Bart Simpson

"Eat My Shorts!"

- Bart's catchphrase

"Ay caramba!"

- Bart's catchphrase

"I'm Bart Simpson, who the hell are you?"

- Bart's catchphrase "Eep."

- Bart's catchphrase

"Don't have a cow, Man!"

- Bart's catchphrase

"I didn't do it."

- Bart's catchphrase

"Ow! Quit it!"

- Bart's catchprase

Bartholomew "Bart" JoJo Simpson (born April 1st) (originally planned to be Mort Simpson), also known as "El Barto," "The boy" (Homer Simpson), and "Bartman", is the mischievous, rebellious, misunderstood and "potentially dangerous" eldest child of Homer and Marge Simpson, and the older brother of Lisa and Maggie. He also has been nicknamed Cosmo, after discovering a comet in "Bart's Comet". Bart's also been on the cover on numerous comics, such as "Critical Hit", "Simpsons Treasure Trove #11" and "Winter Wingding". Bart also has a whole comic series known as the Simpson Comics Presents Bart Simpson.

Biography
Bart is a self-proclaimed underachiever who is constantly in detention. He is easily distracted (even, strangely enough, by algebraic equations). His penchant for shocking people began before he was born: Bart "mooned" Dr. Hibbert while he performed a sonogram on Marge, and moments after being born he set fire to Homer's tie (Marge saying that he could not have done it because he was only ten minutes old).

His blood type is the very rare Double O Negative (OO-); only he and Mr. Burns are known to have it. Bart's first words were "Ay Caramba".

Bart's interests include Krusty the Clown (he is "Krusty Buddy" number 16302),  reading comic books (especially Radioactive Man), watching TV (especially The Krusty the Clown Show), terrorizing Lisa, playing video games, helping Lisa solve various problems (e.g. reuniting Krusty with his estranged Father), and pulling off various pranks, (such as mooning unsuspecting people, prank calling Moe at his tavern, and his patented spitting off an overpass). Bart also sprays graffiti under the alias 'El Barto', and regularly frequents the Kwik-E-Mart (for bubblegum and Squishees) and The Android's Dungeon. Yuma Hickman moved to Springfield when Marge was pregnant with Bart.

Bart hinted that his favorite movies are Jaws and the Star Wars trilogy. His best friend is Milhouse Van Houten.

He is the most misunderstood of the family, constantly frustrated by the narrow-minded people of Springfield, who judge him merely by his thoughts and actions.

Behavior
"I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows."

- Bart



Bart is considerably a prankster at Springfield Elementary, and his pranks are often elaborately complex, but can lead to unfortunate consequences. Bart's overall intelligence, like his mother's, has been shown to fluctuate slightly over the course of the series. It has been shown anywhere from being just above his father's level, to being just below, or (on the rare occasion that he shows interest or is willing to pay attention) exceeding that of his sister. Despite his behavior, his actions and speech frequently show considerable mental agility, street-smarts, and understanding. When Bart became a hall monitor for Springfield Elementary, his grades went up, showing that he only struggles because he does not pay any attention. Bart suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder. This has been exaggerated to the point he is willing to do Algebra, so long as it's a distraction from his actual homework.

On the other hand, Bart often seems to have trouble understanding even the simplest concepts, such as the word "irony," what the equator is and that the logo on his globe ("Rand McNally") is not actually a country. It was also once implied that his mischievous behavior may have been a result of Marge accidentally ingesting a droplet of champagne while pregnant with him.

Labeled as an "underachiever" by authority figures, Bart rides an academic roller coaster, his grades, running the Loop-the-Loop from "F" to "D-" and back again. But he can be ingenious when the chips are down—as long as his ingenuity is not applied to anything school-related. He once learned portions of the Talmud to help reunite his idol, Krusty the Clown, with his father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky. Once, after unleashing a surf wave across the school (damaging property but also saving Ned Flanders, who was on fire at the time), Bart was given an experimental drug for Attention Deficit Disorder called Focusyn. Focusing his energy allowed Bart's intellectual potential to reach its maximum, even to the point where he was capable of tutoring a Navajo boy. Unfortunately, the drug also drove him paranoid as a side effect, and he started to believe that Major League Baseball was using satellites to spy on everyone in town. Bart's parents became concerned for his erratic behavior and tried to take him off the drug, but the prospect of losing his intellectual edge over his enemies causes Bart to go berserk and sneak into Fort Fragg to steal one of its tanks. After blazing a path of destruction through the town, Bart uses the tank's cannon to shoot down a MLB satellite, thereby actually proving his suspicions to be correct.

