Maggie Simpson

"Daddy."

- Maggie's first word

Margaret "Maggie" Simpson is the youngest child of Marge and Homer, and sister to Bart and Lisa. She is often seen sucking on her pacifier, and, when she walks, she trips over her clothing and falls on her face. Because she rarely ever talks, Maggie is the least seen and heard in the Simpson Family.

Biography
When Marge became pregnant with Lisa, she and Homer bought their first home. Seven years later, Homer felt financially secure enough to quit his job at power plant and take his dream job at Barney's Bowlarama. Soon after, Marge became pregnant with Maggie, and unable to support his family, Homer reapplied for his job at the power plant. Homer fell into a deep depression but when he held Maggie for the first time after she was born he loved her at first sight. He keeps all of Maggie's baby photos in his office to cheer him up at his workplace.

Like average babies, Maggie is impressionable and easily influenced by what she sees around her. She once hit her father on the head with a mallet, shot a suction dart at his picture and brandished a pencil in imitation of Itchy and Scratchy. Despite her age, Maggie is a formidable sniper and she shot the fingers off of a group of mobsters in rapid succession with a rifle. She was behind the attempted murder of Mr. Burns and she fought Gerald during the St. Patrick day riot, her representing Ireland and Gerald Northern Ireland. When the family's house was being raided by an angry mob, she was able to smash her baby bottle and use it as a makeshift weapon, and she knocked out Russ Cargil, the head of the EPA with a rock when he was about to shoot Homer with a shotgun.

Maggie is often frightened of her father's attempts to bond with her, even though she does love him. Instead, Maggie shows a much stronger attraction to her mother instead, possibly because Marge is always at home with her whilst Homer is mostly at work or at Moe's.

She is keenly aware of her surroundings, and can usually be seen imitating the flow of action around her. Like Bart, Lisa and Homer, she is not fond of spending time with her aunts Patty and Selma. It is also known that she dislikes Baby Gerald very much, despite apparently marrying him in one Simpsons Comics.

Maggie bears a strong resemblance to Lisa, suggesting that Maggie will look very much like her sister when she reaches eight-years-old. Furthermore, she can play the saxophone amazingly well, and can even change her own diapers, just like Lisa could when she was a baby.

Maggie's first word was "Daddy", something neither Bart or Lisa would call him when they were babies. On another occasion, Maggie's speaks the word "Ja"; a Norwegian word (meaning "Yes"). She has also said "Dadily Doodily" when she was in the care of Ned Flanders.

Violent Mannerism
Maggie is a violent child, especially for her age. Maggie once had a violent relationship with Homer after watching Itchy and Scratchy. She had hit him over the head with a mallet and later attempted to stab him with a pencil.

When Mr. Burns decided to cover up the sun, he was shot by Maggie. Maggie accidentally shot him while Mr. Burns was trying to steal a candy from her. After figuring this out, it cleared Homer of all charges.

On another occasion, Lisa enlisted Maggie to be her fencing partner. However, when she unknowningly belittled Maggie, Maggie dueled her proficiently and quickly over welmed her, even slashing an M into Lisa's shirt, Zorro-style.

She later tried to shoot Mister Burns again with a shotgun when he lost his memories, but was stopped by Lisa.

In the Simpsons Movie, when the mob was attacking the Simpsons, Krusty told his monkey, Mr. Teeny, to take out the baby, referring to Maggie. She then broke her baby bottle making rigid spikes of glass, showing that she was ready to take him on. Also, later on when Russ Cargill was about to shoot homer, she dropped a rock on to his head making him pass out.

Skills and Abilities
Maggie takes after her sister in many ways. Not only does she greatly resemble Lisa (looking exactly like her in a blue dress in flash-forwards to the future), she also is brilliant and musically inclined like her sister. Maggie can play the saxophone with great ability, despite the fact that she is only a year old. In Lisa's Wedding, it is implied that Maggie is a fantastic singer, again taking after her sister.

