Mayor Quimby

Template:Simpsons character Joseph Fitzgerald O'Mally Fitzpatrick O'Donnell "Joe" Quimby, a.k.a. "Diamond Joe" Quimby, or simply Mayor Quimby, is a recurring character from the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta, and first appeared in the episode "Bart Gets an F". Quimby is the mayor of Springfield, and is a composite parody of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy and certain other members of the Kennedy family who have entered politics. Joe Quimby's name partly comes from NW Quimby Street in Portland, Oregon, the hometown of show creator Matt Groening.

Role in The Simpsons

Personality

Quimby has long served as the mayor of the fictional city of Springfield. He appears as a slick, opportunistic politician whose chief priorities seem to be keeping himself in office, womanizing, and various other forms of corruption, including embezzling tax money, taking bribes from the local Mafia Don Fat Tony, and giving monthly kickbacks to Police Chief Wiggum. The seal on the wall of his office reads "Corruptus in extremis".

He is known to be a womanizer, and to occasionally amuse himself with pornographic playing cards during town meetings. Quimby was once the subject of 27 separate paternity suits. One of the women he impregnated is Cookie Kwan, whose baby is remarkably similar to Quimby in both looks and mannerisms. Quimby also is frequently noticed in bed with the same or similar blonde woman/women, at least one of whom was Miss Springfield.

Despite being mayor, Quimby does not know or care much about his city, often privately (or even publicly) showing his outright contempt for Springfield's citizens. He frequently takes overseas vacations, which take him out of town for extended periods of time, leading to the headline "Mayor Visits City" in the Springfield Shopper. He once referred to Springfield as Springfeld at a public meeting.

If bending the law will suit Quimby's purposes, he will likely do so. He once arranged Marge Simpson's release after she was arrested for blocking traffic on a bridge after suffering a nervous breakdown, claiming that if she went to jail, Quimby could kiss the "chick vote" goodbye. He also resorted to bribing witnesses when assault charges were brought against his nephew, leading Bart Simpson to observe that "the system works: just ask Claus von Bülow".

His catch phrase is "Vote Quimby", which he always finds an opportunity to say, even in situations where it would be disadvantageous to identify himself, like inadvertently being caught by Homer in a motel room with his mistress.

Character biography

Quimby was elected Mayor of Springfield in 1986. He has been re-elected several times since, despite rather open admissions of fraud and wrongdoing. In one episode, he admits to using taxpayer dollars to fund the murder of his enemies, but thanks to a clever use of a popular catch phrase ("I'm a bad wittle boy"), he is re-elected in a landslide. His political stranglehold on Springfield has earned him the hatred of Springfield's small but vocal Republican elite, themselves portrayed as mostly dark, ghoulish figures who meet in a castle.

When the party nominates Sideshow Bob as its mayoral candidate, Bob rigs the election, briefly deposing Quimby. He is re-instated when Bob is found guilty of fraud and imprisoned. Later, he is briefly deemed to have "abandoned office" and is replaced by a short-lived "council of learned citizens" headed by Lisa Simpson, Professor Frink, and the Comic Book Guy, among others. He also survives a recall election in the 2005 episode "See Homer Run", with no candidate in the race against him (candidates include Rainier Wolfcastle (another Schwarzenegger reference), Kent Brockman, and even Homer Simpson) garnering the five percent necessary to force a recall.

He once accidentally allows his mistress, "Miss Springfield", to wear his mayoral sash, causing him to exclaim with horror that during the "five seconds" she wears it, she is "legally the mayor".

In the future Springfield shown in a fortune teller's vision of Lisa's future, Lisa is shown riding in a taxicab driven by a now indicted Quimby, whose license falsely identifies him as Mohammed Jafar in a weak attempt to deflect the embarrassment and shame of being thrown out of office. Due to there being many "future-episodes" in The Simpsons, this cannot necessarily be considered canon.

Comparison to the Kennedy Family

Mayor Quimby is a conspicuous parody of members of the Kennedy family. Despite being absent in other Simpsons characters, Quimby has a distinct Boston accent, characterized by JFK-like cadences in his speech. Quimby is a Democrat, like the Kennedy family. His vacations take place at the Quimby Compound, a parody of the Kennedy compound in Hyannis, Massachusetts. For the release of The Simpsons Movie, Ted Kennedy invited the film to premiere in Springfield, Massachusetts, though Springfield, Vermont was chosen instead.

Character

Dan Castellaneta improvised the Kennedyesque accent for Quimby.

External links

• Official site of Joe Quimby's 2000 presidential election campaign
• Template:Imdb character

See also

• Politics in The Simpsons