Best/Worst Character: The Simpsons

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Originally Posted by Gertner 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.