- "Hey, great, mail it to last week—when I might've cared. I've got cartoons to make."
- ―Roger Meyers[src]
Roger Meyers, Jr. is the son of Roger Meyers, Sr. and the current Chairman of Itchy & Scratchy Studios, which produces The Itchy & Scratchy Show. He distributes the cartoon, which is frequently criticized by parents because of its indulgently violent and lurid nature. His family name has been spelled as both "Meyers" and "Myers" - sometimes in the same episode.[1] In some episodes, Roger Meyers, Jr. speaks with a nasally high-pitched Brooklyn accent.
Biography[]
Meyers is a jaded and selfish businessman who has nothing but contempt for the children who comprise his audience. Owing to his contempt for his audience, he also does not take any scripts written by children seriously regardless of quality, at best only barely making an effort to read the form letters containing the scripts from children before crumpling it up. This was best demonstrated with Bart and Lisa's first attempt at mailing Little Barbershop of Horrors while openly stating they were children, where he barely reads the first paragraph before promptly disposing of it due to who the senders were, forcing them to mail in the script again under a different name. He is short-sighted and short-tempered, caring only about people whose help he needs immediately and acting rude and dismissive toward people who voice opinions with which he disagrees. His antagonistic personality is most clearly seen in the episode "The Day the Violence Died", when I&S Studios is bankrupted following their trial against Chester J. Lampwick. When Bart and Lisa are too late in providing information that could save the company, he condescendingly tells them to "mail it to last week, when [he] might have cared." Another example is seen in "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge", when Marge tries to raise awareness of the violence in Itchy & Scratchy cartoons and Meyers refers to everyone who sends him angry and threatening letters as "screwballs." Similarly, when Marge sends him a letter expressing reasonable concern about the affect the cartoon violence was likely having on her baby, Maggie, Meyers in return sends Marge a response letter filled with explicit and rude language in the process (in particular, his closing remark had him closing with what is implied to be "[censored] you, and the horse you rode in on").[2] One instance also implied that he wasn't above including swear words in rejection letters directed towards children, as Bart claimed "I know what this word means, but what's Shinola?"[3]
Meyers seems to have as much contempt for the writers and voice actors who work for him as he does for the children who watch his cartoons. Just as Bart and Lisa submit their ideas of an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon to Meyers, he verbally and even physically abuses a fired writer (the latter by throwing the crumpled up ideas into said writer's mouth after ordering him to sing the alma mater for Harvard, and then throwing his name plaque at his forehead twice, the first time as a sarcastic "witty rejoiner" in response to the writer berating Meyers as having the uncouth manners of a Yalie, and the second time when demanding he shut up when he protested that he can't clear his office out due to Meyers locking it beforehand). Similarly, when Abe Simpson becomes the flavor of the month, he chews out the various writers besides Abe Simpson.[4] In "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", Meyers creates Poochie to bring up the show's falling ratings and holds auditions for someone to voice the character. He first hires Otto Mann, only to replace him with Troy McClure. He then calls Otto a "bum" and tells him to "take a hike" despite saying that he was "perfect" seconds earlier. Homer is eventually chosen to voice Poochie, but the character is so widely hated that Meyers plans to kill him off in the next episode. Meyers seems moved when Homer shows up to record his lines and pleads the audience to give the character a chance, but Meyers dubs over Homer's voice and says that Poochie returned to his home planet (and died on the way).
Despite his traits, however, he was not entirely bad, as he once willingly provided a tour of the studios to Bart and Lisa, and was also shown to have genuine respect towards Abraham Simpson regarding his writing.
In The Simpsons Arcade mobile game, Meyers appears as a boss in the Springfield Mall and uses an ax, a mallet, and bombs that look like Itchy and Scratchy.
