Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson, perpetually age 10, is the oldest child of the Simpson family in The Simpsons. He is the only son of Homer and Marge Simpson, and the older brother of Lisa and Maggie. He is mischievous, rebellious, misunderstood, disruptive and "potentially dangerous." 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 off of Matt Groening (who's the creator of The Simpsons) and his older brother, Mark Groening.

Even at a young age, Bart has still accomplished tons of feats. He has won an award for his Angry Dad web series^[13], he has discovered a new comet which was named after him^[14], and he also has performed in a successful band with Milhouse Van Houten, Nelson Muntz, and Ralph Wiggum.^[15]

Quick Answers

Who is Bart Simpson?

Bart Simpson (whose full name is Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson) 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, and the older brother of Lisa and Maggie

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How old would Bart Simpson be in real life?

Bart Simpson is (and remained) 10 years old in the series. His television debut was in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. The Simpsons as a show aired for the first time on December 17, 1989. Depending on which date you take as his true introduction to television, in 2023, he would either be 45 going on 46 or 43 going on 44.

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How many languages can Bart Simpson speak?

Bart is a polyglot and can speak several languages with varying degrees of fluency, including French, Japanese, Cantonese and Latin.

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What is Bart Simpson famous for?

Among many things, Bart Simpson is famous for being a notorious prankster that often lead to unfortunate consequences, for his catchphrase "¡Ay, caramba!", as well as being the nemesis of Sideshow Bob.

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Who does Bart Simpson end up with?

It is not known whom Bart will end up with. It is known that at some point, hen will date and marry Jenda, though the marriage won't last. He is also known to have had a romance with Mary and Darcy, as well as having flirted with Nikki and Laura. None of these interactions ended in a lasting relationship though.

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Description

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

Biography

In one episode, Homer and Marge conceived Bart in 1980 after watching The Empire Strikes Back at the cinema.^[16] Later on, however, Bart and his younger sister Lisa were unfamiliar with 1990s culture.^[17][18][19]

Being a beautiful young boy, Bart is a self-proclaimed underachiever and prankster whose consistently in detention, and, on top of his erratic behavior, is easily distracted when he is now a little devilish boy. 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 others originates all the way back to before he was even born. Bart "mooned" Dr. Hibbert whilst performing 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 a 10 minute old newborn).^[16] Bart's first words were "Ay Caramba"^[20] after he walked in on Homer and Marge at a poor time.

When his younger sister, Lisa, was born, Bart got jealous of all the attention Lisa was getting and tried to make himself the center of attention. Bart eventually couldn’t take it anymore and decided to run away from the Simpson family. After telling Lisa he was doing so and how he felt about her getting attention, she said her first word: “Bart!” Bart heard Lisa and realized how much she loved him, and decided he had to stay after all.

Bart's interests include Krusty the Clown (he is "Krusty Buddy" number 16302), reading comic books (especially the Radioactive Man series), watching television (especially The Krusty the Clown Show and The Itchy & Scratchy Show), terrorizing Lisa, playing video games, assisting Lisa to solve various problems and issues (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 once hinted that his favorite movies are Jaws and the Star Wars trilogy.^[21] His best friend is Milhouse Van Houten.

Date of birth inconsistency

In "My Sister, My Sitter”, although he is two years older than his sister, 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. April 1st is also Bart's birthday in "The Simpsons Uncensored Family Album". Bart was conceived the same night Homer and Marge go to the premiere of Empire Strikes Back which was released nationwide on June 18th so fits with an April 1st birthday. However, in "Simpsorama", Bart states that his birthday is on February 23rd. In "Homer Scissorhands" before they fight Lisa taunts, "You're gonna regret the day you were born." and Bart replies, "I already do. It's too close to Christmas." Also Lisa's birthday would be August 2nd since in a flashback during "Lisa's First Word" she was born the same day as the finale for the Women's 100-metre Butterfly at the Los Angeles Olympics.

Personality

Bart is a kind-hearted, loyal and energetic, but sometimes very rowdy and mischievous boy.

Bart is a notorious prankster and a little devilish boy 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 significantly 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.^[22] Bart has ADHD.^[23] 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.^[24] 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. The focus on 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, though, 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 Springfield, Bart uses the cannon of the tank to shoot down an MLB satellite, thereby actually proving his suspicions to be correct.^[25]

Bart also displayed an 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 recognizing 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 high quality talent in ballet despite his initial hatred of it, and he did not realize this until he attempted to take off his leotard. He has also managed to do this by choice in episodes such as "Blame It on Lisa", wherein Bart learns fluent Spanish in less time during a plane trip to Brazil, only to be told by Marge that the Brazilians speak Portuguese.

His pranks can range from being relatively harmless to extremely 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^[26], in addition to stemming from out of some deep-down rage for being told that he will be a failure as early as his preschool days (of which it once led to him developing suicidal thoughts potent enough to write an extremely graphic drawing of his own demise). Despite his negatives, however, he has set some limits on the mischief he can cause; he won't lower himself as to stealing the school textbooks like Lisa did whilst being the school's hall monitor.^[27]

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 ergo they have a distaste for him. Furthermore, he also often befriends kids that are of lower popularity like his best friend 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.^[28] Bart's hidden integrity is also evidenced when he is dared to shoot a bird with a BB gun by Nelson. Rathen than outright denying 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 make things 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 that involved faux wedding gifts and a fake wedding.^[29]

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,^[30] 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.^[31] 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 later welcomed back as an apology^[32], 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.^[33]

Although Lisa is a vegetarian, Bart is a real animal lover in his family. He could become extremely fixated to animals that fall under his care and will, most of the time, save any animal 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.

While he's still a dangerous boy, he is his mom's beautiful and sweet boy while his dad calls him a troublemaker. He's show affections to his sisters and his allies. It is also revealed in the episode Diary Queen, he is shown have a nicer and cute side of persona.

Criminal record

This article or section is incomplete. Please improve the article, or discuss the issue on the talk page.

• Indecent exposure: In The Simpsons Movie, Bart is dared by Homer to skateboard from home to Krusty Burger completely naked. Chief Wiggum notices this and chains Bart to a lamppost by the restaurant.
• Harassment over Telephone: Bart makes prank calls to Moe at his tavern as a running gag.
• Assault with a Deadly Weapon: Throughout the subplot of "Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em", Bart tries to trigger Skinner's allergies.
• Arson: Bart once accidentally burned down his Christmas tree when opening gifts early, and then lied about it. In addition, while he was not actually responsible for this instance, he unknowingly takes the heat for the charge of arson in order to allow Nelson Muntz, the actual culprit, to win the football championships in "Bart Star" (as he believed it was merely for a minor charge).
• Burglary: Bart technically committed this crime in "The Canine Mutiny" in order to retrieve Santa's Little Helper, although the police largely overlooked this. Like with arson above, while he was not actually responsible for this instance, he unknowingly takes the heat for the charge of burglary in order to allow the actual culprit, Nelson, to win the football championships in "Bart Star" (as he believed it was merely for a minor charge).
• Underage drinking: In The Simpsons Movie, Bart downs an entire mini bottle of whiskey to drown his troubles. He also ends up (albeit accidentally) drunk from downing a stream of Saint Patrick's Day beer from one of the floats and retained enough effects from the experience that he attempted to accompany Homer to get beer at Moe's.
• Vandalism: Bart sprays graffiti all around Springfield. He tries to avoid trouble to pointing it to his alias El Barto.
• Abuse
  • Animal Abuse: In "Duffless", Bart's first science fair experiment was to test the effects of cigarette smoke on dogs, which he did on Santa's Little Helper. Santa's Little Helper's health and respiration was negatively affected, to which Marge chastised him to not give him anymore cigarettes again. Also, in "How Munched is That Birdie in the Window?", he strangles an Ostrich almost to death, although this was in self-defense.
  • Abuse of other people, particularly siblings: Lisa has suffered great abuse and suffering from hi brother, both physically and mentally. This abuse goes all the way back to Lisa's days as a newborn, and Bart tried to make himself the center of attention through any method he had - even if it meant cutting Lisa's hair. The two had also annoyed each other on occasion. One time, his actions led to Lisa filing a restraining order against him until they made up.
    
