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Revision as of 02:12, 8 November 2006 by 69.160.9.71 (talk) (→Profile)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Template:Simpsons character Nelson Muntz (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) is a character from The Simpsons.
Nelson Muntz is arguably one of the darkest and most complex characters in the show. His appalling home life mirrors that of poor children from broken families in much of the USA, with an absent father and a less than caring mother. His obvious delinquency, which has involved a firearms, arson and countless unprovoked assaults is tempered by a surprising cynicism beyond his years. Indeed, there are strong hints in the show that Nelson is in fact a sensitive boy tortured by the hopelessness of his life and future. As such, he serves as a symbol of youth denied its potential by economic strife and social rejection. Both Marge Simpson and Lisa Simpson have picked up on this, Marge adopting him as a surrogate son, and Lisa dating him briefly until discovering that he lied to her. However, Nelson retains a degree of deference to them.
According to the DVD commentary on the Season Five Simpsons episode "Lady Bouvier's Lover", Nelson's first name comes from the wrestling hold, the full nelson.
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Nelson is notorious for his unabashed displays of schadenfreude, invariably accompanied by his trademark "Ha ha!" laugh; oftentimes, he makes his victim inflict self-punishment (while making comments like, "Stop hitting yourself!" "Stop butling yourself!" "Stop endangering yourself!" "Why you throwin' tomatoes at yourself?"). His family life, though always dysfunctional, is inconsistent; while some early episodes claimed his mom left the family and/or his dad "went nuts," the eventually canon story is that he lives with his cash poor mom , who got fired from Hooters and owns a dilapidated house. She is depicted as a whore, a stripper or something similar. (In "Sleeping with the Enemy", she reveals she won the role of Lady Macbeth in the Shakespeare play, and says "I don't have to take my top off, but I do anyway"). Nelson is also a cigarette smoker, and once claimed to have a sister (although she is only mentioned once, and never actually seen in the show -- and he even says she may be deceased). Nelson's dad appeared to have left after apparently going to the store to buy cigarettes. As a result, Nelson has hallucinated that his father has come back to him. (In some episodes however, Nelson's father is still around to raise him: in one episode, he is Nelson's soccer coach). Nelson's dad returns in the 16th season, and it turns out that Nelson's dad did not leave him deliberately: he bit into a chocolate bar, not knowing it had peanuts and had an allergic reaction. Looking like the elephant man, he ran out of the store and encountered a circus, who mistook him for a freak and caged him for years, dressed in a burlap sack with the word "corn" printed on it. Scared by his appearance, circus attendees threw peanuts at him, which again and again caused the reaction, never allowing him to return to normal. When the circus came through Springfield, Bart recognized him and brought him home to reunite him with Nelson.
Although in the first season, Nelson seemed to be Bart's antagonist, he becomes Bart's friend in later episodes. Although still prone to violence, he occasionally hangs out with Bart and his outcast friends such as Milhouse Van Houten and even common bullying target Martin Prince, more often than delinquents Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney. Many have noted that past around season 6, Nelson is not seen with the bully trio very often, hinting that his friendship with them is superficial. Nelson has many other moments where he displays his hidden good nature, such as his brief amorous relationship with Lisa. Although he cannot control his delinquent tendencies, he treats her with respect and even tries to change for her...although both of them realize that he is not being true to himself by doing so. Another curious example is with Martin, a boy whom Nelson picks on perhaps more so than any other kid in town. Despite the utter cruelty there are occasional hints that Nelson does not harbor any hate towards Martin, and is friendly with him at times. In the episode, "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can", both Nelson and Martin attend Space Camp and it is implied that Martin had helped Nelson quite a bit and the two may have been very friendly. Due to the peer pressure of maintaining his bad-boy image at school however, he seems to deliberately go back to his antagonism toward a rather dismayed Martin.
Nelson also represents Japan at the school's Model UN club.
As mentioned, another notable aspect of Nelson is that in various episodes, he seems to give off the impression that he is a lot smarter than he may first appear. Nelson often points out painfully obvious things to adults and kids alike that take them longer to grasp. Another example is a running joke where Nelson does class assignment which is implied to be of high quality. However, he is always brushed off by the teachers before he gets to show them his work. On the other hand, he does often demonstrate stupidity. When Skinner tricks Bart and the bullies by telling them they are getting bikes but instead locks them in the closet and tells them the situation, Nelson still believes he is going to get a mountain bike and asks when he will get it.
As well as Nelson's potential competency at school work, Nelson is also a natural athlete. In addition to physical toughness, Nelson also plays a variety of sports throughout the series. Although he lacks the great dexterity of Bart, his natural prowess compensates on multiple occasions. In the episode "Bart Star", Nelson almost singlehandedly carries the entire Springfield Pee-wee football team. As the team quarterback, he also on one occasion intercepts his own pass and plows through the opposing team with extreme ease. Nelson is also a fan of many unexpected things, such as Andy Williams and Snow White. He is also expert in the proper preparation of huckleberries. According to the episode, "The Monkey Suit", Nelson is apparently a master of disguise, fooling even Bart.
Although Nelson is still as violent as ever, he has also been known to beat people up for arguably noble reasons. In one episode, he punched Bart in the stomach, saying "That's for taking credit for other people's work!", when Bart claimed to have been Krusty's assistant, but the credits were too small to read or when Bart wrecked Hitler's vehicle at a carnival ("You wrecked Hitler's car! What did he ever do to you?!). He also beat up Bart for "wasting Teacher's valuable time!" and "besmirching an innocent girl's name," although he did not realize how evil Jessica Lovejoy really was. In the end, Nelson has come a long way in developing from a generic bully terrorizing Bart, to a rather complex character.
At times he is depicted as having master answer sheets to various tests and assignments at school. In one episode he has an "office" located in a toilet cubicle where he has the answer sheets hidden in the toilet cistern. He also has a framed picture of himself mounted on the cubicle wall with "Employee Of The Month" stencilled below it.
The episode Future-Drama depicts Nelson to have dated (and impregnated) identical twins Sherri and Terri, becoming the father to two sets of twins. He then claims to be going out for cigarettes, and ran away when the twins challenges his claim. The twins claim the reason Nelson is going out is the VERY SAME that his father used on the family.
Nelson's laugh
It has been suggested by many that sports teams play the Nelson Muntz laugh when their opponent makes a mistake, and some have even been sadistic enough to suggest that the Nelson Muntz laugh be played when an opposing player is injured. In actuality, there have been no reported instances until the Dallas Cowboys played the Nelson laugh during the 2005 Thanksgiving football game against the Denver Broncos when the Broncos jumped offsides. Most recently in the NHL, the Dallas Stars played the Nelson laugh after Goalie Marty Turco failed to block Detroit Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk's shot during a shootout on January 28, 2006-Datsyuk missed the goal after a video replay. They played the laugh again after Robert Lang missed a shot.
Episodes Starring Nelson
This is a list of Simpsons episodes in which Nelson Muntz plays a substantial role in driving the plot, not simply a supporting role.
- Bart the General (Season 1, Episode 5) Fed up with being bullied, Bart trains Nelson's victims to wage war on him.
- Lisa's Date with Density (Season 8, Episode 7) Lisa develops a crush on Nelson.
- Sleeping with the Enemy (Season 16, Episode 3) Marge takes Nelson under her wing.