Appearances[]
- Episode – "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge" (Alex Rocco)
- Episode – "Homer at the Bat" (Non-speaking cameo)
- Episode – "The Front" (Hank Azaria)
- Episode – "Lady Bouvier's Lover" (Hank Azaria)
- Episode – "Itchy & Scratchy Land" (Hank Azaria)
- Episode – "The Day the Violence Died" (Alex Rocco)
- Episode – "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" (Alex Rocco)
- Episode – "Trash of the Titans" (Non-speaking cameo)
- Episode – "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story" (Non-speaking cameo)
- Episode – "Dangerous Curves" (Flashback)
- Episode – "Love is a Many Strangled Thing" (cameo)
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XXVII" (Cameo)
- – The Simpsons Movie
- Video game – The Simpsons: Tapped Out
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 | Absent | Absent | Major | 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?": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Bart's Dog Gets an F": | "Old Money": | "Brush with Greatness": | "Lisa's Substitute": | "The War of the Simpsons": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Three Men and a Comic Book": | "Blood Feud": | |||
Absent | Absent |
The Simpsons: Season Three | ||||
"Stark Raving Dad": | "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington": | "When Flanders Failed": | "Bart the Murderer": | "Homer Defined": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Like Father, Like Clown": | "Treehouse of Horror II": | "Lisa's Pony": | "Saturdays of Thunder": | "Flaming Moe's": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk": | "I Married Marge": | "Radio Bart": | "Lisa the Greek": | "Homer Alone": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Bart the Lover": | "Homer at the Bat": | "Separate Vocations": | "Dog of Death": | "Colonel Homer": |
Absent | Cameo | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Black Widower": | "The Otto Show": | "Bart's Friend Falls in Love": | "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?": | |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
The Simpsons: Season Four | ||||
"Kamp Krusty": | "A Streetcar Named Marge": | "Homer the Heretic": | "Lisa the Beauty Queen": | "Treehouse of Horror III": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie": | "Marge Gets a Job": | "New Kid on the Block": | "Mr. Plow": | "Lisa's First Word": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Homer's Triple Bypass": | "Marge vs. the Monorail": | "Selma's Choice": | "Brother from the Same Planet": | "I Love Lisa": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Duffless": | "Last Exit to Springfield": | "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show": | "The Front": | "Whacking Day": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Major | Absent |
"Marge in Chains": | "Krusty Gets Kancelled": | |||
Absent | Absent |
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 | Absent | 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 | Minor | 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 | Absent |
"Bart vs. Australia": | "Homer vs. Patty and Selma": | "A Star is Burns": | "Lisa's Wedding": | "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"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 | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Lisa The Iconoclast": | "Homer The Smithers": | "The Day The Violence Died": | "A Fish Called Selma": | "Bart on the Road": |
Absent | Absent | Major | 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 | Absent | Absent | Absent |
The Simpsons: Season Eight | ||||
"Treehouse of Horror VII": | "You Only Move Twice": | "The Homer They Fall": | "Burns, Baby Burns": | "Bart After Dark": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"A Milhouse Divided": | "Lisa's Date with Density": | "Hurricane Neddy": | "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)": | "The Springfield Files": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"The Twisted World of Marge Simpson": | "Mountain of Madness": | "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious": | "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show": | "Homer's Phobia": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Major | Absent |
"Brother from Another Series": | "My Sister, My Sitter": | "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment": | "Grade School Confidential": | "The Canine Mutiny": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"The Old Man and the Lisa": | "In Marge We Trust": | "Homer's Enemy": | "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase": | "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | 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 | Absent | Absent |
"Bart Star": | "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons": | "Lisa the Skeptic": | "Realty Bites": | "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"All Singing, All Dancing": | "Bart Carny": | "The Joy of Sect": | "Das Bus": | "The Last Temptation of Krust": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Dumbbell Indemnity": | "Lisa the Simpson": | "This Little Wiggy": | "Simpson Tide": | "The Trouble with Trillions": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Girly Edition": | "Trash of the Titans": | "King of the Hill": | "Lost Our Lisa": | "Natural Born Kissers": |
Absent | Cameo | Absent | Absent | Absent |