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The Simpsons Month: A Character Study of Groundskeeper Willie
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In this episode, Satsunami and Andrew discuss the kilted caretaker himself Groundskeeper Willie! How good is Willie's accent? Does he leave a good impression in the minds of his fellow Scots? And what the heck is a Kirkwall?! All this and more on this character study episode!
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Transcript
Conclusion and Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Well Andrew, that's the end of Simpsons Month. What a recording. Uh, Satsu? Did you hit the record button? D'oh!
00:00:14
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of Chatsunami. My name's Satsunami and joining me today is none other than my contentious co-host himself, Andrew.
Simpsons Month Overview
00:00:28
Speaker
Andrew, are you ready to do a character study with me? I'll do the recording for 50, I'll add jokes for 100 and I'll kill whoever you want me to for 500. No, no, the episode will just be fine, thank you. Alright, I'll throw in the killing for free. Nailed it.
00:00:42
Speaker
So how are you doing today Andrew? I'm good, thank you. I'm excited to discuss a character close to our hearts and our geographic locations. For anybody who doesn't know or hasn't really been in the loop with our Twitter page at ChatsunamiPod, I have been telling people that we have of course been doing a Simpsons month.
00:01:03
Speaker
But after that it's been really fun. So far we have talked about the good of the Simpsons, the bad of the Simpsons, the Simpsons movie. We have a trivia episode coming up next
Twitter Poll Results
00:01:15
Speaker
week as well. But today we are going to be deep diving into a character study, as you said, of a character that's very near and dear to our hearts.
00:01:24
Speaker
And the reason we're going to be focusing on this character is I put out a poll on Twitter at Chatsunabibod, just in case you were the followers. I asked the lovely listeners what type of character they would want us to talk about. So I put up Omar Flanders, Mr Burns, in Crownskeeper Valley. Just out of curiosity, Andrew, can you guess what percentage of people wanted us to talk about Crownskeeper Valley?
00:01:49
Speaker
If I had a hazard of guess, I'd probably say 60% maybe. Surprisingly a little bit lower, but still pretty significant. Okay. He does seem to be a very popular character. I know our audience is also quite international, and so they might be more interested in hearing our takes on a Scottish character.
00:02:06
Speaker
Yeah that's true because it's quite a rare insight when you get these Samsung podcasts and you know usually they're American or you know you can get them from all over the world but you don't usually hear the Scots talk very much about Gretzky.
00:02:22
Speaker
a lily for reasons that we'll go into in this episode.
Character Study: Groundskeeper Willie
00:02:25
Speaker
But going back to the poll for a second, yeah 43.2% of voters voted for lily, 29% voted for Flanders and would you believe it that Homer and Mr Burns were tied at 13.5%?
00:02:41
Speaker
Interesting. I was personally quite interested in doing an episode on Ned Flanders because I think his character has developed the most of the four, but I'm very happy to talk about a character that has some of the best, most quotable lines in the show. You actually do forget how memorable and quotable he actually is, but before we go on, then we dive into this wonderful Scotsman, of course, the good, the bad and the wily. We actually got a couple of comments that I just want to read out
00:03:09
Speaker
before we start. So again I went on to Twitter to ask people what they thought of groundskeeper Willy. So our first comment comes from Movies for Days podcast who says, my thoughts are he's awesome but also you should definitely listen to this lovely Scottish Simpsons podcast. They link to one that I have to admit I've heard of before, I don't know if you've heard of, called Willy Hears Ya.
00:03:32
Speaker
No, I've not. So it's a Scottish podcast. It's actually a really entertaining one, I would wholeheartedly recommend it. It's on the list next to Talking Simpsons as well. They're both fantastic podcasts, I would recommend it. The comment that actually got me chuckling like an idiot was from another awesome podcast called Myth Monsters Podcast, who just put in capital letters, grease me up, woman.