    While Lisa is a frequent target for his abuse, taking consideration into his sibling rivalry with her, he has also mentally and physically hurt other people, especially people of authority. Once, he lured Edna Krabappel into a date he had with no intention of keeping.
• Destruction of Property: On many occasions, Bart accidentally or intentionally destroys other people's belongings such as in "The Bart of War". Bart and Milhouse intrude the Flanders' house as their "toy" fly is eaten by a cat. When they see Ned's collection of The Beatles merchandise, they mess around and eventually misplace and break some items, much to the displeasure of Ned and Marge. He had also once hijacked a tank out of Fort Fragg and shot down an MLB satellite under the impression it was watching everyone (this while under the effects of Focusyn). He also deliberately shot a grenade launcher at Skinner's car during his brief time in military school.
• Disturbing Public Peace: Bart has also been known in one instance to have caused the entire city of Springfield to fall into a state of chaos due to having performed an experiment of amplifying the broadcast of sound through stacking together megaphones at the Springfield Police Department. Also, during a cruise trip, he used a movie starring Treat Williams to trick the people aboard Royalty Valhalla into thinking the rest of the world had fallen into a pandemic in his quest to achieve the forever cruise.
  
  In addition to peace within the general public, Bart's rebellious attitude has driven wedges between people of high authority, most especially the staff of Springfield Elementary; one time having driven them all to strike, and another taking over the school wth his peers after one gets injured and after superintendant Gary Chalmers gets fired, leaving a vaccum of power he and the other kids exploit.
• Defacing National Monuments: At one point, Bart cut off the head of the monument of Jebediah Springfield as a feat to impress the local bullies, although he felt immensely guilty about it afterward. This then results in the entire town of Springfield hunting him and Homer down, ironically just as the two were about to return the head anyway, until they're forced into telling the backstory of why and how Bart cut the head off.
• Psychological Torment: Bart has been shown at times to have caused distress and disorder for his own amusement; some instances include using a Superstar Celebrity Microphone to hijack radio airwaves and falsely misleading listeners into believing the interference is a real occurrence, and another includes the repainting of candy hearts with crude slogans in which he caused a psychological breakdown in Principal Skinner through having accidentally invoked a PTSD flashback. Bart then comments with "Cool, I broke Skinner's brain!"
• Fraud: Posing as a representative for the non-existent International Water Commission of Springfield and claiming toilets are devouring people, Bart calls a recipient in Australia to see and disprove Lisa's explanation of the Coriolis Effect. Though he is proved wrong, he orders the caller on the other end, a young boy, to investigate the situation at their neighbors, which Bart doesn't realize that the boy lives out in the vast middle of the countryside. Surprisingly, with no one having hung up the phone that day, the bill amassed grows to be $900 USD, and this eventually culminated in an international incident with a lawsuit from the nation of Australia.
• Forgery: In "The Wandering Juvie", Bart uses the wedding gift registry at Costington's as a prank to register himself and his bride, "Lotta Cooties", for wedding presents. Bart invites many people to his so-called "wedding" and plans to take all the unused gifts back for store credit, but he is stopped in his tracks by Chief Wiggum, who arrests Bart and sentences him to six months of juvenile detention by Judge Constance Harm. Also, one Christmas was turned to a city-wide mess when Bart lied about the loss of his tree (he had just burned it down), leading to the entire town giving their money to the family.
• Attempted Treason: One of Bart's worst crimes to date, he committed an act of treason in "Homer the Father"; in that episode, betrayed his own country by selling out secrets from the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and almost gave it to Chinese agents, all for a Minibike. However out of remorse, he managed to get the USB drive back and swallowed it, much to the dismay of the Chinese agents.
• Grand Theft Auto: Bart stole Chalmers' car after it was revealed he hid his keys in the sun visor.
• Peeping: While done out of the kindness of his heart after seeing his sister Lisa be insulted by Ms. Cantwell, in "Black-Eyed, Please", he managed to sneak into the female bathroom and take a video of her insulting Lisa.
• Indirect Murder: in "Replaceable You" he was partially responsible (albeit unintentionally and unknowingly) for the death of Alice Glick when the "Robopets" he co-invented went rogue at the Springfield Retirement Castle.
• Joyriding: In "The Parent Rap", Bart and Milhouse accidentally released the parking brake after breaking into Wiggum's Police car and drove through an award ceremony in a park.

Sexuality

Bart has had many relationships with girls and in the future marries and divorces Jenda. However, he has also been hinted as being attracted to boys. In "Bart’s Friend Falls in Love", Milhouse is smitten with a transfer student named Samantha Stankey; Bart schemes not to steal the girl but to detonate the affair so he can have Milhouse back. Whatever discomfort Bart evinces at Milhouse’s emotional attachment to him takes the familiar, unsubtle form of denial. And when Bart does find friendship with another boy, it’s expressly coded as romantic: "The Haw-Hawed Couple" of season 18 sees him growing close to class bully Nelson Muntz, only to wind up fearing the intensity of his devotion. In the end, Bart wistfully cradles one of his denim vests — an allusion to Brokeback Mountain.

So it can either be down to Bart being possibly drawn to both genders or his emotionally sensitive side leads him to acting more emotionally closer with others in some circumstances, regardless of who.

Appearance

Bart is a beautiful ten-year old boy who has yellow skin and blond spiky hair (naturally pale red as revealed in "No Loan Again, Naturally") that matches the color of his skin (similar to his sisters - on one occasion, this caused distress in all three of the siblings and had them wonder where their heads end and their hair actually starts), sports, and, like the other characters of The Simpsons, has blue eyes (although the pupils look like 2 black dots). He wears an vermillion shirt (salmon in "Bart Gets an "F"", blue short-sleeved shirt on early merchandise), blue shorts and blue sneakers with white socks. He sometimes wears his "lucky" red baseball cap and carries around his skateboard or a slingshot.

In his future appearances, his hair is usually longer, and he is shown to be slightly fat.

Alter Egos and Aliases

Bart sprays graffiti around Springfield using the name "El Barto", and his superhero alter-ego is "Bartman". He called himself Cupcake Kid^[34] when Homer became Pie Man. Bart is also known as "The Devil in Blue Shorts"^[35] by the organizers of the Teacher of the Year Awards, but he was believed to be an urban legend.

El Barto

El Barto is what Bart calls himself. Principal Skinner considers El Barto the most wanted kid in the school. It is spotted in many episodes, usually where graffiti is normally. It also appeared on all four discs of the Complete Tenth Season DVD box-set during the 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment logo before the DVD menu. Here, Bart wrote El Barto on the 20th Century Fox structure just before a security guard catches Bart. When the security guard finally manages to catch Bart, he sprayed the spray paint into the guard's face.

Relationships

Family

A family tree showing Bart's extended family and ancestry can be seen here.