She also has, on numerous, numerous occasions, demonstrated that her agility—both mental and physical—is extremely advanced for her age. Once, Maggie organized the other infants in a daycare into a team to steal a key so they could take back their pacifiers. She figured out communication signals, gathered supplies, used the window-blinds string to pull herself into the ventilation shafts, used a Krusty Doll to lower herself into the room containing the Key (holding bottles to weight herself down and then dropping them so the string would retract), shot a suction-cup line across the room, slid across it with a hanger, and used the key to unlock the locker holding the children's pacifiers. Additionally, Maggie commonly moves along ropes with ease by hand-over-handing her way across them, such as when she tried to escape Homer when he was trying to bond with her by climbing across the clothesline.

She also once crawled all over town to her Mother's favorite hang-out spots trying to find Marge. Maggie usually has a pretty good comprehension on her surroundings and has at times tried to point out the obvious to adults (mostly Homer) who are oblivious to what is going on. Maggie has spelled out E=MC2 with her blocks before and can change her own diapers. She has also used a fire extinguisher to put out burning curtains and has driven Homer's car. Maggie can also skateboard and has already said her first word at 1 year old.

Although Maggie shows a natural inclination to weapons (see the above section for examples of her ability to defend herself), and aggression, she also has saved members of her family on various occasions, such as when she swam out to sea and saved Homer from drowning or when she saved Bart and Lisa from groundskeeper Willie in Treehouse of Horror VI.

Maggie also seems to take after her father in bowling, as she has already bowled a perfect game (something it took Homer 39 years to do) at the age of 1.

Future
In the future, Maggie went on holidays to Alaska, which was warmer because of global warming. At this age she looks exactly like Lisa does currently. Maggie is seen as a punk teenager. It is said that she has a beautiful singing voice and, according to Homer, never shuts up. (Ironically, whenever she tries to speak, she is always interrupted.) She also likes to play around a lot with her friends and family. It is revealed that she has a daughter named Maggie Jr. with Gerald, who looks exactly the same as Maggie. In Holidays of Future Passed, Maggie grows up to be a singer and has her baby while visiting family.

Treehouse of Horror
In an alternate universe that Homer briefly visited, Maggie hit Groundskeeper Willie in the back with an axe and then spoke in James Earl Jones's voice: "This is indeed a disturbing universe."

Treehouse of Horror IX
In Treehouse of Horror IX, Maggie looses her legs and grows green tentacles. Maggie's pacifier sucks contact the alien duo, Kang and Kodos. When the duo arrives at the Simpsons house, it is later revealed that Kang is Maggie's real father.

Behind the Laughter
Matt Groening first conceived the Simpson family in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. He had been called in to pitch a series of animated shorts, and had intended to present his Life in Hell series. When he realized that animating Life in Hell would require him to rescind publication rights for his life's work, Groening decided to go in another direction. He hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family, and named the characters after various members of his own family. Maggie was named after Matt Groening's younger sister Margaret "Maggie" Groening. She often sucked on a pacifier and wore a sleep suit, two traits Groening used for Maggie. Maggie then made her debut with the rest of the Simpsons clan on 19 April 1987 in the Tracey Ullman short "Good Night". Groening thought that it would be funny to have a baby character that did not talk and never grew up, but assigned any emotions that the scene required. Her comedic hallmarks include her tendency to stumble and land on her face while attempting to walk (though this has been downplayed in later seasons), and a penchant for sucking on her pacifier, the sound of which has become the equivalent of her catchphrase and was originally created by Groening during the Tracey Ullman period, and by Nancy Cartwright during the regular series.

During the show's opening credits, Maggie is run through a supermarket checkout scanner, which reads that she is worth $847.63 (a reference to the monthly cost of infant-rearing in 1989). In "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular," the scanner instead reads "NRA4EVER," a reference to the running joke that the show's creators are right-wing radicals. In the newer episodes her price has changed to $486.52 (Possibly because of the change in the cost of infant-rearing.

Voice
With few exceptions, Maggie never speaks but is very participatory in the events around her, emoting with subtle gestures and facial expressions. Maggie has spoken in "Good Night", the first short to air, after the family falls asleep. There was another time she had tried to talk in Making Faces short upon the task given by Bart and Lisa. On this occasion, Liz Georges provided the voice of Maggie. In "Bart vs. Thanksgiving", Bart has a vision of what could happen if he returned home after destroying Lisa's centerpiece. In this vision, Maggie says to him telepathically: "It's your fault I can't talk!"