Bart also displayed the ability to learn very quickly when he so desired, or in some cases subconsciously. In "The Crepes of Wrath" while on exchange to France, Bart managed to learn French without even realizing it simply by being in the vicinity of two men who regularly spoke French. Later, during "Homer vs. Patty and Selma", he showed considerable talent in the ballet despite his initial hatred of it, which he did not realize until he attempted to take off his leotard. He has also managed to do this by choice such as in "Blame It on Lisa", wherein Bart learns fluent Spanish in less time than a plane to Brazil, only for Marge to inform him that Brazilians speak Portuguese.

His pranks can range from being relatively harmless to very cruel/destructive, depending on the characterization. He was also frequently a delinquent, getting into all sorts of trouble. It's implied that his exceptionally mischievous behavior (which Lisa once noted was borderline sociopathic) had its roots from when Marge accidentially ingested a drop of champaigne (caused by then-Mayor Quimby breaking a champaigne bottle on the newly christened battleship, the U.S.S. Float-and-shoot) while still pregnant with Bart, as well as out of some deep-down rage for being told that he'll be a failure as early as preschool (of which it once led to him developing suicidal thoughts severe enough to make an extremely graphic drawing of his own death).

Although he gets into trouble and is sometimes shallow and selfish, Bart also exhibits many qualities of high integrity. He has, on a few occasions, helped the love life of his school Principal and his teacher, despite the fact he often terrorizes them, and he often befriends outcasts like Milhouse. One example of his quasi sense of honor is when Bart stands up for Ralph Wiggum at the cost of peer popularity. Bart's hidden integrity is also evidenced when he is dared to shoot a bird with a BB gun by Nelson. Instead of outright refusing the challenge, Bart instead tries to intentionally miss the bird. Unfortunately, Bart doesn't compensate for a crooked sight, and he accidentally kills the bird. He is visibly upset by this, snapping at Nelson when he calls him a "cold-blooded killer" and even goes so far as to try and mend his wrongs with a right by adopting the bird's nest. Bart also displays his sense of morality when he acts as a conscience for his peers several times throughout the series, such as when he tells Jessica Lovejoy that stealing from the church is wrong. He was once sent to a juvenile detention center when he played a serious prank involving faux wedding gifts and a fake wedding.

He also has legitimate guilt whenever he got either Ms. Krabappel or Principal Skinner fired, especially if it was not his intention to do so, like in the former case where his and his classmates’ plan on getting her laid back by spiking her drink backfired when she ended up getting herself fired, and the latter case where his dog ended up in the ventilation shafts and got trapped along with Willie when he intended to use Santa's Little Helper for show and tell. He also sometimes gets into trouble even when he never actually did anything bad, or even when he actually did a good deed. A notable example of the former is when he was framed for a prank at a Medieval festival held at school and was expelled for it (the actual culprit was Groundskeeper Willie), and a notable example of the latter was when both he and Milhouse ended up permanently (at the time) banned by Jeff Albertson from the Androids Dungeon because Bart and Milhouse talked Mrs. Prince out of selling him rare and invaluable Star Wars memorabilia that belonged to Martin Prince for what was obviously a ripped off price.

Although Lisa is a vegetarian, Bart is the real animal lover in the family. He becomes extremely attached to animals that fall under his care and will a lot of the time save animals that he feels will be hurt or else will go to great lengths to protect them. Some of Bart's favorite past pets include: his dog (and best friend), Santa's Little Helper; an Elephant named Stampy a racehorse named Duncan, a nest of bird-eating lizards, and Santa's Little Helper's puppies.

Appearance
Bart has yellow/blond spiky hair. He wears a red or blue short-sleeved shirt, blue short pants, white socks and blue-white shoes. He sometimes wears his "lucky" red baseball cap and carries around his skateboard or a slingshot. According to Marge in "The Father, the Son and the Holy Guest Star", Bart wore diapers until he was five because he thought there was a monster in the potty.

Alter Egos & Aliases


Bart sprays graffiti around Springfield using the name "El Barto", and his superhero alter-ego is Bartman. He called himself Cupcake Kid when Homer became Pie Man. Bart is also known as "The Devil in Blue Shorts" by the organizers of the Teacher of the Year Awards, but he was believed to be an urban legend.

