Oxford education″.Homer has also been cited in the scientific literature, in relation to low intelligence or cognitive abilities. A 2010 study from the Emory university showed that the RGS14 gene appeared to be impairing the development of cognitive abilities in mice (or, rather, that mice with a disabled RGS14 gene improved their cognitive abilities), prompting the authors to dub it the \"Homer Simpson gene\".\n\n\n=== D'oh! ===\n\nHomer's main and most famous catchphrase, the annoyed grunt \"D'oh!\", is typically uttered when he injures himself, realizes that he has done something stupid, or when something bad has happened or is about to happen to him. During the voice recording session for a Tracey Ullman Show short, Homer was required to utter what was written in the script as an \"annoyed grunt\". Dan Castellaneta rendered it as a drawn out \"d'ooooooh\". This was inspired by Jimmy Finlayson, the mustachioed Scottish actor who appeared in 33 Laurel and Hardy films. Finlayson had used the term as a minced oath to stand in for the word \"Damn!\" Matt Groening felt that it would better suit the timing of animation if it were spoken faster. Castellaneta then shortened it to a quickly uttered \"D'oh!\" The first intentional use of D'oh! occurred in the Ullman short \"The Krusty the Clown Show\" (1989), and its first usage in the series was in the series premiere, \"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire\".\"D'oh!\" was first added to The New Oxford Dictionary of English in 1998. It is defined as an interjection \"used to comment on an action perceived as foolish or stupid\". In 2001, \"D'oh!\" was added to the Oxford English Dictionary, without the apostrophe (\"Doh!\"). The definition of the word is \"expressing frustration at the realization that things have turned out badly or not as planned, or that one has just said or done something foolish\". In 2006, \"D'oh!\" was placed in sixth position on TV Land's list of the 100 greatest television catchphrases. \"D'oh!\" is also included in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. The book includes several other quotations from Homer, including \"Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is never try\", from \"Burns' Heir\" (season five, 1994) as well as \"Kids are the best, Apu. You can teach them to hate the things you hate. And they practically raise themselves, what with the Internet and all\", from \"Eight Misbehavin'\" (season 11, 1999). Both quotes entered the dictionary in August 2007.\n\n\n=== Merchandising ===\nHomer's inclusion in many Simpsons publications, toys, and other merchandise is evidence of his enduring popularity. The Homer Book, about Homer's personality and attributes, was released in 2004 and is commercially available. It has been described as \"an entertaining little book for occasional reading\" and was listed as one of \"the most interesting books of 2004\" by The Chattanoogan. Other merchandise includes dolls, posters, figurines, bobblehead dolls, mugs, alarm clocks, jigsaw puzzles, Chia Pets, and clothing such as slippers, T-shirts, baseball caps, and boxer shorts. Homer has appeared in commercials for Coke, 1-800-COLLECT, Burger King, Butterfinger, C.C. Lemon, Church's Chicken, Domino's Pizza, Intel, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Ramada Inn, Subway and T.G.I. Friday's. In 2004, Homer starred in a MasterCard Priceless commercial that aired during Super Bowl XXXVIII. In 2001, Kelloggs launched a brand of cereal called \"Homer's Cinnamon Donut Cereal\", which was available for a limited time. In June 2009, Dutch automotive navigation systems manufacturer TomTom announced that Homer would be added to its downloadable GPS voice lineup. Homer's voice, recorded by Dan Castellaneta, features several in-character comments such as \"Take the third right. We might find an ice cream truck! Mmm... ice cream.\"Homer has appeared in other media relating to The Simpsons. He has appeared in every one of The Simpsons video games, including the most recent, The Simpsons Game. Homer appears as a playable character in the toys-to-life video game Lego Dimensions, released via a \"Level Pack\" packaged with Homer's Car and \"Taunt-o-Vision\" accessories in September 2015; the pack also adds an additional level based on the episode \"The Mysterious Voyage of Homer\". Alongside the television series, Homer regularly appeared in issues of Simpsons Comics, which were published from November 29, 1993, until October 17, 2018. Homer also plays a role in The Simpsons Ride, launched in 2008 at Universal Studios Florida and Hollywood.\n\n\n== References ==\n\n\n=== Citations ===\n\n\n=== Sources ===\nGroening, Matt (1997). Richmond, Ray; Coffman, Antonia (eds.). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family (1st ed.). New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 978-0-06-095252-5. LCCN 98141857. OCLC 37796735. OL 433519M.\nHalwani, Raja (1999). \"Homer and Aristotle\". In Irwin, William; Conrad, Mark T.; Skoble, Aeon (eds.). The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer. Chicago, Illinois: Open Court. ISBN 978-0-8126-9433-8.\nReiss, Mike; Klickstein, Mathew (2018). Springfield confidential: jokes, secrets, and outright lies from a lifetime writing for the Simpsons. New York City: Dey Street Books. ISBN 978-0062748034.\nTurner, Chris (2004). Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation. Foreword by Douglas Coupland. (1st ed.). Toronto: Random House Canada. ISBN 978-0-679-31318-2. OCLC 55682258.\n\n\n== Further reading ==\nAlberti, John, ed. (2003). Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8143-2849-1.\nBrown, Alan; Logan, Chris (2006). The Psychology of The Simpsons. BenBella Books. ISBN 978-1-932100-70-9.\nFink, Moritz (2019). The Simpsons: A Cultural History. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-5381-1616-6.\nGroening, Matt (2005). The Homer Book. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-111661-2.\nGroening, Matt (1991). The Simpsons Uncensored Family Album. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-096582-2.\nPinsky, Mark I (2004). The Gospel According to The Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World's Most Animated Family. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-22419-6.\n\n\n== External links ==\n Media related to Homer Simpson at Wikimedia Commons\nHomer Simpson on IMDb",
