Lou

Lou
Gender/Sex
Status
Hair Color	Black
Occupation	Police Sergeant
Relations	Ex-wife: Amy Ex-girlfriend: Charquelle Son: Unnamed Sister: Unnamed
First episode appearance	"There's No Disgrace Like Home"
Portrayed by	Hank Azaria (1990-2020) Alex Désert (2021 - Present) Harry Shearer ("Bart vs. Thanksgiving")

"Sweet."

―Lou

"Uh... Chief?"

―Officer Lou's reaction to almost everything said or done by Clancy Wiggum.

Louis "Lou" Merkel (unconfirmed spelling Merkhell) is a sergeant with the Springfield Police Department and by far, the most intelligent and competent officer of the Springfield Police. He is under the command of Police Chief Clancy Wiggum, and often takes the time to point out Wiggum's mistakes (often while a crime or the pursuit of a criminal—is still in progress, therefore distracting them all from the crime).

Profile

As stated before, Lou is the most competent police officer, unlike Eddie or Wiggum. Lou speaks more than his counterpart Eddie. Even though he rarely comes up, when he does he is in a police uniform. Lou once said he wants to leave the force as there is more money in private security; nothing ever becomes of this, though. His favorite on duty beverage is beer.

Biography

In "To Cur, with Love", in a flashback, Lou was young and Clancy Wiggum was a dog catcher. He crashed the car and Clancy Wiggum said he will be a policeman and Lou also says that he will be a policeman when he's grown up.

He once joined a grunge band with Homer, Lenny, and Carl called "Sadgasm", in which he played the drums. They broke up later.

He also was unintentionally instrumental in exposing to Chief Wiggum that Groovy Grove Juice Corporation's latest shipment had been laced with Peyote, where he ended up spinning around in a ecstatic manner and rambling about a monkey grabbing his "brain banana" in a half-lucid state (obviously hallucinating from the juice's effects), causing Wiggum to become suspicious of the juice he was drinking and taste it for anything out of the ordinary.

Other

Education

Even though he's never stated so explicitly, other people around Springfield have insinuated that he is a graduate of Princeton University. Following his undergraduate career, Lou applied and was accepted to law school at an unspecified university, but was forced to drop out as he could not afford the college tuition.

Family

Officer Lou was married to a woman named Amy, but later divorced. He complains occasionally that Eddie has been seeing his ex-wife, making Commissioner Wiggum act as mediator. Officer Lou became the temporary owner of Santa's Little Helper, who was trained to be a police dog. At around this time, it was revealed that Officer Lou has a girlfriend named Charquelle who had wanted to party with him. Officer Lou also has an unnamed son who lives in Baltimore.

Last Name

Officer Lou and his fellow officer Eddie have never been given last names. This was joked about in the episode "The Frying Game" (Season 13, Episode 21) where the following transcripts are taken from:

Wiggum: And I'm gonna be in the show.

Carmen: Yes.

Wiggum: Can Ed and Lou have producer credits?

Carmen: Yes.

Guy: Now what are your last names?

Lou: We don't have them. We're like Cher

Behind the Laughter

• According to the Season One DVD commentary, Officer Lou was based on Lou Whitaker. Like Lou, Whitaker was an African American, but made a career as a professional baseball player rather than as a police officer. At time Lou debuted on The Simpsons, Whitaker was still an active player for the Detroit Tigers, the team he played his career with between 1977 and 1995.
• Hank Azaria based Officer Lou's voice on Sylvester Stallone. This came in spite of the fact that unlike Whitaker, Stallone was mostly of Italian descent and did not have any African heritage in his mixed ancestry. which included an Italian father and a mother of mixed French-Jewish ancestry. However, Stallone would play some cop roles in the time after Lou was created, including in Demolition Man(1993) -which also featured Stallone's character pursuing a criminal played by African American actor Wesley Snipes- and in Cop Land(1997).