Family


Due to Bart's mischievousness and Homer's often uncaring and incompetent behavior, the two have a turbulent relationship. Bart will often address Homer by his given name instead of "Dad" (when he was a baby, this was because other adults would refer to him as this), while Homer in turn often refers to him as "the boy". Usually when Homer finds out that Bart has said or done something stupid or bad, he yells "Why you little!" (often followed by throttling him) or simply "BART!". It is also implied once that, whenever he messes up, he almost expects people to strangle him and even goes as far as to strangle himself (presumably due to his experience with Homer), such as when he accidentally let go of Ned Flanders best fishing rod when attempting to fish with Flanders, Bart instinctively starts clutching his own neck and imitating strangling before realizing and reacting with surprise that Ned Flanders isn't strangling him. Homer and Bart's relationship reaches a breaking point following Homer's pollution of Lake Springfield (causing Springfield to be sealed under a giant dome by the EPA), with Bart even going so far as saying that he wishes Flanders was his father. Nevertheless, the two really do love each other deep down. Marge, who calls Bart her "special little guy", is much more caring, understanding and nurturing than Homer, but she also refers to Bart as "a handful" and is often embarrassed by his antics.

Bart shares a sibling rivalry with Lisa, who is two years and thirty-eight days younger than he is. While Bart has often hurt Lisa out of jealousy, and even fought her physically, they are very close—he cares for her as deeply as she does for him, and has always apologized for going too far. He also believes Lisa to be his superior when it comes to solving problems, and frequently goes to her for advice. He is often protective of her when she is threatened or insulted by others, though he frequently insults her himself. Both siblings formed a dynamic crime-solving duo during many of their encounters with Sideshow Bob, Bart's nemesis. At one time, he enters a series of robot battles with his robot: Chief Knock-a-Homer (which is Homer as the robot hoping to gain Bart's trust), and tries to cheer up Lisa when Snowball II dies.

Friends
Bart's best friend is Milhouse Van Houten. Though the two are close friends, Bart has put Milhouse into trouble several times, with more than one occasion causing physical harm to Milhouse due to Bart's lack of regard for Milhouse's safety. At one time, Bart was driving a forklift with Milhouse standing on the fork while the forklift was moving. When Marge stopped Bart from driving the forklift, Milhouse was sent flying and was knocked unconscious.

The relationship between Milhouse and Bart has been strained several times. When Milhouse fell in love with Samantha Stankey and spent less time with Bart, Bart split the two up by notifying Samantha's father, who placed Samantha in a Catholic School. This resulted in a fight between the two friends, though eventually Bart apologized. In one episode, he stated that he was a little attracted to Milhouse, to get Homer mad.

Some of Bart's other friends include Nelson Muntz, Lewis, Richard, Ralph Wiggum, Bashir bin Laden, Nikki McKenna, Jessica Lovejoy, Donny and Laura Powers.

Romantic relationships
While he believes in "cooties", Bart has had numerous relationships and crushes on a number of girls in town, despite that most of them had ended in breaking up.

Laura Powers
Laura Powers, a teenager whom Bart had a crush on. Laura was the Simpsons' babysitter for Lisa, Bart and Maggie. Though Bart soon found out that Laura was going out with Jimbo Jones, he later prank-called Moe, under the name of Jimbo, in order to make him seem a coward in front of Laura when Moe threatened him.

Greta Wolfcastle
Bart went out with a girl named Greta after he stopped some bullies from taking her backpack. She is the daughter of Rainier Wolfcastle. Bart though later broke up with her. After the breakup, Greta went out with Milhouse Van Houten with whom she then broke up in Canada and stopped dating for four years.

Jessica Lovejoy
Bart also had a secret relationship with Jessica Lovejoy, the daughter of Reverend Lovejoy. Jessica's parents did not approve of Bart's first attempt, but later Jessica decided on the secret relationship, though Bart decided to break it off when Jessica framed him for taking the church donations.

Nikki McKenna
She was a major love interest for Bart appearing twice in the series. When he kissed her she revealed that it was her first kiss. She then decided to be his girlfriend only for it to be a love-hate relationship. She then saves his life by doing CPR on him. They break up only to remain friends and after she kisses his cheek he yells he loves her.