"The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History is a non-fiction book about the American animated television series The Simpsons. It was written by John Ortved, and first published in October 2009 by Faber and Faber. In the United Kingdom, the book is called Simpsons Confidential: The uncensored, totally unauthorised history of the world's greatest TV show by the people that made it. The book is an oral history of the show, and concentrates particularly on the writers and producers of the show. The book includes entire chapters devoted to key figures such as creator Matt Groening and James L. Brooks and Sam Simon, who helped develop the series. According to National Public Radio reviewer Linda Holmes, \"Ortved's thesis, essentially, is that lots of people are responsible for the success of The Simpsons, and their creator, Matt Groening, has too often been viewed as the sole source to the detriment of others who also deserve to be praised.\"In 2007, John Ortved wrote an article for Vanity Fair titled \"Simpson Family Values\". Producers of the show, including Groening, Brooks and Simon, chose not to cooperate in the project. Ortved believes that the reason was because \"were upset [that] the myth of The Simpsons would be challenged.\" Shortly after the article was published, an agent suggested that Ortved write a full book. The producers again decided not to participate, and, according to Ortved, Brooks asked current and former Simpsons employees not to talk to Ortved. However, the book does include portions of interviews that several figures did with other sources. Ortved did interview a number of sources for the book, including Hank Azaria, a cast member of the show since the second season, Fox Broadcasting Company owner Rupert Murdoch and former writer Conan O'Brien.\nReviews of the book were mostly positive, with most reviewers commenting that the book was well researched and provided a solid history of the show. A few critics felt that the final chapters, in which Ortved gives his opinion of the current state of the show, were out of place and did not fit in with the rest of the book.\n\n\n== Background ==\nIn 2007, John Ortved wrote an article for Vanity Fair titled \"Simpson Family Values\". It was an oral history of The Simpsons, featuring interviews with several of the crew and cast members. According to Ortved, the producers of The Simpsons decided not to cooperate and be interviewed for the project because they had heard that he was asking questions about Sam Simon. Simon, one of the first executive producers of the show, had left after the fourth season after clashing with creator Matt Groening and executive producer James L. Brooks. Ortved believes that the producers \"were upset [that] the myth of The Simpsons would be challenged.\" He still wrote the story, without the approval of the Simpsons producers.Shortly after the article was published, an agent suggested that Ortved write a full book. They put together a proposal and shopped it to several publishers, before being signed by Faber and Faber. According to Ortved, \"When word of this got out, Brooks sent a letter to every current Simpsons employee, and all the former ones he thought mattered, asking them not to speak to me. The writers’ agents sent denial after denial for interview requests and eventually stopped responding altogether.\" He added, \"There was one 'D'oh!' in James L. Brooks and the Gracie Films master plan: Many people don’t like James L. Brooks. [...] The book I ended up writing quotes more than 75 sources—some of them Simpsons staffers, former and current, who opened up because they considered his and Matt Groening’s attempt to stomp on my project very 'un-Simpsons.'\"Ortved decided to write the book as an oral history because he found that every person interviewed had a different perspective on the events. His decision was \"reinforced\" when he found out that the producers of the show would not cooperate.\n\n\n== Content ==\n\nAccording to National Public Radio reviewer Linda Holmes, \"Ortved's thesis, essentially, is that lots of people are responsible for the success of The Simpsons, and their creator, Matt Groening, has too often been viewed as the sole source to the detriment of others who also deserve to be praised.\" The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History is an oral history of the show, examining its beginnings, rise to success, impact on pop culture, as well as the people behind the show, including the animators, writers and producers. The content consists mostly of quotations from various figures, which are tied together by comments from Ortved. The book includes entire chapters devoted to key figures such as Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, Sam Simon and Conan O'Brien. The book's foreword was written by Canadian author Douglas Coupland. The final chapters of the book consist mostly of commentary from Ortved, in which he states that he believes that quality of the show has declined since its early years.\n\n\n=== Interviews ===\nOrtved interviewed a number of sources for the book, including main cast member Hank Azaria, former director Brad Bird, former supervising director Gábor Csupó and former writer O'Brien. Groening, Brooks and Simon refused to participate in the book, or be interviewed by Ortved. However, the book does include portions of interviews that they did with other sources. According to Ortved, most of the participants \"had stories to tell, or axes to grind,\" or are \"too successful to care.\" Research and interviews for both the book and Vanity Fair article were conducted between January 2007 and May 2008. Ortved commented that the person he most would have liked to interview was Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson. Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the Fox Broadcasting Company, agreed to be interviewed, and reportedly told Ortved \"Those creative types, they're always looking to pick a fight.\" He also interviewed figures such as Fox CEO Barry Diller and guest stars Ricky Gervais, Art Spiegelman and Tom Wolfe.\n\n\n== Reception ==\nReviews of the book were mostly positive. Linda Holmes of National Public Radio felt that \"most of Ortved's work provides a solid basic history.\" Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly gave the book a \"B+\", writing, \"you have to admire all the work that went into this unauthorized history.\" He noted that he \"felt a little bad afterward for the central players who got sucker punched. [...] The subsequent testimony about the empire Groening created is contentious and mesmerizing. It's also conflicting and compromised, since some of the biggest fishies of all did not talk to Ortved. [...] The reader should be wary when sources assert that Groening is little more than an affable frontman for the show or that Brooks sometimes wielded his power imperiously: The guys aren't there to defend themselves. In most cases, though, Ortved amasses quotes from many sources to establish such points, so the negative stuff doesn't seem gratuitous.\" Michael C. Lorah of Newsarama described the book as a \"very effective, very worthwhile read\" but felt that Ortved's \"editorializing\" was \"probably the most distracting element of the book.\" Michael Hingston of See Magazine called the book \"a well-told patchwork that shines formidable light on the show\" and gave it three and a half stars. However, he felt the book was released prematurely and should have been published after the end of the show, also criticizing Ortved's narration and the lack of quotes from Matt Groening or James L. Brooks. Kyle Ryan of The A.V. Club pointed out that the book has \"numerous factual errors\" that \"may only trip the alarms of hardcore fans, but even casual readers may be put off by the book's redundancy.\" He concluded that despite flaws, the \"insight into its routines and eccentric personalities can't help but fascinate.