Best/Worst Character: The Simpsons

[thedamndest]

Springfield, Springfield, it's a helluva town. Now let's find out what TPWW thinks of America's favorite family. You don't have to give you answers like I've broken it down. I just thought that would yield a more thorough answer.

Best Simpson:
Worst Simpson:

Best Regular:
Worst Regular:

Best Guest Star:
Worst Guest Star:

http://www.jaunted.com/files/1747/Simpsons.jpg

Previous thread (The Addams Family): http://tpww.net/forums/showthread.php?t=91469

[Triple Naitch]

Best:
http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/0/229/100274-56268-ralph-wiggum_large.gif

Worst:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FZpxPLnjqs0/Rzi0DI2rvNI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/okLDYJxmqgI/s400/SimpsonsT.V.Sherri%26TerriFisk.gif


Best Guest:
http://www.fancast.com/blogs/files/2009/05/simpsons-06-michael-jackson.jpg

2nd place:
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/simpsons/images/8/8d/Joe_Namath.png

Worst Guest:
http://cache.deadspin.com/assets/resources/2007/11/tom%20brady%20simpsons.jpg

[Supreme Olajuwon]

Best Simpson: Homer. I don't think you can argue this

Worst Simpson: Marge. Its just the way it is. She's not nearly as deep as the others.

Best guest star: A. Brooks. Brad Goodman and Hank Scorpio. Can't top that.
Honorable Mention: Jon Lovitz, James Woods, Kelsey Grammar and of course Phil Hartman
Worst guest star: take you pick from the last 5 or 6 seasons. Lots of uninspired crap.

Best regular: Milhouse. The man.

Worst regular: Manjula.

[DaveWadding]

Homer.
Marge.

All the ones from Homer at the Bat
they had NSync on for Christ's sake

Best regular is definitely Ralph
and the worst is....probably Martin.

[Hornicane]

Best Simpson: Homer
Worst Simpson: Maggie

Best Regular: Mr. Burns
Worst Regular: Patty and Selma

Best Guest Star: Phil Hartman :-\
Worst Guest Star: Meh

[Triple Naitch]

How can you not like Maggie? She shot Mr. Burns.

[Hornicane]

EXACTLY

[Hornicane]

LOL honestly it was pretty much a coin flip 'cause I don't particularly dislike any of them.

[Triple Naitch]

I would say Homer is my favorite Simpson and Lisa is my least favorite.

BTW, thedric I nominate Mr. Burns for King of the Villains. I am just too lazy for a PM.

[Hornicane]

"This is a thousand monkeys working at a thousand typewriters. Soon, they'll have written the greatest novel known to mankind... It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times"?! you stupid monkey"

:rofl: Classic.

[Triple Naitch]

:rofl:

[thedamndest]

Best Simpson: Homer
Worst Simpson: Marge

Best Regular: Mr. Burns
Worst Regular: Mr. Teeny

Best Guest Star: Hank Scorpio
Worst Guest Star: Krusty's Daughter

[toxic rooster]

Best Simpson: Homer
Worst Simpson: Lisa

Best Regular: Moe
Worst Regular: Martin Prince

Best Guest Star: Hank Scorpio
Worst Guest Star: Ronaldo

[mitchables]

I'm something of a Simpsons nerd, as those of you who've been here as long as I have will know (Simpsons trivia threads, anyone?), so this will probably be a little long winded and probably nerdy, so consider yourselves warned.

Best Simpson: Homer. Hands down. Even despite his Peter Griffining in recent seasons. Homer Simpson has, in the last twenty years, spawned more catchphrases, pop culturisms, obscure and not-so-obscure references, and impersonators than any other character in recent memory. He has his own dictionary entry ("d'oh!"), for crying out loud. He is far and away, over the longest period of time, the funniest - and most flawed - person on the show, and yet at his core, he is a sweet, gentle man who does everything he can for his family, which ultimately makes him lovable. Episodes like "Lost Our Lisa", "Lisa the Beauty Queen" and "Lisa the Greek" are perfect showcases of his emotional depth juxtaposed against his comedic qualities. It's no coincidence those are all something of Lisa episodes. Homer/Lisa stories are often this way, and I really have always loved the way The Simpsons has portrayed their familial bonds so accurately, beautifully and hilariously. The father/daughter and mother/son dynamics are always done expertly (see also "Marge Be Not Proud" for an excellent example of Marge and Bart in this sort of situation). But I digress. Homer, over the duration of the series, has developed into one of the most hilarious, interesting, lovable, sympathetic and memorable characters on television in general, let alone within his own show, and it's for those reasons that he gets my vote as the best character on the show.