Jessica Lovejoy
Jessica Lovejoy was Bart's first girlfriend. She liked Bart because of his bad boy attitude and the fact that her parents didn't like him. Bart liked her because she was "smart, beautiful, and a liar". However, she ultimately turned out to be too bad for Bart and he decided to stay away from her, only to be sat next to her in church and framed for stealing by her. After all this, he is still attracted to her.

Laura Powers
Laura Powers is the daughter of Ruth Powers, who moved into 740 Evergreen Terrace. Bart took an instant attraction to her and they hung out and became good friends, although Bart wanted to be more than friends. Bart tried hard to impress her when she came round to babysit them. In the end, Bart was heartbroken when he found out that Laura was in love with Jimbo Jones.

Greta Wolfcastle
Greta Wolfcastle and Bart end up in a relationship after Bart saves her from some bullies at her school. However, he and Milhouse decide to go and prank Principal Skinner instead of go to a dance with Greta. He then dumps Greta to spare her from standing her up in future. However, Bart realized he made a mistake and went to ask her back, only to find that she and Milhouse were now together. After making a trip to Canada to win her back, he has a fight with Milhouse and Greta decided that she doesn't want to be with either of them.

Darcy
Darcy is a 15 year old girl who meets Bart when he gets a drivers license and uses it to pick up older girls. She was pregnant at the time and wanted her baby to have a father so decided to get married to Bart when she fell in love with him. However, she didn't know that Bart was only 10 but still went to get married to him anyway as she was desperate for her baby to have a father. Their parents stop them before the marriage though after Bart started to think that their relationship was becoming a little shaky and they agree to meet again at some point.

Jenny
Jenny was a girl who helped out at the Springfield Retirement Castle at the same time Bart was forced to help out. Bart developed a crush on her and eventually they entered a relationship with each other which was based on lies as Bart pretended to be totally different. Eventually, she found out what Bart was really like and dumped him.

Nikki McKenna
When both Fourth Grade classes are merged together, Bart is forced to sit next to Nikki McKenna who at first seems annoyed with Bart. She soon warms up to him though and become very close, until Bart kisses her, seemingly putting her off him. After a no touching policy is imposed on the school, Nikki kisses Bart again, confusing Bart. This hot then cold relationship continues between them until Bart gets knocked unconscious. Nikki gives him CPR and mouth to mouth to resuscitate him but then tells Bart that she'll never tell him why she was hot then cold.

Melody Juniper
Melody Juniper was the daughter of Calliope Juniper, the new music teacher in school. Principal Skinner made Bart date her so that he could get a chance with Calliope. Melody was happy with this but Bart wasn't as happy. After Bart told her he wasn't happy with dating her, both her and her mother decided to leave Springfield.

Becky
Bart's first kiss was from Becky when she was dared to kiss him when playing truth or dare. However, he has not been in a relationship with her and never seemed to want one.

Sherri and Terri's cousin
Sherri and Terri showed Bart their "crazy" cousin and Bart immediately fell in love with her and invited her together to play.

Summer Romance girl
Summer Romance girl is the Bart's first kiss.

The Bullies
Bart's schoolyard nemesis was once Nelson Muntz. His other nemeses are Nelson's cronies, Jimbo Jones, Kearney Zzyzwicz, Dolph Starbeam, and The Weasels. Bart repeatedly tries to impress them, but still generally ends up on the receiving end of their abuse. However, Nelson has been seen in Bart's group of friends alongside Milhouse and Ralph.

Sideshow Bob
Bart (sometimes aided by Lisa) has foiled many of Sideshow Bob's evil schemes, which has lead to him becoming Bart's nemesis. At any encounter with Bob, Bart/and Lisa will scream "Aah! Sideshow Bob!" (except on one occasion where Bart responds casually) and on Bob's insistence, just calling him Bob. Bob has a tattoo saying "Die Bart, Die" on his chest, and one of Bart's decapitated head saying, "Ouch, man!" on his back. Many of these schemes, as a central point or as a bonus, involved killing Bart. However, when Sideshow Bob finally got the chance to kill him, he found he is "accustomed to Bart's face" and cannot do it. He left the country soon after, but after the Simpsons family exposed his nefarious past, he returned to his old ways.

El Barto
El Barto is what Bart calls himself. Principal Skinner considers El Barto the most wanted kid in the school. It is spotted in many episodes, usually where graffiti is normally. It also appeared on the Season 10 set before going to menu. When this happened, Bart wrote El Barto on the 20th Century Fox logo before a security guard caught Bart. When the Security guard did catch Bart, Bart sprayed the spray paint into the guard's face.