Maggie's first word spoken in the normal continuity of the series occurred in "Lisa's First Word", when she was voiced by Elizabeth Taylor. Elizabeth Taylor's performance as Maggie was named the 13th greatest guest spot in the history of the show by IGN. James Earl Jones, who voiced Maggie in Treehouse of Horror V was in seventh place. She would later have brief dialogue in Treehouse of Horror IX, voiced by Harry Shearer, who used his Kang voice. In earlier episodes, Yeardley Smith did many of Maggie's squeaks and occasional speaking parts, although in later seasons her parts were done by Nancy Cartwright. Although she has spoken many times, she has only had two canonical speeches that were real within the series. Her first canon speech was in Lisa's First Word, and this word was "daddy" (as both Bart and Lisa grew up calling Homer his given name), however only the viewers and not the family heard her say this (At least until the Father's day Clip show). Her second speech was in Coming to Homerica. This time the family did hear her speak.

According to The Simpsons Movie, the first word the family heard Maggie say was "sequel?", in the ending sequence (unless one counts the Father's Day clip show as being canon). It was stated in the DVD commentary that she was voiced by Nancy Cartwright, who is also the current voice of Maggie in the series.

In Four Great Women and a Manicure, Maggie (voiced by Jodie Foster) rallies her classmates with a stirring speech about injustice and creativity, though this is a non-canon story.

Heroism
Maggie has saved people's lives on a few occasions. Maggie saved Bart and Lisa from Groundskeeper Willie in Treehouse of Horror VI and she saves Homer from being killed by mobsters by shooting them down in Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge. Maggie has even saved her arch-enemy, Gerald from floating into space in a Simpson comic story called Bringing Down Baby. Maggie saved Homer a second time on The Simpsons Movie from Russ Cargill by smashing him in the head with a boulder. Homer also said "What a great little accident you turned out to be", which was referring to the fact that she was conceived at a time that none of her parents intended to, she also saved him from drowning.

Maggie's First Word

 * "Goo-Good Night!" (Simpsons Shorts, Good Night)
 * "It's your fault I can't talk!" (Bart's imagination, Bart vs. Thanksgiving)
 * "Moe" (Homer's Moe-driven hallucination)
 * "Daddy" (First canon word)
 * [James Earl Jones voice] "This is indeed a disturbing universe."(Treehouse of Horror V, Time and Punishment)
 * "Ah"(Wizard on Evergreen Terrace)
 * [Kang voice] "Silence!"(Treehouse of Horror X intro)
 * "Mama"(Treehouse of Horror XV, In the Belly of The Boss)
 * "Sequel?" (During the credits of the movie)
 * "Throughout the ages, the finger painter, the Play-Doh sculptor, the Lincoln Logger, stood alone against the daycare teacher of her time. She did not live to earn aproval stickers, she lived for herself, that she might achieve things that are the glory of all humanity. These are my terms. I do not care to play by any others. And now, if the jury will allow me, it's naptime." (Maggie's speech in Four Great Women and a Manicure)
 * "Ja" (First word actually heard by the Simpson family)

Trivia

 * Maggie also seems to have a possible high intelligence (for a baby at least). Examples include being able to handle a weapon, she was seen dancing very well, being able to skateboard as seen in Skateboarding, and she said her first word at the age of one. (Lisa's first word was when she was 2). In 500 Keys, when she was locked in the Homer's car, Maggie was able to free herself by using the keys Homer left inside of the car.
 * The real father of Maggie is Kang in the non-canon Treehouse of Horror IX.
 * Maggie is the only Simpson not to call Homer by his first name, as her first word.
 * In an alternate future in Lisa's Wedding Maggie is 16-year old teenager. She is not shown to talk. However, when she is about to sing at Lisa's Wedding, she is interrupted by Hugh Parkfield, who calls the Wedding off. She seems to enjoy makeup and fashion is this alternate future.

Appearances
As one of the five major title characters of the series, Maggie appears in a majority of all the episodes, as well as The Simpsons Movie. However, due to her young age and lack of major plot involvement, Maggie is often shown briefly in certain episodes as a background character. There are even certain episodes that center around other characters and locations, where Maggie doesn't make any episode appearances at all. These episodes are:



Other Appearances
Maggie does appear in these: