Cletus Spuckler
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| The Simpsons character | |
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| Cletus Del Roy Spuckler | |
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Job | Farmer, Construction worker |
| Relatives | Wife: Brandine Sister: Brandine Cousin: Brandine Mother: Maw 2nd Mother: Brandine Cousins: Merl and Dia-Betty Children: Brandine, Gummy Sue, Tiffany, Andie, Gordon, Lizzie, Jackson, Heather, Cody, Dylan, Dermot, Jordan, Taylor, Brittany, Wesley, Rumer, Scout, Cassidy, Zoe, Chloe, Max, Hunter, Rubella Scabies, Kendall, Caitlin, Noah, Sasha, Morgan, Kyra, Ian, Lauren, Cubert, Condoleezza Marie, Phil, Birthday, Crystal Meth, Dubya, Incest, International Harvester, Jitney, Witney, Mary, Stabbed in Jail |
| Voice actor | Hank Azaria |
| First appearance | |
| The Simpsons | Bart Gets an Elephant |
Cletus Del Roy Spuckler[1] also known as "Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel"[2] is a fictional character in the FOX animated series, The Simpsons, and is voiced by Hank Azaria. Cletus is Springfield's stereotypical hillbilly with a good-natured personality. He is thin and is usually portrayed wearing a sleeveless shirt and pair of jeans.[1] Cletus is portrayed as being the show's dumbest character, and is often acknowledged because of it.[3]
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Cletus was introduced during the fifth season in "Bart Gets an Elephant". He is shown as one of the "slack-jawed yokels" gawking at Bart's elephant Stampy. Cletus' voice is slightly deeper in this initial appearance than in later episodes. He, like the Sea Captain before him, was the go-to character for a quick laugh on the show, and is a staff favorite. He was introduced as a character in "22 Short Films About Springfield". The episode featured bluegrass music played on a banjo accompanied with different taglines stating the abnormal things Cletus has done including eating a skunk and losing a toe.
Cletus has seemed to be suffering from some sort of illness caused by drinking mercury out of a thermometer. It badly affected his memory. He "whittles what he sees" into wood with a penknife. Chief Wiggum was able to track down Bart and Gina after they escaped from jail through Cletus' wood carving of them. Cletus also possesses a form of precognitive vision through whittling. He predicted that Chief Wiggum would be mauled by a bear later in that episode (which did happen).
Growing up, Cletus developed a loving relationship with his mother, whom he addresses as 'Maw.' (I could call my Maw from up here. Hey, Maw! Get off the danged roof!) He has always been social and hardworking, and isn't bothered by others' opinions of him, demonstrated by his refusal to be ashamed of his marriage to his apparent relative, Brandine Spuckler[4]. Cletus has several hobbies which include whittling "piney babies" for children, searching for roadkill, digging through garbage, and spending time with everyone in his family except Brandine. In "Lost Our Lisa" he admits his favorite food is fresh skunk and raccoon. Cletus had a "smell-hound" named Geech.
Cletus and Brandine have a happy relationship; however, they are often shown having disagreements. In "Stop, Or My Dog Will Shoot!" Brandine pointed a shotgun at him for giving their pig "a day of beauty and make-up" instead of herself. In the episode "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife", both Cletus and Brandine decide not to come to Lenny's party after they are both afraid to use the "uppity box" (an elevator).
Cletus is shown, despite not being very intelligent, to try and make himself look less like a hillbilly, for example in episode Marge Gamer, Homer states that he won't receive soccer tips from "no dumb hillbilly," Cletus responds "That's hill-William to you, sir!"
Cletus works as a fifth generation dirt farmer. He also owns a successful chain of moonshine stills, and was delighted when it was decided that his drink would be used to flavor the latest version of Southern Cracker[5]. As seen in "A Star Is Torn", he and Brandine operate a vegetable shack near the Kwik-E-Mart. He is currently in the process of opening a family business that sells miscellaneous animal parts. In "Yokel Chords" Cletus took advantage of the money his children were making and used it to his own personal satisfaction, but was stopped when Brandine came back from the Iraq War and revealed he was only the father of two of the children, leaving him with no right to control them.
Cletus is known to be a quite ditzy idiot of Springfield. In The Simpsons Movie, Mayor Quimby wants to prove that the lake's barrier is "idiot-proof" and asks Cletus to try to drop something in the lake. Cletus walks towards the lake holding a large rat and bounces off the concrete defenses. Cletus, clearly bewildered, says "I can't. I-I simply can't". Later in the movie, other characters note that they need to find someone stupid enough to take on the very risky task of distracting Russ Cargill while the town escapes from the dome. Upon the request for a stupid person, Cletus appears from off-screen and proudly announces, "My time to shine!" He then distracts Cargill by faking pulling his thumb off.
[edit] Relationships
Cletus has an ongoing relationship with Brandine, who is generally represented as his wife, although the nature of their exact relationship is somewhat vague. It is often implied that the two are siblings. In "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily" at an auto racing event, Brandine remarks "Dang, Cletus! Why'd you have to park so close to my parents?" to which Cletus responds, "Now honey, they's mah parents too!". This plays into the stereotype that incest is prevalent among hillbillies.
