Abraham Simpson
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Abraham J. Simpson ("Grampa" or "Abe") is a fictional character featured in the animated cartoon television series The Simpsons. His voice is provided by voice actor Dan Castellaneta.
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Early life
Abraham Simpson was born in an English-speaking European country, probably Ireland or Wales, although he forgets which one. He immigrated to the United States as a child with his parents, where they lived in the Statue of Liberty until they supposedly (according to Abe) filled the head with garbage. As a young boy, Abe enlisted in World War I by lying about his age.
Abe's exact age is indeterminate, perhaps inconsistent in the series. This includes his being older or younger than fellow cast member Charles Montgomery Burns. He brags that President of the United States Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 - June 24, 1908) spanked him on two non-consecutive occasions (a play on Cleveland's two non-consecutive terms of office). He admits to having "taken a shot at Teddy Roosevelt," (October 27, 1858 - January 6, 1919). He is also known to be a decorated war hero, having paradoxically earned the German Iron Cross during his service in the United States Army -- clearing mine-fields.
During the Second World War Sgt. Simpson was the leader of the Flying Hellfish squad. Among those in his command was Burns. After "liberating" a stash of priceless art from the Nazis, they formed a tontine, and buried the art in a trunk at sea. Decades later, Burns tried to murder Abe in order to get the art. This prompted Abe to violate the tontine because he knews the now-deceased Hellfish wouldn't want Burns to wind up with them. After Abe and Bart get the art back from Burns in a spectacular chase, agents from the United States State Department arrived, and gave the art to their "rightful" owner, a snooty young German aristocrat.
Abe also said that he was in The Wizard of Oz. The legs that curled up when the ruby slippers were removed were his.
He also claimed to have served on PT-109, where he and two other crewmen beat up John F. Kennedy, thinking he was a Nazi. It should be noted that the vast majority of his memories of the past are known to be wildly inaccurate and often physically or historically impossible and thus most likely to be symptoms of his senility. For example, he once referred to Sarah Bernhart as a former president, and claims to have personally turned cats and dogs against each other.
There is evidence that Abe was not a kind or caring father to Homer (as he told Homer on his first day of school: "Homer, you're dumb as a mule and twice as ugly. If a strange man offers you a ride, I say take it!") Homer does not seem to particularly resent these casual abuses, considering his father's now feeble state.
After the war, Abe held a variety of jobs, including being a farmer in Homer's early childhood until the bank foreclosed on his farm (after the cows began giving sour milk); this was presumably followed by years spent as night watchman at a cranberry silo. He spent most of this time living in a house he won on a crooked 1950s game show, until he sold it to help Homer buy a house for his family. Abe moved in with the Simpsons after selling his house, but was quickly sent to a retirement home about a month later.
Family
Abraham Simpson is estranged husband to Mona Simpson, father to Homer Jay Simpson and Herbert Powell, father-in-law to Marjorie Bouvier Simpson and grandfather to siblings Bartholomew J. Simpson, Lisa Marie Simpson and Margaret Simpson. He also fathered a daughter named Abbie by a British lady while in England during World War II.
Abraham Simpson's name derives from Matt Groening's real-life grandfather's first name. However, the writers of The Simpsons were the ones that chose the name, not Groening. Also, one of Matt Groening's sons is named Abraham.
His name as "Grampa" seems to be obscure and mysterious. Originally, the name seems to have come from the fact that he was Bart, Lisa, and Maggie's grandfather. However, his Junior Buckaroo Badge contains the name "Little Grampa Simpson". This would be impossible, since it is thought that he obtained his badge during his childhood, long before he even had sons.
Romantic life
He was married for a number of years to Mona, who left him after becoming entranced with the hippie lifestyle and going on the lam while Homer was very young. She came back three decades later, but Abe's bids to woo her and win her back were met with ambivalence at best.
Before his marriage, during WW2, he had an affair with a woman in England, producing an illegitimate daughter, Abbie, whom he did not meet until she was grown.
Another affair, during his marriage, with a nameless prostitute he met at a carnival, produced Herbert Powell. Herb was adopted and worked his way up from poverty to found a successful automotive design business. Believing himself to be dying, Abe confessed his infidelity to Homer, sending him on a quest to find his younger half-brother.
In his golden years Abe dated Bea Simmons, a fellow resident of his retirement home. Bea passed away and left Abe a little over a hundred grand in her will. After some soul-searching Abe later used his newfound wealth to refurbish the falling-down Springfield Retirement Castle, including a fancy new memorial dining hall in Bea's name.
He briefly dated another fellow golden-ager, but her head was turned by a slick elderly gentleman at the home with a spiffy car. Abe realized, following an ill-fated jaunt to Branson, Missouri that she was a "hootchie" and totally wrong for him.
Personality
Grampa Simpson is an ancient, grizzled, periodically incontinent, and mostly senile figure who lives in the Springfield Retirement Castle, a sad, lonely place filled with demented, crippled, and depressed old people (a sign near the entrance says "Thank you for not discussing the outside world").
His rambling stories trail away in forgetfulness and despair:
- "You see, back in those days, rich men would ride around in zeppelins, dropping coins on people, and one day I seen J. D. Rockefeller flying by. So I run out of the house with a big washtub and... hey! Where are you going?"
- "Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. I used my washtub that morning to clean my turkey, which back then was called a 'walking bird'. We had walking bird on Thanksgiving with cranberry sauce, potatoes, and stuffing full of gun powder. We also sat around and watched football which back then was called baseball."
A recurring feature is Abe's constant explanation of what happened "in those days":
- "We can’t bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell 'em stories that don’t go anywhere -- like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. 'Give me five bees for a quarter,' you’d say.
- "Now where were we? Oh yeah -- the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones..."
Bart and Lisa dread his occasional childminding sessions; even a phone call has its dangers (" ... and that's everything which happened in my life right up to the time I got this phone call...") -- at least until he falls asleep and leaves them to their own devices. In the meantime, he fills his time with complaining about anything and everything to anyone and everyone he can find.