Bart Simpson

**Bartholomew JoJo "Bart"** **Simpson** (born April 1, 1979)is the mischievous, rebellious, misunderstood, disruptive and "potentially dangerous" oldest child of the Simpson family in *The Simpsons*. He is the only son of Homer and Marge Simpson, he is also the only grandson to Abraham Simpson and the older brother of Lisa and Maggie. He also has been nicknamed "Cosmo", after discovering a comet in "Bart's Comet". Bart has also been on the cover on numerous comics, such as "Critical Hit", "Simpsons Treasure Trove #11", and "Winter Wingding". Bart also has a 100-issue comic series entitled the Simpson Comics Presents Bart Simpson. Bart is loosely based on Matt Groening and his older brother, Mark Groening.

Even at a young age, Bart has accomplished many feats. He has won an award for his Angry Dad web series, he has discovered a new comet which was named after him, and he also has performed in a successful band with Milhouse Van Houten, Nelson Muntz, and Ralph Wiggum.

## Description

“Bart is the dangerous eldest child of Homer and Marge. He is sometimes called El Barto.”

## Biography

Bart is a self-proclaimed underachiever and prankster who is constantly in detention, and, in addition to his behavior, is easily distracted. He is the most misunderstood of the family (after Maggie, who currently can only speak a few words), constantly frustrated by the narrow-minded people of Springfield, who judge him merely by his thoughts and actions.

His penchant for shocking people began before he was born, Bart "mooned" Dr. Hibbert while he performed a sonogram on Marge when she was pregnant with him, and moments after being born, he set Homer's tie-on fire, starting his life as a prankster (although Marge claimed that he could not have done it on purpose because he was only ten minutes old). Bart's first words were "Ay Caramba" after he walked in on Homer and Marge at a bad time.

When Lisa was born, Bart got jealous of all the attention Lisa was getting sick and tried to make himself the center of attention. Bart eventually couldn’t take it anymore and told Lisa he was running away. Then, Lisa said her first word: “Bart!” Bart heard Lisa and realized how much she loved him, and realized he had to stay.

Bart's interests include Krusty the Clown (he is "Krusty Buddy" number 16302), reading comic books (especially *Radioactive Man*), watching TV (especially *The Krusty the Clown Show* and *The Itchy & Scratchy Show*), terrorizing Lisa, playing video games, helping Lisa solve various problems (e.g. reuniting Krusty with his estranged Father), and pulling off various pranks, (such as mooning unsuspecting people, prank calling Moe at his tavern, and his patented spitting off an overpass). Bart also sprays graffiti under the alias 'El Barto', and regularly frequents the Kwik-E-Mart (for bubble gum and Squishees) and The Android's Dungeon. Yuma Hickman moved to Springfield when Marge was pregnant with Bart.

Bart hinted that his favorite movies are *Jaws* and the *Star Wars* trilogy. His best friend is Milhouse Van Houten.

### Date of birth inconsistency

In "My Sister, My Sitter”, it is stated that Lisa is 2 years and 38 days younger than Bart. In "Mr. Lisa's Opus" and on the show's official *Instagram* account, Lisa's birthday is revealed to be on May 9, putting Bart's birthday on April 1. However, in "Simpsorama", Bart states that his birthday is on February 23rd.

## Behavior

“*I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows.*”
―Bart
Bart is a kindhearted, loyal and energetic, but sometimes very rowdy and mischievous boy.

Bart is a notorious prankster at Springfield Elementary, and his pranks are often elaborately complex, but can lead to unfortunate consequences. Bart's overall intelligence, like his mother's, has been shown to fluctuate slightly over the course of the series. It has been shown anywhere from being just above his father's level, to being just below, or (on the rare occasion that he shows interest or is willing to pay attention) exceeding that of his sister. Despite his behavior, Bart is also extremely good at science, art and even sports like skateboarding. His actions and speech frequently show considerable mental agility, street-smarts, and understanding. When Bart became a hall monitor for Springfield Elementary, his grades went up, showing that he only struggles because he does not pay any attention. Bart has ADHD. This has been exaggerated to the point he is willing to do Algebra, so long as it is a distraction from his *actual* homework.

On the other hand, Bart often seems to have trouble understanding even the simplest concepts, such as the word "irony," what the equator is and that the logo on his globe ("Rand McNally") is not actually a country. It was also once implied that his mischievous behavior may have been a result of Marge accidentally ingesting a droplet of champagne while pregnant with him. Also, as an infant, one night he wandered into the master bedroom and witnessed Homer and Marge having sex with each other.

