“Hrmmm…” ―Marge's catchphrase “Now it's Marge's time to shine!” ―Marge Simpson “Oh!” ―Marge's catchphrase “Oh, Homie!” ―Marge's love catchphrase “It's true. Women aren't very good drivers.” ―The Simpsons: Hit & Run “Well, if loving my kids is lame, then I guess I'm just a big lame.” ―"Marge Be Not Proud"

Marjorie Jacqueline "Marge" Simpson, (née Bouvier) (born October 1 1956 ,is one of the two tritagonists (alongside Lisa) of the Simpsons franchise. She is the tritagonist of The Simpsons Movie. She is the homemaker and was sometimes strict and a full-time crazy mom of the Simpson family on The Simpsons. She and her husband Homer have three children: Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Marge is the moralistic force in her family and often provides a grounding voice in the midst of her family's antics by trying to maintain order in the Simpson household. Aside from her duties at home, Marge has flirted briefly with a number of careers ranging from a police officer to an anti-violence activist.

She loves to call her husband Homie.

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All about Marge

Early life

Marge Bouvier was born on March 19, 1956 in Capital City to Clancy Bouvier, a photographer-turned-steward, and Jacqueline Bouvier. She is the youngest daughter of the Bouvier family. She has a pair of older sisters, the joyless twins, Patty, and Selma, both of whom passionately disapprove of Homer.

Meeting Homer

Marge attended Springfield High School in September, 1972, and in her senior year, she met Homer Simpson. She was wary of Homer at first but agreed to have a study date with him, only to find out that Homer was only doing this to get her to go to prom with him. She ended up going with Artie Ziff. She regrets going with Artie because he tried to have sex with her afterward. Artie takes her home and she later picks up Homer, who she finds walking home, in her car. Marge tells him how much she regretted going to the prom with Artie instead of him, causing Homer to somewhat repair the strap of her dress with the corsage he got her. After that decision, her sisters showed their discontent towards him and ultimately thinks he was just wrong for her. However, Selma does show that she is willing to make a sincere attempt to like Homer for Marge's sake, causing him to have a higher opinion of her, whereas Patty has never attempted to try and is always on Marge's case to leave Homer, thus it is why she and Homer hate each other. (Marge actually met Homer when she was at Camp, but he didn't call himself Homer and she burnt her hair so that it was brown).

Marge has always been rather innocent and has also been said to be rather awkward in certain scenarios, especially when she is drunk.

An example of this is when Marge is taking place in a magic show as a contestant and at this time, she is rather drunk so she keeps blabbering about certain things. The magician, Diablo, finds this annoying and pulls out a ball gag and while Marge is blabbering shoves it into her mouth so her drunken talk becomes muffled sounds. This could also link to Marge's famous voice which throughout the Simpsons has been considered annoying.

Marge continues to make muffled sounds from her gagged mouth while a sack is put over her head during the magic trick.

Marriage

After the two had been dating for several years, Marge became pregnant with Bart sometime in the summer, and Marge and Homer got married in December 23, 1977, in a small wedding chapel near the state line shortly before.

Married life

Marge is the mother Simpson family, who spends most of her time doing housework, caring for Maggie, being supportive of and indulging Lisa, and either disciplining or protecting Bart from Homer's wrath. Marge is the only member of the family who encourages church attendance. She also appears to have a significant athletic ability. She is bilingual, being fully fluent in French. Her marriage to Homer is also very strong. They once spurned to participate in a key party as soon as they realized what a key party was and promptly left, although Homer also took the key jar with them, most likely to find his car keys.

Wild Escapades

Despite these tendencies, Marge has had her fair share of wild escapades throughout the history of the series. She worked as a police officer in Springfield,[4] took therapy for flight fear,[5]was a real estate agent, sold pretzels, was a painter, was imprisoned for shoplifting,[6] became a gambling addict,[7] showed alcoholic tendencies,[8]was at one time known as The Listen Lady, was an unwilling participant in a cross-country police chase,[9] overdosed on steroids,[10] cheated on a cooking competition[11] and developed amnesia.[12] Although not a chain smoker like her eldest sisters Patty and Selma, Marge has engaged in smoking twice. One of these times, however, she was implied to be an attempt to drown out the smell of the Annual Chili Cook-Off to hide it from Homer as long as possible due to realizing if he was to find out he had immediately wanted to go there, as she was motivated to go with Homer after their last visit resulted in humiliation on her part when Homer, while drunk, stripped naked and proceeded to "bathe" himself in a cotton candy maker under the delusion he was a puffy pink cloud.[13]

Criminal record

Jobs

Marge has had many jobs, most of which lasted temporarily. These include:

Personality

Marge is generally a very kind-hearted and loving woman. Despite this, she can be protective of her family when she needs to, especially during Homer's "psychopath" moments. However, she cares deeply about everyone she's closest too as well, even her husband. On occasion, she can sometimes get explosive outbursts of anger, but admits her errors and apologizes right after - in such incidents, she is primarily always forgiven but in others, she doesn't.

