Stuart Discothèque, also known as Disco Stu, is the owner of Stu's Disco and a self-proclaimed appreciator of disco music. He sports an Afro and is usually featured wearing rhinestone-encrusted leisure suits from the 1970s.
He first appears in the episode "Two Bad Neighbors" as a throwaway gag character at the yard sale. There, he rejects a rhinestone jacket that says 'Disco Stu' on the back. The jacket had been erroneously created by Homer, who ran out of room to write 'Disco Stud'. When his friend says, "Stu, you should buy that!", Stu declines, saying, "Hey, Disco Stu doesn't advertise."
The episode "Springfield Up" reveals that, in his younger years, Stu had a budding career as a sea captain, going by the name of "Nautical Stu". He only finds the joy of disco music when Marge plays it while taking his picture for his captain's license. (However, the scene was set up in a purposefully misleading manner, so audiences were expecting a backstory for Sea Captain Horatio McCallister prior to the reveal that it was Stu's backstory.)
According to his Inkworks trading card, Stu was "the king of the dance floor in the late '70s". However, "during a wild party at Club 55 (the club for people who couldn't get into Studio 54), Stu fell into a coma due to a boogie-related accident. He woke up in the mid-'90s", presumably some time before his 1996 appearance in "Two Bad Neighbors".[1]
In the Kozy Kabins woods, he once presumably carved a tree to say "Disco Stu + Disco".
Since the 1970's, he has been addicted to "the white stuff" (sugar), sucking lines of it through a straw as one might cocaine in "Sweets and Sour Marge".
A brief shot in the introduction song of "Haw-Haw Land" shows that he drives a dark red Sedan.
Disco Stu has also been seen dancing with Homer after Homer discovers his love of walking, getting smashed by a jukebox thanks to a beefed-up Marge, and most recently, a regular on Homer's talk show.
Speech patterns[]
He often refers to himself in the third person, putting a big emphasis on "Stu" and then pausing before saying anything else. Before becoming Disco Stu, he referred to himself as Nautical Stu.
His rhyming dialogue has been lampooned by the writers on multiple occasions. For example, he once cut Ned, Rod, and Todd in line and exclaimed, "Disco Stu slides in front of you!" before happily realizing, "Hey, that rhymes."[2] Similarly, his Tapped Out unlock message is, "Disco Stu is glad his name rhymes with so many thing... oo!"
It was subtly lampooned in 2024's Christmas special, "O C'mon All Ye Faithful" when he tells the documentary team, "Disco Stu likes free verse poetry, also."
He speaks similarly to radio DJs of the 1970s, who often spoke rhythmically and incorporated rhymed phrases.
Disco Stu giving roses to Edna Krabappel and spontaneously announcing that he is "Super Christian!".
Beliefs and confessions[]
While bringing roses to Edna's door, Disco Stu proclaims, "Disco Stu is about more than just disco. I'm also - ha! - super Christian!"[3] He got an annulment for his marriage with Selma Bouvier from Pope John Paul II.
During a 'taxicab confession' in the episode "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation," Stu takes off his purple teaglasses and confides: "I hate disco. It's all I've talked about for so long, people think I'm a one-note guy. It's just getting harder, you know."
Friendships[]
The friend who exclaimed, "Stu, you should buy that!" in Stu's first appearance ("Two Bad Neighbors") has likely not appeared again.
During Season 11's "Little Big Mom", he started to hit on Marge Simpson at the Ski Lodge, before being put off by her children and hurriedly backing away.[4]
As of Season 16, he’s the fourth (now ex-) husband of Selma Bouvier.[5] Their marriage was not shown on screen, and they were married for an undisclosed amount of time. Their marriage ended with Stu getting an annulment from Pope John Paul II. (In "The Real Housewives of Fat Tony", Marge claims he’s the only one of her sister's ex-husbands that she liked.)
In Season 21's "Bart Gets a "Z", he is presumably dating Edna as he shows up at her door with roses. Edna laments that he is the only man who finds her attractive.
In Season 22, Disco Stu's girlfriend is seen going to the line dance with Krusty the Clown rather than Stu.
While missing his ex-wife Selma in Season 27's "Puffless", Selma decides to give Stu a call, calling him one of many "lonely men" from her past. Upon answering the phone, he angrily says, "Disco Stu is over you!" and slams down the receiver. However, it is revealed he still has images of Selma all over his house, including pictures, sculptures, and psychedelic artwork proclaiming their love. He then looks morose and says "Disco Stu needs a Zoloft or two".[6]
Later in the same episode, Selma says she did some regrettable things during Patty's absence, and Disco Stu appears in the hallway buttoning his shirt (insinuating they got intimate). He disappointedly says to Selma, "You said it was for real this time." When Selma blows him off, he walks away saying, "Disco Stu is back on Tinder."[7]
Stu identifies as heteroflexible,[8] and is insinuated to be a swinger (along with Edna Krabappel, Dr. Hibbert, and Bernice Hibbert). This occurs in Season 20's "In the Name of the Grandfather", when Marge points at the group approaching their hot tub and cries, "Uh oh! We're starting to attract swingers."[9]
In Season 33's "Portrait of a Lackey on Fire", Smithers reveals that Disco Stu is among the men on U.S. Male Service, a gay dating app. Within the app, he proclaims that he is "heteroflexible - oo!" and performs a split.[8]
Business ventures[]
Stu runs a nightclub, Stu's Disco, which was first spotted in Season 9's "Dumbbell Indemnity". It appeared to be crowded with a line of clientele, including Mr. Burns and his date. Therefore, it appears to be commercially successful.