\"Ryan Bigge of The Toronto Star felt that Ortved's \"diligence and research is faultless, and [he] has worked hard to avoid writing another insider-y true-fans-only look at the show. Still, certain chunks of the book are unlikely to appeal to casual Simpsons viewers. [..] By mixing journalism about yellow people with a bit of yellow journalism, Ortved provides a tough, necessary look at Homer Simpson's odyssey that would make Kent Brockman proud.\"Bryan Appleyard of The Sunday Times criticized the format of the book, writing that it was \"alternately engrossing and infuriating book [...] It is infuriating because of a fatal structural decision taken by the author and/or his publisher to include long quotations from interviewees as breaks in the text. This destroys narrative coherence and, for much of the time, makes reading a chore.\" Appleyard concluded that it is \"an important and controversial contribution to the ever-expanding scope of Simpsons studies.\"Several critics felt that the final chapters, in which Ortved gives his opinion of the current state of the show, were out of place when compared with the rest of the book. Ken Tucker felt Ortved's \"complaints aren't original or illuminating.\" Linda Holmes wrote that \"After spending most of the book using actual reporting to flesh out the facts, Ortved largely turns the floor over to himself for the part of the book in which he describes the creative decline of the show and tries to figure out whose fault it is by not infrequently simply declaring, among other things, which episodes are good and which are bad, sometimes without explaining himself at all.\" Michael C. Lorah felt that Ortved's criticism of the later seasons was \"disconcerting\", noting that \"It's not that he's wrong, but it seems unnecessary and at times even petty when cast against his own fawning over the undeniably massive influence of the show on current pop culture and comedy.\"\n\n\n== Other editions ==\n\n\n== Notes ==\n\n\n== References ==\nOrtved, John (2009). The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History. Greystone Books. pp. 248–250. ISBN 978-1-55365-503-9.\n\n\n== External links ==\nAn Uncensored, Unauthorized History at Macmillan.com",
"Bartholomew JoJo \"Bart\" Simpson is a fictional character in the American animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short \"Good Night\" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening created and designed Bart while waiting in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called to pitch a series of shorts based on his comic strip, Life in Hell, but instead decided to create a new set of characters. While the rest of the characters were named after Groening's family members, Bart's name is an anagram of the word brat. After appearing on The Tracey Ullman Show for two years, the Simpson family received its own series on Fox, which debuted December 17, 1989. Bart has appeared in every Simpsons episode except \"Four Great Women and a Manicure\".\nAt ten years old, Bart is the eldest child and only son of Homer and Marge, and the brother of Lisa and Maggie. Bart's most prominent and popular character traits are his mischievousness, rebelliousness and disrespect for authority. Hallmarks of the character include his chalkboard gags in the opening sequence; his prank calls to Moe; and his catchphrases \"Eat my shorts\", \"¡Ay, caramba!\", \"Don't have a cow, man!\", and \"I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?\". However, with the exception of \"Ay, caramba!\", these hallmarks have been retired or are not often used. Bart has appeared in other media relating to The Simpsons – including video games, The Simpsons Movie, The Simpsons Ride, commercials, and comic books – and inspired an entire line of merchandise.\nIn casting, Cartwright originally planned to audition for the role of Lisa, while Yeardley Smith tried out for Bart. Smith's voice was too high for a boy, so she was given the role of Lisa. Cartwright found that Lisa was not interesting at the time, so instead auditioned for Bart, which she thought was a better role.During the first two seasons of The Simpsons, Bart was the show's breakout character and \"Bartmania\" ensued, spawning Bart Simpson-themed merchandise touting his rebellious attitude and pride at underachieving, which caused many parents and educators to cast him as a bad role model for children. Around the third season, the series started to focus more on the family as a whole, though Bart still remains a prominent character. Time named Bart one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century, and he was named \"entertainer of the year\" in 1990 by Entertainment Weekly. Cartwright has won several awards for voicing Bart, including a Primetime Emmy Award in 1992 and an Annie Award in 1995. In 2000, Bart, along with the rest of his family, was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.\n\n\n== Role in The Simpsons ==\nThe Simpsons uses a floating timeline in which the characters do not age or age very little, and as such, the show is always assumed to be set in the current year. In several episodes, events have been linked to specific times, though sometimes this timeline has been contradicted in subsequent episodes. Bart's year of birth was stated in \"I Married Marge\" (season three, 1991) as being in the early 1980s. In \"Simpsorama\" (season 26, 2014) Bart states his birthday as February 23. He lived with his parents in the Lower East Side of Springfield until the Simpsons bought their first house. When Lisa was born, Bart was at first jealous of the attention she received, but he soon warmed to her when he discovered that \"Bart\" was her first word. Bart's first day of school was in the early 1990s. His initial enthusiasm was crushed by an uncaring teacher and Marge became worried that something was truly wrong with Bart. One day during recess, Bart met Milhouse and started entertaining him and other students with various gestures and rude words. Principal Skinner told him \"you've just started school, and the path you choose now may be the one you follow for the rest of your life! Now, what do you say?\" In his moment of truth, Bart responded, \"eat my shorts\". The episode \"That '90s Show\" (season nineteen, 2008) contradicted much of the backstory's time frame; for example, it was revealed that Homer and Marge were childless in the early 1990s.Bart's hobbies include skateboarding, watching television (especially The Krusty the Clown Show which includes The Itchy & Scratchy Show), reading comic books (especially Radioactive Man), playing video games and generally causing mischief. His favorite movies are Jaws and the Star Wars Trilogy. For the duration of the series, Bart has attended Springfield Elementary School and has been in Edna Krabappel's fourth grade class. While he is too young to hold a full-time job, he has had occasional part-time jobs. He works as a bartender at Fat Tony's social club in \"Bart the Murderer\" (season three, 1991); as Krusty the Clown's assistant in \"Bart Gets Famous\" (season five, 1994); as a doorman in Springfield's burlesque house, the Maison Derrière, in \"Bart After Dark\" (season eight, 1996); and briefly owns his own factory in \"Homer's Enemy\" (season eight, 1997).