00:04:01
Speaker
Oh, I love that quote so much. It's just so random. But yeah, that was something we were talking about before we came on tonight. The fact that Willy is one of these characters that, personally for me, I never really thought about him that much.
00:04:16
Speaker
I mean, I thought it was weird about the way he spoke and everything because, let's face it, it's an American doing a quote-unquote Scottish accent and, you know, it's that very, very weird way they say it's very forced. Other than that, I never really thought much about this character growing up. What about yourself? The fact he was Scottish and I use that very loosely. Did you really think about that much when you were growing up?
00:04:43
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, for sure. I mean, he was very much a connection in the show to my background coming from Scotland, especially when I was living in Singapore, having a character that was sort of Scottish can then kind of point to that being like, Hey, yeah, all the Scottish jokes, that's where I'm from sort of thing. So he got a lot of laughs out of me. I love just general kind of references to Scotland in the media, because they were either really bad from their interpretation being like two over the top.
00:05:07
Speaker
or they hit it just right. Willie, I think, hits it just right. Often you get your Scottish character impressions that kind of just make you roll your eyes, whereas Willie is just genuinely funny. Because I think even though the accent is bad, at least you do get a lot of humorous moments from him, which kind of gives him a pass.
00:05:25
Speaker
So what I found interesting, and this is something we simultaneously found out when we were researching this, was the fact that groundskeeper Willy was initially supposed to be Spanish, and then they changed it. So the person who voices Willy is none other than Dan Castellaneta. He apparently suggested that groundskeeper Willy should be Spanish,
00:05:49
Speaker
but they thought that's kind of a tired trope for characters at that point. They work in the triumph as a Swedish character and then eventually they settled on a Scottish accent which interesting bouncing around to be honest. Yeah go from Spain to Sweden to Scotland. Without that discourse we wouldn't have had the Orkadian man himself and in case anyone's wondering what an Orkadian is, you're just going to have to wait until after this ad break
00:06:18
Speaker
See, without any further ado, Andrew, will we dive into this? Oh, hi. I warned you! I didn't, I warned you! We will be right back after these messages from Keltown. Welcome to Chatsunami, a variety podcast that discusses topics from gaming and films to anime in general interest. Previously on Chatsunami, we've analysed what makes a good horror game, conducted a retrospective on Pierce Brosnan's runs James Bond, and listened to us take deep dives into both the Sonic and Halo franchises.
00:06:47
Speaker
Also, if you're an anime fan, then don't forget to check us out on our sub-series, Chatsunani, where we dive into the world of anime. So far, we've reviewed things like Death Note, Princess Mononoke, and the hit Beyblade series. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you can check us out on Spotify, iTunes, and all the podcast apps. As always, stay safe, stay awesome, and most importantly, stay hydrated.
00:07:10
Speaker
Hey, I'm Abi. Hi, I'm Fi, and together we are the Everything Coincidental podcast. We talk about all things paranormal, such as ghosties, cryptids, and aliens. We also like to talk about all things spirituality, which encourages us and others to live by their own rules. So if that's something that you relate to in our interest, then make sure you check us out at Everything Coincidental, on all platforms, and also drop us a message. We'd love to chat to you at some point about it. Talk soon. Bye.
00:07:40
Speaker
This episode is sponsored by Zencaster. If you're a podcaster that records remotely like me, then you'll know how challenging it can be to create the podcast you've always wanted. That's where Zencaster comes in. Before I met Zencaster, I was put a naive podcaster, recording on low-quality, one-track audio waves.
00:08:15
Speaker
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Willie's Backstory and Cultural Representation
00:08:26
Speaker
story.
00:08:26
Speaker
So Andrew, let's talk about Groundskeeper Willie, because he is a fascinating character, isn't he? Maybe not in the same regard as Homer Simpson, Ed Flanders or even Mr Burns as we established before, but he does have a sense of, I don't want to say mysticism, but intrigue is probably the better word
00:08:47
Speaker
He's one of those interesting characters where his backstory is constantly changing and you're never quite sure what is real. The continuity also is constantly shifting with regards to Willy. I mean, in the episode where they go to Scotland with Mr. Burns, Monty can't buy me love, I think.
