Maggie Simpson

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**Maggie Simpson**
The Simpsons character

Age	1
Gender	Female
Hair Colour	{{{hair}}}
Job	None
Relatives	Father Homer, mother Marge, brother Bart, sister Lisa, grandfather Abe and daughter Maggie Junior - from the future. (See Simpson family)
First appearance	The Tracey Ullman Show, Simpsons short 'Good Night'
Voice actor	Elizabeth Taylor, Nancy Cartwright, James Earl Jones, Yeardley Smith, Harry Shearer

Margaret "Maggie" Simpson is a fictional character featured in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the youngest child of the household, eternally a baby. She almost never speaks, but contributes substantially to the subtle physical comedy of the show and is a prime showcaser of the whimsical Simpsons animation style.

1 Character history
- 1.1 Early life
- 1.2 Future
2 Maggie talking
3 Relations

[edit] Character history

[edit] Early life

Maggie was born in 1990 according to the show's chronology (even though she appeared in 1987 and is still a baby as of 2006). Her exact birthday is unclear, but she was conceived on November 18, placing her birthday around August 25. A calendar in an early Tracey Ullman short reveals Maggie's birthday to be August 15. She was named after Margaret "Maggie" Groening, youngest sister of Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons.

Her comedic hallmarks include a frequent tendency to stumble and land on her face while attempting to walk, as well as a penchant for sucking on her pacifier, the sound of which has become the equivalent of her catchphrase and was originally created by Matt Groening during the Tracey Ullman era, and by Nancy Cartwright during the regular series. The sound effect is now drawn from a sampler, rendering any vocal attributions moot.

Little Maggie has gotten herself into many dangerous situations but often escapes with the help of others, such as a den of grizzly bears when she was lost in the woods, and imprisoned babies when she attempted escape from a daycare center. Maggie has found a significant ally in barkeeper Moe Szyslak, who proves to be her unlikely hero in Season 14 ("Moe Baby Blues") when he saved her life on two occasions (once from falling off a bridge, and again during an Italian-American mafia standoff by aiming a rifle, frightening away the mobsters).

As unlikely as it seems, Maggie has proven to be a skilled marksman and musician. She shot Charles Montgomery Burns in the "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" cliffhanger, gunned down the mobsters who wanted to kill her father in "Papa's Got a Brand New Badge", and killed Groundskeeper Willie in a Halloween episode, for a total tally of nine gunshots. In "Bye Bye Nerdie", Maggie fires a nailgun several times at Homer with sharpshooter accuracy. She also appears to own several guns, and plays the saxophone better than her sister Lisa. Maggie has a seemingly limitless supply of pacifiers which she distributes to everyone in need, including animals.

Some fans have suggested that Maggie will be the real genius of the family, instead of Lisa. At age one, Maggie could spell EMCSQU (E=MC²) with her toy building blocks, whereas Lisa at age three could merely spell "STAR" with hers. In "Treehouse of Horror V", Maggie managed to spell REDRUM without anyone noticing. She has also played Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker on her toy xylophone, and written her own name with an Etch-a-Sketch. In two respective episodes set at her aunts' house, she was able to change her diapers by herself (just as Lisa once could), and on another occasion donned a 'Patty and Selma' wig while she was supposed to be eating a Manwich.

Like most babies, Maggie is very impressionable and easily influenced by what she sees around her. She once conked Homer on the head with a mallet and attacked him with a pencil in imitation of an 'Itchy and Scratchy' cartoon, after which she shot toy gun darts at Homer's picture on the wall. She is mortally terrified of her aunts Patty and Selma, even attempting escape from the family car when Selma claims to want a baby.

Maggie seems to be exceptionally strong for an infant, being able to outmuscle Mr. Burns for a teddy bear (though he often seems very weak), and wield a mallet with enough force to give Homer a head injury. In the episode where Homer bowls a perfect 300, Maggie likewise bowls a perfect score, but Homer accuses her of an overstep, reducing her score to 295. Later in the episode, he nearly drowns in the ocean, but Maggie swims out and hauls him to shore. Dr. Hibbert attributes Maggie's heroism to (adrenalin-charged) superhuman strength elicited by a loved one in distress.

During the show's opening credits, Maggie goes through a supermarket checkout scanner, which reads that she is worth $847.63 (a wry reference to the monthly cost of infant-rearing in 1989). In "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular", the scanner instead reads "NRA4EVER."

In episodes such as "And Maggie Makes Three", it is suggested that Maggie is Homer's favorite child. When asked about the absence of photos of Maggie in the family album, Homer replies, "There are photos...but I keep them where I need them the most". It turns out that he uses the photos to plaster the walls of his workstation, and to cover the "spirit-breaking plaque" that Mr. Burns posted to punish Homer for quitting the plant,(so that it now says 'do it for her') only to return to the job.