Homer

Due to Bart's mischievousness and rebelliousness in addition to Homer's often uncaring and incompetent behavior, the two have a turbulent relationship since Homer called his son a troublemaker. Bart often addresses Homer by his given name instead of "Dad" (when he was a baby, this was because other adults would refer to him as this; he now mainly does this to him out of disrespect), while Homer in turn often refers to him as "the boy" rather than "son" or "Bart". Usually, when Homer finds out that Bart has said or done something bad and/or stupid, he turns red and shouts "Why you little!" (often followed by throttling/strangling him) or simply "BART!" Bart once returned the favor when he learned that Homer, in order to buy back incriminating photos of him dropping Bart down as a baby, spent all the money that had been earned by starring in Baby-So-Fresh commercials relating to alleviating bad smells from babies, eventually resorting to using Homer's belt to strangle his larynx due to being unable to strangle Homer the usual way due to their size differences, and directly led to a (temporary) separation from his father.^[36]

It is also implied once that, whenever he messes up, he almost expects people to strangle him and even goes as far as to strangle himself (presumably due to his experience with Homer), such as when he accidentally let go of Ned Flanders' best fishing rod when attempting to fish with Flanders, Bart instinctively starts clutching his own neck and imitating strangling before realizing and reacting with surprise that Ned Flanders isn't strangling him. Homer and Bart's relationship reaches a breaking point following Homer's pollution of Lake Springfield (causing Springfield to be sealed under a giant dome by the EPA), with Bart even going so far as saying that he wishes Flanders was his father. Even though at other times, Bart is shown bonding with his father, such as through coin collecting or selling grease. Bart has even danced opposite Homer when the latter became a popular mascot.

It is often suggested that Bart is at times hurt that he and his father are in opposition to each other. Homer, despite being under the influence of marijuana at the time, genuinely explains that it is because Bart's birth signified the end of his youthful foolishness, as he now had a family to provide for, which intimidated him. Also adding that he is very much like Bart, as like his son, he is greatly misunderstood and insecure about his place in the family.

Nevertheless, the two really do love each other deep down. Examples are their protective instincts towards each other, like when Bart disobeyed Homer's orders to jump Springfield gorge, Homer drove the way over there and not only stopped him, but also tried to show him what it's like losing a family member for no good reason by attempting to do it himself, only for Bart in turn give up jumping the gorge so he would not do so, and the 2 even exchanged "I love you's". Plus, one time when George Bush spanked him, Homer, in a rage, started a pranking war that led to a brutal fight against the former president. When Bart was trapped down a well, his father stopped at nothing to dig a hole to find and save him. In addition, Homer has also "protected" Bart from the horrible sight of his nude aunt Patty by bleaching his son's eyes. Bart questioned this only to discover that Homer was looking out for him and appreciated it. Also, when he took note of Bart's rather merciless mimicking of Abe's "Gorgeous Godfrey" persona on other children, Homer berated his father for this.

Marge

Marge, who calls Bart her "special little guy" and her "beautiful and sweet boy", 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.^[37]

Unlike with Homer and Lisa, Bart never goes out of his way to prank Marge, and feels very guilty whenever he upsets or hurts her in any way. Marge helps serve as Bart’s moral compass that keeps his behavior from drifting too far into worse territories. And she's most definitely the one where Bart got his empathy and sensitive side from. Marge trusts and has her belief in Bart being a good person despite his misbehavior, but this has been challenged such as when Bart stole a video game from the store and shot a bird (although she didn’t know he didn’t mean to, at the time).

Lisa

Bart shares a sibling rivalry with Lisa, who is two years and thirty-eight days younger than he is.^[38] While Bart has often hurt Lisa out of jealousy, and even fought her physically, they are very close—he loves her as deeply as she does him, and has always apologized for going too far. Most of the time, when Bart takes charge of the children of Springfield, Lisa is shown as not only supportive but at times even stands by his side (along with Nelson and Milhouse). He is often shown to be very protective of her when she is threatened or insulted by others (even though he frequently insults her himself), evidenced by his willingness to fight Weasel for stealing and destroying her cupcakes and stand up to Nelson when he shoved her to get to Milhouse (even though Nelson assumed Bart would side with him).

Indeed, in "Bart of Darkness", Bart's love and protectiveness towards Lisa gave him the strength to work past his broken foot (the cast being caught in a trash can, stuck on a hose, attached to a dirt mound, and pulling the weight of a bicycle with a stubborn dog leashed onto it) in order to rescue his sister when under the belief that she was in danger of being killed by Ned Flanders. In addition, Bart has shown himself willing to put himself through labor, swallow his pride, and even purchase things for her, as when trying to make her feel better, he offered to make her bed, start a foundation for the animals she saved, and even spend money on a $500 record instead of a long-desired novelty. Bart has even sacrificed a dream job (Hall Monitor) and good grades to protect her from a damaging punishment caused by her own actions and helped her restore her reputation among the other children when she betrayed them by way of posing as a college student. Bart also seems to acknowledge Lisa as his better when it comes down to solving problems (even though he was instrumental in rescuing snakes on Whacking Day and retrieving his father's Hive grill) and frequently goes to her for advice. Both siblings formed a dynamic crime-solving duo during many of their encounters with Sideshow Bob, Bart's nemesis. At one time, he enters a series of robot battles with his robot: Chief Knock-a-Homer (which is Homer as the robot hoping to gain Bart's trust), and tries to cheer up Lisa when Snowball II dies. Also, in "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" and "Holidays of Future Passed, he tells Lisa that she's the person Bart has always wanted to be.

Maggie

Arguably, Bart's best relationship with his family is with Maggie, as they more often than not get along quite well (mostly because she is a baby). Bart's shine to Maggie has come in the form of his pulling various pranks with her, playing and bonding with her after he and Milhouse were separated for a time, and at one point square-dancing with her at a Dude Ranch.

Since Life on the Fast Lane, Bart sings some lullabies to Maggie like when he did with Lisa and Homer. After the lullaby, he promised to his baby sister to sing her again soon, they also shared their awesome and strong relationship as Maggie's big brother and Bart's baby sister.

Friends

While being disliked by most adults, Bart is rather popular with other kids and has very many friends at his school. His closest friend is Milhouse Van Houten; Bart's other friends include Nelson Muntz, Lewis, Richard, Bashir bin Laden, Nikki McKenna, Jessica Lovejoy, Donny, Laura Powers and even the less socially desirable children of his school, such as Ralph Wiggum, Martin Prince, Database, and Wendell Borton.

Milhouse Van Houten

Out of all of them, Bart's childhood best friend is Milhouse Van Houten. Though the two are close friends since their first time meeting since kindergarten, Bart has accidentally put Milhouse into trouble countless times throughout the series, with more than one occasion causing physical harm to Milhouse due to Bart's lack of regard for Milhouse's safety. At one time, Bart was driving a forklift with Milhouse standing on the fork while the forklift was moving. When Marge stopped Bart from driving the forklift, Milhouse was sent flying and was knocked unconscious.

The relationship between Milhouse and Bart has been strained several times. When Milhouse fell in love with Samantha Stankey and spent less time with his best buddy, Bart separated the two by notifying Samantha's father, who placed Samantha in a Catholic school. This resulted in a fight between the two friends, although Bart eventually offered an apology. In one episode, Bart stated that he was a little attracted to Milhouse, to get Homer ticked off.

Nelson Muntz

Bart's relationship with fellow school ne'er-do-gooder Nelson Muntz is rather rocky, even in recent times. Bart's first encounter with Nelson resulted in the bully recieving a bleeding nose in an act of self-defense; however, Nelson immediately took a dislike to Bart. An ensuing encounter resulted in Bart returning home all trashed up and in a trash can. Bart eventually rallied the kids of Springfield to fight back against Nelson and his cronies, which led to the bullies surrendering.