00:09:03
Speaker
Yeah, so in that episode, they go to supposedly Willie's hometown, which is by Loch Ness. We see his parents and we are introduced to the bar next to Loch Ness as a pinball machine that Willie claims he was conceived, born and educated on. And so we are led to believe from that, that he is from roughly Inverness, coming from around Loch Ness.
00:09:24
Speaker
But we also hear him reference growing up in Glasgow. We hear him talk about coming from Kilt Town. And in one episode, which apparently is the definitive answer, he comes from Kirkwall in Orkney. So his backstory in terms of where he comes from is
00:09:42
Speaker
It's somewhat of a mystery, like it is constantly changing. His professions are often changing as well. He is groundskeeper Willie, but we learned that he was a one-point swim coach Willie, that he has been a greenskeeper of the golf course, which is not too different from the groundskeeper. And his official name is Dr. William McDougall, or his full name, William McMorran McDougall. I was very Scottish though.
00:10:06
Speaker
I'm going to get increasingly more Scottish as the episode goes on. Apparently, though, when he references North Kilt Town in one of the episodes, they think it might be a reference to the hamlet of Domodia, which is near Kyle of Lukalish, which is, I'm using my knowledge of Scottish geography here. That is the bridge way between northwest Scotland to the Isle of Skye. Kyle Lukalish is where the bridge is.
00:10:26
Speaker
It's a nice bridge. It is a nice bridge. And if you're ever going over there, sky is gorgeous. I recommend anyone that goes there to check that out. But there's also a castle just not far from there called Island Doonan. You'll have seen in many a picture because it's a really cool castle. It's almost into the ocean that has like a stone bridge going up to it. It's very cool. I was there, I think last year, if not the year before. Yeah. Turn this into a travel podcast.
00:10:48
Speaker
Yeah, oh, absolutely. I was going to say it sounded weird to be like, yeah, it's still lovely. You know, it hasn't changed in the last couple of years. I mean, the road's got a wee bit wider. But funny enough, though, with Elandon and Castle, I actually remember, I think,
00:11:03
Speaker
Adam and I talked about this in our Piers Brosnan retrospective episode because the world is not enough. I think they've got a scene in the London Castle. After the credits roll, they have a funeral there and they have the briefing scene there. It's quite interesting to be in and be like, oh wow, this is awesome. But yeah, after this, we're definitely setting up a travel podcast.
00:11:26
Speaker
You're completely right though, the continuity behind groundskeeper lily is very lussy-goosey. It's not very fixed. You know as you said you've got North Keltown which is a bit of a joke name. It's almost like having Freedomville or something like that in America which I'm sure is probably a real place so please for legal reasons that's a joke.
00:11:48
Speaker
And as you said, he says he's from Glasgow, or as we find out, he's an Arcadian who is someone who comes from Orkney, which is another beautiful place. But I'm going to be honest, people from Glasgow and people from Orkney, two completely separate ways of living. Island life versus mainland life.
00:12:09
Speaker
Yeah, Willy's background, which seems much more kind of industrial, doesn't really line up with what I know of the islands of Orkney. Orkney's like a few islands, isn't it? Yeah, no, you're right. There's Westray as well, which is just off the coast of it. There is a couple around Orkney.
00:12:24
Speaker
you're right. So yeah, he doesn't come across as the likeliest Orkadian. I think that it makes more sense for him to have grown up in a more industrial area like a Glasgow, like a Inverness. That's not very Scottish. Inverness. Okay, then you can what I'm saying, Paul.
00:12:41
Speaker
So it does seem a bit kind of strange. And that was that was revealed in like season 23. By most people's impressions, they did probably didn't see it, they'd given up on the show prior to that. So we can maybe discount. It's not terrible. We can maybe say that the earlier continuity is more legitimate than a decision made in season 23.