\n\n\n== Character ==\n\n\n=== Creation ===\n\nMatt Groening first conceived of Bart and the rest of the Simpson family in 1986, while waiting in the lobby of producer James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called in to pitch a series of animated shorts for The Tracey Ullman Show, and had intended to present an adaptation of his Life in Hell comic strip. When he realized that animating Life in Hell would require him to rescind publication rights, Groening decided to go in another direction. He hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family, naming the characters after members of his own family. For the rebellious son, he substituted \"Bart\", an anagram of the word brat, for his own name, as he decided it would have been too obvious for him to have named the character 'Matt'. Bart's middle initial J is a \"tribute\" to animated characters such as Bullwinkle J. Moose and Rocket J. Squirrel from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, who received their middle initial from Jay Ward. According to the book Bart Simpson's Guide to Life, Bart's full middle name is \"JoJo\".Bart had originally been envisioned as \"a much milder, troubled youth given to existential angst who talks to himself\", but the character was changed based on Cartwright's voice acting. Groening has credited several different figures with providing inspiration for Bart: Matt Groening's older brother Mark provided much of the motivation for Bart's attitude. Bart was conceived as an extreme version of the typical misbehaving child character, merging all of the extreme traits of characters such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn into one person. Groening describes Bart as \"what would happen if the son of Eddie Haskell [from Leave It to Beaver] got his own show\". Groening has also said that he found the premise of Dennis the Menace disappointing and was inspired to create a character who was actually a menace.Bart made his debut with the rest of the Simpson family on April 19, 1987 in The Tracey Ullman Show short \"Good Night\". In 1989, the shorts were adapted into The Simpsons, a half-hour series airing on the Fox Broadcasting Company. Bart and the Simpson family remained the main characters on this new show.\n\n\n=== Design ===\n\nThe entire Simpson family was designed so that they would be recognizable in silhouette. The family was crudely drawn, because Groening had submitted basic sketches to the animators, assuming they would clean them up; instead, they just traced over his drawings. Bart's original design, which appeared in the first shorts, had spikier hair, and the spikes were of different lengths. The number was later limited to nine spikes, all of the same size. At the time Groening was primarily drawing in black and \"not thinking that [Bart] would eventually be drawn in color\" gave him spikes which appear to be an extension of his head. The features of Bart's character design are generally not used in other characters; for example, no other characters in current episodes have Bart's spiky hairline, although several background characters in the first few seasons shared the trait.The basic rectangular shape of Bart's head is described by director Mark Kirkland as a coffee can. Homer's head is also rectangular (with a dome on top), while spheres are used for Marge, Lisa, and Maggie. Different animators have different methods of drawing Bart. Former director Jeffrey Lynch starts off with a box, then adds the eyes, then the mouth, then the hair spikes, ear, and then the rest of the body. Matt Groening normally starts with the eyes, then the nose, and the rest of the outline of Bart's head. Many of the animators have trouble drawing Bart's spikes evenly; one trick they use is to draw one on the right, one on the left, one in the middle, then continue to add one in the middle of the blank space until there are nine. Originally, whenever Bart was to be drawn from an angle looking down so the top of his head was seen, Groening wanted there to be spikes along the outline of his head, and in the middle as well. Instead, Wes Archer and David Silverman drew him so that there was an outline of the spikes, then just a smooth patch in the middle because \"it worked graphically\". In \"The Blue and the Gray\", Bart (along with Lisa and Maggie) finally questions why his hair has no visible border to separate head from hair.\nIn the season seven (1995) episode \"Treehouse of Horror VI\", Bart (along with Homer) was computer animated into a three-dimensional character for the first time for the \"Homer3\" segment of the episode. The computer animation was provided by Pacific Data Images. While designing the 3D model of the character, the animators did not know how they would show Bart's hair. They realized that there were vinyl Bart dolls in production and purchased one to use as a model.\n\n\n=== Voice ===\n\nBart's voice is provided by Nancy Cartwright, who voices several other child characters on The Simpsons, including Nelson Muntz, Ralph Wiggum, Todd Flanders, and Kearney. While the roles of Homer and Marge were given to Dan Castellaneta and Julie Kavner because they were already a part of The Tracey Ullman Show cast, the producers decided to hold casting for the roles of Bart and Lisa. Yeardley Smith had initially been asked to audition for the role of Bart, but casting director Bonita Pietila believed her voice was too high. Smith later recalled, \"I always sounded too much like a girl. I read two lines as Bart and they said, 'Thanks for coming!'\" Smith was given the role of Lisa instead. On March 13, 1987, Nancy Cartwright went in to audition for the role of Lisa. After arriving at the audition, she found that Lisa was simply described as the \"middle child\" and at the time did not have much personality. Cartwright became more interested in the role of Bart, who was described as \"devious, underachieving, school-hating, irreverent, [and] clever\". Matt Groening let her try out for the part instead, and upon hearing her read, gave her the job on the spot. Cartwright is the only one of the six main Simpsons cast members who had been professionally trained in voice acting prior to working on the show.Cartwright's normal speaking voice is said to have \"no obvious traces of Bart\". The voice came naturally to Cartwright; prior to The Tracey Ullman Show, she had used elements of it in shows such as My Little Pony, Snorks, and Pound Puppies. Cartwright describes Bart's voice as easy to perform, saying, \"Some characters take a little bit more effort, upper respiratory control, whatever it is technically. But Bart is easy to do. I can just slip into that without difficulty.