While he has bullied Bart in the same way he has bullied the other kids, Nelson does respect him and is regularly seen in Bart's circle of friends; this turns a heel in "The Haw-Hawed Couple", where they're forced to work together; despite a brief separation, they would reunite by the end.

The show has suggested that their friendship could exceed that of Milhouse.

Relationships With Springfield Elementary School Staff

Bart is understood to be a huge troublemaker at his school, resulting in him often being enemies of the teachers, particularly Edna Krabappel, Principal Seymour Skinner and Groundskeeper Willie. Despite this, while he does take joy in tormenting them, he does have some degree of respect for them, and would never deliberately intend to get them fired.

During the 20th anniversary of Seymour Skinner's time as principal, Bart tried to prepare a meal for Skinner to honor him. Bart initially attempted to give him scoops of dog food with American flags sticking out of them (either as a prank or because, according to Bart, Skinner actually likes dog food), although a combination of factors, namely Marge suggesting he make a cake instead after initially telling him off, as well as Homer obliviously eating the dog food beforehand, Bart instead made Skinner a cake (although Homer ate it before "Skinner" had the chance to cut it after the unexpected arrival of the real Seymour Skinner while everyone was surprised at Skinner, or rather Armin Tamzarian's admission to being a fraud).^[39]

Romantic Relationships

While he believes in "cooties", Bart has had numerous relationships and crushes on a number of girls in town, despite that most of them had ended in breaking up. Of course while in these relationships, Bart gets into more trouble than he usually does by himself.

Laura Powers

A teenager who Bart had a crush on, Laura Powers was the Simpsons' babysitter for Lisa, Bart, and Maggie. When Bart soon found out that Laura was going out with Jimbo Jones, he later prank-called Moe, under the name of Jimbo Jones, in order to expose him as the cowardly bully instead of the "bad boy" he claimed, all in front of Laura when Moe threatened him. Laura then said she would date Bart if he were older and kisses him, and made her first prank call to Moe, under the name of "Ivana Tinkle", with help from Bart.^[40]

Jessica Lovejoy

Jessica Lovejoy was Bart's first girlfriend. She liked Bart because of his bad-boy attitude and the fact that her parents didn't like him. Bart liked her because she was "smart, beautiful, and a liar". However, she ultimately turned out to be too bad for Bart and he chose to stay away from her, only to be sat next to her in church and framed for stealing by her. After all this, he initially pretends to still be attracted to her once she is revealed to be the true culprit and punished by scrubbing the church stairs, but once he takes over the job and Jessica leaves, he chuckles mischievously as he intends to do a poor job, hoping to get her in more trouble.^[41]

In some Simpsons comics, they are shown to hang out with others such as when they, Nelson, Lisa and Ralph were dressed as "Scooby-Doo" characters and trying to solve a mystery, but they still show antagonism toward each other, making them at most frenemies with some infatuation with each other.

Greta Wolfcastle

Bart went out with a girl named Greta after he stopped some bullies from taking her backpack. She is the daughter of Rainier Wolfcastle. However, Bart later broke up with her. After the breakup, Greta went out with Milhouse Van Houten, with whom she then broke up with in Canada and stopped dating for four years.

Gina Vendetti

In "The Wandering Juvie", Bart is arrested for pulling a prank, and he is sent to juvenile prison. Bart becomes very scared at the juvenile prison as the other juveniles are bigger and tougher than he is. One day at the jail, Bart nervously walks through the juvenile prison playground to see who he can hang out with and talk to, but everybody seemed violent. Bart then ends up at a fence that separates the boys from the girls, and Gina Vendetti tells him to get off of her fence and cuts off his juvenile prison uniform. Later that night, the juvenile prison held a dance for the boys and girls to get to know each other, and Bart is paired with Gina. Handcuffed, Gina forcefully pulls Bart to a nearby window, kisses him, and escapes, causing the police to search for them. Gina and Bart then stroll through the woods for a place to hide. The two end up at a blacksmith's shop, and they enter to get their handcuffs off. They kiss again, and they split up. Later, Bart finds Gina crying and she reveals that she doesn't have a family to return to, and then they are immediately caught by Chief Wiggum. The rest of the Simpson family comes to bid Bart farewell, but Gina admits to Chief Wiggum that the escape was her idea. Bart is free to go, but Gina must return. When Gina arrives at the juvenile prison, the Simpson family surprises her with a special taco dinner in her jail cell as a way of saying thanks for setting Bart free.^[42]

Darcy

Darcy is a 15-year-old girl who meets Bart when he gets a driver's license and uses it to pick up older girls. She was pregnant at the time and wanted her baby to have a father, so Darcy chose to get married to Bart when she fell in love with him. However, she didn't know that Bart was only 10 but still went to get married to him anyway as she was desperate for her baby to have a father. Their parents stop them before the marriage after Bart started to think that their relationship was becoming a little shaky, and they agree to meet again at some point.^[43]

Mary Spuckler

Mary Spuckler is Bart's most prominent love interest, appearing in three episodes which is more than any of Bart's other love interests. In Apocalypse Cow, he was forced to marry her in order to save his cow Lou, but they ended up not getting married. She is one of Bart's girlfriends that return in Moonshine River, and they show interest again as she reveals to be a failing actress after running away. In the end, after Cletus finds out where Mary ran away to, he forces her to come back, but she runs away and kisses Bart, telling him he's great. She makes her current recent appearance in Love is a Many Splintered Thing, as she and Bart resume to date after her career failed. However, Bart paid very little attention to her, making her dump him for a Brazilian boy. It revealed that in the future she will marry the Brazilian boy, but when her status is revealed to be single on a website, Bart sends her a message.

Nikki McKenna

When both fourth-grade classes are merged, Bart is forced to sit next to Nikki McKenna, who at first seems annoyed with Bart. She soon warms up to him, and they become very close, until Bart kisses her, seemingly putting her off to him. After a no touching policy is imposed on the school, Nikki kisses Bart again, confusing Bart. This hot-then-cold relationship continues between them until Bart gets knocked out unconscious from falling off of the school roof. Nikki gives him CPR and mouth to mouth to resuscitate him, but then tells Bart that she'll never tell him why she was hot then cold.^[44]

Jenny

Jenny was a girl who helped out at the Springfield Retirement Castle at the same time Bart was forced to help out. Bart developed a crush on her and eventually, they entered a relationship with each other which was based on lies as Bart pretended to be totally different. Eventually, she found out what Bart was really like and dumped him.^[45]

Melody Juniper

Melody Juniper was the daughter of Calliope Juniper, the new music teacher in school. Principal Skinner made Bart date her so that he could get a chance with Calliope. Melody was happy with this but Bart wasn't as happy. After Bart told her he wasn't happy with dating her, both Melody and her mother chose to move from Springfield.^[46]

Becky

Bart's first kiss was from Becky when she was dared to kiss him while playing truth or dare with Lisa, Janey, White-Haired Girl, and Wanda. However, he has not been in a relationship with her and never seemed to want one.^[47]

Sherri and Terri

Although it has never been shown explicitly on the show, it has been implied that Bart dated one of the twins after Homer convinced her that she couldn't really do any better than Bart. Which twin Bart actually dated with was never clearly stated, but it is clear that Bart went to the school dance with either Sherri or Terri.^[48] It is also implied that one of the twins has a crush on Bart, but once again, it isn't stated who it was.^[49]

Sherri and Terri's cousin

Sherri and Terri introduced Bart to their 'boy-crazy' cousin and Bart immediately showed interest in her, so he invited her to play "Spin the Bottle" with the twins and Milhouse.

