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The Simpsons character
Bart Simpson
Gender	Male
Job	Student at Springfield Elementary School
Relatives	Parents: Homer and Marge Sisters: Lisa and Maggie Grandparents: Abraham Simpson, Mona Simpson and Jacqueline Bouvier. (See also Simpson family)
Voice actor	Nancy Cartwright
First appearance
Ullman shorts	"Good Night"
The Simpsons	"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"

Bartholomew J. "Bart" Simpson is a character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in the Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Bart was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. Although the rest of the characters were named after Groening's family members, Bart's name was an anagram of the word brat. After appearing on The Tracey Ullman Show for three years, the Simpson family got their own series on Fox, which debuted December 17, 1989. Bart is one of the main characters on The Simpsons, appearing in every episode to date.

At ten years of age, Bart is the eldest child and only son of Homer and Marge, and the elder brother of Lisa and Maggie. Bart's most prominent character traits are his mischievousness, rebelliousness, disrespect for authority and sharp wit. 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.

During the first two seasons of The Simpsons, Bart was the show's main character; while later episodes started to focus more on Homer, Bart remains one of the most enduring characters on the series. Time magazine named Bart one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century; TV Guide ranked him eleventh (tied with Lisa) on their list of the "Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time"; and Entertainment Weekly named Bart the "entertainer of the year" in 1990. Nancy Cartwright has won several awards for voicing Bart, including a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992 and an Annie Award for "Voice Acting in the Field of Animation" in 1995.

[edit] Role in The Simpsons

The Simpsons uses a floating timeline in which the characters do not age, and as such the show is 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 Simpson is the rebellious son of Homer and Marge and brother of Lisa and Maggie. Bart's conception led to the marriage of Homer and Marge and he was born in the early 1980s.^[1] He lived with his parents in the Lower East of Springfield until the Simpsons bought their their first house. When Lisa was born, Bart was at first jealous of the attention she got, but soon warmed up to her when he discovered that "Bart" was her first word.^[2] The episode "That 90's Show" (season 19, 2007) contradicted much of the backstory; for example, it was revealed that Homer and Marge were childless in the early 1990s.^[3]

Bart is an underachiever and proud of it, and is considerably motivated in disrupting the routine at Springfield Elementary. His pranks are often elaborately complex, while his actions and speech frequently show considerable mental agility, street-smarts, and understanding. In "Separate Vocations" when Bart becomes hall monitor, his grades go up, showing that he only struggles because he does not pay attention, not because he is stupid. This is reinforced in the episode "Brother's Little Helper", in which it is revealed that Bart suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder. On the other hand, he 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. The fact that he is the son of Homer Simpson and shares many of the same mannerisms and behaviors may also account for his antics. Homer even described Bart as "a younger, more in-your-face version" of himself.

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 the school Principal Seymour Skinner, and his teacher Edna Krabappel despite the fact he often terrorizes them, often befriends outcasts like Milhouse Van Houten, and even foiling the plans [or avoiding the murder attempts] of his most hated enemy, Sideshow Bob.

Due to Bart's mischievousness and Homer's often uncaring and incompetent behavior, the two have a turbulent relationship. Bart will often address Homer by his given name instead of "Dad", while Homer in turn often refers to him as "the boy". Whenever Homer finds out that Bart has said or done something stupid or bad, he yells "Why you little–!" and then strangles him. In The Simpsons Movie, Homer and Bart's relationship reaches a breaking point following Homer's pollution of Lake Springfield. Nevertheless, the two really do love each other deep down. Marge, however, is much more caring, understanding and nurturing than Homer, but she also refers to Bart as "a handful" and is often embarrassed by his antics. Despite his attitude, Bart is sometimes willing to go through a series of humiliations if it means pleasing his mom.

Bart's appearance in the show rarely changes from episode-to-episode. He typically sports blue shorts and an orange t-shirt with blue sneakers with a little white dot on the sides. Although his t-shirt color occasionally changes to light blue or red, a differing appearance is only seen in special occasions such as when the Simpsons go to church or when the episode takes place in the winter season.

Bart 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, they are very close. Bart cares for Lisa as deeply as she does for him, 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. In the episode Lisa's First Word, Lisa's first word ever said was her brother's name. Bart is also highly protective of Lisa, such as in Bart the General: when a bully destroys her box of cupcakes he immediately steps in with a 'that's my sister, man!' and proceeds to stand up against schoolyard-leviathan Nelson Muntz.

In the very early years of the show, Bart’s immaturity was emphasised and he did not have relationships with girls. A promotional mock interview was circulated that included his claim “I don't like girls. They don't like me”.^[4][5] Later, this such relationships were depicted in episodes such as Bart's Girlfriend and The Bart Wants What It Wants.

Bart's interests include watching Krusty the Klown, skateboarding, reading comic books like Radioactive Man, watching The Itchy & Scratchy Show, terrorizing Lisa, playing video games/computer games and playing various pranks such as mooning unsuspecting people and prank calling Moe Szyslak at his tavern. His best friend is Milhouse van Houten.

Bart sometimes demonstrates linguistic abilities. He demonstrated the ability in "The Crepes of Wrath," speaking near-perfect French. He also learned Spanish in a matter of hours wrongly believing it was the language of Brazil. Bart also speaks Japanese, which he also learned in a couple of hours in prison along with Homer, and is also shown speaking Japanese in "A Star is Burns," as well as Cantonese and Latin. In the episode "Skinner's Sense of Snow" he torments Principal Skinner by yelling đi đi mau, which means "go fast" in Vietnamese.