Labeled as an "underachiever" by authority figures, Bart rides an academic roller coaster, his grades, running the Loop-the-Loop from "F" to "D-" and back again. But he can be ingenious when the chips are down—as long as his ingenuity is not applied to anything school-related. Once, he put in a passionate effort to actually study when he was faced with the prospect of repeating the fourth grade, only to score a 59; he broke down in tears and inadvertantly displayed applied knowledge while crying, barely passing. He once learned portions of the Talmud to help reunite his idol, Krusty the Clown, with his father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky. Once, after unleashing a surf wave across the school (damaging property but also saving Ned Flanders, who was on fire at the time), Bart was given an experimental drug for attention deficit disorder called Focusyn. Focusing his energy allowed Bart's intellectual potential to reach its maximum, even to the point where he was capable of tutoring a Navajo boy. Unfortunately, the drug also drove him paranoid as a side effect, and he started to believe that Major League Baseball was using satellites to spy on everyone in town. Marge and Homer became concerned for his erratic behavior and tried to take him off the drug, but the prospect of losing his intellectual edge over his enemies causes Bart to go berserk and sneak into Fort Fragg to steal one of its tanks. After blazing a path of destruction through the town, Bart uses the tank's cannon to shoot down an MLB satellite, thereby actually proving his suspicions to be correct.

Bart also displayed the ability to learn very quickly when he so desired, or in some cases subconsciously. In "The Crepes of Wrath" while on an exchange trip to France, Bart managed to learn French without even realizing it simply by being in the vicinity of Ugolin and Cesar, two men who regularly spoke French. Later, during "Homer vs. Patty and Selma", he showed considerable talent in ballet despite his initial hatred of it, which he did not realize until he attempted to take off his leotard. He has also managed to do this by choice such as in "Blame It on Lisa", wherein Bart learns fluent Spanish in less time on a plane to Brazil, only to be told by Marge that the Brazilians speak Portuguese.

His pranks can range from being relatively harmless to very cruel/destructive, depending on the characterization. He was also frequently a delinquent, getting into all sorts of trouble. It is implied that his exceptionally mischievous behavior (which Lisa once noted was borderline sociopathic) had its roots from when Marge accidentally ingested a drop of champagne (caused by then-Mayor Quimby breaking a champagne bottle on the newly christened battleship, the U.S.S. *Float-and-shoot*) while still pregnant with Bart, as well as out of some deep-down rage for being told that he'll be a failure as early as preschool (of which it once led to him developing suicidal thoughts severe enough to make an extremely graphic drawing of his own demise). However, he has put limits on the trouble he can cause; he won't lower himself as to stealing the school textbooks like Lisa did while he was the hall monitor.

Although he gets into trouble and is sometimes shallow and selfish, Bart also exhibits many qualities of high integrity. He has on a few occasions, helped the love life of his school Principal and his teacher, despite the fact he often terrorizes them, and he often befriends lesser-known kids like Milhouse. One example of his quasi-sense of honor is when Bart stands up for Ralph Wiggum at the cost of peer popularity with the bullies. Bart's hidden integrity is also evidenced when he is dared to shoot a bird with a BB gun by Nelson. Instead of outright refusing the challenge, Bart instead tries to intentionally miss the bird. Unfortunately, Bart doesn't compensate for a crooked sight, and he accidentally kills the bird. He is visibly upset by this, snapping at Nelson when he calls him a "cold-blooded killer" and even goes so far as to try and mend his wrongs with a right by adopting the bird's nest. Bart also displays his sense of morality when he acts as a conscience for his peers several times throughout the series, such as when he tells Jessica Lovejoy that stealing from the church is wrong. He was once sent to a juvenile detention center when he played a serious prank involving faux wedding gifts and a fake wedding.

Bart also has legitimate guilt whenever he got either Mrs. Krabappel or Principal Skinner fired, especially if it was not his intention to do so, like in the former case where his and his classmates’ plan on getting her laid back by spiking her drink backfired when she ended up getting herself fired, and the latter case where his dog ended up in the ventilation shafts and got trapped along with Willie when he intended to use Santa's Little Helper for show and tell. He also sometimes gets into trouble even when he never actually did anything bad, or even when he actually did a good deed. A notable example of the former is when he was framed for a prank at a medieval festival held at school and was expelled for it (the actual culprit was Groundskeeper Willie) but he was welcomed back as an apology, and a notable example of the latter was when both he and Milhouse ended up permanently (at the time) banned by Comic Book Guy from the Androids Dungeon because Bart and Milhouse talked Mrs. Prince out of selling him rare and invaluable Star Wars memorabilia that belonged to Martin Prince for what was obviously a ripped off price.

Although Lisa is a vegetarian, Bart is the real animal lover in the family. He becomes extremely attached to animals that fall under his care and will, most of the time, save animals that he feels will be hurt or else will go to great lengths to protect them. Some of Bart's favorite pets include: his dog (and best friend) named Santa's Little Helper, a snake named Strangles, an elephant named Stampy, a racehorse named Duncan, a nest of bird-eating lizards named Chirpy Boy and Bart Junior, Santa's Little Helper's greyhound puppies and a cow named Lou, for whom he was willing to prematurely marry in order to spare from the slaughterhouse.