Trivia

Officer Lou with yellow skin

• On January 1, 2022 former New York State Senator and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams would be sworn in as New York City's second African American Mayor. Like Lou, Adams is an African American who chose to make a career as a police officer, which he served as until he decided to enter politics in 2006. https://www.amny.com/news/bp-adams-condemns-cop-who-struck-youths-in-subway-without-provocation/
• Like Lou, 2014-2021 New York Police Department Deputy Police Commissioner Benjamin Tucker, who served in this position during the time Simpsons guest star Bill de Blasio was Mayor of New York City, was an African American who acted as a deputy to the head of police and who also donned a mustache.https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/nyregion/benjamin-tucker-is-named-new-york-police-departments-first-deputy-commissioner.html Tucker, who became a police officer in 1969, also became active in New York City politics in the 1980s, and even held not only local political positions, but also federal positions too, including stints as Deputy Director for Operations in the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services at the U.S. Department of Justice during the Clinton Administration and Deputy Director of the Ofiice National Drug Control Policy for State, Local and Tribal Affairs in the Obama Administration.https://web.archive.org/web/20141106004912/http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/administration/training_co.shtmlhttps://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/ondcp/news-releases-remarks/benjamin-tucker-brings-forty-years-experience-to-drug-policy-office
• In the episodes "Krusty Gets Busted", and "There's No Disgrace Like Home", Officer Lou was yellow, being portrayed as a Caucasian character. The first appearance of African-American Officer Lou was in "Bart vs. Thanksgiving" and he would be like this for the rest of the series. The one exception was an error in "Sweets and Sour Marge", when for just one shot he was accidentally colored yellow again.
• He gets a lot of murder cases, evidenced by the fact that he uses "Ya little murderer" as a metaphor on Lisa.
• Lou is named after baseball player Lou Whitaker.

