0385 - Raphael...?

SOUND THE EMERGENCY ALARM. It is Halloween and today's post is TERRIFYING to me.

We are in CRISIS MODE here people, and I need your help to resolve this. This may just be the most important post in the history of this project.

The next character to speak in this episode, chronologically, is this fella, Homer's limo driver.

His voice and appearance should be familiar to even casual Simpsons fans. That sarcastic tone is a mainstay of Raphael, the background Springfieldian who appears in many odd jobs throughout the town.

I'm willing to accept all these modern day appearances as being the same person, even with some minor changes in his design throughout. But here is the conundrum we face today: is Homer's limo driver actually the same guy?

This flashback is set about 20 years before the "present day" of The Simpsons, so this could feasibly be the same character, 20 years younger. The moustache is similar, the hair is not. But it doesn't feel like it's the exact same person to me - the voice alone does not confirm it, as there are other characters that have the "Bronson voice" later in the show who are clearly not Raphael (from "Krusty Gets Cancelled" and "Homer's Barbershop Quarter", for example:

The limo driver feels like a "proto-Raphael" to me, a fun voice that Azaria keeps doing until eventually the show lands on a consistent version of him. Obviously there was no plan in place here, over the course of several years they simply stumble into a coherent Raphael. We'll see a similar version of this if we ever get to Lindsay Naegle.

SO, what do we all think? Is character #0385 the first appearance of Raphael? Or is it simply "Limo Driver", with the one true Raphael to be introduced later, most likely in "present day"?

To try and come to a reasonable conclusion regarding this, I am putting up a poll here on the Patreon, it is going up exactly three minutes after this post. You can all vote on whether this character is Raphael or not. If the people determine this is him, I'll give him a new post next week. If not, we'll move on with our lives, waiting for Raph to appear someday.

Please vote wisely. This is all very stressful.

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