Ralph Wiggum

Ralph Wiggum (voiced by Nancy Cartwright), son of Police Chief Clancy Wiggum, is a classmate of Lisa Simpson at the Springfield Elementary School. Ralph is a good-hearted child, but has learning and social difficulties, which are evidenced by his tendency to utter hilarious and stupid sayings - such as "I bent my Wookiee" and "I'm going to live with my underground grandma" - throughout the course of the show. Ralph Wiggum is a caricature of a stereotype -- in this case, he is a caricature of the "'special' kid" archetype. Ralph can't understand where the world goes when the drapes are closed, indicating he has the mentality, roughly speaking, of a three-year old. He has a slight crush on Lisa, though her feelings for him are best described as platonic pity.

It's debatable if he suffers a simple learning disability, is socially awkward or is actually borderline psychotic or a sociopath, as evidenced by his hearing voices (such as the pyromaniacal leprechaun, see quotes, below ) or his putting of thumbtacks in a sandwich which his father eats.

One (actually this happens many times) particularly revealing example is a sequence where Ralph's class is doing craft activities, and Miss Hoover tells Ralph to "please stop eating the paste." He is regularly bewildered by the teasing he receives when he reveals his ignorance to his more clued-in classmates. His cat's name is Mittens, which is strange because he considers that word to be a "swear." Ralph also has a pine cone which he claims is his "baby brother.'

When Ralph originally appeared on the Simpsons, he wasn't associated with the Wiggum family (he also had a different voice & personality). He was actually envisioned as a mini-Homer. It was later on in the series that the writers decided that he would be perfect as the son of Police Chief Wiggum.

In the game The Simpsons Hit and Run, the Wiggum family lives right down the road from the Simpsons, which explains his ease of travel to the Simpsons' house and his bed washing in front of their house when Cecil, Sideshow Bob's brother, blew up the Springfield Dam. He's also Bart's "drinking buddy" in the future, when Lisa is President.

Some of Ralph's memorable quotes:

• Hi, Principal Skinner. Hi, Super Nintendo Chalmers.
• I'm learnding (sic).
• I'm Idaho!
• When I grow up, I want to be a principal or a caterpillar.
• (upon eating poisonous berries) They taste like... burning!
• Hi Lisa. We're gonna be in a pie.
• My cat's breath smells like cat food.
• This is my sandbox. I'm not allowed to go in the deep end.
• Me fail English? That's unpossible. (sic)
• Bart: (smells an electric chair) You smell that Ralph? That's the smell of justice. Ralph: It smells like hotdogs.
• What's a battle?
• That's where I saw the leprechaun... he told me to burn things!!
• Chocolate Microscopes?
• Lisa's bad dancing makes my feet sad.
• Slow down Bart. My legs don't know how to be as long as yours.
• My daddy shoots people.
• Mrs. Krabappel and Principal Skinner were in the closet making babies and I saw one of the babies and then the baby looked at me.
• (To a wolf) Will you be my mommy? You smell like dead bunnies...
• (whispering) Lisa, what's the answer to number seven? Lisa: (whispering) Sorry, Ralph. That would defeat the purpose of testing as a means of student evaluation. Ralph: [pauses] My cat's name is Mittens.
• Then, the doctor told me that BOTH my eyes were lazy! And that's why it was the best summer ever.
• I bent my wookie.
• (Bart hits Ralph in the head and money falls out of Ralph's nose.) There's my milk money, (Milk falls out of his nose.) and there's my milk.
• Oh boy! Sleep! That's when I'm a Viking!
• And, when the doctor said I didn't have worms any more, that was the happiest day of my life.
• Even my boogers are spicy!
• Dying tickles!

Ralph Eating Things He Shouldn't:

• Paste in "Separate Vocations"
• Paste in "Marge vs. the Monorail"
• His red crayon in "I Love Lisa"
• Grass in "Sideshow Bob Roberts"
• The caps from his cap gun in "Bart's Girlfriend"
• His worm in "Lisa the Vegetarian"
• More paste in "Team Homer"
• His knob in "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show"
• Purple berries in "Das Bus"
• A thumbtack in "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken"
• "Plastic candy" (the set and props for his dance recital) in "Last Tap Dance in Springfield"