Appearances

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• Episode – "There's No Disgrace Like Home" (with yellow skin)
• Episode – "Krusty Gets Busted" (with yellow skin)
• Episode – "Bart vs. Thanksgiving"
• Episode – "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish"
• Episode – "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment"
• Episode – "Old Money"
• Episode – "Three Men and a Comic Book"
• Episode – "Stark Raving Dad"
• Episode – "When Flanders Failed"
• Episode – "Bart the Murderer"
• THOH – "Treehouse of Horror II"
• Episode – "Flaming Moe's"
• Episode – "Radio Bart"
• Episode – "Homer at the Bat"
• Episode – "Separate Vocations"
• Episode – "Dog of Death"
• Episode – "Black Widower"
• Episode – "The Otto Show"
• Episode – "A Streetcar Named Marge"
• THOH – "Treehouse of Horror III" (King Homer)
• Episode – "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie"
• Episode – "Marge Gets a Job"
• Episode – "Homer's Triple Bypass"
• Episode – "Marge vs. the Monorail"
• Episode – "Selma's Choice"
• Episode – "Brother from the Same Planet"
• Episode – "I Love Lisa"
• Episode – "Duffless"
• Episode – "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show"
• Episode – "Whacking Day"
• Episode – "Marge in Chains"
• Episode – "Krusty Gets Kancelled"
• Episode – "Homer's Barbershop Quartet"
• Episode – "Cape Feare"
• THOH – "Treehouse of Horror IV" ("The Devil and Homer Simpson"; "Bart Simpson's Dracula")
• Episode – "Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood"
• Episode – "Homer the Vigilante"
• Episode – "Bart Gets an Elephant"
• Episode – "The Springfield Connection"
• Episode – "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)"
• THOH – "Treehouse of Horror VI"
• Episode – "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming"
• Episode – "Lisa's Date with Density"
• Episode – "Brother from Another Series"
• Episode – "The Canine Mutiny"
• THOH – "Treehouse of Horror VIII"
• Episode – "D'oh-in' in the Wind"
• Episode – "The Frying Game"
• Episode – "Simple Simpson"
• Episode – "Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens and Gays"
• – The Simpsons Movie
• Episode – "That '90s Show"
• Episode – "Four Great Women and a Manicure"
• Episode – "The Bart Wants What It Wants"
• Episode – "To Cur, with Love"
• Episode – "Pulpit Friction"
• Episode – "The Fabulous Faker Boy"
• Episode – "The Saga of Carl"
• Episode – "Homerland"
• Episode – "White Christmas Blues" (Buried in a giant snowball with Chief Wiggum)
• Episode – "Luca$"
• Episode – "Days of Future Future"
• Episode – "Brick Like Me"
• Episode – "The Simpsons Guy"
• Episode – "I Won't Be Home for Christmas"
• Episode – "Bart's New Friend"
• Episode – "Walking Big & Tall"
• Episode – "Sky Police"
• Episode – "Waiting for Duffman"
• Episode – "Peeping Mom"
• Episode – "Halloween of Horror"
• Episode – "Barthood"
• Episode – "Much Apu About Something"
• Episode – "Love Is in the N2-O2-Ar-CO2-Ne-He-CH4" (Springfield Observatory)
• Episode – "Lisa the Veterinarian"
• Episode – "Simprovised"
• Episode – "Orange is the New Yellow"
• Episode – "Monty Burns' Fleeing Circus"
• THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XXVII" (Dry Hard, BFF)
• Episode – "Havana Wild Weekend" (Photo on a newspaper)
• Episode – "Dad Behavior"
• Episode – "Singin' In The Lane"
• Episode – "Gone Boy"
• Episode – "Haw-Haw Land"
• Episode – "Frink Gets Testy"
• Episode – "I'm Just a Girl Who Can't Say D'oh"
• Episode – "Woo-hoo Dunnit?"
• Episode – "The Fat Blue Line"
• Episode – "Gorillas on the Mast"
• Episode – "Livin' La Pura Vida"
• Episode – "Bobby, It's Cold Outside"
• Episode – "Hail to the Teeth"
• Episode – "The Miseducation of Lisa Simpson"
• Episode – "Frinkcoin"
• Episode – "Screenless"
• Episode – "Better Off Ned (episode)"
• Episode – "Warrin' Priests (Part One)"
• Episode – "Warrin' Priests (Part Two)"
• Episode – "Podcast News" (seen in crowd)
• Episode – "Sorry Not Sorry"
• Episode – "Wad Goals"
• Episode – "Yokel Hero"
• Episode – "Mother and Child Reunion"
• Episode – "The Man from G.R.A.M.P.A."
• Episode – "Bart's In Jail!"
• Episode – "Boyz N the Highlands"
• Episode – "Girls Just Shauna Have Fun"
• Episode – "Marge the Meanie"
• Episode – "Step Brother from the Same Planet"
• Episode – "When Nelson Met Lisa"
• Episode – "The Many Saints of Springfield"
• Episode – "Pin Gal"
• Episode – "Clown V. Board of Education"
• Episode – "The Tell-Tale Pants"
• Episode – "Bart's Brain"
• Couch gag – "Citizens of Springfield couch gag"
• Music video – "Do the Bartman" (with yellow skin)
• Commercials – "The Big Steal"
• Comic book – The Amazing Colossal Homer
• Comic book – Fangs for Nothing!
• Video game – The Simpsons: Minutes to Meltdown
• Video game – The Simpsons Road Rage
• Video game – The Simpsons: Hit and Run
• Video game – The Simpsons Game
• Video game – The Simpsons: Tapped Out
• Video game – The Simpsons Ride (Pre-Show)

The Simpsons: Season One
"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire":	"Bart the Genius":	"Homer's Odyssey":	"There's No Disgrace Like Home":	"Bart the General":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Minor	Absent
"Moaning Lisa":	"The Call of the Simpsons":	"The Telltale Head":	"Life on the Fast Lane":	"Homer's Night Out":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent
"The Crepes of Wrath":	"Krusty Gets Busted":	"Some Enchanted Evening":
Absent	Minor	Absent

