Mayor Quimby

Template:Simpsons character Mayor Joseph Fitzpatrick Fitzgerald Fitzhenry Quimby, nicknamed "Diamond Joe," 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". A member of the Democratic Party, 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.

Concept and creation

Joe Quimby is largely a parody of the late Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, as well as of corrupt politics in general. His name references NW Quimby Street in Portland, Oregon, the hometown of show creator Matt Groening, and also pays homage to Tom and Jerry's producer Fred Quimby. Dan voices Quimby with somewhat considerable New York and Boston Irish accents.

Appearances

Quimby has long served as the mayor of the fictional city of Springfield in The Simpsons TV series. 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 Fat Tony, the local Mafia Don, and giving monthly kickbacks to Police Chief Wiggum. The seal on the wall of his office reads "Corruptus in Extremis"., which means "extremely corrupt".

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 for such a long time, 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. However, he makes frequent, albeit short, public appearances for local festivities, events, business openings, etc.

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.

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 Gabbo 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, Comic Book Guy, Lindsey Naegle, Dr. Hibbert, and Principal Skinner. He also survives a recall election, 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.

Reception

During the USA Today.com contest to choose which Springfield would host the release of The Simpsons Movie, Ted Kennedy himself appears in a video in which he invited "Diamond Joe" Quimby and the film to premiere in Springfield, Massachusetts, and even mocked his own oft-mocked pronunciation of the word "Chowder" (as "Chow-Dah"); however, Springfield, Vermont was chosen instead.

External links

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

See also

• Politics in The Simpsons