Summer Romance girl

The "Summer Romance girl" is a girl that Bart had a brief relationship on, as part of his list of things to do before summer holidays ended. It also turned out that Bart was part of HER list, being the 100th boy she kissed before summer ended.^[50]

Shauna Chalmers

Shauna was Jimbo's girlfriend until Jimbo had Bart watch her so he can do the activities that don't interest Shauna. Shauna and Bart became closer when he stood up for her. They began to spend more time with each other as Jimbo trusted Bart with her. For saving Shauna from mall jail, she rewarded Bart by flashing her breasts to him. Bart told her to leave Jimbo because he didn't respect Shauna and from then on she dated Bart. Jimbo found them kissing and Bart was afraid of being beaten up by him. Lisa had Shauna leave Bart (as it was for the best) right after Jimbo found Bart and Shauna in the tree house. Shauna is Bart's only girlfriend to reveal anything private visually. They kissed again in "What to Expect When Bart's Expecting".

Annika Van Houten

Milhouse's teenage cousin, Annika forms a romantic relationship with Bart in "Let's Go Fly a Coot".

Enemies

Sideshow Bob

Bob is Bart Simpson’s arch-enemy and most dangerous one as well. Ever since Bart exposed him for framing Krusty The Clown, Bob has developed an pure obsessive hatred for Bart and has vowed revenge against him since. He has attempted to kill the boy multiple times from sending him bloody mail, stalking him until the family are forced to go into witness protection, doing surgery to pretend to be another person to catch him off guard and more. But all these attempts would end in failure as Bart along with his family (mainly Lisa) would find a way to outsmart him and send him back to jail. A big part of why Bob hates Bart is down to his vanity & pride as he is a man of high culture and intelligence, so it hurts him that his schemes are constantly foiled because of an underachieving-little boy. He also views Bart as the reason for his life being ruined, despite the fact that it was all a result of his own actions and he had allowed his obsession with Bart to run his life. He starts to realize this in the episode “Gone Boy”, where he seemingly gives up his desire for Bart’s blood (but that could be retconned if the writers choose). But in the same episode, it shows Bob in the future still struggling with these feelings, but tells the mailman to not waste & ruin his life because of revenge.

Bart sees Bob as a threat and has shown great fear and even trauma as a result of his attempts on his life. To the point seeing him on TV causes Bart to run away screaming in fear. But despite his distaste for the man for his murder attempts on him & his family, they’ve worked together on occasion like when Bob’s brother Cecil tried to blow up the town dam, leading to both Bart & Bob saving each other on respectively. And Bart even showed some guilt towards Bob when he believes he killed Bob by accident in “Funeral For A Fiend”. But later seasons would show Bart being unafraid of Bob and not taking him seriously given his many foiled attempts against him.

Nelson Muntz

Nelson was the first real antagonist to Bart early in the show’s life. Bart first met him after he was defending his sister from bullies and accidentally punched him in the nose. Doing that made Nelson beat up Bart any chance he got, leaving him hurt & humiliated. Eventually with some advice from Homer & help from his Grandpa, Bart rallied behind an army of kids to stand against Nelson, leading to his defeat. Nelson would stick as the ruthless delinquent rival to Bart for many episodes, with him being joined by the other bullies to mess with Bart & the other kids.

But in some episodes in the early seasons, show Nelson hanging out with Bart and the others like in “Bart On The Road” & “Lemon Of Troy”. But Nelson & Bart’s relationship would progress in “The Haw-Hawed Couple”, where after being forced to attend Nelson’s birthday, Bart sees that no one came and he would sympathize with him. This leads to the two playing together at the party and having fun. Nelson & Bart would become friends with each other, with Nelson protecting him from other bullies. But this would falter as Nelson gets too clingy with Bart and Bart becomes bothered by his aggressive nature, and would try to avoid him. But by the end things sort of work out, and Nelson would remain a core part of Bart’s friend group, although he can go back to bullying Bart depending on the writer.

Some episodes suggest Bart’s friendship with him might be stronger than Milhouse, his long-time friend from Kindergarten. The future episodes show them keeping in touch as adults and Nelson helping him get a job when he has to pay alimony, while him & Milhouse pretty much don’t hang out or talk seemingly.

Principal Skinner

Skinner is a direct opponent for Bart as he manages the Springfield Elementary and has to deal with Bart’s misbehaving antics on a regular basis. From him pulling pranks & causing destruction, Skinner is always ready to put the boy in detention when he’s attempting to cause trouble. This is taken to great extremes in “The Boy Who Knew Too Much” where he goes on a manhunt for Bart when he tries to skip school, even walking through water to catch him.

But despite their opposition to each other, especially from Bart, there’s no real malice or hatred. Bart may be annoyed at Skinner’s rule bearing, he has shown sympathy & concern for his principal. Like when he thought he got him murdered by the mob & got him fired because of Santa’s Little Helper. Skinner and Bart would become friends when Skinner was fired, but they went back to their old routine once he was rehired, but they still act cool with each other when no one’s looking

Jack Lassen

Jack was a harsh disciplinarian who had one appearance. In the episode, he would take joy in tormenting & bullying rowdy kids like Bart rather than teach them to be better people. Bart would get the brunt of it with him shaving off his beautiful blonde hair & electrocuting the boy. Bart would get revenge on him by ruining his role in the Blazing Guy event. This would lead to Jack attempting to burn Bart alive. Homer manages to save Jack and he was apprehended, then fired from his role as a teacher. He would go on to work as a security guard in Springfield Prison where he would meet Sideshow Bob and learn how he hates Bart too. Jack suggests they could work together, but Bob refuses as he wants to kill Bart himself (which is unfortunate as it’s Kelsey Grammer & Wilhem Dafoe).

Skills and Abilities

Bart is a polyglot and can speak several languages with varying degrees of fluency. Though he has not demonstrated the ability since his exchange trip to France as an exchange student (other than in the "Butterfinger Group" Simpsons Butterfinger commercial), he speaks near-perfect French.^[51] He also learned Spanish in a matter of hours in preparation for the family's trip to Brazil.^[52] Upon learning that Brazilians speak Portuguese and not Spanish, Homer orders his son to forget what he learned, prompting Bart to strike himself over the head until he forgot the language. Bart also speaks Japanese (which he also learned in a couple of hours in prison along with his father, Homer, who is also shown speaking Japanese),^[53] Cantonese and Latin. His advanced linguistic skills may be inherited from Homer, who also speaks advanced languages, including penguin.

Another skill Bart inherited from Homer was his musical ability, he was shown to be a skilled drummer ^[54] at least until an injury destroyed this talent.

