Moe Szyslak

The Simpsons character
Moe Szyslak
Job	Proprietor of Moe's Tavern
Voice actor	Hank Azaria
First appearance
The Simpsons	"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"

Moe Szyslak ( /ˈsɪzlæk/) is a fictional character in the American animated television series, The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". Moe is the proprietor and bartender of Moe's Tavern, a Springfield bar frequented by Homer Simpson, Barney Gumble, Carl Carlson, Lenny Leonard, Sam, Larry, and others.

Role in The Simpsons

Personality

Moe is the owner and operator of Moe's Tavern. His most loyal customer is Barney Gumble. Other regulars include Homer Simpson, Lenny Leonard, Carl Carlson, Sam and Larry. Moe usually serves Duff beer on tap. He enthusiastically abandons his bar, its regular customers, and his friends when a better opportunity comes along, such as the drink "The Flaming Moe", the opening of his postmodern bar "m", the conversion of his bar into a family-themed restaurant called Uncle Moe's Family Feedbag and a British themed pub with Marge called the Nag and Weasel. Along with Moe's Tavern, he also has a bar called Moe's Express located in Springfield Mall. Moe is often engaged in shady or illegal activities at his tavern, including smuggling pandas and orcas, imprisoning Hans Moleman under the floor of the bar, hosting Russian roulette games, operating an unlicensed casino, serving liquor without a license (the liquor license he had was from 1973, signed by Moe himself, and only valid in Rhode Island), running a speakeasy during Springfield's brief flirtation with prohibition, performing unlicensed surgery, and housing Africanized bees. He is best known for being the most frequent recipient of Bart Simpson's prank calls. These involve them asking to speak to some fictional person with a provocative name (e.g. Mike Rotch, aka "My crotch"), which, when Moe says it, makes it dirty/naughty and/or insulting to himself, making everyone in the bar laugh at him. This always leads to Moe threatening to find and harm the caller in a violent and unusual way. Despite this, in the episode "Flaming Moe's", Bart goes to the tavern and Moe doesn't recognize his voice. Also in the episode "Flaming Moe's," a person in the bar is shown to have that episode's provocative name (Hugh Jass, or "Huge ass"), and when he takes the phone, Bart quickly explains about it being a prank call and they hang up with Hugh Jass saying "what a nice young man".

Moe's temperament is characterized by a short, violent temper, coupled with homicidal and suicidal tendencies (the latter of which has become more apparent in later episodes of the show). He frequently threatens various people with a shotgun and attempts suicide (including an annual attempt at Christmas and in the episodes "Mommie Beerest" after his bar is closed by the health department, Moe calls the suicide hotline only to discover that they’ve blocked his number and "Treehouse of Horror XIV" in demonstration of the absence of Death). He assumes a leading role in many of Springfield's angry mobs (such as a soccer riot in the episode "The Cartridge Family"), and kidnapping Talking Heads vocalist David Byrne. He has also shot at Carl Carlson, robbed Homer of expensive pants, kept Hans Moleman under his bar's floorboards in a subterranean chamber, perpetrated insurance fraud ("Dumbbell Indemnity"), shot Sam in the back for trying to pay in Sacagawea dollars, and stalked various townspeople. His sociopathic tendencies are made the subject of humour in "Burns' Heir", where he can be seen in his own home preparing a dialogue for some kind of confrontation in front of a mirror, and using a home-made sliding action pistol holster (which comically smashes the mirror) in a parody of Robert De Niro's Travis Bickle character from Taxi Driver. This behavior is further exhibited in The Simpsons Movie when he becomes the self-proclaimed "Emperor of Springfield" when the town is ruined. His leadership is challenged by Barney Gumble, who throws a Molotov Cocktail at him, which Moe successfully throws back. This temperament, however, can be an advantage when necessary.

Moe has an almost nonexistent love life due to his vulgarity towards women and his ugly appearance. Despite this, Moe has had a number of romantic experiences, including sleeping with his bartender Collette, dating a woman named Renee, and briefly enjoying the company of many women after he had plastic surgery. He also has a relationship and proposed to a little person named Maya, but Maya broke up with him after Moe kept cracking jokes about her height. He has long been infatuated with Marge Simpson, whom he calls 'Midge', and has on occasion tried to win her away from Homer. He has been romantically involved with Edna Krabappel as well as Marge's sister Selma. Moe's romantic attractions have resulted in run-ins with the law; he has stalked Maude Flanders and other townspeople, he must register as a sex offender, and he has a restraining order placed upon him. At one point he is seen on his way to a "V.D. clinic". Despite his creepy approach, Moe has showed to be a caring and devoted lover. While dating Renee (and previously Edna), he wholeheartedly spoiled them with whatever they wanted and vowed to give up his bar and take them away from Springfield forever, even if it means losing his own money and doing illegal acts to make more money. When he thought he finally won Marge's heart, he promised to be a better lover than Homer.^{[citation needed]}