<s>Worst</s> Least favourite Simpson: Marge, but this is misleading. I love Marge. I think she is one of the most underrated characters on the show. She is hilarious for reasons that no other Simpson is - Marge is slowly going insane. She is the real product of being a mother to four children under the age of 40. Some of her funniest moments are when she's seemingly losing her mind ("Fear of Flying", in particular), and her bizarre mannerisms remind me scarily of my mother, and of most people's mother's that I know ("Why are you always trying to give us potatoes, Mom?" "I just think they're neat!"). She is responsible for one of the funniest lines in the show's history ("Homer! Come quick! Bart's quit his tutoring job and joined a violence gang!"), and, let's face it, when she has her hair down: yeah, you would.

ALL THAT ASIDE... what Supreme said before is pretty right. She doesn't really have as much depth as the rest of the family. Yes, she loves them all, is emotionally a very well written character and has her funny moments, but beyond that, she rarely sustains interests in things outside of the family and doesn't seem to ever really branch out from Homer's shadow. Lisa and Bart can carry shows in their own right - and even a Maggie story works because it holds a certain air of novelty, but Marge ones usually rely on a really solid B story running behind it as well. I would not go so far as to say she is the worst Simpson, because she is not a bad character and I actually love her, but as far as the family is concerned, she is probably my least favourite.

Best Regular: Krusty the Clown. Wow. Never has a regular made me laugh so often and so many times at his throwaway lines, gestures, and facial expressions. Krusty is perfect, and it's probably due to his Homer-esque design. Krusty episodes are always gold. Especially the early ones: Krusty Gets Busted, Kamp Krusty, and Krusty Gets Kancelled are all staple classics of every Simpsons fan. I will probably never forget the face he has on when the cameras cut back to him following the disastrous airing of Worker & Parasite, before yelling in disgust, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" - it's probably one of my favourite sight gags in the show's history that is topped off by his hilariously inappropriate indignation. He's also had his deep moments - "Like Father, Like Clown" is an early example of the Simpsons' ability to achieve a legitimate sense of emotionality alongside its humour. Krusty has never let me down as a regular, and I can always rely on him for laughs.

"How can you vote for Burns' movie?"
"Let's just say it moved me... to a bigger house! Oops, I said the quiet part loud and the loud part quiet."

Amazing.

Runner up by the fucking skin of his hideous nose: Moe. I love Moe so much.

Worst Regular: Manjula Nahasapeemapetilon. Next. I think that says something.

Best Guest Star: Kelsey Grammar. He is always superb as former Senator "Sideshow" Robert "Bob" Terwilliger. He only really ever sounded like he phoned it in once ("Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming") but even then he was still brilliant. His readings are hilarious, and his character in general is the goods: "Cape Feare" is still one of my all-time favourite episodes.

Big close runner-up props to A. Brooks, because he is amazing, but much less utilised (sadly). He was Cowboy Bob and Jacques as early as Season 1, and as Supreme said: Brad Goodman? Hank Scorpio? Excellence.

Ultra big super-duper close runner up with "in memoriam" props to Phil Hartman. You know why.

Worst Guest Star: I'm generally not a fan when they have celebrities on who play themselves as opposed to characters but I think Kathy Griffin's performance as Francine even trumps all of those because on an animated show, all you've got is your voice: you can't float by on being a funny looking moderately-attractive-if-I-was-drunker woman. And her voice is horrendous.

That about sums me up. Goddamn.

Also, a treat for the connoisseurs in this thread:

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[LaLa]

Best Simpson: The Grandpa
Worst Simpson: Maggie

Best Regular: Comic Book Guy
Worst Regular: Flander's sons

Best Guest Star: Sideshow Bob
Worst Guest Star: ??

[Brujesino]

this is way too hard

best homer
worst homers mom

best regular-mr.burns
worst-?

guest star-sideshow bob

worst star-i wasnt fond of jon stewarts appearance on the simpsons i dont know why

[Fignuts]

Homer
Marge

Crazy Cat Lady
Never cared for the Priest

Sideshow Bob
dunno

[mitchables]

Reading all these six word answers, I can't help but feel like maybe I went a little overboard.

[Juan]

No mitch, it was a great read.

[mitchables]

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:love:

[mitchables]

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He's so profound :'(

[ct2k]

Best Simpson: Homer - despite the way they've slightly ruined his character in recent years, imo
Worst Simpson: Marge I guess

Best Regular: Mr Burns
Worst Regular: dunno

Best Guest Star: Hank Scorpio
Worst Guest Star: Ricky Gervais

[BigDaddyCool]

Best Simpson: Bart
Worst Simpson: Lisa

Best Regular: Nelson
Worst Regular: Nerd with glasses (not milhouse, the taller one)
<a href="http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s159/bdcjacko/?action=view&current=untitled.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s159/bdcjacko/untitled.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Best Guest Star: Kellesy Grammar
Worst Guest Star: Any that just play themselves.

