Lisa Simpson

Template:Simpsons character Lisa Marie Simpson is a character in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Yeardley Smith; Lisa is the only character Smith voices on a regular basis. Matt Groening, the creator of the series, named her after his sister.

Lisa is an extremely intelligent girl, one of the brightest characters on the show, with an I.Q. of 156. She plays the Saxophone. Lisa is also a Buddhist and often serves as a mouthpiece for the show's writers, many of whom are postgraduates, to voice their knowledge of philosophy, science and history.

Personality

File:Lisas First Word.png

Bart holding baby Lisa as seen in "Lisa's First Word".

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Lisa with her saxophone.

In the Tracy Ullman shorts and early full length episodes, Lisa had interests equally as childish as Bart's, including comic books and burping contests. However as she got older, she became more stereotypically intellectual and began to regard such activities as juvenile, engaging in more mature pursuits. Lisa is quite eclectic in her knowledge and is notably more concerned with world affairs than her cohorts. Critics have also pointed out that Lisa's situation alludes to the plight of real children, who are often underestimated by adults. Lisa shares her intellect and overachieving personality traits with other female members of the Simpson family ("Lisa the Simpson" revealed that Simpson males inherit a gene on the Y chromosome that prevents them from channeling their intellect). Lisa also deeply values her integrity, as demonstrated when she cheats on a test on The Wind in the Willows to attain her highest grade of A+++, but later admits her dishonesty to an unreceptive Principal Skinner. (She later re-grades the test as an F.) Despite her intellect, Lisa has received detention, like her brother Bart, quite a number of times, often because of her rebellious and sometimes bitter attitude and anti-social behavior that is capable of deeply embarrassing authority figures.

Although her rebellion against social norms is usually constructive, Lisa can be whiny, cruel and self-righteous at times. Notably, in "Lisa the Vegetarian", her increasing sense of moral righteousness regarding her vegetarianism leads her to proselytize, culminating in her spiteful disruption of a "meat-based" barbecue prepared by Homer (an act she comes to rue). At times, Lisa appears to resist certain situations merely for the sake of resisting them, not because of any genuine ideological opposition. She appears to enjoy breaking the norm for its own sake; in Bart Star, she triumphantly declares that she, a girl, would like to join the football team. When it is revealed that there are already girls on the team, she declares her distaste for a sport that would use a pig's skin to make its ball. When it is revealed that the ball is actually synthetic, she is at a loss for words and runs off visibly upset. Unlike many of the other main characters, Lisa doesn't have a catchphrase, as seen in "Bart Gets Famous".

Despite her high IQ, Lisa does have typical childhood issues, sometimes requiring adult intervention. In "Lost Our Lisa", she tricks Homer into allowing her to ride the bus alone, only to become hopelessly lost. After his coworkers Lenny and Carl point out that he allowed his 8 year old daughter to ride a bus by herself, Homer comes to her rescue. In one episode, Lisa has a Jewish imaginary friend named Rachel Cohen who "just got into Brandeis." In the earlier seasons, Lisa displayed more personality traits of an eight-year old, including obsessing over getting a pony, being addicted to TV, fighting with Bart, and obsessing about her weight in one episode. She also finds Bart's joke-calls to Moe's tavern funny (although she never does it personally).

Intelligence

Arguably, Lisa's most notable trait about her character is that she is very intelligent. In Homer's Enemy, it is mentioned that Lisa has an IQ of 156. She is a high-ranking member of Mensa Springfield. Lisa demonstrates an early intelligence by changing her own diaper as an infant and completing a puzzle in Principal Skinner's office at 3 years old. When unable to attend school due to a teachers' strike (in "The PTA Disbands!"), she suffered a sort of "school withdrawal" and invents a perpetual motion machine that Homer describes as going "faster and faster". He goes on to chastise her, saying "In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"

Beliefs

Lisa's political convictions are generally leftist and rather liberal. She is a vegetarian, and a supporter of the Free Tibet movement.

While still supportive of the Christian church she was raised in, Lisa is now a practicing Buddhist following her decision to follow the Noble Eightfold Path. Though apparently not an adherent, she mentions in one episode that she considers Wicca "very empowering."

Love Life

Ralph became infatuated with Lisa when she took pity on him during Valentine's Day and gave him a card as a way of cheering him up. Ralph made himself Lisa's official boyfriend and hounded her relentlessly until Lisa broke his heart live during an episode of Krusty The Klown. Ralph channeled the rejection into a virtuoso performance of George Washington's life story which moved Lisa's heart and showed there was more to the sociably impaired classmate. She apologized to Ralph and the two became loving friends. In Lisa's Date with Density Lisa gets in trouble for staring at Nelson Muntz while in band class, and gets detention. She continues to stare at him, and develops a crush, and they soon start dating. Lisa tries to turn him into a gentleman, to which he is made fun of by his friends, Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney. They convince Nelson to go egg Principal Skinner's house. Nelson hides at Lisa's house afterwards, and lies to her about it, causing them to break up. In The Simpsons Movie, Lisa meets a boy, an immigrant from Ireland named Colin, whom Lisa falls for almost instantly due to their mutual interests of saving the environment and music. After returning to Springfield, Lisa is told by Milhouse that Colin is dead, only to find out that Colin is right behind him, in which he responds to Colin "I got her warmed up for you." At the end of the movie, it seems they are still pursuing a relationship.

Character

Creation

Like Homer, Marge and Maggie, Lisa is named after one of creator Matt Groening's family members, in this case his sister. In the Tracey Ullman Show shorts, Lisa was more of a "female Bart" and was equally miscievious. As the series progressed, Lisa began to develop into a more intelligent character with "Krusty Gets Busted" being one of the first episodes where her true intelligence is fully shown.

Many Lisa episodes have an emotional nature, the first one was "Moaning Lisa". The idea for the episode was pitched by James L. Brooks, who had wanted to do an emotional episode where Lisa is sad because the show had done a lot of "jokey episodes".

Cultural influence

Both Lisa and Bart ranked #11 in TV Guide's "Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time."

In Japan, the broadcasters of the series found they were able to turn the apparent viewer dislike of the series around by focusing marketing attention on Lisa. Lisa's well-intended but ill-fated struggles to be a voice of reason and a force of good in her family and her city struck a chord with the Japanese.

See also

• Lisa's sax solo gags on The Simpsons
• List of characters from The Simpsons

External links

• Lisa Simpson Biography at The Simpsons.com
• Lisa Simpson's Fan Club