In "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson", he ran the booth for Can't Stop the Learnin' Disco Academies at the SCC's Franchise Expo. Therefore, he is either a professional dance instructor specializing in the hustle, or the proprietor who manages dance instructors/franchisers. Given that his financial bar graphs are from the year 1976, it is unlikely that the academies are or were a success.
Attempted de-discofication[]
Stu seems to have given up his obsession with disco thanks to Prof. John Frink's help in "How I Wet Your Mother". He calls himself "Normal Stu", wears modest slacks and a dress shirt, and says, "Normal Stu likes normal things." However, he is shown as Disco Stu again in "The Man Who Grew Too Much".
Like Moe Szyslak, Disco Stu has contemplated suicide on multiple occasions. In "Haw-Haw Land", he tells Bart not to cut in front of him at the assisted suicide booth, saying, "If disco's dead, I don't want to live. It's Stu-icide!" Later, when his music stops during a power outage in "Homer Goes to Prep School", he immediately presses a gun to his head.
Non-Canon[]
The contents of this article or section are considered to be non-canon and therefore may not have actually happened/existed.
Disco Stu has been parodied multiple times within the Simpsons. In a parody of the Odyssey, he appeared as "Discus Stu", showing an attraction to Telemachus (portrayed by Bart). He was "Disco Shrew" in the "Treehouse of Horror XIII" "Dr. Moreau" parody, where Stu was turned into a shrew, but wasn't worried about his condition. "Big Band Stu" appears in the parody of "The War of the Worlds" radio hoax that takes place in 1938, in "Treehouse of Horror XVII".
Fictional lore connecting Marge and Stu is revealed in "Lisa the Boy Scout", in one of its many satirical "show-ruining" scenes. A dying Selma reveals that she is not Marge's sister, and rather her mother. Marge asks who her real father is, and Selma dies before she can finish saying his name. Marge shakes Selma, repeating, "Disco who? Disco who?!"
He appears disco-dancing alongside Chazz Busby in "Treehouse of Horror XXXV". In the same episode, he is briefly controlled by a pair of jeans while rollerskating down a street; he exclaims, "These aren't my moves, man! Not my moves!"
In "Women in Shorts", Lindsay Nagle appears to give a PSA on the dangers of roleplaying, before revealing that she too is roleplaying as the spokesperson of a fictional "President's Council on Marital Role-play, which does not exist because I'm only pretending to be a spokesperson to turn on the men in this bar". Disco Stu approaches in a fireman's hat and axe and says, "Role-play, baby, I dig it! Fireman Stu is hot for you." Nagle takes his hand and happily exclaims, "I got one!"
Stu's Disco, presumably managed by the titular character.
During "The Marge-ian Chronicles", he was among the candidates willing to start a new colony on Mars in 10 years.
He also reveals he uses adult braces, which presumably is what gets him kicked out of the program.
Disco Stu's last name, "Discothèque," means "nightclub" in French.
Because Disco Stu has claimed to be "super Christian" and got a marriage annulment from Pope John Paul II, he is probably Catholic.
According to "I'm Goin' to Praiseland", his hallucination of Heaven is a gated disco club. He arrives in a limo and is ushered into heaven by St. Peter. This upsets John Travolta, who is waiting in line and was told the club was full. Frank Sinatra also appears on the dance floor, only to announce that this is his personal hell.
His trading card contains useful lore information. According to his trading card, his height without shoes is 5'10" and (with platform shoes) 6'5", meaning that his shoes are 7" platforms.[1]
He was originally going to be voiced by Phil Hartman in the episode "Two Bad Neighbors", but when the animators needed to do a model change, Hartman wasn't available to re-dub the voice, so Hank Azaria took it over.
The fact that he got an annulment for his marriage from the Pope may be a reference to Bobby from Saturday Night Fever who wanted to ask the Pope for a dispensation for an abortion.
Lindsay Naegle successfully scoring a roleplay hookup with Disco Stu (roleplaying as "Fireman Stu") in "Women in Shorts"
Disco Stu happens to roller skate past his ex-wife Selma, shortly before becoming possessed by jeans, in THOH XXXV
A close-up view of Disco Stu's purple quad roller skates with red outdoor wheels and black/white stripes. It is unknown whether they are boot or ankle cut. These differ from his yellow skates in Tapped Out.
Disco Stu stating his admiration of "free-verse poetry, also" in "O C'mon All Ye Faithful"
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