Despite his faults, Moe has been shown to express genuine love and sentimentality, which suggests that he may not be as gruff or sociopathic as he appears. He has a cat named Mr. Snookums, of whom he is very fond but will turn hostile if anyone sees him with the cat. Moe is also kind towards the rats that live in his bar. On Wednesday nights, he reads to the homeless in a local soup kitchen and seems to have a soft spot for kids. He thoroughly enjoys Bart's company (not knowing it's Bart who has made numerous prank phone calls to his bar). He rudely tells his customers to shut up when Lisa has something she wants to say. After saving Maggie's life he develops a close and very protective relationship with her, going so far as to insult an attractive woman who is flirting with him when he mistakenly thinks she is calling Maggie ugly.

History

Characters in the Simpsons rarely have fully consistent backstories, and previously-given backstories are often intentionally undermined for humour in subsequent episodes. In "Flaming Moe's" (1991), he is called Morris by his lover, while in "The Springfield Connection" (1995), Homer refers to Moe by the Arabic "Moammar", and in "Eeny Teeny Maya Moe" (2009), he suggests that he only changed his name to Moe when he purchased Moe's Tavern. The show's many conflicting stories as to Moe's heritage has been sent up in the tie-in book The Book of Moe (2008), where Moe is depicted in several different foreign national folk costumes commenting upon them. An early joke in the series was that Moe was a European immigrant to the United States. In "Much Apu About Nothing" (1996), Moe is depicted taking his United States citizenship test; previously, "Bart's Inner Child" (1995) had depicted Moe's own inner child chastising him for abandoning his native Italian accent. Later, in "Bart-Mangled Banner" (2004), he reveals himself to be Dutch. As for indications he was born in America, in "Homer the Heretic" (1992), Moe's claims "I was born a snake handler and I'll die a snake handler" while in "Day of the Jackanapes" (2001) he claims to have been born in Indiana. In "Moe Goes from Rags to Riches" (2012), an infant moe is even depicted living on Mount Everest as the son of a Yeti.

Moe (left) as "Smelly" in The Little Rascals.

Numerous one-off jokes have been made regarding Moe's childhood as well. In "Radioactive Man" (1995), he is depicted as having been one of the original Little Rascals. In "The Blunder Years" (2001), a parody of the film Stand by Me, a teenaged Moe is depicted as a friend of Homer, Lenny and Carl. Moe's college years are also depicted, in "Homer the Moe" (2001), which shows Moe as having attended "bartending school" at Swigmore University (a play on Skidmore College) before opening what became Moe's Tavern. In "Springfield Up" (2007), footage from a documentary called Growing Up Springfield shows an 8 year-old Moe claiming that his father was a circus freak. Teenaged Moe is shown again in "She Used to Be My Girl" (2004), where he is depicted working in the school cafeteria, given as his first job "since prison"; Marge is responsible for having him sent back there. "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story" (2006) depicts scenes set years prior to the series' present in which Moe and schoolteacher Edna Krabappel are shown to have had a brief love affair.

Character

Creation

The creator of The Simpsons Matt Groening based Moe on Louis "Red" Deutsch who was made famous when he was repeatedly prank called by two Jersey City residents. These prank calls were the inspiration for Bart Simpson's repeated prank calls to Moe, and Deutsch's often profane responses inspired Moe's violent temper. Further inspiration was drawn from comedian Rich Hall, an acquaintance of The Simpsons writer George Meyer. Hall considers being the basis for Moe "an honor." Moe's surname "Szyslak" was revealed in "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)". Writers Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein found the name in a phonebook and gave it to Moe so that he would have the initials M.S., and hence be a suspect in the Burns shooting. Moe was designed by animator Dan Haskett and his facial appearance was modeled after a gorilla. Animator Mark Kirkland said that he usually lets pass through production off-model drawings of Moe because the character is so ugly that no one will notice.

Voice

Hank Azaria

Moe was the first voice Hank Azaria performed for the show. During the time of his audition, Azaria was doing a play in which he had the part of a drug dealer, basing his voice on actor Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon. He used the same voice in the audition, and was told by Matt Groening and Sam Simon, who were directing him, to make it more gravelly like Deutsch's voice. Groening and Simon thought that it was perfect and took Azaria over to the Fox network recording studio. Before he had even seen a script, Azaria recorded several lines of dialogue as Moe for the episode "Some Enchanted Evening". Moe was originally voiced by actor Christopher Collins. Collins recorded several lines as Moe which never aired.

Reception

In 2001 and 2003, Hank Azaria won Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for voicing Moe and various other characters.

See also

• Moe's Tavern
• Tube Bar prank calls

External links

• The Moe Szyslak File at The Simpsons Archive
• Moe Szyslak at the Internet Movie Database