Cletus Spuckler

The Simpsons character
Cletus Spuckler
Gender	Male
Job	Farmer, construction worker
Relatives	Wife: Brandine Children: Gummy Sue, Tiffany, Andie, Gordon, Lizzie, Jackson, Heather, Cody, Dylan, Dermot, Kevin, Jacob, Jordan, Joe, Taylor, Brittany, Wesley, Rumor, Scout, Cassidy, Zoe, Chloe, Max, Hunter, Rubella Scabies, Kendall, Caitlin, Noah, Sasha, Morgan, Kyra, Ian, Lauren, Q*bert, Condoleezza Marie, Phil, Birthday, Crystal Meth, Dubya, Incest, International Harvester, Jitney, Witney, Mary, Stabbed in Jail Cousins: Dia Betty, Merle
Voice actor	Hank Azaria
First appearance
The Simpsons	"Bart Gets an Elephant"

Cletus Delroy Spuckler^[1] is a recurring character in the Fox animated series, The Simpsons, and is voiced by Hank Azaria. Cletus is Springfield's resident hillbilly stereotype. He is very messy and is usually portrayed wearing a white sleeveless shirt and pair of blue jeans.^[1]

Biography

Cletus was introduced during the fifth season in "Bart Gets an Elephant". He is shown as one of the "slack-jawed yokels" gawking at Bart's elephant Stampy. Cletus' voice is slightly deeper in this initial appearance than in later episodes. He, like the Sea Captain before him, was the go-to character for a quick laugh on the show, and is a staff favorite. He first appeared as a generic character in "Itchy & Scratchy Land," "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily," and "Bart on the Road" before being introduced as a more significant character in "22 Short Films About Springfield", the episode which gave Cletus his name as well his own theme song ("Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel", set to bluegrass music played on a banjo accompanied with lyrics stating the abnormal things Cletus has done, including eating a skunk and losing a toe).

Cletus' low intelligence is usually portrayed as the result of inbreeding but has been suggested to be due to mercury poisoning, which, in addition to affecting his memory gave him abilities of precognition. He "whittles what he sees" into wood with a penknife. Chief Wiggum was able to track down Bart and Gina after they escaped from jail through Cletus' wood carving of them (as well as end up being mauled by a bear, which was also one of the precognitions that Cletus had.).

He is generally friendly and hardworking, and isn't bothered by others' opinions of him, demonstrated by his refusal to be ashamed of his marriage to his apparent relative, Brandine Spuckler.^[2] Cletus has several hobbies which include whittling "piney babies" for children, searching for roadkill, digging through garbage, and spending time with everyone in his family except Brandine. In "Lost Our Lisa" he admits his favorite food is fresh skunk and raccoon. Cletus had a "smell-hound" named Geech who'd "gone to heaven" after an accident involving a cement mixer ("Brother from Another Series").

Cletus and Brandine have a happy relationship; however, they are often shown having disagreements. In "Stop or My Dog Will Shoot" Brandine pointed a shotgun at him for giving their pig "a day of beauty and make-up" instead of herself. In the episode "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife", both Cletus and Brandine decide not to come to Lenny's party after they are both afraid to use the "uppity box" (an elevator).

Cletus is shown, despite not being very intelligent, to try and make himself look less like a hillbilly, for example in episode "Marge Gamer", Homer states that he won't receive soccer tips from "no dumb hillbilly," Cletus responds "That's hill-William to you, sir!"

Cletus works as a fifth generation dirt farmer. He also owns a successful chain of moonshine stills, and was delighted when it was decided that his drink would be used to flavor the latest version of Southern Cracker.^[2] As seen in "A Star Is Torn", he and Brandine operate a vegetable shack near the Kwik-E-Mart. He is currently in the process of opening a family business that sells miscellaneous animal parts. In "Yokel Chords" Cletus took advantage of the money his children were making and used it to his own personal satisfaction, but was stopped when Brandine came back from the Iraq War and revealed he was only the father of two of the children, leaving him with no right to control them.

During The Simpsons Movie, Mayor Quimby wishes to prove that the lake's barrier is "idiot-proof" and asks Cletus to try to dump something in the lake. Cletus walks towards the lake holding a possum and bounces off the concrete defenses. Cletus, clearly bewildered, says "I can't. I-I simply can't". Later in the movie, other characters note that they need to find someone stupid enough to take on the very risky task of distracting Russ Cargill while the town escapes from the dome. Upon the request for a stupid person, Cletus appears from off-screen and proudly announces, "My time to shine!" He then distracts Cargill by faking pulling his thumb off. When Cargill later finds out that he was tricked, Cletus told him, "Hey, I knows how you feel; I was beaten in tic-tac-toe by a chicken."

In the Season 19 episode "Apocalypse Cow" one of his many daughters, Mary, received a cow from Bart, whom Bart wanted Mary to care for. Cletus mistook this for a proposal, and almost married the two.

