David Cooper

0416 - Cinema Employee

Added 2025-02-13 09:00:05 +0000 UTC

This is a proto-Squeaky Voiced Teen, sort of, and I think we'll be seeing a few of them before the character is truly established.

He represents the sort of qualities that Squeaky Voiced Teen will eventually feature, such as acne, service-level employment and a breaking (but not actually that squeaky) voice. There's no doubt in my mind that if Squeaky Voiced Teen existed at this point he would have been used in this scene instead - but that would have changed the content of the scene somewhat, as this guy actually talks back to Abe with some attitude.

With that in mind it's interesting how the ongoing definition of Springfield will change the overall feel of the show, with more and more established characters filling the roles of random bozos. I often think about this with crowd scenes - why use "random angry mob member" when you can use, say, Willie? - but even these connective tissue scenes will have less need for this kind of one-off character. But with established characters come established rulesets and audience expectations. It might have felt off if Squeaky Voiced Teen spoke to Abe with some backbone, and so the writers would have had to reach the conclusion of the scene ("Abe has a heart attack") via different means. It'll be fascinating to see how this evolves as we go. Fascinating to me, at least.

Anyway, this guy isn't even important enough to have a trading card or Wiki entry, so say goodbye to him forever.

This post is part of my "Every Simpsons Character Ever" series. For a list of my rules in this project, click here.