Difference between revisions of "Comic Book Guy"
(→Profile) |
|||
| Line 13: | Line 13: | ||
}} | }} | ||
| − | '''Jeff Albertson''', better known as '''Comic Book Guy''', is the proprietor of the comic book | + | '''Jeff Albertson''', better known as '''Comic Book Guy''', is a [[fictional character]] in the [[animated series]] ''[[The Simpsons]]'', voiced by [[Hank Azaria]]. He is the proprietor of the [[comic book]] store, The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop. |
==Profile== | ==Profile== | ||
| − | Comic Book Guy is obese, | + | Comic Book Guy is [[obesity|obese]], [[nerd]]y, [[hairy]] and perhaps best known for his [[sarcasm|sarcastic]] quips. He holds a [[master's degree]] in [[folklore]] and [[mythology]] (he translated ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' into [[Klingon Language|Klingon]]<ref>this is a reference to an organization called the [[Klingon Language Institute]] who took the time to translate ''[[Hamlet]]'' into Klingon after hearing the line "You haven't experienced [[Shakespeare]] until you've read him in the original Klingon" in ''[[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country]]''</ref> as part of his [[thesis]]). His [[catchphrase]] is the declaration "Worst... ([[Noun]])... ever". Comic Book Guy is said to be mocking certain ''Simpsons'' fans who will race to the [[Internet]] to criticize the producers and writers of an episode they have just finished viewing and declare such episode to be the "Worst Episode Ever". (''Simpsons'' fans started to do just that sometime in [[1992]] on the [[alt.tv.simpsons]] [[USENET]] newsgroup, and later on the [[Web]], leading to an on-air reference to "alt.nerd.obsessive".) In the episode "Mayored to the Mob", he states that he is a 45 year-old virgin who lives with his mother. |
| − | Appropriate to his name, Comic Book Guy is obsessed with comic books. A science fiction buff, Comic Book Guy has a bumper sticker that reads "My Other Car Is The Millennium Falcon," given to him by a Harrison Ford lookalike. The license plate on his AMC Gremlin is USS Enterprise NCC-1701, the registry number of ''Star Trek's'' ''Starship Enterprise''. The contents of his display case include, among other oddities, a photo of Sean Connery signed by Roger Moore and a very rare ''Mary Worth'' | + | Appropriate to his name, Comic Book Guy is obsessed with comic books. A [[science fiction]] buff, Comic Book Guy has a [[bumper sticker]] that reads "My Other Car Is The [[Millennium Falcon]]," given to him by a [[Harrison Ford]] lookalike. The license plate on his [[AMC Gremlin]] is [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|NCC-1701]], the registry number of ''[[Star Trek|Star Trek's]]'' ''[[Starship Enterprise#NCC-1701|USS Enterprise]]''. The contents of his display case include, among other oddities, a photo of [[Sean Connery]] signed by [[Roger Moore]] and a very rare ''[[Mary Worth (comic)|Mary Worth]]'' in which she advised a friend to commit [[suicide]]. He also owns a T-shirt that says "C:/[[DOS]] C:/DOS/RUN RUN/DOS/RUN" (Notice the incorrect usage of the forward slash. DOS directories are listed with a backslash). He is a member of the Springfield branch of [[Mensa International|Mensa]], along with [[Seymour Skinner|Principal Skinner]], [[Julius Hibbert|Dr. Hibbert]], [[Lisa Simpson]], [[Professor Frink]], and [[List of recurring characters from The Simpsons#Lindsey Naegle|Lindsey Naegle]]. |
| − | |||
In the episode "[[Saddlesore Galactica]]", he wears a T-shirt saying "Worst Episode Ever" while criticising the ideals behind the Simpson family keeping a horse since it had already been done. Later on he even popped into the frame when it was mentioned that [[Marge Simpson|Marge]] [[$pringfield|might be developing a gambling problem]] saying "Hey, I'm watching you". After the credits of the same episode, his voice is heard declaring it "the worst episode ever". | In the episode "[[Saddlesore Galactica]]", he wears a T-shirt saying "Worst Episode Ever" while criticising the ideals behind the Simpson family keeping a horse since it had already been done. Later on he even popped into the frame when it was mentioned that [[Marge Simpson|Marge]] [[$pringfield|might be developing a gambling problem]] saying "Hey, I'm watching you". After the credits of the same episode, his voice is heard declaring it "the worst episode ever". | ||