\" She usually does five or six readings of every line in order to give the producers more to work with. In flashforward episodes, Cartwright still provides the voice of Bart. For \"Lisa's Wedding\", (season six, 1995) Bart's voice was electronically lowered.Despite Bart's fame, Cartwright is rarely recognized in public. When she is recognized and asked to perform Bart's voice in front of children, Cartwright refuses as it \"freaks [them] out\". During the first season of The Simpsons, the Fox Network did not allow Cartwright to give interviews because they did not want to publicize that Bart was voiced by a woman.Until 1998, Cartwright was paid $30,000 per episode. During a pay dispute in 1998, Fox threatened to replace the six main voice actors with new actors, going as far as preparing for casting of new voices. The dispute was resolved and Cartwright received $125,000 per episode until 2004, when the voice actors demanded that they be paid $360,000 an episode. The dispute was resolved a month later, and Cartwright's pay rose to $250,000 per episode. After salary renegotiations in 2008, the voice actors receive approximately $400,000 per episode. Three years later, with Fox threatening to cancel the series unless production costs were cut, Cartwright and the other cast members accepted a 30 percent pay cut to just over $300,000 per episode.\n\n\n=== Hallmarks ===\nIn the opening sequence of many Simpsons episodes, the camera zooms in on Springfield Elementary School, where Bart can be seen writing a message on the chalkboard. This message, which changes from episode to episode, has become known as the \"chalkboard gag\". Chalkboard messages may involve political humor such as \"The First Amendment does not cover burping\", pop culture references such as \"I can't see dead people\", and meta-references such as \"I am not a 32-year-old woman\" and \"Nobody reads these anymore\". The animators are able to produce the chalkboard gags quickly and in some cases have changed them to fit current events. For example, the chalkboard gag for \"Homer the Heretic\" (season four, 1992) read, \"I will not defame New Orleans.\" The gag had been written as an apology to the city for a controversial song in the previous week's episode, \"A Streetcar Named Marge\", which called the city a \"home of pirates, drunks and whores\". Many episodes do not feature a chalkboard gag because a shorter opening title sequence, where the chalkboard gags are cut, is used to make more room for story and plot development.\nOne of Bart's early hallmarks were his prank calls to Moe's Tavern owner Moe Szyslak in which Bart calls Moe and asks for a gag name. Moe tries to find that person in the bar, but rapidly realizes it is a prank call and (despite not knowing who actually made the call) angrily threatens Bart. These calls were based on a series of prank calls known as the Tube Bar recordings. Moe was based partly on Tube Bar owner Louis \"Red\" Deutsch, whose often profane responses inspired Moe's violent side. The prank calls debuted in \"Homer's Odyssey\", (season one, 1990) the third episode to air, but were included in \"Some Enchanted Evening\", the first episode of the series that was produced. As the series progressed, it became more difficult for the writers to come up with a fake name and to write Moe's angry response, so the pranks were dropped as a regular joke during the fourth season but they have occasionally resurfaced on the show.The catchphrase \"Eat My Shorts\" was an ad-lib by Cartwright in one of the original table readings, harking back to an incident when she was in high school. Cartwright was in the marching band at Fairmont High School, and one day while performing, the band chanted \"Eat my shorts\" rather than the usual \"Fairmont West! Fairmont West!\" It could also be an homage to The Breakfast Club, as John Bender says the phrase to Principal Vernon. John Bender would become the inspiration for another Matt Groening creation, Bender from Futurama. Bart's other catchphrases, \"¡Ay, caramba!\" came from a Portuguese flamenco dancer and \"Don't have a cow!\" had been around since the 1950s which derived from the British phrase \"Don't have kittens\"; both were featured on T-shirts manufactured during the production of the early seasons of The Simpsons. \"Cowabunga\" is also commonly associated with Bart, although it was mostly used on the show after it had been used as a slogan on the T-shirts. Reiss also stated the writers took the phrase from Chief Thunderthud on The Howdy Doody Show. The use of catchphrase-based humor was mocked in the episode \"Bart Gets Famous\" (season five, 1994) in which Bart lands a popular role on Krusty the Clown's show for saying the line \"I didn't do it.\" The writers chose the phrase \"I didn't do it\" because they wanted a \"lousy\" phrase \"to point out how really crummy things can become really popular\".\n\nBart commonly appears nude in the show, although in every case only his buttocks are visible. In The Simpsons Movie (2007), Bart appears in a sequence where he is skateboarding while fully nude; several different items cover his genitalia, but for a brief moment his penis can be seen. The scene was one of the first worked on for the film, but the producers were nervous about the segment because they thought it would earn the movie an R rating. Despite this, the film was rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for \"Irreverent Humor Throughout\". The scene was later included by Entertainment Weekly in their list of \"30 Unforgettable Nude Scenes\".\n\n\n=== Personality ===\n\nBart's character traits of rebelliousness and disrespect for authority have been compared to that of America's founding fathers, and he has been described as an updated version of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, rolled into one. In his book Planet Simpson, Chris Turner describes Bart as a nihilist, a philosophical position that argues that existence is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value.Bart's rebellious attitude has made him a disruptive student at Springfield Elementary School, where he is an underachiever and proud of it. He is constantly at odds with his teacher Ms. Krabappel, Principal Skinner, and occasionally Groundskeeper Willie. Bart does poorly in school and is well aware of it, having once declared, \"I am dumb, okay? Dumb as a post! Think I'm happy about it?\" On one occasion, Lisa successfully proves that Bart is dumber than a hamster, although Bart ultimately outsmarts her. Bart's thoughts are often illogical― he once thought if he died and reincarnated as a butterfly, he would be able to burn the school down without being suspected, thinking that he would be able to hold a gas can as a butterfly. He has also thought if he wrote his name in wet cement, people who see it after it dries will wonder how he managed to write his name in solid cement. In \"Separate Vocations\" (season three, 1992), Bart becomes hall monitor and his grades go up, suggesting that he struggles mainly because he does not pay attention, not because he is stupid. This idea is reinforced in \"Brother's Little Helper\", (season eleven, 1999) in which it is revealed that Bart suffers from attention deficit disorder. His lack of smarts can also be attributed to the hereditary \"Simpson Gene\", which affects the intelligence of most male members of the Simpson family. Although he gets into endless trouble and can be sadistic, shallow and selfish, Bart also exhibits many qualities