He was a player in the Mighty Pigs Peewee Hockey League Team and their main scorer. He is also quite capable of firing advanced firearms with a frightening accuracy, as evidenced when, while at military school as a result of a prank involving electric mega horns, he was given an RGB6 Grenade Launcher by the firing range instructor due to his belief that Bart knew how to operate handguns, and he managed to destroy four out of five targets before one of his shots missed and ended up hitting Principal Skinner's car just as he was about to unlock it, to which Bart implied that he deliberately missed the fifth target and was actually aiming for Skinner's car that time.^[55] His killing teacher describes him as "a natural" in this same episode. He later displayed a similar proficiency towards weapons when he managed to hijack a tank by stealing the keys, drive it over to the park, and shoot down an MLB satellite with surprising accuracy all by himself, although at that point, he was also under the effects of an experimental drug that was supposed to suppress Bart's Attention Deficit Disorder.^[56]

Bart can also drive vehicles with surprising skill for his age. He has his own drivers license, given to him after saving Springfield from a fire (shown in 'Little Big Girl'), although he has been seen driving before with a fake license at times.^[57] He still possesses it, using it to steal Principal Skinner's car to get to Jimbo's house.^[58]

Bart is also a skilled chef. He cooked a three-course meal for his parents and made a dessert.^[59]

When he was made hall monitor, he also had a great degree of skill in enforcing the law and rules.^[60] This trait was later exemplified when he, in a similar fashion to a bouncer, removed Homer from the premises of the La Maison Derrière after he continuously heckled Marge's ventriloquist performance.^[61]

Additionally, Bart has a natural inclination to dance, and was a ballet star in his dance class for a brief period at school. Likely, he inherited this ability from his father, who had been a talented gymnast during his years in high school.

Although he frequently gets bad grades in school, Bart consistently shows levels of high intelligence with his witty social commentary and clever thinking. Bart's intelligence does fluctuate from episode to episode, however, as Lisa was able to prove that he was "dumber than a hamster," yet he managed to outsmart her in that same episode with a similar project. In addition, Bart has consistently bested the genius of Sideshow Bob (figuring out his plan to kill Selma and tricking him by stalling just long enough to enable him to be arrested). While Lisa is more "book smart" and of superb literary intelligence, Bart is street smart and of remarkable social intelligence, as he naturally assumes the position of undisputed leader in any situation thrust upon him, such as when he led many children to the park to play when expressing his exasperation over being constantly followed by adults, when he led a pack of children to infiltrate Shelbyville in order to retrieve their stolen lemon tree^[62] , or when he led his fellow campers in a takeover of Kamp Krusty.^[63] Bart has also shown considerable leadership prowess when he took charge of his fellow students (although only briefly) when they were stranded on an island, when he amassed an army of children to combat Nelson (ultimately managing to defeat him), led the takeover of Springfield Elementary during a snowstorm, when he orchestrated a curfew break and subsequent plot to expose the adults' secrets, and when he led a hostage-like situation as part of a plot to get Chalmers reinstated as superintendent. Bart's skill with people is also evidenced when Bart becomes the most successful news anchor on Kidz Newz, but in doing so steals the spotlight from Lisa. When Lisa voices her disapproval, it is explained to her that Bart was being promoted because he has "zazz." ^[64] It is implied in one episode that the reason he doesn't apply himself in his studies is that he does not wish to be like his sister.

Bart is also highly skilled at manipulation and extortion. At one point, he successfully instigated a divide between Skinner and Krabappel in order to begin a Teacher's strike and extended the period by stirring up unrest at the local bank. He also at one point manipulated the townsfolk into controversy by spilling secrets of the adults over the radio and also manipulated his entire school into believing the myth of Dark Stanley (which, as it turns out, wasn't actually a myth). Other examples of manipulation was when he tricked many Springfieldians into coming to a phony wedding with gifts, when he attracted media attention by falsifying the concept of a boy being trapped in a well, and when he caused Homer to have a burst of anger in Boston over his refusal to wear a hat. Bart also has skill in extortion, as he managed to coerce his parents into doing whatever he wanted while pretending to be a sociopath and also extorted a U.S. Senator into following through with a key portion of a plan meant to get an air traffic bill passed. Bart has also extorted Skinner on a number of occasions, such as forcing him to do and say demeaning things via the threat of activating his peanut allergy and by making him either remain still or perform difficult tasks when he (Bart) and his fellow students took over the school.

Bart is also very talented at craftsmanship. He once made a replica of himself to take his place in class and also one of Lisa so that he and the rest of his school could fool the state's comptroller.

Bart has also demonstrated skill in regards to fighting prowess despite every now and then being beaten himself. At one point, after graduating from military school, he remarked that he is now a master of different forms of unarmed combat. He managed to hold his own in a fight with a girl highly-trained in Krav Maga and actually managed to get the better of Nelson on at least a couple of occasions (during a fight on the school playground and when he was working with his sister to stop the bullies from pulling a serious prank). At another instance, after challenging the fifth graders to a rumble, he easily caught a punch from the much-larger fifth-grade leader before noticing a scar on his hand. Though in a dream-like sequence and during a tree house of horror segment, Bart showed exceptional combat skill when he effortlessly pummeled 10 and 20-year-old versions of his father and when he easily overpowered an onslaught of Springfieldians while working for Moe as a secret agent. Bart has also shown rather admirable skill in armed combat, as he fought roughly on par with Skinner, a trained and experienced former Green Beret, in a stick fight that spilled throughout Springfield.

Bart can also play a great game of putt-putt. He once almost won a miniature golf tournament against Todd Flanders. At the eighteenth hole, both boys decided the stress that each other's father was putting on them wasn't worth it and decided to take a tie and split the fifty-dollar prize.^[65] Other recreational activities in which he shows talent include skateboarding, jockeying, lassoing, and tennis.

Bart also knows how to hot-wire a car.

He also has the ability to find truffles by smell.

Recently, Bart has demonstrated remarkable adeptness at chemistry.^[66]

Bart is a very gifted kid and has proved that repeatedly, but the numerous factors such as feeling unsupported or being told he’ll just fail makes him not driven to harness these traits of his. Which helps lead into his destructive behavior and also plays a hand in the many bad futures for him that have been shown. Once someone gives him positive reinforcement and direction, he’s able to show himself to become exceptional.

Non-Canon Appearances

The contents of this article or section are considered to be non-canon and therefore may not have actually happened/existed.

Treehouse of Horror

In Treehouse of Horror I, he was (formally) a raven.

In "Treehouse of Horror II", the segment The Bart Zone Bart has the ability to bend reality with his mind and anyone who thinks badly of him will be turned into either a creature or object.

In Treehouse of Horror VII, Bart learns that he has a stuck together (But not anymore) twin brother named Hugo.

In "Treehouse of Horror VIII", during the segment Fly Vs. Fly he grabs a fly and uses Homer teleportation machine to splice his own DNA with the fly to become a fly superhero. However, it does not go as planned gets his head swapped with the fly instead.

In Treehouse of Horror XIII, he was turned in a "spider" from Dr. Hibbert.

In Treehouse of Horror XXXIII, during the segment Death Tome, Lisa tries to kill Bart by writing his name into death tome which causing him to panic. However, she wrote "Steve Johnson Crushed by Space junk" to kill Steve Johnson instead.

Future

At age 12, Bart has a mullet and gets in a foul mood because Lisa managed to overshadow him at his own birthday, so he decides to go out with Milhouse to break street lamps. Chief Wiggum arrests Milhouse and Bart manages to hide inside the retirement home where Grampa gives him a BMX.^[67] Bart has a mullet at school.

At age 15, Bart can make some stunts on his bike. With Marge and Lisa at a camp and Homer at Moe's, he decides to throw a house party, where he finds Homer smoking cannabis. He gets angry at him and goes to Grampa's grave, where he gets the idea to enter a BMX Competition. He failed one of his stunts and blacked out, only to be rescued by Lisa, who was now a hero.^[68]

At the age of 18, Bart is a senior at Springfield High School. He styles his hair and wears an earring. He speaks three languages, apparently, one being armpit noises, and one is hinted to be French. He pursues a relationship with a girl named Jenda. He's doing caricatures at a pier when he's invited to go to Milhouse's graduation party. There, Milhouse is humiliated by his parents but confronted by Lisa. Bart gets angry, as his sister can overshadow him even at his best friend's party. Lisa gets angry and confesses that she thinks he's a good artist, even though he doesn't do anything with his talent.^[69] Jenda who denies his proposal because he doesn't have a steady career plan. As a result, Bart pursues a career at the Kwik-E-Mart. Whether he kept the job is not mentioned. After saving Mr. Burns from a robbery, he is awarded a scholarship to Yale, which was meant to go to Lisa. He gives the scholarship back to her so she doesn't have to suffer a bleak future with Milhouse.