| − | + | In the Simpsons city of North Haverbrook there is a comic book shop named "Mylar Baggins" and the proprietor looks very similar to Comic Book Guy with the exception that his skin and hair are slightly darker. He also has a deep-rooted rivalry with a store similar to his - "Frodo's of Shelbyville". These shops could have had the same owner, as both rival store names refer to The Lord of the Rings character Frodo Baggins. In ''[[The Simpsons Movie]]'' Comic Book Guy says that his obsessive comic book collecting is a "life well spent". (By contrast, in an episode of "[[Treehouse of Horror VIII]]" (airdate October 26, 1997), in a sequence entitled "The Homega Man," the Comic Book Guy, shown reading an Aquaman comic, looks up to see the neutron bomb--fired at Springfield by France--seconds before it detonates, and mourns aloud, "Oh, I've wasted my life." It should be noted that 'Treehouse' episodes occur outside of continuity.) | |
| − | In the Simpsons city of North Haverbrook there is a comic book shop named "Mylar Baggins" and the proprietor looks very similar to Comic Book Guy with the exception that his skin and hair are slightly darker. He also has a deep-rooted rivalry with a store similar to his - "Frodo's of Shelbyville". These shops could have had the same owner, as both rival store names refer to The Lord of the Rings character Frodo Baggins. | ||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | In ''[[The Simpsons Movie]]'' Comic Book Guy says that his obsessive comic book collecting is a "life well spent". | ||
== The Android's Dungeon == | == The Android's Dungeon == | ||
| + | [[Image:Dungeon.gif|thumb|250px|The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop]] | ||
Comic Book Guy is the owner of The Android's Dungeon, a local [[comic book]] store. Many of the comics and toys he sells are of poor-quality, and often for very high prices. His store is his sanctuary, where he holds some level of self-esteem, imperiously lording over pre-teen kids, like [[Bart Simpson]] and [[Milhouse Van Houten]], using a heavily sarcastic tone. When he was the target of mockery while trying to return the Ultimate Belt, he sighed, "I must get back to my comic book store, where I ''dispense'' the insults rather than ''absorb'' them". His store contains a section full of illegal [[video tape|videos]] (which include [[Fred Rogers|Mr. Rogers]] drunk, ''[[Alien autopsy|Alien Autopsy]]'', ''Illegal Alien Autopsy'', a [[top secret]] American [[Nuclear warfare|nuclear war]] strategy session, a "good version" of ''[[The Godfather Part III]]'', [[Kent Brockman]] picking his nose, and [[Ned Flanders]] in a [[police informant]] video, wherein he claims that [[Homer Jay Simpson|Homer]] released a radioactive ape in his house). He once had to give up the Ultimate Belt (which he won as a door prize at a Star Trek Convention) because, as he pointed out, "the average [[Trekkie|Trekker]] has no use for a medium-sized belt". | Comic Book Guy is the owner of The Android's Dungeon, a local [[comic book]] store. Many of the comics and toys he sells are of poor-quality, and often for very high prices. His store is his sanctuary, where he holds some level of self-esteem, imperiously lording over pre-teen kids, like [[Bart Simpson]] and [[Milhouse Van Houten]], using a heavily sarcastic tone. When he was the target of mockery while trying to return the Ultimate Belt, he sighed, "I must get back to my comic book store, where I ''dispense'' the insults rather than ''absorb'' them". His store contains a section full of illegal [[video tape|videos]] (which include [[Fred Rogers|Mr. Rogers]] drunk, ''[[Alien autopsy|Alien Autopsy]]'', ''Illegal Alien Autopsy'', a [[top secret]] American [[Nuclear warfare|nuclear war]] strategy session, a "good version" of ''[[The Godfather Part III]]'', [[Kent Brockman]] picking his nose, and [[Ned Flanders]] in a [[police informant]] video, wherein he claims that [[Homer Jay Simpson|Homer]] released a radioactive ape in his house). He once had to give up the Ultimate Belt (which he won as a door prize at a Star Trek Convention) because, as he pointed out, "the average [[Trekkie|Trekker]] has no use for a medium-sized belt". | ||
==Romance== | ==Romance== | ||