In the Season 16 episode, "There's Something About Marrying", Homer, who was ordained over the Internet as a minister, is preparing to marry Cletus and Brandine. Looking at a form, he asks "Wait a minute… are you two brother and sister?" Brandine replies, "We's all kindsa thangs." To complicate the issue further, Brandine remarks to Cletus in another episode ("The Italian Bob") "Yer tha best husband – and son – I've ever had." Further confusing matters, the episode "Little Big Girl" features a hand-drawn family tree created by one of Cletus' sons. According to this diagram, Brandine is the child of Cletus and an alien. It is clearly impossible for Brandine to be Cletus' mother and Cletus to be her father, so the complicated relationship between them cannot be reconciled with everything stated on the show. Cletus and Brandine have thirty-nine children, which include a sheep and a walking hot dog.
[edit] Children
Cletus seems to be the father of a large number of children. When he presents Marge with 300 coupons for free pretzels from her pretzel business, he calls out to Tiffany, Heather, Cody, Dylan, Dermot, Jordan, Taylor, Brittany, Wesley, Rumer, Scout, Cassidy, Zoe, Chloe, Max, Hunter, Kendall, Caitlin, Noah, Sasha, Morgan, Kyra, Ian, Lauren, Cubert, and Phil. Cletus and Brandine also have a daughter named Condoleezza Marie, who was somehow switched with a bag of sugar that Homer was carrying as part of a parenting exercise, and a daughter named Rubella Scabies, whose middle name was inspired by a word spelled by Lisa in her audition for the annual spelling bee. They have another daughter, Gummy Sue, introduced in "Helter Shelter". In the episode "Lost Our Lisa", Lisa encounters Cletus gathering up roadkill for a hillbilly wedding feast. In the short dialogue that ensues, Brandine is implied to be giving birth to a new child in the truck's cab. In The Simpsons Game another child also features under the name of Carl Durant, the long lost son of Cletus and Brandine who was put up for adoption at birth. He shares similar personality traits as Cletus, such as a difficulty in communicating with other characters, as well as a markable similarity in appearance.
In a "Treehouse of Horror" issue of Simpsons Comics, Brandine (off-panel) is attempting to give birth to a child to completely fill out a set of Seven Dwarfs costumes. The episode "Yokel Chords" features seven Spuckler children, named Birthday, Crystal Meth, Dubya, Incest, International Harvester, Jitney, and Witney, as central characters. However, Brandine reveals that Cletus is the father of only two of these children (casting doubt on the paternity of the other children of the Spuckler household). In one episode Brandine was seen to give birth in a car, apparently with very little pain, and asking Cletus to cut the "Umbrellical cord." In "Marge Gamer", after one of his children, Carl, is accused by Homer of cheating at soccer, Cletus says of his children, "I have sired a dumb-dumb, a mush-head, a whatsit, a dogboy, and something with a human face and fish body what we called Kevin. But my young'uns is not dirty players!"
In "Apocalypse Cow" they introduce Mary Wrestlemania Spuckler who is supposed to be married to Bart. Cletus mentions that they "name all their kids after what they think is gonna happen to them. Ain't that right, 'Stabbed In Jail'?" to which Stabbed In Jail Spuckler (who is seen sharpening a wooden stick) replies, "We'll see who stabs who."
[edit] Last name
His last name was given as "Del Roy" in the episode "Behind the Laughter"; however, in "Yokel Chords", Brandine refers to him as Cletus Del Roy Spuckler, implying that Del Roy is his middle name and Spuckler is his last name. He signs his full name in "Weekend at Burnsie's" indicating support for Ned Flanders's petition to recriminalize medicinal marijuana. He also does this in"Sweets and Sour Marge", for Marge's petition to ban sugar from Springfield[6]. In "Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays" his name is given as "Cletus Spuckler" in a news report. A mailbox standing outside Cletus' shack in the video game The Simpsons Hit & Run reads "Spuckler". In "All's Fair in Oven War", Brandine's surname is said to be "Nolastnamegiven", although this may be simply because she did not write down a last name on the entry form. As well, in "Yokel Chords" Lisa referred to him as "Mr. Spuckler" throughout the whole episode; as well Krusty the Clown calls his kids "The Spuckler Family Kids".
[edit] Reception
He is named the 7th (out of 25) of IGN's Top 25 Peripheral Characters.[7]
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Bart Gets an Elephant". John Swartzwelder (writer), Jim Reardon (director). The Simpsons. Fox Broadcasting Company. 1994-03-31. No. 17, season 5.
- ^ The Simpsons episode: "22 Short Films About Springfield"
- ^ Dave West. "Groening: 'Simpsons Movie' will be emotional", Digital Spy, 2007-07-07. Retrieved on 2007-07-10.
- ^ 'Cletus Spuckler Dashdingo.com. URL accessed on 14 December 2006
- ^ 'Cletus Spuckler Dashdingo.com. URL accessed on 14 December 2006
- ^ SNPP DABF03 SNPP.com URL Accessed October 23, 2007
- ^ IGN: Top 25 Simpsons Peripheral Characters