of high integrity. He has, on a few occasions, helped Principal Skinner and Mrs. Krabappel: In \"Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song\" (season five, 1994), Bart accidentally got Skinner fired and befriended him outside the school environment. Bart missed having Skinner as an adversary and got him rehired, knowing that this would mean that the two could no longer be friends.Due to Bart's mischievousness and Homer's often uncaring and incompetent behavior, the two have a turbulent, jaded, violent, and at times borderline sadistic relationship. Bart regularly addresses Homer by his given name instead of \"Dad\", while Homer in turn often refers to him as \"the boy\". Homer has a short temper and when enraged by Bart will strangle him on impulse in a cartoonishly violent manner. One of the original ideas for the show was that Homer would be \"very angry\" and oppressive toward Bart, but these characteristics were toned down somewhat as their characters were explored. Marge is a much more caring, understanding and nurturing parent than Homer, but she also refers to Bart as \"a handful\" and is often embarrassed by his antics. In \"Marge Be Not Proud\", (season seven, 1995) she felt she was mothering Bart too much and began acting more distant towards him after he was caught shoplifting. At the beginning of the episode, Bart protested at her over-mothering but as her attitude changed, he felt bad and made it up to her. Despite his attitude, Bart is sometimes willing to experience humiliation if it means pleasing his mom. Marge has expressed an understanding for her \"special little guy\" and has defended him on many occasions. She once said \"I know Bart can be a handful, but I also know what he's like inside. He's got a spark. It's not a bad thing ... Of course, it makes him do bad things.\"\n\nBart shares a sibling rivalry with his younger sister, Lisa, but has a buddy-like relationship with his youngest sister Maggie, due to her infant state. While Bart has often hurt Lisa, and even fought her physically, the two are often very close. Bart cares for Lisa deeply and has always apologized for going too far. He also believes Lisa to be his superior when it comes to solving problems and frequently goes to her for advice. Bart is also highly protective of Lisa: When a bully destroys her box of cupcakes in \"Bart the General\", (season one, 1990), Bart immediately stands up for her.Bart is portrayed as a popular cool boy and has many friends at school. Out of all of them his best friend is Milhouse Van Houten, although Bart has at times shown embarrassment about their friendship. Bart is a bad influence on Milhouse, and the two have been involved in a lot of mischief together. Because of this behavior, Milhouse's mother forbids Milhouse from playing with Bart in \"Homer Defined\" (season three, 1991). While at first he pretended that he did not care, Bart eventually realizes that he needs Milhouse, and Marge manages to convince Mrs. Van Houten to reconsider. Milhouse is a frequent target for local bullies Nelson Muntz and his friends Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney. At times, Bart also finds himself at the hands of their abuse. Despite being the more socially powerful of the two, Bart's social popularity has temporarily subsided various episodes either due to extreme embarrassment caused by his family or other people (or even himself) or an unfortunate coincidence. Milhouse describes their social standing as \"Three and a half. We get beat up, but we get an explanation.\" While Bart and the bullies have been adversaries at times, with Bart once declaring war on Nelson, the school bullies actually like Bart for his ways and hang out with him at times, especially Nelson who eventually becomes close friends with him.Bart is one of the biggest fans of children's television host Krusty the Clown. He once declared, \"I've based my whole life on Krusty's teachings\", and sleeps in a room filled with Krusty merchandise. He has helped the clown on many occasions, for example, foiling Sideshow Bob's attempt to frame Krusty for armed robbery in \"Krusty Gets Busted\" (season one, 1990), reuniting Krusty with his estranged father in \"Like Father, Like Clown\". and helping Krusty return to the air with a comeback special and reignite his career in \"Krusty Gets Kancelled\". For his part, Krusty has remained largely ignorant of Bart's help and treats Bart with disinterest. One summer, Bart enthusiastically attended Kamp Krusty, which turned out to be a disaster, with Krusty nowhere to be seen. Bart keeps his hopes up by believing that Krusty would show up, but is soon pushed over the edge, and finally decides that he is sick of Krusty's shoddy merchandise and takes over the camp. Krusty immediately visits the camp in hopes of ending the conflict and manages to appease Bart. One of the original ideas for the series was that Bart worshiped a television clown but had no respect for his father, although this was never directly explored. Because of this original plan, Krusty's design is basically Homer in clown make-up. When Bart foiled Sideshow Bob's plans in \"Krusty Gets Busted\", it sparked a long-standing feud between the two. The writers decided to have Bob repeatedly return to get revenge on Bart. They took the idea of the Coyote chasing the Road Runner and depicted Bob as an intelligent person obsessed with catching a bratty boy. Bob has appeared in fourteen episodes, generally plotting various evil schemes which often have to do with getting revenge on Bart (and sometimes the entire Simpson family by proxy), but is always foiled in the end.\n\n\n== Reception and cultural influence ==\n\n\n=== Bartmania ===\nIn 1990, Bart quickly became one of the most popular characters on television in what was termed \"Bartmania\". He became the most prevalent Simpsons character on memorabilia, such as T-shirts. In the early 1990s, millions of T-shirts featuring Bart were sold; as many as one million were sold on some days. Believing Bart to be a bad role model, several American public schools banned T-shirts featuring Bart next to captions such as \"I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?\" and \"Underachiever ('And proud of it, man!')\". The Simpsons merchandise sold well and generated $2 billion in revenue during the first 14 months of sales. The success of Bart Simpson merchandise inspired an entire line of black market counterfeit items, especially T-shirts. Some featured Bart announcing various slogans, others depicted redesigns of the character, including \"Teenage Mutant Ninja Bart, Air Simpson Bart, [and] RastaBart\". Matt Groening generally did not object to bootleg merchandise, but took exception to a series of \"Nazi Bart\" shirts which depicted Bart in Nazi uniform or as a white power skinhead. 20th Century Fox sued the creator of the shirts, who eventually agreed to stop making them.