Skills and Abilities
Bart is a polyglot and can speak several languages with varying degrees of fluency. Though he has not demonstrated the ability since his trip to France as an exchange student (other than in a Simpsons Butterfinger commercial), he speaks near-perfect French. He also learned Spanish in a matter of hours in preparation for the family's trip to Brazil. Upon learning that Brazilians speak Portuguese and not Spanish, Homer orders his son to forget what he learned, prompting Bart to strike himself over the head until he forgot the language. Bart also speaks Japanese (which he also learned in a couple of hours in prison along with his father, Homer, who is also shown speaking Japanese), Cantonese and Latin. His advanced linguistic skills may be inherited from Homer, who also speaks advanced languages, including penguin.

Another skill he inherited from his dad was his musical ability, He was shown to be a skilled drummer at least until an injury destroyed this talent.

He was a player in the Mighty Pigs Peewee Hockey League Team and their main scorer. He is also quite capable of firing advanced firearms with a frightening accuracy, as evidenced when, while at Military School as a result of a prank involving bullhorns, he was given a RGB6 Grenade Launcher by the firing range instructor due to his belief that Bart knew how to operate handguns, and he managed to destroy four out of five targets before one of his shots missed and ended up hitting Principal Skinner's car just as he was about to unlock it, to which Bart implied that he deliberately missed the fifth target and was actually aiming for Skinner's car that time. His killing teacher describes him as "a natural" in this same episode. He later displayed a similar proficiency towards weapons when he managed to hijack a tank by stealing the keys, drive it over to the park, and shoot down a MLB satellite with surprising accuracy all by himself, although at that point, he was also under the effects of an experimental drug that was supposed to suppress Bart's Attention Deficit Disorder.

Bart can also drive vehicles with surprising skill for his age. He has his own driving license, given to him after saving Springfield from a fire (shown in 'Little Big Girl'), although he has been seen driving before with a fake license at times. He still possesses it, using it to steal Principal Skinner's car to get to Jimbo's house.

Bart is also a skilled chef. He cooked a three course meal for his parents and made a dessert.

When he was made Hall Monitor, he also had a great degree of skill in enforcing the law and rules. This trait was later exemplified when he, in a similar fashion to a bouncer, removed Homer Simpson from the premises of the La Maison Derrière after he continuously heckled Marge's ventriloquist performance.

Additionally, Bart has a natural inclination to dance, and was a ballet star in his dance class for a brief period at school. Likely, he inherited this ability from his father, who had been a talented gymnast during his years in high school.

Although he frequently gets Fs in school, Bart consistently shows levels of high intelligence with his witty social commentary and clever thinking. Bart's intelligence does fluctuate episode from episode, however, as Lisa was able to prove that he was "dumber than a hamster," yet he is also able to repeatedly foil the genius of Sideshow Bob. While Lisa is more "book smart," Bart is extremely "socially" intelligent, as he naturally assumes the position of undisputed leader in any situation thrust upon him, such as when a pack of Spingfield children infiltrated Shelbyville or when campers took over Kamp Krusty. Bart's skill with people is also evidenced when Bart becomes the most successful news anchor on Kidz Newz, but in doing so steals the spotlight from Lisa. When Lisa voices her disapproval, it is explained to her that Bart was being promoted because he has "zazz."

Bart is also very talented at craftsmanship. He once made a replica of himself to take his place in class and also one of Lisa so that he and the rest of his school could fool the state's comptroller.

Bart can also play a great game of putt-putt. He once almost won a miniature golf tournament against Todd Flanders. At the eighteenth hole both boys decided the stress that each others' father was putting on them wasn't worth it and decided to take a tie and split the fifty dollar prize. Other recreational activities in which he shows talent: skateboarding, jockeying, lassoing, and tennis.

Bart also knows how to hot-wire a car.

He also has the ability to find truffles by smell.

As seen in Treehouse Horror, Bart is immune to the zombie virus.

Treehouse of Horror
In Treehouse of Horror VII, Bart learns that he has a Siamese twin brother named Hugo.