The Simpsons: Season Two
"Bart Gets an "F"":	"Simpson and Delilah":	"Treehouse of Horror":	"Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish":	"Dancin' Homer":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent
"Dead Putting Society":	"Bart vs. Thanksgiving":	"Bart the Daredevil":	"Itchy & Scratchy & Marge":	"Bart Gets Hit by a Car":
Absent	Minor	Absent	Absent	Absent
"One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish":	"The Way We Was":	"Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment":	"Principal Charming":	"Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?":
Minor	Absent	Minor	Absent	Absent
"Bart's Dog Gets an F":	"Old Money":	"Brush with Greatness":	"Lisa's Substitute":	"The War of the Simpsons":
Absent	Cameo	Absent	Absent	Absent
"Three Men and a Comic Book":	"Blood Feud":
Minor	Absent

The Simpsons: Season Three
"Stark Raving Dad":	"Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington":	"When Flanders Failed":	"Bart the Murderer":	"Homer Defined":
Cameo	Absent	Cameo	Minor	Absent
"Like Father, Like Clown":	"Treehouse of Horror II":	"Lisa's Pony":	"Saturdays of Thunder":	"Flaming Moe's":
Absent	Minor	Absent	Absent	Absent
"Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk":	"I Married Marge":	"Radio Bart":	"Lisa the Greek":	"Homer Alone":
Absent	Absent	Minor	Absent	Minor
"Bart the Lover":	"Homer at the Bat":	"Separate Vocations":	"Dog of Death":	"Colonel Homer":
Absent	Minor	Minor	Minor	Absent
"Black Widower":	"The Otto Show":	"Bart's Friend Falls in Love":	"Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?":
Minor	Minor	Absent	Absent

The Simpsons: Season Four
"Kamp Krusty":	"A Streetcar Named Marge":	"Homer the Heretic":	"Lisa the Beauty Queen":	"Treehouse of Horror III":
Absent	Cameo	Absent	Absent	Cameo
"Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie":	"Marge Gets a Job":	"New Kid on the Block":	"Mr. Plow":	"Lisa's First Word":
Cameo	Cameo	Absent	Absent	Absent
"Homer's Triple Bypass":	"Marge vs. the Monorail":	"Selma's Choice":	"Brother from the Same Planet":	"I Love Lisa":
Minor	Cameo	Cameo	Minor	Cameo
"Duffless":	"Last Exit to Springfield":	"So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show":	"The Front":	"Whacking Day":
Minor	Absent	Minor	Absent	Minor
"Marge in Chains":	"Krusty Gets Kancelled":
Minor	Absent

The Simpsons: Season Five
"Homer's Barbershop Quartet":	"Cape Feare":	"Homer Goes to College":	"Rosebud":	"Treehouse of Horror IV":
Minor	Minor	Absent	Absent	Cameo
"Marge on the Lam":	"Bart's Inner Child":	"Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood":	"The Last Temptation of Homer":	"$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)":
Absent	Absent	Minor	Absent	Absent
"Homer the Vigilante":	"Bart Gets Famous":	"Homer and Apu":	"Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy":	"Deep Space Homer":
Minor	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent
"Homer Loves Flanders":	"Bart Gets an Elephant":	"Burns' Heir":	"Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song":	"The Boy Who Knew Too Much":
Absent	Cameo	Absent	Cameo	Absent
"Lady Bouvier's Lover":	"Secrets of a Successful Marriage":
Absent	Cameo

