Luigi Risotto (real name Lothar Folkman), is the proprietor of Luigi's.
Biography[]
A cooking prodigy, Lothar Folkman opened his Italian restaurant in Springfield to critical success, but empty seats. No one wanted to eat Italian food prepared by someone named Lothar. But after making a fake Italian accent, changing his name, and getting a makeover, his eatery became packed almost every night. Unfortunately, the charade has driven Luigi into a love/hate relationship with his customers that occasionally bubbles to the surface like tomato sauce in a pot that's one size too small.
Luigi owns an Italian restaurant in Springfield, that serves average Italian food. Luigi often treats his customers rudely, insulting and belittling them (such as calling Bart “the ugly kid”); at times under his breath, at other times in a conversational tone as in one ocassion, he greeted "Krusty" (actually Homer pretending to be him) in a friendly way, while complimenting on the "beautiful date" he brought (referring to Marge) and on her children, and allowed them to eat for free while calling the other customers a scum only in comparison to Krusty[1], and sometimes shouting the slurs to the (unseen) chef Salvatore (”Hey, Salvatore! Give the ugly kid a plate of the red crap!”). Luigi seems to have some connections to the mafia. Local gangster Fat Tony is a frequent customer at his restaurant, despite the fact that he was one of the targets of Fat Tony's plan to get rid of all other food retailers except Marge's.[2] He does not actually speak Italian, only "fractured English" with a strong Italian accent, as did his parents. He says the phrase, "I guarantee," a lot.
Luigi may be an illegal immigrant because he disappeared during an immigration officer's introduction at Luigi's restaurant and took the citizenship exam with Apu.[3]
When Homer was a food critic, he gave Luigi's eatery a poor review; in retaliation, Luigi hired a friend to place a horse's head in Homer's bed (a reference to The Godfather). Homer subsequently ate the head and gave it a bad review.[4]
His one on-screen companion is Giuseppe the monkey.
He can play the accordion.
In The Simpsons: Tapped Out (app for Android and iOS), Luigi has a slip of his tongue and reveals his true accent is British. He quickly realizes his mistake and returns to his Italian. He also reveals that his mother died from getting her mustache caught in a dough mixer.
Behind the Laughter[]
Luigi is a parody of the "Italian pasta/pizza chef" stereotype, but seems to be aware of his status as a stock character. His surname is a reference to the Italian food risotto. His name may also be a reference to inventor and musician Luigi Russolo. He also seems to be a parody of Tony from Lady and the Tramp and also sounds like Mario and Luigi of Super Mario Brothers.
Gallery[]
Appearances[]
- Episode – "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song"
- Episode – "Lady Bouvier's Lover"
- Episode – "Homie the Clown"
- Episode – "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds"
- Episode – "Team Homer"
- Episode – "Much Apu About Nothing"
- Episode – "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson"
- Episode – "Lard of the Dance"
- Episode – "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XI" (image cameo)
- Episode – "A Tale of Two Springfields"
- Episode – "I Am Furious (Yellow)"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XIV"
- Episode – "Bart-Mangled Banner"
- Episode – "Large Marge"
- Episode – "The Wettest Stories Ever Told"
- Episode – "Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play"
- Episode – "Homerazzi" (On a cover of an magazine)
- Episode – "Crook and Ladder"
- Episode – "The Last of the Red Hat Mamas"
- Episode – "Funeral for a Fiend"
- Episode – "Million Dollar Abie"
- Episode – "Love, Springfieldian Style"
- Episode – "The Real Housewives of Fat Tony"
- Episode – "The Daughter Also Rises"
- Episode – "Bart's New Friend" (Billboard)
- Episode – "Walking Big & Tall"
- Episode – "Halloween of Horror"
- Episode – "Much Apu About Something"
- Episode – "The Burns Cage"
- Episode – "Simprovised"
- Episode – "The Old Blue Mayor She Ain't What She Used To Be"
- Episode – "Mr. Lisa's Opus"
- Episode – "Gone Boy"
- Episode – "I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
- Episode – "I'm Just a Girl Who Can't Say D'oh"
- Episode – "The Fat Blue Line"
- Episode – "Marge the Lumberjill"
- Episode – "Screenless"
- Episode – "The Wayz We Were"
- Episode – "A Made Maggie"
- Episode – "The Many Saints of Springfield"
- Episode – "Pin Gal"
- Episode – "Lisa Gets an F1"
- Episode – "Night of the Living Wage"
- Episode – "Bart's Brain"
- Episode – "The Yellow Lotus"
- – The Simpsons Movie
- Video game – The Simpsons Game
- Video game – The Simpsons: Tapped Out
The Simpsons: Season Five | ||||
"Homer's Barbershop Quartet": | "Cape Feare": | "Homer Goes to College": | "Rosebud": | "Treehouse of Horror IV": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"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 | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Homer the Vigilante": | "Bart Gets Famous": | "Homer and Apu": | "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy": | "Deep Space Homer": |
Absent | 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 | Absent | Absent | Minor | Absent |
"Lady Bouvier's Lover": | "Secrets of a Successful Marriage": | |||
Minor | Absent |
The Simpsons: Season Six | ||||
"Bart of Darkness": | "Lisa's Rival": | "Another Simpsons Clip Show": | "Itchy & Scratchy Land": | "Sideshow Bob Roberts": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Treehouse of Horror V": | "Bart's Girlfriend": | "Lisa on Ice": | "Homer Badman": | "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Fear of Flying": | "Homer the Great": | "And Maggie Makes Three": | "Bart's Comet": | "Homie the Clown": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Minor |
"Bart vs. Australia": | "Homer vs. Patty and Selma": | "A Star is Burns": | "Lisa's Wedding": | "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Minor |
"The PTA Disbands": | "'Round Springfield": | "The Springfield Connection": | "Lemon of Troy": | "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
The Simpsons: Season Seven | ||||
"Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)": | "Radioactive Man": | "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily": | "Bart Sells His Soul": | "Lisa the Vegetarian": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Treehouse of Horror VI": | "King-Size Homer": | "Mother Simpson": | "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming": | "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Marge Be Not Proud": | "Team Homer": | "Two Bad Neighbors": | "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield": | "Bart the Fink": |
Absent | Minor | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Lisa The Iconoclast": | "Homer The Smithers": | "The Day The Violence Died": | "A Fish Called Selma": | "Bart on the Road": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"22 Short Films About Springfield": | "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish"": | "Much Apu About Nothing": | "Homerpalooza": | "Summer of 4 Ft. 2": |
Absent | Absent | Cameo | Absent | Absent |
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": |
Minor | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"D'oh-in' in the Wind": | "Lisa Gets an "A"": | "Homer Simpson in: "Kidney Trouble"": | "Mayored to the Mob": | "Viva Ned Flanders": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Wild Barts Can't Be Broken": | "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday": | "Homer to the Max": | "I'm with Cupid": | "Marge Simpson in: "Screaming Yellow Honkers"": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Make Room for Lisa": | "Maximum Homerdrive": | "Simpsons Bible Stories": | "Mom and Pop Art": | "The Old Man and the "C" Student": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Cameo | Absent |
"Monty Can't Buy Me Love": | "They Saved Lisa's Brain": | "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo": | ||
Absent | Absent | Absent |