Future
As with other characters, his future follows no defined and logical pattern and simply changes to suit the episode. These futures have no connection to each others, for the possible reasons:
 * These are different predictions made by either the Gypsy, the Casino Manager, Professor Frink's astrology machine, or the writers themselves in brief cutscenes based on the episode plot.
 * The Simpsons characters live under a floating timeline of an ongoing series. Any character age in the future is based on the perpetual age given to the character prior to their present-day introduction into the series (with the exception of real-life celebrities). He has different versions of himself in the future, these are the versions.







2013 (Set from 2005 Timeline)
At the age of 18, Bart is a senior at Springfield High School. He styles his hair and wears an earring. He speaks three languages, apparently one being armpit noises, and one is hinted to be French. He pursues a relationship with a girl named Jenda who denies his proposal because he doesn't have a steady career plan. As a result, Bart pursues a career at the Kwik-E-Mart: Whether he kept the job is not mentioned. After saving Mr. Burns from a robbery, he is awarded a scholarship to Yale, which was meant to go to Lisa. He gives the scholarship back to her so she doesn't have to suffer a bleak future with Milhouse. At the age of 83, he finds true love, and dies one minute later (according to Professor Frink). Marge has also imagined Bart being a sleazy male stripper.

2010 (Set from 1995 Timeline)
At the age of 25, Bart became a building demolisher and vehicle crusher and plans to attend law school as soon as he "gets all of [his] aggression out". He also mentions having been divorced twice by this age. He is more kind in general, as opposed to his modern-day disposition.

2030 (Set from 2000 Timeline)
At age 40, Bart's gained swag as a poor guitarist and alcoholic that dropped out of the DeVry Institute. He lives in a ratty beach house alongside Ralph, the only other member of Bart's band. At this age, Bart acts like an especially spoiled version of his ten year old self, still calling on his mother to make Lisa play fair when she does things like telling him he can't be co-president (Lisa is the President of the United States). He mooches money off his parents and Ned Flanders, to whom Bart refers as a softie. His new catchphrase: "You used to be cool, man." He says this whenever he hears something he doesn't like from someone. Bart continuously embarrasses Lisa and unwittingly ruins her tax plan to get out of debt. Surprisingly, Lisa is much more embarrassed of Bart than of Homer in this episode. In the end, however, Bart's extensive experience with evading debt collectors leads to him helping Lisa buy some time to pay off America's debt to other countries. In gratitude, Lisa legalizes "it", "it" likely being the use of cannabis.

2041 (Set from 2011 Timeline)
At an alternative age 40, Bart has two children (1 and 2) who he barely ever sees. Jenda is now his ex-wife, and has married her new boyfriend. His children have to stay with Bart for Christmas, which they think is going to suck. He eventually teaches them the meaning of Christmas, which schools aren't allowed to do anymore.

2033 (Set from 1993 Timeline)
At age 50, Bart appears to have straightened up and graduated law school, as he is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. At the age of 70, he lives at the Springfield Retirement Castle with Milhouse.

Other Futures
At age 32, he is taken to the hospital after eating too many fish logs. He seems to have lost his building demolishing company and works at a construction site. He got the "Mother" tattoo which Marge prevented him from getting, as well as a tattoo of Krusty the Clown on his chest. He receives a digestive tract transplant from Uter Zorker which saves his life.

Creation
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 force 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, substituting "Bart" for his own name, as he decided it would have been too obvious for him to have named the character Matt. Bart then made his debut with the rest of the Simpsons clan on 19 April 1987 in the Tracey Ullman short "Good Night". The name "Bart" is an anagram of the word "brat". Groening conceived Bart as an extreme version of the typical misbehaving child character, merging all of the negative traits of characters such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn into one person. Groening's older brother Mark provided most of the inspiration for Bart. Groening has also said that he found the premise of Dennis the Menace disappointing and was inspired to create a character who was actually a menace.

Voice and Catchphrases
Nancy Cartwright originally auditioned for the role of Lisa, but soon thought that her voice would be better suited voicing Bart. Matt Groening let her try out for the part, and upon hearing her read, gave her the job on the spot. Bart's catchphrase "Eat My Shorts" was an ad-lib by Cartwright in one of the original table readings, harking back to an incident when she was at college. His other catchphrases included "¡Ay, caramba!" and "Don't have a cow man!" - the former being his first words after seeing Homer and Marge 'enjoying themselves' in bed - but these dropped out of use as the series progressed (as mentioned in "Summer of 4 Ft. 2," when Bart complains that Lisa stole his line). Whenever he introduces himself, he often says, "I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?"