00:12:58
Speaker
The thing that confuses me about the whole fact is from Perkwall. This sounds like a really weird thing to nitpick, but he actually has a throwaway line, and I don't know if this is in that particular season 22 episode, but he has a line where he says that his family was torn apart because his father was an uppie and his mother was a doonie. The reason that stands out is because that is such an ork
00:13:25
Speaker
the Orkney-specific thing, because in Orkney during, and I don't know if this is a thing that still goes on, so if there is someone that loves an Orkney and knows the answer to this, please feel free to reach out to us, we would love to hear from you, but there's a thing called the Orkney Bar
00:13:40
Speaker
or I don't know if it's The Orkney Ball or The Orkney Ball, but it's a massive ballgame where they take to the streets on Christmas Day and New Year's Day and they basically try to get the ball from one side of the city to the other. To throw in that reference, to talk about uppies and doonies, that seems very specific, you know, that someone wanted this in the show. I don't know, is there an Orkadian on the right and stuff? Because you're completely right, it's
00:14:07
Speaker
quite a strange thing that they would have them come from Orkney, which again, lovely island and everything. But as far as I saw, and as far as I know, it's not got much of an industrial history. You know, as you said, when I was somewhere with Glasgow, it definitely is. It's got a long, long history of being industrial. So yeah, it just seems like a very specific
00:14:31
Speaker
background thing?
Willie's Comedic and Dark Elements
00:14:32
Speaker
Yeah, no, it does seem strange, the upy and downy's. My immediate thought was highlanders and lowlanders, so it's interesting that you said that that is a terminology for a parkney with the different sides of the city. Going back to an episode you were talking about, in the episode Monty Can't Buy Me a Love, where they go to Inverness and they drain Loch Ness to try and find the Loch Ness Monster, they come across this float that says Aberdeen sucks and Homer has a line where he's like,
00:15:01
Speaker
oh no way Aberdeen rules. And to me that comes across as someone who's just googled what cities are in Scotland, you know, and they just throw a random city in but as I said to have like the Orkney chat in there, it does seem interesting and to pick Kirkwall as well. I don't know if it's like a thing that they want to flesh them out more because let's face it, Lillie has always been a gag
00:15:26
Speaker
character. He's never been a serious character as far as I remember. There's never really been a serious storyline or rather as many serious storylines. He's always the grouchy groundskeeper and when he's not that side of the coin, when he's very surly and angry all the time, he's a bit of a psycho.
00:15:46
Speaker
I have to say, I think that characterisation of him is quite strange. Before I go on to talk about that, what are your thoughts about how the show characterises Wally? They seem to indicate that he's got, pardon the term, a bit of a screw loose, where he is unhinged. This person who you think is just kind of a stereotypical Scotsman but is really just like a really angry
00:16:10
Speaker
angry individual that hides behind that. And there's a reference in one episode that he's the spitting image of the Aberdeen Strangler, I think. So it's suggesting his more seedy past that he's gone to such lengths. And they often use him in like Treehouse of Horrors as a much more antagonistic character. They make him the Freddy Krueger of one particular storyline. And I'm pretty sure there's been several others where he's been more villainous. Yeah, there's one in Patakiya where
00:16:34
Speaker
The parody for Nightmare on Elm Street, although they do portray a Maslow in that, is actually a really funny episode to say. You've got the lousy smart weather, don't touch Willy, good advice, all of that. But there's another really horrible treehouse of horror
00:16:49
Speaker
episode where the Simpsons meet their old selves from the Tracey Allman run and long story short they all end up getting killed by one another and then they're all ghosts and then Maggie shows up as a ghost and they're like well wait a minute how did Maggie die? And you see this horrible shot of groundskeeper Willie with like a dead presumably Maggie over his shoulder with
00:17:12
Speaker
Bart and Lisa in tow and then he runs away with them. So it's like it's not the first time he's been portrayed as a villain but there's kind of a weird fine line between portraying them as a villain that kind of being comical about it to a joke that that
Willie as Hero and Villain
00:17:29
Speaker
dark... I mean there's even a joke I don't know if it's a Treehouse of Horror or it's like a mainstream episode but there's like one way to get haunted by the ghost of like a boy that got impaled by a rat
00:17:42
Speaker
and they say something like, oh it was your smart mouth that got you into that situation. So I think it's kind of implied Willy's a bit of a murderer, as well as trying to murder Barr in, oh what is that episode called? Girly Edition. Girly Edition, that's the one, thank you. I think Barr blows up where he destroys Willy's shack, so he has to live in like a garbage heap.