At age 20, Bart takes his sister's advice and opens a bike customization shop, complete with a huge painting behind one of the doors dedicated to Lisa.^[70]

At the age of 25, Bart became a building demolisher and vehicle crusher and plans to attend law school as soon as he "gets all of [his] aggression out". He also mentions having been divorced twice by this age. He is more kind in general, as opposed to his modern-day disposition.^[71]

At age 40, Bart has two children, Picard Simpson and Kirk Simpson, who he barely ever sees. Jenda is now his ex-wife and has married her new boyfriend. His children have to stay with Bart for Christmas, which they think is going to suck. He eventually teaches them the meaning of Christmas, which schools aren't allowed to do in this time period.^[72] Bart's gained swag as a poor guitarist and alcoholic that dropped out of the DeVry Institute. He lives in a ratty beach house alongside Ralph, the only other member of Bart's band. At this age, Bart acts like an especially spoiled version of his ten-year-old self, still calling on his mother to make Lisa play fair when she does things like telling him he can't join the presidency (Lisa is the President of the United States at the time). He mooches money off his parents and Ned Flanders, to whom Bart regards as a "softie". His new catchphrase: "You used to be cool, man." He says this whenever he hears something he doesn't like from someone. Bart continuously embarrasses Lisa and unwittingly ruins her tax plan to get out of debt. Surprisingly, Lisa is much more embarrassed of Bart than of Homer in this episode. In the end, however, Bart's extensive experience with evading debt collectors leads to him helping Lisa buy some time to pay off America's debt to other countries. In gratitude, Lisa legalizes "it", "it" likely being the use of cannabis.^[73]

At age 41, Bart is working at Cretaceous Park and is sad that his love with Jenda hasn't worked as expected and now he misses his kids. Nelson tries to convince him to be happy as he's a free man and dragged him to a party, where he's asked to leave. He then finds a brainwash clinic that helps him forget about Jenda. He manages to find other girlfriends, but he still misses Jenda. He later learns that her alien boyfriend, Jerry, has abandoned her. After a talk with Bart, she realizes that he's much more mature and decides to get back with him. As their second relationship wasn't working out either, they decide to break up again. He then wakes up at the clinic's chair and discovers that it was all a dream.^[74]

At age 50, Bart appears to have straightened up and graduated law school, as he is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Marge has also imagined Bart being a sleazy male stripper at this time.^[75]

At the age of 70, he lives at the Springfield Retirement Castle with Milhouse.^[76]

At the age of 80, he launches fireworks reading "Skinner Sucks", making Skinner suffer a fatal heart attack. His corpse would run him over, killing Bart.^[77]

At the age of 83, he finds true love.^[78] Sadly, he dies one minute later after being ran over by Seymour Skinner's wheelchair.

Other Futures

At age 40, he is taken to the hospital after eating too many fish logs. He seems to have lost his building demolishing company and works at a construction site. He got the "Mother" tattoo which Marge prevented him from getting, as well as a tattoo of Krusty the Clown on his chest. He receives a digestive tract transplant from Üter Zörker which saves his life. In "Bart Gets an "F"" where Bart never passes the fourth grade, he has a wife and is in the same class as his son. An elderly Edna Krabappel asks the middle-aged Bart Sr. for the name of the pirate in Treasure Island. When he can't come up with the name, Bart Jr. tells him it's Long John Silver. Mrs. Krabappel then punishes both of them by giving them detention.

In "Hail to the Teeth", Bart has an app which shows what people would look like at puberty, it shows Bart looking extremely good but dying at 17.

Behind the Laughter

Creation

Matt Groening first conceived the Simpson family in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. He had been called in to pitch a series of animated shorts and had intended to present his Life in Hell series. When he realized that animating Life in Hell would force him to rescind publication rights for his life's work, Groening decided to go in another direction. He hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family, and named the characters after various members of his own family, substituting "Bart" for his own name, as he decided it would have been too obvious for him to have named the character Matt. Bart then made his debut with the rest of the Simpsons clan on April 19, 1987, in the Tracey Ullman short "Good Night". Groening conceived Bart as an extreme version of the typical misbehaving child character, merging all of the negative traits of characters such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn into one person. Groening's older brother Mark provided most of the inspiration for Bart. 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.

Groening picked "Bart," a diminutive of Bartholomew, because it is an anagram of "brat". The middle initial J was because Greening was a longtime fan of "The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show" and those characters' full name were Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose. Nancy Cartwright wrote in her memoir how how one day she asked Matt Groening what the J in Bartholomew J. Simpson stood for and he asked her back what she thought and she said, "JoJo" which she believed he liked.

A precursor to Bart by Groening was his own character Melvin, an orphan boy who would go on adventures with his dog Gurphy, and would feature him in comics that he drew when he was younger. Groening would try to pitch a Saturday morning cartoon starring Melvin called Melvin's Inferno, which did not go through. One character that came out of this would be Milhouse Van Houten, who would be Bart's best friend.

Voice and Catchphrases

Nancy Cartwright originally auditioned for the role of Lisa, but soon thought that her voice would be better suited voicing Bart. Matt Groening let her try out for the part, and upon hearing her read, gave her the job on the spot. Bart's 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 at college. His other catchphrases included "¡Ay, caramba!" and "Don't have a cow man!" - the former being his first words after seeing Homer and Marge 'enjoying themselves' in bed - but these dropped out of use as the series progressed (as mentioned in "Summer of 4 Ft. 2", when Bart complains that Lisa stole his line). Whenever he introduces himself, he often says, "I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?"

Reception

In 1998, Time magazine selected Bart as 46th of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century — the only fictional character to make the list. He had previously appeared on the cover the December 31, 1990 edition. Both Bart and Lisa ranked #11 in TV Guide's "Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time".

During the show's early years, Bart was rebellious and frequently escaped without punishment, which led some parents' groups and conservative spokespeople to believe he provided a poor role model for children. This prompted George H. W. Bush to rally, "We're going to keep trying to strengthen the American family. To make them more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons.", to which Bart replied with "Hey, we're just like the Waltons. We're praying for an end to the Depression, too."

Bart's catchphrases, "¡Ay, caramba!", "Don't have a cow, man!" and "Eat my shorts!" were featured on t-shirts in the early days of the show's run. 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 has declined in recent seasons. The use of catchphrase-based humor was mocked in the episode "Bart Gets Famous" in which Bart gets famous on The Krusty the Clown Show for saying the line "I didn't do it."

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

Bart is the most depicted Simpsons character on various memorabilia such as toys, books, comics, T-shirts, car decals, and even graffiti art. Bart and other Simpsons characters appeared in numerous commercials for Butterfinger candy bars from 1990–2001, with the slogan "Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger!". This association was parodied when he discovered that he was in a Baby-So-Fresh TV commercial when he was a baby; Bart says that he doesn't remember being in a commercial, then holds up a Butterfinger and eats it.^[79] Bart briefly appears in the entrance video used by World Wrestling Entertainment Superstar Shawn Michaels Bart has appeared in several other shows. He is featured in the South Park episode "Cartoon Wars Part II". He is not referred to by name, nor do any of the characters react to him as if he were a well-known personality, but the character specifically mentions the events of "The Telltale Head" when Eric Cartman asks him to name the "most bad-ass thing" he has done.

