Herman Hermann

Herman, voiced by Harry Shearer, is the owner of Herman’s Military Antiques. He dresses in military fatigues. He has only one arm; the other arm was lost by sticking it out of the window of a moving bus, although the writers had originally intended for him to give a different reason each time he appeared. His voice is similar to that of George H. W. Bush, and he is based on Simpsons writer John Swartzwelder. A brilliant military tactician, Herman was instrumental in Bart’s victory in water balloon combat against Nelson and in the negotiation of the peace treaty between the two combatants in Bart the General.

He is friends with Abraham Simpson, to whom he sold a fez hat, claiming it was previously owned by Napoleon, after briefly owning “the hat McKinley was shot in.” He also tried to sell counterfeit jeans out of the Simpsons’ garage, but was foiled by Marge Simpson, though he was not put in jail because the evidence was stolen by the Springfield PD. He once captured Chief Wiggum and Snake and held them hostage (in an homage to a scene from Pulp Fiction), but was thwarted (accidentally) by Milhouse Van Houten wielding a flail.