00:18:04
Speaker
and then Lusa ends up leading Bart there unaware that Wally's gonna kill him and then she tries to stop him and yeah he ends up nearly killing Bart at that point. It's such like a weird character that they try to characterise because on the one hand he goes from being like
00:18:23
Speaker
absolutely psychotic. I mean there's the episode, the very famous one, where he tries to kill Homer because of the grease that he's trying to steal from the school. He's tried to kill children, some he's allegedly got away with. But then there's other episodes where he is considered to be the hero character, you know like when he stops Santa's little helper from going through the vents and everything, which is quite funny. There is the episode where
00:18:52
Speaker
He saves Bart from getting attacked by a wolf. Yeah it seems all over the place. Like he seems to be the character and I know that can apply for many characters in the show that always the character that they want him to be but do you feel that way as well that he's very inconsistent?
00:19:10
Speaker
Yeah, there's certainly an element of that that he kind of suits their needs. I think it can be very much down to the writer at the time as well. Because I mean, you go through such a cast of writers in The Simpsons, and so certain writers will paint Willy as more heroic and certain writers will paint him as more antagonistic.
00:19:27
Speaker
So I think it does depend from episode to episode, season to season, how a particular creator wants him to be represented. I mean, he threatens to kill Skinner pretty frequently, either just like muttering or outright threatening. There was that in Who Shot Mr. Burns that he had the motivation that he wanted to kill Mr. Burns, but supposedly his arthritis and his index finger prevented him from being able to pull a trigger.
00:19:50
Speaker
you not seeing before we came on that there's no way that could have happened because it has been shown to like shoot a gun in the show? Well yeah I mean again it just kind of comes down to the continuity of the consistency within the show where we do see instances of him using guns both rifles which might not require his index finger and pistols which do so that excuse
00:20:11
Speaker
doesn't really work. I do like the kind of back and forth about that though, that the reason that he has arthritis figures from Space Invaders and then they come in like, oh yeah, I got really into that game, that video game when I was younger and he said he was like video game, implying that he had in fact been fighting off real aliens or what he thought were real aliens. He has a very strange relationship with
00:20:31
Speaker
Skinner. I have to say considering he lives on the school grounds and everything and he's just quite disparaging to him quite a lot. There's actually an episode where, of all episodes, this is a weird one to bring up, but it's like one where Bart joins a falconry club with
00:20:47
Speaker
Daniel Radcliffe voicing the other boy that's in it and then Skinner says something along the lines of does that mean the Esperanto groups are going to start up next and then he says something in Esperanto and then well he's like oh you speak two languages but no one will talk
Scottish Cultural References in The Simpsons
00:21:04
Speaker
to you. He never pulls back his punches and there's of course that famous line the whole
00:21:09
Speaker
You know, when he talks about Scots hating everyone, including the Scots themselves. The Scots hate the Scots. Damn Scots, they ruin Scotland. And of course Skinner says, oh, you Scots sure are a contentious people. And then he says, you've just made an enemy for life.
00:21:25
Speaker
It is quite interesting that despite being quite a tertiary character, there's a lot of quotes, that one included of course, but there's a lot of quotes that a lot of people remember from the show because of Willy, including, and I apologise to any French listeners if you have ever heard this phrase before, but there's an episode where Willy takes French class. Do you remember this one?