[edit] Future

The episode "Future-Drama" depicts a video postcard of a 9 year old Maggie encountering a dying, emaciated polar bear on an Alaskan beach which is hot and sunny, thanks to global warming.

Episodes set in the far future make a few predictions about Maggie's character. In "Lisa's Wedding" she seems rebellious like her brother. She is a sullen teenager who is apparently a skilled motorcyclist, having won a motorcycle trophy at some point, and wears her pacifier around her neck. She has a picture of herself and Homer in her room, indicating a strong fondness for her father. Maggie was the only Simpson child to utter "Daddy" as her first word (though she does express a preference for her mother in "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily"). In "Separate Vocations", Homer actually forgets he had a third child. It would seem that Maggie's love for her father is strengthened by his occasional disregard for her. As an adult, Maggie will apparently have an "amazing" singing voice, which is referenced but not actually heard in the "Wedding" episode, save for a throat-clearing and a heavily-muffled attempt with a mouthful of food during the family dinner. The episode "Bart to the Future" reveals that Maggie has become an astronaut, with a daughter named 'Maggie Junior', who is identical to her mother at age 1.

Maggie Simpson seen as a teenager in the episode "Lisa's Wedding".

[edit] Maggie talking

With few exceptions, Maggie never speaks but is keenly aware of events around her, emoting with subtle gestures and facial expressions. Unfortunately, such moments are easy to edit from an episode for syndication, hence these subtleties might be unseen by a good portion of the audience.

Maggie's first word spoken in the normal continuity of the series occurred in "Lisa's First Word", and was voiced by two-time Oscar winner Elizabeth Taylor:

Homer: "The sooner kids talk, the sooner they talk back. [tucks Maggie in] I hope you never say a word." [exits and shuts door]
Maggie: [taking her pacifier out] "Dad-dy".

Fans generally agree that her next spoken word was "Daddily-doodily" (voiced by Yeardley Smith, in "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily"). But since she turns her head 180 degrees à la The Exorcist, this incident seems surreal or hallucinatory. Maggie has also said, "It's your fault I can't talk" in the hallucination scene of a Thanksgiving episode, but her lips didn't move.

In one early episode, Homer attributes Maggie burping to uttering the word "burlap" after being chastised earlier in the episode for missing many of Bart's and Lisa's early achievements.

Maggie says "Daddy" in "Good Night", the very first Simpsons short on The Tracey Ullman Show, broadcast on April 19, 1987. On that occasion, Liz Georges (later a star of As Told By Ginger) provided the voice (although the Tracy Ullman shorts are not considered canon with The Simpsons episodes).

Maggie has talked during fantasy sequences and Halloween episodes of The Simpsons. In one Halloween show ("Treehouse of Horror V"), she was voiced by James Earl Jones saying, "This is indeed a disturbing universe," after slaying Groundskeeper Willie with an axe. In another Halloween show ("Treehouse of Horror IX", sub-episode "Starship Poopers"), Maggie is depicted as the daughter of space alien Kang, and therefore a semi-supergalactic alien, whose legs detach to reveal large tentacles. At the end of the episode, Maggie says, with the voice of Kang: "Very well, I'll drive!", whereafter she lets out a loud vaudevillian cackle before quietly saying "I need blood." ('Treehouse of Horror' episodes are not considered within the standard continuity, save for some very minor references).

In "Brother Can You Spare Two Dimes?", Maggie makes a wider-than-usual range of noises rendered as speech by an electronic baby translator invented by Homer's half brother Herb. In "Brother from the Same Planet", her burp is interpreted as the word "Bart" (which reminds Homer that he must pick up Bart after a soccer game). In "Flaming Moe's" Homer imagines everyone saying "Moe" all at once, including Maggie.

Bart also tricked Marge and the audience in "Radio Bart" by putting a microphoned radio under Maggie's pillow and saying: Bart (as Maggie): "Mama, mama." Marge: (surprised) "Huh? Maggie, you talked, can you say "mama" again?" Bart (as Maggie): "Sorry lady, show's over!"

Maggie's baby talk was subtitled in "Million Dollar Abie:" "Bald Mommy will surely fail."

It is often debated whether in the episode "Raging Abe Simpson and his Grumbling Grandson in the Curse of the Flying Hellfish", when Mr. Burns goes smashing through the wall of Bart's bedroom on a platform and says "Oh terribly sorry, back to sleep little girl", if it is Lisa or Maggie Simpson who replys "Santa?"