"TV Guide" listed Bart and Lisa as the 11th greatest cartoon characters of all time in their 2002 magazine issue listing the " TV Guide's 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of all time". With their father Homer making it all the way to the number two spot.

Foreign Dubs

Czech

• Martin Dejdar

Danish

• Mille Hoffmeyer Lehfeldt

Dutch

• Marjolein Algera

Finnish

• Rinna Paatso

Flemish

• Vicky Florus

French

• Joëlle Guigui
• Nathalie Bienaimé

German

• Sandra Schwittau

Hungarian

• Balázs Simonyi (Seasons 1-29; The Simpsons Movie)
• Tamás Markovics (Season 29-present)

Italian

Interestingly, Bart's catchphrases "¡Ay, caramba!" and "Eat my shorts!" are translated to "E che cacchio" ("What the hell") and "Ciucciati il calzino" ("Suck my sock") respectively.

• Ilaria Stagni
• Gaia Bolognesi

Japanese

• Junko Hori (Seasons 1-14)
• Yuka Takakura (Season 15-present)
• Atsushi Tamura (The Simpsons Movie)

Poland

• Joanna Wizmur

Portuguese (Brazil)

• Peterson Adriano (Seasons 1-7)
• Rodrigo Antas (Season 8-present)

Portuguese (Portugal)

• Carla de Sá

Russian

• Vyacheslav Baranov (Seasons 1-8)
• Irina Savina (Seasons 9-20)
• Larisa Brokhman (Movie)

Spanish/Español

• Sara Vivas
• Marina Huerta (Seasons 1-9; Seasons; 16-31; Latin America)
• Claudia Motta (Seasons 9-15; "Krusty the Clown" (singing voice); Season 32-present; Latin America)

Svenska

• Annica Smedius (Short lived Swedish dub of the Simpsons)

Ukrainian

• Hanna Levchenko

Quebec

• Johanne Léveillée

Trivia

• Matt Groening designed Bart to act like himself as a child.
• Like his sisters, he is of Argentine, French, Native American, and Scandinavian descent.
• He is of African descent
• In the Tracy Ullman Shorts, the number of Bart's spikes on his hair kept changing. When the actual show began, they settled on nine spikes.

• It is implied in "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" that Bart was a fan of Tiny Tim, Charlie Brown and The Smurfs.
• In "Bart the Mother", Marge says that it took 53 hours for Bart to be born.
• His locker combination is 36-24-36, the idealized measurements of a "perfect woman" (36"-24"-36").
• The name Bart is an anagram for the word "brat".
  • In "There's No Disgrace Like Home", Mr. Burns mistakenly reads Bart's name as "Brat".
• Bart got his first tattoo (but was halfway finished when Marge came into the tattoo shop and saw him) in "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".
• Bart's blood type is O-Negative, as revealed in "Blood Feud", making him a universal donor, meaning that he can give blood to anyone.
  • Since Homer's blood type is A-Positive, it means he must've had an O-Negative blood type hidden due to the fact that they're both recessive traits and only shows up if both parents must be carriers. Marge must have the hidden O and negative traits as well, despite them being unknown.
• Bart seems to be the only person in his school with his name, as explained in "Principal Charming", where Bart tries to claim that another Bart spelled out his name on the school lawn by pouring sodium tetra sulfate on the grass.
• Bart has a stamp collection, as he explains when it got stolen in "Homer the Vigilante".
• Bart's favorite food is a Krusty Burger from the restaurant of the same name.
• Because of Marge's father Clancy Bouvier, Bart and his sisters, Lisa and Maggie, are of French descent. Not only that, Bart can speak in French, thanks to his exchange trip to France in "The Crepes of Wrath", as well as Japanese in "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo" and Spanish while flying to Brazil for a trip in "Blame It on Lisa", despite Portuguese being the official language there.
• In "The Real Housewives of Fat Tony", it was discovered that Bart has a strong sense of smell, being able to detect truffles. He possibly got it from Homer, who uses his strong sense of smell in "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?".
• Bart once had a job on Kidz Newz, along with Lisa, Milhouse, and Nelson.^[80]
• In "Summer of 4 Ft. 2", it is revealed that Bart is officially the most popular kid in his school.
• In "Bart's Comet", he is nicknamed "Cosmo" by the Superfriends.
• Bart died temporarily in "Bart Gets Hit by a Car", but was chose to come back to Earth after being told by the Devil he had the choice to stay.
• He is allergic to butterscotch, imitation butterscotch, glow-in-the-dark monster make-up^[81], and shrimp, although the shrimp allergy wasn't identified until later seasons (In "The Frying Game", at the end of the episode, Bart says that he was at the shrimp bar). He also is allergic to cauliflower as shown in "The Heartbroke Kid".
• Bart is the only character to appear in all of The Tracey Ullman Show shorts.
• Bart's original name was planned to be "Matt Simpson", which is the name of creator Matt Groening.
• In the Season 1 opening sequence, while Bart is skateboarding through Main Street, a man at the bus stop seems to resemble him. This is most likely because of the first season using a lot of unknown and unnamed background characters before more major characters were introduced in Season 2.
• He has shoplifted multiple times, including in the Tracey Ullman short "Shoplifting" and in "Marge Be Not Proud".
• He is the only member of the Simpson family (excluding Maggie) who has been absent for a full episode.
• The article for Bart Simpson was chosen as the Article of the Day on Wikipedia on April 19, 2015.
• Bart is left-handed, though sometimes he is seen using his right hand.
• Bart has appeared in two Doctor Who comics. See more at Bart Simpson on the Doctor Whowiki.
• Bart is the only character to have his privates fully exposed.
• In references to Greek mythology, Bart is always depicted as Hermes due to their many similarities. Both characters are depicted as tricksters whose mischief started on the days they were born (Hermes stole the cattle of Apollo during his infancy, while Bart set fire to Homer's tie at 10 minutes old). Both Hermes and Bart are thieves who rely on cunning to overcome their obstacles. They are also underdogs and have fathers with anger issues (Homer's anger is the most recognisable trait of the character and Zeus' anger is best embodied by the legend of Prometheus). On a lesser note, both Hermes and Bart are known to have supporting roles in stories; Hermes was known to help protagonists in their respective journeys while Bart frequently helps Homer in his schemes and often encourages his plans or comes up with ideas to make them more effective/selfish.
• Since Bart was born on April 1st, which is April Fools Days (see date of birth above), he's had the reputation for pranking.
• Bart seems to have some dislike towards magic as shown in "The Great Simpsina". Also, in "Smoke on the Daughter", he can be seen a shirt with the words "magic isn't real"
• Despite Bart riding a horse in "Saddlesore Galactica", he was shown to be scared of them in "The Hateful Eight-Year-Olds", but gets over his fear.

Appearances

This article or section is incomplete. Please improve the article, or discuss the issue on the talk page.

As one of the five major title characters of the series, Bart appears in almost every episode, as well as The Simpsons Movie. He does not appear and is not mentioned in "Four Great Women and a Manicure". He had no lines in "My Fare Lady," "The Incredible Lightness of Being a Baby" (gasps only), "The Many Saints of Springfield" (laughs only), and "Thirst Trap: A Corporate Love Story" and had only one line in "Eeny Teeny Maya, Moe", "Moho House" and Desperately Seeking Lisa.

See also

• Bart's chalkboard gags
• Do the Bartman
• Simpson family

Citations