00:21:49
Speaker
Yes. And yeah, he says bonjour you cheese eating surrender monkeys, which apparently has been adopted by quite a few people. Some of the more notable examples are the New York Post and even Jeremy Clarkson used it as well. But yeah, going back to Wally, would you agree that he has quite a quotable character?
00:22:13
Speaker
Oh yeah, I mentioned it earlier in the episode, but he has some of my absolute favourite lines. We already referenced a couple of them just then. The line at the start of the show about, I'll do the killing for free, in that episode as well we have him taking the club off of Reverend Lovejoy and saying, here ya noodle armed, quieter boy. Which, I love that line so much.
00:22:31
Speaker
There's so many good sight gags and small bits as well, like in Who Shot Mr. Burns when he's a person of interest, they're interviewing him and we have a, is it basic instinct? Yeah. Type scene where he uncrosses his leg and one of the police officers, I think it might be Lou or William, cocks his gun and says, we warned you about that. The line where he's talking about Scottish history and goes, the kilt was only for day to day where in battle we donned a full length ball gown covered in sequins. The idea was to blind your opponent with a luxury.
00:22:58
Speaker
I obviously loved that line. And then there was another one that I really liked. I have some information for you, but it's going to be hard to hear. Bart asks, why? Because of your stupid accent, groundskeeper. Ark nigh, because of its upsetting nature. Well, I'm actually surprised at writing off, thinking of those particular quotes.
00:23:14
Speaker
is the fact that he bounces so well off of other characters. So one of the ones that comes to mind is the Sherry Bobbins episode where it's revealed that I'm assuming because they don't have a cockney character that they just use while they instead for the Dick Van Dyke character and he says he used to date Sherry Bobbins. They were engaged in fact. Yeah until she got her eyesight back
00:23:39
Speaker
And there's a line that after that I never really remembered until I rewatched it, and I thought that was hilarious, is when Sherry Boulvens turns around and says, it's good to see you, Willie. And he turns around shocked and goes, that's not what you said the first time you saw me. Yeah, it's because of the line previously where he says that all of a sudden the ugliest man in Glasgow wasn't good enough for you. Yeah, exactly.
00:24:01
Speaker
But yeah, he just works so well, not only on his own, but with other characters. And I do think that is quite a strength because there are some characters in The Simpsons that they'll just appear, you know, and they might get a little bit overbearing. I have to admit, the one that pops up
00:24:18
Speaker
on the top of my head is maybe crusty, that on his own he has a lot of funny lines and things, but sometimes when he has to interact with other characters you're kind of like, I don't know if that works and it's a bit annoying, but with groundskeeper Willy it does feel as if he really meshes well into the cast.
00:24:38
Speaker
I think that is largely because Krusty gets so much screen time. Yeah. There are so many episodes dedicated to him. There's so many scenes where he's quite a prominent part of them. Whereas Granite School Willie is always the background character. There has been one episode, My Fair Laddie, that Willie has been the prominent character in.
00:24:57
Speaker
Other than that, he has not been a major character in an episode. He's always just off to the side, just kind of making a bit of a rebuttal with a Statler and Waldorf-esque commentary character that occasionally pops in with lines. But yeah, he doesn't really get the screen time that so many others do. Again, like a Krusty and Moe. I think even Barney Gumble often gets more episodes than he does, which is interesting. I don't know. Maybe Dan Castaniletta doesn't like doing his voices much. Maybe it's harder. Cause I know Dan is always keen to do episodes.
00:25:25
Speaker
episodes that he voiced characters in. There's been Barney episodes, Dan loves a Barney episode, Dan loves a crusty episode. He does all these ones with frequency, but there's just very little of Willy.
00:25:43
Speaker
There doesn't really seem to be many, obviously other than Inside of Scotland, but there doesn't seem to be many cartoons or media outside of Scotland that really does justice to Scottish accent. It always seems as if they are using the accent like the very over the top
00:26:02
Speaker
Brigadoon type accent to just be like, oh hi, do you understand me? It's played for laughs, it's not really played for sincerity, and I don't know how much sincerity you would get out of Wally if, you know, you just played it completely straight. Do you feel as if the accent would detract from that?
00:26:21
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, he's such a comedic stereotype of a character. You can't really get much from him. Like even the solo episodes that he had, the My Fair Laddie episode, which is full of quips about how bizarre him being in a non groundskeeper setting is. And so what can you really do beyond that?
00:26:39
Speaker
I mean, it's the same reason why you don't get Luigi or Bumblebee Man to have their own episodes. You don't really get a Rainier Wolf Castle exclusive episode. These are very much stereotype accent characters that there isn't much beyond them. The only one that really steps out of that was Apu, but that has now been addressed as being a poor portrayal in a on hiatus character, if
Character Representation and Stereotypes
00:26:59
Speaker
not retired.
00:26:59
Speaker
Yeah, it's quite interesting that The Simpsons has made quite an- and sorry, apologies, this is a side tangent. On our podcast? I know, I know, surprise.
00:27:11
Speaker
Oh, delightfully revolutionary. Yeah, it's strange how The Simpsons has made an effort to recast a lot of characters to make it more appropriate, if that makes sense. So they've taken steps to introduce better voice actors for certain characters, like, for example, getting Kevin Richardson to play Dr. Hibbert, for example, and things like that. And obviously, since the controversy behind Apu coming up
00:27:41
Speaker
they haven't really made an effort to recast the character with a better voice actor because obviously they've just kind of quietly put them in the corner for now and maybe they're thinking of doing that. Well, the issue with the Pooh wasn't necessarily just the voice actor not being accurate representation, it was the writing of the character itself being a poor representation of the South Asian community.
00:28:06
Speaker
And so it's a little bit different to the African-American characters that have just had their voices replaced. And they're making kind of strides to make them more familiar with their roots, so to speak, where I think there's been an episode in the newer seasons of Karl learning about his past and where he's from. Cause Karl, I mean, we're getting into a different character now, but Karl was raised by an Icelandic family, I think, but they'd adopted him where he used to be from a black cowboy, like his ancestor was a black cowboy.
00:28:32
Speaker
But after a minute, the reason I was thinking about that particular thing was there's, and again I won't get too deep into that again, but there was a question proposed online when they were talking about certain characters like Apu and
00:28:47
Speaker
Dr. Hibber and Caro and things like that. And someone did ask what do people, especially Scottish people, think of groundskeeper Willy? And obviously that is a whole different kettle of fish. You know, groundskeeper Willy is just silly. You know, he's like a caricature of a Scottish person. He's not offended by any means and it's no comparison at all compared to the situation we just talked about there. But it is interesting to see though how there are people thinking, oh my goodness,
00:29:16
Speaker
is this a character that is offensive and especially Scottish people just kind of think. Groundskeeper Bully is just a hilarious caricature of Scottish people and that is quite nice in the way to see, even though as I said the accent is about OTT obviously, but it is kind of interesting to see the references to Scotland, whether that be Kirkwall or Glasgow or whatever, I suppose compared to like his more negative
00:29:45
Speaker
which seem to be popping up a lot, but at the end of the day, as you said, it is very much dependent on who's writing him, because as we said before, the wearable of Treehouse of Horror episodes where he was portrayed as a very villainous character, very violent, but then there's that Treehouse of Horror episodes, like the shitting one, the toaster time travel one, where he's trying to help the Simpsons and he keeps getting killed off constantly.
00:30:12
Speaker
He's a very extra representation or extra stereotype of Scottish people. Internationally, that is the face of Scotland.
Willie's International Representation and Impact
00:30:21
Speaker
A lot of people who have not seen other Scottish media, Scotland to them is Sean Connery and groundskeeper Willy and Shrek. Don't get me started.
