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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 cannot talk, Maggie is the least seen and heard in the Simpson family.

Biography

Marge, Maggie, Lisa & Bart

Maggie with her mother and siblings.

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 work.

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 markswoman[1] and she shot the fingers off of a group of mobsters in rapid succession with a rifle.[2] She was behind the attempted murder of Mr. Burns[3] and she fought Gerald during the St. Patrick day riot, her representing Ireland and Gerald Northern Ireland.[4] 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 and Bart with a shotgun.[5]

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 Gerald, the one eyebrowed baby very much, despite apparently marrying him in one Simpsons Comic.

Maggie bears a strong resemblance to Lisa, suggesting that Maggie will look very much like her sister when she reaches eight-years-old.

Maggie's first word is "Daddy", something neither Bart or Lisa would call him when they were babies [6]. On another occasion, Maggie's speaks the word "Ya"; a Norwegian word. She has also said "Dadily Doodily" when she was in the care of Ned Flanders[7].

Non-Canon Appearances

Ssi 5 The contents of this article or section are considered to be non-canon and therefore may not have actually happened/existed.
Treehouse of Horror IX

Half-alien Maggie

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.[8] 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.[9]

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."[10]

Treehouse of Horror IX

In Treehouse of Horror IX, 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.[11] 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".[12] 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. 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).

Maggie also said some thing in Four Great Women and a Manicure when on she is in the court, though this is non-canon since it was a story told by Lisa.

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.

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, and she said her first word at the age of one. (Lisa's first word was when she was 2) .
  • The real father of Maggie is Kang in the non-canon Treehouse of Horror IX.

Appearances

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Please improve the article, or discuss the issue on the talk page.

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References

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Characters voiced by Yeardley Smith
Lisa Simpson | Maggie Simpson | Zia Simpson | Lisa, Jr.
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