The Simpsons: Season Six
"Bart of Darkness":	"Lisa's Rival":	"Another Simpsons Clip Show":	"Itchy & Scratchy Land":	"Sideshow Bob Roberts":
Minor	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent
"Treehouse of Horror V":	"Bart's Girlfriend":	"Lisa on Ice":	"Homer Badman":	"Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy":
Absent	Absent	Cameo	Absent	Absent
"Fear of Flying":	"Homer the Great":	"And Maggie Makes Three":	"Bart's Comet":	"Homie the Clown":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent
"Bart vs. Australia":	"Homer vs. Patty and Selma":	"A Star is Burns":	"Lisa's Wedding":	"Two Dozen and One Greyhounds":
Absent	Absent	Cameo	Absent	Cameo
"The PTA Disbands":	"'Round Springfield":	"The Springfield Connection":	"Lemon of Troy":	"Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)":
Absent	Cameo	Minor	Absent	Absent

The Simpsons: Season Nine
"The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson":	"The Principal and the Pauper":	"Lisa's Sax":	"Treehouse of Horror VIII":	"The Cartridge Family":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Minor	Cameo
"Bart Star":	"The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons":	"Lisa the Skeptic":	"Realty Bites":	"Miracle on Evergreen Terrace":
Absent	Absent	Minor	Absent	Minor
"All Singing, All Dancing":	"Bart Carny":	"The Joy of Sect":	"Das Bus":	"The Last Temptation of Krust":
Absent	Cameo	Absent	Absent	Absent
"Dumbbell Indemnity":	"Lisa the Simpson":	"This Little Wiggy":	"Simpson Tide":	"The Trouble with Trillions":
Minor	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent
"Girly Edition":	"Trash of the Titans":	"King of the Hill":	"Lost Our Lisa":	"Natural Born Kissers":
Absent	Absent	Cameo	Absent	Cameo

The Simpsons: Season Ten
"Lard of the Dance":	"The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace":	"Bart the Mother":	"Treehouse of Horror IX":	"When You Dish Upon a Star":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Minor	Absent
"D'oh-in' in the Wind":	"Lisa Gets an "A"":	"Homer Simpson in: "Kidney Trouble"":	"Mayored to the Mob":	"Viva Ned Flanders":
Minor	Absent	Absent	Cameo	Absent
"Wild Barts Can't Be Broken":	"Sunday, Cruddy Sunday":	"Homer to the Max":	"I'm with Cupid":	"Marge Simpson in: "Screaming Yellow Honkers"":
Minor	Absent	Minor	Cameo	Minor
"Make Room for Lisa":	"Maximum Homerdrive":	"Simpsons Bible Stories":	"Mom and Pop Art":	"The Old Man and the "C" Student":
Absent	Absent	Minor	Cameo	Cameo
"Monty Can't Buy Me Love":	"They Saved Lisa's Brain":	"Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo":
Absent	Cameo	Absent

The Simpsons: Season Eleven
"Beyond Blunderdome":	"Brother's Little Helper":	"Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?":	"Treehouse of Horror X":	"E-I-E-I-D'oh":
Cameo	Minor	Minor	Minor	Absent
"Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder":	"Eight Misbehavin'":	"Take My Wife, Sleaze":	"Grift of the Magi":	"Little Big Mom":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent
"Faith Off":	"The Mansion Family":	"Saddlesore Galactica":	"Alone Again, Natura-Diddily":	"Missionary: Impossible":
Absent	Absent	Cameo	Absent	Absent
"Pygmoelian":	"Bart to the Future":	"Days of Wine and D'oh'ses":	"Kill the Alligator and Run":	"Last Tap Dance in Springfield":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Minor
"It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge":	"Behind the Laughter":
Minor	Absent

Gallery

The full image gallery for Lou may be viewed at Lou/Gallery.

Citations

Springfield Police
Chief Wiggum ● Lou ● Eddie
Animals
Bobo ● Officer Sniffy ● Laddie ● Scraps
Former Cops
Marge Simpson ● Gloria ● SpringShield: (Homer Simpson, Lenny Leonard, Carl Carlson) ● Santa's Little Helper