| “ | One, two, tie your shoe! | „ |
| ~ Roofi |
Roofi is a singer and songwriter who creates music that appeals to very young children. He is the Simpsons parody of longtime children's singer Raffi. However, his songs usually make little or no sense and are considered annoying by older children and adults, much like the real Raffi. Some of his songs are "I Like Ice Cream," "One, Two, Tie Your Shoe," "Helpful Bear on the 28th Floor," "Tickets, Tickets," and a "Nonsense Song."
History[]
Marge discovered Roofi's music, which Bart described as the reason "why babies are idiots," and then afterwards played it for Maggie and found that both she and Maggie enjoyed it. Marge then played Roofi's music non-stop for Maggie, much to the annoyance of Bart, Lisa, and Homer who couldn't stand Roofi's music. They ended up going to great lengths to avoid it, turn it off, or (at the very least) hear it as little as possible. Marge, however, was equally determined to keep it on—for example, she played it on a radio with the batteries in and backed up by solar power. When Marge took Bart and Lisa to school, she had a Roofi CD playing on the car's CD player for Maggie. When Marge pulled up in front of Springfield Elementary School, Bart and Lisa jumped out and ran to the building before she had even stopped the car. At the end of the school day, Bart looked out the window and cringed when he saw Marge and Maggie in the car bobbing their heads in time to the music and begged Mrs. Krabappel to give him detention to put off having to hear the music again.
Marge took Maggie to see Roofi in an outdoor concert and discovered that the concert had been vastly oversold. Unsupervised babies were everywhere, and when it started raining, a Woodstock-like disaster was the result. The rain made all of the babies start crying, and Roofi's opening act tried to settle them down, but was unsuccessful. Roofi came onto the stage anyway, and started playing. Not only did the babies keep crying, but one of them also threw a bottle at Roofi, hitting him in the face. Roofi then abruptly ended the concert, parodying one of his own songs by saying, "Show's over. Five, six, so long hicks."[1]
In spite of the bad concert experience, Roofi kept making music and his CDs continued to sell in Springfield. Marge bought a new Roofi CD and put it into the car stereo for Maggie.[2]
Personality[]
Despite his child-friendly reputation, Roofi embodies many traits of a stereotypical "rock star." He is rude to fans, apparently doesn't like performing, and it doesn't take much to make him walk out in a concert.
In contrast to his Middle Eastern-accented English while performing, Roofi speaks in an American accent offstage. In the Italian dub, he is dubbed with a French accent (rather than the Middle Eastern one) while he sings.
Behind the Laughter[]
- Roofi is a reference of Raffi Cavoukian, a popular Armenian-Canadian children's musician, however Raffi himself disowned his character on the show as he was nothing like that at all and because the character was named after a rape drug.
- Roofi sounds like the character Fouad from Family Guy. He also sounds like Fievel's papa in An American Tail.
- The minors rioting is a likely reference to a 1993 incident at a shopping mall where Barney the Dinosaur was billed, but the children became enraged and destructive when a skinny impostor appeared on stage. This may also be akin to Kamp Krusty when Bart spearheads a revolution against Mr. Black's oppression after seeing Barney Gumble hired to be a knockoff Krusty.
Songs[]
- I Like Ice Cream
- One, Two, Tie Your Shoe
- Helpful Bear on the 28th Floor
- Tickets, Tickets
- Nonsense Song
- Brush Your Teeth, Comb Your Hair
- Riding On a Bug
Appearances[]
Episode – "Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens and Gays" - Episode – "Elementary School Musical" (Music CD in the car)
- Episode – "The Man Who Came to Be Dinner" (Music heard)