Bart can also drive, having been given his own driver's license in "Little Big Girl" after saving Springfield from a fire. He has also been seen driving before, "Burns' Heir", and with a fake license, particularly in the episode "Bart on the Road". He still possesses it, using it to great effect in "24 minutes", stealing Principal Skinner's car to get to Jimbo's house.

In his book Planet Simpson, Chris Turner describes Bart as a nihilist. Bart's character traits of rebelliousness and disrespect for authority has been likened to that of America's founding fathers, rendering him an updated version of American icons Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, rolled into one."^[6]

[edit] Character

[edit] Creation

Matt Groening first conceived Homer and the rest of the Simpson family in 1986 in the lobby of 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 for his life's work, Groening decided to go in another direction,^[7] and hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family and named the characters after members of his own family. For the rebellious son, he substituted "Bart" for his own name,^[7] as he decided it would have been too obvious for him to have named the character Matt.^[8] Groening's older brother Mark provided much of the inspiration for Bart.^[9][10][11] Groening conceived Bart 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.^[8] 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.^[12] 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.^[13]

Bart then made his debut with the rest of the Simpsons clan on April 19, 1987 in the short "Good Night".^[14] In 1989, the shorts were adapted into The Simpsons, a half-hour series that would air on the Fox Broadcasting Company. Bart and the rest of the family remained the main characters on this new show.^[15]

The whole family was designed so that they would be recognizable in silhouette.^[16] The features of Bart's character design are generally not used in other characters; for example, no other characters share Bart's spiky hairline, although several background characters in the first few seasons shared the trait.^[17]

[edit] Voice

Nancy Cartwright has provided the voice of Bart since 1987

Bart'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,^[18] 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!'"^[19] Smith was given the role of Lisa instead.^[20] 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 she found more interesting.^[21] Matt Groening let her try out for the part instead, and upon hearing her read, gave her the job on the spot.^[22]

Cartwright is the only one of the six main Simpsons voice actors who had been trained in voice acting.^[23] In 2007, Cartwright described Bart's voice as "the easiest voice I do." She describes Bart as "deep down, [...] a really good kid. He's just mischievous. He's not bad, like characters who followed him [...] Bart can do some nasty things, but they seem so tame, by today's standards."^[24] Cartwright traditionally does five or six readings of every line in order to give the producers more to work with.^[22]

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!"^[19]

[edit] Reception

In 2000, Bart, along with the rest of the Simpson family, were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 1998, Time magazine named Bart one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, and the only fictional character to make the list.^[25] He had previously appeared on the cover the December 31, 1990 edition.^[26] Both Bart and Lisa ranked #11 in TV Guide's "Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time".^[27] In 1990, Entertainment Weekly named Bart the "entertainer of the year" writing "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."^[28]

At the 44th Primetime Emmy Awards, 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.^[29][30] In 1995, Cartwright won an Annie Award for "Voice Acting in the Field of Animation" for her portrayal of Bart in an episode.^[31] 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.^[32]

In 1991, Bill Cosby described Bart as a bad role model for children who are "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."^[33]

[edit] Cultural influence

Bart's catchphrases, "¡Ay, caramba!," "Don't have a cow, man!" and "Eat my shorts!" were featured on t-shirts in the initial show's run.^[34] The latter two phrases were rarely actually spoken on the show itself until after they became popular through merchandise, and the use of many of these catchphrases diminished in later seasons. The use of catchphrase-based humor was mocked in the episode "Bart Gets Famous" in which Bart lands a popular role on the Krusty show for saying the line "I didn't do it."^[35]

During the early seasons, Bart was the rebellious lead character and frequently received no punishment for his misbehavior, which led some parents and conservatives to characterize him as a poor role model for children.^[36][37] At the time, 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."^[38]

[edit] Merchandising

Bart is the most prevalent Simpsons character for the show on memorabilia such as T-shirts, car decals, and even graffiti art. In the early 1990s, millions of t-shirts featuring Bart were sold.^[39] Several U.S. public schools even banned The Simpsons merchandise and t-shirts such as one featuring Bart and the caption "Underachiever ('And proud of it, man!')".^[38][40] The Simpsons merchandise sold well and generated US$2 billion in revenue during the first 14 months of sales.^[38]

Bart, and other Simpsons characters, have appeared in numerous television commercials for Nestlé's Butterfinger candy bars from 1990-2001, with the slogan "Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger!"^[41] This association was parodied in "Barting Over", an episode when he discovered a video tape with Lisa that proved he participated in a TV commercial when he was a baby; Bart says that he does not remember being in a commercial, then ironically holds up a Butterfinger and eats it. In 2001, Kelloggs launched a brand of cereal called "Bart Simpson Peanut Butter Chocolate Crunch", which was available for a limited time.^[42]

[edit] See also

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Bart Simpson

• Bart's chalkboard gags
• Do the Bartman

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Cartwright, Nancy (2000). My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy. New York City: Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-8600-5. 
• Richmond, Ray; Antonia Coffman (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family. New York City: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-638898-1. 
• Turner, Chris (2004). Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation. Toronto: Random House Canada. ISBN 0-679-31318-4. 

[edit] External links

• Bart Simpson at The Simpsons.com
• Bart Simpson at the Internet Movie Database