Comic Book Guy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Simpsons character | |
 |
|
| Comic Book Guy | |
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Job | Proprietor of The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop |
| Relatives | |
| Voice actor | Hank Azaria |
| First appearance | |
| The Simpsons | "Three Men and a Comic Book" |
Jeff Albertson,[1] commonly known as the Comic Book Guy, is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria, and first appeared in the second-season episode "Three Men and a Comic Book", which originally aired on May 9, 1991. He is the proprietor of a comic book store, The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop. Comic Book Guy is based on "every comic-bookstore guy in America"[2] and represents a stereotypical middle-aged comic-book collector. He has become well known for his catchphrase, "Worst Episode EVER!".
Contents |
[edit] Character
[edit] Creation
Although many suggestions state that Comic Book Guy was inspired by Matt Groening, Comic Book Guy was partly inspired by a clerk at the Los Angeles Amok book shop who often:
| “ | [Sat] on the high stool, kind of lording over the store with that supercilious attitude and eating behind the counter a big Styrofoam container full of fried clams with a lot of tartar sauce.[2] | ” |
Matt Groening noted:
| “ | I can't tell you how many times people have come up to me and said, 'I know who you based that comic book guy on. It's that comic-book guy right down the block.' And I have to tell them, 'No, it's every comic-bookstore guy in America.'[2] | ” |
Hank Azaria based Comic Book Guy's voice on a student who went by the name "F" and lived in the room next door at his college.[3] Azaria "loves that the character is an adult who argues with kids as if they're his peers."[2]
[edit] Development
Within the series, the character Comic Book Guy is often used to represent a stereotypical inhabitant of the newsgroup alt.tv.simpsons. The writers of the show are aware of the newsgroup and sometimes makes jokes at its expense.[4] The first such instance occurred in the seventh season episode "Radioactive Man," in which Comic Book Guy is logging on to his favorite newsgroup alt.nerd.obsessive.[5] Comic Book Guy's oft-repeated catchphrase, "Worst episode ever," first appeared on alt.tv.simpsons in an episode review[6] and David S. Cohen decided to use this fan response to lampoon the passion and the fickleness of the fans.[7]
The eighth season episode "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" is largely seen as a satire of the "hardcore fans" that make up the newsgroup, as well as a response to the viewer backlash and obsession with internal consistency those fans commonly express.[6] When Comic Book Guy sees the Poochie episode, he immediately goes on the Internet and writes, “Worst episode ever” on a message board; a commentary on how the active audience nit-picks the episode. The writers respond by using the voice of Bart Simpson:[8]
| “ |
Comic Book Guy: Last night's Itchy & Scratchy was, without a doubt, the worst episode ever. Rest assured I was on the Internet within minutes registering my disgust throughout the world. |
” |
The catchphrase further appears in the eleventh season episode "Saddlesore Galactica,"[9] and as the title of the twelfth season episode "Worst Episode Ever."[10] The catchphrase can also be used for describing other things by saying, "Worst. (Noun). Ever."[4]
[edit] Name
A long-running gag on the show was never to reveal the character's name, with other characters referring to him as "Comic Book Guy". The writers had intended to name the character as early as his first episode, but they could not think of a name for him, and they called him "Comic Book Guy", with the intention of naming the character the next time they used him.[11] However, they kept putting it off.[11] Finally, in the February 6, 2005 episode, "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass," Comic Book Guy nonchalantly told Ned Flanders: "My name is Jeff Albertson, but everyone calls me 'Comic Book Guy'".[1] Show runner Al Jean remarked: "That was specifically done to make people really mad. We just tried to pick a generic name. It was also the Super Bowl show. We did it so the most people possible would see it." Groening stated that he had originally intended him to be called Louis Lane and be "obsessed and tormented by" Lois Lane, but was out of the room when the writers named him.[12] His name is also mentioned twice in The Simpsons Game.
[edit] Reception
Hank Azaria has won several Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his work on The Simpsons, winning one in 2001 for voicing Comic Book Guy and various other characters in the episode "Worst Episode Ever".[13][14]
[edit] Merchandising
Comic Book Guy is featured on the cover of the twelfth season DVD. Comic Book Guy is also featured in The Simpsons Game, where he explains all the clichés that the player comes across during the game.[15]
Comic Book Guy's Book of Pop Culture is a volume in The Simpsons Library of Wisdom.
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass". Steven Dean Moore, Tim Long. The Simpsons (Fox). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer+and+Ned%27s+Hail+Mary+Pass. No. 8, season 16.
- ^ a b c d Joe Rhodes (2000-10-21). "Flash! 24 Simpsons Stars Reveal Themselves". TV Guide.
- ^ Azaria, Hank (2004). Commentary for "Homer's Barbershop Quartet", in The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b Tossell, Ivor (2007-08-02). "Worst. Column. Ever.". The Globe and Mail. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070726.wgtweb27/BNStory/. Retrieved on 2009-02-26.
- ^ Turner, p. 282
- ^ a b Donald, John R. (1992-11-04). "I&STM". alt.tv.simpsons. Google Groups. http://groups.google.com/group/alt.tv.simpsons/msg/44d7c1808394313f?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=%22worst+episode+ever. Retrieved on 2009-02-21.
- ^ Baker, Chris (2007-11-27). "Futurama Is Back! Grab a Can of Slurm and Settle In". WIRED. http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/15-12/ff_futurama?currentPage=2. Retrieved on 2009-02-22.
- ^ Alberti, pp. 147-148
- ^ "Saddlesore Galactica". Long, Tim; Kramer, Lance . The Simpsons (Fox). February 6, 2000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddlesore+Galactica. No. 13, season 11.
- ^ "Worst Episode Ever". Doyle, Larry; Nastuk, Matthew . The Simpsons (Fox). 4 February 2001. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worst+Episode+Ever. No. 11, season 12.
- ^ a b Reiss, Mike (2002). Commentary for "Three Men and a Comic Book", in The Simpsons: The Complete Second Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ Larry Carroll (2007-07-26). "'Simpsons' Trivia, From Swearing Lisa To 'Burns-Sexual' Smithers". MTV. http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1565538/20070725/story.jhtml. Retrieved on 2007-07-29.
- ^ "Primetime Emmy Awards Advanced Search". Emmys.org. http://www.emmys.org/awards/awardsearch.php. Retrieved on 0000-00-00.
- ^ Elaine Dutka (2001-08-14). "Morning Report". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2001/aug/14/entertainment/ca-33997. Retrieved on 0000-00-00.
- ^ Walk, Gary Eng (2007-11-05). "Work of Bart". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20158366,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-11-04.
[edit] External links
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