\n\nBart became so associated with Fox that, when bidding in 1993 to show pro football, the network had to assure the NFL and reporters that the character would not announce games. Due to the show's success, over the summer of 1990 Fox decided to switch The Simpsons' timeslot so that it would move from 8:00 p.m. ET on Sunday night to the same time on Thursday, where it would compete with The Cosby Show on NBC, the number one show at the time. Through the summer, several news outlets published stories about the supposed \"Bill vs. Bart\" rivalry. The August 31, 1990 issue of Entertainment Weekly featured a picture of Bill Cosby wearing a Bart Simpson T-shirt. \"Bart Gets an 'F'\" (season two, 1990) was the first episode to air against The Cosby Show, and it received a lower Nielsen rating, tying for eighth behind The Cosby Show, which had an 18.5 rating. The rating is based on the number of household televisions that were tuned into the show, but Nielsen Media Research estimated that 33.6 million viewers watched the episode, making it the number one show in terms of actual viewers that week. At the time, it was the most watched episode in the history of the Fox Network, and it is still the highest rated episode in the history of The Simpsons. Because of his popularity, Bart was often the most promoted member of the Simpson family in advertisements for the show, even for episodes in which he was not involved in the main plot.Bart was described as \"television's king of 1990\", \"television's brightest new star\" and an \"undiminished smash\". Entertainment Weekly named Bart the \"entertainer of the year\" for 1990, writing that \"Bart has proved to be a rebel who's also a good kid, a terror who's easily terrorized, and a flake who astonishes us, and himself, with serious displays of fortitude.\" In the United States congressional, senatorial and gubernatorial elections of 1990, Bart was one of the most popular write-in candidates, and in many areas was second only to Mickey Mouse amongst fictional characters. In the 1990 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Bart made his debut as one of the giant helium-filled balloons for which the parade is known. The Bart Simpson balloon has appeared at every parade since. This was referenced in The Simpsons in the episode \"Bart vs. Thanksgiving\", which aired the same day as the parade, where Homer tells Bart, \"If you start building a balloon for every flash-in-the-pan cartoon character, you turn the parade into a farce!\" Meanwhile, behind and unbeknownst to him, the television briefly shows a Bart Simpson balloon.The album The Simpsons Sing the Blues was released in September 1990 and was a success, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and becoming certified 2x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The first single from the album was the pop rap song \"Do the Bartman\", performed by Nancy Cartwright and released on November 20, 1990. The song was written by Bryan Loren, a friend of Michael Jackson. Jackson was a fan of The Simpsons, especially Bart, and had called the producers one night offering to write Bart a number one single and do a guest spot on the show. Jackson eventually guest starred in the episode \"Stark Raving Dad\" (season three, 1991) under the pseudonym John Jay Smith. While the song was never officially released as a single in the United States, it was successful in the United Kingdom. In 1991 it was the number one song in the UK for three weeks from February 16 to March 9 and was the seventh best-selling song of the year. It sold half a million copies and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry on February 1, 1991.\n\n\n=== Bart as a role model ===\n\nBart's rebellious nature, which frequently resulted in no punishment for his misbehavior, led some parents and conservatives to characterize him as a poor role model for children. Robert Bianco of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote that \"[Bart] outwits his parents and outtalks his teachers; in short, he's the child we wish we'd been, and fear our children will become.\" In schools, educators claimed that Bart was a \"threat to learning\" because of his \"underachiever and proud of it\" attitude and negative attitude regarding his education. Others described him as \"egotistical, aggressive and mean-spirited.\" In response to the criticism, James L. Brooks said, \"I'm very wary of television where everybody is supposed to be a role model, you don't run across that many role models in real life. Why should television be full of them?\"In 1990 William Bennett, who at the time was drug czar of the United States, visited a drug treatment center in Pittsburgh and upon noticing a poster of Bart remarked, \"You guys aren't watching The Simpsons, are you? That's not going to help you any.\" When a backlash over the comment ensued, Bennett apologized, claiming he \"was just kidding\" and saying \"I'll sit down with the little spike head. We'll straighten this thing out.\" In a 1991 interview, Bill Cosby described Bart as a bad role model for children, calling him \"angry, confused, frustrated\". In response, Matt Groening said, \"That sums up Bart, all right. Most people are in a struggle to be normal. He thinks normal is very boring, and does things that others just wished they dare do.\" On January 27, 1992, then-President George H. W. Bush said, \"We are going to keep on trying to strengthen the American family, to make American families a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons.\" The writers rushed out a tongue-in-cheek reply in the form of a short segment which aired three days later before a rerun of \"Stark Raving Dad\" in which Bart replied, \"Hey, we're just like the Waltons. We're praying for an end to the Depression, too.\"Although there were many critics of the character, favorable comments came from several quarters. Columnist Erma Bombeck wrote, \"Kids need to know that somewhere in this world is a contemporary who can pull off all the things they can only fantasize about, someone who can stick it to their parents once in a while and still be permitted to live.\" In 2003, Bart placed first in a poll of parents in the United Kingdom who were asked \"which made-up character had the most influence\" on children under 12 years old.\n\n\n=== Commendations ===\n\nIn 1998, Time named Bart one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century. He was the only fictional character to make the list. He had previously appeared on the cover of the edition of December 31, 1990. He was also ranked No. 48 in TV Guide's \"50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time\" in 1996 and both he and Lisa ranked No. 11 in TV Guide's \"Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time\" in 2002.At the 44th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1992, Cartwright won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for voicing Bart in the season three episode \"Separate Vocations\". She shared the award with five other voice actors from The Simpsons. Various episodes in which Bart is strongly featured have been nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program, including \"Radio Bart\" in 1992, \"Future-Drama\" in 2005, \"The Haw-Hawed Couple\" in 2006 and \"Homer's Phobia\", which won the award in 1997. In 1995, Cartwright won an Annie Award for \"Voice Acting in the Field of Animation\" for her portrayal of Bart in an episode. In 2000, Bart and the rest of the Simpson family were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard.In 2014 Bart Simpson became the second mascot of Russian football club FC Zenit Saint Petersburg, wearing number 87 on his back (referring to The Simpsons debut in 1987; the club's first mascot is a blue-maned lion).