| − | Comic Book Guy was once married—in an [[MMORPG|online role-playing game]]. He and his Internet wife contemplated having children, but that would have severely drained his power crystals. While part of an intellectual [[wiktionary:junta|junta]] that [[They Saved Lisa's Brain|briefly ran Springfield]], he proposed plans to limit breeding to once every seven years (a reference to the [[Vulcan (Star Trek)|Vulcan]] blood fever of mating, called [[Pon Farr]]), commenting that this would mean much less breeding for most, but for him, "much, much more". He was a [[virginity|virgin]] well into his forties when he became romantically involved with [[Principal Skinner]]'s mother [[Agnes Skinner|Agnes]]. ([[Clancy Wiggum|Chief Wiggum]] was notably repulsed when he and his officers stumbled upon the couple "in the act".) He later dated [[Edna Krabappel]] | + | Comic Book Guy was once married—in an [[MMORPG|online role-playing game]]. He and his Internet wife contemplated having children, but that would have severely drained his power crystals. He was shown paired with a woman during a mass-marriage that occurred when a cult took over Springfield, and presumably the two were wed in the mass ceremony. While part of an intellectual [[wiktionary:junta|junta]] that [[They Saved Lisa's Brain|briefly ran Springfield]], he proposed plans to limit breeding to once every seven years (a reference to the [[Vulcan (Star Trek)|Vulcan]] blood fever of mating, called [[Pon Farr]]), commenting that this would mean much less breeding for most, but for him, "much, much more". He was a [[virginity|virgin]] well into his forties when he became romantically involved with [[Principal Skinner]]'s mother [[Agnes Skinner|Agnes]]. ([[Clancy Wiggum|Chief Wiggum]] was notably repulsed when he and his officers stumbled upon the couple "in the act".) He later dated [[Edna Krabappel]] and was shown with the superman logo tattooed on his upper right buttock. |
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| + | ==Creation== | ||
| + | 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 containerful of fried clams with a lot of tartare sauce."<ref name=tvguide>{{cite news|title=Flash! 24 Simpsons Stars Reveal Themselves|accessdate=2007-08-15|date=[[2000-10-21]]|publisher=[[TV Guide]]|author=Joe Rhodes}}</ref> [[Matt Groening]] noted that: "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."<ref name=tvguide/> | ||
| − | + | 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.<ref name=barber>{{cite video|people=Azaria, Hank|year=2004|title=The Simpsons The Complete Fifth Season DVD commentary for the episode "[[Homer's Barbershop Quartet]]"|medium=DVD||publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> Azaria also "loves that the character is an adult who argues with kids as if they're his peers."<ref name=tvguide/> | |
| − | Comic Book Guy | ||
| − | [[ | ||
| − | + | 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". 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'."<ref>{{cite episode |title=Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass |episodelink=Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass |series=The Simpsons |serieslink=The Simpsons |credits= Steven Dean Moore, Tim Long |network=Fox |airdate= |season=16 |number=8 |minutes=Three}}</ref> [[Showrunner]] [[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, so 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.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1565538/20070725/story.jhtml|title='Simpsons' Trivia, From Swearing Lisa To 'Burns-Sexual' Smithers|accessdate=2007-07-29|date=[[2007-07-26]]|author=Larry Carroll|publisher=[[MTV]]}}</ref> | |
| − | A | ||
| − | |||
| − | |||
{{simpsons characters}} | {{simpsons characters}} | ||
[[Category: Characters]] | [[Category: Characters]] | ||
Revision as of 17:02, December 5, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Worst (insert random word) ever!" - Comic Book Guy's catch phrase
Jeff Albertson
| ||||||||||||||||
Character Information
|
Jeff Albertson, better known as Comic Book Guy, is a fictional character in the animated series The Simpsons, voiced by Hank Azaria. He is the proprietor of the comic book store, The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop.
Profile
Comic Book Guy is obese, nerdy, hairy and perhaps best known for his sarcastic quips. He holds a master's degree in folklore and mythology (he translated The Lord of the Rings into Klingon[1] as part of his thesis). His catchphrase is the declaration "Worst... (Noun)... ever". Comic Book Guy is said to be mocking certain Simpsons fans who will race to the Internet to criticize the producers and writers of an episode they have just finished viewing and declare such episode to be the "Worst Episode Ever". (Simpsons fans started to do just that sometime in 1992 on the alt.tv.simpsons USENET newsgroup, and later on the Web, leading to an on-air reference to "alt.nerd.obsessive".) In the episode "Mayored to the Mob", he states that he is a 45 year-old virgin who lives with his mother.