Marge tends to consider anything that is not completely plain to be amazing or exotic, even if they are not all that special, such as oregano, deviled ham instead of normal ham and buttered noodles instead of un-buttered noodles. She has also been depicted as a killjoy who attempts to stop and even prohibit activities that other characters otherwise find fun - she always believes she has a good reason for doing so, even if it bothers or distastes her alone and nobody else. She once had Itchy and Scratchy banned because Maggie injured Homer after imitating a scene from the cartoon[18]. She tried to demolish a burlesque house[19], and she outright says that if something isn't to her taste then no one else should be allowed to enjoy it[20]. Homer sums up his wife when he tells her: "If it were up to [Marge], all we would ever do is work and go to church". Marge's plain attitude and love for her family are brought down many times including when she finds a Channel suit and openly admits after going to a country club party that the rich are better than the way her family acts.

In addition to her killjoy tendencies, Marge has also been shown to be a hypocrite on several occasions such as secretly keeping Homer's handgun for herself after disapproving of his use of it so much that he eventually chose to throw it away[21]. Other occasions of her hypocrisy include using violent methods in order to protest against the violent Grand Theft Scratchy video game, as stated by Lisa. In the Simpsons Comics #100 - Clip Clip Hooray, it is revealed that Marge would occasionally team up with Luann Van Houten, Agnes Skinner, and Sarah Wiggum in a sacred motherly conspiracy called "The Motherlode", where mothers throw away the comic book collections of their children, whenever they get big enough, then sell them off a bit at a time and use the money to buy motherly accessories. It is also revealed that the reason why no one can ever buy the Simpsons comics in Springfield is because Marge is so embarrassed by how the artists draw her that she buys all of the comics on New Comic Day and at Comic-Cons, while Bart and Lisa are at school.[22] In Dead Putting Society, Marge scolded Homer, Bart, and Lisa for laughing at Ned Flanders' apology letter, only to go to the next room and giggle herself.

There have also been occasions where Marge's wishes and demands have led to trouble at the expense of her family such as:

Forcing Homer and Larry Burns to turn themselves in, after they fake a kidnapping. [23]

Forcing Bart to apologize to Lisa for "making her" miss the Isis exhibit, due to Marge backing out on her promise to take her there, in order to get the comedy props that Bart glued to his face removed. [24]

Forcing Bart to attend Nelson's birthday party, after he convinces his classmates not to go. [25]

Playing Maggie's Roofie CD 24 hours a day around the house despite everyone else showing obvious hatred of it. [26]

Sending money and a letter revealing her husband's crime to a film studio getting him arrested for Copyright Infringement.[27]

Despite many of Springfield's occasional riots and animosity against any given member of the Simpson family, Marge is still shown to be very trusting, even towards her fair-weathered friends and acquaintances who criticize her family and her tastes on a weekly basis. Marge is definitely extremely unappreciated by her own children and husband. She constantly slaves over the children and Homer by cleaning up the messes they leave.

Physical appearance

Marge has yellow skin and blue hair styled into a tall curly beehive hairstyle. She usually wears a long strapless green dress, red shoes, and a red pearl necklace. The necklace is a family heirloom and she is seen to have a big drawer full of them. Doctor Hibbert revealed that she has webbed toes in " Marge in Chains ". Marge remarked that she used to have a "perfect 26-26-26" figure.She is thought of as very beautiful and physically attractive, especially in later seasons.As a teen, Marge had waist-length hair that she always wore down, but wore it in her trademark beehive for senior prom.In flashbacks showing Marge as a child, she is portrayed with her hair worn tall, which probably means she straightened it when she got older. Her hair is thick enough for her to keep objects like the family savings in it.Her hair is once shown close to her knees, consistent with the logic that a lot of hair would be needed to create her tall beehive.It was revealed by Homer that Marge dyes her hair with blue dye #56, statingMarge herself has made reference to blue not being her natural color, telling this once to the private camera on a reality TV show. Though, she obviously doesn't want anyone to know this as she instantly tried to steal the tape.Because of her unusually large hairstyle, her height is reported to be 8'6", as noted by Apu Her hair was blue before she met Homer and was brunette the first time she met and kissed Homer. He didn't see her in her usual appearance until they met in high school. This is due to Marge ironing a part of her hair for too long and it turningsown, so she chose to do the same to the rest of her hair to keep it even.

