Bart Simpson
Bartholomew Jo-Jo "Bart" Simpson (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) is a fictional character featured in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is the 10-year-old son of Homer and Marge Simpson and older brother of Lisa and Maggie.
According to the book The Simpsons Uncensored Family Album (ISBN 0-06-096582-7), his "birthday" is April 1 or April Fool's Day. According to the show's chronology Bart was born in 1982 as he is two years and 38 days older than Lisa, who was born during the 1984 Summer Olympics. However, in the episode "I Married Marge", it was revealed that Bart was conceived in late-May 1980 (Homer and Marge had just seen The Empire Strikes Back), which would make his birthday April 1, 1981. The year is probably not consistent as Bart is always described as being 10 years old.
Bart's interests include skateboarding, comic books (especially Radioactive Man), terrorizing his sisters, helping Lisa solve various problems (e.g, reuniting Krusty the Clown with his estranged father), Dickensian chimney sweeps, mooning unsuspecting victims, and prank calling Moe Szyslak at his tavern. Like many other characters on the show, Bart is also left-handed.
He is a self-proclaimed underachiever who begins each show in detention writing lines on the blackboard (see list of Bart Simpson's blackboard sentences), and pretty much distracted by anything; even, strangely enough, algebraic equations. While Bart is considerably undermotivated and takes great joy in disrupting the routine at Springfield Elementary, his actions and speech frequently show considerable mental agility and understanding, and so he cannot be called "stupid" per se. Various explanations for his behavior include genetics (the male-linked 'Simpson Stupidity' gene), environment (watching and emulating Homer's bad examples), disinterest of his school's faculty, and a general dim view of authority. Although he frequently takes advantage of Homer, they share many of the same mannerism and behaviors.
Bart caused a fictional diplomatic incident between the United States and Australia in "Bart vs. Australia" when he placed a very long collect call to an Australian boy to find out in which direction toilets flush in the southern hemisphere. (This is an oversimplification of that phenomenon, which amusingly popularized the legend even more.)
Many times, when Homer finds out that Bart has said or done something stupid or bad, he yells out, "Why you little—!" and strangles Bart in anger.
Bart Simpson and other characters from The Simpsons appeared in numerous television commercials for Nestlé's Butterfinger candy bars from 1990 to 2001, with his catch-phrase and the slogan "Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger!". This was parodied when in an episode, Bart says that he doesn't remember being in a commercial, then he holds up a Butterfinger and eats it.
Bart speaks French fluently. He also was able to speak Spanish briefly on a trip to Brazil; however, he forced himself to forget when he discovered that they speak Portuguese in Brazil. He also once made an exchange with Homer in Japanese. Also in "Bart on the Road," he makes a delivery to Hong Kong where he hauls a cooler labeled "HUMAN EYES" off the plane, and brings it to a man in a white lab coat where they converse in Chinese (specifically, the variety of Cantonese spoken in the city). This may be inherited from Homer, who has also demonstrated advanced language abilities, including penguin.
Bart is allergic to butterscotch, imitation butterscotch, and cauliflower.
In a short scene set in the future Bart is shown to become a Supreme Court Justice. In another episode set entirely in the future he's a blue-collar worker like his father.
In an interview, Simpsons creator Matt Groening stated he chose the name as an anagram of brat.
In 1998, Time magazine selected Bart as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century—the only fictional character to make the list.
When he vandalizes property, Bart uses the alias El Barto, which is a Spanglish way of saying "Bart." However, no one in Springfield has made the connection and Bart still vandalizes property without getting caught. He is also known as Bartman.
Bart's dress sense is fairly standard. His normal attire is an orange t-shirt, blue shorts, white socks and blue training shoes. His churchgoing outfit consists of a blue two-piece suit (with shorts rather than long pants), white shirt, blue tie and blue shoes (colour of socks, if any, is unknown). The only other clothing "scenario" that comes up regularly is his "bed outfit", which consists of a green pyjama set (although he has been known to wear white socks on his feet to bed, he more regularly goes barefoot to bed). Bart's underwear style is of white "underpants". The use of underpants over boxer shorts is commented on by the show's creators on the Series 4 DVD, where he says they were trying to be different as boxer shorts were the least taboo form of underwear on TV as they showed "less of a bulge".
Episodes that feature Bart extensively include:
- "Bart the Genius" - Bart is mistaken for a genius.
- "Bart the General" - Bart takes on the class bully in a parody of Patton.
- "The Wandering Juvie" - Bart gets sent to juvenile detention and escapes á la The Defiant Ones.
- "The Heartbroke Kid" - Bart puts on weight after gorging on junk food at school and suffers a heart attack.
Quotes by Bart
- "Aye carumba!"
- "Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger!" – Butterfinger commercials.
- "Don't have a cow, man."
- "I didn't do it, no one saw me do it, you can't prove anything!"
- "Eat my shorts!"
- "I'm Bart Simpson—who the hell are you?"
- "Do the Bartman."
- "I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows."
- "Christmas is a time when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ."
- "I've said it before, and I'll say it again...aye carumba!"
- "Who's the black private dick that's a sex machine with all the chicks?"
- "There's no such thing as a soul. It's just something they made up to scare kids, like the boogeyman or Michael Jackson."
- "Inside every hardened criminal beats the heart of a ten-year-old boy."
- "You know, I've done a lot of bad stuff through the years. I guess now I'm paying the price. But there's so many things I'll never get a chance to do: smoke a cigarette, use a fake ID, shave a swear word in my hair."
- "I think its ironic that for once Dad's butt prevented the release of toxic gas."
- "Aren't we forgetting the true meaning of Christmas? You know, the birth of Santa?"
- "I don't know! I don't know why I did it, I don't know why I enjoyed it, and I don't know why I'll do it again!"
- "What if you're a really good person, but you get into a really, really bad fight and your leg gets gangrene and it has to be amputated. Will it be waiting for you in heaven?"
- "If I was Fat Tony, and God-willing, some day I will be...."
Relations
Bart is:
- Grandson to Abraham Simpson, Mona Simpson, Clancy Bouvier, and Jacqueline Bouvier.
- Son to Homer Jay Simpson and Marjorie Bouvier Simpson.
- Older brother to Lisa Marie Simpson and Margaret Simpson.
- the twin brother of Hugo (who appears in a Halloween-Special episode)
- Nephew to Herbert Powell, Abbie, Patty Bouvier and Selma Bouvier Terwilliger Hutz McClure Stu.
His former uncles-by-marriage include Robert Underdunk "Sideshow Bob" Terwilliger, Lionel Hutz, Troy McClure, and Disco Stu.
- Former heir to C. Montgomery Burns.
His cousin by adoption is Ling Bouvier.
- In the comics, it is revealed that the Simpsons and the Delroys are related, which means Cletus, Brandine, and their numerous children are Bart's cousins. However, this has never been mentioned in the series.