Appropriate to his name, Comic Book Guy is obsessed with comic books. A science fiction buff, Comic Book Guy has a bumper sticker that reads "My Other Car Is The Millennium Falcon," given to him by a Harrison Ford lookalike. The license plate on his AMC Gremlin is NCC-1701, the registry number of Star Trek's USS Enterprise. The contents of his display case include, among other oddities, a photo of Sean Connery signed by Roger Moore and a very rare Mary Worth in which she advised a friend to commit suicide. He also owns a T-shirt that says "C:/DOS C:/DOS/RUN RUN/DOS/RUN" (Notice the incorrect usage of the forward slash. DOS directories are listed with a backslash). He is a member of the Springfield branch of Mensa, along with Principal Skinner, Dr. Hibbert, Lisa Simpson, Professor Frink, and Lindsey Naegle.
In the episode "Saddlesore Galactica", he wears a T-shirt saying "Worst Episode Ever" while criticising the ideals behind the Simpson family keeping a horse since it had already been done. Later on he even popped into the frame when it was mentioned that Marge might be developing a gambling problem saying "Hey, I'm watching you". After the credits of the same episode, his voice is heard declaring it "the worst episode ever".
In the Simpsons city of North Haverbrook there is a comic book shop named "Mylar Baggins" and the proprietor looks very similar to Comic Book Guy with the exception that his skin and hair are slightly darker. He also has a deep-rooted rivalry with a store similar to his - "Frodo's of Shelbyville". These shops could have had the same owner, as both rival store names refer to The Lord of the Rings character Frodo Baggins. In The Simpsons Movie Comic Book Guy says that his obsessive comic book collecting is a "life well spent". (By contrast, in an episode of "Treehouse of Horror VIII" (airdate October 26, 1997), in a sequence entitled "The Homega Man," the Comic Book Guy, shown reading an Aquaman comic, looks up to see the neutron bomb--fired at Springfield by France--seconds before it detonates, and mourns aloud, "Oh, I've wasted my life." It should be noted that 'Treehouse' episodes occur outside of continuity.)
The Android's Dungeon
Comic Book Guy is the owner of The Android's Dungeon, a local comic book store. Many of the comics and toys he sells are of poor-quality, and often for very high prices. His store is his sanctuary, where he holds some level of self-esteem, imperiously lording over pre-teen kids, like Bart Simpson and Milhouse Van Houten, using a heavily sarcastic tone. When he was the target of mockery while trying to return the Ultimate Belt, he sighed, "I must get back to my comic book store, where I dispense the insults rather than absorb them". His store contains a section full of illegal videos (which include Mr. Rogers drunk, Alien Autopsy, Illegal Alien Autopsy, a top secret American nuclear war strategy session, a "good version" of The Godfather Part III, Kent Brockman picking his nose, and Ned Flanders in a police informant video, wherein he claims that Homer released a radioactive ape in his house). He once had to give up the Ultimate Belt (which he won as a door prize at a Star Trek Convention) because, as he pointed out, "the average Trekker has no use for a medium-sized belt".
Romance
Comic Book Guy was once married—in an online role-playing game. He and his Internet wife contemplated having children, but that would have severely drained his power crystals. He was shown paired with a woman during a mass-marriage that occurred when a cult took over Springfield, and presumably the two were wed in the mass ceremony. While part of an intellectual junta that briefly ran Springfield, he proposed plans to limit breeding to once every seven years (a reference to the Vulcan blood fever of mating, called Pon Farr), commenting that this would mean much less breeding for most, but for him, "much, much more". He was a virgin well into his forties when he became romantically involved with Principal Skinner's mother Agnes. (Chief Wiggum was notably repulsed when he and his officers stumbled upon the couple "in the act".) He later dated Edna Krabappel and was shown with the superman logo tattooed on his upper right buttock.
Creation
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 containerful of fried clams with a lot of tartare sauce."[2] Matt Groening noted that: "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 also "loves that the character is an adult who argues with kids as if they're his peers."[2]
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". 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'."[4] Showrunner 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, so 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.[5]
- ↑ this is a reference to an organization called the Klingon Language Institute who took the time to translate Hamlet into Klingon after hearing the line "You haven't experienced Shakespeare until you've read him in the original Klingon" in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Joe Rhodes. "Flash! 24 Simpsons Stars Reveal Themselves"TV Guide. Retrieved on 2007-08-15.
- ↑ Azaria, Hank. (2004). The Simpsons The Complete Fifth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ↑ Template:Cite episode
- ↑ Larry Carroll. "'Simpsons' Trivia, From Swearing Lisa To 'Burns-Sexual' Smithers"MTV. Retrieved on 2007-07-29.