00:30:32
Speaker
And so that is an international representation that often non-Scottish actors representing Scottish people are often the stereotype of Scotland that is best known to a global audience. So groundskeeper Willy had a very interesting impact and much to the extent that during the Scottish independence election, Simpsons even had Willy do his own weighing in on the situation as to whether he was I or nay or something. No, it was I or die. Oh, I or die, yeah.
00:31:01
Speaker
And so, like, firmly kind of placing him in the Scottish Independence Camp. He almost is the voice of Scotland to the international audience. Whether or not the Scottish people agrees with that is another matter, but that is often what they will use to represent what Scotland is believing in a given point.
00:31:18
Speaker
years and years ago. In the national paper, there was actually an article where they were talking about groundskeeper Willie drinking Buckfast in the show. I don't know what episode it was, not that much of a superfan, but I'm like, oh yeah, it was episode d-d-do. But yeah, apparently he drinks Buckfast. Bucky, as they say. Bucky, yeah, yeah, Bucky, Buckfast. Personally, I would have preferred it if he drank Iron Brew, but you know, that's neither here nor there.
00:31:44
Speaker
At the end of the day, it is surprising that Groundskeeper Willie is such an iconic character, like as we said, although he's maybe not the most poignant character, he's not the lowest.
00:31:57
Speaker
same trick character in terms of episodes and things. He still has all those funny lines and when he comes into the room you know that he's there. Whether that be with his shirt on or when he rips it off and he's got like the massive Scottish six-pack glitch all Scottish people have
Podcast Wrap-Up
00:32:14
Speaker
totally.
00:32:14
Speaker
It's unfortunate this is an auditory medium and they can't see our rippling muscles in any given episode. It's true. If you listen really closely, you can probably pick up my pecs and biceps bouncing up and down. It's a shame. I know it's a shame that nobody can see it. I mean, there is YouTube. Sorry. No, yeah, it's a shame. Or if you want to sign up to our Patreon page, link, link. Is that Patreon or is that something else?
00:32:44
Speaker
only bullies. On that very disgusting and disturbing note, Andrew thank you so much for coming on to talk about this iconic groundskeeper.
00:32:56
Speaker
Thank you so much for having me. It's been an absolute blast. I look forward to hearing what the listeners think of our deep dive into groundskeeper Willy and let us know once you've listened to that and the final episode of Simpsons Month, what you thought of the month in content. Yeah, we would love to hear back from you. So if you want to reach out to us directly, you can reach us on Twitter at Chatsanabipod. Please feel free. We would love to hear what you think. On that note, this is indeed, as you said, the penultimate episode and next week we are of course going to be recording our
00:33:26
Speaker
final episode of Simpsons Month where I'm going to be testing Andrew on his knowledge of the Simpsons. So Andrew, are you ready for that? No. You'll be fine. Wink, wink.
00:33:39
Speaker
you'll be fine. But until then, if you want to catch up with previous Simpsons Month content, or just sign the episodes between this in general, you can catch us on our website podpage.com forward slash Chat Tsunami. You can also reach out to us there on our contact page, or if you want to listen on other apps you can do on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts, just look for the right panda
00:34:02
Speaker
and we'll see you there. We also have a Patreon page, for legal reasons that was a slight joke but we do have a Patreon page, patreon.com forward slash chat tsunami. You will be able to get exclusive content and episodes one week early. You'll also be able to listen
00:34:22
Speaker
next Monday to my very own exclusive episode where I talk about my experience with the game, Simpsons Hit and Run. So yeah, please feel free to check that out. I also want to give a big shout out to our Pandalorian Patrons, Robotic Battle Sister and Sonya. Thank you so, so much for supporting the channel. But until then, stay safe, stay awesome. And most importantly, don't touch Milly because it's good advice. What? All right, Kellogg's.
00:34:52
Speaker
and these jokes to end the episode.