[toxic rooster]

Data.

[Gertner]

Best Simpson: Homer
Worst Simpson: Lisa is God awful. Any episode with Lisa as the main focus sucks.

Best Guest Star: Ron Howard
Worst Guest Star: 50 Cent

Best Regular: Professor Fink
Worst Regular: Nelson

[toxic rooster]

Lisa is not awful. She just represents the do-gooding, no-fun geek that everyone tries to avoid. You'll find her episodes are actually pretty funny, though generally not for Lisa's do-goodingness but the other character's resistance to it.

You remember that time the Simpson relatives were doing the circle pit running into each other with saucepans on their heads? You think that could happen without an 'embarrassed Lisa' storyline to go along with it?

[mitchables]

Worst Simpson: Lisa is God awful. Any episode with Lisa as the main focus sucks.

DISAGREE.

Admittedly, yes, as time has gone on, Lisa's causes and beliefs have probably exceeded her relatively short eight years (you show me an eight year old Buddhist vegetarian environmentalist whose parents aren't Buddhist vegetarian environmentalists themselves), but this has been necessary in order for the show to address issues that have become topical as the show has gotten older. At the base of it, her vegetarianism, love of animals, spiritual awareness and general tolerance is supposed to be something of an ethical centrepoint for the show. If Marge is the morals, Lisa is the ethics. In many ways, she's an excellent role model. And, however awkwardly, her character has grown to reflect the fact that she's nearly 20 years older than when we first met her, but is still stuck in an eight year old child's body.

That said, especially in the first 12 or so seasons of the show, Lisa never fails to show you that she's still a little girl. She gets up to mischief, laughs at cartoons, schemes with her brother, cries over boys, plays an instrument, keeps a diary, plays with dolls and generally has a very sweet dimension to her.

Her episodes are not necessarily always the funniest, but they're generally pretty good. Just look at the ones I listed before: Lisa the Greek, Lost Our Lisa, and Lisa the Beauty Queen - as well as Lisa the Vegetarian - are not gut-busters in their own right, but the story and dynamics between Homer and Lisa is sweet and honest television that you'd be hard pressed to find in more madcap episodes when it's easy to forget that the whole reason the Simpsons is the most popular animated show in history is because yes, it's hilarious, but above all, it has heart and soul.

http://aycu05.webshots.com/image/19684/2003543380301388253_rs.jpg

[Xero]

I'm gay for Moleman.

[Supreme Olajuwon]

Also gonna add Patty Bouvier as worst regular. Selma is fine and has had a couple interesting stories, but Patty is way too boring.

[Gone Mad]

Best Simpson: Homer
Worst Simpson: Maggie

Best Regular: a toss-up between Milhouse and Krusty
Worst Regular: Martin

Best Guest Star: A. Brooks ("You ever go mad without power? Nobody listens") and yes, I have to credit Phil Hartman too. Hutz and McClure own.
Worst Guest Star: Any of the past couple seasons

[Jeritron]

Best Simpson: Homer
Worst Simpson: Maggie

Best Regular: Millhouse
Worst Regular: Dewey Largo

Best Guest Star: Toughest category here. I'd go with Albert Brooks and/or Phil Hartman if they qualify. I only question it because they are frequent guest stars.
If it's a one-off guest star I'd probably go for James Woods.
Worst Guest Star: Not really sure. Nothing from the first 10 seasons. Probably something recent and pointless.

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod><b>Favorite Simpson:</b> Gotta be Homer

<b>Least Favorite Simpson:</b> I agree with Marge pretty much for the reasons Mitch listed. Not a bad character, just unfortunately the worst of a really good bunch.

<b>Favorite Regular:</b> Glad to see Krusty getting love.

"Let me get this straight...you took all the money you made from franchising your name, and you bet it AGAINST the Harlem Globetrotters?"
"I thought the Generals were due!" :'(

I'd say Krusty's my favorite regular, but it's not an easy choice as the vast majority of the regulars are hilarious for all of their own reasons.

<b>Least favorite regular:</b> Probably Martin. To be honest there are so many awesome regulars that the less notable ones really begin to stand out.