In future appearances, she has the same hairstyle and clothing, except she has wrinkles on her mouth and eyes. In Holidays of Future Passed and Days of Future Future, she does not have visible wrinkles on her face, her hair is a bit smaller and has gone grey, and her dress has a collar and a black belt around it.

Political views

Politically, Marge generally aligns with the Democratic Party. She once mentions that she voted for Jimmy Carter (twice according to Lisa) and supported the candidacy of their state's progressive governor Mary Bailey, and also claimed to have been extremely depressed when Lyndon B. Johnson passed away. She, however, appears to be a conservative Democrat, unlike Lisa who's a liberal Democrat.

Skills and Abilities

Painting

Marge is a very talented painter. When she was a teenager, she had an intense crush on Ringo Starr and painted a large number of portraits of him. She also wrote to Starr, but only received a reply 25 years later. After Homer discovered her old paintings, Lisa encouraged Marge to enroll in an art contest in which her portrait of a drunk Homer asleep on the couch won a local art competition. She was then hired by Mr. Burns to paint a portrait of the tycoon. After many attempts, she almost gave up until a belated response from Ringo Starr (stating that she had talent) inspired her to continue. The resulting portrait won even Mr. Burns’ praise, a massive feat in itself, and was placed at the Springfield Art Museum's Burns Wing[37]. In fact, she does show artistic prowess in other areas, such as being able to make life-size sculptures of many of her peers out of Popsicle sticks[38].

Cooking

Marge is also a very talented cook. She once opened up a pretzel business, but it flourished after fewer people came. She usually cooks the family's meals, but sometimes Homer cooks the family's meals, with Bart, Lisa, and Maggie sometimes cooking the meals. It is revealed in one episode, she entered a cooking contest during her high school years, but made a few mistakes. She learned from them and became the family cook. Now with kids and a husband, she still demonstrates her "chef-like skills" and once made some amazingly delicious meals.

Strength

Marge also occasionally displays superhuman strength. She has been seen lifting Homer off the ground easily several times, including picking him up and throwing him through the bedroom door to show him that Moe taught her the bum's rush and swinging him around in a circle during a dance contest; she also once effortlessly tossed a motorcycle to Homer up a flight of stairs. She also knocked Snake out with a garbage can lid.

As Mayor

In "The Old Blue Mayor She Ain't What She Used to Be", Marge ran for Mayor of Springfield after being personally insulted by the incumbent Mayor Quimby at a public town hall meeting. After slowing gaining in polls, she narrowly won over Quimby in an upset. Admittedly uncertain of her skills, Marge proved to be a popular mayor after a very rocky first year. Marge had First Contact, and was praised for her swift response to the Great Molasses Flood, contributing to her winning re-election in a landslide later that year. However, Marge was removed from office by Springfield’s city council in the summer over several complicated scandals. Still, her achievements in office merited the constructed of the Marge Mayoral Museum, which opened eight years after her first election to mayor.

Popsicle Stick Statues

Relationships

Marge has a talent for building statues with Popsicle Sticks.

Marge loves Homer a lot; especially after realizing that he was right for her. However, their relationship has been put through countless strains and tests in the series, such as Homer's accidental marriage with Amber and Marge's flirtation with Jacques. Homer and Marge have been divorced and remarried again a number of times.

Marge says that Bart seeks attention, and is the troublemaker of the house. She is often disappointed with Bart, but still loves him. Instead, with a heavy heart, she accepts Bart's bad behavior. Marge usually makes Bart do community service to control his wayward attitude.

Lisa and Marge generally seem to have a good relationship. Marge often gives Lisa advice about a variety of matters. Lisa and Marge often tend to side with each other especially when it comes to Homer's (and sometimes Bart's) foolish antics. Like Bart and Homer, Lisa and Marge fight as well. Despite their close relationship, Marge, like Homer, fails to understand Lisa when she explains her point of view in a more intellectual manner.

Marge has mentioned of herself and Maggie sharing a bond. Maggie often helps her mother with housework and goes out shopping with her. They give each other looks when Homer, Bart, and Lisa engage in antics.

It has often been hinted that Moe had a crush on Marge, such as when Moe had Homer and Marge's wedding album and he painted his head onto Homer's. Although she treats him well, it is obvious Marge doesn't return his feelings.

Marge has only been seen interacting with Bart's friendly rival, Nelson, on rare occasions, although they seem to have an awkward, yet at the same time, friendly relationship. Although the two do not interact much (if at all) in the earliest episodes, they do so more often in the later seasons of the series. In Bart the Mother, Marge forbids Bart and Lisa from seeing Nelson, thinking he is a bad influence to them. However, in The Haw-Hawed Couple, she forces Bart to attend Nelson's birthday party. Also, in Lisa Simpson, This Isn't Your Life, Marge is glad to see Bart and Nelson once again. In Sleeping with the Enemy the two forms a mother-and-son-like bond, which ends up as short-lived, but Marge and Nelson remained friends.