\n\n\n=== Merchandising ===\nAlongside T-shirts, Bart has been included in various other The Simpsons-related merchandise, including air fresheners, baseball caps, bumper stickers, cardboard standups, refrigerator magnets, key rings, buttons, dolls, posters, figurines, clocks, soapstone carvings, Chia Pets, bowling balls and boxer shorts. The Bart Book, a book about Bart's personality and attributes, was released in 2004. Other books include Bart Simpson's Guide to Life. The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer, which is not an official publication, includes a chapter analyzing Bart's character and comparing him to the \"Nietzschean ideal\".Bart has appeared in other media relating to The Simpsons. He has appeared in every one of The Simpsons video games, including Bart vs. the World, Bart Simpson's Escape from Camp Deadly, Bart vs. the Space Mutants, Bart's House of Weirdness, Bart vs. The Juggernauts, Bartman Meets Radioactive Man, Bart's Nightmare, Bart & the Beanstalk and The Simpsons Game, released in 2007. Alongside the television series, Bart regularly appears in issues of Simpsons Comics, which were first published on November 29, 1993 and are still issued monthly, and also has his own series called Bart Simpson Comics which have been released since 2000. Bart also plays a role in The Simpsons Ride, launched in 2008 at Universal Studios Florida and Hollywood. Bart appears as a playable character in the toys-to-life video game Lego Dimensions, released via a \"Fun Pack\" packaged with a Gravity Sprinter accessory in November 2015.Bart, and other The Simpsons characters, have appeared in numerous television commercials for Nestlé's Butterfinger candy bars from 1990 to 2001, with the slogan \"Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger!\" Lisa would occasionally advertise it too. Matt Groening would later say that the Butterfinger advertising campaign was a large part of the reason why Fox decided to pick up the half-hour show. The campaign was discontinued in 2001, much to the disappointment of Cartwright. Bart has also appeared in commercials for Burger King and Ramada Inn. In 2001, Kellogg's launched a brand of cereal called \"Bart Simpson Peanut Butter Chocolate Crunch\", which was available for a limited time. Before the half-hour series went on the air, Matt Groening pitched Bart as a spokesperson for Jell-O. He wanted Bart to sing \"J-E-L-L-O\", then burp the letter O. His belief was that kids would try to do it the next day, but he was rejected.On April 9, 2009, the United States Postal Service unveiled a series of five 44-cent stamps featuring Bart and the four other members of the Simpson family. They are the first characters, other than Sesame Street characters, to receive this accolade while the show is still in production. The stamps, designed by Matt Groening, were made available for purchase on May 7, 2009.\n\n\n== References ==\n\nBibliography\n\n\n== Further reading ==\nAlberti, John, ed. (2003). Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8143-2849-1.\nBrown, Alan; Logan, Chris (2006). The Psychology of The Simpsons. BenBella Books. ISBN 978-1-932100-70-9.\nConard, Mark T. (1999). \"Thus Spake Bart: On Nietzsche and the Virtues of Being Bad\". In Irwin, William; Skoble, Aeon (eds.). The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer. Chicago: Open Court. ISBN 978-0-8126-9433-8.\nGroening, Matt; Morrison, Bill (2005). The Bart Book. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-111660-5.\nGroening, Matt (2001). Bart Simpson's Guide to Life. Harper Perennia]. ISBN 978-5-558-68551-0.\nGroening, Matt (1991). The Simpsons Uncensored Family Album. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-096582-2.\nPinsky, Mark I (2004). The Gospel According to The Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World's Most Animated Family. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-22419-6.\n\n\n== External links ==\nBart Simpson on IMDb"
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5a7e36045542991319bc9440 | Which tennis player won more Grand Slam titles, Henri Leconte or Jonathan Stark? | Jonathan Stark | comparison | medium | {"title":["Larisa Neiland","Henri Leconte","Ken Rosewall","Pam Teeguarden","2009 Serena Williams ten(...TRUNCATED) |
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5ac2c3545542990b17b1548b | Chang Ucchin was born in korea during a time that ended with the conclusion of what? | World War II | bridge | medium | {"title":["Chang Dae-hwan","Chang Mi-hee","May 16 coup","Tommy Chang (martial artist)","Chang Yong-h(...TRUNCATED) |
5adf44985542993a75d2646d | Which genus of moth in the world's seventh-largest country contains only one species? | Crambidae | bridge | hard | {"title":["List of companies of India","India","Nepita","Indogrammodes","Geography of India","Eumaca(...TRUNCATED) |
5a8efd3c55429918e830d179 | Are both The New Pornographers and Kings of Leon American rock bands? | no | comparison | hard | {"title":["Neko Case","Little Scout","Whiteout Conditions","Kurt Dahle","Kings of Leon","Kathryn Cal(...TRUNCATED) |
5a7272eb5542997f827839d7 | How old is the female main protagonist of Catching Fire? | 16-year-old | bridge | medium | {"title":["H2O: Footprints in the Sand","Tenshin Ranman: Lucky or Unlucky!?","Dōsei","Catching Fire(...TRUNCATED) |
5ac2a912554299218029dae8 | "Which band was founded first, Hole, the rock band that Courtney Love was a frontwoman of, or The Wo(...TRUNCATED) | The Wolfhounds | comparison | medium | {"title":["Beautiful Son","Turpentine (song)","Courtney Love","Courtney Love filmography","Live Thro(...TRUNCATED) |
5a84dd955542997b5ce3ff79 | Cadmium Chloride is slightly soluble in this chemical, it is also called what? | alcohol | bridge | medium | {"title":["Diflucortolone valerate","Heptanoic acid","Water blue","Magnesium chloride","Gold(III) ch(...TRUNCATED) |
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HotpotQA-extended
Version of the HotpotQA dataset with full Wikipedia articles.
The HotpotQA dataset consists of questions from crowd workers which require information from multiple Wikipedia articles in order to answer,thus testing the ability for models to perform multi-hop question answering. The data is commonly presented as a list of paragraphs containing relevant information plus a setting where the addition of ’distractor paragraphs’ fully test the ability of the model to comprehend which information is relevant to the question asked.
In this dataset, we increase the length of the inputs by expanding each paragraph with its full Wikipedia page as well as adding additional distractor articles from similar topics in order to meet the 10,000 token minimum length requirement for this benchmark.
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