Reception
In 1998, Time magazine selected Bart as 46th of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century — the only fictional character to make the list. He had previously appeared on the cover the December 31, 1990 edition. Both Bart and Lisa ranked #11 in TV Guide's "Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time".

During the show's early years, Bart was rebellious and frequently escaped without punishment, which led some parents' groups and conservative spokespeople to believe he provided a poor role model for children. This prompted George H. W. Bush to rally, "We're going to keep trying to strengthen the American family. To make them more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons.", to which Bart replied with "Hey, we're just like the Waltons. We're praying for an end to the Depression, too."

Bart's catchphrases, "¡Ay, caramba!", "Don't have a cow, man!" and "Eat my shorts!" were featured on t-shirts in the early days of the show's run. The latter two phrases were rarely actually spoken on the show itself until after they became popular through merchandise, and the use of many of these catchphrases has declined in recent seasons. The use of catchphrase-based humor was mocked in the episode "Bart Gets Famous" in which Bart gets famous on the Krusty show for saying the line "I didn't do it."

In his book Planet Simpson, Chris Turner describes Bart as a nihilist. Bart's character traits of rebelliousness and disrespect for authority have been likened to that of America's founding fathers, rendering him an updated version of American icons Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, rolled into one.

Bart is the most depicted Simpsons character on various memorabilia such as toys, books, comics, T-shirts, car decals, and even graffiti art. Bart, and other Simpsons characters, appeared in numerous commercials for Butterfinger candy bars from 1990–2001, with the slogan "Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger!". This association was parodied in an episode when he discovered that he was in a TV commercial when he was a baby; Bart says that he doesn't remember being in a commercial, then holds up a Butterfinger and eats it. Bart briefly appears in the entrance video used by World Wrestling Entertainment Superstar Shawn Michaels Bart has appeared in several other shows. He is featured in the South Park episode "Cartoon Wars Part II". He is not referred to by name, nor do any of the characters react to him as if he were a well known personality, but the character specifically mentions the events of The Telltale Head when Cartman asks him to name the "most badass thing" he has done.

Trivia

 * Bart was born on April Fools' Day.
 * His locker combination is 36-24-36.
 * Bart is left-handed, like Matt Groening.
 * The name Bart is an anagram for the word "brat".
 * In "There's No Disgrace Like Home," Mr. Burns mistakenly reads Bart's name as "Brat".
 * Bart is voiced by a girl, and his voice never goes through puberty.
 * Bart seems to be the only person in his school with his name, as explained in Principal Charming where Bart tries to claim that another "Bart" poured sodium tetra sulfate on the school grass.
 * Bart has a stamp collection, as he explains when it got stolen in Homer the Vigilante.
 * Because of Marge's father Clancy Bouvier, Bart and his sisters, Lisa and Maggie, are of French descent. Not only that, Bart can speak in French, thanks to his trip to France in The Crepes of Wrath, as well as Japanese from Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo & Spanish while preparing for a trip to Brazil in Blame It on Lisa despite Portuguese being the official language there.
 * Bart is double O Negative, as revealed in Blood Feud, making him a universal donor, meaning he can give blood to anyone. Since Homer is B-Positive, it means he must've had a type O negative hidden due to the fact that they're both recessive traits and only shows up if both parents must be carriers. Marge must have the hidden O and negative traits, too, despite them being unknown.
 * Bart once had a job on Kidz Newz, along with Lisa Simpson, Milhouse Van Houten, and Nelson Muntz.
 * In The Real Housewives of Fat Tony, it was discovered Bart has a strong sense of smell, being able to detect truffles.
 * In Summer of 4 Ft. 2 it's revealed that Bart is officially the most popular kid in his school.
 * Bart's favorite food is a Krusty Burger.
 * In Bart's Comet, he is nicknamed Cosmo by the Superfriends.
 * Bart is the only character to appear in all of The Tracey Ullman Show shorts.
 * He is allergic to butterscotch, imitation butterscotch, glow-in-the-dark monster make-up, cauliflower and shrimp.
 * He wore diapers for five years.
 * Bart died in one episode, but was brought back by Satan.
 * Originally, Bart's original name was planned to be "Mort Simpson."

Appearances
Bart appears in nearly every episode, comic issue, video game. The only episode he does not appear nor is mentioned is "Four Great Women and a Manicure." No additional appearances need to be mentioned, nor do lack of appearances in media that are part of the current series.