Friends

Marge does not usually make friends because of the disasters of Homer, as seen in "The Last of the Red Hat Mamas", where she had to hide that she was part of the Cheery Red Tomatoes. Sometimes she finds herself in groups of women like Springfield Investorettes or Charity Chicks. Throughout the series, the most significant friend she has had was Ruth Powers for a short time. In "Large Marge", Manjula describes herself as Marge's best friend. In the past, Marge was part of the Cool Moms. Most recently, Marge has become friends with Waylon Smithers, even knitting a sweater with a picture of his face that says "Best Friend."[39]

Non-Canon Appearances

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

In "How the Test Was Won", after a series of dangerous events, Homer imagines Marge making out with Lindsey Naegle.

Future

At age 45, Marge leaves Homer after he blew the family savings on an underwater home. She then dates Krusty the Clown. Homer tries to win Marge's love back by beating him up and is beaten up himself. Marge then gets back together with Homer.[40]

In "Bart to the Future", Marge and Homer search for Lincoln gold in the White House where Lisa works as the president of the United States.

At the end of "Flanders' Ladder", Marge remarries Ned at some point after Homer's death and dies peacefully at the age of 84.

In "The Old Blue Mayor She Ain't What She Used to Be", in the year 2022 Marge and Homer walk through a hall dedicated to her political career. Marge suggests skipping one exhibit that they come near, but Homer points out they have to pass through it to get to the building's cafeteria. They then walk through the exhibit that revealed that she was impeached and Quimby was reinstated as the Mayor of Springfield.

Behind the Laughter

Marge is voiced by Julie Kavner, who became famous for her role on the TV series Rhoda. In fact, Rhoda premiered in 1974, the same year Marge and Homer met.

The episode "That '90s Show" (season 19, 2008) contradicted much of the established back-story; for example, it was revealed that Marge and Homer were childless in the early 1990s although past episodes had suggested Bart and Lisa were born in the 1980s.

As with many Simpsons characters, Marge's age changes to serve the story.

Creation

Matt Groening first conceived the Simpson family in the lobby of James L. Brooks's 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 require him to rescind publication rights for his life's work, Groening planned to go in another direction. He sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family, and named the characters after various members of his own family, with Marge being the name of his mother. Marge then made her debut with the rest of the Simpsons clan on April 19, 1987, in the Tracey Ullman short "Good Night".[41]

In The Simpsons Season Four DVD commentary, Matt Groening states that the original idea behind Marge's hair was to conceal large rabbit ears. The gag was intended to be revealed in the final episode of the series, but was scrapped early on due to inconsistencies.[42] It did, however, make it in The Simpsons Arcade Game.

Reception

Julie Kavner received a Primetime Emmy Award in 1992 for voicing Marge in the episode "I Married Marge".[43] In 2004, Kavner and Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer) won a Young Artist Award for "Most Popular Mom and Dad in a TV Series".[44] For her performance in The Simpsons Movie, Kavner received a nomination for "Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature" at the 2007 Annie Awards, but lost to Ian Holm in Ratatouille.[45][46] Kavner's emotional performance in the movie got positive reviews and one critic said she "gave what must be the most heartfelt performance ever".[47]

Cultural Influence

Merchandising

Marge is featured in much Simpsons-related merchandise, including T-shirts, baseball caps, stickers, cardboard stand-ups, refrigerator magnets, key rings, buttons, dolls, posters, and figurines. She has appeared in all of The Simpsons video games, including The Simpsons Game. Besides the television series, Marge regularly appears in issues of Simpsons Comics. Marge also plays a role in The Simpsons Ride, at Universal Studios Florida and Hollywood.

Playboy Shoot

In October 2009, it was announced that Marge would be featured on the front cover of the November issue of Playboy. The edition was first published on October 16, 2009. The cover and a three-page picture spread, as well as a story inside entitled "The Devil in Marge Simpson", is a celebration of the 20th anniversary of The Simpsons, but is also part of a plan to appeal to younger readers. Chief executive of Playboy Enterprises, Scott Flanders, has said that the cover and centerfold were "somewhat tongue-in-cheek".

Trivia

Gallery

The full image gallery for Marge Simpson may be viewed at Marge Simpson/Gallery.

Appearances

Marge appeared in every episode through the show and comics.

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Citations

Bart's "Uncle Arthur" was mentioned in S5E20 after the last commercial break.