<b>Best Guest Star:</b> I really can't pick between Kelsey Grammar and Phil Hartman. Also in terms of a one-off appearance (well he ended up appearing again much later but still) I give props to David Hyde Pierce as Cecil. "Brother from Another Series" is probably one of my favorite episodes.

<b>Worst Guest Star:</b> I dunno. There have been way too many guest stars in recent years and the recent ones are usually pretty bad.</font>

[Seth82]

Best Simpson: Bart
Worst Simpson: Lisa

Best Regular: Moe
Worst Regular: Groundskeeper Willie

Best Guest Star: Phil Hartman
Worst Guest Star: George and Barbara Bush

[Gertner]

DISAGREE.

Admittedly, yes, as time has gone on, Lisa's causes and beliefs have probably exceeded her relatively short eight years (you show me an eight year old Buddhist vegetarian environmentalist whose parents aren't Buddhist vegetarian environmentalists themselves), but this has been necessary in order for the show to address issues that have become topical as the show has gotten older. At the base of it, her vegetarianism, love of animals, spiritual awareness and general tolerance is supposed to be something of an ethical centrepoint for the show. If Marge is the morals, Lisa is the ethics. In many ways, she's an excellent role model. And, however awkwardly, her character has grown to reflect the fact that she's nearly 20 years older than when we first met her, but is still stuck in an eight year old child's body.

That said, especially in the first 12 or so seasons of the show, Lisa never fails to show you that she's still a little girl. She gets up to mischief, laughs at cartoons, schemes with her brother, cries over boys, plays an instrument, keeps a diary, plays with dolls and generally has a very sweet dimension to her.

Her episodes are not necessarily always the funniest, but they're generally pretty good. Just look at the ones I listed before: Lisa the Greek, Lost Our Lisa, and Lisa the Beauty Queen - as well as Lisa the Vegetarian - are not gut-busters in their own right, but the story and dynamics between Homer and Lisa is sweet and honest television that you'd be hard pressed to find in more madcap episodes when it's easy to forget that the whole reason the Simpsons is the most popular animated show in history is because yes, it's hilarious, but above all, it has heart and soul.

http://aycu05.webshots.com/image/19684/2003543380301388253_rs.jpg

it's a fucking comedy show, I'm not watching it to get stupid enlightenment. Episodes that feature Lisa are boring.

[jerichoholicninja]

it's a fucking comedy show, I'm not watching it to get stupid enlightenment. Episodes that feature Lisa are boring.

Summed up my feelings completely. She never really grows either. She'll try to make some sort of ethical stand for a whole episode only to give up at the end accept her failure.

On a very contradictory note, however, she is the only character that really has changed. In early seasons she was similar to Bart in her childishness but all of a sudden she became the activist, mature character she is now.

[Jeritron]

Yea, and Bart and Homer play off of her intellect and responsibility all the time. She's the ying to their yang.
I think she's an amazing character and some of the things she says, does, or the reactions she inspires in her brother/father are classic.

[Jeritron]

Episodes that center on Bart and Lisa saving the day are one of my favorite types. I really do love their relationship

[Nervous Ferret]

I love that one scene when Bart is depressed and walking by or something but Millhouse is playing videogames and Millhouse puts in 'THRILLHOUSE' for his name :'(:'(:'(:'(:'( ahahaha

[Jeritron]

http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/3142/thrillhouse5ul.jpghttp://www.thrillhouse.com/thrillhouse2.jpg

[toxic rooster]

On a very contradictory note, however, she is the only character that really has changed.

Uh....Ned Flanders....Moe....Mr Burns....etc....

[toxic rooster]

Selma and Patty

[thedamndest]

Patty is a lesbian.

[Supreme Olajuwon]

Nelson has evolved a great deal too, although I see that as a negative.

[Schlomey]

Best Simpson: Homer
Worst Simpson: Lisa Simpson

Best Regular: Joe Montagne as Fat Tony
Worst Regular: I hate Patty & Selma episodes

Best Guest Star: Johnny Cash as the trippy coyote
Worst Guest Star: Mark Cuban

[toxic rooster]

God fucking damn. The Simpsons would be a quarter the show it is without Lisa.

Obviously she doesn't have the fucking hilarious lines a la Homer or Moe. She's a foil. You people just don't know comedy. Uff.

[Supreme Olajuwon]

I'm not even gonna say that she's not that bad. Lisa is fucking awesome.

[Schlomey]

I had to pick a simpson family member. Barring Maggie who really is not much of an actual character (I know there are a few good exceptions but I'm speaking of generally)...Lisa is easilly my least favorite of the other members.

You can't say Marge cuz she spends all of her scenes and eps based on her focusing on the relationship between her and Homer..and those eps are amazing.