Relationships

Cletus has an ongoing relationship with Brandine, who is generally represented as his wife, although the nature of their exact relationship is somewhat vague. It is often implied that the two are siblings. In "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily" at an auto racing event, Brandine remarks "Dang, Cletus! Why'd you have to park so close to my parents?" to which Cletus responds, "Now honey, they's mah parents too!" This plays into the stereotype that incest is prevalent among hillbillies.

In the Season 16 episode, "There's Something About Marrying", Homer, who was ordained over the Internet as a minister, is preparing to marry Cletus and Brandine. Looking at a form, he asks "Wait a minute… are you two brother and sister?" Brandine replies, "We's all kindsa thangs." To complicate the issue further, Brandine remarks to Cletus in another episode ("The Italian Bob") "Yer tha best husband – and son – I've ever had."

In the episode "Little Big Girl", one of Cletus' myriad children comes up to him to announce receiving a C-minus on his multiculturalism report (which the family celebrates). On the top sheet of the report is a Spuckler family tree. The chart shows that Brandine is the daughter of Cletus and an alien in addition to being Cletus' wife.

Children

Cletus seems to be the father of a large number of children, 44 to be exact. When he presents Marge with 300 coupons for free pretzels from her pretzel business, he calls out to Tiffany, Heather, Cody, Dylan, Dermot, Jordan, Taylor, Brittany, Wesley, Rumor, Scout, Cassidy, Zoe, Chloe, Max, Hunter, Kendall, Caitlin, Noah, Sasha, Morgan, Kyra, Ian, Lauren, Q*bert, and Phil. Cletus and Brandine also have a daughter named Condoleezza Marie, who was somehow switched with a bag of sugar that Homer was carrying as part of a parenting exercise, and a daughter named Rubella Scabies, whose middle name was inspired by a word spelled by Lisa in her audition for the annual spelling bee. They have another daughter, Gummy Sue, introduced in "Helter Shelter". In the episode "Lost Our Lisa", Lisa encounters Cletus gathering up roadkill for a hillbilly wedding feast. In the short dialogue that ensues it is implied that Brandine is giving birth to yet another child in the truck's cab. In The Simpsons Game another child also features under the name of Carl Durant, the long lost son of Cletus and Brandine who was put up for adoption at birth. He shares similar personality traits as Cletus, such as a difficulty in communicating with other characters, as well as a markable similarity in appearance.

The episode "Yokel Chords" features seven Spuckler children, named Birthday, Crystal Meth, Dubya, Incest, International Harvester, Jitney and Whitney, as central characters. However, Brandine reveals that Cletus is the father of only two of these children (casting doubt on the paternity of the other children of the Spuckler household). In one episode Brandine was seen to give birth in a car, apparently with very little pain, and asking Cletus to cut the "umbrellical cord".

In "Marge Gamer", after one of his children, Carl, is accused by Homer of cheating at soccer, Cletus says of his children, "I have sired a dumb-dumb, a mush-head, a whatsit, a dogboy, and something with a human face and fish body what we called Kevin. But my young'uns is not dirty players!"

In "Apocalypse Cow", they introduce Mary WrestleMania Spuckler, who is supposed to court with Bart. Cletus mentions that they "name all their kids after what they think is gonna happen to them. Ain't that right, 'Stabbed In Jail'?" to which Stabbed In Jail Spuckler (who is seen sharpening a wooden stick) replies, "We'll see who stabs who." In The Real Housewives of Fat Tony he is with a baby called Normal-Head Joe.

Last name

His last name was given as "Del Roy" in the episode "Behind the Laughter". He signs his full name in "Weekend at Burnsie's" indicating support for Ned Flanders's petition to recriminalize medicinal marijuana. He also does this in "Sweets and Sour Marge", for Marge's petition to ban sugar from Springfield. In "Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays" his name is given as "Cletus Spuckler" in a news report. A mailbox standing outside Cletus' shack in the video game The Simpsons Hit & Run reads "Spuckler". In "Yokel Chords" Lisa referred to him as "Mr. Spuckler" throughout the whole episode; as well Krusty the Clown calls his kids "The Spuckler Family Kids". However, at the end of that episode, Brandine reprimands him as "Cletus Del Roy Spuckler", suggesting that Del Roy is indeed just his middle name.

Reception

He is named the 7th (out of 25) of IGN's Top 25 Simpsons Peripheral Characters.^[3]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Bart Gets an Elephant". John Swartzwelder (writer), Jim Reardon (director). The Simpsons. Fox Broadcasting Company. 1994-03-31. No. 17, season 5.
2. ^ ^{a b} 'Cletus Spuckler Dashdingo.com. URL accessed on December 14, 2006
3. ^ IGN: Top 25 Simpsons Peripheral Characters

External links

	The Simpsons portal
	Fictional characters portal

• Cletus Spuckler at the Internet Movie Database