Spoilers forward for “The Simpsons” season 37 episode “¡The Fall Man-Yi-Yi!”
“The Simpsons” is a cultural establishment, top-of-the-line and most influential TV exhibits of all time, and one massive key to the present’s success is its massive ensemble of characters. As charming and beloved because the titular Simpsons household is, it’s the dozens upon dozens of quirky, memorable, distinct people who populate the city of Springfield who make the present particular. These are characters that would simply lead their very own episodes, and sometimes do — one of many all-time greatest episodes of the present being a group of shorts about facet characters.
However as beloved because the facet characters of “The Simpsons” are, we nonetheless do not know a complete lot about a few of them. “The Simpsons” just isn’t like “One Piece” or “Star Wars” the place each single Glup Shitto will get an in depth backstory. As a substitute, the present largely simply repeats flashbacks of Homer and Marge however with up to date references — even when it means making followers offended as a result of Homer and Marge at the moment are millennials. Then there’s the odd episode that reveals one thing massive a few character we have recognized for many years, like when Carl is revealed to have Icelandic heritage in season 14 (then revealed his final title 10 years later).
Now, after 36 years on air, “The Simpsons” is giving one other beloved facet character the origin story they deserved, and it is top-of-the-line episodes shortly. That character is Pedro Chespirito, also referred to as Bumblebee Man, the star of his personal slapstick comedy present on Channel 8.
The story of Pedro Chespirito
The most recent episode of “The Simpsons” is a love letter to Bumblebee Man, and in addition to Mexican slapstick comedy and stunt doubles.
We get an origin story for Bumblebee Man again when he was simply Pedro. He got here to the U.S. with a dream of turning into a severe Hollywood actor — solely to reach on the improper city with a giant signal on a hill. Heartbroken however refusing to surrender, Pedro received a job at a model new Spanish-language TV station known as Channel Ocho Studios (or Channel 8) as a janitor. This, after all, is a reference to the unique inspiration for Bumblebee Man, the late Mexican TV actor and cultural icon Roberto Gómez Bolaños, whose pseudonym was Chespirito or “Little Shakespeare” like Bumblebee Man’s final title. Gómez Bolaños is greatest recognized for creating the titanic powerhouses of Latino tv, “El Chapulín Colorado” and “El Chavo del Ocho,” each of which aired on Channel 8 in Mexico.
At some point, after attempting to scrub up a wasp nest behind a sound stage, Pedro’s foot received trapped on a bucket and he rolled down the studio whereas hitting himself on each doable impediment, earlier than lastly touchdown on high of some costumes and by chance falling right into a bumblebee costume. His lament about life’s cruelty and irony made everybody within the studio giggle their butts off, and a producer determined to signal Pedro up on the spot and provides him a slapstick comedy present. And so, Bumblebee Man was born, a tragicomic determine cursed by the cosmos, like Sisyphus or Benny Hill.
Fame lastly arrived for Pedro, but it surely got here at the price of annihilating his physique for the amusement of his viewers.
A love letter to slapstick and to stunt doubles
Bumblebee Man’s new origin story is heartwarming and him truly being Mexican-American is a lot better than the occasions he is been Italian, British, and even Belgian within the comics.
The episode itself is a pleasant homage to the lengthy historical past and custom of slapstick comedy in Mexico, with direct visible references to “El Chapulín Colorado.” That present stays a staple of not solely Mexican filmmaking, however grew to become a cornerstone in Latin American humor sufficiently big for the primary character to seem within the “Blue Beetle” film. The entire episode is concerning the worth of slapstick comedy, its potential to achieve all types of audiences and break language boundaries. As Homer tells Pedro after they first meet, “I do not know Spanish, however once you get kicked within the junk by a nun, you converse the worldwide language of crotch.” Slapstick comedy is pure tv leisure, able to escapism from our each day troubles, able to being understood by audiences anyplace no matter their understanding of the story or the dialogue.
Likewise, the episode spends lots of time homaging stunt performers, within the “Simpsons” equal of “As soon as Upon a Time in Hollywood” — a film that will get referenced a number of occasions all through the episode. Homer turns into a stunt double for Bumblebee Man, and he instantly turns into a hero to Bart who sees the worth in Homer taking all of the punches behind the digital camera — even when the episode additionally pokes enjoyable at some hoops studios undergo with stunt doubles, like utilizing brown face.
Bumblebee Man might have began out a bit as a racial stereotype, however he is as massive and as beloved a Springfield determine as any of the others, and he lastly received his due.
