BARNEY GUMBLE

'Barnard "Barney" Gumble' is a character on ''The Simpsons'', voiced by Dan Castellaneta. Barney is the Springfield town drunk, the most prominent of several alcoholic Springfielders and Homer Simpson's high school best friend.

Contents

Character origins

Personality traits

Life story

Notable events

Conflicts

Sobriety

References

Character origins

The name "Barney Gumble" is a parody (and near homonym) of "Barney Rubble" of Hanna-Barbera's ''The Flintstones''. Barney Rubble is Fred Flintstone's best friend. Originally, Barney was the best friend of Homer, but in recent seasons, he has been replaced by Lenny and Carl in that role. An earlier comic strip character from the 1920s was Barney Google. In several of the episodes of the first season, Barney's hair is yellow.

Personality traits

Barney is almost always seen in Moe's Tavern, where he is a regular. His desperation for alcohol has been the source of many jokes. He has a quavering, slightly broken voice and a distinctive loud belch (although he sings completely differently, having a beautiful "Irish tenor" type voice), as well as a characteristic wandering eye. He remains friendly and good-natured despite his unfortunate condition. Heavyset, slovenly, and unmarried (though occasionally seen with women), he lives in a messy, sparsely-furnished apartment while he is also seen living at Moe's Tavern. He is occasionally seen doing some sort of menial labor, such as working for his Uncle Al at Barney's Bowl-O-Rama, but has also been the owner of a successful snowplowing business and been employed as an astronaut. In the episode "A Star Is Burns", Barney states that he is 40 years old and his first name was revealed as Barnard, although he also appears to be in the same high school class as Homer in flashbacks. When streaking at his high school prom earned him "about a decade's worth of detention", it was hinted that he is to be held back a year- and this could have happened already.
When alcohol is not available, Barney is seen drinking just about anything, such as turpentine, varnish, and brake fluid.

Life story

Barney is presumably at least partially Norwegian, since his mother comes from Norway. In Treehouse of Horror XVII episode Barney said "I'm Irish" (Moe punches him) "Oh wait, I'm Polish", but these episodes are not considered canon. His father, Arnie Gumble, died in a 1979 parade float accident along with Sheldon Skinner, Iggy Wiggum, Etch Westgrin, and Griff McDonald, all of whom had served in Abe Simpson's WW II squad. Barney once had a near-death experience in which he expected to be reunited with "my loved ones, my dad, and that plant I never watered," perhaps implying that he did not get along with his father.
Barney is generally portrayed as being Homer Simpson's best friend, known from when they were at school. Barney first appeared in the episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", in which he worked as a department store Santa and gave Homer a tip for winning at the dog track. The season 1 DVD for the series indicates that the script writers originally intended for Barney to be Homer's next-door neighbor.
As a teenager, Barney showed much potential. He was Harvard-bound until Homer introduced him to beer, sadly enough on the night before they had to take the SATs. Later on, with Homer, he was a member of The Be Sharps barbershop quartet, which introduced his splendid Irish singing voice. It was heard again in "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" and in "Mommie Beerest". Barney showed his artistic side again in the episode "A Star Is Burns", in which Barney won top prize at the Springfield Film Festival for a moving documentary about his life as an alcoholic, unfortunately titled "Puke-a-hontas".
Barney served in the United States Navy Reserve for a short time, as a submariner on the USS Jebediah "Simpson Tide") with his own mother as his superior officer, although he served in the U.S. Army for a brief period of time in his youth.

Notable events

Conflicts

He has been involved in several altercations at Moe's with various visiting celebrities: after severely criticizing Joe Frazier, the two men stepped outside, with Frazier victorious in the fight. Barney was more successful with Wade Boggs, knocking him unconscious after an argument over who was "England's" greatest prime minister, with Barney arguing it was Lord Palmerston but Boggs preferring Pitt the Elder.
In the episode "Mr. Plow", Barney was inspired by Homer's Mr. Plow business to have his own snow removal service, calling himself the Plow King and buying a snow removal truck much bigger than Homer's. He even got Linda Ronstadt to sing on his commercials. "We've been looking for a project to do together for a while," he explained. He took away all Homer's customers and earned the key to Springfield (off Homer). Homer eventually fools Barney into traveling to "Forbidding Widows' Peak" to plow through the snow for a $10,000 bill, but is caught in an avalanche. Homer ends up saving Barney, they become friends again and team up, only to find the snow melting (after Homer comments "When two best friends team up, not even God himself can stop them." To which a voice from the sky replies "Oh , no?" and promptly beams down a ray of light to melt the snow), and Homer's truck repossessed. Barney is seen driving his plow as the Plow King once again in Miracle on Evergreen Terrace.
Since Montgomery Burns caused Moe's Tavern to close down in "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)", Barney became a major suspect for shooting Burns after Burns blocked the sun (despite his easygoing nature, Barney apparently carries around a derringer at all times).
Barney has been involved in several experiences such as exploding zeppelins, malfunctioning Jet packs and being crushed by a falling table. Barney, like most characters on animated shows, always survives these incidents, though is generally put out of action for the remainder of the episode.
In ''The Simpsons Movie'' Barney challenges Moe's self-proclaimed leadership as "Emperor of Springfield" by throwing a Molotov Cocktail at him. However, he admits defeat when Moe throws it back and it explodes. He (as always) survived the incident.

Sobriety

In the episode "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses", Barney kicked the alcoholism habit. For his birthday, Moe gave him a gift certificate for helicopter flying lessons, not expecting Barney to actually use them. "Can you imagine this tanked-up loser at the wheel of a whirlybird?", Moe asked. Barney went to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, became sober, and took the helicopter flying lessons. He became fairly proficient at it, though he admitted he only knew how to make left turns. This new skill helped Homer rescue Bart and Lisa from a forest fire. Unwilling to lose a customer, Moe figured out a way to transfer Barney's addiction to espresso, which led to the disappearance of his trademark belch. He had relapses in "The Blunder Years" and "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can" and was back on the sauce in "My Big Fat Geek Wedding" (in a scene that was a parody of Jimmy Stewart in ''Harvey''). Homer also encouraged Barney to have a beer when he played Ulysses S. Grant in a reenactment of the Battle of Springfield (though this, surprisingly, did not cause him to become alcoholic again). Early in season sixteen, though, he briefly sobered up and got back behind the controls of his helicopter to rescue an old girlfriend from a volcanic lava flow. He was also sober-ish and piloting his helicopter again in "Homerazzi". In "Co-Dependent's Day", he said the same re-hab clinic "cured him six times" meaning he may randomly switch between a current and recovering alcoholic. Also, in "Lost Our Lisa", he looked sober until he walked into Moe's Tavern. In the Simpsons Movie, Barney had been on and off with his sobriety. When Green Day performed in Springfield, Barney was one of the townspeople who threw beer bottles at them, and has his trademark 'drunk' hairdo. In church several minutes later, he once again has his clean shaven hair. Once the Dome began descending upon Springfield, he was one of the barflies who run into the church, and even later Barney was attending an Alcoholics' Anonymous meeting and went insane when they ran out of coffee.

References